The White household.
"You agreed? You really said yes to this?" Gordon White kept firing the same question at her, eyes wide like he’d seen a ghost. Just a moment ago, his daughter had been bawling her eyes out, swearing up and down she’d never agree. Now she suddenly softened?
He had no idea that the girl standing in front of him was no longer the same Roselyn White from before.
The Roselyn here now came from the twenty-third century. A medical prodigy who’d won several international awards by the age of twenty. She had been on her way to the lab when she got assassinated mid-route, and by some twisted stroke of fate, ended up inside this seventies “real-and-fake daughter” novel—becoming the miserable true daughter, also named Roselyn White.
She’d gone missing at age three and only got found this year, 1974, at eighteen. The moment she stepped foot home, she was told to replace the adopted daughter, Zara White, and marry Xavier Morrison, who was severely injured, unconscious, and practically hanging by a thread.
Zara was the female lead of this era novel.
The original Roselyn’s mother, Heather White, couldn’t take the blow of her daughter going missing. Grief ate away at her day by day, and her health tanked. Gordon, afraid she’d fall apart completely, adopted Zara the following year, thinking it would cheer her up.
But Heather never warmed up to Zara. All she could think about was finding her real daughter. One day, while searching outside, she met with an accident—and never came back.
The Roselyn who had crossed over knew full well that the original’s disappearance wasn’t some accidental mishap. Gordon had orchestrated it from the start. And Zara wasn’t some adopted child; she was his illegitimate daughter born outside.
Not long after Heather’s death, Gordon openly married the woman he'd been seeing on the side. Their happy little trio was finally complete. As for Heather’s death… Roselyn doubted it was an accident.
The book never spelled it out clearly, but Roselyn had already carved this into her heart. If Heather had really been killed, then since she was borrowing Heather’s daughter’s body, she’d make sure the debt was paid.
In the novel, the original Roselyn was forced to marry Xavier Morrison, lived like a widow for two years, then the man died from organ failure.
When she returned to her family, they tricked her into an old cadre’s bed. The original couldn’t take the humiliation and jumped off a building. Once Roselyn pieced together how rotten this entire family was, fury surged up inside her.
So they thought she was easy to push around?
The original was timid—but she wasn’t. This scummy father and his whole cozy little trio? None of them were getting away clean.
A cheating father, a so-called stepmother who stole someone else’s place, and a stepsister barely older than her—every single one of them would pay.
She’d make sure they learned what consequences felt like. And in doing so, repay the original owner of this body. Marrying Xavier Morrison and leaving the White family—that was her first step.
"I can marry him. But you’ll have to agree to a few things first," Roselyn said bluntly.
Gordon squinted at her. "What things?"
"First, I want ten thousand bucks."
"Second, everything my mom left behind goes with me."
"Third, we put a notice in the paper cutting all ties."
Gordon White’s face stiffened the moment she finished. "That last one won’t work."
He’d dragged Roselyn White back from the countryside for one reason: to replace Zara White in that marriage. Not just because he couldn’t bear to let his precious daughter end up tied to a half-dead man, but because marrying into the Morrison family was his only shot at squeezing some benefit out of them. If he cut ties with Roselyn, that door would slam shut.
"Three conditions. You agree to at least two, or we’re done talking." Roselyn didn’t budge an inch.
Gordon’s brows scrunched tight, his eyes darting back and forth as he tried to plot something.
Roselyn shot him a reminder: "Don’t even think about pulling tricks. Even if you tie me up and drag me there, you can’t watch me every second. Once I make a scene, you’re the one who’ll look bad."
"If you just agree to what I’m asking, I’ll go there quietly and keep things stable for you at the Morrison house. Isn’t that way easier than forcing me?"
Gordon’s expression twisted and shifted several times before he finally gritted out, "Fine. I’ll agree to the first two. But I can’t give you ten thousand—one thousand at most. Hey… where are you going?"
"To break off the engagement." Roselyn walked straight out without even turning around.
One thousand to buy her off? Dream on.
Gordon’s eyes almost popped out. "Get back here! We need to talk this through again!"
They bickered back and forth, voices getting louder and faces getting redder, until they finally settled on six thousand six hundred sixty‑six.
Roselyn said the number felt lucky.
She then forced Gordon to hand over the money on the spot. He couldn’t beat her in an argument and had no choice but to comply. After that, he dug out Heather White’s belongings and handed them to her.
Roselyn flipped through them. They were indeed her mother’s things, but all worthless scraps—anything valuable had clearly been swallowed by this family long ago.
She lifted her gaze and set it on Zara White.
Zara had already been fuming over Roselyn walking away with more than six thousand. Seeing Roselyn staring at her, she curved her lips into a smile. "Sister, don’t tell me you’re planning to go back on your word after getting your stuff?"
"Gordon White, don't you dare talk to me like that!" Roselyn White shot back, her voice calm but sharp enough to make him stiffen.
Roselyn let out a light chuckle. "Relax. I keep my word. What I say is what I mean. I’m not someone who goes back on my promises."
As soon as she finished speaking, she strode toward Zara White and yanked the jade pendant from her neck.
"Ah! That hurts!" Zara screamed, her eyes turning red from the pain.
She stared at the jade pendant in Roselyn’s hand and lunged forward, trying to snatch it back.
A sudden, inexplicable panic exploded in her chest, as if losing that pendant would completely rewrite her entire life.
"Give it back to me."
Roselyn pressed a hand on her shoulder and lifted the pendant high with the other. She smiled lightly. "Dad just promised to give me everything my mom left behind. This is part of it. You want to go back on his word?"
Hearing the warning in her tone, Gordon White’s face darkened like soot, but he could only turn to persuade Zara. "Zara, just let her have it. Dad will buy you a better one later."
When Zara heard him backing down, she stomped her feet anxiously, her voice cracking. "I don’t want another one! Dad, I want *this* one! I don’t care about the others! Dad, help me get it back, please?"
This time she was truly desperate, crying as if her heart were being ripped out.
Watching her, Roselyn couldn’t help but think that the heroine in this book had unbelievably strong luck. Even without knowing the truth, her body instinctively sensed something was wrong.
In fact, she hadn’t taken the pendant just because it belonged to the original host’s mother. The real reason was—
It was her golden cheat.
In the book, Zara's personal space was hidden inside this jade pendant.
And the key was—it hadn’t recognized a master yet.
How could Roselyn possibly let it go?
Ignoring Zara’s earth‑shattering sobs, Roselyn turned around and headed upstairs.
Inside her room, she pulled out a small knife, made a tiny cut on her finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto the jade pendant. The moment it acknowledged her as its owner, a wave of dizziness washed over her, and in the blink of an eye, she found herself in a place she had never seen before.
At the same time, Zara’s face downstairs went completely pale. She swayed on her feet—
Just now, she felt something incredibly important being forcibly torn away from her. The sensation left her heart aching and terrified.
"Dad… are we really letting Roselyn push us around like this?" Zara asked through gritted teeth, her voice filled with hatred and fear.