Chapter 1 Being Adopted

In the seedy part of a small town, a high-end BMW was parked on the street. It stood out so much since it didn't match the lowly surroundings.

At the same time, a girl in a pair of worn-out jeans walked toward the car with an emotionless face and an old suitcase in her hand.

The middle-aged man in the driver's seat took a glance at the girl from the corner of his eye and let out an evident frown. It was obvious that he was dissatisfied with how plain she dressed.

"Come on. Get in the car," the man instructed.

Meanwhile, the girl remained expressionless.

She was neither excited to be able to ride a luxury car nor was she frightened by the man's cold attitude.

As instructed, she opened the car door and sat in the back seat.

Inside, the girl quickly noticed that there was already another girl of her age sitting in the front passenger seat.

She was dressed completely different compared to the girl in front of her, who donned gorgeous clothes and accessories that had never been seen in the whole town before.

"So, that's her..." Maria Jenkins softly mumbled to herself.

She had recognized the girl in the passenger seat. It was Vivian Jenkins, the new actress who started gaining popularity in the country just recently and was quickly rising to fame.

The man in the driver's seat looked at Maria through the rearview mirror and said, "From now on, you will be my daughter. I am taking you back to Sheffield, where you'll live your new life. I'll arrange for someone to teach you how to behave befitting an affluent lady. Learn to adapt to your new identity as the daughter of the Jenkins family as soon as possible. By the way, this is Vivian, my daughter. You must have already seen her on the Internet."

But as soon as Bill Jenkins finished speaking, Vivian burst into silvery laughter.

Speaking in Spanish, she commented, "Dad, have you seen how poor she is? How could she possibly surf the Internet and watch my show?"

At first, Bill was stunned that Vivian talked to him in fluent Spanish. But then, he nodded approvingly and replied in the same language, "I see you've already made great progress in your Spanish. That's good, but that was a little impolite, dear."

Vivian chuckled and responded in Spanish again, "Well, I'm afraid my new sister won't like what I said, so I chose to talk to you in this language."

Bill was actually amused by his daughter, but he cast her a faint smile and lightly shook his head. "Although she can't be as excellent as you, she is still a distant relative. In fact, it will be ideal for us if she can become your substitute to marry into the Wilson family."

"Dad, how can you say that in front of her? Now, you're the one who's being impolite."

Under the assumption that their conversation would be incomprehensible to Maria, they continued conversing in Spanish without scruple.

Besides, they had investigated the town in advance. There were only two Spanish teachers in this remote place, and they didn't even graduate college.

If the teachers' standard was already that poor, then they could only conclude that Maria's education was also subpar. In other words, it should be impossible for her to understand what they were talking about.

Before long, the luxury car drove out of the impoverished town.

Since Maria didn't have anything better to do on the way to her new home, she took out an old laptop from her backpack while the two were chatting.

All this time, she acted like she really didn't understand their conversation and began typing away.

"Oh! You know how to use a laptop, Maria?"

Seeing the device sitting on Maria's lap, Vivian couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

As far as she knew, there were indeed more than a hundred families in that worn-down town whose surname was Jenkins. Although her father managed to climb up the ladder, he still had blood ties to these poor, annoying relatives.

Maria lost her parents at a young age, so she grew up with the help of these relatives.

It was already a miracle that she didn't starve to death as an orphan and even graduated from high school without any problem.

Due to her living situation, it was unthinkable that she could possess a laptop.

"This? It's just for playing games," Maria answered in a low and indifferent voice.

Hearing her flat tone, a trace of contempt flashed through Vivian's eyes.

Did she just say that it was for playing computer games?

But then, Vivian realized that she shouldn't be surprised. This kind of entertainment was only suited for ordinary people like Maria.

Vivian also noticed that the surface of the laptop looked so old that she couldn't even identify the brand.

"How much did you buy it for?" She continued to feign her curiosity just to find out how Maria got it.

"I didn't spend anything for it." After a brief pause, Maria elaborated, "I worked in a small digital shop back in town. When the shopkeeper couldn't afford my salary, he started giving me spare parts as compensation. Eventually, I managed to assemble this laptop myself."

It turned out to be an assembled laptop from old spare parts.

What a low-end digital product. Surely, just as Maria said, it could only be used for nothing more than playing games.

At the same time, Vivian also wasn't that knowledgeable about computers, so she immediately believed that Maria's laptop was nothing but a piece of junk.

"Well, I guess that laptop matches you very well." Vivian giggled and let out subtle smirk.