Soon, it was the day that Wendy had to be picked up to the Xie Mansion. It was a very sunny Sunday. Lots of people held umbrellas for shade and those who didn't shaded their eyes with their hands.
A black BMW passed through huge gold colored gates before the car stopped in front of a villa located in a wealthy area. In front of the villa stood a massive golden fountain — the classic three tiered fountain- with water spilling from the first tier downwards. The white walls of the house was surrounded by well-maintained trees created such a sight. A maid wearing the classic maid attire —a black dress with a white ruffled apron and her hair held behind her— stood poise, awaiting the arrival of whoever was in the car.
As the back car door opened and a feet wearing a pair of cheap, old sneakers , the maid standing in front of the main doors snickered inwardly. She went forward to greet Wendy and headed to the boot of the car to retrieve her luggage.
Upon opening the boot to find it empty except for a small duffel bag, she watched a Wendy walked to pick it up because she had imagined that Wendy would've packed all her things and purposefully brought a lot of things to stay in the villa.
She and the other maids had already mocked her as uncouth as they imagined the numerous bags she would bring and how she would want everyone to know that she had a rich father. They had imagined her flaunting herself about and making unnecessary demands just like the typical rural girls depicted in movies.
Coldness flashed across Wendy's eyes as she looked at the maid before her, Sunny Lu, the head maid of the villa and the right hand person of Mary Zhen, her stepmother. She only came to this villa after her mother had been replaced so she did not know anything about Wendy and her situation apart from the fact that she was the daughter who was abandoned by Charles.
She had also played a part in torturing Wendy in her past life. She has poisoned her food, locked her in her room, hit her, put rats and other animals in her room and framed even her a couple of times.
Clenching her fists, Wendy silently vowed in her heat to make Sunny pay the price. She walked into the villa completely ignoring everyone else around her until she stood face to face with her father, Charles Xie, step-mother, Eveline Zhen and stepsister, Cassandra, who were sitting, presumably waiting for her in the living room.
Immediately after Eveline married Charles, she had her daughter's surname changed to his and he happily agreed and allowed for it. For this reason, few people were aware of Cassandra's true identity as the non-biological daughter of Charles.
Cassandra stood wearing an expensive, exquisite looking white dress that was long enough to hide her feet. With pale skin and shiny black hair that reached her back and a carefully maintained face that make her eyes appear bigger. She intimately held on to Eveline appearing as though they were in the middle of a conversation before Wendy appeared.
Cassandra looked at Wendy and froze. Jealousy and anger as well as a touch of unwillingness flitted across her gaze. She expected to see a malnourished girl with an unkempt appearance and a face full of acne looking on at her with envy and hatred.
However, what she saw was the exact opposite of what she had hoped. Wendy stood tall and slender with a pale complexion exuding good health, red lips, shiny and soft black hair held in a messy bun and her pair of bright eyes that seemed to hold no impurities. She did not seem to see a trace of any envy or jealousy in Wendy's gaze towards her and that made her angry. It even appeared as if Wendy held her in no regard.
Wendy quickly put on a meek demeanor as she gets her stepmother, father and stepsister individually. She acted out a pure, naïve and innocent character for them. She remembered how naïve she was in her past life and tried to emulate that feeling.
She came here expecting love from her father and to live the life of a wealthy daughter only to end up ruined. She abandoned her loving mother who later ended up dead in an accident when she tried to meet up with Wendy, all for her father who remarried and remained uncaring to the very end.
He even watched her helpless fall into the abyss with coldness. This time, with every affection and hope dashed all she felt was schadenfreude as she anticipated the misery she was going to put them through.
"Hello Wendy. I'm your sister Cassandra", the quick flash of disgust in her eyes when she called herself Wendy's sister was not lost on Wendy.
"Sister", Wendy responded pulling her into a tight embrace "I'm so happy to meet you. I've heard so much about you and I've always wanted to meet you and to learn to be like you". Pulling away from Cassandra, the smile on Wendy's face brightened although deep inside her heart she wished that she could immediately take a bath to cleanse herself from 'contamination'.
Baobao seemed to understand her host's plan for she watched on eagerly. If she had a physical form of a puppy, her tail would've been wagging eagerly.
After they spoke for a while —with them basically making enquiries about how she had lived, and her providing exaggerated responses— Cassandra volunteered to show Wendy around and take her to her room. Without much ado, she grabbed Wendy and led her around the three floor villa.
The living room they were in was roughly a 45 square room with a huge crystal chandelier in the center of the living room. The overall theme of the interior of the house seemed to be gold for the tables, the vases, the window accents, the throw pillows and every other furniture was a different shade of gold. The white sofas seemed to be of good quality, likely imported. There was a 70 inch television attached to the wall, placed above the fireplace. There was a woolen rug just under the center table and sofas. The windows were facing the east to receive early morning sunlight.
They walked up the stairs to the first floor. The banisters were surprisingly black. From the first floor hallway they could see the living room.
Wendy felt that everything in the house was gaudy and that they all obviously lacked taste to think the house was nice to live in.