Everly remained frozen, her gaze fixed on the phantom screen above Anna's head, utterly oblivious to the sudden shift in her family's collective demeanor. They all wore expressions that suggested they'd just simultaneously sat on a rogue Lego brick.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!
A high-pitched, insistent buzzing sound, like a swarm of robotic bees, abruptly filled the air, causing everyone to wince and exchange bewildered glances.
"H-huh? What is that noise?"
Felix, Everly's second brother, a man whose usual expression was one of serene indifference, murmured, looking genuinely distressed as he instinctively clapped a hand over one ear.
The five brothers, a symphony of shared discomfort, stared at each other, a silent realization dawning that they were all experiencing the same auditory assault.
Meanwhile, Everly, still vibrating with anticipation over the juicy secrets the Gossip System promised, swallowed hard. The text on the screen above Anna's head flickered, then changed. Her heart hammered with excitement, but what appeared next made her want to flip the nearest piece of furniture.
[Hey hey, did you know there's something Anna Tang is hiding, something even her husband and children don't know about?]
The text changed again, a dramatic pause hanging in the air.
[Really? Do tell, what is she hiding?]
The screen promptly went blank, accompanied by a ridiculously dramatic suspense BGM that played only exclusively in Everly's ears. The silence stretched, pregnant with unspoken secrets and the faint, irritating buzz.
"....."
Everly didn't know whether to be furious at the system's convoluted, time-wasting theatrics or to applaud System 006 for its dedication to roleplaying. It was as if she'd stumbled into a digital tea party with a gaggle of gossiping aunties. Truly, it lived up to its "Gossip System" moniker, even if it was testing her patience.
The screen above Anna's head pulsed with an almost theatrical glow, finally displaying the much-anticipated text.
[Actually... Anna used to be wild, violent, and a total troublemaker! She was even a school thug, ruled the school with an iron fist and causing chaos. Despite being the heiress of the Zhou family, she'd extort money from classmates for her "protection services", and routinely decking anyone who annoyed her!]
[Her hair was dyed a vibrant, multi-colored mess, and she even sported a shaved side. She loved motorcycle racing and was the lead singer of a rock band called 'Where's the Perfect Man?'. Can you believe that? A bunch of angsty teenage girls screaming about their absent crushes! She only changed during college when she saw Charles Tang standing on stage welcoming new students. It was love at first sight so she promptly reinvented herself - even hiring an etiquette coach to teach her how to sip tea without slurping~]
The system, in its infinite wisdom, laid out the details with the breathless enthusiasm of a seasoned gossip columnist. The text practically vibrated with excitement, even adding a conspiratorial whisper at the end, as if sharing this tidbit exclusively with Everly.
[Pssstt, just a little extra gossip for you... Anna actually stalked Charles before they officially started dating!]
Everly's jaw dropped, hitting the floor with an audible thud that thankfully only she could hear. The gossip! It wasn't just beyond her expectations; it had vaulted over them, done a triple-axel, and landed squarely in the realm of the utterly absurd. She'd braced herself for some dark, familial skeleton, perhaps a hidden love child or a shady business deal. Instead, she got... a rock-singing, one-sided-shaved-head, school-thug heiress who stalked her husband?!
She stared at Anna, whose elegant features were currently scrunched in confusion, still bothered by the incessant buzzing. Anna's hands, still clasped in Everly's, felt surprisingly soft. It was almost impossible to reconcile the refined woman before her with the image of a leather-clad, motorcycle-riding delinquent. The contrast was so stark, so utterly hilarious, that Everly almost snorted.
Well... even if my Mom's secret wasn't quite what I expected... it's actually not that bad, is it?
As Everly entertained this rather charitable thought, the side effect of the Gossip System kicked in with a vengeance.
Unbeknownst to her, every thought that flitted through her mind was now being broadcast directly into the heads of everyone within a two-meter radius for the next thirty minutes.
Her five brothers and parents froze, their eyes darting around the room. They'd all distinctly heard Everly's voice, clear as a bell, yet she stood perfectly still, a picture of innocent contemplation. They exchanged bewildered glances, each wondering if they were collectively losing their minds. Just as they began to doubt their sanity, Everly, a natural-born internal chatterbox, launched into her next mental monologue, indiscriminately spilling Anna's freshly acquired secrets like a seasoned gossip queen hosting a particularly juicy tea party.
No wonder my mother has such a bad temper! I just asked her what was more important than picking up her daughter who'd been missing for a dozen years, and she looked at me like I'd accused her of deep-frying her pet tarantula! Turns out she's a former thug, likes extorting money and fighting... tsk tsk... even likes racing and was a rock singer? She's even wilder than me!
The entire family's jaws collectively dropped. The brothers gaped, their heads swiveling between Everly and their mother, their faces a tableau of utter disbelief. Charles, Everly's father, fixed his wife with an unreadable, yet undeniably intense, stare. Anna, meanwhile, went instantly pale, her hands instinctively recoiling from Everly's as if burned.
"You! How could you..."
Anna's voice was a strained whisper, her mind conjuring vivid images of stuffing Everly into a burlap sack and tossing her into the deepest part of the ocean. The secrets she'd meticulously buried, the ones Zack had been handsomely paid to keep under wraps, were now being blared for all to hear.
Yet, as she stared at Everly's innocent, closed-mouthed face, a fresh wave of confusion washed over her. Everly was just looking at her, wide-eyed. Anna clutched her head, wondering if the stress had finally broken her brain.
Am I losing my mind? Was that just... a hallucination?
Alan, Everly's fourth brother, looked like he was having an existential crisis. His gaze darted between Anna and Everly, a silent debate raging in his eyes about whether he needed to book an emergency session with a psychiatrist.
"I... I feel like I heard something..." he mumbled, his voice barely audible.
Meanwhile, Nathan, the third brother, a man who shared Sylas's fiery temperament, shot to his feet. His eyes, usually cool and collected, blazed with indignation as he glared at Everly.
"Are you out of your mind?! Our mom is the daughter of the Zhou family, and the matriarch of the Tang family! What do you mean 'thug'?! She has more money than God; she never needed to extort anyone!"
Of course, Sylas, who had been locked in a silent (and sometimes not-so-silent) battle with Everly since their reunion two hours ago, wasn't about to be outdone. He pointed an accusing finger at her, his eyes blazing.
"Barbarian girl, stop slandering my mom! You're the thug, not my mom!"
Everly, however, was completely oblivious to the family drama unfolding around her. Her attention was captivated by the screen above Anna's head, which had flickered out of existence only to reappear, now covered in a chaotic mess of digital scribbles and the ominous word "LOCKED." Clearly, there were more skeletons in Anna's closet, but Everly wasn't at the right "level" to unlock them yet. She shrugged mentally; her gut feeling told her the next secret couldn't be nearly as entertaining as the one about the rock-star thug.
As she finished her mental assessment of the locked screen, she finally registered Nathan and Sylas's furious faces. Her eyebrows shot up, a mixture of confusion and mild curiosity flickering in her eyes.
"What did you just—"
"Nathan! Sylas!"
Anna's voice, sharp and sudden, cut Everly off mid-sentence. Her heart was doing an Olympic-level gymnastics routine in her chest.
They heard it! Everyone heard it!
The realization hit her like a rogue bus. Her earlier suspicion that she was hallucinating vanished, replaced by a desperate need for damage control.
"Everly's been perfectly quiet! If you two don't like her, don't go slandering her!"
Everly blinked, utterly flummoxed. Her mother, who had greeted her with the warmth of a walk-in freezer and a side of accusation, was now defending her? It was a plot twist even the Gossip System hadn't predicted. She eyed her mother with a mixture of suspicion and bewildered amusement.
Nathan and Sylas, caught off guard by their mother's unexpected ferocity, simply stared at each other, their angry expressions slowly morphing into confused bewilderment.
Unlike their three brothers, who possessed the uncanny ability to remain stoic and analytical even when their tempers flared, Nathan and Sylas were pure, unadulterated id. The moment Everly's mental voice had accused their mother of thuggery, their brains had short-circuited, bypassing all logical thought in favor of immediate, furious defense. But Anna's sudden, fierce interjection had finally pierced through their rage-induced fog. They exchanged a look, the gears in their heads grinding to a halt.
Everly had been silent.
Yet, they had heard her voice.
In their minds.
Were they all experiencing the same hallucination? But... if it was a shared delusion, how could they all be hallucinating the exact same thing simultaneously?
The unspoken question hung heavy in the air between them, their shared bewilderment evident in their wide, disbelieving eyes. This wasn't some individual delusion; this was a shared, psychic phenomenon.
Alan, ever the pragmatist, was already furiously tapping on his phone.
Forget one psychiatrist, I need a family package deal.
Sylas, however, despite the undeniable weirdness of the situation, wasn't about to let Everly off the hook. He rounded on her, his glare potent enough to curdle milk.
"Did you all really not hear her say Mom extorts money and is a rock singer?! Mom's from a rich family! She only listens to classical music! And Mom's so delicate, she can barely open a bottle cap sometimes!"
Anna's face twitched. While a part of her swelled with pride at her youngest son's fervent defense, the rest of her was cringing so hard her soul nearly exited her body. Her image as the elegant, fragile matriarch was a carefully constructed facade, one she'd painstakingly maintained for years.
Classical music?
She recalling the countless times she'd snoozed during classical concerts.
Weak?
The way she could splinter a cutting board with a single punch, let alone a bottle cap.
Sylas's impassioned defense, while sweet, was dangerously close to exposing the sheer theatricality of her domestic life.
Everly, genuinely stunned by Sylas's accusation. She instinctively took a step back, her mind racing.
"W-what are you talking about? I didn't say anything!"
When did I open my mouth and reveal the secret about our mom?! I've been silent this whole time! Wait! Maybe the side effect is that they can read my mind?! What if it's true?!
A cold sweat broke out on Everly's forehead. She was a prolific internal monologuer, a veritable chatterbox in her own head. If her family could hear that, it wasn't just a breach of privacy; it was a full-blown, public execution of her innermost thoughts! She tried to compose herself, but the sheer horror of it all was almost too much to bear.
And, of course, Everly's frantic internal monologue about mind-reading was instantly broadcast to her entire family. Their eyes widened in unison, a chorus of silent gasps echoing in their heads as the words "read my mind" reverberated through their consciousness. Everly, meanwhile, made a solemn vow in the privacy of her own head:
Right, new rule: absolutely no more internal monologues, just in case!
But just as Everly made this solemn mental pledge, Magnus, the eldest brother, who had remained stoically silent through the entire psychic circus, finally spoke. His face, usually a mask of calm indifference, remained impassive as he addressed Sylas.
"You shouldn't speak carelessly, Sylas. She hasn't said a word. If you're spouting absurdities based on Aunt Megan's gossip, you'd better shut up now."
Everly's internal gears ground to a halt.
So Sylas wasn't reacting to my thoughts, but to some gossip from an Aunt I don't even know?? But why did he phrase it like I said it? And the same secret, the timing... is it really just a coincidence?
Magnus's words were a confusing cocktail of suspicion and immense relief for Everly. While she still couldn't quite grasp the full scope of the bizarre situation, the fact that not only Anna but also the stoic, seemingly eldest brother denied hearing anything—and even suggested Sylas was just spouting nonsense—made her think she'd wildly misinterpreted the whole mind-reading thing.
Maybe she just misunderstood. Maybe they can't read her mind.
Meanwhile, everyone else, including Charles and Anna, stared at Magnus with confusion and dawning comprehension. They knew, with absolute certainty, that Magnus was spouting pure, unadulterated nonsense. It was painfully obvious he was trying to cover up the fact that they could, indeed, hear Everly's every thought.
Magnus's fingers, which had been idly tapping on his phone, suddenly moved with purpose. A moment later, every family member's device buzzed with an identical message from him.
The message from Magnus flashed across their screens:
[Don't let the girl know we can... hear her thoughts. Even if it sounds impossible, who cares? Let's use this to figure out what she's really thinking. What if she's jealous and plotting against Sylvia? All of this is for our sister's protection.]
Magnus's casual dismissal of Everly as "the girl" underscored his continued reluctance to accept her, a stark reminder that even biological ties couldn't mend a decade of absence. The mention of Sylvia, however, acted like a magic word. Every head in the room, save Anna's, nodded in silent, immediate agreement. For them, Sylvia, the fake daughter, was the true north of their moral compass. Blood be damned.
As if summoned by their collective devotion, a figure descended the grand staircase. Her face, exquisitely beautiful, was etched with a delicate sorrow, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She cast a fragile, wounded gaze upon the assembled family, her eyes lingering on Everly.
Everly's mind-reading panic vanished instantly, replaced by a surge of pure, unadulterated anticipation. Their eyes locked across the opulent foyer.
Finally! It must be Sylvia!
The stage was set. The fake versus real daughter drama was officially ON.