Chapter 2

What does it mean to say ‘my parents treated me like a weed’?

Most people probably can't understand it.

After all, among people my age,

who wasn't spoiled rotten by their parents?

But I understood it down to my bones.

In their eyes,

I really was worth less than a weed on the roadside!

My father angrily dumped the food from my bowl into the trash.

Then he took the noodles away too.

“You won't eat? Then you don't get to eat from now on.”

“We're an ordinary family.”

“We can't afford to raise a delicate little princess like you.”

Holding the noodles, my father took my mother's hand and left the kitchen.

Before he went, he didn't forget to order me “Wash the dishes before you leave.”

I choked back everything I felt and wiped away my tears.

Even though I was so tired I could barely stand,

I obediently washed the dishes.

That night, when I went to sleep,

I was so hungry I kept drinking water, just to give myself a little sense of fullness.

Then I hurried to sleep.

The next day,

I got ready to go back to school to study like always.

But the door was locked from the outside.

“Mom, Dad, Dylan.”

“Is anyone home?”

“Why did you lock me in my room?”

Soon,

my mother's voice came from outside the room.

“The moment you admit you were wrong,”

“is the moment we let you out!”

I froze, “What did I do wrong?”

“Looks like you still haven't realized what your problem is.”

“Sit in there and think about what you've done.”

After that,

I heard my parents leave the house.

I couldn't get out, couldn't go to school, couldn't go to work.

Since I'd gone almost the entire previous day without eating,

I was dizzy with hunger, no strength left in my body.

I don't know how much time passed.

My vision went black and I fainted from hunger.

When I opened my eyes again,

my parents and my brother were all gathered around my hospital bed.

Seeing me open my eyes,

Dylan sneered, “Sis, aren't you being dramatic? You skipped one dinner and you fainted?”

“You're not faking it to get Mom and Dad to feel sorry for you, are you?”

I gritted my teeth and shook my head, “I didn't fake fainting.”

“You still dare to argue?”

My mother raised her hand to slap me,

but my father stopped her.

My heart lifted. I thought my father would finally show me some love.

Instead he said, “Too many people around in a hospital.”

“We'll deal with her once we're home.”

I stared at him blankly, unable to believe those words had come from my own father's mouth.

When we got home from the hospital,

my mother, beside herself with rage, grabbed a fistful of my hair and slapped me twice, hard.

“You worthless girl, do you have any idea how much time we lost because you were in the hospital for a day?”

“Your dad and I don't have to work? Don't have to earn a living?”

“Why not just let you starve to death?”