The First Scheme

If Shen Xue dared to stretch out her claws, he would chop it up.

"Go and change your clothes first, then go out to play."

Shen Yu knew that girls loved to judge people by their looks.

If Emily went out dressed like this, she would likely be bullied, or at least taunted by the other kids.

Shen Xue's hand that was holding Emily's stiffened. She did not expect Shen Yu to see through and stop her little scheme.

It didn't matter anyway. There was still a long time ahead of them. There would always be another opportunity where Shen Yu wasn't present to protect Emily.

"My bad, I kept thinking about going out to play and forgot about this. Let me bring Emily to change her clothes."

"I'll do it. I've long wanted a sweet and soft little girl like Emily, unlike those little rascals." Second Aunt looked at Emily gently and encouraged her to come to her.

Emily had a good impression of the Second Aunt. She felt like her mother. Emily obediently walked in front of her and raised her head to greet her sweetly. "Second Aunt."

When the two of them went upstairs, the boys' imaginations took off. It was as though there was a feather tickling their hearts, and they were itching to know if their sister would look prettier after she'd dressed up.

Of course, they wouldn't dislike Emily even in her current state, but they were a little worried that their sister would feel insecure about herself.

Although it had only been a short while since Emily had met Shen Yu, her room was already prepared, tidied and ready for her to stay in.

The room was decorated mostly in pink. At the head of the bed was a starlet doll that was bigger than Emily. It looked like a little European princess. Emily liked it very much.

The most noteworthy thing was the floor-to-ceiling window at one end of her room. Emily could clearly see the back garden of the Shen family mansion outside the window. There was even a locust tree growing in the garden that reached all the way to the room.

When she opened the window, she could touch the branches.

Emily looked at all of this curiously. This was something she had never seen or even imagined before. She'd crossed from the slums into the riches within a few hours, straight up the social ladder which many spent their lives scaling. Naturally, everything here was new and unfamiliar to her.

Second Aunt opened the closet, and it was filled with exquisite clothes of all shapes and styles.

Emily changed into a set of English-style clothes in sky blue with a navy checkered vest, the loose sleeves and pants are tucked in with garters. The outfit was very easy to move in and suitable for a kid like her to play outside.

It was especially cute on Emily, and made her look like a doll.

Emily's new brothers were also surprised when they saw how the ugly duckling transformed into an elegant sawn with the change in outfit.

Emily ran in front of Shen Yu excitedly. "Brother, Brother, let's go play together."

Not far away, on the walkway, Shen Xue was playing hopscotch with the other kids.

She was jumping around on just one foot but didn't make a single mistake. The small crowd of children around her applauded.

Emily let go of Shen Yu's hand as she wanted to join in.

It had been a long time since Emily had played such games.

Ever since her parents' accident, Emily's life had changed drastically. Every single day, she struggled to survive and had endured too much hardship on her own, naturally she didn't have the luxury to enjoy her childhood.

However, as Emily lifted one leg and hopped only a few times, her tiny body swayed and she was about to fall to the ground. Fortunately, Shen Xue was beside her and held her arm.

Emily heaved a sigh of relief as she didn't want to fall and dirty her brand new set of clothes, or make a fool of herself on her first day here.

But just as she turned around, she saw Shen Xue lying on the ground, struggling to stand up as her brothers rushed forward to help her.

Shen Xue took shallow breaths to try to ease the pain from the fall. "I'm fine. It's not her fault."

Unexpectedly, Shen Nan jumped out to blame Emily. Nine years old was the age when kids only saw the world in clear-cut good and bad, and hated the latter more than anything else.

"It was clearly Emily who pushed you! I saw it!"

Emily was shocked by the accusation. She was afraid that her grandfather and brother would see her as a bad kid and abandon her, so she quickly explained, "It wasn't me! It was Sister Shen Xue who tried to help me just now when I lost my balance and fell. I didn't push her."

Shen Xue's pitiful voice sounded. "No, it's not Emily's fault, don't blame her. It was me who didn't stand properly and lost my balance."

The other brothers of the Shen family didn't quite see what had happened earlier. However, they knew Shen Nan's character, he couldn't stand any wrongdoing that he saw. They couldn't help but frown now as they looked toward Emily.

Compared to Shen Xue, who had been playing with them for several years, Emily came from the slums. It wouldn't be surprising if she had some bad habits and problematic behavior.

However, if she pushed someone down and refused to apologize, it would be a problem with her upbringing and character.

As the eldest son, although Shen Zhe didn't agree with Emily's actions, he couldn't let his brothers just start quarreling right beside the footpath.

Shen Yu noticed that something was wrong, so he walked over. From the chattering of the children, he'd learned what happened just moments ago.

When he saw all of his brothers frowning at Emily who was in the middle, he could almost tell what they were thinking.

"It was Shen Xue who didn't stand steady after trying to help Emily and fell down."

"Shen Nan was standing at the wrong angle, so to him it looked like Emily pushed Shen Xue."

Shen Yu did not care how the other brothers responded. He held Emily in his arms as she started sobbing from being wronged, and went back to the main house.

The adults of the Shen family frowned when they saw the group of children leave excited and return obviously upset.

But they didn't say anything about it on the spot. Instead, they went back to their own homes to get an explanation from their children.

After learning about the incident from the kids, the moms in the Shen family all knew what was going on.

Seeing the conflicted expressions of the children, Third Aunt put on a serious look and asked, "Shen Nan, did you see Emily push Shen Xue with your own eyes?"

"Emily's arm was clearly extended. If she didn't push her, how did Sister Shen Xue fall?"

"Well then if Emily was going to fall and Shen Xue wanted to help her, why couldn't it be Shen Xue who ended up losing her balance? Emily is still so young! You must learn to protect her and not just blame her without even seeing with your own eyes!"