The Legend of Cinderella's Counterattack

My fingertips gently slid across the screen. The message seemed to carry a scorching heat, so intense that I could barely hold the phone. "Want to know the secret of your origin? Want to gain true power? Open this box, and you'll know everything!"

These words echoed in my mind like a mantra. A box? What box? My heartbeat began to accelerate uncontrollably, a strong sense of curiosity and fear intertwined.

“Lolo, what’s wrong with you?” Lawrence Lu keenly noticed my abnormality and asked with concern.

I took a deep breath, tried to calm myself down, and handed him the phone: "Look."

Lawrence Lu read the message carefully, his brows furrowed slightly. After a moment, he raised his head and said with a firm gaze: “Lolo, no matter what happens, I will be by your side. Do you want to solve this mystery? I will fully support you.”

His words were like a magic needle, calming my flustered heart. Yes, no matter what lies ahead, I am not alone.

I clenched the box in my hands. It was a simple wooden box, unadorned, yet exuding a mysterious aura. I opened it, revealing a bronze key and a faded photograph. The photo showed a young man with a handsome face, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a gentle smile.

"Who is this person?" Lu Yuxuan asked.

I shook my head, and an inexplicable sense of familiarity surged in my heart, as if I had seen this person somewhere.

"Maybe we can start with this key." Lu Yuxuan suggested.

We began searching for a lock that matched the key, and eventually found a clue in an ancient library. The librarian told us that the key belonged to a secret room in the deepest part of the library, and the owner of the secret room was a scholar named Lin Yuanshan.

"Lin Yuanshan?" I murmured to myself. This name was like a flash of lightning, illuminating my memory.

"What's wrong? Do you know him?" Lu Yuxuan asked.

"I... I'm not sure." I took a deep breath and tried to recall. "I seem to have seen this name in the orphanage's files. He... he might... be my father."

My voice trailed off, but inside I was surging with fear. My father was actually a scholar?

We entered the secret room, which was filled with books and various research materials. In the corner of the desk, we found a diary with the words "Lin Yuanshan" written on the cover.

I opened the diary with trembling hands, and the contents shocked me.

"My research has finally achieved a breakthrough. I successfully opened the door to time and space! However, something unexpected happened during the experiment. My wife... my daughter... they..."

The diary ends abruptly here. I can’t imagine the pain and despair my father went through at that time.

"Gate of Time and Space...daughter..." I murmured to myself. Could it be...could it be that I am his daughter?

We continued to flip through the diary and finally found the answer on the last page.

"I sent my daughter to another time and space, hoping that she can grow up safely. Luoluo, my daughter, if you can see this diary, please remember that Dad loves you."

Tears blurred my vision. I finally realized that the man in the photo was my father. And I wasn't just a rootless duckweed. I came from another time and space. My life story was far more complicated than I had imagined...

The diary slipped from my hands, landing on the ground with a dull thud, but it couldn't shake my chaotic thoughts. My father was actually a scientist who opened the door to time and space? And I, through his hands, traveled through time and space to come here?

Lawrence Lu picked up the diary, gently placed it on the table, and then held me in his arms. I leaned against his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat, trying to draw a little strength from this real and tangible warmth.

"Don't be afraid, Lolo, everything will be fine." His gentle voice sounded in my ears, like a warm current, dispelling the fear and anxiety in my heart.

Yes, I still have Lawrence Lu, and I still have love. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my excitement. I needed to know more, about my life, about my father, about this accident that spanned time and space.

We searched the secret room carefully, hoping to find more clues about my father's research. Finally, among a pile of seemingly messy documents, we found an experimental record.

The experimental log detailed my father's research project, the "Spacetime Gate." He attempted to achieve time travel by artificially creating a wormhole, and I, unfortunately, became an unintended consequence of this experiment. Due to energy fluctuations during the experiment, I was accidentally transported to this world, and my father was forced to separate from me.

"So that's how it is..." I muttered to myself, the doubts in my heart gradually dispelled, replaced by a deeper sadness and longing. It turned out that I was not abandoned by my parents, but because of an accident, I was separated from them.

“Lolo, look at this!” Lawrence Lu pointed to the last paragraph of the experimental record with a hint of surprise in his tone.

I followed his finger and saw the words written on it: "Lolo's genes have mutated. She possesses a special energy that is the key to stabilizing the space-time gate."

"Special energy?" I was shocked. Could it be that my traveling through time was not entirely an accident, but was done intentionally by my father?

At this moment, a blinding light suddenly appeared in the room, and a translucent figure gradually emerged. It was a middle-aged man, whose face bore some resemblance to the young man in the photo, though with more traces of time, and a look of vicissitudes and fatigue between his brows.

"Dad..." I recognized him at a glance, and tears blurred my eyes again.

"Lolo, my daughter..." He called my name in a trembling voice, his eyes filled with guilt and love, "I'm sorry for making you suffer..."

I threw myself into his arms, feeling the long-lost fatherly love. For the first time in all these years, I felt the warmth and happiness of having family.

"Dad, what's going on? Why did you suddenly appear here?" I raised my head and asked anxiously.

He gently stroked my hair and said in a heavy tone, "Lolo, Dad needs your help. The research on the Space-Time Gate has reached a bottleneck. Only your special genes can provide the energy to stabilize the Space-Time Gate and save our world..."

My father's words resonated like thunder in my ears. My special genes? Saving the world? It was all too unbelievable, and I couldn't digest it all. I subconsciously glanced at Lawrence Lu, only to see that he, too, was shocked, but his eyes were filled with worry and heartache.

“Lolo, don’t worry, we will find a way together.” Lawrence Lu held my hand and gave me strength.

My father looked at us with a complicated expression. He sighed and said, "Lolo, I know this is very sudden and cruel to you. However, the time-space gate has gone out of control. If it is not repaired quickly, our world, and even the world you live in, will face a huge disaster. Only you can prevent this from happening."

His words were filled with pleading and helplessness. I knew he didn't want to force me, but for the safety of both worlds, he had no choice.

I was caught in a huge struggle. On one side was my biological father, on the other was my beloved lover, on one side was the responsibility to save the world, and on the other was the right to pursue happiness. How should I choose?

"Lolo, you don't have to rush to make a decision. Think about it carefully. I respect any choice you make." Lawrence Lu's gentle voice was like a ray of sunshine, shining into my confused heart.

I looked at him, my eyes moistened again. I knew that no matter what decision I made, he would support me and accompany me.

For the next few days, I locked myself in my room, thinking about my father’s words over and over again, and thinking about every little detail of my time with Lawrence Lu. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without Lawrence Lu, but I couldn’t ignore my father’s request either.

I feel like a chess piece being played by fate, caught between a rock and a hard place.

In the end, I decided to return to my father's world with him to help him complete his research and repair the space-time gate. I knew that this would mean separating me from Lu Yuxuan, but I couldn't watch two worlds go to destruction, and I couldn't turn a blind eye to my own life experience.

When I told Lawrence Lu about this decision, his eyes were filled with sadness, but he said nothing, just hugged me tightly, using his body temperature to give me the last warmth.

"Lolo, I'll wait for you to come back." He whispered in my ear, with a hint of sob in his voice.

I raised my head, looked into his eyes, and said firmly: "I will definitely come back, wait for me!"

I know that this is not just a promise, but also my persistence in love and my expectation for the future.

I took a deep breath, turned around, and followed my father toward the dazzling light, toward an unknown fate...

These words echoed in my mind like a mantra. A box? What box? My heartbeat began to accelerate uncontrollably, a strong sense of curiosity and fear intertwined.

His words were like a stabilizing force, gradually calming my flustered heart. Yes, no matter what lies ahead, I'm not alone. I squeezed his hand tightly, only then realizing that my palms were covered in sweat.

"Let's go look for that box first." Lu Yuxuan said, and began to look around.

The message didn't indicate where the box was, so we were left scrambling like headless chickens. We searched the entire apartment, every corner, every drawer, but couldn't find anything resembling a box.

"Could it be a prank?" I began to feel a little shaken. Maybe it was just a boring prank, deliberately playing a trick on me.

Lawrence Lu pondered for a moment and said, “Maybe the message refers to another place, a place that has special meaning to you.”

Another place that holds special meaning for me? One place that springs to mind is the orphanage where I grew up.

Lu Yuxuan and I drove to the orphanage. The director was very surprised to see me, but also received us very warmly.

"Lolo, why did you come back suddenly? Is there something wrong?" the dean asked kindly.

I told the director about the message I had received and asked if she knew of any special place in the orphanage or if any of my old belongings had been preserved.

The director pondered for a moment and said, "When you first came to the orphanage, you had nothing on you except a necklace and a small wooden box. I've kept the necklace for you, but the wooden box has rotted away due to age. I had no choice but to take the contents out and put them in your file bag."

The dean found my file bag in the archives and handed it to me. I opened it with trembling hands. Inside, besides some simple documents, there was also a yellowed photo and an antique bronze key.

The photo shows a young man with a handsome face, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and a gentle smile on his lips.

I turned to the back of the photo and saw written on it in beautiful handwriting: "Yuanshan, a commemoration of Luo'er's 100th day."

Yuanshan? Luo'er? Could it be...

I suddenly remembered that in the orphanage's files, my name was listed as "Lin Luoluo," and "Luolu" was probably Luo'er's nickname. Could this man in the photo be my father?

And what is that bronze key? And how does it relate to the mystery of my life?

My mind was filled with questions, but also with a glimmer of hope. Perhaps I wasn't an orphan without a father or a mother. Perhaps my life story wasn't as simple as I'd imagined.