Gu’er listened in silence. She didn’t say a word. All this ti, she had thought her parents had abandoned her, that they hadn’t wanted her. She never imagined this was how she’d gotten lost. The village her biological parents ntioned was quite far from the one where her grandmother had found her. How did she end up over there?
Her grandmother said she had been standing pitiably at an intersection, all alone. She had waited for a long ti, but no one ca for her, so she took her ho.
Later, her grandmother even went to that village to ask around, but she never heard of any family who had lost a child.
Her grandmother had assud she was from that village, never knowing she was actually from another one.
’At the ti, not many people knew her grandmother had found her—only those in her grandmother’s village. Unless soone specifically ca there to ask, no one would have known. But her biological parents thought she had been abducted and never looked for her there. Was this just a cruel twist of fate?’
Gu’er had been too young to rember anything, so she had no idea how she had wandered so far.
’Her parents were probably busy moving. With so many people from the village helping, it must have been chaotic. No one was paying attention to her, and she might have wandered off out of curiosity or sothing.’
’She must have just kept walking and walking until she was far away. But Gu’er didn’t know why she had left the village, and neither did her parents. Once she was out, she didn’t know the way back ho. Outside the village, there was nothing but fields. She must have just followed whatever path she saw, getting farther and farther away.’
Her grandmother said that when she found her, her little face was a ss from crying, and she was exhausted. She knew her na was Gu’er but didn’t know which village she was from. It seed she really had just wandered off and gotten lost.
Gu’er looked at Lin Shan, who was staring at her intently. She looked at Chen Fengjiao, whose eyes were red from crying, and then at Li Hua, who was wiping away her own tears with her head down.
’Who was she supposed to bla?’
Gu’er gave a bitter smile. She couldn’t bla anyone. She had gotten lost on her own. Even if her parents hadn’t been watching her properly, who told her to run off like that? If she had just stayed put, none of this would have happened. So, she could only bla herself.
’But why does my heart ache so much?’ Gu’er felt the urge to cry.
Everyone sighed. They hadn’t expected this to be the truth. They had all assud the Lin Family had abandoned Gu’er back then for so secret reason. It turned out they had simply lost her through carelessness.
They couldn’t say anything more. After all, it wasn’t what the Lin Family had wanted back then.
"Gu’er, they’re your real parents. You should accept them. Your grandmother found you and gave you to back then. All these years, you’ve suffered with . I... I..."
Li Hua couldn’t continue. Her daughter wouldn’t be hers anymore. The thought genuinely broke her heart.
Gu’er grabbed Li Hua’s hand. ’My adoptive mother has always treated with sincerity. She gave everything she could. My fate in my past life wasn’t her fault; I was just too weak.’
"Mom, don’t say that. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would have beco of ."
Gu’er’s eyes grew moist as well. She had never blad her adoptive mother. On the contrary, she planned to repay her in the future—just not right now.
"That’s right. If you hadn’t raised Gu’er, who knows what would have happened to her. No matter what, I... I’m grateful to you."
Chen Fengjiao thanked Li Hua. She had heard that Zhou Mazi of the Zhou family treated Gu’er poorly, and that things had escalated to the point where Gu’er had to attack soone to cut ties with them. But she had also heard that Li Hua never mistreated Gu’er and was actually quite good to her. Regardless, the woman had raised her daughter for over ten years, and for that, she had to be grateful.
"Gu’er was only a few years old when Li Hua brought her here. It wasn’t easy raising her to be this big. We suffered a lot, let tell you. You have no idea how hard it is to feed another mouth in the family. To give her a bite to eat, I’d go hungry myself! I gave her all the best food. How else could she have grown up this big? Now that you, her birth parents, have found her, we can say we’ve done our duty."
anwhile, Zhou Mazi was trying to take all the credit.
Gu’er shot him a look. ’He really has so nerve,’ she thought. ’When I first ca to the Zhou family, he starved for a whole day, refusing to give any food. It was from that mont I knew things were different now. If I wanted to eat, I had to work. So, from that day on, I started working desperately. But all that earned were beatings and scoldings. If Zhou Mazi wanted her to eat, she could have a bite. If he didn’t, both she and her adoptive mother had to go hungry. As for giving her all the best food? She was lucky to get any leftovers.’
Lin Shan and Chen Fengjiao exchanged a glance. Their feelings toward Li Hua were complicated, but for Zhou Mazi, they felt nothing but disgust. How could he treat their daughter like that and still have the audacity to demand credit? Earlier, they had only said they would repay Li Hua; they had never ntioned repaying Zhou Mazi.
"Brother Zhou, you’ve raised Gu’er for all these years. I must thank you for that."
Lin Shan stood up. He looked at Zhou Mazi and offered his thanks first. But the hidden glint in his eyes didn’t match his words.
"Of course, of course. As long as you know how hard it’s been for ."
Zhou Mazi chuckled.
"By the way, how do you plan on repaying , brother?"
Zhou Mazi added, his real goal being to get so money.
Lin Shan looked at Zhou Mazi.
"How would Brother Zhou like to repay you?"
Lin Shan asked, his voice tinged with coldness.
"Heh heh, brother, I’m a straightforward man. Since you asked, I won’t beat around the bush. Let’s not talk about anything else—for all these years, everything Gu’er ate, drank, and wore ca from . It was tough raising her to be this big. Now that you want to take her back, you can’t just say a few useless words and call it a day, right? You have to compensate us with so money."
Zhou Mazi laid his cards on the table.
"No, no, I don’t want any money."
But Li Hua waved her hands in protest. She saw Gu’er as her own daughter and had never thought of getting any reward. Besides, if Gu’er hadn’t been with her, if she had been with her birth parents, her life would surely have been better. She would have been a city person and wouldn’t have suffered so much.
"What are you yapping for, you old hag? I’m the man of this house! Everything she ate and drank ca from my blood and sweat! After I raised her this big, her parents show up, and they shouldn’t have to pay up? You think you can just take back a daughter for free? There’s no such thing! Say one more word, and I’ll beat you to death, you damn woman!"
Zhou Mazi showed no such courtesy to Li Hua.
Lin Shan and Chen Fengjiao both frowned. It was as if they were watching Zhou Mazi curse at Gu’er herself. With a man like this, what kind of good life could Gu’er have possibly had?
Li Hua flinched, feeling an instinctive fear of Zhou Mazi.
Gu’er just watched without saying a word. She wanted to see how her biological parents would handle this. It was a chance to understand what kind of people they were. As for accepting them, that could wait.
"How much does Brother Zhou want?"
Lin Shan asked Zhou Mazi after a mont of thought.
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Author’s Note: I’m in the mountains, so this was an automatic update. I’ll be back tomorrow.
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