Yu Pan continued reading, “By the way, Mom, Dad, I realized that among the young people in our batch of intellectuals, there’s a girl who looks like Dad. She has the same surname as our family, Yu. She’s 20 years old and fits the description of my second sister, whom I’ve heard Grandma mention before. I’ll call her Second Sister for the time being. Second Sister is assigned to do heavy farm work and works very hard. Unfortunately, my body is too weak and I often can’t even do my own work well. If I really help, I’m afraid my body won’t be able to take it and our family will have to send me money.”
“That’s why I went to ask around to exchange an easy job for her, but I need money to pull some strings. Can Mom and Dad send some money over? I wish our family good health and that everything is smooth-sailing. Sincerely, your daughter Yu Bing.”
After Yu Pan finished reading, she looked up at her parents with a puzzled expression. She was still young when Yu Yan was sent away. She had long forgotten about this second child. She asked curiously, “Dad, Mom, we had another daughter in our family? When did you guys send her away?”
When Yu Wu heard this, he also put down his book.
Mr. Yu and Mrs. Yu looked at each other. Mrs. Yu slowly said, “You were only four or five years old at that time. It’s normal for you not to remember after so many years since we never mentioned it. At that time, Yu Bing and Yu Wu had just been born. How could the family support so many people?”
In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Yu had wanted to send Yu Bing away at first. At that time, Yu Bing’s body was weak, and the family who came for the adoption was afraid that they wouldn’t be able to support her, so they chose the second child. At that time, Yu Yan was still young and friendly with strangers, so the couple who came to adopt her liked her at first glance.
Yu Pan understood after hearing Mrs. Yu’s explanation. In the past, life was so difficult that families would give away the children they couldn’t support. Yu Pan asked tentatively, “Then what about the money that Yu Bing mentioned?”
Mrs. Yu’s hand that was knitting paused and she replied angrily, “Why should we send it? Doesn’t she know what’s going on at home? Is she even sure that she’s our second child?! Even if she is, we’ve already given her away. She has nothing to do with our family anymore.”
If it didn’t involve money, since Mrs. Yu still had some feelings for this daughter she had given away, if the other party wanted to interact with her, she had no objections.
Once money was involved, it was different. Other than Yu Wu, Mrs. Yu was reluctant to spend money on her other children. Previously, in order to coax Yu Bing to go to the countryside, she spent 70 yuan. Her heart ached so much that she scolded Yu Bing at home for being an ingrate.
When Yu Pan heard Mrs. Yu’s words, she agreed very much. She even blamed Yu Bing a little. The family’s financial situation was already quite bad. If another person came, what would she have left?!
Yu Pan’s eyes darted around as she thought of something else to say to reinforce her parents’ decision not to acknowledge her second sister. “Dad, Mom, how are the conditions of the family you gave her away to?”
Mrs. Yu recalled for a moment. “I remember that they seemed well-off. They were dressed quite well when they came to our house, right?”
Mr. Yu nodded. “They were quite well-off, since they were a double-income family. I remember the middleman said that they already had a son, but the wife of that family got injured during childbirth and couldn’t get pregnant again, so she wanted to raise a daughter. She thought that with more children at home, things would be livelier.”
When Yu Pan heard this, she couldn’t help but wonder if she could get some benefits from her second sister. However, when she thought of the contents of the letter, she felt that the couple was probably in dire straits. “It’s been so many years. In the past, her family was well-off, but it might not be the case now. If they’re really that capable, why didn’t her adoptive parents help her find a job and stay in the city? Even if she couldn’t stay, they still could have sent her money to pull strings to get an easy job. After all, she’s a daughter they went through great pains to adopt. How can they not care about her?”
Mrs. Yu also felt that it made sense.
Seeing this, Yu Pan struck while the iron was hot. “I even suspect that she accidentally found out about the adoption and deliberately approached Yu Bing. We know Yu Bing’s personality. She’s naive and gullible. Perhaps my second sister’s family is having a hard time and wants to use Yu Bing to ask us for benefits!”
Feeling that Yu Pan made sense, Mrs. Yu slapped her thigh in realization. “Hurry up and reply to Yu Bing. Tell her to mind her own business! Even if her second sister comes to her, make her insist that our family has never given a child away!”
After saying that, she pinched Mr. Yu’s arm. “Look at what your mother has done! Why did she tell Yu Bing all this for no reason? Now that our second child has found her, we won’t be able to shake her off.”
Mr. Yu hissed in pain. “Enough, my mother is no longer around. She might have just said it casually back then. Who knew that Yu Bing would remember it?”