"Grandma Jiang had been living in M Country before this?" Ni Yang followed up with another question.
"Yes." Mrs. Zheng nodded and continued, "Back in the day, your great aunt and Grandma Jiang were as close as real sisters. Later, when your great aunt passed away, Grandma Jiang, fearing that returning would renew her grief, never went back and stayed in Beijing."
"So, there was no chance for my mom to meet Grandma Jiang," Ni Yang said.
Mrs. Zheng continued, "That’s why I said perhaps your mom was mistaken."
"Grandma, where did you and Grandpa work in the beginning?" Ni Yang asked.
"In Yicheng," Mrs. Zheng replied. Mentioning that sorrowful place made her feel uncomfortable.
Ni Yang frowned slightly, "But my mom grew up in Haicheng, Grandma, Haicheng is over three thousand kilometers from Yicheng."
Haicheng is over three thousand kilometers from Yicheng. In times with developed transportation, it takes two days and nights by train, nine hours by high-speed rail, and four hours by plane.
In an era of extremely poor economic conditions and transportation options, how could a three-year-old girl possibly cross three thousand kilometers?
There was a big problem with this.
Mrs. Zheng’s eyes reddened slightly, "Actually, when I first saw your mom at the state-run big hotel, I felt she was my daughter, especially Little Yunyun; she looked exactly like your mom when she was young. But later, when I asked your mom where she was from, and she said she was from Haicheng, my heart felt half cold."
Mrs. Zheng thought the same as Ni Yang at that time. It was impossible for a three-year-old girl to travel so far.
"It wasn’t until the DNA result came out that I dared to confirm that your mom was my daughter. Now that I think about it, she might have been abducted by child traffickers to Haicheng."
Ni Yang shook her head, "At that time, the preference for sons over daughters was at its worst. My mom grew up in the countryside, and my maternal grandfather’s family wasn’t well-off; they wouldn’t have spent money to buy a daughter. So, the probability of child traffickers is practically zero."
In China, the preference for sons over daughters only started to improve after the year 2000. Before that, nearly two-thirds of families preferred sons over daughters.
There were rampant cases of abandoning baby girls; which child trafficker would waste their energy to steal a girl, and then sell her to the countryside?
Even traffickers would normally sell to families that were well-off and unable to have children.
Ni Cuihua grew up in a rural area with harsh conditions, never even attending school as a child.
If you look at the issue from another angle, you would realize that someone wanted to ruin Ni Cuihua, ensuring she’d never have a chance to succeed in life.
Upon hearing this, Ni Cuihua said, "Yangyang, actually when I was younger, your grandfather’s family wasn’t that poor."
Ni Yang frowned slightly, "But in my memory, Grandpa’s family was poorer than our old home, with just two earthen rooms that leaked whenever it rained."
Ni Cuihua continued, "Your grandfather’s family had quite good conditions until I was eleven. Later, he got hooked on opium, and that’s when our family’s fortune gradually dwindled away."
"Then why didn’t Grandpa send you to school?" Ni Yang asked.
Ni Cuihua chuckled bitterly, "You know what our place was like, typical preference for sons over daughters. Little girls around my age, including Aunt Dani, none of them went to school."
Ni Yang furrowed her brows slightly and then said, "Mom, when did you start to remember things?"
Ni Cuihua continued, "I was particularly slow as a child, I didn’t start remembering things until I was eight or nine years old."
That was a bit strange.
Ordinary children start to form memories by the ages of five or six; children with a bit more talent start remembering things around the ages of three or four.
Ni Cuihua was not slow. If she were, she wouldn’t have been able to learn to read so quickly, nor would she have mastered English so swiftly.
Zheng Lingling escorted Doctor Jiang out the door.
After making sure no one was around, Zheng Lingling finally spoke, "Aunt Jiang, why didn’t you treat Aunt Suyu just now?"
Not feeling reassured about Ni Yang?" Doctor Jiang looked up at Zheng Lingling.
"Yes." Zheng Lingling nodded her head.
Doctor Jiang kept a smile on her face while her ears stayed alert to the sounds around her, "Ni Yang has excellent medical skills, so don’t worry."
"How can you ask me not to worry?" Zheng Lingling was anxious, "You know very well..."
Doctor Jiang interrupted Zheng Lingling before she could finish, "You child, how come you only grow older but not wiser? I think even Xianjing has more sense than you!"