Chapter 627 Searching for Relatives

After a moment of silence, the old man suddenly burst into tears, his cries loud and clear.

"Uncle, please don't cry."

Jiao Niang felt a pang of sadness as well. She took out her handkerchief and handed it to the old man, saying, "Does your daughter look like me?"

The love between father and daughter, the love between mother and daughter—these were things that Jiao Niang had never experienced. Her father was a gambling addict, her mother had long since eloped with someone, and in the end, her father sold her to a brothel. It was Lin Shusheng who rescued her.

When the old man cried, the young woman felt heartbroken and shed tears.

“I’m not an old man, I’m your father.”

The old man repeated, "Da Ni'er, your father has been looking for you for almost thirty years, and I've finally found you!"

The old man knelt down with a thud, kowtowed to his beloved wife, and cried, "You've suffered so much these years, I'm so sorry!"

"But I have a father."

The young woman looked closely at the old man. Although time had turned his hair white, the two did indeed resemble each other. She wasn't wealthy or noble; she was merely someone's mistress, and now she was a murderer. Was it worth it to stage an accident to claim she was his father?

“I know, that gambler died suddenly a few years ago.”

If the gambler hadn't died, the old man could have found his daughter sooner, because it's much harder to find someone after they've died. He was just an ordinary citizen, so he could only ask around, and it took him several more years.

Jiao Niang didn't understand. Did that mean her father wasn't her biological father? But she had parents as far back as she could remember.

“Da Ni’er, listen to what your father has to say.”

The old man cut to the chase and asked, "Back then, when you lost it, you should have had a stone pendant on you. It was a pebble that your father picked up in the river and polished for you."

His family were just ordinary farmers and didn't have extra money to buy jade pendants, but he loved his daughter very much, so he specially polished a white pebble with patterns.

You mean this?

After speaking, Jiao Niang took a red string from her neck. There was a small hole in the pebble, and it had changed color after she wore it for many years.

"Yes, I did it."

The old man stroked the pebbles with both hands, tears welling in his eyes, and murmured, "It's a pity your mother is gone. She won't be able to see this, she'll die with her eyes wide open!"

After saying this, he knelt down and burst into tears.

From inside the door not far away, Lin Yuesha heard the crying and felt inexplicably sad. This was real emotion, not acting. No matter how well someone acted, it couldn't compare to experiencing that kind of pain firsthand.

“Miss, I don’t understand. Judging from this, this person might really be Jiao Niang’s father.”

Bai Cha stroked his chin, never expecting that he would uncover Jiao Niang's background so soon.

Lin Yuesha gestured for Bai Cha to be quiet and continued listening.

"You're talking about my mother, what's going on?"

Jiao Niang was starting to believe it. She had carried the pebble with her since she was a child. Her gambling father said he had polished it himself, but based on Jiao Niang's understanding of the gambling father, that was highly unlikely.

The pebble was polished quite smoothly and even had a shape, so given the gambler's attitude of constantly beating and scolding her, it was unlikely he would make anything for her.

Her only value to the gambler is exchanging her for money.

"Daughter, your parents are sorry."

The old man wiped away his tears and choked out what had happened.

Back then, he was young and impetuous, always wanting to go out and do business. This caused a dispute with Da Ni's mother, and neither of them could convince the other, so they talked about getting a divorce.

During that time, the atmosphere at home was very tense. Fearing it would affect their daughter, they sent her to the Lin family, where her aunt had married.

At that time, Dani was only three years old, still an innocent and carefree little girl.

Jiao Niang had no memory of this; she couldn't recall it.

“After a few days, your mother and I will discuss it and then go to the Lin family to pick you up and take you home. However, your aunt says that you are lost.”

At the time, the couple was devastated and searched everywhere, thinking they could find him in the surrounding area, but they searched for several years without success.

The two of them could never have imagined that the person, as Da Ni's aunt, could be so ruthless, and they had never thought of it in this direction.

The couple felt guilty and decided not to have any more children, but instead to focus all their efforts on finding Da Ni.

"Your mother and I firmly believe that you are living well somewhere, waiting for us to come and bring you back to say sorry."

After the old man finished speaking, he knelt on the ground and said, "Even until your mother breathed her last, she was still worried about you."

Before his wife died, she told him that he must find their daughter, absolutely, even if it took another ten or twenty years, as long as he was alive, he would definitely make up for the mistakes of that year.

“Our home is in Xiaogangzi Village in the south. Later, we sent you to Linjia Village.”

The old man mentioned several place names in succession, and Jiao Niang's eyelids twitched.

How many people live in my aunt's family?

As soon as Jiao Niang asked the question, an unbelievable possibility suddenly occurred to her, one she couldn't believe.

"There are only three people in the family. Your aunt's health wasn't very good after giving birth to your cousin."

The old man revealed Lin Shusheng's nickname, Er Gou, and recounted the Lin family's situation.

Lin Shusheng has now become a high-ranking official, but he hasn't sought help from anyone. After all, his wife is gone, and people might not acknowledge their kinship. Besides, his daughter, Da Ni'er, was lost in Linjia Village, which has left him with deep resentment towards the Lin family.

Over the years, he searched all over the Great Qi and found the broker who had handled the case, but the broker couldn't remember who sold Da Ni. He went to great lengths to find out more information, eventually ending up in the capital. He worked as a porter at the docks to gather more information.

“You have a butterfly birthmark on your arm, and your mother named you Hu Die (Butterfly).”

His surname is Hu, so everyone says his name sounds nice. He also carved a butterfly on one side of the pebble.

I just don't know why the butterfly markings on it are blurry.

"I've worn it every day for years, and it's worn off long ago."

Jiao Niang's eyes reddened. No one knew about the birthmark on her body except for Lin Shusheng; even her son didn't know.

If the person who came was trying to stage an accident, it's unlikely they knew this secret.

The young woman let the old man in. She was moving out, and she still had some unresolved questions, but there was no time to talk about them now, or the coachman would become suspicious.

"You can stay here and wait for me. I'll try to come back in the next couple of days."

There are still many fruits and vegetables in the mansion that cannot be taken away, and Lin Shusheng will not send anyone back, so this place is very safe.

"Okay, you must remember to come back and see your father."

The old man was overjoyed, but knowing it was inconvenient to say too much at this moment, he went inside first.

"Madam, why have you been delayed for so long?"

When the driver arrived at the alley, he noticed that the young woman's eyes were a little red and asked suspiciously.

"That old man was looking for his daughter. He was a bit confused, so I gave him some money and sent him away."

Jiao Niang wiped away her tears and said, "People are so confused, they're only thinking about their own daughters. When they think of me... I'm so unlucky."

Everyone knew that the beautiful girl had been sold to Lin Shusheng by her gambling father. Upon hearing this, the coachman breathed a sigh of relief and advised, "That's all in the past. If it weren't for your gambling father, you wouldn't have met God. What kind of life are you living now?"