Chapter 240: The Past

When it was time to start work and Zhang Qiaoyan arrived, Wang Chunni was in tears.

Zhang Qiaoyan also cried and asked, “Dad, Mom, did you come to pick me up?”

Zhang Dezhen looked at his daughter and said, “Your father failed. I couldn’t find Luo Qiao. Just focus on your studies inside and perform well to get out early.”

After hearing her father’s words, Zhang Qiaoyan cried out in agony, “Isn’t she fine? Why does she have to make me suffer like this? How could she be so vicious? She’s just an unwanted child.”

The guard inside shouted at Zhang Qiaoyan, “Quiet down, no loud noises.”

In the end, Zhang Qiaoyan paid a heavy price for her actions, having to reform in the juvenile detention center for three years, which felt like the end of the world for the Zhang family.

After Luo Qiao arrived at the station, she spent a day exploring the city. The city had a small wholesale market with a wide range of daily necessities.

The style of clothes, shoes, and socks were all very trendy, and the most important thing was the big items like bicycles, watches, radios, and sewing machines that didn’t need coupons and the prices were cheap.

Luo Qiao shopped for two days before making a purchase. With the little money she had, she bought two of each large item and mostly clothes, shoes, socks, and daily necessities.

She kept twenty yuan for emergencies and bought a ticket for an inland train. After getting off, she found a black market to sell some of the goods and continued traveling south, using the same method to sell the rest of the items.

After several weeks of buying and selling, Luo Qiao had turned her money into over 30,000 yuan. Seeing that time is running out, she disguised herself in different ways and converted all the money into goods.

Earlier, she had rented a warehouse in the suburbs temporarily for 5 yuan, agreeing to use it for only half a month.

When the last batch of goods was delivered, Luo Qiao stored them in the space, then went directly to the train station to buy a ticket to Beijing. She rested in the station’s waiting room.

However, she didn’t expect that someone would notice her. Luckily, she was quick to leave. By the time those people reached the warehouse, it was already empty. They just wanted to find out who was behind such a big operation.

Three days later, Luo Qiao arrived in Beijing. She first found a place to stay. She debated whether to approach the police station for assistance or to find the place herself. Luo Qiao had already made preparations for this.

The original owner’s biological father was stationed with the military here, which is why the original owner’s mother, Ning Xueling, gave birth at a hospital in Ji City. However, there was an accident during the delivery of Luo Qiao that they had to be transferred to another hospital.

On the day of delivery, since the original owner’s father was on a mission, only the original owner’s maternal grandfather and a comrade of her father, along with his wife, were at the hospital.

The original owner’s grandfather was initially delighted to have a granddaughter and had prepared a jade pendant to put around the baby’s neck. However, before he could enjoy the moment, he learned that his daughter had to be transferred.

So, at that time, only the grandfather knew that the jade pendant was put on the baby.

There were no 120 ambulance services back then, so they had to arrange a vehicle through the military and go home to get some things. They left Luo Qiao with the comrade’s wife and asked the comrade to handle the transfer procedures.

Unexpectedly, during a brief moment when the comrade’s wife went to the restroom, Gao Suhua took advantage of the situation, and they hurriedly transferred to the new hospital without noticing that the baby had been swapped.

The main issue was that once the child arrived in Beijing, she was sent to her grandmother’s place. By the time the original owner’s mother stabilized and left the hospital to recuperate at her mother-in-law’s home, the grandfather only saw the baby when she was a month old.

At that time, the grandfather noticed that the jade pendant was missing from the baby’s neck. However, since there were some unpleasant incidents during the full month celebration, he couldn’t bring it up. He only mentioned the jade pendant to his eldest son.

Unfortunately, the grandfather passed away on duty six months later, leaving only the original owner’s maternal uncle who knew about the incident.

Luo Qiao had previously investigated the hospital where she was born in Ji City, using some methods to obtain the hospitalization records from that year. The records only listed the unit and name, with no other details.

Luo Qiao also sought information from the obstetrician who had been involved at that time.

Given this continuity, the Luo family would likely investigate the matter themselves. Even if she didn’t verify it with the military, she was not afraid of it being exposed.