Chapter 1

In the evening, the golden sun sank in the west, and the soft, orange-pink afterglow gently spread over the winding dirt road.

Two black cars, one behind the other, drove along the dirt road leading to Xinghua Village.

At the entrance of the village stood an ancient apricot tree, its trunk thick and sturdy.

It was April, and the old tree was adorned with clusters of delicate pink and white blossoms. A light breeze blew, causing the petals to fall like snow.

The elderly sat under the tree, chatting to pass the time, while women carried wicker baskets. Inside the baskets were threads, scraps of cloth, and newly-made fabric sock pads.

A woman casually picked up a sock pad she had been embroidering, stitching as she listened to the conversation, occasionally adding a few words.

Recently, the hottest topic in the village was about the granddaughter of Old Yan from the village’s far end, who had been missing for five years and suddenly returned.

“She really came back?”

“She really did. I went to Old Yan’s house at noon and saw her. That girl is tall and thin, but she hasn’t changed at all, and she doesn’t look like a child from the Yan family.”

“Hey, why is there a car coming into the village?” A woman looked towards the yellow dirt road at the front of the village, her voice filled with surprise.

The surprise wasn’t that a car was coming, but that such a beautiful car was rarely seen in this remote village.

Everyone heard the engine roar, rising and falling like the sound of a mountain crossing. They all looked up.

Sure enough, two black luxury cars, completely out of place with the simple, rustic charm of Xinghua Village, were slowly making their way down the bumpy dirt road, their tires whining as they bounced along.

The car stopped at the village entrance, and a middle-aged man got out of the lead car. He was around forty, with a well-groomed appearance, dressed in an expensive-looking, formal suit.

His hair was slicked back, and despite having just traveled a rough, bumpy dirt road, his hairstyle remained perfectly in place.

The people at the village entrance watched him walk toward them, holding their breath, the atmosphere unexpectedly tense.

Uncle Zheng stopped about a meter in front of a woman. “Big sister, we’re looking for Yan Zhengman’s house. Could you please direct us?”

The woman’s face flushed slightly as she pointed toward the village. “Go straight down the main road, then turn left. The last house is theirs.”

“Thank you,” Uncle Zheng said, offering his thanks before turning back toward the car behind.

The window of the car rolled down, and Uncle Zheng spoke a few words, then returned to the front car.

Both cars started up again and drove into the village, kicking up a cloud of dust.

“Hey, did you see that?” someone leaned forward, looking at the departing cars, their eyes glimmering with curiosity.

“What?”

“The car behind had a woman in it.”

“A woman? What about her?”

“She looks just like the granddaughter of Old Yan, the one who just came back.”

“You must have seen it wrong.”

—

At the Village End

The Yan family’s old house had a large, weathered green wooden door wide open, with two neat stone steps leading up to it. In the gaps between the steps, small weeds were growing.

Yan Ning, wearing a dark floral jumpsuit skirt altered by her grandmother using her own clothes, sat on the threshold. Her slender legs nearly extended past the edge of the step, and she wore a pair of old-fashioned red plastic slippers.

She held a green dogtail grass in her hand, bent down, and was teasing a puppy by her side.

The puppy had only been brought home a few days ago. Just two months old, it had soft, yellowish fur and round, clear eyes that showed its purebred local dog lineage.

The little creature was at an age full of curiosity, its round body spinning in circles as it chased the dogtail grass, looking innocent and clumsy, which made the scene feel particularly heartwarming.

When Uncle Zheng got out of the car, he happened to see this scene. A smile unknowingly tugged at the corners of his mouth. His attention quickly shifted from the puppy to Yan Ning.

The girl sitting by the door, playing with the dog, had messy, short hair that stuck up in all directions, giving her a somewhat untidy appearance. Her clothes also looked outdated.

But her skin was pale and flawless, and her limbs were delicate and long. Her features seemed almost identical to the lady’s, like a rose blooming in the dark night, exuding a fragrance so rich it made one’s heart ache. She was a beauty.

The only difference was her eyes—round yet slightly elongated with the outer corners slanted upward. The irises were a pale gray, with the pupils a deep, dark black.

When she looked at someone, her eyes seemed to carry the mischievous glint of a wild cat, with a trace of untamable light in them.

Behind her, Yan Zhengjun and his wife also got out of the car.

The couple exchanged a glance and, from each other’s expressions, and both could see the joy in their eyes.

“You’re looking for someone?” Yan Ning noticed them first and spoke up.

Tang Minrou let go of her husband and quickly walked a few steps to stand in front of Yan Ning. “Are you Yan Ning?”

“It seems you’re looking for me,” Yan Ning said, retracting her legs and faintly curling the corners of her mouth. “Yes, I’m Yan Ning. May I ask what brings you here?”

Tang Minrou squatted down and gently took Yan Ning’s hand. “Your father and mother have come to take you home.”

“Huh?” The girl’s eyes widened slightly, showing a look of disbelief.

—

Yan Family’s Old House, Main Room

The once spacious room was now filled with people. Grandpa Yan and Grandma Yan sat on a long bench on the left, looking a bit cramped.

Yan Ning sat beside them on a low stool.

Opposite them were the recently arrived Yan Zhengjun and Tang Minrou, Uncle Zheng the housekeeper, and accompanying doctors and lawyers.

They were dressed formally and uniformly, their expressions serious, exuding an imposing aura.

On the low stool in front of them was a pot of freshly brewed jasmine tea, but no one had touched it.

The village chief sat at the head of the room, while Dr. Liu, who had been brought in from the town hospital, sat to the village chief’s lower left, looking down at some documents.

He lifted his head from a pile of test results. “The two individuals in the test results do indeed have a familial connection.”

Grandpa Yan and Grandma Yan had already prepared themselves for this. Yan Ning was not their biological granddaughter, she had been adopted seventeen years ago when their son brought her home as an abandoned baby from B City.

But even with that preparation, hearing this confirmation still left them feeling uneasy.

When Yan Ning was first brought home, she was weak and often ill. The elderly couple raised her until she was in her teens, but then she suddenly went missing. She had only just returned a few days ago, and now her biological parents had come looking for her.

Perhaps, they just didn’t have enough of a connection with the child to keep her.

Grandma Yan thought to herself, lowering her head and quietly wiping away a tear.

Yan Ning gently patted her grandmother’s back, then turned her head to look at Yan Zhengjun. “I want to know, how did you find me? And where did you get my blood?”

“Half a month ago, you saved a pregnant woman who had been in a car accident in B City, and you even gave her a blood transfusion. It turns out, she’s my sister,” Yan Zhengjun replied, looking at Yan Ning, his words brief and to the point.

Yan Ning had already guessed it was that day.

That day could only be described as “unlucky.”

On her way back, her fuel ran out, and the spacecraft failed to land at the designated coordinates, instead landing in the neighboring city of Xinghua Village.

Then, things got worse: her neural chip, the “optical brain” 007, also ran out of energy and entered hibernation mode.

With no other option, she hid the spacecraft and had to figure out a way to travel from B City to H City and then back to Xinghua Village.

While she was struggling with how to get home, she encountered the pregnant woman who had been in the car accident. The driver had fled, and the heavily pregnant woman was lying on the ground, bleeding, with a puddle of blood beneath her. No one dared to approach.

Yan Ning took the woman to the hospital, but her condition was unstable, causing a premature labor.

The surgery didn’t go smoothly, and she lost a lot of blood, requiring a transfusion. Unfortunately, the woman had a rare blood type, AB panda blood, and the hospital didn’t have any stock in its blood bank.

In that critical moment, Yan Ning remembered that her own blood type was also rare, so she had the doctor test her blood.

The only good thing that day was probably that Yan Ning’s and the pregnant woman’s blood types matched perfectly, both being RH-negative.

She gave the woman a blood transfusion, and when the woman’s family arrived, she quietly left.

She remembered that a young man had seen her at that moment, looking somewhat surprised.

But she was in a hurry to get back home, so she didn’t think much of it.

Yan Ning briefly explained what happened that day, of course, leaving out the part about the spacecraft.

“Good girl, it was because of this incident that we were able to find you. So, will you come home with your mom and dad?” Tang Minrou gazed at Yan Ning.

Time hadn’t left many marks on her face. On the contrary, as the years passed, she exuded a gentle charm that was captivating.

And Yan Ning looked like her. The mother and daughter shared five parts of the same appearance. Even without the test results, one would be hard-pressed to deny it.

Yan Ning looked at Tang Minrou, her cat-like pupils hiding emotions that were difficult to read.

After about ten seconds, Yan Ning said, “Okay.”

—

The night in April was still a little chilly.

Yan Zhengjun and the others stayed at a hotel in the town, and Yan Ning was to meet them there the following morning.

After dinner, Yan Ning sat with her grandparents in the main room, chatting.

Grandpa was smoking a dry cigarette, puffing away with little to say. Grandma held Yan Ning’s hand, her eyes slightly red.

Yan Ning took a passbook from her pocket and handed it to Grandma. “This is the money I’ve saved over the years. It’s not much, but please take it. You and Grandpa can use it to buy some good food.”

She was only seventeen and couldn’t open a bank account. She had just obtained the passbook a couple of days ago after getting her household registration.

The money wasn’t saved over the years. She needed it for transportation fees to return from B City.

She had found a way to sell some things, and after returning home, she had 30,000 left, which she had originally planned to use for future expenses.

Now that she had to leave, she wanted to leave the money with Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandma pushed her hand away. “Since you saved it yourself, keep it. Why give it to us?”

Yan Ning insisted. “When I go there, my… parents will give me money. You take this for now. I’ll call you and visit you when I can, so don’t be too sad. Just think of it as me going to school.”

Grandma still didn’t want to accept it, but Grandpa suddenly spoke up. “Since Ningning wants to give it, just take it.”

Grandma touched her eyes, lowered her head, and accepted the passbook from Yan Ning.

—

The next morning, Yan Ning, carrying only simple luggage, said her goodbyes to her grandparents and went to the town on her own.

The only person waiting for her in the town was Uncle Zheng.

“Uncle Zheng, where are they?”

Uncle Zheng was still dressed very formally. He bent down to place Yan Ning’s suitcase in the trunk. “The master has some matters to attend to and needs to go back, and the madam and the other two are leaving as well.”

“Alright,” Yan Ning said as she sat in the passenger seat, her eyelids drooping, not asking any more questions.

After placing the luggage, Uncle Zheng opened the driver’s side door and got in, preparing to leave.

Yan Ning opened her eyes and stared at the scenery sliding past the window, her gaze carrying a hint of indifference. “When we get to B City, what will I be doing?”

Uncle Zheng kept his eyes on the road ahead, his tone respectful. “I believe, once we get home, the master and madam will take you to school.”

“Is just going to school enough?” Yan Ning gave a slight smile, remembering how her grandfather had taken her to the local high school a few days ago, hoping to send her back to school.

The teacher who received them had looked over her for a long while, then politely declined her, citing her age and the fact that she had been out of school for many years, with too weak a foundation.