Although it had happened over ten years ago, Ning Shu naturally remembered it.

In her life, she had only written the names of four people for the rural assignment — two sets of twins from the Ning family.

The woman in front of her wasn’t Ning Qin, whom she had met in the military family compound, so it must be Ning Shi, the younger twin sister from the other pair of twins.

Ning Shu’s memory of Ning Shi’s appearance was faint, as it had been too long ago.

Besides, when Ning Shu was assigned to the countryside, she was only around thirteen or fourteen years old, not fully grown.

Now, she had completely matured, and there was no trace left of her former self.

Seeing Ning Shu staring at her blankly, Ning Shi sneered coldly, “If I hadn’t seen you in the newspaper, I never would have thought you’d be living so well now.”

Ning Shi had seen Ning Shu in the newspaper.

Back then, Ning Shi hadn’t wanted to be sent to the countryside either, but once their names were on the list, there was nothing their family could do to change it.

So, all four of them had been sent to the countryside.

Life in the countryside had been hard, but fortunately, the four siblings had been assigned to the same production brigade, where they helped each other.

Plus, their family sent money, so they managed to get by.

Later, when their mother fell ill, their eldest brother was called back to care for her.

But as the days went by, he never returned to them.

Gradually, Ning Qin, Ning Hua, and she began to realize that he might not come back at all.

Eventually, the village committee informed them that their eldest brother had found a job in the city and was transferring his registration there.

At that time, they didn’t know he had taken over their mother’s job.

Later on, their eldest sister managed to secure family leave.

She, too, wanted to go home and have a family leave, but it depended on one’s performance in the military, and her own performance hadn’t been good enough to earn her the leave.

Not long after their eldest sister returned home, she too didn’t come back.

When Ning Hua and she went to ask the village committee, they learned that their sister was getting married and was also transferring her registration to the city.

After their brother and sister returned to the city, she and Ning Hua were no longer the young kids who had first been sent to the countryside.

They had grown up, now seventeen or eighteen, and after enduring years in the countryside, they understood what they wanted in life and how to make a better life for themselves.

So, she married a local villager, and Ning Hua married a local girl.

Life after marriage was better than before, but it still couldn’t compare to life in the city.

However, at least after marriage, she was able to get family leave to visit her family.

Once she received approval for her leave, she returned to the Ning family and decided not to go back to the village.

It was during this visit that she learned about Ning Shu’s situation.

She had seen news about Ning Shu in a newspaper.

Had she remained in the countryside, she would never have seen a newspaper, let alone learned about Ning Shu’s situation.

The image of Ning Shu in the newspaper was so unfamiliar that she didn’t recognize her at first.

After all, the Ning Shu in the paper was a military wife, the mother of a national champion.

This successful entrepreneur was nothing like the skinny, frail Ning Shu she remembered.

She showed the newspaper to Ning Qin, remarking that the woman’s name was the same as Ning Shu’s.

She almost believed it was her, but she couldn’t imagine Ning Shu achieving such success.

To her surprise, Ning Qin didn’t respond for a long time and looked troubled.

She thought it was odd but didn’t dwell on it.

It wasn’t until her brother-in-law, Zhang Xian, and Ning Qin’s stepdaughter, Zhang Qian, visited and saw the newspaper that Zhang Qian exclaimed, “Isn’t this Lin Haizhi’s mother?”

She was stunned.

Zhang Qian’s words suggested she recognized the woman in the newspaper, and Ning Qin seemed to know her as well.

Although she didn’t show her reaction, she remembered it clearly.

Later, she found an opportunity to speak privately with Zhang Qian, learning from her that Ning Shu was indeed a military wife in their unit.

She also learned that Ning Shu and Ning Qin had quarreled.

Why would Ning Shu and Ning Qin quarrel?

Ning Shi wasn’t a fool.

She could guess the reason.

After learning all of this from Zhang Qian, she went to confront Ning Qin to confirm Ning Shu’s identity.

At this point, it was useless for Ning Qin to deny it, so she admitted the truth.

This led to a huge fight between Ning Shi and Ning Qin.

Old grudges mixed with new ones, and Ning Shi tore at Ning Qin’s scalp in their rage.

Ning Shi had already been upset that Ning Qin didn’t return after going on family leave when they were younger.

Now, knowing that Ning Qin was aware of Ning Shu’s whereabouts but hadn’t told her, she was even angrier.

If Ning Qin had informed her when Ning Shu was still at the family quarters on the military base, she would have gone there to confront her.

After their violent argument, Ning Shi left the Ning family and went to the capital to find Ning Shu.

In a city as vast as the capital, finding Ning Shu was difficult, but finding a national champion was much easier.

Ning Shi went straight to the sports school, waiting outside each day, as she remembered the champion’s face from the newspaper.

Finally, after waiting a long time, she saw Erbao appear and followed him home, though she couldn’t get into the family compound.

So, she continued to wait near the compound.

Eventually, she saw Ning Shu and followed her for a few days until finally choosing to confront her at the shop today.

Ning Shu raised an eyebrow. “Who are you? I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I don’t know you, so please don’t disrupt my business.”

“You don’t know me?” Ning Shi’s voice became sharp. “You don’t know me? You deliberately wrote my name down back then, making me go to the countryside at only thirteen. Now you say you don’t know me?

Everyone, come and see! This heartless woman is my sister, my own flesh and blood! She wrote down my name when I was only thirteen, forcing me to go to the countryside. Tell me, is there any sister like this in the world?”

Early in the morning, the market was already bustling with people.

When Ning Shi yelled out like that, many people turned to look at Ning Shu with suspicious eyes.

Ning Shu’s business was thriving in the market, with many customers coming to her shop for bulk purchases, but they were just customers.

People didn’t really know Ning Shu.

Even if they did, she wasn’t someone they were closely acquainted with, so it was natural for people to be curious.

Ning Shu remained calm.

She hadn’t expected Ning Shi to show up, but so what? “You must have mistaken me for someone else,” Ning Shu said.

“Mistaken you for someone else? Are you denying that your name is Ning Shu?” Ning Shi demanded.

Ning Shu smiled and replied, “My name is well known in this street. Not only here, but a lot of people across the country know my name. My son became a world champion, and his details were published in the newspapers, including mentions of me. So, just because you know my name, it’s not a big deal.”

“You…” Ning Shi hadn’t expected Ning Shu to be so articulate now.

“That’s right, we all know about Comrade Ning and her family,” a customer chimed in.

Ning Shu’s gaze shifted over the crowd and met the eye of the shop assistant.

The assistant quickly stepped out of the shop and ran toward the police station.

“Right, we know that too,” another passerby added.

“Do you know any other details about Comrade Ning?” someone asked Ning Shi.

Ning Shu continued, “There are many frauds and human traffickers nowadays. I once read a report about human traffickers who would deliberately approach lonely women, pretending to be their sisters or wives, and then take them away. Are you a human trafficker, trying to gather information about me, so you can impersonate someone and take advantage of me?”

“Are there really people like that? How despicable!” someone exclaimed in disbelief.

“Of course there are!” someone else retorted, “Human traffickers can do anything.”

“If she really is a trafficker, she’s got a lot of nerve. Everyone here knows Comrade Ning, would she dare come and steal her away?” someone questioned.

“She’s not here to kidnap Comrade Ning, she’s pretending to be a relative to scam something from her.”

“That’s right, if she could scam even a few dozen yuan from Ning, then go to other places and do the same, it could add up to a year’s salary for us workers.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s probably true. I have to go home and tell my kids about this, in case they get tricked.”

“Yeah, the kids are still young, if an adult pretends to be a relative, they could fall for it.”

“People like that are despicable.”

The crowd started murmuring among themselves.

“I’m not a fraud, I’m not trying to scam anyone. You should ask Ning Shu if she has a sister named Ning Shi,” Ning Shi, seeing that no one was believing her and they had started siding with Ning Shu, was now furious.

No one believed Ning Shi, but they still looked to Ning Shu for confirmation.

Someone even called out, “Comrade Ning, do you have a sister named Ning Shi?”

Ning Shu didn’t deny it, “I do have a sister named Ning Shi, but… we haven’t seen each other in over a decade. Think about it, if you hadn’t seen your sister in over ten years and someone came up to you claiming to be her, would you believe it?”

“Wow, who hasn’t seen their sister in ten years?”

“Exactly, if they haven’t seen each other in that long, then their relationship must be pretty bad. Why would someone with such a relationship come looking for you?”

Ning Shu added, “Could it be that you’ve recognized that I haven’t seen Ning Shi in over a decade, and since you don’t know what she looks like now, you decided to find me pretending to be her?”

Ning Shi tried to explain, “We haven’t seen each other in ten years because we were both sent to the countryside. We didn’t end up in the same place, so how could we have met? I was sent to the countryside because you wrote my name and signed me up for it.”

Ning Shu calmly retorted, “Then why did I write your name?”

This left Ning Shi speechless.

Ning Shu sighed inwardly.

After all, Ning Shi was young when she was sent to the countryside and hadn’t matured as quickly as Ning Qin.

She wasn’t as clever either.

“That’s right, if Comrade Ning is your sister, then why would she write your name and send you to the countryside?” a passerby asked.

“She’s definitely a fraud, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“We should catch this fraud and send her to the police station.”