Although the Jiang family had split into separate households long ago, their homes were still built close together.
Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang had three sons and no daughters. Of their three daughters-in-law, only the eldest son’s wife had managed to give them not only three grandsons, but also a granddaughter.
The other two daughters-in-law had each given birth to three sons as well. But after several generations, the Jiang family finally had a single granddaughter. Naturally, everyone doted on her endlessly.
The two elderly Jiangs were still strong and healthy enough to support themselves, so they didn’t need their sons to look after them. Instead, they lived in their own courtyard with their precious granddaughter and had even built a separate room just for her.
Summer days were long, and night came late.
None of the families were in the mood to cook that evening, so everyone had gathered in the elderly couple’s small courtyard.
The daughter they had raised for more than a decade had suddenly turned out to belong to another family. Jiang Dazhu couldn’t describe the complicated feelings in his heart, while Yao Xiulan looked as though she had lost her soul.
She held Jiang Wanxi’s hand in a death grip, terrified that the moment she let go, her daughter would disappear.
But when she looked at Shen Menglan’s face across from her—a face that seemed unfamiliar yet strangely familiar at the same time—she knew the children might truly have been switched at birth.
When Yao Xiulan gave birth to her daughter, she had suffered a difficult labor. The village midwife couldn’t handle the situation, so she had been rushed to the town hospital.
There, she happened to meet Shen Menglan, who was also about to give birth.
At the time, Shen Menglan was teaching at the town’s middle school and had not yet been transferred back to the capital.
By an incredible coincidence, the two women gave birth on the exact same day, in the same month and year. Both delivered baby girls, and they were even placed in the same hospital room.
Jiang Wanxi desperately wanted to complain.
What kind of ridiculous coincidence was this?
This wasn’t merely cliché—it was the mother of all melodramatic clichés!
Jiang Hongtao and Shen Menglan were studying Jiang Wanxi, while she was doing the same to them.
Jiang Hongtao looked visibly emotional, and Shen Menglan’s eyes were filled with tears. No matter how Jiang Wanxi looked at them, they didn’t seem like parents who would despise their biological daughter simply because she had been raised in the countryside.
Didn’t the novel say they believed the Jiang family had failed to raise the original Jiang Wanxi properly?
The Jiang family in the capital had a long military background.
Old Master Jiang had joined the army, while Grandma Jiang had served as a battlefield doctor. The two had survived countless battles together, crossed snowy mountains and vast grasslands, fought against the Japanese invaders, and later participated in the country’s war of liberation alongside several of their sons.
They were now retired.
Jiang Hongtao was their eldest son and currently held a senior position in a military region.
Their second son, Jiang Hongbin, had entered politics.
Their third son had sacrificed his life on the battlefield during the war in Korea.
With visible emotion, Jiang Hongtao explained how they had discovered that the babies had been switched.
It turned out that Jiang Yu, the heroine, had been injured in an accident. She had lost so much blood that she needed a transfusion, and that was when they discovered her blood type was incompatible with those of her supposed parents.
The discovery reminded Shen Menglan of the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s birth.
After investigating the matter, the couple eventually traced the truth back to this village.
There was only one awkward problem.
Jiang Yu absolutely refused to believe that she had been switched at birth and was still making a huge fuss about it back home.
After raising her for so many years, how could Jiang Hongtao and Shen Menglan possibly bear to send her back to the countryside to endure hardship?
At the same time, they couldn’t simply abandon their biological daughter either.
She was their own flesh and blood, a child Shen Menglan had carried for ten months before giving birth to her.
As a mother, Shen Menglan couldn’t bear to part with either girl.
Before coming here, the couple had already asked around and learned about their biological daughter’s life.
They discovered that she was just as precious to this family as Jiang Yu was to them.
Normally, Jiang Wanxi worked as a scorekeeper for the production team and helped cook at home. Her family never allowed her to do any strenuous farm work.
Now they had suddenly appeared and announced that they wanted to take her away.
If their positions were reversed, Shen Menglan knew she wouldn’t be willing to let her daughter go either.
Besides, the rural Jiang family was actually doing quite well.
Every child in the family who was old enough had been allowed to study through high school.
Grandpa Jiang had once served in the military himself, so he understood how important it was to be educated and literate. He had always regretted his own lack of education, believing that if he had known how to read and write properly, he might not have retired from the military so early.
Even though he had left the army years ago, he still maintained a few useful connections.
Among Jiang Dazhu’s children, Jiang Jianguo was the eldest of the younger generation. He and his wife both worked at the steel factory in town.
The third and fourth grandchildren, Jiang Aiguo and Jiang Weiguo, were twins. One served in the military, while the other worked as an accountant for the production brigade.
Jiang Erzhu’s son Jiang Zhenguo ranked second among the grandchildren and worked for the town’s transportation team.
The sixth grandson, Jiang Fuguo, was only a few months older than Jiang Wanxi and currently worked as a substitute teacher in the village.
The eighth grandson, Jiang Rongguo, was still in elementary school.
Jiang Sanzhu’s son Jiang Jingguo, the fifth grandson, worked at a printing factory in the county.
The seventh grandson, Jiang Anguo, was in his second year of middle school at the only middle school in the town commune.
The youngest, Jiang Xingguo, ranked ninth and wasn’t even two years old yet.
All things considered, the Jiang family was fairly well-off.
If their adopted daughter ever chose to return and live with them, the family certainly wouldn’t let her suffer.