But Qiqi was younger, so her complexion was rosy, and her chin had a slight baby fat. Her hair was a bit yellowish, fluffy and soft, unlike the woman in the photo with her long, dark, serene locks. Additionally, Qiqi’s skin was fairer.
Why would the man in black, who wanted to kill her, compare her to this woman’s photo? Could it be that they actually intended to kill the woman in the photo, not her?
Regardless, Qiqi was almost certain of one thing—the woman in the photo must have some connection to her. It seemed she was likely a close relative.
Who could she be? Her mother? Sister? Aunt? Niece?
Thinking about this, Qiqi felt a slight stir of excitement.
She was an orphan. Before the age of seven, she had spent most of her time in orphanages and wandering, never having any close relatives.
As far back as she could remember, she had lived in an orphanage. The earliest one was a remote mountain orphanage thousands of kilometers away from her current home. It was far from the city, where people lived almost isolated from the outside world. Due to the poor local living conditions, the orphanage received very little funding, so the children often went hungry. From the age of three, they started working and were frequently beaten by the cruel nuns. At four, unable to bear the torment any longer, Qiqi escaped alone and was taken in by a hunter’s family at the foot of the mountain.
However, that hunter’s family already had children of their own. Although they liked Qiqi very much, they couldn’t complete the adoption due to paperwork issues. At her earnest plea, they sent her far away to an orphanage in the local city. Qiqi didn’t stay there long either, because she heard the orphanage planned to send the girls abroad for adoption. Even though she was young, she knew she didn’t want to leave her country, so she slipped away unnoticed and began wandering again.
But she was far too young to survive on the streets. After a long period of wandering, she was found and sent to a shelter. At the shelter, the police thought she was a trafficked child and asked for her hometown address. Fearing they would send her back to where she came from, Qiqi randomly named a city—the one she now lived in. After learning everything, the police sent her there. Following a lengthy investigation, they found that Qiqi had no relatives in that city at all, so they placed her in a nearby orphanage. This time, Qiqi stayed put in that orphanage until she was seven, when she was adopted by her foster parents.
At her new home, a small courtyard house, Qiqi finally felt the warmth of family care and affection. She settled in peacefully and never left again.
After all those twists and turns, Qiqi’s memories of family were limited to her foster parents and the neighbors. As for blood relatives, she had no impression whatsoever. Her surname came from her foster father, and her given name from her foster mother. When she first arrived, she was so thin and small, with yellowish hair and pale skin, like a little yellow-haired girl, so her foster mother named her “Qiqi.”
Who would have thought that the scrawny, yellow-haired little girl back then would grow into such a beautiful young woman, and even become a medical university student that made her parents proud?