Reminded by Guo Yuhua, Qiao Zhenguo also recalled that incident.
Back then, Guo Yuhua was shopping at the mall with her daughter when she happened to catch Qiao Zhenguo lavishing money on his female secretary.
She charged at the secretary, ready to beat her to death, but Qiao Zhenguo shielded the woman and let her leave first. The two of them ended up brawling in the mall.
Qiao Zhenguo hit her and abandoned her there.
Out of spite, she left the child at the mall and went off to another city alone.
She assumed Qiao Zhenguo would surely send someone to bring the child home, while Qiao Zhenguo thought she had taken the child with her.
It wasn’t until a month later, when Qiao Zhenguo went to Du Family Village to find Guo Yuhua, that the couple realized the child was lost.
From the moment they learned the child was gone, Guo Yuhua began having nightmares.
They didn’t dare make a big fuss searching for the child, afraid the scandal would leak and harm the company’s growth.
So they decided to find a child from an orphanage who was around the same age as their daughter.
They visited several orphanages and finally spotted Qiao Yunyun in a very remote one.
Out of all the children, the couple was drawn to her at once because she had the most spark.
Her eyes seemed to speak, and she was incredibly cute, so they decided to adopt her.
Worried that too much change in the child’s appearance would raise suspicion, Guo Yuhua stayed on in Suzhou.
After adopting Shen Yunyun, Guo Yuhua never had nightmares again.
She thought it was just her inner turmoil fading and didn’t think much of it.
Qiao Zhenguo’s business also became smoother, as if it had hit a lucky streak.
A year later, Qiao Zhenguo finally went to bring his wife and daughter home.
On the way to pick them up, they passed an ancient bridge in Suzhou with the child in their arms. A blind man sat at the bridgehead.
As they passed, the blind man immediately knelt and bowed, saying, “Noble one, noble one.”
Qiao Zhenguo and Guo Yuhua were baffled. Seeing he was a fortune-teller, they curiously exchanged a few words.
The blind man said, “The child in your arms is a noble one, destined for greatness.
Raise her well, and she will surely bring you blessings.”
Hearing the blind fortune-teller’s words, Qiao Zhenguo and Guo Yuhua were naturally delighted. They gave him some money and brought their daughter home.
It had been over a year since they’d seen her, so it wasn’t surprising that the child had changed. No one suspected a thing.
They just assumed kids changed day by day.
Qiao Pengyu and the others had no idea this sister was fake—only Qiao Zhenguo and his wife knew.
The Qiao family’s business kept thriving; they succeeded at nearly everything they tried.
It wasn’t until their biological daughter showed up that they remembered Shen Yunyun wasn’t their real child.
Their real daughter had been lost long ago.
The thought that Shen Yunyun, whom they’d cherished for years, wasn’t their own, while their real daughter suffered in the mountains, filled them with immense guilt and pain.
That guilt and pain turned into resentment toward Shen Yunyun. They felt she had stolen years of love from their daughter and owed their family.
They wanted to ease their debt to their biological daughter by tormenting Shen Yunyun.
But they never expected Shen Yunyun to be so defiant—she simply ran away from home, clean and decisive, without a trace of reluctance.
By the time she started having nightmares again, she had already recalled those buried memories, so she sent her sons to search.
On the surface, it was because her adopted daughter had run away, leaving her exhausted and worried sick. In truth, she knew that the family’s good fortune was most likely thanks to that damn girl.