Chapter 540 - 539: Grand Reunion (Part 3)

Li Zhaodi lost Jia Bao three years ago.

At the time, she had gone to visit relatives in the county seat. Her family was from a rural village in the township, so being invited to a restaurant in the county seat was a happy occasion.

Jia Bao was nearly four years old then, a mischievous and rambunctious age, but also the most adorable.

She had only been blessed with Jia Bao after three years of marriage. He was doted on by everyone—his father, his grandparents, and of course, her. They saved all the best food for him.

The relatives were from her side of the family, so it wasn’t appropriate for her entire family to go. She went alone, and it was expected that she would help out.

She wanted to take Jia Bao along for a nice meal, but his father had been hesitant. He worried that she would be too busy to look after their son. It was she who had insisted it would be fine, that they would be among people they knew, and in the end, she brought Jia Bao with her.

But on that trip, Jia Bao disappeared.

Just as her husband had feared, she was needed to help and couldn’t keep Jia Bao by her side at all times. Jia Bao was an active boy and would cry if she kept him cooped up. In the end, she let the other children from her family play with him, even asking one of the older five- or six-year-olds to keep an eye on him.

Li Zhaodi got busy for nearly an hour. When she finally remembered to check on her son and went to find him, Jia Bao was already gone.

All the relatives’ children were there—only Jia Bao was missing. When she asked the other kids, none of them could give a clear answer.

At first, Li Zhaodi felt a hazy sense of disbelief, as if it were impossible. But after searching the entire restaurant, the area around it, and then the rest of the county seat without finding him, fear began to set in.

The more she searched, the more unreal it all felt. Her heart seemed to be floating in midair, unable to land.

Who could even think about eating at a time like this? Everyone helped search for Jia Bao. The banquet was half-ruined, but Li Zhaodi couldn’t care about any of that anymore.

They searched until dark. Li Zhaodi listened to the others, who suggested that maybe Jia Bao had gone home on his own, or that someone had taken him home.

Her legs weak, Li Zhaodi returned home, clinging to the hope that Jia Bao really was there. But reality dealt her a harsh slap in the face.

Jia Bao wasn’t home. He was just... gone.

Even after three years, Li Zhaodi refused to dwell on the days that followed. Just thinking about it felt like a knife twisting in her heart, a pain that no number of years could erase.

Jia Bao was lost. Her mother-in-law and father-in-law blamed her for not watching him properly, their words a mixture of grief and accusation.

Jia Bao’s father was the same. The pain was so overwhelming back then that it seemed finding someone to hate, a focal point for all that anger, was a small comfort.

Li Zhaodi was already blaming herself, wishing she could die. The agony was like having her heart carved out. Coupled with the blame from her family, after three sleepless days and nights of searching for Jia Bao to no avail, she fell into despair and tried to kill herself.

She hanged herself, but Jia Bao’s father cut her down just before she stopped breathing.

Jia Bao’s father knew Li Zhaodi hadn’t lost their son on purpose; he had only lashed out because of his own unbearable grief. Seeing her attempt suicide, he was overwhelmed with pain and regret, slapping himself hard across the face as he apologized to her.

But it was too late for apologies to undo the damage. After being rescued, Li Zhaodi had a miscarriage.

She had been pregnant without realizing it. The frantic search for Jia Bao had already taken a severe toll on her mind and body. The suicide attempt was the final blow, making a terrible situation even worse, and she lost the baby.

When her in-laws and husband learned of the miscarriage, they were so consumed by guilt and self-loathing that they nearly hanged themselves too.

There is no rock bottom, only a deeper level of misery. And so their hellish days began.

Within the next year, her once-healthy mother- and father-in-law passed away, one after the other. The family spent all their savings and sold everything of value, practically selling the pots and pans from their own kitchen, to search for Jia Bao, but found nothing.

For the next two years, Li Zhaodi and Jia Bao’s father left their home and embarked on a long, aimless journey to find their son.

They had no money and no savings. Traveling required funds they didn’t have, and they were too consumed with the search to find time to earn any. Eventually, with no other choice, they started begging.

They begged their way across the country, drifting from place to place. They lost count of how many towns they’d been to, how many times they’d mistaken another child for their own.

It was only after they began this journey that they discovered how many other parents in the world had lost their children just like them. They formed groups, searching together.

Few children were ever found. They all helped one another, keeping an eye out. In two years, they had met hundreds of other searching parents, but only two children had been recovered.

But those two were enough to give everyone a sliver of hope, enough to keep searching.

Just as Li Zhaodi was sinking deeper into despair, she suddenly saw the news. Like countless other parents of missing children, they first rushed back to their hometown. When they didn’t find their son there, they hurried to the Imperial City.

And there, in the Imperial City, Li Zhaodi actually found Jia Bao.

It was Jia Bao—familiar, yet tinged with the unfamiliarity of a stranger. He had grown, but he no longer knew them, no longer remembered them, no longer recognized them.

Jia Bao had been bought by a couple who couldn’t have children of their own. They lived in an even more backward village, but they had treated him well. Jia Bao only knew them as his parents and had long since forgotten his real ones.

Li Zhaodi and her husband were overjoyed to have finally found Jia Bao, but their joy was mixed with an indescribable sorrow. He no longer recognized them. Everything had changed.

The scars and the distance that had been created could only be healed slowly, with time.

No matter how much it hurt, finding Jia Bao was the greatest blessing Li Zhaodi and her husband could have asked for.

After three long years, they finally had a proper bath, washed themselves clean, and put on fresh clothes. They took Jia Bao to attend the great reunion banquet.

Going with them was another mother they had met on the road while searching for their children.

This mother’s name was Chun Mei. Her child had been missing for eight years, and she had been searching for all eight of them.

She had lost her daughter, who was five years old at the time. Unable to let her daughter go, she began her journey to find her.

Her husband and mother-in-law back home were also upset, but because it was "just a daughter," they gave up the search when she wasn’t found quickly and urged Chun Mei to have another child.

But her daughter was her own flesh and blood. Chun Mei couldn’t do it. In the end, she stubbornly set out on the path to find her.

When she and her husband got married, they were too young to legally register, so they only held a wedding banquet. Because of her choice to leave and search, her husband, who didn’t even need to divorce her, later took a new wife, had a new son, and forgot all about his lost daughter.

Chun Mei was filled with hatred and rage, but she was powerless.

She was illiterate and had no skills to earn money. Eventually, she was deceived and her body violated.

In the very end, with no other options, Chun Mei resorted to selling her body, moving from place to place as she continued to search for her daughter.

After eight years, just like Li Zhaodi, her daughter was rescued. She was found.

But... her daughter was ruined.

Unlike the lucky Jia Bao, her daughter’s legs had been broken, and she had been turned into a pitiful beggar on the streets.

The once bright and lovely girl with the most luminous eyes had been transformed into a lifeless, numb, disabled person.

Although she was actually thirteen years old, she looked no older than eight or nine.

Perhaps because she was already five when she was taken, the girl still vaguely remembered Chun Mei.

When Chun Mei went to the Imperial City to find her, she didn’t recognize her at all. It was the daughter who recognized Chun Mei and called out, "Mama."

Jia Bao not remembering his parents was a cause for sorrow. Chun Mei’s daughter remembering her mother was a cause for even greater grief.

Chun Mei held her daughter, and the grief that overwhelmed her heart was unimaginable.