Chapter 1

# Chapter 1

I was already three when I was abandoned, old enough to retain a few hazy memories.

It was winter. My mother, who had never had a kind look for me, suddenly picked me up with a smile and asked if I wanted to go to the amusement park.

I was thrilled and followed her out. For once, she even bought me a stick of candied hawthorn. She told me to wait at the park entrance while she went to buy tickets.

I waited and waited. I finished every last hawthorn, the sky grew dark, and still she did not come back.

It was the bitterest part of winter. My limbs had gone numb with cold by the time I began crying for her in terror.

People stood around pointing at me, yet no one spoke to me. Through my tears, I shouted, “Mom, where are you? I won’t eat candied hawthorn anymore! I won’t ask to go to the amusement park again! Please don’t leave me!”

No one answered.

Strange as it sounds, even at three, I understood on some dim level that my mother had not gotten lost. She had left because she did not want me.

She truly despised me—hated me, even.

My family already had an older daughter, and I was another girl. My birth had destroyed my mother’s dream of trying again for a son. From the day I was born, she treated me like an enemy. She beat and cursed me at the slightest excuse and often denied me food.

I stood helpless in the street, with no idea what to do. I had almost never been allowed outside and did not know the way home.

Just as I had cried myself hoarse, a woman in a padded jacket hurried over. She crouched down, gathered me into her arms, took off her coat, and wrapped it around me.

The coat still held her body heat. It was wonderfully warm.

My face streaked with tears and snot, I lay against her and whispered, “Auntie, my mommy doesn’t want me anymore…”

At first, the woman who would become my adoptive mother assumed I was too young to understand what I was saying. Outraged on my behalf, she took me to the police station, found my mother through my name, and brought me straight to my family’s door.

“Your child went missing. How can her parents still be sitting calmly at home?” she demanded, anger rising when my mother strolled over to answer the door.

The instant my mother saw me, her brow drew tight. She snapped at my future mother, “Mind your own damn business. What the hell does it have to do with you?”

That one sentence told her everything: my mother really had abandoned me on purpose.

The two women argued, but my mother flatly refused to take me back. At last, my future mother lost her temper and declared, “If you don’t want such a wonderful child, I’ll raise her!”

Then she carried me away. She was only in her twenties and already had a biological son at home. As she brought me back, her heart was pounding. She was terrified her husband would object.

My future father was startled at first. But the moment he saw me, his heart softened. He settled me beside the stove and gave me warm water.

“How did a child this small get frostbite all over her hands? What a sin.”

He lowered his head and thought for a long time. Finally, he sighed. “We brought her home. We can’t throw her away again. Let me find a way to register her in our household.”

In her obsession with having a son, my biological mother had never registered my birth. My adoptive father emptied his savings and borrowed more money from my grandmother to pay the penalty. Only then was I added to the family register.

My original name was Liu Zhaodi. My biological father was Liu Fucai, and my biological mother was Zhang Hongyan.

Then I received a new name: Lu An’an.

My parents chose it because they wanted me to live a safe and peaceful life.

I settled into my new family with ease. My grandparents had never had a daughter, and all their grandchildren were boys, so they took to me with unexpected delight. Grandma doted on me most of all. She said my round face looked blessed with good fortune.

My brother, Lu Chen, adored me too. He had always wanted a younger sister. Though he was not much older than I was, he spoiled me with the solemn devotion of a little adult.

In my new home, I ate a chicken drumstick for the first time. I wore new clothes and finally visited an amusement park.

But our town was small. Despite my parents’ efforts to keep me away from my biological family, I ran into them when I was four.

It was New Year’s Eve the following year. Laden with bags, my parents were taking my brother and me to the countryside for the holiday.

Intercity buses did not enter the villages back then. They stopped at a central point in town, and passengers had to find their own way from there.

By sheer coincidence, my family and my biological parents had bought tickets for the same bus.

Zhang Hongyan recognized me at once. She recoiled in disgust, as if I were covered in filth.

My mother recognized her as well. Her face darkened, and she carried me to a seat on the other side.

My father looked ready for battle, terrified that Zhang Hongyan’s family might try to take me back.

Seeing their alarm, Zhang Hongyan could not resist sneering. “What’s all this fuss? Since when is a worthless little girl such a treasure? Look how frightened you are.”

“Relax. I already have a son. If you like that jinx so much, keep her.”

She stroked her slightly rounded belly, beaming.

I was too young to remember her clearly and did not understand what she meant.

My mother’s expression turned ugly, and she hugged me closer, ready to retort. My brother moved faster. Like an enraged little bull, he charged at Zhang Hongyan.

“My sister isn’t a jinx! You’re a bad woman!”

My father caught him and cast Zhang Hongyan a cold glance. “We already have a son. We don’t need another. Our An’an is wonderful. You’d better watch yourself instead. The child you’re carrying might be the real jinx.”

My father knew exactly where to strike. Hearing his long-awaited son insulted, Liu Fucai sprang to his feet and looked ready to fight him.

At that moment, however, a wave of inexplicable distress swept over me, and I burst into loud sobs.

Between wails, I gasped, “Mom, I feel bad. I want to get off!”

My mother panicked and felt me all over. “An’an, where does it hurt? Is it your stomach?”

Tears filled my eyes. “I don’t know. I just feel awful. Mom, can we not take this bus? I don’t want to be on it.”

It was the last bus of the holiday. Otherwise, my mother would never have endured riding with Zhang Hongyan.

Yet my parents did not hesitate. They picked me up and got off.

Behind us, Zhang Hongyan laughed loudly. “That’s the last bus! I told you she’s a harbinger of death, a cursed little jinx. So many problems—watch out, or she’ll doom every one of you!”

My mother was too worried to answer. Pale-faced, she rushed me to the hospital.

The moment we got off the bus, I felt better. My parents still insisted on a full examination. Only when the doctor said I was strong and perfectly healthy did they relax.

By the time we left the hospital, there were no more buses. My parents took my brother and me home, and the four of us celebrated New Year together. They called the village from a public phone booth, explained everything to my grandparents, and promised to return first thing in the morning.

My grandparents were not upset. They merely told us to be careful on the road.

When we arrived at the bus station the next morning, a heavy silence hung over the place.

The driver’s expression was grim. Usually the drivers were careless and relaxed. They had traveled the route hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times and knew it by heart. Regulations were lax in those days; some even drank a little while driving.

This driver, however, sat rigidly upright, his face solemn.

Curious, my mother quietly asked the ticket seller, “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

The woman loved gossip. Lowering her voice, she said, “It was last night’s bus. Every run all day went fine, but the final bus overturned and rolled straight into a ditch!”

Cold sweat broke out over my mother. Even my father sat bolt upright.

The ticket seller went back to work, leaving my parents badly shaken.

My father wiped sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling. “The last bus… Wasn’t that the one we boarded yesterday?”

My mother’s face went white. “It was. Dear God—if An’an hadn’t felt sick and made us get off, we… we would have…”

She clutched me tightly, as if drawing comfort from my small body.

“Our An’an really is a little lucky star. She saved Mommy and Daddy’s lives!”

My father reached over, pulled me into his own arms, and hugged me. “Exactly! Zhang Hongyan called her a jinx, but I was right yesterday. The one in her belly is the real jinx!”

Back in the village, my grandparents held me close and called me their precious darling over and over.

“You have no idea. Several people died on that bus yesterday. The driver was killed on the spot!”

“Our An’an is blessed with such good fortune. She saved both of you. You must always treat her well!”

My mother laughed. “Mom, listen to you. She’s our own child—how could we not treat her well? Oh, right. The Lius were on that bus too. What happened to them?”

“The Lius?” Grandpa frowned. “He was lucky enough not to die.”

Grandma could not resist cutting in. “He survived, but he’s crippled. I heard his leg was shattered. They can’t treat it here, and the doctor says it will have to be amputated. They rushed him to the provincial capital last night.”

“As for his wife…” Grandma glanced at me. I was happily playing with the family’s chicks beside my brother and paying no attention, so she lowered her voice.

“She lost the baby. They say it was a boy and already fully formed. Good heavens, she cried herself senseless and fainted!”

My father could not resist a flash of satisfaction. “Serves them right! They called our An’an a jinx. I heard Liu Fucai quit his government job because he was so determined to have a son. Now the job is gone and the child is gone too. All that effort for nothing!”

My mother smacked him. “Don’t gloat!”

Then even she muttered, “They deserved it for cursing our An’an.”

I knew nothing about any of this. My parents never told me.

That was the first sign of the extraordinary luck I seemed to possess. At the time, my parents dismissed it as coincidence.

Only after everything that happened later did they become convinced that I truly was our family’s lucky star.