Chapter 26

For the next month, I followed the doctor’s orders and obediently took my medication.

After taking the medicine, it felt as if my mind had been emptied, with no thoughts or emotions.

Every day, I was like a puppet, eating, sleeping, and then staring blankly at the ceiling.

Ji Ming truly didn’t come to see me again.

Yet, I seemed to feel nothing about it.

Only one thought kept circling in my mind: I must find my biological parents; I must completely break free from the Ji Family.

I once tried to seek help from the police to find them, but the information I had was too scarce.

So, I began to scour through every city’s “Missing Child Notices” from eighteen years ago, like searching for a needle in a haystack, hoping to find even a shred of a clue.

But ultimately, the hope was faint.

Just when I was about to give up, heaven showed me a bit of mercy.

That day, as I sat at my doorstep opening packages as usual, I found a missing person notice stuck to one of the boxes.

I couldn’t help but look at the photo: a young girl in a floral dress, standing beside an adult, clutching the adult’s pants, looking timidly at the camera.

The child’s name was: Cheng Sijin¹

With the morning dew still fresh, a future as bright as brocade.

The three-year-old Cheng Sijin, through the blurred photo, told the nineteen-year-old Ji Shan: I can go home now.

With trembling hands, I dialed the number on the paper.

For a long time, the “beep” sound in the phone continued.

“Hello.”

Footnote:

1. 1. Cheng Sijin(程似锦):Cheng Sijin (程似锦) is a Chinese name. Its meaning, “a future as bright as brocade,” reflects the idiom 前程似锦 (qiánchéng sìjǐn), signifying a promising future or bright prospects.