Chapter 172: Chapter 161: The One and Only (Part 2)

Xiao Man was speechless. ’He hasn’t even found a wife yet, so how could he already be approved?’

She paused for a moment before saying, "Dad Tang, Grandpa, Grandma, I’m really just a country girl, raised in the wilds of a mountain village. I’m so happy and touched that you’re all so good to me. I’ve nearly lost my life and been disfigured on several occasions. Back then, I used to wonder just how much people would despise me."

Grandma Tang hugged Xiao Man and sighed. "My poor, dear granddaughter, how much you must have suffered. Child, you listen to me. Don’t you dare say you’re a country girl or disfigured. Even if you were a monkey from the jungle, covered in fur and crawling with bugs, you’d still be my granddaughter, and I would love you with all my heart and give you everything I have! If anyone dares to look down on you or bully you, I’ll teach them a lesson they won’t forget!"

Tang Qingshan looked at Xiao Man pensively. "Manman, you said Grandpa and Grandma adopted you. What about your birth parents? Are they... gone?"

Xiao Man buried her face in Grandma Tang’s arms, her eyes welling with tears. "I’m not sure... If it weren’t for Grandpa and Grandma, I would’ve died long ago! That’s why I have to get back soon. Winter break is almost over, and I need to spend the festival with them..."

Grandma Tang started to get anxious again, but Grandpa Tang said, "Manman is being sensible and filial. She’s right about this. Even if she’s going to study in Beijing, she should go back and explain things to her Grandpa and Grandma first. Qing Lan, you can’t be irrational about this."

"I... We could bring her Grandpa and Grandma here!" Grandma Tang glared at Grandpa Tang. ’This damn old coot, why is he contradicting me now? What if our granddaughter slips away?’

Grandpa Tang gave her a reassuring look. "Don’t worry. What’s meant to be ours, will be."

Xiao Man pretended not to see the old couple exchanging glances. "Grandma, Grandpa, everything’s already been arranged. As soon as I’m done here, I can leave whenever I want. I’d like to head back on the second day of the New Year."

"The second day? Absolutely not! That’s far too soon!" Grandma Tang protested.

"I’ll study hard and get into a university in Beijing. Then I’ll be able to visit you and Grandpa often."

"But that’ll take years! What if your Grandma can’t wait that long?" Grandma Tang said, her voice tinged with sadness.

"That won’t happen. You and Grandpa will live to be a hundred."

Grandpa Tang chuckled. "You must be laughing at us, Manman. Your grandma never leaves the house, so she doesn’t understand what planes in the sky, trains on the land, and ships on the sea are for. If you can come to Beijing, Manman, then I can certainly take your grandma to Wancheng. Seeing each other is easy, isn’t it?"

Grandma Tang paused. It was true, she realized. It would only take a few days by train or boat, and it would be even faster by plane. Her tears gave way to a smile, and she shot Grandpa Tang a look of mock disdain. "Who needs you to take me? If I want to see my granddaughter, I’ll go myself!"

Seeing the three of them—grandparents and granddaughter—laughing and talking together happily again, Tang Qingshan cleared his throat gently to return to the previous topic. "Manman, do you have any memories of what you were like as a child? Or where you were adopted from?"

Xiao Man blinked. "Actually, I wasn’t adopted. I grew up with the Mo family. I was eleven years old when I found out I’d been... switched at birth."

"What? Switched? You mean, your Grandpa and Grandma took the wrong baby?"

"No, it was my adoptive parents. I lived with them until I was eleven. Because they beat, cursed, and abused me so horribly, my Grandpa and Grandma couldn’t bear to watch it any longer. They took me away from that home, and the three of us started a new life on our own. My Grandpa is a medicine collector, and he’s the one who sent me to school. One day, by chance, I went with him to sell some herbs. That’s when Mr. Sun—the legendary Imperial Doctor Sun—saw me. From that moment on, I became his disciple and began to study medicine."

Hearing Xiao Man speak of the beatings and abuse, Grandpa Tang’s expression grew solemn. Tang Qingshan’s eyes filled with shock. He couldn’t fathom it. ’What kind of person could bring themselves to abuse such a smart, kind, and lovely little girl?’

Old Mrs. Tang clutched Xiao Man tightly, one hand stroking her head, face, and body, her voice a mixture of heartache and fury. "Where did they hit you? Did it hurt badly? Who were those godforsaken people? I won’t let them get away with hurting my precious granddaughter!"

A tear trickled down and fell onto Xiao Man’s forehead. She couldn’t hold back any longer and broke down, burying herself in the old woman’s embrace. "Grandma, it hurt! It really, really hurt! From the time I was six, they despised me. They’d pinch me and whip me with pieces of firewood. When I tried to go to school happily with the other kids, they burned my books and refused to let me study... By the time I was eleven, I was taking care of five younger siblings and doing all the housework. I had to watch the collective’s cattle and work in the fields like an adult during the busy season just to earn half a work-point. If I came home even a little late, there’d be no food left for me. One day, it was pouring rain, and I went out to dig for wild vegetables. I fell into the river and lost the sickle. When I got back, my adoptive mother beat me viciously, and my adoptive father threatened to stab me to death with a bamboo spike... If my Grandma and Grandpa hadn’t protected me, I wouldn’t be alive today."

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