1978, Qingshi Village.
"So this is where my mom and dad live?"
"I'm so happy! Rosie’s gonna see them real soon!"
A little car bumped along the rutted dirt road. A sweet, doll-like little girl of about three leaned out the window, her small face bright with excitement.
At the wheel, Elliot Barrow sat straight in his crisp police uniform. He reached over and gently patted little Rosie on the head.
"Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get home."
Poor child. She’d been lost not long after she was born, and only now, after all this time, had her real family finally been found.
People kept passing by on the roadside, every one of them smiling, looking like they were heading for something festive.
Elliot Barrow caught bits and pieces of their chatter. Sounded like they were talking about weddings.
"Two families holding happy events on the same day today. Village is gonna be lively."
"Well, Ambrose Caldwell dumped his crippled ex-wife, Emma Langley, and found another woman outside the village. Heard she’s nearly ready to give birth, and only now he’s bringing her back to make it official."
"And Emma Langley actually got married too. Had to pick the exact same day, didn’t she? Isn’t that just to needle Ambrose Caldwell on purpose?"
"That’s what I’m saying!"
Little Rosie wasn’t really listening. She turned around and looked at Elliot Barrow instead.
"Officer, what are my daddy and mommy called?"
Elliot Barrow hadn’t caught the gossip clearly either. He just smiled and answered, "Your father’s name is Ambrose Caldwell, and your mother’s name is Emma Langley."
In Qingshi Village, two households had chosen the very same day to hold wedding celebrations. By coincidence, neither bride nor groom was marrying for the first time.
One house had lanterns and colored ribbons hung all over the entrance, full of noise and bustle. The other had only a single red double-happiness paper pasted onto a wooden door that looked like it might fall apart any day.
Even the people getting married were enough to keep the whole village talking for days.
Ambrose Caldwell had cast off his former wife, Emma Langley, and Emma Langley had turned right around and married his next-door neighbor, Lawrence Merritt.
When folks talked about Emma Langley, they all said the same thing: her life had been downright bitter.
She’d had a daughter with Ambrose Caldwell, but the child went missing when she was barely past one. From that day on, Emma seemed half-lost herself, dazed all the time, not quite clear in the head anymore.
Half a year ago, she went up the mountain to pick mushrooms, missed her footing, and tumbled down the slope. She’d been lying there for more than six months and still hadn’t come to.
The Caldwell family never treated her like she mattered anyway. While she was laid up, they were already running around trying to find Ambrose another wife.
Only when the woman he’d been seeing got so far along her belly couldn’t be hidden anymore did they start pushing the Langley family to come take Emma back.
Emma was still unconscious when the divorce was forced through. How could the Langley family swallow that?
And then Ambrose turned right around and prepared to marry someone new. Wasn’t that a slap straight across the Langley family’s face?
The Langleys were furious. They stormed over to his place, carried off whatever they could move, and even threw a few blows before leaving.
But Emma still didn’t wake up, and that left the Langley family in a real bind.
There were five Langley brothers and sisters altogether, and every one of them had their own family to feed. None of them had money to spare.
That was when Lawrence Merritt stepped forward and said he wanted to marry Emma.
Lawrence had once worked on the same production team as Emma’s eldest brother, Dirk Langley. The moment Dirk heard it, he agreed without a second thought.
People in the village all said Lawrence had to be out of his mind.
His wife had been dead for eight years, and all that time he’d never remarried.
For one thing, his family was poor. For another, he was already raising three sons.
Because of this, Lawrence’s old mother got so angry she drove him out of the house and said she was done with him for good.
Everybody in the village was puzzled. What exactly was going on between Lawrence and Emma? Why would he insist on marrying a woman who still hadn’t opened her eyes?
Behind Ambrose’s back, people joked nonstop, saying maybe Lawrence had been harboring feelings right under his nose the whole time.
Ambrose had been holding that anger in his chest for days. If Lawrence wanted to marry Emma, fine. But of all things, he had to pick the very same day to hold the wedding feast, making Ambrose the laughingstock of the whole village.
"Our Linghua is nothing like that jinx Emma Langley," Astrid Caldwell said, hands planted on her hips, pride written all over her face. "Just wait, she’ll give our Caldwell family a big fat boy for sure!"
"Isn’t that the truth? Just look at Linghua, you can tell she’s a lucky woman at a glance!" a few people nearby chimed in at once.
"I heard your family drew the first piglet in the lot. Really makes people jealous."
"Ain’t that just fate? Before Emma Langley married into this family, your household was doing so well."
Astrid Caldwell kept rambling on, not stopping for breath. "Ever since Zhenghua split with that jinx, life’s finally been running smooth."
"That’s right, that’s right." The villagers sighed along with her.
Emma Langley really had rotten luck. First she lost her daughter, then later she nearly lost her own life too.
Right at that moment, a small car rolled up and stopped in front of Ambrose Caldwell’s house.
"Hey, Zhenghua, since when did you get to know somebody that important-looking?"
Ambrose Caldwell himself was just as confused. By the time he walked to the doorway, the people in the car had already gotten out.
The man who came over was wearing a crisp police uniform. He pulled open the back door and lifted out a little girl who looked about three.
The child was downright adorable.
Her skin was fair and soft.
Fresh-looking too.
Her little face was round, her big black eyes bright and shiny, and her rosy cheeks looked like ripe apples just picked from the tree.
Best of all, she was clean from head to toe, nothing like the muddy little monkeys running around the village.
She had on a red padded jacket. Unlike the black, gray, blue, and green clothes village children usually wore, that bright red made her fair face stand out even more.
"Ma, her coat is so pretty!" A few children stared at her with wide eyes, wishing they had one just like it.
Ambrose Caldwell’s heart suddenly tightened. Recently he’d taken some leftover timber scraps, traded them in town for a little cash. On such a happy day, could it be somebody had come because they were watching him?
Astrid Caldwell had always been the first to shield her own family. She hurried to speak before anyone else. "Comrade, have you made a mistake? Our family has always behaved itself. We’ve never done anything wrong."
"You’ve misunderstood, ma’am." Elliot Barrow smiled. "We’re here to bring you back a treasure."
"Bring the child back?" Astrid Caldwell frowned. But the moment she heard they were not here to arrest her son, the tightness in her chest finally eased a little.
"You people really picked a rotten time. My family’s in the middle of a wedding. If you barge in like this and scare my future grandson, who’s taking the blame?"
Before coming, Elliot Barrow had already asked around. He knew this old Mrs. Caldwell was no easy woman to deal with.
Still, when he thought about the little girl in his arms having to live with a family like this from now on, his heart clenched without warning.
"Which one of you is Ambrose Caldwell?"
"I... I am." Ambrose swallowed hard.
"This is your daughter." As Elliot spoke, he pulled out a cloth bundle. He unfolded it and revealed a small floral dress meant for a child.
The second those words left Elliot’s mouth, the villagers gathered around to watch burst into loud chatter.
"I remember that dress. Rosie was wearing it the day she went missing."
"Ambrose, your little girl’s been found!"
"Heavens above, what a blessing. The child actually made it back."
Emma Langley had always doted on her daughter. Anything decent in the house, she saved for Rosie.
Back then, that floral dress was fashionable too, and Emma had still been willing to buy it for the child. So even after two years, everyone still remembered it clearly.
"That’s nonsense!" Astrid snapped back. A flicker of panic crossed her face. "The one from our family has long been gone. You can’t just carry over some random child and claim she’s my granddaughter."
"How can you, as her grandmother, say something like that about your own granddaughter?"
Elliot’s face darkened with displeasure. If Rosie had not insisted on coming home, he would sooner have taken her back and raised her himself.
"You got proof? If you can’t show proof, then don’t talk nonsense."
Astrid planted her hands on her hips and flatly refused to admit it. "Don’t stand here holding up my son’s marriage."
Marriage?
Elliot’s eyes widened. How could people this absurd even exist in this world?
"Ambrose Caldwell, this is your own flesh and blood!"
Ambrose turned his face away at once, eyes darting, not daring to look Elliot Barrow in the eye. "Officer, today’s a happy day in my house. This child is not my daughter."
The moment Astrid Caldwell heard her son speak, she straightened up like she’d found her backbone. "Officer, don’t waste your time here. My poor little granddaughter died two years ago. Our family hasn’t got that kind of luck."
Rosie’s big dark eyes, round as grapes, moved from Ambrose to Astrid.
A trace of hurt showed on her tiny face. So it really was true—they did not want her.
Elliot felt his chest tighten with anger. He raised his voice at the two of them. "I’ve got a witness. Back then, you left Rosie in the mountains near Shuanglong Town. A Daoist master from the temple found her and took her in.
He even came back to this village after following you and remembered the address."
Astrid’s face went white in an instant, and cold sweat began to bead on her forehead.
These days, life was hard. In the villages, this sort of thing was not rare.
Families who disliked girls would secretly carry them out and throw them away. If the child was lucky, somebody would pick her up and raise her. If she was unlucky, she’d end up in the jaws of wild wolves.
When Rosie first went missing, people in the village had already whispered in private that Astrid might have done it.
Astrid had always looked down on girls, and Emma Langley, stubborn as she was, had cherished Rosie like her very life and refused to have another child no matter what anyone said.
Still, all that stayed in back-room talk. No one had hard proof.
Astrid clenched her teeth, slapped a hand against her chest, and said, "Bring him here and let him say it to my face. I, Astrid Caldwell, have lived more than half my life without doing one rotten thing. Let’s see if I don’t tear that liar’s mouth apart!"