Today was the day for Miaomiao to start school. Normally, she might skip school, but important ceremonies like the start of school and graduation were occasions she should attend.
Listening to the principal's long - winded speech on the podium, Miaomiao felt drowsy. She sat on her chair, half - closing her eyes and struggling to stay awake.
It was so boring. Every time school started, the principal basically said the same few things over and over again. Miaomiao could almost recite them by heart.
After the principal finished, it was the dean's turn, then the teacher representative, and then the student representative. By the time everyone had finished speaking, it was already lunchtime and time to end the morning classes.
There would be a parents' meeting in the afternoon. Wei Ziqi's real father could attend, but Lin Yao couldn't come to the imperial capital. So, Miaomiao's parent at the meeting would be her current teacher, Grandpa Sun.
After lunch, Grandpa Sun arrived at the school right on time. The students were out in the yard, free to move around, quietly waiting for the parents' meeting to end. Some children looked nervous, afraid that their poor grades or bad behavior at school would earn them a spanking when they got home.
Finally, the parents' meeting ended, and it was time to go home. Grandpa Sun walked out of the classroom cheerfully and led Miaomiao and Wei Ziqi slowly towards the school gate.
Because of the parents' meeting, the school gate was extremely lively and crowded today.
Miaomiao supported Grandpa Sun and strolled slowly on the campus, chatting with him casually, just like an ordinary grandfather - granddaughter pair.
But just as they reached the gate, the couple who had made up their minds to take Miaomiao away suddenly rushed out of the crowd. They knelt down with a thud, grabbed Miaomiao's legs, and started wailing.
"My daughter! Why don't you recognize your mother? Mom has searched for you for so many years. It's been so hard! You can't look down on mom just because our family is poor and abandon me!"
"My girl, Dad has been so worried about you these years. I've lost my appetite and run all over the country just to find you. We finally found you, but you don't recognize us. I know your foster father is rich and you're living a good life. Even if your grades are not good, your foster father can donate buildings and money to get you into a good school. Dad doesn't have that ability, and I don't expect you to return to our family. Dad just hopes to see you often and hear you call me 'Dad' once. Girl, please, your mom is sick. Just take a look at us old folks!"
The couple sang in harmony, sitting on the ground and fabricating lies passionately. They didn't even blush or bat an eyelid, and their acting was quite convincing.
This sudden scene at the school gate immediately caught everyone's attention. Hearing what the couple said, many people started pointing at Miaomiao, showing disgust and contempt on their faces.
These words were carefully thought out by the couple before they waited for Miaomiao to finish school. Only a few people in their village knew that they had abandoned their child. They always claimed that the child was lost. And for all these years, to avoid being criticized, they had pretended to look for the child for several years.
It was true that they had traveled all over the country, but at that time, because everyone else was making money in business, they were envious. So they traveled everywhere, doing some small business here and there. But it turned out that they really had no talent for business and almost lost everything.
Now all these things could be used as reasons to attack Miaomiao. As long as they changed the concept a bit, they could create an image of poor people who had lost their child and been searching everywhere, while portraying Miaomiao as an arrogant girl who loved wealth and disowned her biological parents.
Making a scene at the school gate when there were many people around, Miaomiao would surely be troubled by these rumors. If Miaomiao treated them badly or didn't want to listen to them in the future, they could come to the school gate and make a ruckus again. When the rumors became more and more intense and she was on the verge of ruining her reputation, Miaomiao would probably agree to whatever demands they made.
The couple had a good plan. Their performance at the gate did achieve the effect they wanted. But they never expected that Miaomiao, the one they were trying to deceive, didn't care about her reputation at all.
"Who are you? Are you looking for someone? Did you make a mistake?" Miaomiao blinked her eyes, looking extremely confused. She even squatted down, trying to help the couple up from the ground.
Such a delicate and cute little girl with such clear eyes. The change from confusion to concern was not faked. The on - lookers around began to doubt the truth of what the couple said.
"We can't be wrong. You look exactly like our second daughter. Three days ago, we even called you. We know you don't want to recognize us, but blood is thicker than water. Your mom and dad won't force you to leave that wealthy family. We just want to see if you're doing well. If you don't believe us, look, we have a photo of our second daughter here."
The woman sobbed and took out a family photo from her bosom. One of the girls in the photo looked almost exactly like Miaomiao. The other two children also showed some resemblance to Miaomiao in their eyebrows and eyes.
After Miaomiao glanced at the photo, the woman even held it up and showed it to the on - lookers around. After seeing the photo, even those who had been skeptical before now fully believed what the couple said and started pointing at Miaomiao again.
Grandpa Sun frowned. Sensing that something was wrong, he tapped his walking stick and said, "If you're so eager to recognize my granddaughter, why didn't you come to her directly instead of calling first?"
"We were scared! The child is living such a good life now. We didn't want to bother her. At first, we just called to ask if she was okay, but before we could finish, she hung up. And then she never answered our calls again. So we came to the school."
"Just making a phone call and claiming to be someone's biological parents? Anyone would wonder if it's a scam. According to what you said, my granddaughter had no communication with you at all after that. She didn't even know you were her biological parents. How can you talk about recognition or non - recognition? Even if you want to recognize her, you should do a paternity test first. Just with an empty claim and a photo, you want to pick up a big daughter for free. If that's the case, there would be no human traffickers in the world. Everyone could just do what you're doing. If you came with good intentions, you should talk nicely. But you knelt down and cried and shouted as soon as you came, putting a label of ingratitude on my granddaughter. Who are you trying to show this to? I think you're not here to recognize your daughter at all. You're more like here to take revenge."
Grandpa Sun, nearly eighty years old, had experienced and seen everything. He could tell at a glance that the couple had bad intentions. If they really cared about their child, they would never have put so much public pressure on her.