Teacher Xie Nan suddenly mustered the courage and asked this question.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she heard a clatter from behind, as something fell to the ground.
Su Xiaotian quickly looked over.
Su Changjiu's wife, her face pale, had dropped a wooden plate.
The tomatoes that should have been on the plate fell to the ground, the pink fruits rolling all over the yard.
Seeing this, Su Xiaotian could roughly guess that Su Xiaocao's background indeed had issues.
If Xiaocao's background weren't problematic, the village chief's wife wouldn't have been so flustered by such a simple question.
In that instant, Su Xiaotian suddenly felt a pang of fear.
"Who are you? Why are you asking that?"
The village chief's wife, ignoring the fallen plate and tomatoes,
rushed forward and stood before Teacher Xie Nan, lowering her voice and shouting at her.
"Old woman, calm down!" Su Changjiu, seeing his wife like this, quickly tried to persuade her.
Su Xiaotian quietly walked over, picked up the plate that had fallen, and then put the rolling tomatoes back onto it one by one.
But the tomatoes that had rolled on the ground could no longer be eaten.
So, she simply took the plate to Su Changjiu's kitchen.
At this moment, it might be better if she wasn't here, as such matters were truly not suitable to be discussed in front of a third party.
In the yard, Xie Nan probably guessed that Xiaocao was an adopted child of this couple, her own biological daughter.
Her heart suddenly sped up, the sound of her heartbeat like a drum.
Teacher Xie Nan could no longer sit still; she slowly stood up from the stool and knelt on the ground with a thud.
This sudden action startled both Su Changjiu and his wife.
Then they saw Xie Nan actually kowtowing to them.
Xie Nan's head hit the ground. Although it was a dirt floor, with such force, her forehead must have hurt.
This time, the couple was completely bewildered.
What was going on?
"Get up quickly, what will people think if they see this?"
Su Changjiu anxiously tried to pull up the kneeling Xie Nan.
But thinking it wouldn't be proper for a grown man to be pulling at a woman, he withdrew his hand.
As for the village chief's wife, she clearly had no intention of helping Xie Nan up.
Su Changjiu then looked for Su Xiaotian, but couldn't find her.
After kowtowing three times, Xie Nan looked at the couple and said, "I want to thank you!"
This sentence reminded the village chief's wife of why this woman had come.
"Don't kneel in my house, get up and leave quickly. Leave, you are not welcome here!"
The village chief's wife shouted this with a touch of hysteria.
At this moment, she had only one thought: this woman was here to take her daughter away. No, absolutely not.
She had to drive this woman away and absolutely not let her see Xiaocao.
"Brother, Sister-in-law, thank you for raising Xiaocao and for raising her so well." Xie Nan, however, refused to get up, insisting as she knelt on the ground.
She knew that if she stood up, she would likely be driven away, and might never be able to enter Su Changjiu's house again.
"Xiaocao is my daughter. I raise my daughter, what does it have to do with you?" the village chief's wife said, her eyes red.
"Xiaocao isn't your biological daughter, is she?"
Although Xie Nan didn't want to say such hurtful words, there was no other way.
"Of course, she's my biological daughter. Go ask anyone in the village, who doesn't know that Xiaocao was born to me after ten months of pregnancy." The village chief's wife shook her head resolutely.
As long as she didn't admit it, this woman couldn't say Xiaocao wasn't her own.
"Brother, Sister-in-law, I've been looking for my daughter for many years." Xie Nan pleaded.
"Since you lost her, she has nothing to do with you anymore." In a moment of anger, by the time she realized what she had said, it was too late.
But Xie Nan's eyes brightened.
The village chief's wife, however, felt all her strength drain away the moment she uttered those words.
She squatted on the ground and began to cry, sobbing.
The emotions that had been suppressed in her heart for years surfaced uncontrollably.
She cried miserably, crying for her own difficult fate, and for the daughter who had no breath left before she could even take a look at this world.
At the time, she had a difficult labor. After being sent to the hospital, she gave birth to a baby girl.
But the child had no breath when she was born.
The couple was heartbroken. Coincidentally, they met Xiaocao and brought her back.
In the first few years after bringing Xiaocao home, they had also worried that the child's biological parents might come looking for her.
However, after several years passed, no one had inquired about the matter.
The couple gradually forgot that Xiaocao was not their own daughter.
In their hearts, Xiaocao was their biological daughter.
They doted on Xiaocao, sent her to school, saved money for her dowry, and did everything a parent should do.
But now, someone suddenly claimed to be Xiaocao's birth mother. How could she accept this?
While the village chief's wife cried heartbrokenly, Teacher Xie Nan also covered her face and wept in the yard.
She felt guilty.
She had lost such a small child; what right did she have to look for her daughter?
If she had been a little stronger back then, would she have lost her child?
If the child had stayed by her side, life would have been harder, and she might have endured many hardships, but at least they wouldn't have been separated.
After washing the retrieved tomatoes again, Su Xiaotian returned to the yard.
She saw two people, one sitting and one kneeling under the big pear tree, both weeping.
And beside them, the village chief squatted, holding his head in his hands, looking in great pain.
All three were so distressed, which instantly made Su Xiaotian feel a sense of guilt.
Had she done something wrong?
If she hadn't brought Teacher Xie Nan here, would all these problems have been avoided?
Her actions had hurt Uncle Changjiu and his wife, and also hurt Teacher Xie.
It was her failure to handle the situation properly.
She wanted to apologize, but she didn't know what to say. Her mouth opened and closed, opened and closed, but she didn't know what to say.
Seeing Su Xiaotian, the village chief's wife finally remembered that this woman was brought by Su Xiaotian.
Yes, it was Su Xiaotian.