Pan Baohua was furious. If a person doesn’t even recognize their own family, no matter how well-mannered they appear, they’re still a scoundrel. Even dogs don’t despise their poor homes, so what was wrong with Xu Changle?

Pan Baohua angrily said, “If you won’t acknowledge them, fine! We might as well tell Grandmother Yu that you’re still missing, that Xiaolan hasn’t found you. That way, she won’t have to suffer the heartbreak!”

Faan’s face darkened at Pan Baohua’s scolding.

Cui Yiru simply burst into tears: “Things aren’t what you think. Changle suffered a trauma when he was young and forgot everything from the past. He can’t even remember how much his grandmother loved him. Give him some time; he needs to accept this gradually.”

What?!

Cui Yiru hadn’t lost her memory, but Faan couldn’t remember.

Xia Xiaolan looked at Faan, whose face showed nothing but indifference.

Had Faan lost his memory?

How melodramatic.

Xia Xiaolan looked at him suspiciously, “You don’t remember anything? That’s quite unusual.”

Cui Yiru wiped her tears, “Since you were able to find us, you must know something about what happened to us back then. When Changle’s father and I came to America, we settled in San Francisco. We brought many valuable antiques with us. When Changle’s father was exchanging gold, it caught the attention of the San Francisco gang. One night in May 1967, I woke up from my sleep to find someone picking our lock…”

Xia Xiaolan had always wanted to know what happened back then.

What she knew now was based on Jim’s investigation and speculation, pieced together as “truth.” She was willing to listen carefully to Cui Yiru’s firsthand account.

That night in May 1967, Cui Yiru woke up startled from her sleep.

Someone was picking the lock to enter the room she and Xu Zhongyi were renting. Cui Yiru was terrified by the sound of the lock and started screaming.

She was trying to wake her husband Xu Zhongyi and also calling for help from the landlord.

The house they were renting wasn’t a standalone building but one room in a shared house, with the landlord’s family living in the same building.

However, to Cui Yiru’s disappointment, she couldn’t wake Xu Zhongyi, and the landlord’s family showed no response.

That night, it seemed all the neighbors were sleeping unusually deeply, with no one responding to her cries for help. Her screams only alerted the intruders – there were four or five of them, and she was no match for them.

Six-year-old Xu Changle woke up frightened and began crying loudly.

These cries finally woke Xu Zhongyi.

“Those men grabbed me and held a gun to my head, dragging me into the hallway. Another man held a knife to Changle’s throat. They beat Zhongyi, demanding the antiques and gold we’d brought from China! But how could we keep such things with us? After arriving in San Francisco, Zhongyi had stored everything away, keeping only two pieces for emergencies. The robbers broke in, beat Zhongyi, and grabbed me and Changle to threaten him. He had no choice but to reveal where the antiques were stored.”

Cui Yiru choked up several times, sobbing uncontrollably.

Faan comforted her and stopped her from continuing.

“Though I don’t remember what happened next, I’ve heard it from my mother. When the gang went to the address my birth father provided, they only found half of the antiques. They were furious, feeling they’d been fooled, and threatened to throw us, mother and son, into the sea in sacks. At this point, my birth father finally revealed the location of the other half of the antiques, agreeing to lead them there personally… Two hours later, only one of the two gang members who went with my birth father returned, extremely angry, and ordered us to be thrown into the sea.”

Faan spoke with remarkable detachment, telling his own experience as if it were someone else’s story: “Of course, we didn’t die. After they left, someone rescued us from the sea. You can probably guess who our rescuer was.”

“Changle, stop! Your father was trying to protect us, that’s why he led them away—”

“Did he protect us though?”

Faan countered, and Cui Yiru silently wept.

Xia Xiaolan looked between Faan and Cui Yiru.

“Of course, Congressman Zhang rescued you both.”

Xia Xiaolan felt that Faan’s “truth” filled in some gaps in Jim’s investigation, but if this was supposed to be the complete truth, it seemed far-fetched.

Xia Xiaolan reluctantly acknowledged Faan’s logic: “Oh, so you think Uncle Xu didn’t try hard enough to protect you.”

Didn’t he?

If Xu Zhongyi had immediately revealed the antiques’ location, he would have avoided many beatings.

Not telling them could have bought more time; telling them only hastened their death.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t believe Xu Zhongyi valued the treasures more than life. As a refined, scholarly man, he was trying to outwit the gangsters and save his wife and child.

The death of Mouse Qiang, burned in the rental house, was evidence of Xu Zhongyi’s desperate attempt to save his family!

If Faan’s account was true, Xu Zhongyi must have planned to eliminate two of them first, weakening the enemy, before returning to the dock to rescue his wife and son… But something went wrong – Xu Zhongyi only managed to kill Mouse Qiang, one person escaped, and he was severely injured.

Cui Yiru, disliking her son’s indifferent attitude, interrupted Faan and continued her account:

“When they threw us into the ocean, I thought we were done for. Unexpectedly, someone rescued us – it was Zhang… anyway, my current husband saved us. He was in the import-export business and risked hiding us in cargo containers to get us out of San Francisco. Later, I discovered I was pregnant, and then Tina was born. You might think I lack backbone, and I won’t defend myself, but when Tina was one year old, I still hadn’t heard from Changle’s father. My current husband, Zhang Jiadong, proposed, offering to take care of all three of us, so I married him.”

Xia Xiaolan nodded gently, “Do you believe Uncle Xu is still alive?”

Cui Yiru both nodded and shook her head:

“I don’t know… If he were alive, he would surely have come looking for us, but he hasn’t appeared all these years. I’m not sure.”

“Oh, if I may ask, did you know that one of the gang members who robbed and kidnapped you back then was nicknamed Mouse Qiang, his real name was Zhang Jiaqiang, and he was—”

“Of course, I know. You want to say he knew Jiadong! They came to America at the same time, and they were distant relatives within five generations. After arriving in San Francisco, Zhang Jiaqiang joined a gang and tried to recruit Jiadong, but he refused. Zhang Jiaqiang wasn’t a good person. After gaining status in the gang, he turned around and bullied Jiadong, bringing people to collect protection money from his company every month. You wonder why Jiadong happened to be at the dock that night? He had overheard Zhang Jiaqiang bragging while drunk about a big score…”

Cui Yiru was clearly in pain and didn’t want to recall the past. She jumped to the present:

“I don’t know if Zhongyi is still alive, but I’m surprised that Changle’s grandmother is still looking for us. I will bring Changle and Tina back to China so she can see her grandchildren in person. If she’s willing, I’ll also invite her to come live with us in America in her old age!”