AMRWFA -Chapter 165 We Grew Up Well

Why not plan to? A faint sense of unease rose in Qiao An’s heart.

Sure enough, in the next moment, Lin Zhihe told her the truth—she had been abandoned. And she wasn’t the only one. Before her, there were two older sisters; after her, there was a younger one.

Until now, Lin Zhihe hadn’t even known that between herself and her biological younger brother, there were actually four sisters.

They were not good parents.

They favored sons over daughters.

Even she herself had been raised in the countryside. But she had been lucky—she had a kind grandmother who brought her up.

After she started school, she met good teachers.

Later, she went to university and joined the army.

The two sisters sat together in a corner by the wall, talking for a long time.

Sunlight filtered through the tall trees, scattering in specks across the ground.

Qiao An’s emotions went from joy, to anticipation, to disappointment, and finally to heartache—like a roller coaster. So she really had been an abandoned baby.

So she didn’t have just one sister.

So different upbringings could truly lead to completely different lives.

Although Lin Zhihe didn’t say much about the second and third sisters, her brief description—and her advice not to seek them out—told Qiao An everything. They were not people who walked the same path. Her eldest sister was trying to protect her from getting entangled with them.

To ease her worries, Lin Zhihe added, “I didn’t acknowledge them either.”

Qiao An thought that was for the best. One of them, without even knowing Lin Zhihe’s identity, had urged her to get married; the other had been abused by her husband, and when Lin Zhihe tried to help, she was extorted for money. If they had acknowledged each other, there would only be more trouble.

Her eldest sister hadn’t had it easy all these years.

She technically had parents, yet had grown up in the countryside—entirely thanks to her grandmother. If not for her employer being a good person who investigated her background and uncovered all this, she might have been kept in the dark for a lifetime.

“Sis… this won’t affect your job, will it?”

Qiao An’s heart skipped a beat as she quickly asked.

Lin Zhihe shook her head. “No. Aunt Xu is a very good person. This wasn’t even her responsibility, but after she found out, she still made the trip for my sake.”

Qiao An looked up at the wealthy woman being received by the orphanage director. She sat in the courtyard with a gentle smile, watching the children play.

Unlike those social elites who came only to take photos and post them online, she handed everything over to others after arriving, then sat there leisurely as if she were simply on a visit.

She didn’t say sweet words, nor did she play with the children—but somehow, Qiao An felt she was a good person.

A truly good person.

“I want to go with you.”

“Go where?”

“Didn’t you say there’s another younger sister? I want to go with you,” Qiao An said seriously. “I know you’re trying to protect me. You think seeing the second and third sisters would make me upset, and you’re afraid I’ll feel the same about the fifth. But sometimes, you only truly let go after seeing things with your own eyes.”

Lin Zhihe was stunned for a moment before nodding. “Alright.”

Soon, Lin Zhihe would realize she had been overthinking things.

Unlike Qiao An, who was home on sick leave, their fifth sister was a full-fledged delinquent—skipping school, fighting, smoking—she did it all.

When they found her in an alley, Tao Hong was squatting on the steps, smoking. With her flashy, outrageous hairstyle, she was… something else.

Lin Zhihe felt her eyes burn just looking at her. She almost rushed over to drag her straight to a barber and shave her head bald.

Meanwhile, Ruan Yaoyao burst out laughing. “Your fifth sister sure has personality!”

“Aunt Xu…” Lin Zhihe looked aggrieved, feeling like she was being laughed at.

Ruan Yaoyao waved it off. “Oh come on, I get it. She’s even two years younger than Qiao An. It’s just adolescence—being rebellious is normal.”

【And besides, it’s not just rebellion. If she weren’t rebellious, how would she protect herself?】

【Sigh…】

Ruan Yaoyao sighed inwardly, then told Lin Zhihe to take Qiao An and ask around nearby—to hear what others said about Tao Hong.

Sometimes, seeing is believing, hearing is deceiving. Only by experiencing it themselves would they understand what kind of situation Tao Hong was truly in.

Lin Zhihe already had a bad feeling. So when she took Qiao An to ask around and heard all sorts of messy rumors, she wasn’t surprised at all.

They said Tao Hong had been picked up and raised by an old scavenger. He treated her well, but she was ungrateful—always fighting, smoking, hanging out with hooligans, refusing to learn anything good.

On and on it went.

Some even asked curiously, “Why are you asking about her? Did she do something illegal?”

It couldn’t be helped—Lin Zhihe looked too much like a soldier, like she might be working undercover.

Lin Zhihe: “……”

Qiao An: “……”

No wonder people answered so readily—they thought they were undercover officers.

Others claimed Tao Hong had gotten pregnant several times and had multiple abortions, with no one knowing who the father was—probably one of those hooligans.

They also said the old scavenger was pitiful. He had raised her with great effort, yet she didn’t repay him, acting like an ungrateful wretch.

Qiao An couldn’t hear Ruan Yaoyao’s inner thoughts, so hearing all this made her mood sink.

When she looked up and saw Lin Zhihe lost in thought, she assumed her sister was hurt by what she heard and quickly tried to comfort her. After all, although they were sisters by blood, they hadn’t known of each other’s existence before, so they weren’t that close.

She herself only felt disappointed—regretting that she had lost another sister. But it didn’t hurt deeply.

Instead, seeing Lin Zhihe like this made her worry that her “thoughtful” eldest sister might be taking it hard.

Lin Zhihe, misunderstood as being “overly sensitive,” simply shook her head without explaining and led Qiao An back to Ruan Yaoyao.

At that moment, Ruan Yaoyao was sitting under a sunshade beside the car, enjoying the breeze from a small fan while scrolling through short videos and laughing.

Seeing them return, she asked, “Finished asking around?”

“Mm,” Lin Zhihe replied, briefly recounting what they had heard.

Ruan Yaoyao’s gaze turned slightly cold. “Oh? And you believe what those people said?”

Qiao An knew that “you” included her. Her heart skipped a beat. “Aunt Xu, you mean they were lying? But… why would they lie?”

“Why?” Ruan Yaoyao said slowly. “That’s complicated…”

“Maybe at first, they did sympathize with Tao Hong—after all, she had no parents and was raised by an old scavenger. But as she grew older, they realized she wasn’t a well-behaved girl. Then, after accidentally witnessing her smashing things and hitting the old man, combined with her poor academic performance, she gradually became labeled as a ‘bad kid’ in everyone’s eyes…”

Lin Zhihe caught onto one detail. “Why would she smash things and hit him? Didn’t they say he raised her?”

“That depends on what the old scavenger did to her.”

【If someone did that to me, I’d smash things too—no, I’d kill him.】

Lin Zhihe’s heart sank. “What did he do to her?”