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"Abandoned?" Wang Tonghai seemed to have been provoked, his eyes widening in anger. "Who would abandon their child?!"

"It was really found," Dai Mingzhu chimed in, cradling Fu Feifei's head. "That winter, it snowed heavily for a long time. Bai Chuan and I went back to our hometown to visit our parents. We happened to encounter the snow melting when we entered the mountains. It was so cold, poor child. When passersby found her, she wasn't wearing any clothes – just wrapped in a tattered piece of cloth."

She grew anxious, eager to prove her right to visit Fu Feifei. "We're not buyers, I swear."

Someone from the neighborhood asked, "Wrapped in a rag and abandoned? Was she just born?"

Dai Mingzhu shook her head. "After bringing her back to Hong Kong for a thorough checkup at a major hospital, they said she was two months old. Her malnutrition made her seem like a newborn."

How cold must it have been during that heavy snowfall, perhaps even below freezing? In the south, especially during the snowmelt, the chill was piercing.

For a baby of one or two months to survive being wrapped only in a rag in such weather was nothing short of a miracle.

Wang Tonghai refused to believe them, snorting. "Whatever you say. Anyway, when the child went missing, she was dressed neatly with a warm inner robe!"

He pointed at the two and scolded, "No matter how beautifully you put it, she's still a child bought from human traffickers!"

Wang Tonghai then tried to pull the girl away from Dai Mingzhu. "Regardless! Come back with me now!"

Dai Mingzhu couldn't bear to part with her daughter she had raised for over a decade. With tear-filled eyes, she pleaded, "Mr. Wang, please consider our request. We can go back, but we must be allowed to co-parent her."

Fu Baichuan quickly intervened, separating Wang Tonghai from the girl. "That's right, Mr. Wang. Please calm down. Alright, let's assume that Feifei was indeed kidnapped. If she was abandoned by the traffickers along the way, wouldn't our first priority be to hold them accountable?"

"Moreover, you know how developed Hong Kong is now. Feifei attends a prestigious school here. Going back to the mainland wouldn't be good for her future. I have a house in Central, and if you're willing, you could move to Hong Kong to live."

"All we ask is to see Feifei again."

Seeing that Wang Tonghai seemed more open to the idea, Fu Baichuan hurriedly added, "I'm also willing to enroll your son in the same elite school as Feifei. Since Feifei has no siblings, having a younger brother would be a positive thing for her."

Wang Tonghai appeared genuinely tempted. After some thought, he said, "Don't think I'm unaware that Hong Kong has residency requirements."

"Provided you agree, I'll take care of the residency issue," Fu Baichuan promptly replied.

The terms offered were indeed very enticing.

It must be known that Hong Kong was a paradise yearned for by countless mainlanders. Tens of thousands would risk their lives to sneak in illegally.

Wang Tonghai suddenly flew into a rage. His eyes flickered as he declared, "No way! Both buying and selling are equally guilty! Human traffickers deserve death, and so do you! If not for you, I wouldn't have been separated from my daughter for over a decade. My eldest daughter would never have lost her life searching for her sister!"

Wang Tonghai's furious words left the residents of Temple Street speechless.

Indeed, if not for Fu Baichuan taking the child away, the Wang family wouldn't have experienced such a series of tragedies.

Fu Baichuan felt like a sinner as he lowered his head.

He had no defense. He shouldn't have blindly followed the crowd's suggestion back then, which was that girls often went missing in the mountains, and thus, he had taken the child without a second thought.

Seeing that the two respectable individuals were cowed into silence by his interrogation, Wang Tonghai couldn't help but curve his lips. He forcefully pulled on Fu Feifei's arm, attempting to leave.

Dai Mingzhu clung onto Fu Feifei tightly. Despite Wang Tonghai's strength, she refused to let go until Fu Feifei cried out in pain.

Only then did Dai Mingzhu reluctantly release her grip. Her daughter's pained cry felt like a knife piercing through her heart. As she unwillingly looked at Fu Feifei, she knew that once they parted ways, her daughter would never return.

Dai Mingzhu covered her face and sobbed silently.

Wang Tonghai, seeing that Fu Feifei had also ceased her resistance, wore a smile on his face.

Just wait.

He would soon be able to take her back to the countryside.

Just as he was about to exit the crowd...

Suddenly.

A crisp sound of a teacup hitting the table echoed.

"Where do you think you're going? Abandoning your child back then, and now wanting to take them back just because they survived and have some use? How fortunate for them!"

Chu Yuening set down the teacup and waved away the dust on the table. "I never knew such a wonderful thing existed in this world."

Both parties involved in human trafficking deserved to be damned.

But those who discarded their daughter due to gender bias, even stripping her of her warmth and leaving her to die, were absolute scum.

It was a curse deserving of death.

With those words, the atmosphere in the room fell silent.

Fu Baichuan was the first to regain his composure, his calm face now tinted with urgency as he asked, "Master, what do you mean by that?"

"The meaning," Chu Yuening glanced meaningfully at the rigid figure of Wang Tonghai, "is that Wang Tonghai himself discarded the child. Before doing so, due to their impoverished circumstances, he stripped the infant girl of her cotton-padded jacket."

"It was so that it could be saved for his next son to wear."

A collective gasp echoed through the crowd.

The neighbors were stunned by this revelation.

Chu Yuening rubbed her temples, gradually envisioning the scene.

A younger Wang Tonghai had gone to great lengths to ensure that no one would discover the abandoned child, taking her deep into the snow-covered mountains.

He left the infant on a snowy blanket beside a stinking ditch, surveying his surroundings and blowing warmth into his frozen hands. He observed the feeble cries of the newborn girl, her tiny hands persistently reaching out from tattered cloth.

After some thought, he began to strip her of her cotton-padded jacket, all the while grumbling, "Blame it on the fact that you're a girl, not a boy with a gender marker. Our family can't afford to support so many idle mouths!"

"Death isn't a problem. Just remember to tell Yama King to send a son next time," he said, casting another glance at the old cotton jacket in his hand. "Next year, your mother will give birth to your brother, and this jacket will be for him to wear."