"My mother was one of the many children Grandpa adopted." Ying Bai had beautiful eyes, clear and bright. "She was abandoned as a baby and was very frail from a young age. It wasn't until Grandpa adopted her that her condition started to improve."
"He raised her, and she stayed by his side until she was twenty, when she met my father."
"They had a very simple wedding, and soon I was born."
"After my mother gave birth to me, her health grew worse and worse. My father's attitude toward her gradually changed, too."
"Later, my mother's company went bankrupt, leaving her with a huge amount of debt. People came after him for money every day. He often left Mother and me at home while he ran off to hide from them on his own."
"He always said that debt collectors wouldn't make things difficult for a woman and a newborn. He only dared come home every few days, in the dead of night."
"This went on for months, until Father stopped contacting us and never came home again."
"Raising a child while living in fear, with debt collectors pounding on the door and splashing paint everywhere every day, eventually took its toll. One day, Mother fell ill."
"The doctor called Grandpa. That was when he learned that the daughter he had adopted was living a terrible life."
"It wasn't common to see a white-haired parent tenderly caring for their black-haired child in the hospital. Mother's health kept deteriorating. She wanted to see Father one more time—not for anything as grand as love, but just to slap him and ask him one question."
"She never got her wish, not even before she died. The night Grandpa laid her to rest, he felt as if he had aged many years."
"After