Rebirth: Splendid Marriage in the 80s Chapter 2537 - 2473: Took Someone Else’s Child

When the baby was merely two or three months old, neglect led to a severe illness. Neither the village doctor nor Chiang Songhai himself could restore the child to health.

That day, Chen Zhu watched as the baby cried until she lost consciousness. Overwhelmed by a sense of irritation, she simply turned her back and fell asleep, ignoring the child entirely.

Upon waking, she discovered the infant’s skin had turned ashen and the breathing had stopped; the little one was already gone.

Chen Zhu wept for a short while before an evil impulse took hold of her, compelling her to bury the child without delay.

At that time, Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao were busy scouring the area to borrow enough money to take the baby to the town hospital.

Left alone at the house, Chen Zhu immediately set out to dispose of the body.

While passing the base of Bai Gu Mountain, she stumbled upon a woman lying unconscious on the grass, clutching an infant girl to her chest.

The mother remained unresponsive, while the starving baby continued to wail incessantly.

Hearing these cries, Chen Zhu felt a sudden shift in her resolve.

She wondered what would happen if the villagers accused her of killing her own child.

Would they claim she did it out of spite because the child’s father was a worthless man?

If such rumors spread, her previous lies about the child's father being a handsome and distinguished man would never be believed again.

She simply could not afford to be without a child.

As she pondered this, she noticed that the infant in the stranger's arms was incredibly beautiful, with fair skin and large eyes that bore a striking, unexpected resemblance to the youth she had met in the mountain cave. Her pulse quickened; on a sudden impulse, she swapped the swaddling clothes of the two infants, buried her own daughter, and carried the stranger's child home.

Fearing that Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao might eventually notice the switch,陈Zhu did not protest when they finally secured the funds for a hospital trip. Instead, she kept the girl gripped tightly in her arms the entire time, refusing to let Ge Liutao hold her.

Using every excuse she could conjure, she insisted on staying at the hospital alone with the infant for two full weeks, completely indifferent to the mountain of debt Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao were incurring.

By the time they returned home, Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao did notice the child appeared different. However, they were far too exhausted to investigate; Chiang Songhai was climbing mountains daily to sell herbs to repay their debts, while Ge Liutao was overwhelmed with household chores and the constant interference of the Old Chiang Family. Eventually, they accepted Chen Zhu’s excuse that children shift their appearance rapidly as they grow.

In the countryside, there is a common belief that an infant's appearance can completely change every few weeks during their first year.

They felt no suspicion, yet Chen Zhu found herself increasingly unable to endure the sight of the child.

After all, she was not her own daughter.

Furthermore, as the baby grew, she looked more and more like the youth from the cave, leading Chen Zhu to fear that the unconscious woman had truly been his wife searching for him.

If the truth ever came to light, she knew they would never forgive her actions.

Combined with the fact that she could no longer bear to reside in the village, these anxieties forced Chen Zhu to make the decision to flee.

"What became of that woman?" Chiang Xiaoqiao asked, her entire body trembling with rage.

So, it was not that her biological mother had wished to abandon her.

Rather, she had been incapacitated, leaving her defenseless as Chen Zhu stole both her and the child.

Chiang Xiaoqiao could hardly fathom the absolute despair her biological mother must have felt upon waking to find her baby missing.

Chen Zhu cowered in place, muttering, "How could I possibly know?"