Chapter 1581: 1583: When She Died

Chapter 1581: Chapter 1583: When She Died

However, he had too much hope, and reality only left him more disappointed.

The security office didn’t have any news, of course, it wasn’t their fault. At that time, everything was in chaos, finding someone was truly not easy.

So later, Chiang Songhai simply forgot about the matter. If Meng Xinian hadn’t brought it up now, he wouldn’t have even remembered that he had once done such a thing.

Ge Liutao asked on the side, “Xinian, does this… does this matter affect Little in any way?”

“This is what I think: So many years ago, Grandpa already reported Chiang Qingzhu as missing, and after all these years with no news, we might as well go ahead and cancel her household registration. Let’s just treat it like the Chiang Family no longer has this person.”

Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao exchanged a glance, both somewhat bewildered.

Cancel her household registration? What does that mean?

“It means treating Chiang Qingzhu as if she’s dead,” Meng Xinian said flatly. “Even if she wanted to come back later, she’d have to complete all the procedures to prove she’s indeed Chiang Qingzhu and request to reapply for a household registration. This process could drag out for a long time at the very least.”

Besides, this would only make it easier for Chiang Xiao to be adopted by someone else.

Treating Chiang Qingzhu as dead?

Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao were both shaken.

“Xi… Xinian, are you saying we should go to the security office ourselves and tell them… tell them that Qingzhu is dead and ask to cancel her household registration?”

But she’s still alive.

She’s already reappeared.

Plus, she is their biological daughter, how could they say to other people that their own biological daughter is dead?

Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao’s eyes turned red.

How could they possibly bring themselves to do such a thing?

Chiang Xiao knew they would soften and couldn’t go through with it, which is why she never brought up the matter of wanting to be adopted by someone else again. If she were to be officially adopted, in Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao’s hearts, she’d forever be someone else’s child. Honest folk in the countryside didn’t have the flexibility for understanding things in nuanced ways.

Adoption, to them, meant giving away their child to someone else, severing all ties.

And Meng Xinian was even more ruthless; he wanted them to personally cancel Chiang Qingzhu’s household registration, formally acknowledging that their daughter was already dead.

“In actuality, it’s just updating your household registration information since she’s been missing for so many years. Write up a formal application, and I’ll handle the rest.”

It wasn’t easy to navigate, but fortunately, years ago, Chiang Songhai did report her as a missing person at the security office. In their records, Chiang Qingzhu was officially listed as missing.

It wasn’t fabrication; all Meng Xinian needed to do was leverage this existing information to update the household registration and move their records out—from Siyang Village to City M.

Once the old household registration was canceled, the missing person Chiang Qingzhu would naturally no longer need to be transferred, and in the new records, there simply would be no trace of Chiang Qingzhu.

If possible, it’d be better to take Chiang Xiao out of the records along with Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao.

With this explanation, Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao were able to accept it a little more.

They wouldn’t need to personally tell others that their daughter was dead. It would only turn her into a person without a household registration, essentially an undocumented resident.

After all these years, she’d managed to get by, so why care about a household registration?

“Alright, then… how do we write the application? Xinian, Grandpa will follow your lead.”

“I’ll write one draft in a moment. Grandpa, you can copy it down exactly.”

“Ah, ah, okay.”

Meng Xinian paused briefly before finally addressing the issue of Chiang Xiao’s adoption.