Before the age of ten, Xu Shutong was a left-behind child. Her mother died of illness when she was five, and her father had to travel to the capital for work to make ends meet. The only person looking after her was her elderly, frequently ill grandmother.
After she turned ten, Zhao Zhiyan brought her back to the Zhao family, and she became the adopted daughter of a wealthy household. Zhao Zhiyan gave her everything he could to make up for the fact that she had lost her father because of him.
Treating Xu Shutong well for the rest of her life was Zhao Zhiyan's way of atoning.
