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Adeline's birth
Adeline was born in 1937. After giving birth to her, Adeline's mother died. As a result, her elder sister and 3 elder brothers hated her. They were very close to their mother and blamed Adeline for their mother's death. Thus, she was treated badly by her siblings and was considered bad luck to the family. -
Nai Nai's Death
Nai Nai had died of a massive stroke. Adeline was devastated over her Nai Nai's death. Soon, Niang took over Nai Nai's place as the 'lady-in-charge' in the family. -
Arrival in Shanghai
A few weeks after Nai Nai's death, Adeline, her older sister and her two older brothers were brought to Shanghai. Their father had gone there to escape from Tianjin. -
Life in Shanghai
Adeline was sent to Sacred Heart school where she made many new friends. She often topped her class as she was a very bright and intelligent girl. She loved going to school because she felt belong there. She was treated fairly and her classmates did not look down on her. -
Meeting Wu Chun-mei
Adeline eventually became very good friends with Wu Chun-mei, a girl from a wealthy family. -
PLT
Adeline then got a duckling of her own which she named, PLT, Precious Little Treasure. She loved her duckling and was very protective of it. However, PLT was bitten by the dog,Jackie, father's dog. When PLT died, Adeline was devastated because she truly loved PLT. -
Class President
Adeline was elected the class preident. Thus, her friends had come to her house to celebrate her victory. However, Adeline was scolded and slapped by Niang 3 times because Niang thought that she was the one who had planned the celebration, causing Adeline to be embarrassed in front of all her classmates. -
Boarding school in Tianjin
Adeline was then sent to boarnig school in Tianjin where she was left all alone. Initially, the school had a few students but gradually, as days went by all of them left, leaving Adeline all alone. -
Hong Kong
Finally, Aunt Reine, Niang's older sister, had come to pick Adeline up and brought her to Shanghai, where her father,Niang, third brother and Ye Ye were. -
Boarding school in Hong Kong
Adeline was also sent to boarding school in Hong Kong. SHe spent all her time alone during weekends because nobody was there to visit her. She also participated in a playwriting competition. -
Adeline's victory
Adeline had won a play-writing competition which she had participated in while she was in Sacred Heart School. With her grandfather's motivation, she gained her courage to take part in the competition. She had brought great honour to the family as well as the whole of Hong Kong for being the first Chinese student to win such a prestigious award. Thus, her father agreed to send her to a University in England to study medicine.