Adopting children is a common occurrence in rural areas.
In Jinzhou, most people who adopt choose a child from their own relatives or siblings. It's seldom that they would pick a child they don't know, such as adopting one from outside or buying one.
Moreover, there is an interesting phenomenon: when the child reaches a certain age, they are told that they were adopted from so-and-so's family and the reasons behind their adoption. It's rare that this information is withheld.
This is an interesting custom compared to other places.
The main reasons they don't adopt from unfamiliar families or purchase a child are to avoid raising an ungrateful person and to prevent the child's birth parents from causing trouble or trying to reclaim the child when they are older. Furthermore, there are concerns about potential unknown problems with a child from an unfamiliar background.
As for buying a child, Du Heng had never heard of it happening in his twenty-plus years of memory.
