The Abandoned Child: From Hospital Bin to Billionaire Parents’ Embrace.

Illustration photo

The baby was wrapped in a plastic bag like a package and discarded in a dumpster outside the hospital. The feeble cries of Tinh Tinh caught the attention of a couple named Tieu Sung Duong and Ta Xuan Lan.

Mr. and Mrs. Tieu had been married for many years without children and considered the appearance of Tinh Tinh as a gift from heaven. They expressed their desire to adopt the baby to the hospital and, with their help, went to the local authorities to obtain the necessary paperwork.

Just two weeks later, Tinh Tinh was brought to her new home.

Her adoptive father, Mr. Tieu, still smiles happily when recalling that day: “I had just finished work at the cotton factory and saw my wife playing with the baby. The baby was smiling brightly.”

Tinh Tinh with her adoptive parents as a child.

Mr. Tieu, who was nearly 40 years old at the time, experienced fatherhood for the first time and showered Tinh Tinh with love. He was also the one who named her, saying, “Let’s name her Tinh Tinh. She will be like the stars in the sky, shining brightly!”

A difficult childhood filled with love and care from adoptive parents

Despite their financial struggles, Mr. and Mrs. Tieu saved money to buy the best milk and food for their daughter. They took on extra work such as sewing, repairing, pulling carts, and delivering goods to make ends meet.

Tinh Tinh did not disappoint her parents. She was a well-behaved and understanding child who often helped her mother with threading needles and organizing fabric in their sewing shop.

As she grew older, she took on most of the household chores while still excelling in her studies. She was always among the top students in her class.

However, she had a lingering question about her origins. She was often teased by her peers for being adopted, and once gathered the courage to ask her mother: “Mom, are they telling the truth? Am I adopted?”

As Tinh Tinh was still young, her mother chose to comfort her instead of revealing the truth: “You are my biological daughter.” She even took Tinh Tinh to confront the bullies, helping her gain confidence and believe that she belonged to the Tieu family.

In 2001, before her passing, Mrs. Ta finally revealed the truth: “I can’t bear it any longer, and I don’t want to lie to you. What they said is true. You are not my biological daughter.”

However, by then, Tinh Tinh no longer cared about the truth. She hugged her mother tightly and said: “Mom, I’ve called you Mom for many years. No matter what happens in the future, you are still my Mom. In this life, I only have you and Dad. I am a member of the Tieu family, and no one else.”

The impoverished girl earns a Ph.D. and becomes famous

A month after her mother’s passing, Tinh Tinh excelled in her exams and was admitted to a prestigious high school. Her homeroom teacher praised her resilience: “If it were other children, such a shock would have affected their middle school entrance exam, but this child is very strong and only took three days off.”

In 2005, Tieu Tinh Tinh was admitted to Huazhong Agricultural University.

To support her education, Mr. Tieu, then 56 years old, worked tirelessly. He said, “No matter what, you cannot give up on your university education. Education is the best way to change your life. You finally have this opportunity, so how can you give up? As for money, we will find a way.”

Tinh Tinh received multiple scholarships, easing her father’s financial burden.

In 2009, she pursued a Master’s degree, and two years later, she was accepted into a Ph.D. program.

The story of a “poor girl” earning a Ph.D. and her challenging life quickly caught the attention of local media, with headlines such as “The Old Man Delivered Gas for 16 Years to Support His Adopted Daughter’s Ph.D. Studies.”

The story of the abandoned girl who rose to become a Ph.D. student spread far and wide.

Initially, Mr. Tieu was unhappy with the media attention, fearing that his daughter’s identity as an abandoned child would affect her studies and cause her pain. However, Tieu Tinh Tinh was more open about it, comforting her father: “I am not an abandoned child. I have the best parents.”

Rejecting money and biological parents

There was one thing Mr. Tieu never expected—that the media attention would lead to the arrival of Tinh Tinh’s biological parents.

After learning that Tieu Tinh Tinh was the child they had abandoned, they located Mr. Tieu’s home through the media reports. Her biological mother knocked on their door, held her hand, and tearfully recounted how much she had missed her over the years and how powerless she had felt at the time.

Her biological father expressed gratitude to Mr. Tieu and offered 500,000 yuan (nearly 2 billion VND) on one condition: that Tinh Tinh would move in with them and sever ties with Mr. Tieu.

Upon hearing these conditions, Tieu Tinh Tinh suddenly understood her biological parents’ true intentions. They didn’t want to reconnect with their abandoned child or express remorse; they wanted a Ph.D. student as their daughter and were willing to pay for it. She angrily refused: “Please take the money and leave. My adoptive father worked himself to illness to earn money to raise and care for me. Now that I have succeeded, how can I leave him?”

She further revealed that her biological parents had heartlessly abandoned her in a dumpster during the cold winter. If not for her adoptive parents, she might not have survived.

In 2013, after achieving success and financial stability, Tinh Tinh invited her adoptive father to live with her and took care of him until his passing. This was her way of repaying the man who had raised and loved her as his own.

Tinh Tinh invited her father to live with her and cared for him until his death.