Chinese woman, 37, reunites with family after going missing at 2, learns she had been living across the street from them

A woman in China has been reunited with her birth family 35 years after going missing as a toddler, only to discover that she had spent her entire life living just across the street from where she disappeared.

Her father spent decades searching for her without ever finding her.

According to ETtoday, Cui Ning, now 37, went missing in 1991 at the age of two in a market in Nanning, Guangxi, after her father allowed her to go to a nearby stall to buy a bun.

How she disappeared

Cui had been at the market with her father, who was busy managing his vegetable stall.

When she grew restless, he handed her some money and told her to buy buns from a nearby stall. However, she wandered off and crossed the road into a bustling wholesale market on the other side of the street.

A woman selling clothes at the market noticed the lost toddler and made an announcement hoping to find her parents.

Nobody came forward.

Not bearing to leave the little girl behind, the woman brought her home as a temporary measure.

However, she eventually ended up raising Cui as her own daughter.

Cui told ETtoday that her adoptive mother had initially thought she was mute, and later assumed from her accent that she was from Yulin, another city in Guangxi.

A lifetime of searching

Wracked by guilt, Cui's birth father never stopped searching for her.

According to ETtoday, he spent the rest of his life trying to locate his daughter, but died without ever finding her or knowing that she had just been across the street the entire time.

The reunion

Cui told ETtoday that her adoptive parents and brother had treated her well throughout her childhood.

However, with the advent of technology, stories of people reuniting with their biological families have been popular on social media, which prompted her to wonder about her own roots and register her details on a reunion platform.

On Jul. 7 this year, Cui registered her details on a family reunion platform. Within hours, her biological sister had reached out.

The two completed a DNA test, which confirmed their relationship. Cui has since met her birth mother and sister, with all three in tears when they were finally reunited.