From NetEase:

Husband and Wife Desiring Child Discovers They Are Brother and Sister, Wife’s Father and Husband’s Mother Were Lovers

In Jiangxi Province, a young married couple were always teased for “looking like each other”. Not long ago, the wife’s father suddenly spoke of a secret: it turns out that many years ago, he and the husband’s mother were secret lovers. Later on, the husband’s mother became pregnant, while the wife’s father fell in love and married someone else. On top of that, the husband’s mother has been dead for over 20 years, so this secret was almost buried forever, up until this young married couple decided to have a child…

In early November, the couple chose to go to the Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital in Hunan in order to do a DNA test. The results dealt them a heavy blow.

As they prepared to start a family, the wife’s father revealed past events

Cao Wei and Xiao Qian (aliases) both grew up in the same city in Jiangxi Province. They lived near each other and had known each other since they were youngsters. Cao Wei is 4 years older than Xiao Qian and always looked after her the way a big brother would. Their relationship gradually began to change ever so subtlety, eventually becoming a romantic relationship.

Last year, they revealed to both their parents that they wanted to get married. Cao Wei’s mother had passed away when he was only 4 years old, and his father didn’t get very involved in the wedding. Xiao Qian’s mother thought the young man was quite nice, while her father, Bao Gen (alias) remained silent the entire time.

The young couple got a marriage certificate without any problems, and lived happily together. Other people often teased them, that they looked so similar, especially Cao Wei, who looked more and more like he could be Bao Gen’s son and Xiao Qian’s elder brother. Then this year, the couple decided to have a child. But here, Bao Gen suddenly revealed a deep secret.

20 years ago, Bao Gen was still only 18 years old and unmarried. Next door lived a young married woman in her twenties, whose husband was often away from home, and so Bao Gen frequently called by. Later on, this evolved into a physical relationship, which lasted for almost 2 years. Afterwards, the young woman became pregnant, and Bao Gen too found a girlfriend/wife.

As it turns out, the child she gave birth to was Cao Wei.

They find out they are brother and sister through DNA testing

Bao Gen says no one came to trouble him about the situation in the many years that has passed by since — he just pondered over it once in a while. In fact, he thought something was amiss early on, and when some of his old neighbours who were familiar with the romantic exploits of his youth happened to come round and make fun of the couple, he broke out in a sweat.

Although he realised that Cao Wei might be a blood relative, he wasn’t brave enough to stop the marriage between the two youngsters, nor was he brave enough to bring the events of 20 years ago out in the open, so he chose to remain silent.

In fact, Xiao Qian also had her suspicions, and therefore specifically asked a distant relative to seek confirmation from her father. The truth left her stunned – could it really be that the husband she’s been living with for nearly two years now is actually her elder half-brother? In the future, what would happen if they had children?

The young couple decided to do a paternity test. In early November, after taking blood samples from Cao Wei and Bao Gen at the Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital, they carried out a DNA test. The results came out very quickly: the probability that they were blood relatives was over 99.9% and, according to international practice, this supported the fact that a biological father-son relationship existed between them. This meant that Cao Wei and Xiao Qian were brother and sister.

On November 20th, legal medical expert and head of the material evidence examination room at the Forensic Centre, Dr Huang Jian, said it was currently unknown how Cao Wei and Xiao Qian would deal with their marriage. She believes that Bao Gen’s irresponsibility not only thoroughly discredits him, but has also deeply hurt his children.

Data

Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital

Strong>Paternity tests increasing by 20% and more each year

A member of staff at the Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital explained that the main types of people that come in for paternity tests are: husbands who are suspicious that the child isn’t biologically theirs, divorced couples who, after doing a paternity test, can guarantee that the child they will be supporting is biologically theirs, pregnant ladies who perhaps had extra marital affairs and therefore can’t determine who the baby’s father is (in particular, cases of testing amniotic fluid during pregnancy are increasingly common), couples who used a surrogate mother who want to check the child is in fact biologically theirs, immigrants who want official documents proving that their children are biologically theirs, or those that need scientific evidence for inheritance laws or other legal disputes…

Why are more and more people walking through the doors of forensic testing centres? Staff believe that at the moment, many people’s incomes are rising, the number of social services are increasing, and the costs are also decreasing. On top of that, cases of extra-marital affairs and one night stands, etc. are more frequent than in the past, and the number of children born out of wedlock is relatively high, plus the feeling of trust between husband and wife is gradually fading away. Each year, the number of these types of tests is 20% or more greater than the year before, and that’s in Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital alone.

Comments from NetEase:

网易山西省晋中市手机网友(183.187.*.*):

In the future, my son will have to do DNA tests before getting a girlfriend.

穷天极地 [网易广东省广州市手机网友]： (responding to above)

The test will say they’re brother and sister, and the daddy isn’t you.

网易北京市手机网友 ip：124.64.*.:

May all lovers in the world be siblings.

网易四川省眉山市网友 ip：112.192.*.:

DNA tests really are useful.

网易上海市手机网友 ip：140.207.*.*:

What a sin, there is karma for everything in this world [every action has a consequence].

网易山西省大同市手机网友 ip：218.26.*.:

Faint.

晨羲载曜 [网易广东省广州市网友]：

Actually, close relatives marrying merely increases the probability of the child having hereditary diseases, it doesn’t necessarily result in hereditary diseases. If the members of the family itself have no pathogenic genes, then it’s not a big problem. Albert Einstein’s parents were close relatives.

寂寞其实也是一种享受 [网易上海市网友]:

Some senior official’s daughter went off travelling, suddenly she discovered a girl who looked extremely similar to her, so stepped forward and asked her: Hey, was your mum a servant in this senior official’s house? The girl replied: my mum has never left the village, but actually my dad was that official’s bodyguard.

网易广东省东莞市手机网友 ip：183.23.*.*:

A piece of fake news…

网易浙江省杭州市手机网友 ip：183.157.*.

I heard in the past that close relatives can’t get married, that if they got married and had children then the children wouldn’t survive, or they would be deformed!

网易黑龙江省哈尔滨市网友 ip：221.208.*.:

If this type of situation is more and more common in China in the future, will the quality of our race decline?

网易吉林省手机网友 ip：36.48.*.*:

This type of thing happens more often in the south, because there’s a lot of [marriage between close relatives] in the south, especially Guangdong.

网易北京市手机网友 ip：114.66.*.*

When I read the second half, I felt like it was an advert for the Furong Forensic Centre.

Image: For illustration only, not related to individuals in article.