"This is the most extreme love I've ever seen!" Yesterday, when lawyer Wang Wei from Liaoning Shida Law Firm talked about this matter, he still sighed with emotion.
In October this year, Lawyer Wang Wei received a special consultation request. The consultant was a 46-year-old Dalian resident named Li Lin (a pseudonym).
It turned out that in 1988, Li Lin and his wife, who had no children, adopted a 7-year-old abandoned girl and named her Li Miao. In 1993, Li Lin's wife passed away due to illness, and Li Lin, who did not remarry, raised his daughter alone. "He is my idol," Li Miao admired her adoptive father’s character and demeanor during their shared life.
As time went by, the little girl grew into a beautiful young woman, but she rejected all the suitors around her.
Li Lin was very puzzled and thus had a heart-to-heart talk with his daughter. To his shock, the 27-year-old Li Miao cried and expressed her affection for him, stating that in order to repay his upbringing, she would only marry her adoptive father. Li Lin was stunned for a moment before gently refusing his daughter's request.
A week later, Li Lin realized that his daughter had no intention of changing her mind and instead was becoming thinner day by day. Li Lin made a bold decision: to break through societal norms and accept his daughter's love with composure.
In October this year, Li Lin consulted Lawyer Wang Wei to clarify whether an adoptive father and daughter could get married.
Lawyer Wang Wei believed: "Adoptive father and daughter cannot marry."
Psychologist: Kinship transformed into love
"It is the psychological distance between them that has led to their mutual affection," said psychologist Zhang Junming from Shenyang City.
Zhang Junming explained that when Li Miao was adopted at the age of 7, she already had complete memories. In her memory, Li Lin was her adoptive father, which created a psychological distance. From the perspective of the adopted daughter, she developed feelings over time for her adoptive father, and their kinship deepened. During adolescence, she became very sensitive to emotional dependence and attachment, misinterpreting her adoptive father's kindness as love.
Zhang Junming further explained that during Li Miao's adolescence, no one treated or loved her better than her adoptive father. Coupled with their experience of depending on each other for survival, as the girl grew up, the psychological distance faded, and she began treating her father as an opposite-sex partner, gradually transforming kinship into love.
From the father's perspective, this adoptive father may have been overly indulgent towards his adopted daughter. As he grew older, he was reluctant to entrust his adopted daughter to others, fearing that she might be hurt, which was one of the reasons. Additionally, the effort he put into raising his adopted daughter included a kind of affection, and now this affection has erupted under his adopted daughter's confession.