Should I choose another name?
Ye Wanmian was taken aback for a moment. She lowered her eyelashes, covering her eyes.
She shook her head. "Thank you for your kindness, Uncle Li. I'd like to wait until the day when I'm truly reunited with my family. I want my real family to name me. Before that, whether it's Jiang Mian or Ye Wanmian, it's just a name."
Li Zhao's hand holding the brush trembled slightly. He looked into the girl's familiar eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. He had an urge to tell her everything right away.
But he quickly suppressed that urge. He detected a clue from her words. "What do you mean by the day of true reunion with your family? Do you mean your mother or your father?"
"I don't have a father." Ye Wanmian remembered that he always mumbled the name of a woman called "Yingniang" when he was in a coma. Her tone was tinged with resentment.
"My mother had a hard life. She was abandoned by a heartless man. She didn't realize she was pregnant until after he left. For some unknown reason, I was switched at birth and separated from her for eighteen years."
The words "heartless man" made Li Zhao's expression change slightly. He instinctively wanted to defend himself. "I didn't—cough, cough, cough!"
His emotions ran high, which irritated his lungs. He bent over and coughed violently. Ye Wanmian was also startled and quickly supported him. "Uncle Li, are you okay?"
She rushed to pour a bowl of water, scooped a spoonful of autumn pear paste into it, stirred it well, and then ran back to hand it to him. "Uncle Li, drink this to moisten your throat."
Taking a few sips of the pear paste water from the girl's hand, the coolness soothed his throat. Li Zhao finally caught his breath. Looking down, he saw that the brush in his hand was stained with ink, and the ink had dripped all over the table.
Ye Wanmian also saw the rice paper smudged with ink. She couldn't help but smile. "Uncle Li's calligraphy is really unique."
Li Zhao also twitched the corner of his mouth and smiled. He put down the brush and said, "When I'm in better health, I'll write for you again."
"Okay. When I earn more silver, I'll buy better rice paper for Uncle Li."
Looking at the girl's smiling face, he carefully probed. "So, your mother is still alive? And you know where she is?"
Ye Wanmian didn't notice anything strange in his tone. She nodded and said, "It's not the right time for me to recognize her yet. I have to find out what really happened to the baby switch back then."
Taking a deep breath, Li Zhao said, "You should find out."
He also had to find out. He had to know if her mother was the one he had been looking for.
He had been searching for nearly twenty years, almost turning the entire Great Sheng upside down, but still hadn't found any trace of the person he missed. He even considered searching in the borderlands or overseas. But perhaps it was the will of heaven that brought him here and allowed him to be saved by this girl by chance.
Her similar eyebrows and her life experience all told him that there might be a closer connection between them. But whether she was really his flesh and blood remained to be verified.
Anyway, there was no need to rush. As long as he could stay by her side reasonably, there would surely be an answer one day.
"Since you don't want to change your name, do you have any other names?" He circled back to the previous topic. "Since you've decided to stay, I can't always call you Doctor Jiang. How does your master address you?"
Ye Wanmian looked up at him. Although she didn't know why he was so persistent about her name and address, she patiently replied, "My master always calls me disciple. I..."
She paused for a moment and said, "When I came of age, my foster parents gave me a courtesy name, Chuntang. I don't like it. Uncle Li, you can call me 'Hibiscus' when we're alone from now on."
"Hibiscus is also known as 'the flower that blooms in the morning and fades in the evening'. It grows on the hillsides and in the wild. It grows wildly, experiences wind and rain, but can still bloom gorgeous flowers. It has the most tenacious vitality."
"Hibiscus..." Li Zhao smiled. "Okay, I'll call you that from now on."
As night fell, Ye Wanmian closed the shop, ending a day of business. Li Zhao returned to his room to recuperate.
It was already the second day since Xiao Jingcheng woke up. But Ye Wanmian remembered that he seemed to have not eaten properly since he woke up. She couldn't help but feel worried.
Looking up at the sky, she found that it was too late to start cooking. So she took out some copper coins and went out to a nearby tavern to pack some food.
She often came to this tavern, so she didn't wear the sachet with the yellow talisman.
Seeing her, the shopkeeper greeted her with a beaming smile. "Sir, you've finally come! We were just about to look for you. You ordered thirty roasted chickens from our shop last time. These thirty roasted chickens should have been delivered on time, but unfortunately, there's a wedding banquet in the east of the town these days, and there aren't enough chickens in the shop. What do you think..."
Ye Wanmian was stunned for a moment and then remembered that she had ordered thirty roasted chickens.
"Since the shopkeeper has more important things to do, prioritize them. My matter is not urgent." Ye Wanmian said. The shopkeeper immediately heaved a sigh of relief.
"That's great. Thank you, sir, for your understanding."
Because of Ye Wanmian's magnanimity, besides making the usual dishes she ordered, the shopkeeper also gave her a plate of wedding cakes so that she could share the joy. Ye Wanmian packed up the things and left.
Passing by a tailor shop, the shopkeeper was just about to close the door. Ye Wanmian remembered Xiao Jingcheng's action of tearing his clothes with Dahuang this morning. She changed her direction and walked towards the shop.
"Wait a minute!"
The shopkeeper stopped and looked at her. "What can I do for you, miss?"
Ye Wanmian smiled and said, "I want to buy some clothes. Can the shopkeeper close the door later?"
No one would turn away a customer. The shopkeeper immediately put on a smiling face and put back the door panel that was about to be put away. "Come in quickly, miss!"
Ye Wanmian entered the shop and looked around.
The clothes in this tailor shop were not as good in quality as those in the most famous shop in the market, and the styles were a bit old - fashioned and ordinary. But this was exactly what she wanted.
"Excuse me, shopkeeper. I need to buy a few sets of men's clothes. The style doesn't need to be too new. The most important thing is that they fit well." She told the shopkeeper Li Zhao's height and build.
Although Li Zhao walked with some difficulty, his height and build were not much different from Xiao Jingcheng's. The clothes that fit him should also fit Xiao Jingcheng.
The shopkeeper quickly selected a few clothes according to what she said and placed them in front of her. "Miss, take a look. Are you satisfied?"
While Ye Wanmian was lowering her head to carefully select the clothes, the shopkeeper asked casually, "Are you buying clothes for your husband, miss?"
Ye Wanmian smiled. "Some time ago, our medical clinic admitted a patient. He's been ill for so long and doesn't have a decent set of clothes to change. He asked me to buy them for him."
"So you're a doctor, miss!" The shopkeeper looked at Ye Wanmian in surprise. "I really can't tell."
Ye Wanmian handed over the selected clothes and said with a smile, "Our medical clinic is called Huichun Hall. Doctor Wang is my master. If you need anything, you can come to Huichun Hall to find me."