Jiang Mian was taken aback.
What did her mother mean by that?
Wasn't she dead?
Did her mother think she had died long ago?
Li Zhao had quietly come behind Jiang Zhiqing at some point.
Watching this scene with his own eyes, he clenched his fists tightly. After summoning up his courage several times, he finally managed to speak hoarsely:
"Yingniang."
Even Jiang Mian could tell that this "Yingniang" he called was completely different from the one he had called in that small courtyard back then. It was more heart - wrenching and more soul - stirring.
At this moment, Li Zhao had truly found his Yingniang, the one he had lost for so many years.
Hearing this voice, Jiang Zhiqing's body trembled violently, and her face was full of disbelief.
Jiang Mian temporarily put aside her inner doubts, quietly let go of Jiang Zhiqing, and stepped back to let the two of them be alone.
Li Zhao let out a soft sigh and reached out to caress Jiang Zhiqing's shoulders.
The warm hands on her shoulders felt so real, both in touch and temperature.
Finally, she turned around to face Li Zhao. Looking up at the man in front of her blankly, she seemed to be in a daze.
"Lang... jun? Is it you?"
"Yingniang, it's me."
Li Zhao grabbed her hand and let her touch his cheek. He said in a hoarse voice, "Look, it's real. It's not a shadow, not a ghost climbing out of hell, nor a dream you had. I'm still alive."
Tears quickly welled up in Jiang Zhiqing's eyes, and her face was full of disbelief. Her fingers moved on Li Zhao's face. First, she touched his eyelids, then his nose, then his mouth. Finally, it turned into a sob:
"Langjun, it's... Langjun. It's really you—"
She threw herself into Li Zhao's arms and cried uncontrollably. The mournful sobs echoed in the hall. The candle flames flickered gently, and even the ferocious statue of the Rakshasa seemed to have a bit more kind - hearted look at this moment.
Under the eaves, Xiao Jingcheng, who had been lying there keeping watch, turned his head and looked behind him.
There was a small wildflower in his mouth, and the petals swayed gently in the wind.
It's so good.
He thought to himself. Judging from the sound, it seemed that Jiang Mian's plan had succeeded. Her mother had retrieved her past memories and finally returned to normal. Their family was finally reunited.
As for him, he was afraid he would never have such a life in this lifetime.
The image of Jiang Mian crying and holding his hand, looking sad for him, flashed through his mind. Xiao Jingcheng couldn't hold back any longer. He jumped up from the ground, picked up something on the ground with his mouth, and turned around to run back.
After rounding the corner, he saw from afar the familiar figure sitting on the stone steps.
Jiang Mian had her legs curled up. She was holding her chin and looking up at the sky. The sobbing of the woman and Li Zhao's soft coaxing came from the hall. It seemed that the two were pouring out their feelings for each other. Although she also wanted to get close to her biological mother, she still wisely gave the place to her parents who had been separated for many years.
Xiao Jingcheng controlled the body of the yellow dog and quickened his steps. He almost crashed into Jiang Mian's arms.
Jiang Mian was knocked down on the stone steps by its momentum. Her train of thought was interrupted. Jiang Mian smiled and rubbed the yellow dog's head. "Good job, Dahuang! Thanks to you guarding outside, my plan could proceed smoothly. Tomorrow I'll take you into the mountains to catch pheasants and let you have a good meal."
The yellow dog nuzzled her palm with its nose and spat out what was in its mouth into her palm. Jiang Mian picked it up and looked at it in the light. She found it was a bunch of small yellow flowers.
"Wow, in the dark, where did you pick this bunch of flowers, Dahuang?" Jiang Mian was very surprised. The little gift from the yellow dog diluted the faint sadness and melancholy in her heart.
"I like it very much. Thank you, Dahuang."
Xiao Jingcheng rubbed his head against her arms. His nose was filled with the faint fragrance from her body.
Footsteps came from behind. The yellow dog lifted its head warily. Seeing Mo Zhizhang walking slowly towards Jiang Mian, it couldn't help baring its teeth.
This guy named Mo. Why was he everywhere? What was he doing here at this time?
There was a bright moon hanging in the clear night sky. There were no dark clouds and no rain. The girl was sitting alone on the stone steps, and her back looked extremely lonely.
Mo Zhizhang had pondered many words of comfort in his heart. But when he got closer and saw the girl with a bright smile on her face, a bunch of flowers in her hand, and the yellow dog in her arms, he paused, squinted his eyes slightly, and felt a bit unhappy in his heart.
Why did he see this dog everywhere he went?
Well, it didn't matter.
"Little sister." He called out with a smile.
Only then did Jiang Mian notice someone approaching. She turned her head and smiled at Mo Zhizhang. "Second brother."
After calling him so many times, this "second brother" sounded much more natural.
Mo Zhizhang sat down beside her and said, "Your mother has finally regained her senses. Why aren't you inside with your father to accompany her?"
Jiang Mian fiddled with the bunch of flowers in her hand and said with a smile, "Father and mother have been separated longer than I have. They have spent so much time together and must miss each other very much. I won't interfere."
"Besides, there's still a long way to go in our lives. We'll have plenty of opportunities in the future."
Actually, Jiang Mian didn't tell anyone that she was actually afraid to get close to her mother now that she had regained her senses.
Because she had lived in the Ye family for sixteen years, been the Ye family's daughter for sixteen years, and called someone else mother for sixteen years. She was inexplicably afraid that her mother would alienate her and not like her because of this.
So, it could wait. After her father and mother had poured out their feelings, she would introduce herself to her mother properly.
"By the way, I haven't had the chance to thank you, second brother." Jiang Mian changed the topic. "Thank you for your cooperation just now. Otherwise, mother wouldn't have woken up so soon."
Mo Zhizhang subconsciously glanced at the yellow dog in her arms that was glaring at him.
He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the yellow dog was grinning as if it was laughing at him.
Xiao Jingcheng was indeed laughing at him at this moment. Just thinking about Mo Zhizhang pretending to be a pregnant woman with a pillow in his arms and lying on the bedding pretending to give birth made him want to laugh.
Mo Zhizhang coughed lightly twice, turned his head, and said, "It doesn't matter. It's just doing good deeds to accumulate virtue. Besides, I also watched a touching show. It's not a loss."
"By the way, little sister, how did you come up with this idea?" Mo Zhizhang asked. "How did you know that the mistake of exchanging the babies back then was related to the birth date and time?"
Jiang Mian didn't notice the undercurrent between Mo Zhizhang and the yellow dog. She frowned slightly and said, "At first, it was just a guess. When I first met Taoist Yuanzheng in Dongli Town, he said that I had great fortune and was born with a prosperous destiny."
"But I... haven't had a very good life these years. So I didn't believe what he said and thought he was a swindling Taoist. It wasn't until he retrieved the soul of the crown prince and I learned of his abilities that I thought of asking him to take a look at my birth date and time."
"He told me that the birth date and time that had accompanied me for eighteen years wasn't mine at all." Jiang Mian's voice turned slightly cold. "Later, I carefully recalled the promotion path of the Ye family and found that it was exactly after I entered the Ye Mansion that Imperial Censor Ye began to make a name for himself in the officialdom."