Jiang Zhiqing was originally extremely sad. But his interruption dissipated most of her grief, and she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"You're making fun of me again, my lord," she said.
However, tears had welled up in her eyes for a long time. With this laugh, the tears finally fell.
Li Zhao wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes with his finger and helped her sit up.
He placed his hands on her shoulders, saying nothing, but carefully examining her with his eyes.
Jiang Zhiqing's ears gradually turned red. She lowered her eyes, avoiding his gaze, and gently shrugged her shoulders. "Why are you looking at me like this, my lord?"
Li Zhao replied, "Oh? Is it okay for you to secretly look at me when I'm not paying attention, but not okay for me to look at you openly? Yingniang, you're so overbearing."
He had always been like this, fond of teasing her with words. He wouldn't stop until he made her blush with anger. To her surprise, he hadn't changed at all after all these years.
Jiang Zhiqing was about to say something when she met Li Zhao's affectionate yet somewhat reserved face. The words she wanted to say got stuck in her throat.
Li Zhao pulled her into his arms and gently stroked her back again and again. "Yingniang, I'm so lucky that we're both still alive. I'm so lucky to have found you again. From now on, let's live a good life. You're not a maid in the Li Mansion, and I'm not the eldest grandson of the Li family. We're just two ordinary people."
"Let's make up for all the time we've missed and never be separated again, okay?"
Jiang Zhiqing paused for a moment and then nodded vigorously, replying with a sob, "Okay."
Light footsteps sounded from behind. Jiang Zhiqing was startled and instinctively tried to struggle, but Li Zhao held her tightly, not allowing her to escape. Soon, Jiang Mian's voice came from behind. "Father, Mother—"
As soon as Jiang Mian entered the cave, she saw the two hugging tightly. She quickly stopped and turned around, coughing lightly. "Ahem, well, I'll come back later."
Li Zhao said with a smile, "It's okay. You can stay. I'll go outside to scout the way."
He pinched Jiang Zhiqing and whispered, "What did I just tell you? You're not a maid, and I'm not a young master. You're my wife. What are you hiding for?"
After saying that, Li Zhao finally let go of her and walked out, leaving the mother and daughter alone to talk.
In the cave, there were only Jiang Zhiqing and Jiang Mian. Although they were the closest people, they fell into silence after Li Zhao left.
At this moment, not only was Jiang Mian nervous, but Jiang Zhiqing was also extremely tense. They didn't know how to face each other.
Finally, Jiang Mian broke the stalemate first.
She took two steps forward and softly called, "Mother."
Jiang Zhiqing raised her hand to tidy up her messy hair, then turned around and looked at the grown - up girl opposite. She smiled and waved at her. "Come here quickly. Let me have a good look at you."
Jiang Mian walked up to Jiang Zhiqing. The bright light illuminated their faces. Jiang Mian lowered her head shyly and said, "I've used Tianli vine to disguise my face. This is not my original appearance."
Jiang Zhiqing held her face in her hands and lifted it up, carefully examining her.
To be honest, when they first met, Jiang Mian's appearance was strange to Jiang Zhiqing. But as she looked, the sense of familiarity returned.
She had lost a wisp of her soul and was locked in the yard like a criminal. These years, she had been in a daze, remembering nothing and not wanting to remember anything. But at some point, a little yellow - faced girl always secretly climbed over the wall into her yard.
At first, they were on guard against each other. The little girl didn't approach her but just sat there, holding her face and looking at her.
Gradually, the girl began to get close to her and would bring her delicious snacks and food, filling her empty stomach that had been starved for a long time.
She couldn't remember when it was, but the girl held her hand, looked at the scars on her arm from the whippings, and choked out the word "Mother."
That was the first time the girl called her Mother.
But at that time, she knew nothing, so she missed so much.
Fortunately, now they finally recognized each other.
"But this is the appearance I've seen most often, Meow Meow," Jiang Zhiqing said with a smile.
Jiang Mian's eyes widened slightly. "Mother, you... you don't mean you remember everything?"
"Yes, I remember everything," Jiang Zhiqing replied. "I remember all the delicious food you brought me and all the times you applied medicine to me."
Jiang Mian couldn't hold back any longer. She threw herself into Jiang Zhiqing's arms and hugged her tightly. Jiang Zhiqing also tightened her arms and hugged the child she had lost for more than a decade tightly.
At this moment, both of them had a strange feeling. It seemed that the direction of their blood flow was the same, and the frequency of their heartbeats was also the same, as if they were about to merge into one.
So this was the real blood tie.
I don't know how long it took before they let go of each other. Jiang Zhiqing helped Jiang Mian tidy up the hair by her temples. Jiang Mian grinned happily, her eyebrows and eyes relaxing, and the happiness in her eyes almost overflowing.
The mother and daughter still had a lot to say. They walked to a big rock beside them and sat down close to each other.
Jiang Mian leaned her head on Jiang Zhiqing's shoulder and tightly held her hand, looking very dependent.
"I remember that last night we were still in Ling'an Temple. How did we get here today?" Jiang Zhiqing asked the question in her heart.
Jiang Mian paused. She carefully glanced at Jiang Zhiqing and found that her expression was calm and not affected. Then she said, "That place left bad memories for Mother. Mother just recovered with great difficulty. I don't want Mother to be stimulated or hurt anymore."
Jiang Zhiqing was very touched. "Good child. It's rare that you think about Mother."
Jiang Mian didn't ask her what exactly happened back then. Jiang Zhiqing guessed that she should have known from other sources. Otherwise, she wouldn't have staged that show in the Hall of the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha to force her to wake up from her daze.
Her and her husband's child was as smart as her husband.
"How have you been these years?" Jiang Zhiqing asked.
Jiang Mian answered truthfully, "Before I was sixteen, they wanted to use me to prosper the Ye family, so they treated me not too badly and gave me the treatment a daughter of an official family should have. But everything changed after they brought back the real daughter of the Ye family. They showed their true colors."
Jiang Zhiqing frowned tightly and squeezed Jiang Mian's hand.
"Tell Mother in detail. Mother wants to know what they did to you."
Jiang Mian then told her about being forced to marry in a sedan chair. She forced a smile, pretending to be relaxed.
"Don't worry, Mother. I've never been the kind of person who can bear being wronged. That's why I escaped. And it was because I escaped that I found out that they had been lying to me all along. My mother has actually been alive and well all this time."