People?
Everyone throughout the Great Qi Dynasty, from the ruler and his officials to the common people, all raised their heads in unison.
The Sky Screen, which had remained motionless all this time, suddenly began to move, and everyone was so startled that they held their breaths.
Especially when they saw a human figure appear inside, they did not dare make the slightest movement, as though the person inside might jump out of the image at any moment.
Only the villagers of Shangliu Village were all very excited, “It’s Zhaozhao. Zhaozhao appeared in the Sky Screen. Look quickly ah.”
“It’s Zhaozhao.” Lin Lan clasped her fingers, somewhat nervous, “She’s fine.”
Zhaozhao was indeed fine, but at this moment, her heart was in a terrible panic.
After returning to modern times through the space-time turbulence, Zhaozhao fainted. At this very moment, she had just woken up, only to discover that she was at the foot of a mountain. There was not a single person around her. There was only wave after wave of cold wind, blowing the branches with a swish, swish sound, making her inexplicably a little frightened.
The first thing she did was call out to the system in her mind, 【A-Shan, A-Shan, why aren’t you saying anything?】
A-Shan naturally could not speak. After safely getting Zhaozhao to the ground, it was forcibly shut down.
Zhaozhao called out for quite a while. After confirming that A-Shan would not make a sound, she lowered her head in disappointment and helplessness.
Another gust of cold wind blew past, and Zhaozhao shivered. She was still wearing the clothes she had worn at the Hu family’s home before, and they were very thin.
Zhaozhao knew that she could not stay here any longer. If she did not start moving, she would freeze to death.
But in this unfamiliar place, she did not know where she should go.
Zhaozhao stood up and looked around blankly. Just as she hesitated over which direction to go, a rustling sound suddenly came from ahead.
Zhaozhao’s heart jumped in fright, and she helplessly raised her head to look at the person walking toward her.
The next moment, she froze.
The person who came was a very young and beautiful woman. She was wearing a style of clothing Zhaozhao had never seen before, but it looked very warm. Her hair was long and black, clipped up with a strange hair clip. Perhaps because she had walked too quickly, it was slightly messy at this moment.
For some reason, Zhaozhao felt that she looked somewhat familiar.
Upon seeing Zhaozhao, the woman immediately stopped in her tracks. At the same time that Zhaozhao saw her, she also saw Zhaozhao.
Upon suddenly seeing a strange stranger, Zhaozhao was somewhat timid. She twisted her little hands together and carefully took a small step backward.
Just as she did not know what to do, the other party suddenly called out softly, “…Zhaozhao?”
Zhaozhao abruptly raised her head. How, how did she know her name?
The next moment, the other party directly took several steps forward and pulled her into her arms.
Zhaozhao’s entire body stiffened, all her nerves tensing up. She did not dare move at all.
It was not until the warmth from the other person’s body continuously passed over that she suddenly came back to her senses. So warm, so comfortable. She could not help becoming attached to it, but when she thought of the other person’s snow-white clothes while her own clothes were tattered and covered in many stains, she suddenly felt ashamed, afraid that she would dirty her.
Therefore, even though she was reluctant, she still wanted to withdraw from her arms.
However, before she could move, she suddenly felt something wet around her neck, and there was also a hint of a choked sob in her ear.
She immediately panicked, “Y-You, what’s wrong?”
Jian Yunsang desperately suppressed her emotions, afraid that she would frighten Zhaozhao, but when she held this thin and tiny body in her arms, she still could not hold them back.
The moment Zhaozhao spoke, it nearly made her emotions collapse completely.
She had found her. The child she had searched for for two years had, at this moment, been lost and found again, returning to her arms once more. Jian Yunsang could not speak at all, nor could she move.
She only wanted to hold her, again and again feel the truly real touch of the person in her arms, and tell herself that this was not a dream, not something she had imagined out of thin air. It was her. She had found her!
Zhaozhao dared to move even less. Listening to Jian Yunsang’s choked sobs, she did not know why, but she even had an urge to cry too.
Feeling the slight trembling in her arms, Jian Yunsang suppressed her surging emotions and took a deep breath before finally loosening her hold a little. She stared fixedly at the little girl before her, not even daring to blink. Her gaze fell somewhat greedily upon Zhaozhao’s face, tracing her brows and eyes inch by inch like this. After a long while, she finally spoke in a slightly trembling voice, “I’m sorry. Mommy scared you.”
Jian Yunsang appearing at the foot of the mountain was not a coincidence. Starting around three or four in the morning, she kept having the same dream over and over. In the dream, a mechanical voice told her to go search for Zhaozhao at the foot of the mountain where Zhaozhao had disappeared back then. Zhaozhao had returned.
When she woke up, the sky was already bright. She was covered in sweat and still shaken, yet the dream was exceptionally clear.
It was not that Zhaozhao had never appeared in her dreams over these two years, but many times, she could not remember them clearly. She had never encountered one like this, one that seemed almost like a guidance.
Although it was very mysterious, Jian Yunsang had already reached the end of her road in her efforts to find her daughter. Even if it was only a dream, she was unwilling to let it go. So what if she made a wasted trip? In these two years, had she made few wasted trips?
What was more, her feeling this time was especially strong.
Therefore, she could not wait. After tidying herself up a little, she drove to the foot of the mountain impatiently.
Actually, she had already walked around the foot of the mountain in a big circle. The more she searched, the colder her heart became. She originally thought that this time was once again just her own delusion. Who would have thought that this tiny person would suddenly crash into her line of sight without warning, making her wonder for a moment whether she was seeing an illusion.
It was not until she held the person in her arms that sense of reality finally surged into her heart.
“Mommy?” Zhaozhao felt that this word sounded somewhat familiar.
The child’s puzzled voice nearly made Jian Yunsang shed tears again. Looking at the tiny person before her, with her thin body and worn-out clothes, as well as the bones that felt somewhat hard against her when she held her just now, she could tell without even thinking that the two years since her disappearance had been very bad for her. No, extremely, extremely bad.
She did not know what kind of family had taken her in, but they surely had not treated her well. They had even bullied her quite a lot. Thinking of this, Jian Yunsang was unbearably heartbroken and self-blaming. It would not happen again in the future. She would love her and take good care of her, and give her the best she could, to the best of her ability.
Jian Yunsang hurriedly took off the down jacket she was wearing and put it on Zhaozhao. Before Zhaozhao could push it away, she wiped her face and smiled, “Zhaozhao doesn’t recognize Mommy anymore, does she? It’s okay. You’re home now. You’ll slowly become familiar with me again. Let’s get to know each other again. My name is Jian Yunsang. Zhaozhao, you are my biological daughter.”
She was so gentle. Zhaozhao stopped in the middle of trying to take off the down jacket, “Biological daughter? S-So, you are my Mother?”
The last few words were spoken so softly that they could barely be heard, and her tone was filled with deep uneasiness.
Mother[1]娘 (niáng) – a traditional Chinese term for “Mother” or “Mom,” commonly used in ancient times. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3336513_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3336513_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });? Hearing this form of address, Jian Yunsang was stunned for a moment, but she quickly reacted.
Perhaps the place where Zhaozhao had lived these past two years was still very remote, or perhaps she had simply retained the way she used to address her, without changing it.
“Yes, I am your Mother.” Jian Yunsang touched her somewhat dirty face. Zhaozhao actually had not changed much from how she looked two years ago. She could even be said to be thinner and smaller than she was back then. At five years old, she seemed to still have the height of a three-year-old, clearly suffering from malnutrition.
Zhaozhao was somewhat happy, but she was still not very certain, “Y-You’re sure you didn’t mistake me for someone else?” As though she thought of something, she hurriedly stretched out her hand and took out the jade pendant, “This, y-you can take a look at this.”
A-Shan said that this was what she had been carrying on her when she disappeared back then. So she thought, if this woman was her family, she would definitely recognize it.
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