After finishing her meal, Xiao Yunying drank her jujube tea, hesitating about how to start the conversation.
Zheng Yunwan sensed that the mother and daughter had something to say, so she cleared the dishes away and let them have a good chat.
The jujube tea was almost gone, and Xiao Yunying didn't know how to bring it up.
No matter how this kind of thing starts, once it's brought up, the mother-daughter relationship between them will inevitably change.
In the end, Mu Lianrong couldn't hold back any longer. She had overheard Xiao Yunying and Luo Sheng's conversation outside the door beforehand, which gave her confidence. She thought it would be better to be upfront sooner rather than later, otherwise, if things remained ambiguous, it would leave a thorn in everyone's side.
"Yunyun, Mother wants to tell you something."
With Mu Lianrong starting the conversation, Xiao Yunying stopped holding back: "Is it about the birthmark and the inscription on my body?"
Mu Lianrong nervously clutched the hem of her clothes: "You're a smart child. Some things can't be kept secret. Besides, that lady will definitely come looking for you again. I just wanted to talk to you so you'd have some peace of mind."
Xiao Yunying struggled to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), and Mu Lianrong quickly got up to support her: "What's wrong? Do you need to go to the toilet?"
Taking this opportunity, Xiao Yunying grasped Mu Lianrong's hand: "Regardless of whether she is related to me by blood, in my heart I only recognize you as my mother. Unless my mother disowns me first, I will..."
"No, no." Mu Lianrong interrupted her urgently, her heart aching: "How could Mother not acknowledge my Yunyun? You are the daughter Mother raised."
Xiao Yunying didn't remember what happened when she had a fever, and simply thought that Mu Lianrong was only like this because she couldn't bear to part with her: "Mother, don't cry. Since that's the case, let's just pretend that the Minister's wife and her family don't exist."
Mu Lianrong was still feeling a little sad. She lowered her head and wiped away her tears: "Yunyun, you must take good care of yourself. You are my only daughter."
Xiao Yunying smiled and said, "What nonsense are you talking about, Mother? Isn't there Sister Yuntao? If she hears you saying this, what will she think?"
Mu Lianrong was referring to the child named Xiao Yunying, but she couldn't say it outright, so she swallowed her bitterness and said, "Mother was wrong. Mother just didn't want you to leave."
"I won't leave here." Xiao Yunying said casually, as if she didn't care about the matter at all. "I'm just a little curious, how did you come to live here in the first place?"
Mu Lianrong sat back down: "Back then, I wasn't careful. When I was pregnant with that child, I went to the river to wash clothes and tripped and fell. It's true."
Your third aunt came to deliver my baby. As soon as she saw my belly, she said the baby was breech. I struggled through the night to finally give birth. I was already delirious by then. I managed to catch a few glimpses of the baby while your third aunt was cleaning it, and then I passed out.
In those few glances, although I was a little dazed and didn't see clearly, I'm sure there was nothing on your back.
When you woke up, your father brought you to me. But when I looked at you, you didn't look like him. The child I saw was thin and small, not this plump and fair-skinned.
At first, I tried to convince myself that I was just confused and had mistaken you for someone else. Otherwise, where would your father have gotten this baby from? But when I changed your diaper that night and saw the birthmark and scars on your back, I knew you weren't the child I had seen.
At this point, Mu Lianrong choked up: "When I asked your father what happened to the injury, he told me that he hadn't held you and almost dropped you. The wound was from a bamboo strip from an unfinished basket."
Seeing you sleeping so peacefully in my arms, I suddenly didn't dare ask about the birthmark on your back. I knew in my heart that the child probably wouldn't survive. Seeing your fair and tender skin, and how cute you are, I felt that you were sent by God to compensate me. I don't know where your father got such a child, and I didn't want to ask. I just raised you as my own daughter.
Xiao Yunying held Mu Lianrong's hand: "Mother, if you don't want to talk about it, then don't."
"Mother is alright." Mu Lianrong wiped away her tears. "Your father always thought I hadn't recognized that you weren't my child, and thought I had kept it a secret. I just asked him where he got you from, and he said that when your third aunt gave him the child, the baby had already stopped breathing. They tried to resuscitate the baby, but they couldn't. Your third aunt was in a hurry to take care of me, so she gave the baby to your father and asked him to go to your third grandfather to see if he could save the baby and get some medicine for me."
Your third grandfather also said that the child was already dead, and your father didn't dare to take him back, afraid that I would be heartbroken if I saw him.
Children who die young cannot be buried in the ancestral graveyard, so your father took the child directly to the western hill and buried him. On the way back, he heard a child crying, and when he went to look for the sound, he saw a wild dog carrying a swaddled baby under a tree.
I don't know what your dad was thinking at the time. After chasing away the stray dogs, he saw a newborn girl in swaddling clothes. He was so bewitched that he didn't even bother to find out who had abandoned the child, and just took her home.
He's quite cunning. He told me the baby was premature and weak, and shouldn't be seen by people easily. Meanwhile, he told your third grandfather and his wife that when he was carrying the baby up the mountain, the baby suddenly started gasping for breath. He took the baby into the city, but the doctor said the baby was too weak to be exposed to the wind and wouldn't let them see the baby. So he kept it a secret from both sides until the baby was a bit older before finally showing it to others.
The rest is self-explanatory and doesn't need to be elaborated upon.
Having a birthmark is a private matter here, especially since she is a girl. Even if she were an infant, no one would casually look at another child's birthmark, and her family would not talk about it around, so it was kept well hidden.
Xiao Yunying then remembered: "Where's my father? Didn't he come?"
Mu Lianrong sniffed: "Your father... was afraid you would blame him, so he didn't dare to come see you."
Xiao Yunying didn't understand: "Why blame him?"
Mu Lianrong spoke of this with a hint of guilt: "If he hadn't brought you back, you would be a young lady from a wealthy family now, instead of suffering in our peasant home."
Xiao Yunying felt a tightness in her chest. At that moment, Xiao Shanhai's first thought was still about her feelings:
“How could I blame my father? He shouldn’t think like that. If he hadn’t taken me in, I might have been eaten by wild dogs. Besides, my father and mother have raised me very well over the years. They have never skimped on my food, clothing, or daily necessities. Perhaps it’s not as good as the lives of those young ladies from wealthy families, but it’s the best my parents can give me. My older brothers, second brothers, and third sister, as well as my sisters-in-law, are all very good to me. I am very satisfied and happy.”
Mu Lianrong's tears started falling again: "The fact that you can think like this shows that your parents didn't love you for nothing..."
Xiao Yunying's eyes reddened as well. She held back her tears and wiped Mu Lianrong's tears with her sleeve: "Why is Mother crying again? You cry even more than Xin'er now. No wonder they say women are made of water. I didn't believe it before, but now that you're like this, I believe it."
Mu Lianrong was embarrassed by her teasing tone: "You brat, how dare you laugh at your mother?"
Fortunately, these few jokes were somewhat effective. Mu Lianrong calmed down and finally felt relieved.
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