Chapter 136
Braving the wind and snow, the two entered the gates of Jincheng at noon three days later. Upon learning of their daughter's return, Madam Ji was radiant with joy and surprise. Even Master Ji held Ji Wanshu's hand and showered her with concern. The family of three had been separated for many years and were overjoyed to be reunited. That night, they held a grand banquet to celebrate Ji Wanshu's return home. Except for Lu Huaiwei, all three of them got completely drunk and slept until nearly noon the next day.
As darkness fell, Ji Wanshu endured her headache and got out of bed. When she went out, she saw Lu Huaiwei taking medicine in the dining room and asked in surprise, "Are you sick?"
Lu Huaiwei looked at her with a smile and sighed softly, "Senior sister is too careless. I was coughing so badly yesterday, and you didn't even hear me?"
Ji Wanshu was stunned for a moment and said, "I didn't notice... Why didn't you say so earlier? If I had known you were still sick, I definitely wouldn't have made you come with me on this trip."
"Don't say that. I did take a lot of questions about Wen Chaoyu for you during the dinner last night," Lu Huaiwei said. "I don't know how to repay your trust in me. I can only do my best in these ways. You don't need to blame yourself."
She mentioned Wen Chaoyu, and Ji Wanshu's expression changed. She had wanted to talk to her about Wen Chaoyu, but she changed her mind and called a maid to bring some incense, candles and paper money. She said, "Then come with me to the cemetery again. I'm going to pay my respects to my elder sister."
Lu Huaiwei readily agreed.
The two left the house and headed towards a high mountain in the suburbs with ease. Winter was getting deeper and deeper, and the end of the year was just around the corner. The snow had been falling heavily these past few days, covering the mountains and fields in a silvery white. The wind was thick with frost. Ji Wanshu entered the cemetery and found her elder sister's tombstone, but she stopped inexplicably before she could get very close.
Seeing that she frowned for a moment, Lu Huaiwei glanced at the tombstone in the distance and asked, "What's wrong?"
Ji Wanshu frowned and remained silent, striding over before finally saying after a moment of silence, "Someone came here to pay their respects."
"What's wrong?" Lu Huaiwei thought she was making a fuss over nothing. "Perhaps your aunt and uncle came by."
“Impossible,” Ji Wanshu said decisively. “My parents never come here to pay their respects. They are old and cannot bear to see my elder sister’s grave. They also do not allow servants to come and help with the worship. When I am at home, I do not even dare to mention my elder sister. Whenever I do, they both become very sad. My elder sister is a taboo subject at home.”
Lu Huaiwei expressed her understanding, looking at the remaining traces of worship in front of the tombstone, and said, "But if it wasn't Uncle and Aunt's intention, who else could come? Look at these things, although they are covered by snow, the incense sticks are still in place. It seems that they were erected not long ago, at most a month or so. According to what Senior Sister said, no one else would come except Senior Sister. So who could it be?"
Ji Wanshu paused for a moment, then suddenly asked, "The poisoning of refugees in major cities happened a month ago?"
Lu Huaiwei nodded: "Yes."
Ji Wanshu then asked, "Besides Jincheng, are all the prefectures under the jurisdiction of Yunhua affected?"
Lu Huaiwei still answered, "Yes."
Ji Wanshu suddenly raised her eyelashes, her expression changing.
Lu Huaiwei looked at her, puzzled, and asked, "Senior Sister?"
Ji Wanshu closed her eyes, already guessing who had come to pay their respects, but she didn't tell Lu Huaiwei. She just let out a heavy sigh and squatted down to burn paper money.
Seeing this, Lu Huaiwei didn't ask any more questions, and the two of them fell silent. After the worship ceremony was over, Lu Huaiwei noticed Ji Wanshu's expression and said, "Speaking of which, I've come here with my senior sister quite a few times, but I still don't know why her elder sister passed away."
Thinking of how Wen Chaoyu came to Jincheng after leaving the Fiery Pool, protected the refugees here, and even came here to pay respects to her elder sister, Ji Wanshu felt complicated. After a long silence, she replied, "According to my parents, she passed away due to illness. I never met her. A few years after she left, my mother gave birth to me."
Noticing her sudden melancholy, Lu Huaiwei assumed that seeing her elder sister's tombstone had affected her mood, so she didn't ask any further questions. The two stood there for a while before returning the way they came to the Ji family mansion.
Upon entering the mansion, Master Ji was still fast asleep, and the smell of alcohol in the room had not yet dissipated. Madam Ji, however, was awake and taking a bath in the hot spring. Upon hearing this, Lu Huaiwei greeted her through the door, and then, unable to bear the headache and fever, returned to her room for a short rest. Ji Wanshu went into the hot spring to comb Madam Ji's hair. The mother and daughter rarely had such a time alone together, so they chatted for a while.
"Your father is truly overjoyed to see you back this time. How about staying for another two months before you leave?" Madam Ji finished dressing and tied her hair in front of the bronze mirror, her face beaming with undisguised joy.
Ji Wanshu looked at the white hairs that had appeared at her mother's temples, and said with her eyes lowered, "...Two days is fine, but two months is not. I have important matters to attend to and cannot stay any longer."
"You," Madam Ji said, seemingly having anticipated Ji Wanshu's response, but still feeling disappointed, "you're already this busy as the chief disciple. If you really become the sect leader in the future, won't your father and I truly become a lonely old couple?"
Ji Wanshu frowned, unsure how to answer.
"Alright, alright, you wild girl, you only love your sect and not your family," Madam Ji sighed, then smiled. "I forgot to take my coat just now, and I didn't ask a maid to come with me. Go to your room and get it for me. It's cold outside, so I won't go myself. You rarely come home, so let me, your mother, serve you for once and enjoy some comfort."
Ji Wanshu replied with an "okay," immediately put down the wooden comb, walked through the courtyard to the bedroom, pushed open the door, and saw that Master Ji was still fast asleep in bed, so she made a quiet noise, not wanting to wake him.
Ji Wanshu casually picked out a thick winter coat from the wardrobe and intended to leave, but then she felt a little ashamed when she thought that she had only stepped into her parents' room a handful of times over the years. She looked around at the room's layout and furnishings and found that the room was almost exactly the same as it had been when she was a child.
The jewelry on the dressing table was neatly arranged, and there were also many copied Buddhist scriptures. Looking at the traces of her mother's life and the jeweled hairpins and ornaments, Ji Wanshu thought of the white hair at Madam Ji's temples and couldn't help but feel more guilty.
She looked around and walked around the room a few times with light steps. Suddenly she remembered that Madam Ji had specially added a cabinet, which contained all the things she used when she was a child. Ji Wanshu had an idea, lifted the curtain and went to the outer room. Sure enough, she saw the cabinet in the corner of the west wall.
She opened the cabinet door, and the first thing that caught her eye was a small iron sword—the first sword she received from her mentor, Sister Xu Lianzhi, when she first entered Yunhua Palace.
More than ten years have passed, and the sword remains as gleaming as ever, without a trace of rust. It was clearly meticulously maintained by Madam Ji. Ji Wanshu was deeply moved. She twirled the small iron sword a few times, chuckled to herself, and then found many other trinkets inside. There were bamboo grasshoppers, children's footballs, and wooden figurines. Basically, anything she had played with as a child had been collected here by Madam Ji. Even the little clothes she wore when she was a few years old were still kept. Piece by piece, they pieced together Ji Wanshu's cherished childhood.
Thinking back on the past five years of seclusion, and the fact that her elderly parents had no one to care for them, Ji Wanshu felt a mix of emotions upon seeing these things. She sighed deeply, put the small iron sword back in her hand, and was about to close the cabinet door to look for Madam Ji when she suddenly spotted a locked wooden box in the distance.
What could be so precious that it needs to be locked? Ji Wanshu was curious and took out the wooden box. Unexpectedly, the box was not only very light, but the lock on it was also old. Ji Wanshu only touched it accidentally, and the lock broke with a "click" and fell to the ground.
Ji Wanshu reacted quickly and caught the lock in mid-air. She looked down and saw that there was only a thin piece of paper inside. It was obviously old and very fragile. It was yellowed all over and the writing on it was blurred and difficult to read.
Ji Wanshu reached out and picked it up, holding it up to her eyes to examine it closely for a while. After seeing what was written on it, her expression suddenly changed drastically, her eyes filled with shock, and she froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.
With a loud crash, the wooden box in his hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces in an instant. Although the sound was not loud, it woke up Master Ji in the inner room.
"Who has been so clumsy as to break things again?" Old Master Ji, still half asleep, lifted the curtain and came out. After recognizing Ji Wanshu, he softened his tone and asked, "Oh... it's Wanshu. What are you looking at over there?"
Ji Wanshu seemed not to have heard what he said, and after a long pause, she suddenly turned around, clutching the paper.
Seeing the intense anger and hatred in her eyes, Master Ji was naturally a little suspicious. Just as he was about to ask another question, he suddenly noticed something in Ji Wanshu's hand. Master Ji's pupils immediately contracted, and the words he was about to say were stuck in his throat.
The father and daughter stared at each other with different expressions, both speechless for a long time. After a while, the door was gently pushed open, and Madam Ji, wearing only a thin undergarment, shivered from the cold.
"Wanshu? Where are the clothes I asked you to get for your mother?" Madam Ji entered the room with a smile, without looking towards Ji Wanshu. As soon as she entered, she saw Master Ji with a bewildered expression and couldn't help but ask in confusion, "When did you wake up, Master? What... what's wrong with you?"
Master Ji moved his lips, but couldn't utter a single word. His face was deathly pale. He clutched his chest and took two steps back. Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, he jumped up and down, shouting at Madam Ji, "Look what you've done! I told you to burn that thing back then, but you wouldn't listen! You insisted on keeping it as a souvenir! And now...and now! Go explain it to her yourself!"
Madam Ji was completely bewildered and had not yet understood what had happened. Her gaze wandered and she finally noticed Ji Wanshu standing in the other corner. When Madam Ji saw her appearance and the paper in her hand, her heart tightened instantly, as if someone had poured a bucket of snow water over her head, and her whole body felt cold.
Before Ji Wanshu could even begin her questioning, tears welled up in her red eyes. She clutched the paper so tightly it was almost torn apart, but she couldn't utter a sound.
"Wan Shu... Wan Shu!" Madam Ji was so frightened by Ji Wan Shu that her face turned pale. She walked towards Ji Wan Shu in a panic and said in a trembling voice, "This... why did you go through the things in this cabinet? Give them back to your mother."
Ji Wanshu tensed up, her eyes blazing with fury. She gritted her teeth and asked, "I'm not your biological child. I was adopted from outside. Why didn't you tell me that?"
Hearing this from inside the room, Master Ji flew into a rage and smashed things. Madam Ji, startled by the noise, stammered, "Wanshu, let me explain! I didn't mean to hide it from you. Who wants to know they're not their parents' biological child? I didn't tell you for your own good, because I was afraid you'd be heartbroken—"
"Shut up! You two are clearly hiding this from me on purpose!" Ji Wanshu was so angry that her blood was boiling and the veins on her neck were bulging. "It clearly says Guanyin Temple here. You adopted me from Guanyin Temple. Now answer me yourself, is it true or not!"
Madam Ji looked conflicted and said painfully, "Yes... you were adopted from the Guanyin Temple, but so what? Your parents love you so much, and haven't they treated you like their own daughter all these years? Wanshu, you must be having a hard time accepting this news, and I understand how you feel, but please don't upset yourself. Actually, it's not a big deal. Even if you were adopted, your parents still love you just the same, don't they?"
Ji Wanshu gave a sorrowful smile, her body unsteady, and she staggered back two steps, feeling a chill in her heart.
To this day, she still clearly remembers what Wen Chaoyu said to her at the Ziwei Sect headquarters. Wen Chaoyu claimed that her parents were merchants and the richest people in a certain city. She said that her family fell into poverty after she was born, and later she was abandoned by her parents at a clinic because of a serious illness. It was only when the Nangong father and daughter passed by that they took her back to the Ziwei Sect and saved her life.
She also mentioned that her mother had not conceived again for several years after abandoning her, so she adopted a young girl from the Guanyin Temple. Now that she thinks about it, wasn't that young girl Ji Wanshu? And wasn't the richest man in the city their Ji family of Jincheng?
No wonder Ji Wanshu couldn't find any prominent families with the surname Wen before going into seclusion. It turns out there were no such families. Wen Chaoyu must have changed her name after going to the Ziwei Sect. Her original surname wasn't Wen, but Ji!
No wonder Wen Chaoyu went to such lengths to avoid her. Wen Chaoyu had secretly visited her parents at the Ji family home several times; how could she not know who her adopted daughter was? She had known all along that the person who had taken her place was Ji Wanshu! For so many years, she had kept this secret, refusing to reveal the reason for her departure despite Ji Wanshu's pursuit, and even now she still wouldn't explain. So... so the truth was actually this absurd!
The door was still open, and the cold wind rushed into the room, wild and unrestrained. Ji Wanshu was in tears, and in the end, she crumpled the birth certificate.
Madam Ji was shivering from the cold and didn't even think to put on a coat. She quickly approached Ji Wanshu, took her hand, and said earnestly, "Wanshu, calm down first. Not many people know about this. Only your father and I know. When your mother brought you back from the Guanyin Temple, you were only a few days old. It was a pilgrim who stayed at the temple who kept you. We are destined to be together. As soon as you saw me, you stopped crying and even smiled. Ever since I lost your older sister, I haven't been able to conceive. When I saw you, I was so happy. Your father also felt a connection with you. He liked you too. We discussed it and brought you back that very day."
Ji Wanshu bit her lip tightly, trying her best to hold back her tears. After a long while, she said in a deep voice, "Then how did my eldest sister die?"
Madam Ji looked at her and said, "Are you sick? Didn't I tell you before?"
"What illness?" Ji Wanshu asked coldly, "What serious illness did she die from that you two have been forbidden from mentioning for so many years, and you even refused to go to her cemetery to pay your respects!"
Madam Ji hesitated for a moment before replying, "It happened so many years ago, how could my mother remember clearly? In short, she couldn't be cured no matter what we did, and she passed away when she was just over ten years old."
Ji Wanshu sneered: "Is it that you can't remember, or that you simply don't dare to tell me the truth?"
Madam Ji was taken aback: "What are you saying?"
"You know perfectly well what I'm saying!" Ji Wanshu said bitterly. "You listened to the nonsense of the wandering Taoist priest and concluded that my elder sister was doomed and would bring misfortune to her relatives and friends, so you abandoned her in the clinic and ignored her, wanting to watch her die!"
Upon hearing this, Madam Ji was shocked and her lips trembled as she could not reply. However, Master Ji rushed out in a rage, cursing, "You scoundrel! What kind of child speaks to their parents like you! How can you be so unfilial! Your elder sister has passed away due to illness, which is common knowledge. Just ask any servant and you'll know. Where did you hear such nonsense!"
Ji Wanshu scoffed: "Where did you hear that? Your own daughter told me herself, of course."
Master Ji raised his voice and said, "Don't talk nonsense! Your elder sister has been dead for so many years. Did she appear in your dreams or come looking for you as a ghost?"
"Don't you know whether she's dead or not?" Ji Wanshu stared directly at Master Ji, her tone icy. "I've always found it strange that you never concern yourselves with matters of the martial world, and you don't even know many people from our Yunhua Palace, yet you know Wen Chaoyu's identity like the back of your hand. After she returned to the Ziwei Sect, you suddenly stopped me from finding her. I ask you, did Wen Chaoyu meet with you before she suddenly left Yunhua Palace? Did you let her go?"
The moment she mentioned Wen Chaoyu's name, Master Ji and Madam Ji were shocked and their expressions changed drastically. Before they could answer, Ji Wanshu knew the answer just by looking at her parents' expressions. She stuffed the birth certificate into her bosom, suddenly drew her sword, turned around, and slashed fiercely at the cabinet. Two silver sword lights flashed by, and the cabinet was cut in half in an instant. The contents inside immediately rolled to the ground, turning it into a mess.
"Wan Shu—!" Madam Ji cried out in grief, rushing towards the broken cabinet. "You may be angry, you may resent us, but you shouldn't have destroyed these things..."
“This is not mine,” Ji Wanshu said, holding his sword, his eyes bloodshot. “This should have belonged to Wen Chaoyu. I took everything from her, and this is what I owe her.”
Master Ji flew into a rage, pointing at Ji Wanshu and shouting, "You...you wretched child!"
The author has something to say: I just wanted to report to everyone that sending red envelopes was useless before, as it didn't help me level up. But today the administrator finally replied to me.
The reason I didn't upgrade is: I initially recharged 30, but after deducting the fee, I only had 29 left. So I immediately recharged another 10, making a total of 40. Then the administrator told me that my two recharges were both less than 30 (a single recharge must be at least 30), so I couldn't upgrade. So today I simply recharged another 50, and finally I upgraded.
Earth! Poke! Mouse! Roar! Howl!
But I'm rich now. I'll send out another red envelope the day Qiuqiu and her uncle meet again (tears welling up).
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