Chapter 80 Reunion with Parents and Brother
Bai Yan, lying on the bed, has not eaten or drunk anything since falling into a coma, yet his condition is surprisingly good.
For several days and nights in a row, Jiang Yuzhi managed to weave the map of the state into a piece the size of a palm.
The progress is rapid, and the outline of the land can still be vaguely discerned.
Jiang Yuzhi stopped and examined it carefully.
The images on the cloth changed slowly.
Jiang Yuzhi felt a moment of disorientation, and in her daze, she found herself in another world.
Not far away, a young man dressed in coarse linen clothes stopped and then strode towards her.
"Xiao Zhi? Is that you?" The young man stopped a few steps away from Jiang Yuzhi and carefully looked her over.
Jiang Yuzhi was all too familiar with the person who came.
She instinctively took half a step forward, her voice trembling uncontrollably, "...Brother?"
"Hey! My brother's here."
Jiang Yuchuan had not seen his sister since he arrived here, and now that he had suddenly seen her, he felt both joy and worry.
He and his parents are stuck here and can't leave.
They thought their younger sister had been reincarnated long ago, which was why she hadn't come here with them.
Now, my younger sister has also arrived. I wonder if something has happened outside again.
Jiang Yuzhi didn't care about anything else; all she knew was that her family, whom she had been searching for, had reappeared before her.
Even if it's a dream, she temporarily forgets everything and indulges in it for a while.
Just like when she was a child welcoming her older brother home, Jiang Yuzhi rushed into Jiang Yuchuan's arms.
The tears that had been welling up in her eyes all smeared onto Jiang Yuchuan's clothes.
She completely forgot about the idea that the weeping of ghosts would deplete her energy; all the longing and remorse she had felt over the years erupted at this moment.
"Xiao Zhi, why are you crying? Your brother is here." It would be a lie to say that Jiang Yuchuan wasn't moved, but in front of his sister, he still wanted to maintain his authority as an older brother, so he simply hugged his sister and gently patted Jiang Yuzhi's thin back.
"Alright, alright, what kind of behavior is this?" Jiang Yuchuan gently wiped away the tears on her cheeks. "Your parents are here too, I suppose you miss them too."
Perhaps it was a sense of trepidation at the prospect of returning home, or something else entirely, but Jiang Yuzhi hesitated.
"Father, Mother...Brother, do you blame me?"
Her voice trailed off, and Jiang Yuchuan almost couldn't hear what she was saying. "Why should I blame you? Xiaozhi, don't overthink it. Come with me to see them."
"……good."
The brother and sister walked one after the other, with Jiang Yuzhi holding tightly to her brother's sleeve, afraid of being left behind.
A thatched cottage is built against the mountainside in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides.
A man was doing carpentry work in the yard. He looked rather unskilled; the four legs of his small stool were all different lengths. He kept muttering to himself, "How strange! Yu Chuan made it like this too, how come mine turned out like this..."
Perhaps he was too focused, for he didn’t notice the two siblings approaching.
"father."
"Yu Chuan is back."
The moment Jiang's father looked up, a familiar figure came into view. "Xiao Zhi?" The stone axe in his hand fell to the ground in response.
Hearing the noise, Jiang's mother came out from inside the house and said, "Oh dear, this axe was painstakingly sharpened by Yu Chuan, how could it be... Xiao Zhi?"
Jiang Yuzhi hesitated before stepping out from behind Jiang Yuchuan and timidly greeted her parents, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, "Father, Mother."
"Hey! Don't just stand there, Yu Chuan, quickly take your sister inside." Jiang's mother was the first to come to her senses, her eyes already brimming with tears. She wiped them away without a care and directed her son to take care of their daughter.
The family of four was reunited. Jiang's parents couldn't bear to take their eyes off Jiang Yuzhi for a moment, afraid that if they looked away for even a moment, they would lose sight of their daughter again.
"Xiao Zhi, come and have some water," Jiang's mother brought over a rough wooden cup, the water inside still steaming. "It's not like home here, there's only some plain water. Xiao Zhi, please make do with this."
Jiang Yuzhi took the cup; it wasn't as sharp as she had imagined, and it was very carefully polished. "It's alright, Mother. I'm just happy to see you all again."
"It's good enough that our family can be together." Jiang's mother patted Jiang Yuzhi's head, soothing her daughter's inexplicable unease.
After sitting quietly for a while, Jiang's father asked as if he had just woken up from a dream, "How did Xiaozhi get here? Look, even your brother didn't tell us."
Jiang Yuchuan originally wanted to wait until everyone calmed down before getting to the point, but since his father had already asked, he went along with the conversation.
"We were just going out of the valley as usual to see if there was a way in, but we didn't expect Xiaozhi to suddenly appear where we came in. It was both surprising and delightful."
Surprised and delighted? Jiang's father and mother exchanged a knowing glance. Their daughter had somehow ended up here, so were they all trapped? Looking at their daughter's appearance, she was almost unchanged from before her death, except that her once bright eyes were now stained red. How could they not be worried?
"I...it's a long story." Jiang Yuzhi was suddenly faced with her family and didn't know how to explain it to them.
"It's alright, Xiao Zhi, take a rest. It must have taken quite a while to get here. Let Dad show you around first."
Jiang Yuzhi's unease was temporarily soothed by her father's fondly remembered care.
Jiang's father recounted all his experiences over the years to his daughter in great detail.
After the executioner carried out the beheading on the guillotine, they didn't wait for the ghost messengers to come and meet them; instead, they arrived here in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Yuchuan and his parents searched for a long time in this unknown place, but they could not find any trace of Jiang Yuzhi.
They were both puzzled and hopeful.
If this is the afterlife, and Xiaozhi didn't come, wouldn't there still be a glimmer of hope?
Unable to find a way out and with no one else around, the family decided to settle down in a suitable place.
After entering this place, their clothes somehow changed into the simplest, most primitive coarse linen clothing.
The Jiang family is in the clothing and fabric business, so they know everything about fabrics.
This linen garment is clearly made of ramie; the workmanship is rough, with no unnecessary processing.
Because they were no longer in need of food and drink after becoming ghosts, the Jiang family lived a life of ease under the open sky for a while.
But it's just too boring.
So, under Jiang's mother's guidance, the ghost family picked up some of their old habits from when they were human.
Thatched huts are one of their masterpieces.
Choosing a flat spot with abundant water and grass, Jiang Yuchuan ground out two stone axes, secured them with grass vines, and barely managed to build a small hut with his father.
Unfortunately, Jiang's father was really bad at carpentry and could only do trivial tasks such as passing tools and chopping firewood.
The house and most of the furniture inside were completed by Jiang Yuchuan.
The long days were unbearable, so Jiang's father diligently studied carpentry.
Jiang Yuchuan then polished the furniture smooth one by one, and went out every now and then to check if there was any other movement.
Jiang's mother collected vines and flowers from the surrounding area to decorate the house and weave small items.
Even though Jiang's father spoke casually and nonchalantly, Jiang Yuzhi couldn't help but feel heartbroken.
If someone were trapped for no reason, they would probably go crazy.
On the way here, Jiang Yuzhi had already noticed that there were no small animals nearby, and not even a single fish in the river. Such a strange place, yet her parents and brother had lived here for many years.
Guilt almost overwhelmed her.
"I'm sorry, Father, Mother, and Brother. If it weren't for me... if it weren't for..." The tears that had just been held back were about to flow again.
Jiang's mother was heartbroken and hugged Jiang Yuzhi tightly, gently stroking her daughter's thin back. "Alright, alright, my little darling, no one is blaming you. Xiao Ji is also pitiful. Your father and I rescued him together, didn't we? And your brother helped you bring him in too. We just helped a poor child together. If you really want to blame someone, blame that person in a high position who is blinded by greed."
Having lived a primitive life for so long, Jiang's mother no longer held back in her speech.
"Father has never blamed you. Our Xiaozhi is so outstanding. It's just that we were unlucky back then. Our family got caught up in it, and it was not easy to get out of it, let alone with your aunt still in the palace."
Upon hearing "aunt," Jiang Yuzhi realized with a start, "Yes, why are my parents and brother here, but my aunt is nowhere to be seen?"
"...Auntie, isn't she here?"
“I’ve never seen it before.” Jiang Yuchuan frowned, also puzzled.
"Don't worry, I will find Auntie." Jiang Yuzhi couldn't bear to see her family sad, and in order to prove her current strength, she told them everything that happened after her death.
Upon hearing this, Jiang's parents were filled with heartache.
Those red eyes seem to be proof of the daughter's journey.
Besides feeling sorry for him, Jiang Yuchuan also sensed something else in his voice.
"So, this is inside the Sheji Map?"
Jiang Yuzhi nodded. "I've only finished a small part of it. Perhaps the Sheji Tu has a carrier now, and the inner and outer worlds have a connecting path. But I don't know how to get out."
Before he could finish speaking, a white shadow flashed past the window.
Just then, Jiang Yuzhi was sitting facing the window, and she thought she was seeing things.
The white figure leaped straight onto the windowsill, squatted down, and stared intently at Jiang Yuzhi.
It's a little rabbit.
How could there be rabbits here?!
Jiang Yuzhi stared blankly and said, "Brother, rabbit..."
"What rabbit?"
Jiang Yuchuan, his father, and his mother all turned around.
The rabbit wasn't afraid of ghosts at all and sat calmly on the windowsill.
Seeing that none of the ghosts present were moving, it even jumped into the house and rubbed against Jiang Yuzhi's clothes, as if it wanted to take her somewhere.
Jiang Yuzhi felt a familiar scent on the rabbit and immediately bent down to pick it up.
The rabbit didn't let her have her way. It hopped and skipped outside and waited for her to catch up.
"I want to go and see."
Jiang's parents initially disagreed, as the appearance of the rabbit was too strange, and they worried about what would happen if their daughter followed it and something went wrong.
Jiang Yuchuan, however, felt that this might be an opportunity. "Father, Mother, I'll go with Xiaozhi. You two wait at home."
With their son accompanying them, Jiang's parents reluctantly agreed.
The rabbit was clever enough to let Jiang Yuchuan walk with it for a while, until they reached the foot of a mountain that Jiang Yuchuan had never seen before. Then the rabbit refused to go any further and stubbornly stood at the foot of the mountain, waiting for Jiang Yuzhi to understand its meaning.
Jiang Yuzhi quickly gave in, "Brother, why don't you wait for me here? I promise nothing will happen. I should know this little rabbit."
"No, I can't feel at ease without you." Having been separated from his sister for so long, Jiang Yuchuan was certainly not as calm as he appeared. Thinking of the dangerous things his sister had mentioned, Jiang Yuchuan wished he could keep her out of his sight for even a moment.
The little paper doll in the bag came in handy again. "If I encounter danger, the paper doll will lead my brother to me."
“But what I consider a danger might be a minor matter in your eyes.”
Before she could finish the rest of her sentence, Jiang Yuzhi hugged Jiang Yuchuan tightly before quickly letting go. "Trust me, brother. I want to take you all to see the outside world again."
Jiang Yuchuan silently accepted the paper figure and said nothing more, which was taken as tacit agreement.
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