0127 127 She won't be back tomorrow either.
Time continued to pass slowly as usual. No matter how the situation changed, it was time to eat today. Qi Shuyao went to the market to buy groceries by herself for the first time and managed to make a bowl of dark, unappetizing stuff.
As usual, she turned on the TV to listen to the news.
A person she didn't know or had never heard of took over as the boss last week, and everything seemed normal again.
News reports indicated that Qi Yu's home in Yangcheng had been ransacked, with many treasures found, similar to the ransacking of Guanxiang's home years ago. The official list was not released, but it was already circulating widely online. The news report ended with a shot of the Linhai Manor, now a ruin. Qi Shuyao put down her chopsticks and turned back to Yangcheng.
She hasn't been back for a long time. The trees are still trees, the road is still a road, but on the way home, the trees are all bare.
This was her first time returning to this seaside mansion in several years. Its former glory had long been destroyed, and in such a short time, it looked even more dilapidated than the old Shu family mansion that had been abandoned for decades.
She stepped over the wreckage, picked up a bag of bananas she had bought by the roadside, and went to the kitchen to make a banana pancake, a recipe Qi Yu had taught her before.
Xijin is famous for its bananas. During the harvest season, there are so many bananas that they are left on the ground uneaten. He picked them up and they have been together for many years.
In Jingyang, bananas are considered unseemly by many upper-class people and would never appear in their homes. However, they were never considered upper-class people and could not learn to eat such elegant and complicated foods. This was the only taste that belonged to them.
Qi Shuyao sat on the dusty, chipped table and finished the slightly burnt banana pancake. She stuffed the remaining two bananas into a bag and then staggered around the garden.
She could roughly tell that those things had been taken away, but she had never known they were so valuable before, and she wondered whose house they would end up in in the future.
She walked into the small living room, where they used to sit and drink tea. Now the tea table was smashed in two, and through the crack in the middle, she could see the greenish fragments on the ground.
That seems to be the celadon cup she bought at auction for millions. These people don't even know its value, they actually smashed it.
She stepped over the pile of shards and continued walking inside.
It's strange. Even though she spent the most time in her own room, she had the weakest impression of it. She felt that there were some changes in the room, but she couldn't figure out what had changed.
She took out her phone and scrolled through the "list of stolen goods" compiled by netizens. Her eyes immediately fell on the last few words in bold.
"Genuine Heavenly Palace Ceiling"
Qi Shuyao suddenly looked up at the empty ceiling of her room and realized what was going on.
It turned out to be genuine; she had always thought it was a fake.
It turns out she was the one who didn't know its value.
After walking around the house, she found that only the antique safe in the walk-in closet had not been moved. When she bought it at auction, she was told that this safe could only be opened with a special key and steps, otherwise it could not be opened even if you smashed it with an axe. Qi Shuyao had never tried it, but now there were indeed marks on the outside of the safe that had been chopped and smashed.
She pulled a plain, thin iron rod from a hidden compartment in the cabinet next to her, pushed aside one of the many round decorative dots on the leg, inserted the rod into the gap, and pried it upwards. The small door above popped open, revealing a keyhole. Then, she inserted the other end of the rod into the hole, rotated it to find the right direction, turned it clockwise three times, then counterclockwise one and a half times, pulled the rod out, inserted it into an even smaller hole below, turned it four times to the left, five times to the right, and pressed down hard. Only then could the door above be opened.
The door creaked open, revealing the jewelry inside, preserved exactly as it was. She picked up a box, inside which a blue diamond ring sparkled.
The ring, slipped onto her finger, still seemed as if it were made for her. She wore it and admired it repeatedly, looking at its shimmering light in the dark and its underlying color in the sunlight.
But she eventually put the diamonds back, neatly stacking them in boxes. The largest box on top contained the crown she received for her seventeenth birthday, which she had only worn once or twice over the years.
After that, this place will be sealed off, even the most secure safes will be pried open, the crown will see the light of day again, it will circulate at auctions again, and it will appear in some pretty little girl's pile of gifts again.
Before closing the door, she reached in and opened the large compartment on the lower level; it was empty.
Her dream was to fill this place up, but now she probably won't have the chance.
Finally bidding farewell to her youth, Qi Shuyao left with only two bananas in her arms. She turned from the backyard to the front yard, then walked through a sparse grove of trees, and finally left the place behind.
As she passed the meadow where she used to frolic with the lambs, the cry of a baby stopped her in her tracks. Stunned, she walked toward the source of the sound and saw a baby wrapped in a floral cloth in the meadow.
"Why are you here all alone? Where are your parents? Don't they want you anymore?"
I once heard Li Qing say that if a baby keeps crying, it's probably because it's hungry. Since she didn't have any other food on hand, she peeled a banana and helplessly put it to the baby's mouth.
The banana was bitten off, and the child thought it was a nipple being sucked on desperately. Unable to eat anything, the child opened his mouth and cried.
Qi Shuyao clumsily picked up the child, placed him horizontally in her arms, and gently patted him.
The banana was rubbed on the child's lips until it was mashed into a paste, which then flowed down the child's throat mixed with the child's saliva.
She understood, picked up the child, went back to the kitchen, washed a clean bowl, mashed the banana into a paste, and fed it to the child bite by bite.
Her awkward way of holding the baby wrinkled the baby's apron, revealing the little girl's naked body underneath. She went upstairs to find one of her own clothes for the baby to wear and gently held her in her arms.
“Baby, I’ve been waiting here for almost ten hours, and no one has come to find you. Have you been abandoned too? How about you stay with me from now on? You’re so small, only a few months old. My daughter is much older than you, but she doesn’t know me. How about you be my daughter too? I’ll be your mom.”
She took the little girl's hand and pressed it against her face, and the little girl actually laughed. She laughed along with her.
"It's settled then, you'll be following me from now on. Let me give you a name, you'll take Mom's surname. What should I call you? Mom isn't very good at naming, but I've heard a really nice name, and I want to give it to you. How about Qi Yuyao? Haha, do you like it? If you do, give Mom a smile..."
Children grow very quickly. From January to March, Qi Shuyao noticed that her daughter had grown significantly taller. She devoted all her attention to her daughter and paid no attention to anything else.
March is almost over this year. The weather is very muggy, with thunder rumbling. The rainy season is coming again.
Yao Yao was crying happily on the bed. She ran over quickly and saw her daughter holding her phone. It was the first time she had heard a phone ringing, and she was startled.
It had been a long time since anyone had called her, and she felt a little unaccustomed to it. When she answered, she just said "Hello" awkwardly.
"Yaoyao?"
Upon hearing the sound, she actually turned to look at the baby, and only responded after a moment of surprise.
It was Shi Heyu's voice; she remembered it.
"Uncle Bird?"
A long sigh of relief came from the other side.
"Thank goodness, it really is you. I thought I had the wrong person again."
"What's wrong?"
"Tell me what happened, where did you hide? I've been looking for you for so long. Now that the situation is gradually stabilizing, are you going to go find your dad?"
"Tell him to hide it well so it won't be discovered."
“Yaoyao, it’s his birthday soon. Aren’t you going back to see him? He’ll really be all alone then.”
Xiao Yaoyao started crying again, and Qi Shuyao immediately hung up the phone. After comforting the child, she sat on the edge of the bed and thought it over before sending a message to that number.
Tomorrow afternoon, my hometown of Yangcheng.
In the afternoon, Qi Shuyao put on a big hat and went out. Before leaving, she coaxed her daughter to sleep and quietly walked out. As soon as her hand touched the door, the little girl immediately burst into tears. After repeating this twice, she couldn't bear to leave her daughter and simply carried her out the door.
She walked into the courtyard again, went up to the second floor, and entered her bedroom as if she were home.
She put the child on the bed to play, then dug out her old toys from under the bed and stared blankly at the wall.
A moment later, the phone rang.
"Hello."
"The police are coming. Don't move or turn around. Listen to me."
"Where are you?"
"I'm safe for now. Go inside and hide for a bit. Push the bookshelf open and go to the secret room at the back."
Qi Shuyao got up, holding the child, but instead of going to the study, she went into the dressing room.
"I heard the birds chirping over there. Are you in the back hill?"
"The police won't be able to find me here. Wait until they leave and then come over. I'll take you away."
Where to?
"The place you once wanted to go, I bought the island you said you liked there."
"How come you're still so rich?"
"Did they hide inside?"
Do you wish I still loved you?
"What did you say?"
"I don't want to leave you, not for a day, not for an hour, not for a minute, I don't want to leave your side..."
"What’s wrong with you……"
"But all I want now is for you to live."
"If you hide quickly, we won't be separated."
"Do you think this is just my family's fate? My sister and younger sister both tried to escape with men, but why did they both fail? I think it would be safer for you to go alone."
As Qi Yu listened to the clanging and banging of the metal cabinet and other noises coming from his phone, he seemed to understand something.
Even if you don't stay with me?
Even if I'm not with you.
The police arrived and pinned Qi Shuyao down next to the safe, her hand reaching inside to rummage through the jewelry box.
She was pulled up and led away. Before leaving, she turned back and gave the safe a smile.
Qi Yu hid on the back mountain and watched the police leave with her before rushing into the house. He went straight to the walk-in closet, where all the jewelry on the upper level of the safe had been taken. He opened the lower door and saw a little girl with big eyes sitting inside, wearing one of Qi Shuyao's light purple gauze dresses.
He picked up the child and bounced him around with practiced ease.
"What are you doing here...?"
Qi Shuyao was taken to the police station, where police officers took turns accusing her of harboring criminals. The woman leaned back in the iron chair with her arms crossed, as if she were sitting in the softest sofa.
"Why should I protect him? Why should I protect a human trafficker who has held me captive since I was a child? He's not my father. I hate him so much. After you catch him, can you let me go over and slap him?"
She stared wide-eyed, tears streaming down her face. The forensic doctor came in, took a sample of her oral mucosa for DNA testing, and sighed as he saw her crying.
Later, she walked out of the police station openly and honestly.
That evening, she boarded a plane to Xijin.
Tu Mi carried the clothes she had collected from outside into the room. She saw her older sister still fast asleep on the bed. She had been asleep for almost three days, her brows furrowed and trembling from time to time.
She put down the clothes in her hand, walked over and hugged Qi Shuyao, gently patting her back.
She slept restlessly, having dreams that weren't coherent stories, just fragmented pieces. She would fly up and then fall back down at the highest point. She tried to open her eyes, but then remembered nothing.
In a hazy vision, she seemed to see Qi Yu adrift at sea, holding a little girl in his arms. The little girl was wearing a beautiful purple gauze dress, and birds were circling around him as he greeted them.
"Let Uncle Bird see how beautiful my daughter is. You don't know, do you? The cry of my daughter when she was born was the most beautiful melody I've ever heard."
He held the little girl's hand and waved to the birds, which flapped their wings in response.
"She looks like her mother, and her mother is also very beautiful. That year, she became my wife..."
Later, they got ashore. The little girl had gotten wet and developed a fever. Qi Yu carried her to get a shot. The nurse looked at Qi Yu, then at the little girl, and smiled as she spoke to him...
"Come on, Daddy will hug your waist and cover your eyes, okay? It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt, it's all done."
Qi Shuyao woke up with a start, her body drenched in cold sweat. She sat up abruptly, startling Tu Mi into standing there in shock.
"Sis, what's wrong..."
"It's nothing. What time is it?"
"Uh, it's four o'clock in the afternoon... but it's already April."
"It's April already. April is wonderful. The tassels are about to bloom."
"What tassels?"
“I brought back some seeds. I’ll go to the yard and plant them for you. This yard has everything, except for fringe trees. Once they bloom, we’ll go sell flowers.”
Do you sell them every year?
“They sell flowers every year, for ten years, twenty years. Even as you go from flower-selling sister to flower-selling auntie, to flower-selling grandma, to becoming a legend in Xijin, every April, someone will be selling flowers along the red wall. She has everything: cherry blossoms, peach blossoms, fringe flowers, and wisteria…”
The little girl ran along the red wall and plunged into the small pavilion surrounded by bouquets. She held up the money she had just gotten from her mother, her head tilted back.
"Auntie, I'd like two peach blossoms."
"Auntie wrapped it up beautifully for you. Here, take it."
"Thank you, Auntie."
The two neighbor ladies who always helped wrap the bouquets smiled as they watched the little girl run away, her two braids swaying. They smiled back.
"This girl's house must smell really good."
"She likes it."
"Oh my gosh, the news is out! It's that time of year again for leadership transition. I wonder who will be promoted this year."
"Isn't it all settled? It's a woman, and she's quite young, but she's very shrewd and has a powerful background. Do you know who trained her? It was Prince Shu from a long time ago, I heard he was her great-grandfather."
"The resources are good, but things are peaceful now. What's her name again?"
"Her name is Shu He. I think she looks a bit like the proprietress and her sister."
Someone came out from behind, took off their apron, and let their hair down.
"I'll go home and cook."
"Okay," the proprietress replied lazily from behind the counter.
She walked past the wall and told the little flower girl that she wouldn't be back tomorrow. She turned and kept walking forward without looking back; she might never come back.
(End of text)
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