Editor: Misty Cloud Translations
It was her, she never voiced it, fearing they couldn’t bear it, and not knowing how to broach the subject.
Perhaps what worried her most was that once they knew the truth, they might treat her like a stranger!
And now, witnessing this scene in the back mountains, she knew she owed them an explanation.
She drew a deep breath, suppressing her surging emotions, and watched Feng Xiao still speaking. She called out softly, "Father."
The sudden sound of ’Father’ startled Feng Xiao. He whipped his head around and saw the crimson figure erging from behind the tree. His eyes narrowed sharply. "Little Jiu? What are you doing here?"
He stood up, instinctively shielding the na on the stone tablet with his body.
Perhaps, deep down, he didn’t want to face the truth.
Feng Jiu stepped forward, her gaze fixed on the stone tablet. She asked softly, "Father, when did you find out?"
"Little Jiu..." Feng Xiao looked at her, unsure how to respond.
Feng Jiu walked up to the grave, her eyes fixed on the na carved into the stone tablet. She said, " "Father, didn’t you want to know what happened?" Her gaze shifted from the stone to Feng Xiao’s face. "I still owe you an explanation."
Feng Xiao looked at her, then at the stone, finally saying, "Years ago, I learned you weren’t Ge’er. You were Little Jiu. That person told back then—that you had taken over Ge’er’s body."
His voice paused as he gazed at the stone. "But after everything we went through back then, I know you genuinely treated us as family and protected us with all your heart. You also considered yourself a mber of the Feng family, never doing anything to betray the Fengs or us. So I believe—regardless of what led you to beco my daughter—that you didn’t forcibly take Ge’er’s body."
Hearing this, Feng Jiu smiled faintly, revealing a trace of emotion. "Truthfully, all these years, I’ve wanted to tell you this, yet I never dared to speak."
She looked at Feng Xiao and continued, "Back then, Qingge was hard by Su Ruoyun. Her face was disfigured, she was poisoned to destroy her cultivation, and she was sold into a brothel. They wanted her to suffer every tornt before dying. Qingge fought back fiercely, but in the end, she still died."
"When I awoke, my soul had already rged with this body. I killed the one who hard Qingge. But when I sat before the mirror and saw that disfigured face, a fragnt of her soul wept within my mind."
Seeing his fists clenched tightly within his sleeves and his heaving chest, she sighed inwardly and said, " That fragnt of soul was Qingge. She told she was hard by Su Ruoyun and wanted to avenge her. She also said she couldn’t let go of you all—she hoped I would care for you in her place. I promised her I would, so that fragnt of her soul rged into my mories. That’s why her mories exist within mine. From that mont on, I beca her."
Feng Xiao exhaled deeply. As she recounted the events in detail, a sharp ache gripped his heart.
His daughter! She had died so helplessly, a failure of his own fatherly duty. Had he protected her, perhaps that tragedy could have been averted.
"As for what happened afterward, you all know the story," Feng Jiu said, looking at him. "But Father, are you planning to tell Grandfather and Mother about this?"
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