Do You Recognize This?

Talking about one’s sad past was always so unpleasant.

But Madam Gu didn’t seem bothered by the two men’s awkwardness and continued speaking, “I thought I was considered one of the more intelligent girls of my age. Every time I went out, everyone would compliment me for being an obedient and sensible girl. I helped my mother to cook and handle the household, I knew how to handle the home’s expenditures, I could understand accounting, and I was excellent at embroidery… My father had a lot of concubines and after seeing how much my mother cried, I felt that getting married was meaningless. I felt that I could feed myself and my children all by myself… I had completely overestimated myself.”

“I knew nothing about the schemes of the women in the house, so how could I possibly fight against my elders? To them, I was like a shallow plate. All my thoughts were plain for them to see. I couldn’t keep that child at all.”

“It was only after I gave up, I stopped protesting, I listened to my elders, got properly married, got used to my new life, learned new things, fought to grow and mature, secure my position in the Ji family, get over the pain of losing my husband, putting in every ounce of effort to keep what my son and I deserve… It was only then, eight years ago, that I finally got a breather. And that’s when I began to search for that child.”

Song Caitang met with Zhao Zhi’s gaze. They had the same thought in mind.

Eight years. That was a very long time.

Madam Gu looked down at her teacup, her eyes reddening slightly. “I thought that if I did this secretly and slowly, nobody would find out. But my family had been prepared for this all this time. They erased all traces of what they did and cleaned up every clue. They forced the Lvs to shift several times and even left people there to just sit there and wait for the day I tried to investigate, and they would prevent me from doing further investigations or lead me in the wrong direction.”

“Initially, I didn’t notice that all of this was happening. But after searching for some years with no result even though I had obtained solid clues, I guessed that it was my own family who was preventing me from getting any further. So, I went back to confront them, and they actually admitted it immediately. They said that the child and I were ill fated, that doing this was the best for everyone. That everyone would be able to live peacefully if I didn’t try to search for her and she didn’t try to search for me. They told me very directly that initially, they knew exactly where the child and her adoptive parents were. But later on, they decided to leave it to their subordinates and couldn’t be bothered, because they felt knowing about it was beneath them. At the same time, they refused to let me continue my investigation.”

The other three in the room got it now.

Qi Yan was the most impatient, “So, even though you tried so hard for so many years, you still couldn’t find her at all.”

Madam Gu nodded.

“That day was a coincidence. I ran into her at Zhaoze Temple during the ritual.”

Song Caitang asked, “Lv Mingyue?”

“Yes.”

Madam Gu stared somewhat blankly at the tea in her cup.

“You were right, Miss Song. Mothers are somehow linked to their daughters. Some coincidences are real.”

“There were a lot of people at that time and Lv Mingyue had accidentally bumped into me. The young lady had some pride, and from her temperament, I knew she had been spoiled by her family from a young age. She was unable to fully understand the situation and did not speak tactfully, so she will definitely be on the losing end after she gets married. I didn’t dislike her, I just felt that it was a pity. She wasn’t stupid, just lazy to think and lazy to put in the effort. I was a little worried for her.”

Madam Gu started to tear up a little. “Then, I began to wonder: why was I worried about a stranger? I normally wouldn’t bother to even look at a random stranger twice. So, this is what it means to share a bond with someone…”

“She lost her balance when she washed her hands and stumbled to one side. My maid happened to be right beside her, so she helped her up and I noticed the birthmark on her arm.

Birthmark?

Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan both looked a little surprised, yet not surprised at the same time.

Song Caitang had inspected Lv Mingyue’s body, so she could remember such things well. “The bright red butterfly shaped one on her right forearm?”

Both the shape and color were fairly unique and rare.

Madam Gu’s voice trembled slightly and she sounded a little excited, “Yes… I gave birth to her, so even though she wouldn’t look the same as she did as a baby, that birthmark… that wouldn’t change. It can’t.”

“I felt as though my heart had been struck by a hammer and I nearly collapsed. But I am no longer that young and weak woman I was 18 years ago. I quickly straightened out my thoughts and stopped her from walking away.”

“I pretended to apologize for knocking into her earlier and started some small talk with her.”

“She seemed a little annoyed with me, but did not try to push me away. She answered my questions with a smile and wasn’t rude. I managed to slip in some questions about how old she was this year, where her hometown was, how her parents treated her, and she answered every question. The more questions I asked her, the more I realized that she had gone through the same things as what my daughter would have gone through.”

“She doesn’t look like me, but she has my mother’s eyes. The more I stared at her, the more I couldn’t help but become more certain that she’s my daughter.”

Madam Gu shut her eyes and tears rolled down her cheeks.

Song Caitang held out her handkerchief and Madam Gu took it and dabbed her tears away.

Madam Gu took a few deep breaths before being able to speak again, “There wasn’t a lot of time and I couldn’t do much more. I could only keep my eye on her at all times. I was afraid that my son would notice, so I even found a reason to send him elsewhere.”

“I saw that she and the victim… His name was… Lin Feizhou? I noticed they were walking very close to one another. They looked very much in love, it was written all over their faces. I wasn’t there to watch her grow up, and she’s already reached a marriageable age…”

Her tears kept flowing.

This time, the room remained silent for a long, long time. Everyone gave Madam Gu time to calm down again.

After she had calmed down, Zhao Zhi broke the silence and asked, “What happened after that? You saw Lv Mingyue murder Lin Feizhou?”

Madam Gu frowned slightly. “The monks were giving out amulets and everything happened too quickly. Everyone rushed forward at the same time and everything became a blur. I couldn’t help but try to squeeze my way toward her. I don’t know why either. Perhaps… I was afraid that she might get hurt?”

“It was a cloudy day and there wasn’t much light. The main hall of the temple was fully lit with candles, but a strong gust of wind put everything out and I couldn’t see anything at all for a moment. By the time the candles were relighted…”

“I saw that she was holding a bloodied dagger and staring in shock at the person who was slowly collapsing onto the floor. Lin Feizhou had not died yet. His eyes were filled with shock and hatred.”

“I didn’t even have time to think and I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing or not. I instinctively slapped the dagger out of her hands and while nobody was looking, I reached out and got a bit of blood from his chest on my hands. Then when people started screaming and moving aside, I continued to stand there and said I killed him.”

Madam Gu closed her eyes. “Like you said, Miss Song, I gave birth to her but never took care of her. She doesn’t owe me anything, but I owe her everything. I’d never done anything for her all her life, so I thought I could at least do this one last thing for her.”

Song Caitang asked, “You took the rap for Lv Mingyue. How did she react?”

“Because there were so many people and everyone was a witness to what they saw and what I had said, there was no way I could escape and I couldn’t think of any way to get myself out of this, so after the authorities arrived, I admitted to the murder. I think she… was probably very scared and instinctively tried to hide herself. The place was huge and we were all there for quite some time, but she never even threw me a glance and did not say anything at all.”

“But I can understand why she did that and I don’t blame her. After all… that’s exactly what I wanted.”

Song Caitang immediately looked at Zhao Zhi.

He happened to look her way too and nodded.

Once again, they had reached the same conclusion even without discussing it.

Lv Mingyue had probably been confused at first. Why would Madam Gu take the rap for her even though she had clearly seen the dagger in her hands? Then, she figured it out.

She knew all this time that the Lvs were not her biological parents. Her biological parents were someone else and she had been hoping to find them. Madam Gu’s actions had made it very obvious who she was.

Why would a random stranger suddenly be willing to sacrifice everything for her? Taking the rap for a murder meant that her reputation would be completely destroyed and she would be sentenced to death.

There was no way anyone would do that.

This Madam Gu… had to be her biological mother.

Lv Mingyue longed to see her biological parents, which was something a child would naturally want. But at the same time, she felt hatred toward them. She would be angry at them for abandoning her, for not wanting her.

She was an innocent party who had the right to be angry and hateful. But she didn’t know that Madam Gu had no choice in the matter.

Humans were great at forgiving themselves. In such times, Lv Mingyue would find a thousand and one reasons to justify her escape. Reasons like this weren’t her fault, that she deserves the chance to escape, that Madam Gu owed her for abandoning her.

But she had been spoiled and sheltered for many years and wasn’t very mature at all. So, when the way she had imagined things to be clashed with reality, she wasn’t able to accept it all at once. Her stress levels increased and she became a lot more sensitive and emotional.

However, Song Caitang was still doubtful. Was Lin Feizhou’s killer really Lv Mingyue?

She looked straight into Madam Gu’s eyes. “You saw Lv Mingyue stab Lin Feizhou in the chest with your own eyes?”

“No, I didn’t.” Madam Gu seemed to have suddenly realized something. Her eyelid twitched and she shook her head solemnly. “I only saw her holding a dagger covered in blood, while Lin Feizhou was clutching his chest and staring in disbelief at her. Her face was pale and she looked panicky, as though she was too scared to even react.”

In other words, Madam Gu had not witnessed Lv Mingyue murder Lin Feizhou. She hadn’t even seen if Lv Mingyue was the one who pulled that dagger out of the victim’s chest or not.

If the killer was really Lv Mingyue, then all of this would make sense. But if she wasn’t… then Madam Gu was going through all of this for nothing.

But there was no way she could get any more details about this from Madam Gu, so she changed the topic.

“Then, do you know that Lin Feizhou is actually a swindler?”

“A swindler?” Madam Gu was shocked. “What did he want out of her? Lv Mingyue was just an ordinary girl from an ordinary family, and she just looked a little prettier than most but wasn’t especially beautiful. What would he have wanted out of her?”

Madam Gu knew nothing about Lin Feizhou. She had happened to bump into Lv Mingyue at the temple and had decided to take the rap for Lv Mingyue on the spur of the moment. This whole thing sounded like the most rash and illogical decision she had ever made in her entire life. She couldn’t understand how all of this could possibly be connected.

But she was someone connected to the case and the case was still under investigation, so Song Caitang couldn’t divulge too many details either.

“Well, at least you still managed to find her despite all the difficulties you went through,” Zhao Zhi attempted to console her, then said, “When your daughter was sent away, did you leave anything for her?”

Madam Gu shook her head. “She was taken away just after I gave birth to her. I was so exhausted, I didn’t even have the strength to follow her out of the house, never mind give her something. The only thing that left the house with her was the baby blanket I made for her.”

“Mrs. Ji, please take a look.” Song Caitang put the item Qi Yan took from the Lvs’ on the table. “Do you recognize this?”

It was a jade pendant.

This was a light green jade that was smooth and shone under the light. Its color was translucent and the carving on it was intricate and beautiful. This was definitely no ordinary piece of jade.

Madam Gu stared at it and her eyes widened. “This jade pendant… where did you get it from?”

She clearly recognized it.

Song Caitang glanced at Zhao Zhi. She did not intend to keep this a secret. “The dowry that the Lvs prepared for Lv Mingyue included everything that she had used since she was a baby. This jade pendant was apparently sent together with that blanket you made, supposedly something left for her by her biological parents.”

Zuo Xiuwen said that Lv Mingyue had mentioned something but refused to tell anyone. Not even Lin Feizhou.

So… what exactly was it?

Madam Gu clutched her forehead and let out a long sigh. “I only told you that I was kidnapped, but I didn’t tell you how I escaped… That night, there was fire everywhere suddenly. There was chaos on the mountain, like someone was creating trouble. I seized the chance to escape.”

“I don’t know who came, how many of them there were, or whether they were good people or bad people, but because I managed to escape alive, I’m grateful to whoever they are. I was in a hurry to run away and in the midst of it I helped someone to walk for a while. I only found this jade pendant on myself after I had made it out. Perhaps that person had dropped it on me while I was supporting them.”

“I wanted to keep this jade pendant so that if I ran into that person again, I could have repaid the favor. But after that I discovered that I was pregnant and I was too upset to think about anything else, so I forgot about this altogether. A long time after the child was sent away, I began to pull myself together again and tried to search for this jade pendant, but I simply could not find it. I thought I had lost it. So, it was here all along… Perhaps the housekeeper back then had been in a rush and packed it together with the blanket.”

Qi Yan asked another question, “Did you see the person’s face? Or ask for a name?”

Madam Gu shook her head. “I didn’t. At that time… it was already hard to even keep myself conscious.”

Everyone knew what had happened to her after she had been kidnapped, so Qi Yan felt bad asking more questions.

Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi exchanged glances. This wasn’t what they expected.

Madam Gu… had no idea who this person was.

So, why did Lin Feizhou come all the way here?

Also…

“Your daughter’s father…”

This was the most sensitive question of all. Song Caitang asked in a gentle and careful manner, “Who is he?”