“Your father is our Fifth Uncle. I mean, your biological father, not your adoptive father.” Min Zhen thought this explanation was quite clear.
Clink—Mo Zi’s hand moved and the teacup hit the saucer, nearly spilling. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else.” Although her father and brother weren’t much to speak of, she had never thought of replacing them with others.
“Although we don’t yet have conclusive evidence, it shouldn’t be wrong.” Min Gui spoke with complete conviction. “My Fifth Uncle was left-handed, never made mistakes in identifying or judging wood, and his carving skills were superb and marvelous.”
Clink—her hand moved again. “People aren’t born with left or right hand preference. It’s only later, due to imitation or coercion, that they exclusively use the right hand. But without these external influences, the probability of using the left hand is quite high, and they become left-handed.”
No one understood too clearly, and no one wanted to understand, so they simply ignored it.
“You look extremely like our Fifth Uncle.” Father-daughter resemblance couldn’t be escaped. Min Feng thought this should be convincing.
This time, the teacup cracked the saucer. Mo Zi squinted and asked Chouyu, “You said I looked quite good and quite pretty—turns out you were lying to me.”
Chouyu cried out in alarm.
Ding Gou clutched his belly laughing.
Zan Jin raised his eyebrows and said, “Brother Mo, you absolutely don’t look like a man. If their Fifth Uncle looks like you, he must be the one who looks like a woman.”
Chouyu rolled on the floor. Ding Gou laughed until tears came out.
“What we mean is, Little Sister Mo Zi and Fifth Uncle have a father-daughter resemblance.” Min Zhen was the core figure among the three. “Haven’t you ever suspected that your father and brother aren’t your true blood relatives? My Fifth Uncle and Fifth Aunt’s marriage was opposed by both families’ elders, so they went into hiding in Yuling under the surname Song and had two daughters, known only by flower names. When the two cousin sisters were around five and three years old, the house caught fire. The blaze burned everything to ashes, Uncle and Aunt perished in it, but only the bodies of the two daughters were never found. My Fifth Uncle was skilled in craftsmanship, especially strong with his left hand, and was recognized in the family as the next generation’s head. My Fifth Aunt, according to Sixth Aunt, loved growing flowers extremely—dead wood would revive like spring upon meeting her. She was kind-hearted and loved helping others. Mozi and Doulu are both flower names, also with the surname Song, similar in age, and you resemble Fifth Uncle, with the same talent. This matter is eighty or ninety percent certain. Before coming, Grandfather instructed us to only secretly protect you and not alarm you, and to wait until we help you find Little Sister Doulu—perhaps there would be more clues. However, these past few days we discovered you’re extremely cautious, not allowing strangers near you at all, so we could only reveal our identities.”
The teacup was set upright, and Mo Zi sat properly.
Fire disaster. A woman who loved flowers.
If the claim that she and the Min family’s Fifth Son were father and daughter was just coincidence, then how to explain the mother-daughter resemblance between Doulu and that Fifth Madam? How to explain the great fire in Doulu’s dreams and those hands that pushed them out? The coincidences were alarming to a heart-stopping degree.
The Flower Goddess Chronicles! She suddenly remembered the Song couple in that book—it was clearly written about the Fifth Min couple.
“Was your Fifth Aunt incredibly beautiful?” she asked.
“A beauty that made fish sink and geese fall, the moon hide and flowers feel ashamed.” Min Zhen spoke with certainty, though relaying others’ words. “Grandfather Yu and Sixth Uncle both saw her.”
With this, even Mo Zi felt the possibility was very high. Father and brother had valued her relatively more, most likely because of her exceptional abilities, but toward Doulu they truly showed no familial affection at all. When they were young, if she hadn’t protected her, they probably wouldn’t have cared even if she died. And thinking deeper, later when she rebelled, they were so cold it made her detest them, willing to break ties. If everything was viewed from the perspective that they weren’t her and Doulu’s close relatives, then it all made sense.
However, the large Min family being hers and Doulu’s paternal relatives? Too sudden, too unrealistic.
Min Zhen observed the changes in Mo Zi’s expression. “Did you remember something?”
“I don’t have many memories.” She had been reborn into the ten-year-old Mo Zi’s body; the memories before that were very fragmented, with no images at all before age five. “However, my little sister Doulu often has nightmares of a great fire. She says I was four or five years old at that time, and there was a pair of hands that pushed us both out of the fire—”
Min Feng stood up excitedly at once, rubbing his hands and stroking his beard as he paced back and forth. “Then it’s certain. Certain. Old Ten, we need to send word home quickly so everyone can breathe easy. No need to fear mistaken identity and rejoice for nothing.”
“Third Brother, do you think everyone is worried about mistaken identity?” Min Zhen was unhurried. “Actually, whether Little Sister Mo Zi mentions Doulu’s dream or not doesn’t matter. Grandfather and Sixth Uncle and Sixth Aunt already recognized you long ago. Little Sister Mo Zi’s hands—one look and you can tell they have our Min bloodline.”
Mo Zi thought this was a bit exaggerated, so she said, “That’s not necessarily true.”
As usual, no one paid her any mind. It seemed the Min family all had the habit of talking to themselves.
“Can I ask about the cause of the fire?” Never having met her parents, compared to the slight sadness, the suspicious strangeness of this fire disaster was stronger, and she wanted to ask clearly.
The three shook their heads simultaneously.
“It seemed to be a natural fire. For details, you’d have to ask Grandfather.” Min Zhen spoke on behalf of them again. “By the way, do you have any objects from that time? Perhaps they could help confirm.”
Now it was Mo Zi’s turn to shake her head. “No. Now my father and brother are dead, the household servants long since scattered completely. It’s very difficult to know what things were kept from childhood. As for whether to acknowledge this kinship or not, I’m uncertain. I need to discuss it with Doulu first. You don’t need to call me elder sister or little sister either. Along the way, continue using the names of the Wen brothers. Not to mention that Uncle Zuo You is fake, even on this ship, not everyone can be fully trusted.”
Min Zhen thought for a moment and smiled. “Naturally we won’t call you little sister in front of others. We have to keep up the act all the way. However, whether to acknowledge this kinship or not, I’m afraid it’s not something you two sisters can decide.”
Min Gui immediately agreed. “You probably don’t know how much Grandfather doted on Fifth Uncle. All these years he never decided on the next family head, even pushing it to our generation, precisely because after Fifth Uncle left, Grandfather never had a suitable candidate in his heart. And Grandmother—when Fifth Uncle left home and died young, she was so angry she almost broke ties with Grandfather. Now hearing that the two granddaughters are still alive, she can’t wait to see you both immediately. Before we left, she gave a thousand instructions and ten thousand exhortations to definitely bring you two back.”
“How many people are in your family?” Mo Zi was somewhat concerned. She most feared those large families—seemingly blood relatives, but actually just interest relationships, scheming endlessly, with family members harming each other. Rather than that, better for the two sisters to depend on each other like this—simple, happy, and free, without becoming sacrificial victims.
“In the main family, Grandmother gave birth to—” Min Feng began counting on his fingers. “Seven sons.”
Mo Zi’s temples began to ache.
“First Uncle and Second Uncle’s families each have four sons. My family and Fourth Uncle’s family have five and three sons respectively. Sixth Uncle’s family has three sons—you’ve met them all. Seventh Uncle has three sons.” Min Gui continued counting on his fingers. “I haven’t even counted the sons born to concubines yet.”
She laughed dryly twice. “You haven’t counted the daughters either.”
Min Zhen added, “Among the legitimate daughters, there are only you and Doulu. Haven’t you heard that the Min family is famous for having many descendants?”
Huh? Over twenty cousin brothers? And that’s just the main family? Adding the branches, how many people would that be? Mo Zi didn’t want to calculate. With heads bobbing chaotically before her eyes, she felt a bit dizzy.
“So, Grandmother said, when you two eventually return to the family and acknowledge your ancestry, with names changed to be like pearls and treasures, you’ll be the most precious young ladies of our Min family. Ten thousand gold can’t even describe it—you’ll have to be worth countless countless gold young ladies.” This kid Min Gui laughed heartily.
Might as well call them all-purpose balm!
Mo Zi returned to her own cabin. Her body was tired, but her mind was agitated, tossing and turning unable to sleep. She had never thought she had another background, because the first one already felt quite fatal. After the family’s destruction, although they were such a father and brother, she had still sighed with emotion for a while, after all she had wholeheartedly regarded them as her relatives.
“Objects from childhood—” She turned over in bed and suddenly sat up.
She hadn’t thought about it earlier and just answered Min Zhen saying there were none, but there was one thing that had existed since she had memory. However, she had always thought Song Yu had given them to the two sisters.
Those two pairs of ear beads carved with the characters Mozi and Doulu!
Thinking about it now, she had never asked Father or Brother about the origin of these ear beads. Perhaps because they were just very ordinary jade, or perhaps because they were quite old—in any case, she neither asked nor wore them. When fleeing, it was Doulu who reminded her to bring them. She found it quite strange at the time why Doulu would think of them, but since names were carved on them, they could serve as tokens for passing messages. After getting separated from Doulu, she had kept them with her all along.
Lighting the lamp, she opened the chest, took out her double-shoulder backpack, and from the innermost layer pulled out an old sachet. Gently pouring it onto the bedding, the pair of pale grayish-green jade bead earrings lay on the quilt.
Pinching them in her hand, she held them up to the light. The grayish-green was opaque with irregular smoky-colored circles. No matter how she looked, they were ordinary jade—not inferior but not expensive either.
On a whim, she hung them in her earring holes. Immediately felt a heaviness.
“Are these earrings or lead balls?” She quickly removed the ear beads, rubbing her painfully pulled earlobes, then a thought flashed through her mind.
She had never thought of wearing them, but when she did, they were so heavy they couldn’t be worn for long. If Min Fifth really was her biological father, and this pair of ear beads naturally should have come from his hands, how could he be so careless and inconsiderate, not considering the weight of the jade balls? Unless—these balls had a secret.
Once she decided something in her heart, she was someone who would immediately take action. Adding two more lamps, she examined the ear beads from every angle, but really couldn’t find any trace of artificial seams.
“Should I just cut them open and look?” She talked to herself, then laughed. “Could it be these smoky circle lines?”
Having said this, she froze.
“Could it really be that clever?” She had just carefully felt over them several times with her fingers and fingernails—no abnormalities at all, perfectly smooth surfaces.
But her heart was set. The result of being suspicious was that she discovered on one bead, slightly above center by about two millimeters, there was a line that wasn’t quite regular but could connect from beginning to end.
She took a deep breath, brought over her toolbox, found the specially made finest and smallest file, and boldly yet extremely carefully began grinding along the smoky line trace. Not knowing whether she was doing useless work, also not knowing if there were mysteries inside, how thick the outer layer was. Grind a bit, stop a bit, wash with clean water and look again. Such an apparently simple task, yet sweat beads seeped from the tip of her nose. It took nearly half a shichen.
Then, an extremely fine sound reached her ears.