"Father..."
Lou Yuhuan covered his face and wept bitterly. His usually straight back bent in this moment, trembling with his sobs. Seeing this, Lou Baili felt heartbroken. He wanted to offer words of comfort, but when he opened his mouth and called out "Father," he didn't know what to say.
What could he say?
To grieve with restraint?
At over fifty years old, he was both a son and a father. How could he not understand a father's heart?
Even he wanted to cry for the young man who had called him "big brother" and died so young.
Hearing Lou Yuhuan's cries, Liu Ming'an's heart felt heavy, as if weighed down by a stone. He knew some questions were inappropriate at this time, but he still asked: "What exactly happened? Why did my father choose to leave home?"
He had such a bright future ahead, and a family who cared for him deeply. Why would he abandon everything to live out his life in Lotus Flower Village under an assumed name?
"Also, earlier, the Old Madam mistook me for my father. She kept apologizing to me, asking for forgiveness, saying she shouldn't have said those things to me," Liu Ming'an recalled the old woman's words and tentatively asked, "Did my father leave because of her?"
Hearing Liu Ming'an's questions, Lou Baili turned to look at this nephew he had never met before, unsure how to tell him about the shameful past events.
"Ah~" Lou Yuhuan let out a long sigh, wiped the tears from his face, and rose to retrieve a wooden box from a cabinet behind his desk. He placed it next to Liu Ming'an with both hands.
"You are his child. There are some things you should indeed know," Lou Yuhuan said, his voice heavy with an inescapable weight.
Liu Ming'an looked at the box placed before him, guessing that the answer was related to its contents.
Taking a deep breath, Liu Ming'an reached out and opened the lid. Inside lay a piece of white silk with writing on it.
After more than twenty years, the white silk had yellowed slightly. Liu Ming'an carefully picked it up and unfolded it. Eight characters were written neatly on it:
"Ask not of my return, my bones shall rest in the green mountains."
Liu Ming'an's pupils contracted sharply. This was his father's handwriting, unmistakably. Even after so many years, he could recognize at a glance the handwriting of the man who had held his hand and taught him to write stroke by stroke.
"This is what Qingzhi left behind before he left home. Who would have thought it would..."
Become a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Lou Baili closed his eyes briefly, wanting only to lament the unpredictability of fate.
He had thought Lou Qingzhi had left resolutely, that the two brothers would not meet again in this life until they reached the Yellow Springs. Who could have imagined that he would truly fulfill those words "bones shall rest in the green mountains"?
Liu Ming'an finally understood what Lou Yuhuan meant earlier by "he calculated it right."
Lou Yuhuan put away the white silk, carefully placing it back in the box. He stood up and returned it to its original place. After sitting down again, Liu Ming'an heard the old man's low voice: "I have three children in my life: Lou Baili, Lou Qingzhi, and a daughter named Lou Lvrou. Baili is eight years older than Qingzhi, and Qingzhi is two years older than Lvrou..."
"Your grandmother always favored daughters, so after Lvrou was born, she doted on her excessively, even to the point of showing some bias..."
"Lvrou had a spoiled nature and liked to play around, but she wasn't bad at heart. Because Qingzhi had a good temper and was close to her in age, unlike Baili who would lecture her, Lvrou liked to cling to Qingzhi the most among the family. Wherever Qingzhi went, she would follow. The two were inseparable..."
"We all thought it was just deep sibling affection between them. We never expected... never expected..."
At this point, Lou Yuhuan's eyes filled with tears again, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
Seeing this, Lou Baili patted his father's hand reassuringly and said, "Father, let me tell it."
Lou Yuhuan nodded. Speaking of these things himself felt like tearing open a wound in his heart.
"Lvrou developed romantic feelings for Qingzhi, but she knew it was an illicit love. She didn't tell anyone, only confiding in her personal maid..."
Liu Ming'an's heart clenched painfully upon hearing this, as if someone had squeezed it tightly. Though he didn't yet know the whole story, he could already foresee the tragedy that was to come.
Sure enough, Lou Baili paused, then continued: "That year, Lvrou had just turned eighteen, and Qingzhi's best friend proposed to her. He was a talented young man, outstanding in both family background and scholarship. We were all very pleased with him..."
"Lvrou cried bitterly. Qingzhi thought she didn't like his friend, so he went to comfort her, saying if she didn't like him, they could find someone else, that there were plenty of good men in the world..."
"The next day, to everyone's surprise, Lvrou agreed to the marriage."
"During that time, the entire Lou Mansion was busy preparing for the grand wedding. On the eve of the wedding, Lvrou..."
Lou Baili's hand on the table unconsciously clenched into a fist, veins bulging on the back of his hand, revealing the turmoil in his heart.
"Lvrou, dressed in her phoenix crown and embroidered cape, hanged herself!"
"The joyous occasion turned into a tragedy. None of us understood why she did this..."
"It wasn't until the seventh day after her death when Mother caught Lvrou's maid secretly burning something. When she went to look, it was all portraits of Qingzhi and a pile of love letters. That's when we finally understood why..."
"Mother, devastated by the loss of her beloved daughter, directed her anger at Qingzhi. In the heat of the moment, she said many hurtful things - that he had caused Lvrou's death, that she no longer recognized him as her son, that there was no place for him in the Lou family... She said many cruel words."
"The man Lvrou was supposed to marry was also thunderstruck by this incident. He was devastated and heartbroken, severing all ties with Qingzhi..."
"Faced with his mother's rejection, his best friend's abandonment, and his sister's death, Qingzhi was deeply shaken. Finally, one night, he left behind those eight characters on the white silk - 'Ask not of my return, my bones shall rest in the green mountains' - and left the Lou Mansion, left us all behind."
"It's been twenty-five years already..."
Lou Baili's voice was filled with indescribable emotion. Without realizing it, twenty-five years had passed. He had gone from a strong young man to a gray-haired old man over fifty.
After hearing the whole story, Liu Ming'an fell silent and lowered his eyes. His gaze fell on the package of soft-centered candy on the table, feeling an overwhelming bitterness in his heart.
His gentle and kind father had gone through such an experience?
His sister died because of him, his best friend cut ties, his birth mother blamed him unjustly - and his father was only twenty years old then, the same age as Liu Ming'an was now. How could he not become disillusioned with this place?
At this moment, Lou Yuhuan took Liu Ming'an's hand and looked into his eyes, saying: "After Qingzhi left, his mother was overcome with remorse. Overcome by grief, she fell seriously ill, burning with fever for three days and two nights. When she woke up, she developed a dissociative disorder, often talking to herself. Later, she would wander the streets looking for Qingzhi... Heaven rewards those who persevere - she found you. Good child, come back to your ancestral home. You should be called Lou Ming'an."
Liu Ming'an looked at the old man, heaved a heavy sigh, then smiled and shook his head, firmly refusing: "No, since my father decided to take the surname Liu, I am his son, and I will always be Liu Ming'an."
(The book title and cover may change later. Loyal readers, please take note (✧∇✧). Love you all~)