Her heart skipped a beat.Jiang Mingyue looked at her father with her eyes wide.
Her father…
The question he asked…
Did he know something?
For a few seconds, Mingyue continued to stare at her father in a daze as she doubted whether there might be something wrong with her hearing. When she was convinced that there was nothing wrong with her hearing, Mingyue tried to figure out whether what her father meant was the same thing as what she understood.
Was her father referring to her past? Her forgotten memories?
Mingyue flinched as her father moved to pick up the teapot and poured himself another cup of tea. It was then that she realized that her father was still waiting for her answer.
Her heartbeat accelerated. Mingyue leaned forward as she continued to study her father"s expression. "Dad, what if… what if I tell you that I remember everything? My past."
General Lin sipped his tea calmly. His lips turned up into a gentle smile. "Is that not good news? Mingyue, why are you hesitating to tell me about this? What is it? What do you remember about your past?"
Mingyue retracted her gaze. Her hand that rested on her tight subconsciously turned into a fist. "If I tell you that I came from another time and s.p.a.ce, will you believe me?"
"I will. I believe you."
Mingyue looked at her father with surprise. But her father continued to watch her with a smile.
Looking at the way his daughter reacted, General Lin let out a chuckle.
After a few seconds pa.s.sed, General Lin stood up and headed to the bookcase. He opened up a safety box and pulled out something. Then, he returned to the sofa with a large, brown envelop in his hand. He opened the envelope and took out the contents.
Mingyue gasped as she saw her belongings. There was a small medical pouch, her personal identification wooden tag, and some jewelry.
"Aren"t these yours?" General Lin asked.
"Yes," Mingyue nodded as she grabbed her medical pouch. Inside were her acupuncture needles and surgical blade. She had thought that she had lost her belongings when she fell into the water.
"When Xue Yi Ming brought you to us, you were carrying a small pouch by your side," General Lin said. He picked up the wooden tag and smiled. "While your mother and sister were cleaning you up, I went through your staff and found these. We wanted to give it back, but when we found out that you have lost your memories, your mother and I decided to hide these things away."
"And mom knows? That I am not from here?"
General Lin nodded.
She tried to recall the things that happened once she woke up in this world. However, everything seemed blurry. When she woke up in Lin"s residence, she was too scared when she could not remember anything. Mingyue did not pay much attention to her surroundings. It took her a while before she warmed up to the Lin"s family.
"At first, your mother did not believe it either," General Lin said. "But the way you acted was not the same as the way girls around you would act. And then, you personally treat your mother when she fell off the stairs. Mingyue, girls your age did not learn Chinese medicine."
Mingyue frowned. It turns out her skills was what gave her away. But looking at the way her father reacted, Mingyue was relieved that he did not freak out.
"After years pa.s.sed by, as we saw you a.s.similated into this world, we decided not to say anything about it," General Lin continued. "We did not mean to hide things from you. But we did not want these things might trigger a bad memory. The doctor said you might suppress those memories due to fear."
General Lin looked at the identification tag where Mingyue"s name, date of birth, and residence. Then, he leaned forward to pa.s.s the tag to Mingyue.
Jiang Mingyue traced her fingers on the tag. Her finger stopped as she touched the word, Da Cheng. She looked up at her father and asked, "Dad… When you found these things, you don"t think it"s strange?" Her brow furrowed. "How are you sure that I came from another time and s.p.a.ce?"
"You must know that you are not the first one who came from another world," General Lin said. "There are others as well."
Mingyue paused as she recalled what Yang Yun had told her about Li Ran.
"Sometimes, we would receive information on how citizens had found a lost child or adults that have gone crazy, wandering on the street," General Lin said. "The police had checked their database for a lost person, but they could not find any match. Back then, we thought that these people were sent to spy on our country. But once we talked to these people, they all have said the same thing: that they were not from this world. Most of them begged us to find a way so that they could return. Of course, helping them to return to their world was something that we could not do."
Though she had heard a similar story through Yang Yun, Mingyue still thought that it was surprising.
"What happened to those people?" Mingyue asked.
"The kids… we have a special orphanage for them. They were taught a lot of things, and once they grew up, we allowed them to enter society. As for the adults… we relocated some of them into a place where they were given work and daily necessities. But some of them could not cope with living in a strange world other than theirs. Some of them went mad, and some of them chose to end their life. Of course," he smiled. "This kind of information, you should not spread them to anyone else."
"I won"t," Mingyue said quickly. She immediately understood that they might be her father"s cla.s.sified information.
"Do you blame us? For keeping things hidden from you?"
"No," Mingyue shook her head quickly. "Dad, you and mom, and sister have looked after me when I could not remember a thing. How can I blame you when all you wanted to do was to let me live."
"Then, I"m relieved." General Lin heaved a long sigh. "When did you start to regain your memories? When you were hospitalized?"
"Yes." Mingyue nodded. "Something happened, and suddenly, the memories… they all came back to me."
General Lin leaned forward. His expression showed worry. "What happened?"
When she noticed her father"s concern look, Mingyue"s lips curved into a smile. "Someone from my world came looking for me."
His expression changed. "That kid? Yang Yun?"
Mingyue nodded again. When Yang Yun"s face appeared in her mind, Mingyue lowered her gaze and bit her lips. She hesitated for a few seconds before she spoke again, "Dad, Yang Yun… actually, he"s my husband."