Yao Ying couldn"t help but ask, "Why are you here, Uncle Qiu? Aren"t you busy with the forbidden place"s matter?" He didn"t show an ounce of interest towards the forbidden place, knowing that it would make Uncle Qiu feel suspicious. Not only that, he was really confused with Uncle Qiu"s behavior. They didn"t seem to be that close for Uncle Qiu to personally visit them.
Yao Ying and Yao Ling were curious about the reasons for his visit.
"Does he know something? But... it is impossible!" They thought to themselves.
Uncle Qiu sighed and said in a low voice, "I just want to hide myself for a little while!" He felt... really tired with all that happened recently. In a way, he had a good relations.h.i.+p with Aunt Yue and without her, he would live in boredom here. He sighed in annoyance...
Uncle Qiu felt uncomfortable all over his body and he still felt the indescribable pain in his heart. However, whenever he went, people always asked him to find a solution and it added to his headache. No... not only a headache but also heartache.
He had tried to slap his own chest a few time --- just to lessen the heartache, but it didn"t work. He was at a loss at what was going on. While his mind was blank, his feet took him here on their own... He couldn"t even explain why he chose to be here, instead of Xiao Fang"s courtyard.
Yao Ying scratched the back of his head and asked, "Then, why didn"t you go and find Xiao Fang?" He didn"t mean to be rude, but he just wanted to gauge whether Uncle Qiu remembered something or not. Maybe his mother"s disappearance would trigger something from his memory.
"Those annoying flies know that Xiao Fang"s place the only place that I will hide and will search for me there, but they would never guess if I hide here," Uncle Qiu admitted. This was the only reason that he could come up in his mind.
Honestly, Uncle Qiu"s answer made Yao Ling feel a bit disappointed. It seemed like he still didn"t remember anything at all.
However... she was still happy that she could get a closer look at her father. If she paid more attention, it seemed like she did look a bit like him or maybe it was just her imagination because she already knew that he was her father? She should ask Yao Ying about this later.
Yao Ling started to realize Aunt Yue"s feeling when their beloved one was so close... but they couldn"t admit their relations.h.i.+p... it was a little painful.
Uncle Qiu seemed to notice Yao Ling"s burning gaze that was directed at him. Why did she keep looking at him? It made him feel uncomfortable. If she kept doing that, she would think that she had a crush on this old man.
Yao Ying saw Uncle Qiu"s reaction and his gaze turned to Yao Ling to see what made Uncle Qiu behaved that way. Yao Ying really wanted to laugh when he saw Yao Ling"s intense gaze. "No wonder the man feel her gaze is unbearable!" Yao Ying thought to himself.
He cleared his throat, trying to take Yao Ling back to reality. Her gaze could scare the poor man away ah~! Yao Ling jumped up in surprise and quickly retracted her gaze in embarra.s.sment. She really wanted to pinch her own cheek for not being able to contain her emotions.
Yao Ling looked down and she decided to let Yao Ying do all the talking --- just in case, her emotions got the better of her once again.
Yao Ying watched Uncle Qiu"s movement scrutinizingly and asked, "Are you okay, Uncle Qiu?" It seemed like he was sweating a lot than usual and he kept biting his lower lip... maybe trying to withstand a pain? However, he didn"t look like that he was wounded.
Uncle Qiu sighed, knowing that youngsters nowadays were really clever. They knew that something wasn"t right with him in only one glance. Somehow, he wanted to tell his weird feelings to them and before he could hold himself back, the words already came out of his mouth...
"Since Aunt Yue"s disappearance, I felt a nagging pain here..." He pointed at his heart. He knew that he didn"t have a heart attack, but why did he feel such a weird feeling there?!
Yao Ying and Yao Ling looked at each other. It seemed like the mother-son bond between Aunt Yue and Uncle Qiu was still there... Aunt Yue had just gone missing and they pondered whether this was the right time to tell Uncle Qiu everything.
Yao Ling suddenly felt that the blow would be too much for him. One, his missing wife. Two, his missing mother. Even though he found her... his daughter, they had just met each other a few times recently... Would he... feel something for her? A love towards his own daughter, perhaps?
Yao Ling suddenly felt afraid. Honestly, she didn"t know anything about Uncle Qiu. Besides, she also didn"t know whether Uncle Qiu"s current personality was the real Uncle Qiu"s or Rong Qiu"s?
Yao Ying understood Yao Ling"s predicament. The closer someone to his or her own problem, it was hard for his or her to maintain a calm mind to judge better and make a good decision. He could see how worried Yao Ling was and her emotions clouded her judgment.
"Uncle Qiu," Yao Ying called with a firm tone. He decided that he would the one who suggested everything to Uncle Qiu.
Uncle Qiu was surprised by his sudden seriousness and asked, "What?"
"If you are given a chance to find the truth about your life, will you accept it?" Yao Ying asked directly. He didn"t have the heart to let Yao Ling continue questioning herself, thus, he made the sudden decision by himself. However, Yao Ling didn"t stop him and he sighed in relief.
Uncle Qiu"s expression changed into confusion. "What do you mean?"
Yao Ying answered, "This life of yours... isn"t your real life. You have another ident.i.ty..."
Those sentences suddenly triggered something. Uncle Qiu felt a headache and he remembered Aunt Yue was waving her hand in front of him and her last word was, "I"m sorry Little Qiu!"
"What... what did Aunt Yue feel sorry about?!" He remembered each of their interactions and it seemed like he had no such memories.
After that, he could feel that he got a ma.s.sive headache which made him fall down from the chair. Yao Ying quickly helped him up in surprise. He just asked a simple question and he didn"t think that it would be able to trigger such a ma.s.sive reaction.
"Are you okay, Uncle Qiu?" Yao Ying asked worriedly.
Yao Ling already told Xiao Yu to take her silver needles. She calmed herself down and punctured Uncle Qiu"s several acupuncture points with her silver needles, trying to help him ease his pain.
"Thank you!" Uncle Qiu said when he felt that his headache started to lessen. He drank a cup of tea that had been prepared beforehand and after that, he asked, "What do you mean I have another ident.i.ty?"
"To be precise, you are not the real Uncle Qiu. You took his ident.i.ty after the real one was dead," Yao Ying said briefly.
Uncle Qiu gaped at him and laughed loudly. He thought that Yao Ying was joking. Because of the emerging memory, he thought Yao Ying might have known something important. But... he was replacing another person"s ident.i.ty? It was a crazy joke!
How could he not remember doing that?
He had been living as Uncle Qiu from the beginning until now and he even remembered almost everything major memories since his childhood. So... how could he believe Yao Ying"s exclamation?
What a joke!