This is a rather heavy topic.
Liang Shi didn't like discussing family matters with people, partly because she couldn't remember her parents and had no memories related to them.
Although her grandparents were very good to her, she would occasionally think of her own parents.
"I don't know," Xu Qingzhu said in a deep voice. "Probably because there's no exam required to become a parent."
Having already investigated to this extent, Liang Shi simply arranged with Xu Qingzhu to visit the Angel Orphanage, now known as the Compassionate Nursing Home, the next afternoon.
//
The rain kept falling, probably because I had been thinking too much about Qi Jiao during the day.
In her dream, she returned to her childhood.
In that dimly lit little room, Qi Jiao, dressed in a princess dress, sat side by side with her on the floor. There were scabbed red marks on her wrists. Then, she turned her hand over and opened her palm, revealing a round cookie.
She sniffed. "I'm sorry, this is all I can get. Eat quickly."
Liang Shi looked at the cookie, withdrew his hand, took it, and asked Qi Jiao in a low voice, "Sister, why is your mother like this?"
Qi Jiao buried her head in her knees and said, "Mom is pitiful too."
"I saw Dad get drunk..." Qi Jiao was halfway through her sentence when she heard the sound of the door opening. She immediately snatched the biscuit from Liang Shi's hand, threw it on the ground, and the two huddled together.
Yang Jianni was still wearing a cheongsam, swaying gracefully, but a section of the hem of her cheongsam was torn off, her hair was messy, and there was blood at the corner of her mouth.
Her gaze towards the two children was cold, then she suddenly smiled and asked, "Why were you born?"
She asked very seriously, then squatted down, "Birth is suffering, so why are we born?"
Qi Jiao flinched, but still raised her little hand and tremblingly touched Yang Jiani's injured face, asking in a tearful voice, "Mommy, does it hurt?"
"Pain?" Yang Jianni sneered: "You won't feel pain when you're dead."
She licked the bloodstains from her lips. "So... my darling Jiaojiao, do you want to die with me? I'll take you with me."
"Oh right, and you too." Yang Jianni looked at Liang Shi: "Anyway, you're not exactly popular, so why don't you come with us?"
"Mom." Qi Jiao leaned forward and hugged Yang Jiani, burying her head in her neck, crying, "I don't want to die."
“But what can you do while you’re alive?” Yang Jianni scoffed. “Living is just suffering.”
"Don't take your sister with you to die either," Qi Jiao said. "Jiao Jiao will be very good and obedient, and your sister is also very obedient."
...
In my dream, I was constantly falling, surrounded by nothingness and darkness.
The scene then shifts to a field covered in green grass, with the moon hanging high in the sky—a scene that should be quite dreamlike. However, the woman, dressed in tattered clothes, is seen running wildly through the field with a little girl whose hair is disheveled.
It's like they never get tired.
It sounded like shouts coming from all directions, with people constantly yelling, "Stop!"
The little girl following behind her fell to the ground, scraping her knee. She squatted down and said firmly, "Get on!"
They kept running, across the open fields, hiding under the ridges.
The ice and snow melted, green grass sprouted, and there was the sound of a stream flowing by.
Liang Shi first covered the little girl's mouth, and only let go after the footsteps of the searchers disappeared.
After a long while, the little girl asked, "Sister, can we escape?"
“Yes, that’s fine,” Liang Shi said.
"You run by yourself," the little girl said in a low voice, crying. "My leg is injured, and I'll be a burden to you."
“No,” Liang Shi said. “I must take you with me when I run away.”
"Why?" the little girl asked. "I'm a burden now."
“Because an older sister told me that an older sister should protect her younger sister.” Liang Shi patted the little girl’s head. “I am the older sister.”
"Do you have a sister?" the little girl asked.
Liang Shi said, "She wasn't my biological sister, but she was very good to me."
The little girl said, "I don't have a sister."
"Silly girl." Liang Shi chuckled and hugged her slender frame. "From now on, I'll be your older sister. Don't be afraid, I'll always protect you."
After a while, the little girl suddenly exclaimed, "Look! Fireflies!"
Liang Shi immediately closed his eyes: "Make a wish quickly."
...
Her body seemed to be suspended in the deep sea, with people constantly pulling her down.
Then he suddenly opened his eyes.
What I saw was a white ceiling and a sky full of dark clouds.
The rain has stopped, but it's still cloudy.
Liang Shi lay on the bed, panting heavily, trying to calm the emotions brought on by the nightmare.
After his luck stat reached 80, Liang Shi obtained some memories from the system, or rather, from the original owner of the body.
But it was all trivial stuff, with no important information.
This was yet another dream she had related to her childhood.
The dream had a different scene.
She and a little girl were fleeing for their lives in an empty field. They made wishes to the fireflies, and then they were captured by a group of people.
Then the dream abruptly ended.
They didn't even know what it was about.
This was the first memory Liang Shi had of this little girl.
It still felt just like the experience I had gone through before.
After experiencing those dreams, she can now basically determine which memories belong to the original owner and which belong to her.
It's obvious that both of these segments belong to her.
But she didn't know the context in which the second part took place, nor did she know who the little girl was.
However, Liang Shi didn't think much of it; she was more concerned about Qi Jiao.
She's the older sister who protected her when she was little.
It still makes me feel sad when I think about it.
Because he was going back to the Xu family today, Liang Shi calmed himself down in his room before going out.
But Xu Qingzhu could tell at a glance that she was not in good condition and asked her if she had a nightmare.
Liang Shi nodded, "I dreamt of Qi Jiao."
Xu Qingzhu served her a bowl of porridge, and Liang Shi nodded and said thank you.
Xu Qingzhu smiled and said, "Then let's find out the truth as soon as possible and clear her name."
After finishing the meal, Liang Shi's unpleasant emotions finally subsided somewhat.
Xu Qingzhu was preparing the items for the memorial service. Liang Shi watched her put those things into her schoolbag and suddenly asked, "Xu Qingzhu, if one day you find out that your parents are not your biological parents, what will you do? Will you look for your biological parents?"
Xu Qingzhu was taken aback.
She was incredibly clever; after a moment, she suddenly smiled and asked Liang Shi, "Are you talking about me or about yourself?"
Chapter 68
The autumn wind carried away the remaining branches and fallen leaves, and the outside was gloomy, as if it were about to rain at any moment.
Liang Shi was momentarily stunned by Xu Qingzhu's smile, but realizing his slip of the tongue, he quickly changed the subject, "It's probably still going to rain outside, did you bring an umbrella?"
“Teacher Liang,” Xu Qingzhu looked at her, “have you heard something?”
Liang Shi pursed his lips, knowing he couldn't escape the trap he had dug for himself, and casually said, "I was talking about myself. I'm a little conflicted about whether or not to go to my parents."
Xu Qingzhu stared intently at her, sighed softly after a long while, and said bluntly, "It's your own business, you decide for yourself. But if you want to test me, you can ask directly. I don't like beating around the bush."
Liang Shi: "..."
When you tried every possible way to test me before, I never realized you didn't like beating around the bush!
She only complained to herself and didn't dare to tell Xu Qingzhu.
She feared that speaking out would only lead to another debate, and she couldn't withstand Xu Qingzhu's sarcastic remarks.
The main problem is that once Xu Qingzhu starts acting strangely, the atmosphere always ends up going in a weird and unsettling direction.
She was finding it hard to handle.
So she stubbornly insisted, "I really want to ask myself."
"So you know what happened to me," Xu Qingzhu said. "Shouldn't you be curious first about the fact that I have such a history?"
Liang Shi: "..."
I've been tricked again.
Liang Shi looked at her and said helplessly, "Teacher Xu, the longest road I've ever traveled in my life is the road of your tricks."
Xu Qingzhu zipped up her backpack, and Liang Shi picked it up from her before she could carry it.
Xu Qingzhu didn't refuse, but just chuckled, "I can only say that Teacher Liang is too bad at pretending."
"So... what do you think?" Liang Shi asked cautiously.
Since things have come to this point, it would be a shame not to ask anything after all the sarcastic remarks I've endured.
After all, she still had a mission to complete.
After completing this task, she might be able to scrape together enough for a down payment on a house in Haizhou City.
There was nothing she could do; she had never liked renting.