Chapter 384: Chapter 384

Since I can remember, I’ve had to drink a bowl of dark sludgy stuff three times a day. When I became sensible, I learned that this dark, pitch-black substance was called "medicine."

Then I realized I was different from others. Not because I was born into the high-status Ji Family, but because my body was extremely, extremely frail. Daddy, Mom, and Grandpa treated me like porcelain, serving me carefully and meticulously, even afraid to speak loudly as if a loud word would shatter me.

My range of activities was confined to my bedroom, the garden in front of the bedroom, and the dining room. The dining room was too far away, and given my physical condition, I couldn’t walk that far, so I had to go there in a wheelchair.

The sky I saw was always just the piece above my head, the tall courtyard walls blocking all the scenery outside. It was only later that I learned this place was called Hidden Dragon Mountain.

I had no friends, I didn’t go to school, I wasn’t lonely because I didn’t know what loneliness meant.

All the knowledge that I learned was taught to me by Daddy and Mom. When Daddy and Mom were too busy, it was Grandpa who took time to teach me. As I got a bit older, I read books myself, never forgetting anything I read. Knowing this, Grandpa held me and said, "Heaven envies the gifted."

As I grew a bit older, besides reading books, I also practiced horse stance which Grandpa said was to strengthen my body. Mom looked worried, afraid I couldn’t withstand it, every time smiling through gritted teeth, smiling uglier than crying. To comfort her, I told her I was fine and could bear it, but then Mom ran out crying. My range of activities expanded, from the garden in front of me to half of the estate, each time I walked in the garden, I made new discoveries.

One day, Daddy told me that he and Mom were going out to work for a while and would bring me gifts when they returned. On the surface, I acted indifferent, but actually, I was looking forward to their return and their gifts. They never came back thereafter, and two black-and-white portraits were added to the family shrine. Grandpa told me they went to a far, far place, and I would understand when I grew up.

That was the first time I saw many people in our house, and I didn’t understand nor like the way they looked at me.

Knowing that Daddy and Mom would not return as they had gone to a far place left me feeling very unhappy and depressed for a while, but eventually, I let go.

Later, I slowly got used to it, used to only having Grandpa and me at home.

As I grew up, I understood many things, my parents had died, hence they couldn’t return. It seemed like my grandpa was a remarkable person, and I was a sickly child, how long I could live was unknown. Maybe I could live to old age, or maybe I would die tomorrow, but I wasn’t sad.

Once, I fell seriously ill, with severe chest pain that made me faint, and when I woke up there was a woman nurse beside me. Grandpa said this nurse would take care of me from then on.

Having one more or one less person by my side didn’t matter to me as long as Grandpa was relieved.

At the age of 25, the nurse taking care of me suddenly confessed her feelings, saying she had liked me for a long time. I thought about it overnight and agreed, thinking I should leave a descendant for the Ji Family. Telling her I didn’t know how long I could live and couldn’t lead a normal life, I asked if she still wanted to marry me.

She smiled with tears in her eyes and agreed. I didn’t understand why she was laughing and crying at the same time, whether she was happy or sad, but we decided on the marriage. That evening, I broke the news to Grandpa, and soon after, I got married. After marriage, I continued to live in Hidden Dragon Mountain. Only later did I learn that her name was Mei Lan.

Although I couldn’t lead a normal life, I could treat her with mutual respect. I hadn’t been married long when Grandpa suddenly passed away. I wasn’t very sad because I had already made peace with it, knowing after Grandpa, I would be next. With the protector like Grandpa gone, we moved out from Hidden Dragon Mountain and settled in the Military District Mansion in Beijing.

After another year, my son was born. Having a son made me very happy. I taught him all the knowledge I knew. He was very clever and learned quickly. For my son’s sake, I tried hard to keep living, surviving another dozen years until he reached the age of fifteen. My body reached its limits then, and at death’s door, I told my son that the only way to make something of himself was to join the military, handing him the connections Grandpa had left. Then I let go, leaving them, a widow and an orphan, to struggle through life. Although I feel very sorry, I had done my best.

When I was lucid, I realized I was being carried upside down, someone holding my feet, an uncomfortable position. I wanted to see who was carrying me, but I couldn’t open my eyes, nor could I speak. I didn’t know why I was here, remembering clearly that I had died. So was someone stealing my body, plotting something? Then I heard some strange words.

"Why isn’t the baby crying?" A pleasant female voice, but unfamiliar. Get full chapters from novel✶fire.net

"He might be mute," said a young man’s voice.

"So ugly," said a young woman’s voice.

"You all looked the same when you were just born, it will get better after a few days."

"Nurse, why isn’t my son crying?" a middle-aged man’s voice, I thought about it, the voice seemed familiar, but before I could recall, I was slapped on the buttocks, not very painful, I didn’t feel like crying, but opened my mouth and cried out, which felt strange, so I stopped after a few cries, then I felt very sleepy and really wanted to sleep. I wanted to use my strong will to keep myself awake, but the sleepiness overpowered me, and not long after I fell asleep again.

In a drowsy state, I heard many people talking. When I felt hungry, I ate, after eating I slept, and so it went on for a while. Finally, I could open my eyes, discovering I was lying in an unfamiliar place, the view limited, not far in front of me was a bed with a middle-aged woman, apparently asleep. Then a young man in a military uniform walked up to me, silently watching me, and I watched him back, and then he suddenly grinned, squeezing my face and said, "Come on, call me brother."

Suddenly, I realized something was very wrong, my mind couldn’t make sense of it, everything felt chaotic. I needed to sort out what was happening, so I closed my eyes ignoring him. Firstly, I was dead, that was a fact, the body wasn’t stolen, no one was endangering their mother and son, no conspiracies or tricks, and I wasn’t being experimented on, it was just my overthinking; Secondly, I had become very small, so small that I couldn’t even turn over, let alone speak, anything I tried to say turned into crying, so I tried not to speak if possible. Piecing together the recent events, I concluded that I had just been born from that woman on the bed, who was my mother, and the word ’mother’ felt strange to say... before getting into that, the strange situation was like a story I had once read about—reincarnation.