presence. Yet, it exudes an atmosphere of elegance and simplicity that blends seamlessly into the surrounding courtyard.This is a somewhat contradictory existence, yet it巧妙ly avoids feeling contrived...Chapter 281 Jade Pendant 2
"We only suspected it back then. Qi Bupo's cultivation method indeed seemed similar, but later we discovered that it might not be the case. Qi Bupo’s cultivation technique seems to have an aura of righteousness that is hard to look straight at, unlike the dark nature of the Demon Sect Art." The old man said.
"Although the Demon Sect Art isn’t dark, it doesn't really have anything to do with righteousness…" Penglai nodded in agreement.
At this moment, no one noticed how familiar Penglai seemed to be with the Demon Sect Art. Even if they did notice, they would only think that he had heard of it but never imagined that he might have encountered it before.
"Therefore, he should not be a member of the demon sect. He could even possibly belong to one of the orthodox sects. However, by the time we discovered this, it was too late; they were both killed by an unknown group of people! Later on, Fang Chunxue did return but came back as nothing more than a corpse. We never spoke about this matter to others, so you didn't know." The old man looked at the girl, knowing that she had doubts and wondered why she was unaware.
"Who were these mysterious people" asked the girl.
"I’ve already said they’re mysterious figures; naturally, we don’t know who they are!" Penglai replied irritably, ignoring her angry stare and asking another question.
"Did you bring back Qi Bupo’s body"
From the old man's words, Penglai sensed that he only mentioned Fang Chunxue without saying whether their bodies were brought back. There might be something the elder didn't want to say about this.
"You’re very perceptive, just like Fang Chunxue… " The old man sighed, “Your guess is correct; Qi Bupo’s body wasn’t found in the Fang family. It’s not that we don’t wish to bring him back, but his corpse had already been taken away beforehand! Perhaps by his own clan or faction…”
"I have another question: Did Fang Chunxue ever give this jade pendant to anyone else" Penglai asked.
"No, she always wore it herself. Even though she didn’t return to the Fang family, she was still a member and would never give something belonging to her ancestors to anyone. Except…" The old man looked at Penglai, causing him to frown slightly again.
"Except what" asked the girl.
"Except for her child… When we examined her corpse, it was clear that she had just given birth and didn’t exceed a month. But we didn’t find the baby, so we guessed that they might have been taken by Qi Bupo’s side!" The old man looked at Penglai, even though he didn’t state his guess, the meaning was obvious: Are you that child
"Why are you looking at me like that I want to know who my parents are too! I am an orphan with no idea about my lineage!" Penglai said as he looked at the jade pendant. "This jade pendant is my only clue!"
“Then it must be Fang Chunxue’s child!” The old man said, “Back then we just guessed that someone might have taken him away, but perhaps when your parents were in danger, they placed you somewhere safe!”
"That's not certain, just a possibility. Perhaps there's another reason for this jade pendant being with me. Fang Chunxue was gone for ten years; how could you be sure she must have been wearing it the whole time She might have pawned it out of necessity!" Penglai took the jade pendant from the old man’s hand, "Regardless of whether this used to belong to your family or not, now it's mine!"
The elder fell silent for a moment. He didn’t stop Penglai because he felt that this might be something Fang Chunxue gave her child and he had no right to claim it back. But what if she did give the pendant to someone else under special circumstances
Would they still try to retrieve it Even though it was an ancestral heirloom of their family, currently belonging to someone else, they didn’t have the right to reclaim it.
However, this was still their family’s ancestral heirloom; they could negotiate for its return.
This seemed like overthinking as well. Currently, they believed that Penglai was Fang Chunxue's descendant with a much higher probability, so there wouldn't be any issue about whether the jade pendant should or shouldn’t be reclaimed.
"You can’t say for sure if this is something Fang Chunxue pawned out; you might just be her child," said the elder.
“I also want to add that even though I couldn't find any information about this jade pendant, I did come across a family possibly related to me. One of them looks exactly like me—she is likely my…” Penglai shook his head and said, if it weren’t for the princess from the Tang Empire, he would think there was a possibility that he could be Fang Chunxue’s son; but now he just wanted to understand the situation better.
"Then that must be Qi Bupo's family!" everyone thought similarly, believing that someone resembling Penglai should belong to Qi Bupo's family.
“No! It has nothing to do with Qi Bupo. Also, if we decide kinship by appearance alone, I shouldn’t have any relation to Fang Chunxue because the person who looks exactly like me is a woman; she could be my mother, but it’s impossible for me to have two mothers!” Penglai said.
“…”
All of them fell silent. If what Penglai was saying were true, then the possibility would indeed become smaller, yet there still might be a chance.
"It might be that people are similar! You only mentioned a possibility, which means you're not sure about this matter either. Have you asked the person involved" The old man was quite sharp and picked up on something from Xianyao's words.
No, because she is already dead or maybe missing; regardless of whether it’s one or the other, I can’t ask her! Besides, if she did die when that happened, then logically speaking, she wouldn't be my mother since I wasn't born at that time…" Xianyao didn't mind mentioning this as there was nothing to hide.
"This situation is truly difficult to describe. The only way to know would be to ask them themselves, but we can’t do that!" The old man felt a bit troubled because he had never encountered such a case before: one person resembles him in appearance while another has an item connecting her to the family.
Both scenarios are possible, yet neither is certain. We could only find new evidence!
"Looks like I need to investigate this matter and clear it up," Xianyao said.
"You also need to clarify" The girl looked at him in puzzlement and asked, "From what you’re saying, it seems that you don’t care much about your background!"
“Whether my background is like this or not, I am still me. Does it make a difference” Xianyao asked.
"This…" The girl wanted to say something but found she couldn't come up with anything appropriate. If the other party had already said so much, what could she say
“Aren’t you curious about who your parents are” The old man suddenly asked at this moment.
"Yes, but only to a certain extent!" Xianyao said coolly.
"You must resent your parents for abandoning you at birth. But they may not have had a choice. Maybe they're like Fang Chunxue or there are other reasons that force them..." The old man said somewhat emotionally.
“If they’re dead, I only need to know it as such. If there’s another reason, I just need to know; if they didn’t want to acknowledge me for all these years, then what’s the difference in doing so now” Xianyao said calmly.
"From another perspective, having reasons also means they’ve thought it through thoroughly, and even if it's for my own good, it’s still a kind of abandonment. If they've abandoned me, why should I seek them out! One day when they can find me, they will appear…"
Everyone was silent, contemplating Xianyao's words. They could understand his thoughts; he was indeed quite carefree and didn’t insist on uncovering secrets like ordinary people would.
Naturally, if one could clarify it themselves, then they should do so!
Xianyao believed that this was the right time to look into things. Since there wasn't anything urgent at hand now, he wanted to determine his true background and whether he’s Fang Chunxue's or Princess Zhuyue's son—or neither of them!
"This is your own business. We can’t help you with it; the Fang family doesn’t have any special bloodline connection, and as for Fang Chunxue giving birth to you… we didn't know about the circumstances either when she gave birth, nor did we know what characteristics her child would carry," the old man said looking at Xianyao. "But you can consider the Fang family your home temporarily! By the way, why did you come here just now"
"He came to rob a grave… He said he was there to pay respects to Chen Shiru’s ancestors and I want to look into Chen Shiru's situation," the girl replied. At this moment, although they couldn’t prove what Xianyao’s actual purpose for coming here was, at least it confirmed that part of what he had mentioned was true; if everything else is also true, there shouldn't be a problem with him investigating.
"Xianyao, speak up. If you truly are involved in what happened just now, you can say so and we'll forgive you because even you yourself don’t know about the connection to the Fang family," the old man said generously; he didn't mind if Xianyao was targeting them since it hadn’t caused any harm.
If Xianyao made a mistake, as long as he came back now there wouldn’t be any problems with returning to the Fang family.
They believed that once everything was said and done like this, even if there were issues, Xianyao would confess; unless it’s an unsolvable issue.
Of course, this wasn't very likely to happen.
In fact, they hadn’t considered that Xianyao had no problems from the start and was just a coincidence here.
"I’ve said I only came to pay respects. The appearance at the mugging place before was merely coincidental; being treated as a tomb raider by you is also purely coincidental," Xianyao explained.
"Coincidence Perhaps it’s just that… Otherwise, why would this jade pendant bring us to the Fang family so conveniently" The old man smiled. Indeed, it was quite coincidental.
Such a coincidence wouldn’t happen by chance unless there was something amiss; as the leader of the Fang family, he knew letting Xianyao stay in the Fang household might be problematic and needed to secretly observe his behavior until proven that these coincidences were purely coincidental. (To Be Continued)ns.And what are these stones they're referring to"Ah, I've already used it!" Xu Youxiao didn't even care and replied directly."Used it, where did you use it" Nangong Suheart asked with a smile, seemin...