Memories

Yu Feng did not know how long she has been running or how far she had gone, but by the time she had stopped running, everything around her was not the same. The surrounding was not as crowded and lively as it was in the city square.

The street was quiet as if it was deserted. Even the street lanterns were not lit up around the street.

Putting both hands on her knees, Yu Feng tried to catch up with her breath. She has been running for too long and too far that her face had turned red. Sweats dripped down from her forehead to her cheek.

Yu Feng raised her hand to wipe the sweats but seconds later, her face started to scrunch up. Her lips trembled as Yu Feng took a deep breath. She balled her hand into a fist and thump at her chest hard.

However, no matter how hard she thumped at that spot, the pain in her heart does not seem to fade away and instead, it grew intense as time passed by.

Unable to bear with the pain any second longer, Yu Feng fall on her knees, and suddenly, the tears that she had been trying so hard to suppress streamed down on her cheek.

A whimper escaped her. Yu Feng gritted her teeth so that she would not make a sound, but the tears were unable to stop. It was as if the dam has been broken.

Yu Feng found that it was very hard for her to breathe.

Whenever she recalled the faces that she had seen in the city square a moment ago, her heart would ache. It felt as if her heart was stabbed by thousands of needles, and then, someone had stepped on in hard.

Her mother… had allowed someone else's daughter to call her 'mother' intimately. The two of them were more intimate than a blood-related mother and daughter.

Somehow, Yu Feng found her situation was laughable.

Someone else had the chance to enjoy a motherly love from her mother while she had to live on the street. Her mother was still alive, but with how the situation looked, Yu Feng was very sure that her mother would not admit that she was her daughter.

If it was not for that event that happened seven years ago, would her family stay happily together?

They were once a very happy family. She was the first daughter of the respectable Yu family. Her grandfather was the upright Imperial Physician of Lantian and as the only son, her father too had enjoyed a high ranking position in court.

Her grandfather's high position and good relation with the Emperor had made others jealous of him.

Yu Feng was too young to understand what was going on, but she later heard that her grandfather was framed into something that he did not do. The Emperor had considered his merit for the country and decreed for her grandfather to leave the Imperial Infirmary. The pressure was too great that her grandfather had committed suicide.

Her paternal grandmother took her life a few days after her husband had died.

Seeing the way her family had fall, their enemy had taken their chances to bully them. Friends of her family pretended that they were not close and her grandfather's supporters have all disappeared.

Her father's younger sister decided to ignore them and gave out a reason that she was too powerless as was already married and her in-laws would not let her do anything to help their family.

It was at that time that her mother came to her room and told her that she wanted to leave.

At first, Yu Feng could not understand her mother's words. Seeing that her mother had wanted to leave the house with a small bag in her hand, Yu Feng had cried and begged to follow her. However, her mother had pushed her away and leave without turning around.

Her father later explained that they were divorced before he brought her out of Capital City. The two of them headed to the Northern part of the country with only her father's trusted servant.

Growing up in the North was not easy, especially as she was living with two old men. Every day, her father would force her to sit down for hours to read books.

As long as you have the knowledge, you will always be able to survive anywhere you go. That was what her father had always told her.

However, each time, she would run away and entered the forest to play by herself. In the beginning, her father would often catch her. But after running up the mountain almost every day, Yu Feng's speed grew and her father was no longer able to catch her.

Each time she went up the mountain, she would always bring back some bird eggs home. But her father would not appreciate her thought and instead, would scold her for entering the mountain all by herself.

But what can she do about it?

Her father was determined to read books all his life that they did not have anything proper to eat. Moreover, the place he had picked to live was somewhere far from others. Growing up, she was someone without friends or anyone her age. Other than entering the mountain by herself, who else can she go with?

One cold winter, her father passed away because of the cold with his favorite book in his hand.

Yu Feng had no other choice but to leave. She had decided to go back to Capital City to look for her mother. She took her risk and when she finally found her mother, the woman was dressed beautifully just the way Yu Feng had remembered her.

Realizing the way she was dressed shabbily, Yu Feng had immediately turned away before her mother was able to see her. Yu Feng was afraid that if she would embarrass her mother with the way she was dressed.

She had trailed after her mother until they reached a big mansion in the city, This mansion was even bigger than the one she had lived in when she was a little girl.

Through hearsays, Yu Feng later heard that her mother had remarried the eldest son of the Xu family and took the role of a stepmother to that young lady.

Her mother had left her and her father during the toughest time to enter another prestigious household that she was even willing to treat someone else's daughter better than the way she treated her own daughter...