Reunion

"Mr. Gu?" Wu Lan murmured softly, her expression suddenly changing. "Mother, does this mean you're not actually dead?"

"No, no, no! You died, but Mr. Gu brought you back to life!"

As she spoke, Wu Lan tightly grasped the gentle woman's arms, as though afraid her mother might vanish in the next moment.

The gentle woman smiled and shook her head. "I died, and I haven't come back to life… The only reason you can see me now is that over twenty years ago, Mr. Gu sealed a fragment of my soul within your forehead."

"At that time, he told me that, if the opportunity arose, we mother and daughter might meet again."

Wu Lan's mind was in turmoil. She touched her forehead with her finger and asked, "So, Mother has been here all this time… Have you been watching me grow up?"

"Silly child," the gentle woman replied with a shake of her head. "I only awakened recently. It was the first time Mr. Gu tapped your forehead that this fragment of my soul began to stir."

"No wonder… no wonder Mr. Gu kept hitting my forehead," Wu Lan muttered, lowering her head in guilt. "I even wrongly blamed him..."

The gentle woman looked at her daughter with a mischievous glint in her eye and chuckled. "Oh? And why do I get the feeling that, when you first met Mr. Gu, you might have had some other thoughts about him?"

*Whoosh!*

Wu Lan's face turned scarlet in the blink of an eye, the blush spreading to her neck and even behind her ears.

"Mother! What nonsense are you saying?"

"At first, I only thought Mr. Gu looked familiar. After learning who he really was, I've always regarded him as a senior. It's just that calling someone who looks about my age 'Uncle' feels... a little awkward!"

Her tone shifted as she spoke, and she declared earnestly, "I absolutely feel nothing but respect and gratitude toward Mr. Gu!"

The gentle woman's smile deepened. "Alright, alright… I was only teasing you. Why so serious?"

Seeing how her daughter couldn't take a joke, the gentle woman stopped teasing and began recounting stories from her past with Shopkeeper Wu.

When she reached the part about her death, her expression grew solemn, and she told her daughter firmly, "I gave my life in exchange for yours. I don't regret it!"

Hearing this, Wu Lan broke down into uncontrollable sobs, her body trembling as though she might suffocate from the grief.

She finally understood why her father and Mr. Gu always spoke of her mother with such reverence. She also understood why her father had lied, claiming her mother had died of illness.

"Mother! It's all my fault!" Wu Lan choked out through her tears. "If not for me, you and Father could have lived happily together. You could have had another child of your own someday."

"Now you're separated by life and death, and it's all because of me!"

The gentle woman patted her daughter's back and spoke softly. "It's not your fault. If anyone is to blame, it should be me."

"Back then, when Mr. Gu asked us to choose, your father chose me… but I chose you."

"Don't be fooled by how strong I seemed, sacrificing my life. All the sorrow I left behind, I passed to you and your father."

"Especially your father—an old roughneck raising a daughter must have been all kinds of chaos."

"But seeing you these past few days, I realize he's done a wonderful job raising you."

"It's just… he hasn't even thought about finding you a proper match…"

Wu Lan's sobs gradually quieted, not because her sorrow had lessened, but because she had come to understand that crying was futile.

Wiping away her tears, she looked at her mother with a resolute expression. "Mother, I'll go and plead with Mr. Gu. He possesses divine powers—perhaps he can bring you back to life!"

At these words, the gentle woman's face turned stern. "Absolutely not! The dead cannot be brought back to life. Even if Mr. Gu could do it, we must not trouble him with such a matter."

"Death is death. To return would be to defy the natural order of heaven and earth."

"The fact that we can meet here is already an immense blessing. We must not become greedy."

"Little Sanhua, do you understand now?"

After a brief moment of silence, Wu Lan nodded firmly. "Mother, I understand!"

"Good girl." The gentle woman took Wu Lan's hand and led her toward the back of the tea stall. As they walked, she said, "Come, let's check on that drunken old fool of a father of yours."

"Father! Father can see you too?" Wu Lan exclaimed in shock.

The gentle woman smiled. "Yes, thanks to Mr. Gu, our family gets to reunite, even if just for today."

"So, do you still want to trouble him?"

Wu Lan hesitated for a moment. "No, I don't!"

*Snore~ Whew~ Snore~ Whew~*

Behind the tea stall, Shopkeeper Wu lay snoring rhythmically on a recliner, his temples streaked with gray. The smell of alcohol wafted heavily from him even from a distance.

The gentle woman reached out and pinched his nose, counting softly, "Three, two, one..."

*Snort!*

With his face turning red from lack of air, Shopkeeper Wu suddenly bolted upright, gasping for breath.

When he turned his head and saw the figure he had yearned for day and night, he leapt out of the recliner in astonishment.

"Mom, mom, mom!" Shopkeeper Wu shouted excitedly. [Note: he's calling her affectionately. Not a literal mother, but an affectionate way to call your wife. My father also sometimes call my mom as "mother."]

The gentle woman covered her mouth and laughed. "Oh my, who's your mother? I certainly don't have a son as old as you!"

"Father! Don't try to steal my mother from me!" Wu Lan said with a grin, clinging tightly to the gentle woman's arm.

"Daughter, you…!" Shopkeeper Wu rubbed his eyes. "Wife, you…!"

"Am I dreaming?"

"It's a dream, and yet it's not!" Wu Lan answered, then turned to her mother with a smile. "Right, Mother?"

The gentle woman nodded. "That's right."

*Smack!*

Shopkeeper Wu slapped himself hard across the face and winced, exclaiming, "Ow! It hurts! It hurts!"

"It's not a dream! It's not a dream!"

Laughing heartily, Shopkeeper Wu opened his arms and pulled his wife and daughter into a warm embrace. For the first time in over twenty years, this little family was reunited.

As the three of them held each other, Wu Lan's gaze drifted to the official road in the distance. Tears welling up in her eyes, she smiled and said, "Uncle Gu, thank you..."

...

The sun slowly dipped westward, painting the sky in fiery hues of red.

After leaving Muyun Road, Gu Ning'an continued southward, heading straight for Lexiang County in Xiangzhou.

In Lexiang County, he owned a modest estate named Ansi Courtyard.

He had purchased it during his travels through the county when he came across someone urgently selling their home. The price was just right, so he had spent nearly all his savings to acquire the property.

Perhaps it was the reasonable price, or perhaps he was charmed by the local customs, or maybe it was his past-life obsession with owning property, but he impulsively bought the estate.

Gu Ning'an still remembered that the house had cost him 12 taels and 7 qian(ancient Chinese coin). At the time, he only had 14 taels of silver on him. After buying the house, the leftover silver barely covered the broker's fee of about 8 qian.

That money had been hard-earned during his travels, teaching people to read or offering fortune-telling services.

After purchasing the house, Gu Ning'an couldn't resist renovating his new home.

In the end, he spent every last coin he had and had to go several days without food. The old woman who sold mutton jelly, Granny Sun, noticed him walking past her stall every day, eyeing the food but never buying it.

Kind-hearted Granny Sun, seeing his predicament, extended him credit for several meals of mutton jelly.

"I must repay her this time. Debts repaid make future borrowing easier." As he murmured to himself, warmth spread through his palm, where a wisp of "earthly red dust qi" appeared once more.

Within this second wisp of red dust qi, the image of a reunited family was condensed, along with a heartfelt expression of gratitude.

"Happy birthday, Little Sanhua," Gu Ning'an said with a soft smile. Tightening the bundle on his shoulder, he strode purposefully toward the distant silhouette of Lexiang County.