Chapter 099

Chapter 99: Yu Zi Xuan Remembers

Yu Zhi Yi did not look back and kept striding forward. Suddenly a gust swept by, and someone reached for her sleeve. But just as the hand was about to catch the long fabric, an invisible force bounced it away.

Yu Zi Xuan stood there, a little lost. He watched Yu Zhi Yi still walking fast ahead, a flash of hurt passing through his eyes. Then he gritted his teeth and ran after her. This time he was smarter. He did not try to touch her again. He moved in front of her and blocked the path: “Sister Yi!”

The youth stood tall and straight, stubbornly in her way. But his round puppy eyes were full of guilt and confusion, not at all as confident as he tried to appear. Yu Zhi Yi had to stop and said calmly: “I have nothing to do with the Yu clan anymore, so I am not your sister.”

He blurted, urgent and loud: “Yes, you are!”

He had remembered. When he saw Yu Zhi Yi cast a spell to subdue the Empress Dowager, everything came back to him.

In Yu Manor, no one believed Sister Yi could use mystic arts or that she had real ability. Even when she used her gift to help the family a few times, they only thought she had arranged some trick. Father not only failed to be grateful, he scolded her for crooked methods used to fight for favor. After that, Sister Yi stopped showing her skill in front of outsiders.

Yes, outsiders. Back then, to Sister Yi, he was not an outsider but her closest younger brother. She never guarded herself against him and never hid anything from him. He knew all her secrets and received all her care. Although he was born in the Minister’s Manor of the Ministry of Revenue, with both parents alive and four brothers and one sister above him, those siblings disliked being close to him because he was simple-minded. Only when both parents were present did they act kind. If the parents were not there, they did not even pretend. Only Sister Yi was the same from start to finish.

Though he was slow, he was more sensitive than most to good and evil. He could feel that even his parents did not like him much. So the only person who never looked down on him, Sister Yi, was his salvation, the light in the dark years of his teens.

He also remembered the day he came home covered in bruises after being bullied by a few brats. Sister Yi looked at the marks on him, more serious than ever before. Her eyes were no longer bright and clear as usual. She said: “Xuan, I will never let anyone bully you again.”

She kept her word. After he regained his senses, his parents started to value him. His brothers and sister were willing to play with him. Outsiders did not dare bully him anymore. But he forgot her. He threw her away.

“Sister Yi, I don’t know what happened…” He looked at Yu Zhi Yi with pleading eyes and said: “After I recovered my mind, I forgot what happened before. And outsiders all said you bullied me. They sounded so sure…” He begged: “Sister Yi, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

Yu Zhi Yi looked at the pained-eyed youth. Scenes from the past rose one by one. The two little ones who once held each other for warmth had grown up. Those days when they were each other’s only comfort were gone forever. She heard her own voice say: “No.”

Yu Zi Xuan froze, and tears fell: “Why? I know I was awful, but it was because I forgot…”

“Yu Zi Xuan,” Yu Zhi Yi cut him off, steady and cool: “People can lose their memories. Losing memories does not mean losing your brains.”

“In a huge place like Yu Manor, if you had asked even a little, you would have known what your life was like before you turned eleven. Who stayed by your side? Even if you ignored your parents and siblings, the servants who saw us huddled together, and even those who kicked us while we were down, all saw the truth.”

“Even if those people refused to speak because the wind had changed, your room still held many traces and proof of our closeness. What did you do with those things? After you saw them, did you pause even for a moment to think why they were there?”

Yu Zi Xuan stood stunned. After he recovered his senses, he had indeed found many strange things in his room. Not only in his room. On himself, too.

The first thing he noticed was the peace talisman around his neck. The servant who attended him told him the peace talisman had been drawn by the eldest miss and stitched into a sachet by her own hand before giving it to him. When he was simple-minded, he treated it like a treasure and never took it off except when bathing. After he recovered, everyone said Yu Zhi Yi was a fraud, so he threw the talisman away.

There were similar things in the room. On his pillow was a cinnabar rune Yu Zhi Yi had drawn. She said it would nourish his spirit and might help his mind clear over time. Once he was sober, he thought the “doodle” looked ugly. He had the pillow thrown out and replaced it with a new one. There were many other things like that.

In his eyes back then, these were all “evidence” that Yu Zhi Yi had fooled him. Only after his memories returned did he know they were proof that Sister Yi cherished him. Even when the family gave up on treating him, she saw him mocked and looked at him with eyes full of hurt. That day her gaze grew firm, as if she had made a huge decision. Then the rune appeared on his pillow.

He had watched with his own eyes how she drew it. He had watched as the twelve-year-old girl went from flushed to pale when she finished, and for many days after she looked sickly.

He had clearly seen it all. [Why did I forget?]

His lips trembled: “Sister Yi, I… I really…”

“You forgot, right?” Yu Zhi Yi interrupted him. “Yu Zi Xuan, memory can fade, temper can change. Then feelings can also disappear. That is normal, isn’t it?”

After her identity as a fake daughter was exposed, the only warmth left for her in the Yu clan was this younger brother. He gave her all his sincerity, and she returned it with everything she had. Later, the person who stabbed her the deepest was also him.

She said: “Even if it was not on purpose, I did take ten years of a happy and steady life from Yu Jiao Jiao. I accept that. So all these years, no matter how you treated me, I endured it, because I owed Yu Jiao Jiao, and I owed Minister Yu and Madam Yu.”

They felt Yu Jiao Jiao was gentle and kind and had suffered outside, so no matter how she targeted Yu Zhi Yi, it all seemed reasonable.