Bai Weizhong was a filial son, originally wanting to live together with his wife, child, and grandson with Old Man Bai, but it was Old Man Bai himself who found it too noisy and insisted on living here in the old residence.
Chiang Xiao got out of the car and walked toward the small building.
She went up the steps and pressed the doorbell.
Xiao Miu had already slowly backed out, unaware of how long Chiang Xiao planned to stay, so when Chiang Xiao told him to go ahead with his tasks, he didn’t refuse.
Soon, someone came to open the door.
Yu Zhensheng had introduced her to the two caretakers of the Bai Family Old Residence: a middle-aged woman called Aunt Xia and a middle-aged man called Uncle Tong, a couple who had been taking care of Old Man Bai for three years now.
The one coming to open the door should be Uncle Tong.
"Are you Miss Xiao Chiang?" Uncle Tong sized her up briefly.
"Please come in quickly, the old master is waiting for you."
He let Chiang Xiao enter the door.
From the outside, the Bai Family Old Residence didn’t appear large, but once inside, it became clear that the courtyard was quite spacious, with no trees but an assortment of potted plants.
The first floor of the small building was an open hall. Standing here, she could already see an elderly man in a Tang suit standing inside, facing a wall.
He was looking at a painting.
That painting was none other than Chiang Xiao’s ’Passion of the Mountains and Rivers’.
The old man was lean, with the Tang suit hanging loosely on his body, but he stood with his back very straight.
"That’s the old master, Miss Xiao Chiang, please."
Uncle Tong gestured to her but didn’t seem to intend to lead her over.
Chiang Xiao made her way over by herself.
Three walls of the hall were bare, but seeing some nails on the walls, it wasn’t difficult for Chiang Xiao to guess that these were for hanging paintings.
Now, of the three walls, only her ’Passion of the Mountains and Rivers’ was on display.
Old Man Bai slowly turned around upon hearing the sound.
He looked quite ordinary, just the image of a man in his seventies or eighties, with white hair and a face full of wrinkles. Only his eyes seemed kind and insightful.
"Are you Xiao Chiang? Did you paint this?"
Old Bai walked over to her and pointed at an armchair in the center of the hall, inviting her to sit.
"Remarkable, truly remarkable," Old Bai said without questioning her. He too sat down in another armchair, still scrutinizing her closely.
Suddenly, he uttered a curious sound, saying, "Why do I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before?"
Chiang Xiao had thought he would ask her about her painting, but she hadn’t expected him to come out with such a remark and was momentarily taken aback.
Old Bai beckoned to her, "Come here, come here, let me have a closer look."
Chiang Xiao pursed her lips but stood up and walked over.
Old Bai squinted his eyes and examined her for a good while, before saying, "You do look familiar, like someone... I can’t quite remember, but definitely similar, especially those eyes."
A thought struck Chiang Xiao.
Apart from resembling Chiang Qingzhu, she must look like her father whom she had never seen!
Many people in the village often maliciously speculated that Chiang Qingzhu must have been taken advantage of by some scoundrel, but Chiang Xiao always felt her biological father must have been good-looking.
After all, there was nothing unattractive about her own features.
Even the parts that didn’t resemble Chiang Qingzhu were still attractive, and this wasn’t her being vain.
Hearing Old Bai mention her resemblance to someone, Chiang Xiao’s thoughts suddenly turned to her father.
But Old Bai just couldn’t remember.
That left Chiang Xiao somewhat frantic.
What was the point of saying such a thing? It would have been better not to mention it at all!
Now she was left feeling unsettled, uncertain whether she had just coincidentally come across someone who had seen her father.