“It was my fault, Lu Yi,” said He Yibin. He didn’t know how to tell Lu Yi.
Lu Yi’s eyes narrowed, his gaze fixed on the baby girl. She was so small it made his heart ache.
Suddenly, he took a step forward, his eyes darkening. “Don’t tell me she’s my daughter?”
Old Master Lu and Lu Jin’s eyes widened.
The smile on He Yibin’s face was wistful, and a little hideous.
“Good deduction. As expected of the analytical Prosecutor Lu.”
“She’s my granddaughter?” gasped Lu Jin, pointing at the pitiful baby girl. Wasn’t it twins? Why were there three?
“She’s my great-granddaughter?” Old Master Lu’s head buzzed. He would have fallen to the ground had Lu Jin not caught him in time. Tears welled up in his eyes. This was his great-granddaughter! The only girl in the Lu bloodline in a century!
“Yes,” He Yibin nodded. “The shy girl had been hiding behind her brothers, and none of us had noticed her until now. She has intrauterine growth restriction, and the boys had been taking most of the nutrients. With Yan Huan’s health, it was hard for her to survive in the first place.”
Lu Yi placed his hand on the glass of the incubator and took a good look at his daughter—their daughter—for the first time. She was so small. At times, she coughed, and every cough nearly stopped her breathing.
Lu Yi’s eyes reddened. He couldn’t stop the tears.
“Yibin, you have to save my great-granddaughter,” pleaded Old Master Lu, grabbing a corner of He Yibin’s clothes. “Our family hasn’t seen a girl in 150 years! This girl, you have to save her! Please, I beg you!”
Old Master Lu’s heart wrenched at the sight of the translucent child that was his great-granddaughter. He had waited forever for this great-granddaughter. Why must she be sentenced to death right after birth?
“Rest assured, Old Master Lu. We will save her,” He Yibin consoled the old man, though he wasn’t the least bit confident to back up his words.
Promises don’t save lives!
How can a baby this light survive?
Putting the doctors’ abilities aside, the survival of the child very much depended on its own will to live.
Yan Huan opened her eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was, or what had happened. The sharp pain from her belly drove her to the brink of tears.
Her eyes were dull and unfocused.
Something stirred in her vision. Someone was standing before her. She blinked hard. Her vision cleared up, but her heart remained empty and painful.
A man was standing before her.
She wondered what he would say to her.
Serves you right, probably.
Where had she heard this line before? She stared at him, and he stared back at her, unblinking.
He approached her, a step at a time, and reached out. Was he an angel, or a devil?
Was he here to kill her?
She said nothing. To her surprise, she realized she wasn’t afraid.
Her thoughts and her soul seemed to be telling her that the man wouldn’t hurt her.
Lu Yi…
Lu Yi?
What a familiar name.
Why was her mind so fuzzy?
“Awake?” A hand touched her face. “Are you hurting anywhere? I’ll get the doctor.”
“Lu Yi…” croaked Yan Huan with a tinge of uncertainty. She paused. She could almost hear the thumping of her beating heart.
Thump, thump…
Her memories were returning…
She was Yan Huan, who had died and been reborn…
“What’s wrong?” Lu Yi hunkered down to eye level. “You have been asleep for a day and a night straight.”
He stroked Yan Huan’s face. “You just went through an operation, so you can’t eat yet. On the bright side, you’ll be able to eat whatever you want later on.”
Yan Huan suddenly sniffed and put his large hand on her face. “I had a dream.”
“What kind of dream?” asked Lu Yi, his eyes aglitter with amusement, behind which he hid wounds only he knew.
Yan Huan’s eyelashes drooped. She looked up and smiled.
“I dreamt that I was the me in my previous life, where no one loved or cherished me.”
“That life is over, no?” Lu Yi pressed his large hand against her forehead. “Look at how everyone’s lives have changed! Yours, mine, and Dad’s.”
“I know,” said Yan Huan, closing her eyes. The pain in her belly persisted, but it was more tolerable than before.
She didn’t remember much about the operation, except for the familiar exclaim uttered by the doctor: “She’s losing too much blood!”
He was always the one to give her blood, whether in the previous or current life.
The difference was she was alive, and he was there beside her.
“How are the babies doing?” Yan Huan had regained her senses and deduced that she had already given birth from the flatness of her belly.
“Yes, both of the boys are doing well,” said Lu Yi, sitting down and telling Yan Huan about the babies. He consciously made no mention about their feather-light daughter.
According to He Yibin, she was too small to have a chance at survival. For Yan Huan who had just undergone an operation, this would no doubt be too heavy to bear.
Their elder son was 3.9 grams, and the second son 4.6 grams. They were light by normal standards, but considered normal for twins. Despite being underweight, the two babies ate heartily, slept soundly, and were healthy in every other aspect.