Just when she was about to greet the man, she saw his eyes glisten with what seemed to be tears.
She thought that her eyes must have deceived her, for when she looked again, his expression had returned to normal. However, despite his outward calmness, his face shone with undisguised excitement and the joy of someone who had recovered what he had previously lost. A mixture of other emotions flashed through his eyes as well.
The hunter’s wife was puzzled.
The boy had long sensed that there was someone behind him, and he knew that it must be the unconscious man from yesterday.
However, as he was unwilling to let another person stare at the baby girl for too long, he got up and walked away.
Long Yang’s gaze followed him.
The boy had been sitting on a stool just now, and he was dressed like a farm boy, so Long Yang thought that he was the son of this family.
However, when the boy stood up, he realized how familiar his figure looked from behind. There was that baby in his arms, too… Tentatively, he called out, “Lil Qi?”
To his dismay, the boy ignored him and walked off with the baby in his arms.
Long Yang was bewildered by what he saw.
If that was Chu Qi, why did he not return to the palace? Also, why did he not respond to his call?
Long Yang almost thought that he had mistaken the wrong person for Chu Qi.
However, when the boy sat down some distance away and turned his head to face him, he immediately rejected the possibility.
“Lil Qi, you…”
The boy continued to ignore him as if he did not hear his voice.
Long Yang furrowed his brow as a feeling of dread crept into his heart.
The hunter’s wife had been observing them from the side, and she was surprised to learn that the man knew the boy.
Seeing the confusion on his face, she quickly put down what she was holding and explained, “This child fell off the cliff and hit his head. He’s now blind and he’s lost his memories too. How are you related to him?”
Only then did Long Yang turn to look at her.
When he heard what she said, shock and sadness darted across his face.
No wonder Chu Qi treated him like he was a total stranger.
He stared at the boy sitting there with his arms wrapped firmly around the baby girl, and replied hoarsely, “I’m their family.”
“Then the baby…” The hunter’s wife did not doubt him at all, though she felt that it was too much of a coincidence that both of them had been saved by her husband. However, this man seemed rather distinguished and exuded an aura that she could not describe.
Even the rich people she had met in town did not possess such an aura.
She could not quite put her finger on the feeling he gave her, but she could tell that he was no ordinary man.
It was unlikely that a person like him would simply pretend to be the boy’s family.
A thought crossed her mind. She pointed at the infant in the boy’s arms and asked again, “The baby girl…”
“She’s my daughter.” Long Yang’s voice was raspy.
His fists clenched under his sleeves as he gazed at the baby in Chu Qi’s arms. He longed to rush over and hug her, but a memory surfaced in his mind and held him back.
The hunter’s wife looked him over in astonishment. “What a very extraordinary coincidence!”
Coming back to his senses, Long Yang asked solemnly, “Were you the one who saved them?”
The hunter’s wife shook her head. “No, it was my husband.” She sighed, then looked at him incredulously. “If you’re the baby’s father, why did you let her fall off the cliff? Thank goodness a tree broke their fall—that’s what my husband said—or else they could have died. It’s also thanks to this boy protecting the baby that she was unharmed. It must have been Heaven’s blessing that they managed to survive such a long fall.”
Once she started the conversation, she could not stop herself from rambling on about everything that had happened to the boy and the baby girl in the past month.