Xi Yu wasn’t an ordinary person, so the village chief wanted to ask him to take a look.
It wasn’t anything serious, so Xi Yu agreed. “All right.”
By the time they finished the meal, Luo Cheng’an had practically become a member of the village. He was enthusiastically calling everyone Uncle and Auntie.
Uncle Zhang was so amused by him that he couldn’t stop laughing. He said he would drive them to the village entrance on his tractor later.
The families who had originally lived near the stone stele at the village entrance had already moved farther inside.
Back then, several people who had tried to flee had died at the village entrance. Everyone thought the place was unlucky, so the abandoned houses were perfect for the crazy girl to live in.
Xi Yu jumped down from the tractor. The village chief had been brought over by his son on an electric three-wheeled vehicle.
The road was uneven, and the village chief was old and unsteady on his feet.
Xi Yu stopped Luo Cheng’an when he tried to get down. “You stay here. I’ll go take a look and come right back.”
“No, I’m coming with you.” Luo Cheng’an then looked at Shen Qing and Luo Yuan. “Mom, Dad, let’s go with Brother.”
Luo Cheng’an jumped down from the other side. Xi Yu couldn’t stop him.
He grinned. “Brother, you’re not alone anymore. Whatever you do, we’ll be there with you.”
Seeing that he couldn’t talk him out of it, Xi Yu said, “Fine.”
The village chief and Auntie Hua entered the courtyard first. The house itself was locked from the outside.
As Auntie Hua unlocked it, she explained, “We didn’t lock it before. That crazy girl ran outside once, fell into the river, and nearly drowned. After that, we started locking the door. We can’t have anyone else dying in the village.”
Auntie Hua was only a few years older than Er’ya. Back then, she and Er’ya used to wash clothes together and had gotten along well.
Later, when everything happened to Er’ya, Auntie Hua had just become pregnant with her second child. She had been so frightened that she didn’t dare leave the house, and even now she was still deeply afraid of things like this.
Once the door opened, Auntie Hua went in first.
The moment she entered, she cried out, “Oh, what are you doing? Why did you smash the bowl?!”
Xi Yu followed her inside, his brows drawing together slightly.
The room itself wasn’t dirty. It was clear that someone cleaned it regularly. But there was hardly any furniture. The villagers didn’t have much spare money to furnish an extra room.
It was much like the place where Xi Yu had lived.
The only difference was that this room received very little sunlight and was extremely cold and gloomy.
Xi Yu looked toward the crazy girl.
Auntie Hua was sweeping with a broom, scolding as she worked. But she wasn’t angry that the girl had broken the bowl.
“Let go, quick! What’s so fun about those broken pieces? You’ve cut your hand open! You really don’t make things easy for people. Old Zhang, come help me. This crazy girl has quite a bit of strength.”
Hearing that, Uncle Zhang hurried over. He slapped the girl’s hand several times before she finally opened her fingers and let the broken pieces of porcelain fall.
The moment she was hit, the crazy girl suddenly screamed.
“Don’t hit me!!! Don’t hit me!!!”
As she screamed, she backed into a corner.
Her hair was very long, covering her face so completely that Xi Yu couldn’t see what she looked like.
The village chief said beside Xi Yu, “When this crazy girl first arrived, she would hide whenever she saw anyone. She’s gotten much better now. I suspect she may have been abused in the past.”
Auntie Hua had a daughter around the same age as this girl, so she was the one who took care of her the most.
Seeing the girl’s fear, she glared at Uncle Zhang.
“Why did you hit her?”
Uncle Zhang stamped his foot. “What else was I supposed to do when she wouldn’t let go?”
Shen Qing looked at the crazy girl, then pulled a hair tie from her bag and handed it to Auntie Hua.
“Why don’t you tie her hair up?”
Auntie Hua took it. “We’ve tried before. She likes pulling her own hair. We tie it up and she tears it out again almost immediately.”
Though she said that, Auntie Hua still walked over to the girl.
She gently brushed the girl’s hair aside and coaxed her.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. Let me give you a pretty hairstyle.”
Only then did Xi Yu get a clear look at the crazy girl’s face.
She was so thin that her features looked gaunt. Her eye sockets were deeply sunken, there was dust on her face, and her dry lips were cracked.
And yet, even in such a state, it was still possible to see that she had once been beautiful.
Xi Yu stared at her face, deep in thought.
The village chief’s heart tightened when he saw his expression.
Please don’t let there really be something attached to her.
Good heavens. Xi Yu wasn’t living in the village anymore. If something really was there, they wouldn’t know how to deal with it.
The village chief cautiously asked, “Is she… is she normal?”
He obviously wasn’t asking whether she was mentally normal.
She was already a crazy girl. Of course she wasn’t normal.
Xi Yu naturally understood what the village chief really meant.
He was silent for a moment, then shook his head.
“She didn’t bring anything with her.”
The village chief, Auntie Hua, and Uncle Zhang all breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as there was nothing there, everything was fine.
Xi Yu pressed his lips together and withdrew his gaze.
The crazy girl indeed hadn’t brought anything with her.
In fact, she was missing something.
She was missing her own destiny.
Someone had taken her destiny away.
This was different from Luo Shujing stealing Luo Cheng’an’s fortune, putting his life in danger, and absorbing his fortune for himself.
What had been taken from this girl was her destiny.
In other words, her identity.
Someone had taken her identity and was enjoying all the love and help that should have belonged to her—love from her parents, relatives, and friends.
After losing her destiny, one of her souls had been damaged. That was why she had become half-crazed and confused.
As long as she could return to her original place, that damaged soul would be restored.
Luo Cheng’an squatted nearby, staring at her with deeply furrowed brows.
“Why do I feel like she looks so familiar? I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before.”
Shen Qing and Luo Yuan felt the same way, but neither of them could quite place it, so they hadn’t paid much attention.
But now that Luo Cheng’an had mentioned it, Shen Qing said, “I also feel like she looks familiar.”
Luo Yuan nodded. “Me too. But I can’t remember where.”
If only one person thought she looked familiar, it could have been a coincidence.
But if so many people felt the same way, then they must really have seen her before.
They just couldn’t remember where.
That probably meant she was someone with a very low presence—someone people could easily overlook.
Auntie Hua, who had been listening nearby, suddenly laughed.
“Really? If all of you have seen her before, then she must be someone from your area. Xia’an said you’re from A City. Why don’t you report her to the police station in A City and see if you can find anything?”
Life was better now, and taking care of a crazy girl wasn’t exactly a burden.
But leaving things like this forever wasn’t a solution either.
Auntie Hua wiped the blood from the girl’s hand with a towel.
Luo Cheng’an’s brows were knitted tightly.
Two seconds later, he suddenly slapped his forehead.
Xi Yu thought he had finally remembered.
He lowered his eyes to look at him.
Luo Cheng’an suddenly shouted, “Stupid brain, think harder!”
Xi Yu’s mouth twitched.
Auntie Hua burst out laughing.
Shen Qing felt embarrassed on his behalf. She grabbed Luo Cheng’an by the collar and hauled him upright before answering Auntie Hua.
“All right. Do you know her name? Or is there anything distinctive about her?”
“We don’t know her name. She won’t answer anything we ask. When she’s lucid, she just sits here staring blankly without saying a word. When she gets crazy, she screams and says that she’s the real eldest daughter of the Liu family. Liu… Liu…”
Auntie Hua struggled for a long while but couldn’t remember.
The girl had been screaming so much that she had never been able to hear the name clearly.
Xi Yu looked at the crazy girl and finished her sentence.
Slowly, he said, “Liu Tanghuan.”
………………..
Luo Cheng’an’s eyes widened.
Shen Qing and Luo Yuan froze as well.
The name they had been unable to remember no matter how hard they tried suddenly surfaced in their minds.
A City wasn’t that big. Naturally, they had heard about Liu Tanghuan’s scandalous antics from several years ago.
Back then, Liu Tanghuan had appeared in public several times, and they had naturally seen her at various banquets.
Although Liu Tanghuan had rarely appeared in public after getting married, the Luo family attended the annual charity gala every year.
They had received an invitation to this year’s event as well.
She wasn’t someone they were close to, but there was no reason they should have struggled for so long to remember her.
It was just that this person…
Shen Qing carefully examined the woman before her.
There was almost no connection between this emaciated, timid, seemingly deranged girl and the graceful, poised young heiress of the Liu family she remembered.
The woman before her looked frightened and broken, terribly thin, with a pair of large eyes that looked almost frightening against her gaunt face.
But when Shen Qing carefully examined her features and searched her memories, she suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
“It really is her.”
The crazy girl had been curled up in the corner.
The moment she heard Xi Yu say her name, she suddenly looked over.
Then she screamed.
“I’m Liu Tanghuan!!!”
The crazy girl suddenly charged toward Xi Yu.
Luo Cheng’an reacted quickly and blocked her.
“What are you doing?!”
“You’ve all been deceived! Why won’t you recognize me?! I’m Liu Tanghuan!!!”
“I’m your daughter!”
“That woman is a monster! She’s a monster! Why won’t you recognize me?!”
“I’ll kill you! I’m going to kill you! You did this to me!”
“I’m Liu Tanghuan! Give my family and my fiancé back to me! Give them back!!!”
“AAAAAAAH!!!!!”
The crazy girl screamed as Luo Cheng’an wrapped his arms around her waist to restrain her.
She thrashed and clawed at him frantically, trying to break free so she could attack Xi Yu.
Shen Qing hurried forward, intending to pull her away.
Xi Yu caught Shen Qing by the arm and snapped his fingers.
The girl who had been completely hysterical only a moment ago suddenly seemed to lose all strength.
She closed her eyes and collapsed limply.
Luo Cheng’an caught her and laid her down on the bed.
Then he touched his own face and sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
Shen Qing’s heart ached when she saw the scratches, and Auntie Hua exclaimed repeatedly.
“Look at this! There’s no mistake. She really is the Liu Tanghuan Xiaoyu mentioned. What a coincidence! We couldn’t find her family for so long, and it turns out you actually know her.”
Yes.
What a coincidence.
That was what Xi Yu thought.
The village chief looked at Xi Yu.
“If you know her, should we notify her family to come get her? Or… does she have no family left?”
Xi Yu thought for a moment.
“She has family. But she’ll need to stay here for a while longer.”
The village chief waved his hand.
“As long as she isn’t carrying some kind of dirty thing, there’s no problem keeping her here. From what she was saying, it sounds like her family doesn’t recognize her.”
“But no matter what, she’s still their child. They should at least be informed. Since you know whose family she belongs to, please ask them. If they really won’t come get her, there’s nothing we can do. She can stay here. If every family gives her a little food, she’ll be able to survive.”
Xi Yu looked at the crazy girl and said slowly, “Whether they want to recognize her or not, they’ll recognize her eventually.”
Xi Yu didn’t stay much longer in Qingliang Village.
After saying goodbye to the villagers, he left with Luo Cheng’an and the others and drove back to A City.
Seeing that the others were all preoccupied with their thoughts, Xi Yu took over the driving.
The sun was strong in the middle of the afternoon.
Xi Yu gripped the steering wheel while Luo Cheng’an sat in the passenger seat, staring intently at him.