Chapter 2341 — She Is Your Daughter

"Correct." Uncle Qing nodded. "Since you have asked, I won't deny it either. I kept silent all this while because I feared you might act rashly or let the word slip. But Xiaoyi, how on earth did you come to know of that place?"

"I went out some time ago. Do you know where I went?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Of course I knew you had gone out—Luo Yue told me when she phoned. But how would I know where you went?" Uncle Qing was somewhat puzzled; Wei Zhao's topic had jumped too abruptly, leaping straight from the previous subject to this one.

"The Ulonghot Mountains!" Wei Zhao nodded and said gravely.

"What? You went to the Ulonghot Mountains? That's near the little town of Ruileida beyond the border—why would you go there?" Uncle Qing was greatly startled by his words. "What did you go to those mountains for?"

"This has to be traced back several months, to when I took Xiaoxiao to the far northern, bitterly cold lands seeking a cure, and entered the trials of the Ice Palace..." Wei Zhao knew this could not be explained in a breath and must be told from the beginning. He had already given Uncle Qing, the eldest young miss, Xiaoshu, and the others a general account of his Ice Palace trials, but he had never spoken of the Heaven-rank madman.

For one thing, at the time Wei Zhao had not thought it very important; for another, he had never intended to claim that map for himself, only to keep it safe on the Heaven-rank madman's behalf. So naturally he had never brought the matter up.

But now things were different. He had to begin with the first encounter with the Heaven-rank madman.

"Oh? How does this tie back to the Ice Palace trials?" Uncle Qing asked, rather puzzled. Just as Wei Zhao had expected, Uncle Qing already knew the rough outline of the Ice Palace trials.

"After the Ice Palace trials ended, a few other things happened. I didn't mention them at the time because they didn't seem important, but they have a great deal to do with this matter, so I'll start from the beginning..." With that, Wei Zhao told Uncle Qing about encountering the Heaven-rank madman in the cave...

At first, when Uncle Qing heard that a Heaven-rank madman had appeared in the cave, he was rather bewildered as to where the man could have come from. But when he heard that the madman, in the grip of his affliction, had called Wei Zhao "Li'er" and babbled something about running away, Uncle Qing's body gave a violent shudder and he cried out involuntarily, "**!"

"After that, he gave me half a map..." Wei Zhao smiled wryly and produced the half map he had long since prepared, handing it to Uncle Qing. It seemed his guess had been right—Uncle Qing was that very Li'er!

"**... Xiaoyi, that Heaven-rank madman you met is my **, it must be..." With trembling hands, Uncle Qing took the map from Wei Zhao. One glance was enough to fill his eyes with tears, and he spoke with still greater certainty: "There's no mistake. This map is the treasure map of the Ulonghot Mountains... In those years, I too had half of it..."

Sun Luoying, however, looked utterly lost, for she no longer remembered that bygone affair. Still, she sensed the strange agitation in Uncle Qing and silently took hold of his arm, as though to comfort him and lend him strength.

"I didn't know the two of you were connected before, and it never occurred to me to think in that direction, so please forgive me for not telling you any of this," Wei Zhao said.

"Xiaoyi, you've done nothing wrong. On the contrary, I must thank you—you stepped in to help and eased the **'s headaches!" Uncle Qing waved a hand and said solemnly. "Besides, since the ** gave you this map, it proves you and he were fated to meet. That is your good fortune..."

"This is how I came by this half map," Wei Zhao said.

"Hm? That's right—this is only half a map. You went to the Ulonghot Mountains to hunt for treasure? But half a map is useless, isn't it?" A sudden thought struck Uncle Qing, and he asked in puzzlement, "And you surely couldn't have the other half..."

"I shouldn't have had it, no. But just before I set out for the Ulonghot Mountains, I unexpectedly discovered the other half of the map—and that is exactly why I went to the Ulonghot Mountains!" Wei Zhao said.

"The other half of the map?" Uncle Qing sprang to his feet, so overcome with emotion that his words came out stammering and unsteady. "You... where did you find the other half of the map?"

"On a certain person," Wei Zhao said. "Uncle Qing, I went to the Ulonghot Mountains accompanying someone else. Granny Sun should know who that person is..."

"Who is it?" Uncle Qing was taken aback. Sun Luoying had only said that Wei Zhao had gone out with a friend; where he went and with whom, Uncle Qing had never asked. Now he turned to Granny Sun and put the question to her.

"Sun Jingyan of the Sun family—she would count as a relative of ours, I suppose..." Granny Sun, unaware of the hidden circumstances, answered truthfully.

"Sun Jingyan... what? Her?" Uncle Qing was thunderstruck, tears welling up beyond his control—a happiness beyond words, the moving joy of one who has survived a calamity. "Xiaoyi, are you trying to say..."

"Sun Jingyan has a jade pendant, and the map was taken out of that pendant..." Wei Zhao said. "And this time, in the Ulonghot Mountains, I met the Heaven-rank madman again. Once, when he was lucid, he suddenly realized I was not Li'er and meant to do me harm. But when Sun Jingyan tried to stop him, he called her Yue'er instead, and let me off... Who she is, I think you understand, Uncle Qing. That is also why I sought you two out in private to tell you this..."

"Luoyue, Jingyi is our daughter!" Uncle Qing gripped Sun Luoying's hand in his excitement and said with great joy, "So our daughter never died—she has returned to the Sun family, she truly never died! No wonder, when I first saw her, I thought her face so familiar, and took it for the resemblance of kin. Little did I think she was our own daughter!"

By now Sun Luoying was dazed as well. She might not remember that chapter of the past, but she knew she had once had a daughter who was killed by her enemies, and the thought of it still darkened her heart with grief. Yet never had she imagined that the daughter had not died!

"Not dead—and she is Sun Jingyan?" Sun Luoying was astonished, disbelief written across her face, though it was quickly replaced by a joyful smile. Whatever else, whether she remembered or not, it could only be good news that her daughter was alive...