Chapter 552 - 206: Recognizing Kin (Part 2)

Chapter 552: Chapter 206: Recognizing Kin (Part 2)

The Sui River’s vast, interconnected network also made searching for Xu Su Ying next to impossible when she first fell in.

At the time, they had truly sent out every single person available.

Unfortunately, the surrounding prefectures the Sui River flowed through were beset by rainstorms. Some had just been hit, while others were in the middle of a downpour. This caused the water levels to rise and the currents to quicken, creating immense difficulties for the search party.

Despite the countless obstacles, no one gave up. They continued to search, braving the wind and rain.

But there was one fork after another, one tributary after another. By the time they had searched them all, a full month had passed, and she was still nowhere to be found.

No one could have possibly imagined that Xu Su Ying would travel from the Sui River into the Huai River, then from the Huai River into the Jitong River, and finally end up in the Qingshui River.

And as for how Xu Yanlin could be so certain of this route, it was because it was the only path that made sense to get from the Sui River outside the Capital City to Qingshui County.

But who could have guessed that in just four short days, his aunt would be swept from the Capital City to Qingshui County, a thousand miles away? The current must have been incredibly swift. For his aunt to have survived such a torrent was truly a blessing from the heavens.

Xu Yanlin’s face was filled with a mixture of awe and relief, while Xu Su Ying looked rather guilty.

’The original owner of this body probably died in that river.’

For one thing, after soaking in a river for four days, even in the scorching heat of midsummer, a person’s life would be at risk from hypothermia and starvation.

Not to mention, the river’s current was anything but calm. When flowing that fast, it would have swept up not just rocks and sand, but entire trees as well. If any of those things had struck Xu Su Ying... And something had. When Chen Song rescued her, she was covered in bruises. The most life-threatening wound was on her forehead; her head was split open and bleeding profusely. ’If Chen Song hadn’t saved her in time,’ she thought, ’even I would have been powerless to do anything but wait for death after taking over.’

Now that Xu Yanlin had "pieced together" Xu Su Ying’s "odyssey," his heart ached for her terribly.

"If you still don’t believe you are my aunt, I can tell you one more thing to prove it. Would that be alright?"

Xu Su Ying nodded. "Go on."

"Grandmother said that when you were young, you had more energy than any other child your age. You were also very bold and mischievous, daring to do all sorts of dangerous things. Once, to pick a pomegranate, you snuck away while the maids weren’t looking and climbed up a pomegranate tree. By the time they found you, you had just fallen out of it."

There were decorative rocks beneath the pomegranate tree, and as luck would have it, his aunt fell right onto one. She broke her arm, and it left a large scar next to her right elbow.

"Aunt, you have a scar on your right arm, don’t you?"

Xu Su Ying lifted her arm and looked down at it.

Her sleeve covered it, so of course, she couldn’t see anything. But the gesture itself spoke volumes.

Someone without a scar would have no reason to make such a pointless gesture. Only a person who truly had a scar would move to confirm it.

At this point, what was there to doubt?

’There’s no mistake. This is the aunt his family had been searching for for nearly twenty years!’

With a thud, Xu Yanlin dropped to his knees again.

"Aunt, the family has been looking for you for almost twenty years, and now we’ve finally found you! Aunt, please come home with your nephew. Ever since you disappeared, Grandmother has been ill. This is an ailment of the heart, which only a remedy for the heart can cure. Perhaps seeing you is all it will take for Grandmother to recover..."

Xu Yanlin was a grown man, handsome and refined with a dignified bearing. Seeing his eyes brimming with tears was a truly heartbreaking sight.

But Xu Su Ying had to say it. "Even if I really am your aunt, I can’t just go back to the Capital City with you."

Xu Yanlin’s eyes widened in hurt. "Aunt, why is that?"

"You yourself said I went missing after falling into the water. That’s what I don’t understand. Everything was fine, so how did I just happen to fall in? And even if I did, as a young lady from a good family, I would have certainly had people with me when I went out. It makes no sense that no one came to my rescue after I fell. Furthermore, if I was out to admire flowers, the weather must have been clear, or at least not raining. After falling in, shouldn’t I have just floated in place? How was I swept away for thousands of miles? With so many suspicious circumstances, I refuse to believe that no one was trying to harm me. So, have you found the culprit who did this to me?"

As soon as Xu Su Ying brought this up, a look of admiration and respect appeared on Xu Yanlin’s face.

"Grandmother always said that among all the siblings of my father’s generation, you were the cleverest. If the court recruited female officials, your accomplishments would surely have surpassed those of my father and younger uncle."

"Stop flattering me. Just tell me the whole story."

The moment the past was mentioned, a look of indignation crossed Xu Yanlin’s face. "Before I get into that, Aunt, I must first tell you about the Chengyi Bo Mansion."