Chapter 723: As Long as It’s You

"We all believed it," Zhan Chi murmured.

If it hadn’t been for that letter, someone would have surely done something foolish by now.

"Lass, is your wound truly healed?" This was Xiang Minghou’s greatest worry.

Ye Qianning patted the spot over her heart. "It’s healed. Completely healed. Don’t worry, Dad. Those medicinal baths weren’t for nothing."

"Be gentle!" Qian Fanji said in a panic. An arrow had pierced that very spot all those years ago.

"I already told you, I’m fine."

"But there should be a limit to how thin you get. Look at you, you’re a shadow of your former self. Are you really okay?" Zhan Chi asked, concerned.

"I’m not that thin, am I? Look at the young girls out there. Aren’t many of them just like this?"

"But they weren’t as chubby as you were when they were little," Zhan Chi said, glancing at her a few times, still finding it hard to accept. "Why did that old Taoist stop you from eating?"

"It was nothing, really. He was just afraid I’d eat too much and it would be unhealthy," Ye Qianning said with a cheerful laugh.

Qian Fanji asked, "Really?"

"Mhm."

Qian Fanji stared at her. "Don’t think you can just brush this off."

"It was nothing," Ye Qianning said, not wanting to talk about it.

"Pangtuan, Dad wants to know how you’ve managed all these years. I don’t want you to bear all that suffering alone." Xiang Minghou knew her personality well.

She didn’t want to make them worry, but her injuries back then had been so severe. Ten years... how could she describe it so breezily?

Zhan Chi also stared at her. "Lass, hesitation isn’t in your nature."

Ye Qianning scratched her head. ’They’re really not easy to fool.’ She could only give them a simplified version. "After I arrived on the island, it took over a year for me to wake up, but I couldn’t move. The old Taoist only fed me one meal every two days. He said since I wasn’t moving, I couldn’t digest more. That’s when I lost all the weight. Later, when I could move again, I just couldn’t put the weight back on. Maybe it’s because I had a growth spurt."

Xiang Minghou’s breathing grew unsteady.

’For a child to be unable to move for several years... what an ordeal that must have been.’

Zhan Chi still remembered what a big eater she was as a child, eating practically all day long. ’One meal every two days, for several years?’

’Doesn’t that mean she spent every single day starving?’

"Which island?" Qian Fanji asked.

"Um... it’s hard to say. The island is surrounded by a powerful vortex. In any case, no ship can get through."

Qian Fanji silently made a mental note: a place with a vortex.

"Dad, we’ve been talking for so long. Don’t you all think there’s something off about me?" Ye Qianning asked suspiciously. This human-skin mask she was wearing looked nothing like she did as a child.

Xiang Minghou said, "You’re thinner."

Zhan Chi said, "Too thin."

Qian Fanji glanced at her a few times. "You’ll have to eat more to build yourself back up from now on."

"...Besides being thin, you haven’t noticed anything else?" Ye Qianning touched her own face. ’Has no one really noticed my face?’

Xiang Minghou’s gaze fell upon her face, but he said nothing.

Zhan Chi glanced over and also fell silent.

"As long as it’s you, your appearance doesn’t matter." Qian Fanji didn’t care about such things. No matter what she looked like, his daughter was his daughter.

"..."

"Even if you were a soul reincarnated in another body, I would still recognize you as my daughter," Xiang Minghou said in a low voice.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t noticed; it was that they noticed but couldn’t bring themselves to say it. Whether it was the chubby little girl from back then or the plain-looking young woman now, it didn’t matter. As long as she was Ye Qianning, that was all that mattered!

Zhan Chi nodded. "Beautiful or plain, you are you."

Nothing was more important than having their little lass back.

Ye Qianning was stunned by their answers, but she quickly understood, a deep sense of resonance filling her heart.

’Those who truly wait for someone can accept them no matter what they become.’

’As long as it’s you—that’s all that matters.’