Zhai Huan's reincarnation had taken place within the borders of the former Qu Kingdom.
In this life, he still bore the surname Zhai, though he had not yet been given a name.
Zhai Le brought his utterly bewildered daughter to peek over a dirt wall. A two- or three-month-old baby lay in a cradle beside the window, sucking on his hand, while a young woman sat nearby doing odd handiwork. Before coming, Zhai Le had already sent people to learn everything there was to know about this family.
"Look. This is your uncle."
Unlike Zhai Le, who took things in stride, his daughter was in low spirits.
Still, she forced herself to perk up at his words and look over.
The baby in the cradle had fair skin and delicate features, with plump, rosy cheeks. It was clear from this that the family was fairly well-off. She asked, puzzled, "Father, how do you know he's Eldest Uncle?"
She suspected her father had been swindled by some charlatan.
Her uncle had been dead for many years. If reincarnation really existed, he would surely have been reborn long ago. So how could he have just been born now? Her first thought was that someone had cooked up a scheme to deceive her innocent, brother-missing father. She pressed her lips together, planning to send someone to investigate in secret.
"Your uncle appeared in a dream and told me."
Zhai Le was loyal, too. He didn't expose Shen Tang.
That would have been even harder to explain.
Zhai Le had seen the baby, but that wasn't enough for him.
So he sent someone to knock on the door and went in openly.
The family hadn't originally borne the surname Zhai. The father was merely a poor scholar-official of Subordinate Seventh Rank who had struggled