I Am Your Mother

A gentle evening breeze, carrying steaming moisture, caressed their faces. The firewood crackled and popped as Liu Chang'an and Zhou Dongdong looked up at the sycamore tree, their cheeks flushed red in the firelight.

Sister Egg, sitting on the sycamore tree.

Liu Chang'an thought of a phrase: "Phoenix perches on the parasol tree".

Long, long ago in the Common Era, Liu Chang'an saw two kinds of colorful birds. At that time, people liked to make a fuss and had many fantasies about everything in nature. Just like foolish children, they thought of all sorts of nonsense. They called one kind of colorful bird a phoenix and the other a phoenix.

Later, it was called Phoenix. Now, if someone says that Phoenix is a metaphor for the empress, there will always be someone who will confidently point out that the phoenix is actually a male bird and the female phoenix is a female bird.

Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the emperor's power has gradually increased. The emperor was called the dragon, while the concubines in the harem were referred to as phoenixes.

A good bird chooses its tree to perch on, and the phoenix perches on the parasol tree.

The phoenix in this sentence does not originally refer to the empress or empress dowager in a tree.

But when Liu Chang'an thought of this word, he also realized that there was a girl here who harbored resentment towards him and was qualified to be referred to as "Phoenix".

"Is this Sister Dan Dan?" Liu Chang'an lowered his head, pinching Zhou Dongdong's little braid and wrapping it around his finger.

"Sister Egg," Zhou Dongdong said with absolute certainty.

"Is that Sister Dan Dan?"

"Oh... I remember, I remember it was Sister Egg..."

Were you holding an egg and eating it at the time?

"It seems so."

"That must be Sister Dan Dan." Liu Chang'an analyzed Zhou Dongdong's impression formation and its interference with her memory, and then he understood.

That Zhou Dongdong happily went downstairs with an egg in her hand, eating it as she went. There she saw Shangguan Dandan sitting on a sycamore tree, swinging her little feet.

This is roughly the scene.

"Sister Egg!" Zhou Dongdong frowned and insisted on her opinion.

"How could you possibly think I would cook beans for her?" Liu Chang'an suspected that Shangguan Dandan hadn't eaten a hot egg in two thousand years and had tricked Zhou Dongdong into eating the egg.

That's a bit difficult... Once Zhou Dongdong senses that someone wants to eat her food, her first reaction should be to just stuff it into her mouth and swallow it.

"You cooked beans, aren't you going to give some to your mother?" Zhou Dongdong was very puzzled. Zhou Dongdong often shared the good food with her mother.

Liu Chang'an remained calm.

Liu Chang'an remained calm and composed.

Liu Chang'an remained completely still.

Liu Chang'an remained calm and composed.

"She told you she's my mother?" Liu Chang'an's tone was also very gentle.

Zhou Dongdong nodded. "I asked her who she was and why she was sitting in the tree, and she said she was your mother."

Liu Chang'an was now completely certain that Sister Egg was Shangguan Dandan, and there was no other than her. Only she was clinging to the events of more than two thousand years ago while insisting that she was Liu Chang'an's mother.

"What else did she say to you?" Liu Chang'an continued to ask.

Zhou Dongdong threw the firewood into the stove, but after thinking about it, she couldn't remember.

Children's memories are also fragmented, and they often need guidance. They need a topic and context to help them recall the correct scenes. It was a bit difficult for Liu Chang'a Zhou Dongdong to think of the scenes on his own.

Did she say when she'd come to visit you again?

"She said she would come to play with me when I was all alone." Zhou Dongdong this, because she had very few friends, and even fewer who were willing to come to Zhou Dongdong for fun. So Zhou Dongdong considered those who still came to play with her to be good friends.

Did you eat at my house that day?

We ate pig's feet that day!

They ate pig's feet, specifically braised pig's feet with pickled vegetables. It was Valentine's Day. Early in the morning, Liu Chang'an and An Nuan went out, even though it was raining. In the afternoon, they returned and drank glutinous rice wine with Qin Yanan and Zhu Juntang Qin Yanan. Then, Liu Chang'an went to buy wood planks to make furniture. In the evening, Zhou Dongdong ate three pig's feet.

"She sat on the sycamore tree when it rained?" Zhu Juntang's catchphrase could be used to describe Shangguan Dandan.

Zhou Dongdong nodded and continued tending the fire.

Liu Chang'an didn't ask her any more questions. He patted her head, told her to keep the fire going, and walked to the transport vehicle. He looked at the coffin and said, "It's not very interesting to stay cooped up in a coffin all day reading novels, is it? When are you going to come out for some fresh air?"

Shangguan Dandan didn't say anything or send him any messages.

"You've already come out here. The wind is blowing outside, the water is dripping, the veins on the leaves are clearly visible, the scent of the tree bark is strong, the soil is damp under your feet, and you feel the smooth, comfortable sensation in your mouth and lungs when you breathe... You've experienced it all, you remember it all. Can you still endure the darkness in the coffin?" Liu Chang'an was good at tempting people. For most people, a familiar environment is a great temptation, and this is the origin of "homesickness."

Even though Shangguan Dandan had gotten used to the environment inside the coffin, she was ultimately forced into it by some special reason. Her body longed for the world where she used to breathe and run freely. Otherwise, she wouldn't have secretly run away like this. After her experience of the real world was activated, this urge to run away again became even stronger.

"I told Zhou Dongdong not to tell anyone!"

Liu Chang'an received this message.

"First, to Zhou Dongdong, I'm her idol, Brother Chang'an, not just anyone. Second, you said you're my mother, and in Zhou Dongdong's eyes, mothers and children are the closest people. Telling me isn't something she should tell anyone else." Liu Chang'an knows Zhou Dongdong very well. "Next time, just tell her directly, and don't tell Liu Chang'an. Only then will she do as you say."

"I won't come out! You want to use me for alchemy again!"

"I never used you to refine pills! Back then, using people and human organs to refine pills was already considered an evil art, okay? How could you possibly refine an elixir of Longevity using someone who couldn't Longevity? Isn't that ridiculous? Do you think I'm that stupid?" Liu Chang'an had no idea how she came to have such an impression.

"I can Longevity now! I can be used as material!" Dantai Jing stopped sending messages, her voice coming through the bronze coffin.

"Are you shouting like that to declare your resolve as an ingredient in the elixir of Longevity?" Liu Chang'an patted the coffin. "You dare claim Longevity based on this coffin? I've always used my own life essence to refine elixirs."

"Then I'm your mother too."

"That was just a kind of inheritance ceremony at the time, but... you see, you know what opera is, right? Can you really take the term 'opera' seriously?"

"Everyone knows that a play is just a play. But my recognition of you as my son and your succession to the throne is not a play; it is history. History cannot be changed or denied. I urge the Emperor to understand this."

"I am no longer the emperor!"

Unable to communicate with her, Liu Chang'an left the carriage, feeling truly angry... but not angry at all. Liu Chang'an calmly sat back down next to Zhou Dongdong.

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