After his lips trembled for a long while, Nian Cenyi finally asked:
"My child, I mean you no harm. You look very much like my wife.
Something happened back then, and my wife and I were forced apart. She disappeared with our daughter, and I have had no word of them since.
Seeing how closely you resemble my wife, I took the liberty of inviting you here!
Would you be willing to tell me about your origins?"
Zhang Zhixi saw the sorrow, excitement, and cautious hope in Nian Cenyi's eyes.
She hid nothing, recounting everything she knew.
Nian Cenyi asked anxiously:
"When you were found, what did you have with you? Was there anything that could identify you?"
Zhang Zhixi thought for a moment, then took a handkerchief from inside her robes. She unfolded it, revealing a pair of gold bracelets made for a small child, and said:
"These were the only things I had on me when my adoptive father found me."
Nian Cenyi took the bracelets and examined them.
They were the birthday gift Meng Xiruo's mother had given her granddaughter all those years ago.
Nian Cenyi's hands shook uncontrollably as he held them.
"Your maternal grandmother personally commissioned these as your birthday gift."
Nian Cenyi looked up at Zhang Zhixi, tears already streaming down his face.
"You really are my daughter, Jingran."
He wanted to take his daughter's hand and have a good look at her, but feared being too forward.
Guagua: [And just like that, father and daughter were reunited.
Zhang Zhixi was welcomed back to the Dragon Abyss Kingdom and restored her original name: Nian Jingran.
After she became a princess, Nian Cenyi asked whether she was married.
Zhang Zhixi said that while living in the bandit stronghold, she had already bowed to Heaven and