Hearing that voice again, Ning Chengxiao knitted his brows tightly and instinctively looked toward its source. Their eyes met, and Ning Sang-sang hurried to his side, wailing at him, "Second Brother, I finally found you! You have no idea how hard it was, crossing mountains and rivers to get here."
That wailed "Second Brother" startled Ning Chengxiao. He stared at Ning Sang-sang with a deep frown. "Who are you?"
Ning Sang-sang clutched her chest, putting on an utterly heartbroken expression. "Second Brother, don't you recognize me? I'm your third sister, the one who's been wandering far from home!"
Watching Ning Sang-sang turn into a born actress, Little Melon reminded her, [Dear host, you were still a baby when you went missing, and your second brother was only six. Of course he doesn't recognize you.]
[Who doesn't know that? I'm just trying to make this sucker remember me deep in his soul. Look at my second brother's dumbfounded expression. He must be trying hard to remember what I looked like in my swaddling clothes.]
Ning Chengxiao: "???"
Where was that voice coming from?
The girl in front of him hadn't opened her mouth, so why could he hear her voice?
Before he could make sense of it, his father strode out through the main gates. His usually calm and composed father now wore a face full of excitement.
The moment Ning Xiaotian came out, he searched for his daughter and spotted a tall, slender young girl in an exquisitely made yellow dress. Her features were as lovely as a painting, and her brows and eyes closely resembled his wife's. At the sight of her, a sense of kinship welled up unbidden in his heart. Ning Xiaotian froze for a moment and stared at her for a long while before coming to his senses and walking over. "You say you're my daughter? What proof do you have?"
Although the young girl before him gave him a powerful sense of kinship, he still had to ask the necessary questions. After all, far too many people had come to the Duke of Ning's Residence over the years, pretending to be his daughter and claiming kinship.
Ning Sang-sang took the Jade Pendant from inside her clothes and held it out to him. "This is the Jade Pendant my family left me."
At the sight of the familiar Jade Pendant, Ning Xiaotian's expression instantly grew excited. He accepted it with trembling hands and examined it carefully. When he saw the tiny characters for "Ning" and "Sang" engraved on its back, tears of joy spilled from his eyes. "You really are my daughter, Sang-sang! Sang-sang, your father has finally found you!"
[Dad, I'm the one who found you. If I waited for you to find me, who knows what year of the monkey and month of the horse that would be?]
The voice that rang out without warning made Ning Xiaotian pause. He had plainly seen that Sang-sang hadn't opened her mouth, so how had he suddenly heard her voice?
He was hearing things. He had to be hearing things.
"Sang-sang, let's go inside. Your mother will be so happy to know you're back." Ning Xiaotian looked at Ning Sang-sang with a face full of fatherly affection, his voice gentle. Afraid that this might be another girl pretending to be his daughter, he hadn't told his wife after receiving the gatekeeper's report.
Ning Chengxiao looked at Ning Sang-sang and asked doubtfully, "Father, is she really our third sister?"
Ning Xiaotian rolled his eyes at him. "I gave Sang-sang that Jade Pendant when she was a month old. I engraved those tiny characters on its back myself. I wouldn't mistake it even if you beat me to death."
Ning Sang-sang blinked her big eyes and suggested to Ning Xiaotian with complete sincerity, "I think deciding I'm your daughter based on a Jade Pendant alone is far too rash. Why don't we do a blood test to establish kinship?"
[My sucker of a second brother doubts me. We have to do a blood test to prove who I am.]
Ning Chengxiao: "..."
His gaze settled on Ning Sang-sang's utterly sincere face, and his head began to throb.
He clearly hadn't seen her open her mouth. Why could he hear her voice?
Ning Xiaotian was also left bewildered by the voice that rang out without warning. Sang-sang hadn't moved her lips for that last remark, yet he had heard her speak. What was going on? Suddenly, a bold possibility surfaced in his mind. Could he be hearing Sang-sang's thoughts?
He looked away, trying to observe his second son's and Bai Xinrou's reactions, and happened to meet his second son's eyes.
The instant their eyes met, they understood each other without a word: both could hear Ning Sang-sang's thoughts.
Without betraying anything, Ning Xiaotian gave him a look, warning him to keep his mouth shut. Then he shifted his gaze to Bai Xinrou, who stood quietly beside his second son. Nothing seemed amiss with her expression; it appeared she couldn't hear Sang-sang's thoughts.
Noticing Ning Huai's gaze, Bai Xinrou dutifully stepped forward and greeted him with a bow. Ning Xiaotian nodded indifferently, treating her coldly, and an unreadable shadow flickered through Bai Xinrou's eyes.
Though it vanished in an instant, Ning Sang-sang still caught it and couldn't help grumbling inwardly.
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