Beijing.
"Hello, Auntie!"
Xiao Yu’s biological mother, Lin Haitang, was a gentle middle-aged woman. Though wrinkles had begun to appear on her face, one could still glimpse her exceptional beauty from her younger days.
Since they hadn’t given prior notice, Mrs. Lin was quite surprised by their visit, but her surprise quickly turned into delight.
From the mont they entered the house, her eyes hadn’t left ng Lang, continually assessing him with the look of a mother-in-law inspecting her son-in-law.
"You must be Xiao ng. I’ve often heard Haitang ntion you recently, and this girl isn’t one to praise people lightly."
ng Lang’s eyes lit up, "Really, Auntie? What has she said about ?"
"Ahem!" Lin Haitang hastily cleared her throat as she picked up the cup of water.
"Haha! This girl used to be quite resistant to interacting with the opposite sex, but since she brought you to et today, I feel much more at ease. By the way, when are you two planning to get married?"
"Pfft!" Lin Haitang almost choked on her tea.
"Cough, cough!" She coughed, her face full of embarrassed annoyance. "Mom, what are you talking about!"
"What’s there to be shy about? You brought him here today, isn’t it for the wedding?" Mrs. Lin asked puzzled.
ng Lang imdiately gave Mrs. Lin a thumbs-up.
"Auntie, you have a really keen eye!"
Who knows a daughter better than her mother?
Given the complexity of making Lin Haitang budge, it’s only because he can "reload and restart" that he’s reached this step of "eting the parents." An ordinary person might still be sowhere traveling right now.
Reaching this stage nearly equates to having Lin Haitang’s approval; otherwise, they wouldn’t even have entered the ho.
"Xiao ng, among so many suitors, you may not be the most outstanding, but you are the only successful one. By the way, how did you and Haitang et?"
"Haha! Well, that’s quite a long story..."
Mrs. Lin had the deanor of eting her son-in-law, asking all sorts of questions. ng Lang didn’t find this annoying at all, answering every question, of course omitting so overly thrilling episodes...
As they chatted, the conversation naturally veered towards the "auspicious wedding date," at which point Lin Haitang hurriedly changed the subject.
"Ahem! It’s this ti already, everyone’s probably hungry, right? How about we go out to eat sothing?"
"Oh dear, look at , chatting with Auntie seed like eting an old friend, and I even forgot about eating.
Haitang, hurry and go to the kitchen to fry a couple of dishes!"
"Yes, yes! Caught up in the chat, Haitang, there are ingredients in the fridge. Go and whip sothing up; the food outside can’t compare to what you make.
Xiao ng, I’m not boasting, but our Haitang’s cooking skills even make , her mother, feel inferior..."
ng Lang didn’t treat himself as an outsider at all, and Mrs. Lin eagerly showed off her daughter while they seed to be perfectly in sync.
Lin Haitang: "..."
Watching Lin Haitang enter the kitchen with a helpless expression, ng Lang slowly withdrew his gaze, turning to Mrs. Lin with a smile.
"Auntie, Haitang is so filial to you, you must have cherished her a lot when she was a child, right?"
Sending Lin Haitang away intentionally, ng Lang naturally wanted to gather so information from Mrs. Lin.
"Yes! Haitang is my only child, who else would I spoil? Unfortunately, she has had a tough life since childhood, dealing with a family like ours..."
Mrs. Lin sighed.
"When we divorced, Haitang was only seven. I, a housewife who knew nothing, could barely support myself, so I voluntarily gave up custody.
I thought she’d do well over there, but who knew later on... sigh!
It was only in recent years that I learned she’s raising Xiao Yu on her own.
Haitang is great in every way, except she’s too sensible and never tells anything, bearing everything by herself. I truly regret that if only I had back then..."
Just as the "truth exploration" was turning into "revisiting bitter mories," ng Lang quickly interjected.
"Auntie, don’t bla yourself too much. Haitang is doing quite well now. By the way, Auntie, I’ve never heard Haitang talk about her childhood, can you tell about it?"
"Her childhood..." Mrs. Lin showed a slight smile.
"You wouldn’t know, but Haitang was so smart as a child. She never caused any trouble, like a little adult, even the kindergarten teachers called her a prodigy. If it weren’t for..."
Mrs. Lin paused, for so reason sighing.
"Could it be that Haitang lost her mory as a child?" ng Lang probed cautiously.
"Hmm?" Mrs. Lin was taken aback.
"Xiao ng, how did you know..." Then she seed to realize sothing.
"Haitang must have told you, right? I thought she was too young to rember any of it."
ng Lang confird his own suspicions, without any joy.
"Haitang ntioned it to , said she can’t recall anything from her childhood. Auntie, was there sothing that happened back then?"
"Sigh! Years ago, we went to a temple for fortune-telling. The fortune-teller said Haitang was naturally smart, but ’early genius leads to harm.’ We didn’t know if that’s why she suffered.
Sure enough, when she was six, Haitang inexplicably had a high fever and then suddenly couldn’t rember anything.
During that ti, I felt so responsible. Her father was out working on his career, and I was wholeheartedly at ho looking after Haitang.
Luckily, after the mory loss, Haitang learned quickly. In just over a year, she was able to go to school normally.
We’ve always felt this matter was ominous and didn’t want to leave any childhood trauma for Haitang, so we never brought it up. I didn’t expect Haitang to have always known..."
Yes! Of course she didn’t know; it took investigating dozens of episodes to finally find so clues...
ng Lang sighed inwardly.
Mrs. Lin’s recounting added a sowhat mystical aspect to the story, but ng Lang knew it wasn’t so.
From the day he suspected that Lin Haitang was the previous owner of the autobiography, he had pondered this.
Besides the possibility of naturally occurring mory loss...
Could there be another possibility...
That Lin Haitang herself used so special ans to voluntarily erase her mory?
Though it sounds a bit far-fetched, we must rember that an autobiography provides not only the opportunity to read the future but also poses strong side effects!
The threat of "cracking" follows every autobiography user like a shadow.
ng Lang was okay; with an adult soul, even if he absorbed mory fragnts of ten or twenty years, it wouldn’t likely affect his consciousness significantly in a short ti.
But Lin Haitang, at only five or six, hadn’t fully ford her worldview and consciousness.
To imbibe an adult’s mories at that ti would be equivalent to overlaying at least twenty or thirty years of life experience on a re five-year-old’s consciousness.
Even if it’s just so signals of mories traveling through ti, be it personality or spirit, Lin Haitang would likely be greatly affected.
She could turn dark any minute, it’s not impossible.
From this point analysis, the opportunity for Lin Haitang to read her life couldn’t have been too many.
She would face Xue Huaiyi’s issue more rapidly...
In ancient tis, Tang Xuanzang, Xue Huaiyi, and other Buddhist high monks chose to renounce the material world.
Because only by embracing "emptiness" to the greatest extent could they mitigate the influence of other personalities, prolonging their reading ti.
However, in modern tis, with the rapid advancents in biodical science, even without profound spiritual realms, there’s actually another way to achieve a similar purpose...
It’s hard to say if, in the future, there might be a kind of human technology that can completely "format" oneself, achieving a factory reset effect.
So, did Lin Haitang choose such a thod to "completely erase" her mory, turning herself back into a blank slate to achieve the sa "emptiness" purpose...
Without a trace, where could dust alight?
Though the cost is enormous, akin to drinking ngpo Soup to be reborn, however... in so sense, she gains a "second life"?
At this mont, ng Lang had essentially confird his speculation.
Perhaps every autobiography owner is in self-preservation.
Xue Huaiyi chose to die to achieve righteousness, the high monks chose to cut off worldly desires, Zhuangzi chose the path of joy...
As for Lin Haitang...
He couldn’t help but turn to look at the busy figure in the kitchen.
This world doesn’t et anyone’s expectations.
So persist, while others choose to forget...
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