Chương 44: Coaxing Xi Xi
The person stared at her and nodded, then instead of approaching her, he walked away, and almost disappeared within the crowd. But Xiao Qi followed, until they reached a relatively unpopulated area.
"What?" Xiao Qi asked.
"Sorry Sister Qi, I've been meaning to inform you about the poison master's daughter but…"
Xiao Qi didn't want to listen to his nonsense. "Quickly say it."
The person seemed frightened by the sudden outburst and quickly went to the point. "That time we had been looking for her following his description, and looked around the villages nearby. Who would have thought she would return, without us knowing."
"Without you knowing?" Xiao Qi asked again, confused. "How can a 5 year old escape your sight?"
After discussing further, Xiao Qi decided to use her people to find Xi Xi.
She thought it was strange that a little girl had escaped their sight like that. She had known that inn owner for about 4 years now, sometimes they did business together, and even used to give her some important information. But she never knew his real identity. She did know he had a daughter that passed away recently, but she didn't know he had a granddaughter. Things were getting complicated. If he was looking for his granddaughter how is it that her men couldn't track her down, yet, the girl returned, without them knowing. She now wondered if they would be able to find her easily that day.
The sun was already high in the sky. She knew they had to find Xi Xi on time if they didn't want the Inn Owner to be suspicious. As she walked around though, she saw a little kid that seemed to wear the same clothes as Xi Xi running towards an alley.
'Isn't that...' With that she quickly ran towards the child, struggling as she passed through a herd of people.
By the time she reached the alley, she saw a child sitting on their butt on the cold floor and memories came back to her. The sight made her irritated.
"Hey!" She called out. This alley was really far in between the town, and unpopulated. So at present they were the only ones here.
The child looked up, and it was indeed Xi Xi. Her eyes were ever clean and innocent. "I don't want to go back." She said as tears welled up in her eyes.
Xiao Qi was suddenly flustered. She didn't relate much with kids, how could she know what to do? She looked around and pursed her lips in embarrassment. "Get up, let's go I'll carry you. Your granddad's at home worried about you."
But the child didn't budge.
Xiao Qi sighed and calmed down. "If you stay out like this, big bad animals are gonna come hunt you down, and break your legs, after that you'll become cripple, see if you can run around anymore when that happens."
The child was just a child, when she heard this she was scared and started crying pitifully.
"Wu…I only wanted to find mommy…Grandfather said mommy went far away, I only want to find her and ask her to come back..."
Xiao Qi felt a pang in her heart when she heard what Xi Xi had said. She knew Xi Xi's mother had passed away. That year she was here as well. That time Xi Xi would have been 3 years old. She remembered that the Inn Owner, Old Man Su always talked about his daughter, saying how good she was how pretty and so on. It made her sick at the time. But that year, when she travelled here, Old Man Su no longer talked about his daughter.
She didn't want to ask, it wasn't her thing to do so. It was when she was leaving that afternoon, after their brief discussion that the old man told her with a dejected look she had never seen him make.
"Meng Meng…passed away…"
It turned out that his daughter passed away giving birth to her second child. That time she didn't know much, because she didn't ask much anyway. She didn't know where Xi Xi's father was, and wondered if Xi Xi had other relatives.
That day she didn't know how to comfort him. It was one of the rare times she felt she was a useless person. She didn't remember what she said, but she remembered the old man had a hurt look on his face when he heard her.
Maybe she said something like 'People die, there's nothing we can do about it.' Before leaving.
Now she saw Xi Xi crying like this, could she repeat those words?
Before the Crown Prince had taken her in, she was also like this girl. Waiting patiently for her parents to come back home, even when it took years. Even when her extended family members bullied her, even when they threw her out on the streets. She'd always pass by the house, hoping that she'd see her parents are back, waiting for her. For her father to hug her, for her mother to coax her.
Xiao Qi bent down, beside the child.
"Xi Xi ah." But the girl was still crying, so she called the second time, trying to be as gentle as possible. "Your mother will come back soon, don't cry ok?"
Hearing this Xi Xi stopped crying and looked up at her. "Really?"
Xiao Qi nodded with a rare gentle smile.
Though till today she hasn't seen her parents again, she was still able to grow up being spoiled by the Crown Prince. Her life was good and she was grateful for it. So she thought Xi Xi should feel the same. She still had her grandfather who loved and spoiled her, they were even related by blood. She still had that close person she could lean on.
"Xi Xi, while your mom isn't here, she wants you to be a good girl and listen to your granddad. She wants you to live and be happy. If she saw you crying like this in this place, her heart will hurt. Do you want that?"
Xi Xi shook her head vigorously. "Mommy must be happy!"
Xiao Qi smiled. "Mommy will be happy only if Xi Xi is happy and living well."
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