"Yue, I brought you some warm eggnog, it will help you ease up your nerves."
Qian Fei smiled lovingly as she handed Ming Yue the drink. The woman who had the same blue eyes as Ming Yue wore a peach silk nightdress and her long waves of waist-length brown hair flaunted her perfect curves. Her slender fingers gently ran through the black waves of Yue's hair.
The first time Yue saw Qian Fei, to say that she was stunned was an understatement. This woman looked like an older version of Ming Yue herself. At that time, she did not know who she was but could not deny how her heart wrenched in sadness the minute she saw her.
She had an immense urge to be held by her and cry her heart out. And that's what she did.
When Ming Yue woke up two years ago in the Qi mansion, she had no idea that her Rebirth would come with such surprises. In her past life, she often wondered who her birth parents were and if they knew her existence, would they love her just like how the parents of the normal children around her did.
But it was her misfortune that she never got to meet them. However, when she laid her eyes on Qian Fei and Longwei who was looking at her with such warmness and sadness, she knew that they were related.
While her eyes, long wavy hair and body structure were from Qian Fei, her raven black hair and mannerism were from Longwei – undoubtedly, they were her parents- her blood parents.
That day, the frantic dagger nurse came back with equally frantic people following suit. The commotion woke her up from her sleep and she could not believe the sight of these beautiful people who rushed into the room. The beautiful woman took Ming Yue in her warm embrace and the handsome man hugged the both of them together. Her heart felt a little scratched and as if out of control, heart-wrenching sobs came out of her.
As if having no power to stop, Ming Yue burst into tears that felt like had been held in for eternity. Not many words were exchanged as the three spent the time crying, and consoling. No words could come out at that point. What was once lost was finally found. The emptiness that each of them filled was being filled with their warmth and embrace. As if making up for the lost hugs, kisses and adoration.
Ming Yue didn't know the meaning of family, or how it felt like to be at the receiving end of such love. She could tell straight away they were related and even after her eyes could not produce any more tears and even after she felt awkward crying like a baby in front of these people she just met, she was reluctant to let go of their embraces.
Despite her severe injuries, the rate of her healing was faster than normal and there were also changes in her that were showing up gradually. Which could be related to her rebirth and also the pampering of her family. In two weeks, time, Ming Yue was able to move around the mansion. Memories of her playing and running around the mansion as a child were coming back as flashes that soon, she found herself in her favourite garden.
It was a separate portion of the back garden, which was, an exceedingly long time ago, part of the queen's chamber. Nowadays it was the lady of the house's personal tea area, known as the Tranquility palace garden and where Qian Fei spent most of her time when she was pregnant with Ming Yue.
The garden was surrounded by wisteria, lavenders and snapdragons while on the other side was a small lake with floating lotuses. A separate tea area was in the middle of the water body with a bridge leading to the garden where there were other tea and picnic areas in the midst of the flowers and trees.
Ming Yue sat in the separate tea area that looked like a gazebo while the maids served her afternoon tea. While she took sips of her favourite camomile, she enquired about Qi Shen Fei,
"When is Shen Fei coming back?"
"Young Master Shen is on his way, my lady.
Holidays are scheduled to start in two days' time. However, the young master excused himself earlier in order to meet you sooner. Young master arrived last night and just informed me that is on his way to see you now." Zhang Jia, the head maid in her mid-twenties said.
As if right on cue, a young man jogged towards them with a beaming smile on his face.
"Sister!" Shen Fei yelped as he embraced Ming Yue in a bear hug. His brown hair swayed in the wind and his blue-green eyes sparkled like gems as he took in his long-lost older sister.
"Shen Fei!" Ming Yue exclaimed as she returned back the hug with equal force. The first time Ming Yue came to the Garden, she asked Qian Fei a question related to her flash memory about playing with a younger boy. That is when she found out that she has a younger fraternal twin brother who was younger by ten minutes.
They were practically inseparable as kids and when she was kidnapped, Shen Fei had a high fever followed by an illness equivalent to severe heartbreak that lasted weeks. Even after he got well, he was never the same- as if never complete.
"Oh, my, Young master that behaviour is not proper for a noble!" The head maid Zhang Jia reprimanded them.
Zhang Jia was the appointed nanny of the children and if Qi Ming Yue wasn't taken away, she would have been brought up by her as well.
Ming Yue giggled, and Shen Fei playfully rubbed his head on her face to further irk the caretaker and stuck his tongue out like a kid.
"Oh Jia Jia, chill a little. Which century are you from? You know the Qi family has never been hard on manners at home. As long as we behave accordingly outside that is all we need haha. Now sit down and– "
Shen Fei took a macaron and shoved it in her face.
"Young Master, I get what you mean but you cannot force-feed macarons like that, it's rude." Wang Li who followed upon hearing Shen Fei's arrival, scolded while Ming Yue lightly slapped his head and warned the big child to behave.
Qi Longwei and Qian Fei came by after some time and the family of four plus the two most trusted people Wang Li and the head caretaker Zhang Jia rounded up another set of refreshments.
Ming Yue had already previously filled them up with the gist of things from her previous life. She told them everything from the first thing she remembered from the age of 5 until she was sent to Country G.
Since it took a whole lot of convincing to stop the six people to go and kill all those who had implicated her, she was reluctant on whether to tell them about rebirth and only say that she luckily escaped the fire.
However, when Longwei and Qian Fei told her about her kidnapping and stories about her bloodline she made up her mind to not hide anything.
Qi Ming Yue waited for her brother, Wang Li and Zhang Jia to be around to talk about her rebirth. This is why she had gathered everyone in the tea area in order to tell them about her coming back from being burned to death to rising from the ashes, the void and the lullaby that gave her peace as well as strength to move forward.
It definitely wasn't easy.
Being burnt, the pain the scorching of her flesh, thinking back to it was harder than she initially thought and tears dropped like pearls as she had flashbacks of that moment. How cruel they were, how cruel the heavens were, how cruel fate was. How agonizing.
"Lullaby?" Qian Fei asked with a tear-stained face and her trembling hands held her mouth from sobbing. It's unbearable for a mother to hear something about her child dying in such a brutal way and then coming back to life. The pain, shock and relief all came at once and Qian Fei almost fainted at the thought of her child dying in such a way.
Ming Yue wiped her own tears and took a sip of the camomile tea, calming herself down and smiling bitterly at her mother she took Qian Fei's hands in her own giving them a slight squeeze. She gazed around the room and saw that everyone had tears streaming down their faces as they tried to get their heads around the information.
"yes, a lullaby, it went something like…
[Silver night, my Ming Yue shines, stars come to greet…
Holy will, a lullaby, chiming wind whispers of the night,
Sleep tight my little moon with the blessings of the sky,
To light the dark once again, With the heavens and with the guardian, the red bird will bless this little moon of mine…]
Did mum ever sing that to me as a child?" Ming Yue asked.
The couple looked at each other as if confirming with their eyes.
"This is an ancient folk song passed down in the phoenix clan. It is said that this is the calling, a kind of prayer of the phoenix through generations written by a holy being from another realm. It was instructed to be sung by every pregnant mother of the Qi clan." Qi Longwei said.
Qian Fei looked at her daughter before continuing the story,
"I was singing this song being two months pregnant when-", she paused, and sighed sadly before carrying on,
"The doctors said that there were complications with my twin pregnancy and for us to prepare for the worst. At that time, even though the song was more like a legendary myth, I believed in the prayer and the ancient blood and prayed with all my faith and just then, I heard a voice, probably my own conscience reassuring me that 'Everything will be fine.' "
"After your mother gave birth to you two, Ming Yue was still kept under observation due to having a weak constitution," Qi Longwei said.
That time was extremely hard on the Qi couple. Even before being born, the doctors cautioned them and after being born, Ming Yue was in a feeble state for days.
During that time, the old high priest came to offer blessings to the young ones and convey a message to the couple,
"Name this child Ming Yue, pain the young soul might suffer alongside the harsh reality, but she is truly blessed by the heavens itself."
Once the old High Priest left with those words, the couple knew that their child now called 'Ming Yue' would be fine. Since the revelations from the old high priest were believed to be from the one from the other realm.
Reincarnation, rebirth, blessing or misfortune, some questions were solved, whereas some were hard to even understand. The will of the heavens was just like that and the hearts of the Gods were even harder to understand. While the family cherished their long-lost time together, they decided to not complicate those details about how, why, or what if any longer.
To them, who knew the pain of losing, knew the value of cherishing the most.
And that's how time went by…