But this answer clearly lacked any convincing power. Ye Zhibai put herself in their shoes—if she had seen someone get flung that far by a car and walk away unscathed, she’d be baffled for the rest of her life!
Ye Zhibai was just about to press with a couple more questions.
Up front, Ye Qinghe, who was driving, chose that moment to speak up.
“Sigh… Zhibai, if we’re being objective, you have been pretty strange at times. But in my eyes, you’re no different from any other family’s daughter—in fact, you’re way more sensible! Ever since you slipped into that coma in the hospital, well… it’s felt like our home lost a whole crowd of people. Everything’s been empty and hollow. Yun’er would even sneak off to her room to cry sometimes… As your father, I felt utterly ashamed.”
“Dad, enough already.” Ye Zhiyun shot him a glare from the back seat toward the driver’s spot up front. “Weren’t you the one muttering every single day about when Sis would wake up? Sighing and groaning like nobody’s business? As if I was the only one hurting.”
“……”
Ye Qinghe had absolutely zero authority as a father.
Ye Zhibai was now completely convinced of that fact.
And… even though she couldn’t fully put herself in their shoes during that exchange, an inexplicable warmth bloomed in her chest anyway.
Ahem, the point was, Ye Qinghe had never once seen Ye Zhibai as a burden around the house.
Just like the sigh he voiced right then.
“You couldn’t go to school like the other kids from a young age. You’d always perch by the window, staring at the birds flying across the sky outside, lost in who-knows-what thoughts. Every time it crosses my mind, your dad feels this crushing guilt… We dragged you to doctor after doctor, and they all insisted your intelligence was perfectly fine. But for your safety, you had to stay cooped up at home. Aside from Yun’er, you didn’t have anyone to talk to—no friends at all…”
As Ye Zhibai listened intently, she couldn’t help spotting the holes in his story.
She mused to herself… even if there had been someone to chat with, the old me wouldn’t have been able to respond anyway!
I’d been mute back then!
What followed from Ye Qinghe dripped with self-mockery.
This had to be his lingering guilt over failing to save his daughter all those years ago.
He let out a soft, bitter sigh. “So if anyone’s strange… isn’t it me? Your father, filthy rich as I am, and still couldn’t give my daughter a normal life. Now that’s what I’d call strange…”
Ye Qinghe’s words stirred up Ye Zhiyun’s memories of their childhood days together, all those little moments spent by Ye Zhibai’s side.
She squeezed Ye Zhibai’s hand tight and murmured softly.
“Sis might’ve seemed cold on the surface, but all those little glimpses of care she let slip? Yun’er treasures every one. You probably don’t even remember—you used to hand out little snacks to the maids around the house all the time, listening patiently to their funny work stories or the troubles they ran into. Even when Sis never said a word back, they all loved opening up to you. Everyone adored you…”
“So you have no idea. The day that car hit you… the whole family fell apart. Our hearts shattered.”
So that’s how it was.
Ye Zhibai gazed down at her hand, clutched so firmly in Yun’er’s grip, lost in thought.
The old Ye Zhibai had no soul, no spark of emotion. But by some stroke of ironic luck, she’d ended up being utterly endearing.
If so much of her past behavior had been mimicking the Ye Zhiyun she’d grown up alongside…
Then Yun’er as a little girl must’ve been an absolute sweetheart.
Of course, she still was!
Ahem, at least when it came to how she treated Ye Zhibai.
Ye Zhiyun tilted her head, nestling it against Ye Zhibai’s shoulder, and dropped another observation she’d pieced together.
“And get this—Sis getting hit by that car was a total nightmare, sure. But today… I kinda feel like something good came out of it. Your eyes used to be so lifeless, like staring into some bottomless lake… impossible to read. But now? There’s actual light in them!”
“You mean… I’ve gotten smarter?” “Sis has always been smart! She just couldn’t show it! Which is why… now that you can talk, I’ve got a ton of stuff I’ve been dying to tell you! So once we’re home, we gotta have a real heart-to-heart—an all-night chat marathon! Catch up on every single thing these years that Sis hasn’t said to me… Oh wait, sorry! You just got out of the hospital today—you must be wiped. We’ll save it for another time! Tomorrow. Tomorrow for sure!”
“I… I’ll do my best.”
What an overwhelming vibe!
You couldn’t just burn through a former mute’s word quota the second she finds her voice!
Though…
Light in her eyes, huh?
Ye Zhibai knew exactly why.
—The empty shell had gained a soul, so of course there was light now.
But… she had no intention of spilling the beans about her reincarnation.
Her last life had its regrets she couldn’t shake, but that didn’t mean they had to cast a shadow over this one.
No, this time around, she wanted a fresh start.
She wanted to live fully as Ye Zhibai—as family to Ye Zhiyun. From the beginning.
Ahem, though suddenly waking up as a girl was still pretty damn weird!
Still… challenges were meant to be conquered! Solutions always outnumbered the problems!
As long as she hung onto that tough-guy spirit at her core, who cared if the outside was all girl?
She could hold onto that tough-guy heart… right? Probably?
By now, the answers to all her earlier nagging questions had pretty much fallen into place.
Except for one that felt a lot more immediate.
About how she’d ended up a vegetable from that crash but somehow only had these faint scrapes—she wanted the family’s take on it.
The question slipped out naturally as she glanced at her smooth arms.
“Why do I… barely have any injuries?”
“Zhibai.”
“Hm?”
Ye Qinghe answered without missing a beat.
As a father, he didn’t turn around, just caught his daughter’s reflection in the rearview mirror and stated with rock-solid conviction.
“Your background… I’ll explain it all properly once you’re rested up. But as for that question? Truth is, I can’t give you a straight answer. Why you walked away from a hit like that with next to no injuries—road cam footage showed you sailing over ten meters through the air. By all rights, it should’ve been fatal or left you crippled for life. But here you are, safe and sound. That’s the reality. Even the Medical Maid Corps back home couldn’t make sense of it.”
He paused for a beat before going on. “But… the world’s full of mysteries we haven’t unraveled yet. Like I told you earlier—you’re my daughter, Ye Qinghe’s daughter. The Ye Family will shield you. This whole thing? It’ll stay buried forever. No one outside will ever know about the anomaly. And as for you… me and Yun’er? We don’t need to dig either. For our family to just live safe and peaceful—isn’t that enough?”
Isn’t that enough?
Yeah.
Ye Zhibai, who’d rarely known a truly peaceful day in her life, felt those words resonate deep in her bones.
It all clicked now.
That damn Light Orb hadn’t lied after all. She really had been kept safe.
Without the Ye Family’s protection, her freakish survival alone would’ve had her snatched up for lab experiments ages ago.
And yet, just as Ye Qinghe put it, the Ye Family’s Eldest Miss was born to fear nothing.
Ye Zhiyun clung even tighter to Ye Zhibai in a hug. If anything, after that conversation, she’d gotten bolder about it.
Ye Zhibai struggled her hands free with some effort and gave Ye Zhiyun’s back a couple of gentle pats.
Then, from deep in her throat, clear and resolute, she let out her honest feelings.
“Thanks…”
