Chapter 315: When an Outsider Surname Enters a Household, Their Name Must First Be Changed

"Afraid? But the living have always moved forward while being afraid."

Lu Yuan finished speaking and did not linger.

He slung the rolled beast-hide register over his shoulder and headed down the mountain. Six sets of footprints were left behind in the snow, each of varying depth, each pointing in slightly different directions, yet all heading toward the same patch of morning light.

Shen Yanshan stood in place, watching those footprints gradually recede.

He did not follow, nor did he call out for them to stay.

A moment later, he crouched down and picked up a scrap of red paper that had been blown down by the wind. On it was an old record for Little Stone Village, with one line reading: "Xu Liushi, native of Liu Family Gully, maiden name pending investigation."

He used his fingertip to gently rub away the words "pending investigation" beside that line, but he did not replace them with anything. He only filled in a deeper stroke of ink.

Old Dragon's Back fell silent in the morning light.

The fissure in the first ledger remained deep within the mine tunnel, like an old door that could never be fully closed.

"The duplicate register for Ma Family Gully is still missing six names."

"Which six?"

"The six that were withheld from Ma Huaiyi's group of forty-three."

Wang Cheng'an flipped the ledger to the inserted page.

The outlines of six white beads floated on the paper's surface, and five of them had already begun to show faint traces of ink.

Of those five preserved names, a portion had already been recovered through Han Qi's hand.

Only the seventh bead remained empty.

That one was not Han Qi.

Han Qi had already written out his own name and resolved to go find those five people.

This empty bead represented the last remaining trace of the old rule known as the "Seven-Person Total Name."

It did not belong to any single individual, yet it had always been pressed beneath everyone else.

Song Qinghe asked, "Should we keep this bead?"

"It must be kept," Wang Cheng'an said. "But it does not represent anyone."

"Then what does it represent?"

"It represents someone who once tried to use 'the Seventh' as a total name, to swallow up everyone who could not be categorized."

Lu Yuan listened, then said, "Put it into the corrections register."

Wang Cheng'an nodded and placed the empty bead alone onto a single sheet of paper, then wrote beneath it with his brush: "Old rule, seventh entry, merged into main register, pending investigation."

After he finished writing, the empty bead settled into stillness.

The group continued along the mountain path toward the southwest.

After walking for a stretch, Xu Erxiao asked, "Brother Lu, where are we headed now?"

"Back to Ma Family Gully first."

"What about my mother's name?"

"The righteous well in Ma Family Gully also has a 'pending investigation' column."

"But the well has already collapsed."

"Even if it's collapsed, it can be dug out."

Lu Yuan said, "If the front can't connect, we work from the back."

Xu Erxiao was silent for a moment, then gave a heavy nod.

"Fine."

Half a day later, the six returned to Ma Family Gully.

The righteous well had not collapsed. Only the stone slab covering its mouth had been pried up by someone, exposing half of the black water. The water reflected the wooden tablets that had been re-erected not far away, and names were being written on those tablets one by one.

Missing-Rim Liu crouched by the well, clutching the celadon bowl against her chest.

When she saw the group, she stood up first.

"You're back."

"We're back."

"What about the first ledger?"

"It's been divided."

Lu Yuan approached the well mouth.

The black water was very still.

A corner of the torn paper at the bottom of the well still remained, bearing the four characters "Child-Name Public Guard," now cracked into three pieces.

Missing-Rim Liu reached into the water and fished out a copper coin.

The coin's edges were rough, as if someone had rubbed them repeatedly.

"Someone came by earlier."

"Who?"

"I couldn't see clearly."

"What did they leave?"

Missing-Rim Liu handed the coin over.

On the front of the coin was carved the character "Liu." On the back was an old wear mark.

Xu Erxiao took it and stared at it for a long time.

"Is this my mother's?"

"Not necessarily."

"But this copper coin was brought here by someone from Liu Family Gully."

Wang Cheng'an immediately flipped through the duplicate register.

Sure enough, a new line of handwriting had appeared beneath the "Liu Family Gully" column:

"Visitor from Liu Family Gully, carrying one old copper coin, claims to have once known Xu Liushi."

"Visitor has no name."

"Pending investigation."

Xu Erxiao clutched the coin, his knuckles turning white.

"Did he say anything else?"

"No."

"Then who is he?"

"I don't know."

"Then my mother's name..."

At that moment, an aged voice suddenly came from the village entrance:

"Xu Liushi, a person of Little Stone Village. Before marrying into the Xu family, she lived in Lower Bay of Liu Family Gully."

The six turned around.

At the village entrance stood a hunched, bent old man wearing a tattered sheepskin coat, with a string of copper bells hanging from his waist. He carried a large wicker basket on his back, covered with old cloth.

Xu Erxiao rushed over in a burst.

"You knew my mother?"

The old man looked at him, eyes squinting into thin slits.

"You're Erxiao?"

"Yes!"

"You've grown so big."

The old man set down the wicker basket, took out a bundle of dried rations from within, and then produced a small jar wrapped in cloth.

"The year your mother left, she entrusted me to give this to you."

Xu Erxiao took the cloth bundle, his hands trembling slightly.

The bundle was not large. When opened, it revealed a small piece of crushed osmanthus candy wrapped in oil paper, already hardened and blackened with age.

"When she left, this was all she had on her."

Xu Erxiao held the piece of candy in his palms, unable to speak for a long time.

The old man picked up the wicker basket again.

"Your mother's original name was Liu Sanniang."

"In the year she married into the Xu family, the clan said she could not bring her old name into her husband's household, so they only wrote 'Xu Shi.'"

"Later, when she gave birth to children, the household register recorded her as 'Xu Liushi.'"

"That's what everyone in the village called her."

"But at home, her family always called her Sanniang."

"Is her name still in the old genealogy of Liu Family Gully?"

The old man was silent for a moment.

"The old genealogy was burned."

"That year, Liu Family Gully suffered a fire, and even half of the ancestral hall was burned down."

"But for our branch of the family, someone copied a portion by night."

The old man pulled an oilcloth bundle from the bottom of the wicker basket.

"This was passed down from my ancestors."

He opened the oilcloth bundle, revealing a roll of yellowed paper.

On the paper was a copied list of names, the handwriting crooked yet perfectly clear:

"The Liu family branch of Lower Bay, Liu Family Gully, migrated in the early years of the Republic."

Among the names, one could still be faintly made out:

"Liu Sanniang, third among siblings, born... Republic of..."

The back corner had been burned away.

Xu Erxiao stared at that name, and his eyes reddened once more.

He asked softly, "Could you copy a portion for me?"

The old man nodded. "It was always meant to be left for you."

Wang Cheng'an immediately spread out a blank sheet of ledger paper.

He copied extremely slowly, tracing each character stroke by stroke. Where he encountered burned gaps, he carefully left the space blank.

Xu Erxiao watched from the side.

"These gaps, you're not filling them in?"

"Not yet."

"We'll wait until we find more evidence, then fill them in."

Hearing this, the old man reached into the wicker basket again and pulled out a small bundle.

"There's one more thing."

"After your mother left, people from Wang Family Village came asking about her."

"They asked whether she had left any message, whether she had dealings with anyone."

"Wang Family Village?"

"Yes, Wang Family Village."

Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an exchanged a glance.

The old man continued, "At that time, there was an accountant surnamed Wang who often came to Liu Family Gully."

"Was it Wang Shouyi?"

"I'm not certain, but that accountant always carried an abacus."

Wang Cheng'an's hand stopped still.

He looked at Lu Yuan, and Lu Yuan looked back at him.

"My father came to Liu Family Gully?"

The old man thought for a moment.

"If your father was that man, then he didn't come for anything else."

"For what, then?"

"After your mother was married, there was a year when her husband passed away. She was left alone raising a child, with no guarantor and no entry into the clan."

"Accountant Wang helped her establish a plot of land."

"What happened to that land later?"

"Later, it was taken back by the old clan leader of Wang Family Village."

"He said without a land deed, it didn't count."

"Your mother didn't fight it."

Xu Erxiao clenched his teeth. "That land should belong to our family."

"Is there any proof?"

Wang Cheng'an immediately searched through the ancestral ledgers but found no record whatsoever concerning Liu Family Gully.

The old man said, "The proof isn't here. My father personally witnessed Accountant Wang write out that land deed back then."

"Where was it written?"

"I heard it was placed in a brick box inside the old ancestral hall of Liu Family Gully."

"The ancestral hall burned down, but the brick box might still be there."

"Who said so?"

The old man shook his head.

"My father said so. He's gone now too."

Xu Erxiao gripped the hardened osmanthus candy and the mostly intact roll of names.

He turned to look at Wang Cheng'an. "Can we still get that land back?"

Wang Cheng'an thought seriously for a moment. "It can be pursued. We need to first investigate the ancestral hall's original site, then see whether the brick box still exists."

Xu Erxiao nodded firmly.

"Then we'll look for it."

He turned back to the old man. "Do you know where the ancestral hall was?"

The old man pointed in a direction. "East end of the village, beneath the old locust tree."

The six immediately set off toward the east end of the village.

The old locust tree was older than expected. Its trunk had already hollowed out, stuffed full of insect-eaten wood shavings. Beneath the roots lay a half-buried stone slab, its inscriptions worn illegible from trampling.

Lin Zhaoxuan crouched down and used his ink-line to brush away the dirt.

Along the slab's edge was carved a line of small characters:

"Foundation site of the Liu Family Gully ancestral hall."

"The brick box is right beneath this."

Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao worked together to move the stone slab aside.

Beneath the slab sat an old brick box, its opening sealed with wax that had long since turned black.

Zhou Heng pried off the wax seal with a small knife and opened the brick box.

Inside lay a folded piece of paper.

The paper had yellowed and grown brittle, yet it had been pressed perfectly flat and smooth.

When unfolded, only a few lines were written on it:

"Liu Sanniang, age twenty-one, carrying her young son Erxiao."

"Hereby establishes one mu and three fen of sloping land in Lower Bay, Liu Family Gully, under contract with Wang Shouyi of Wang Family Village, to be managed on her behalf until the son comes of age."

"Hereafter, upon presentation of this deed, the land shall return to the son of Liu Sanniang."

At the bottom were two seals.

One was Liu Sanniang's fingerprint. The other was Wang Shouyi's signature.

Xu Erxiao stared at the deed, gripping it tightly.

"He established land for my mother?"

Wang Cheng'an said nothing.

It was a long while before he spoke. "My father never told me any of this."

"He wasn't hoarding secret accounts, nor was he hiding from old debts."

"He simply took the ledger out with him, but never recorded it under his own name."

"He didn't want anyone to know that he had drawn up a deed for a nameless widow."

"Because he was afraid of gossip, and afraid of bringing trouble to Liu Sanniang."

Xu Erxiao pressed the deed paper against his chest.

"My mother was never someone without anyone to look after her."

"She just never had anyone to write it down for her."

Wang Cheng'an nodded.

"Now it's been written down."

He then recorded the full text of the land deed in the "physical evidence" column of the duplicate register. And in the "corrections" column, he wrote:

"Liu Sanniang, native of Lower Bay, Liu Family Gully. After marrying into the Xu family, known as Xu Liushi. She holds one land deed on her person. Further investigation to follow."

Xu Erxiao carefully stored away the land deed, then placed the roll of names and the osmanthus candy together safely.

"My mother's name now has a place to be looked up from now on."

He pulled out A-Bai's wooden tablet from behind his waist and added a small line of text to the back:

"Liu Sanniang, land deed on record."

Lu Yuan watched that wooden tablet and said nothing.

He thought of his own name. He thought of that scorched, incomplete page. He thought of what Gu Wuhui had said.

"Every person has an earliest name."

"But that name isn't necessarily the one they need most."

He reached into his chest and touched the stone fragment brought out from the mine tunnel.

There were no characters on the stone, only the old notes left behind by Gu Changgeng.

The wind blew through the old locust tree, and a hoarse sound emerged from within the hollow trunk.

The sound was like someone softly humming a little tune.

Xu Erxiao turned back and saw that the old man had already sat down beneath the tree, gently tapping the wicker basket with a tree branch.

"This tune, my mother used to sing it too," Xu Erxiao said quietly.

The old man said, "What your mother sang was an old tune of Liu Family Gully."

"Everyone in the village knew it."

"It's just a pity that fewer and fewer people know it now."

Xu Erxiao stood beneath the old locust tree, gazing at the vast, dimming sky.

He asked again, "Brother Lu, where are we headed next?"

"First, we go to Liu Family Gully to see if there are any other records."

"Then we go to Wang Family Village to ask that old clan leader why the land deed was taken away."

"After that, we head south."

"Where to then?"

Lu Yuan looked up toward the south.

"To find a place where all the truths can be pieced together."

"Where?"

"I don't know, but we'll get there eventually."

Wang Cheng'an adjusted the abacus frame on his back and checked the sky.

"There's still daylight left."

"We can keep going."

Lin Zhaoxuan asked, "Wang Family Village first, or Liu Family Gully?"

Lu Yuan thought for a moment. "Liu Family Gully first."

"There's still Liu Sanniang's old residence there. We might find something else."

When Xu Erxiao heard him mention his mother's old residence, his eyes lit up again.

"I'm going."

The six then followed the old road toward Liu Family Gully.

The old man watched them from the village entrance. Only after the group had walked far into the distance did he softly say to the empty village edge:

"Sanniang, your son came back."

The wind swept through the old locust tree of Liu Family Gully, and another low sound emerged from within the hollow trunk.

The sound was like a sigh, or like a song that had never finished being sung.

Liu Family Gully was not far from Ma Family Gully, separated only by a low earthen ridge.

By the time they crossed the ridge, dusk had already fallen.

There were no lights below the mountain, only a few wisps of cooking smoke drifting eastward against the white snow at the village entrance. Liu Family Gully was much smaller than Ma Family Gully. The village spread out along a frozen riverbed, with houses scattered here and there, separated by tracts of wasteland in between.

Xu Erxiao walked at the very front, clutching the wooden tablet carved with "Liu Sanniang, land deed on record."

He did not speak the entire way.

When they reached the village entrance, several men splitting firewood looked up at them. One who was somewhat older recognized the old man carrying the wicker basket and asked:

"Old Liu, why have you brought outsiders here?"

The old man said, "They're not outsiders."

"This is Sanniang's son."

The axes of those men stopped simultaneously.

Xu Erxiao stood in the snow and clasped his hands in greeting toward them.

"I'm Xu Erxiao."

"My mother was Liu Sanniang."

"She lived in Lower Bay when she was young, and later married into Little Stone Village."

One of the men frowned.

"Liu Sanniang?"

"Which Sanniang?"

"Lower Bay, the Liu family."

"The Lower Bay Liu family is long gone."

"Even the houses have collapsed."

Another older man looked at Xu Erxiao and suddenly said:

"You mean the Sanniang who sang the Liu tunes?"

Xu Erxiao nodded.

"She could sing."

"She sang the 'River Crossing Ballad.'"

The wicker basket behind the old man shifted slightly.

The older man lowered his head. After a long moment, he said:

"She used to wash clothes by the river too. After washing, she'd sit on a rock and let her hair dry in the sun."

"When she left, she already had a child in her belly."

"Who told you that?"

"My mother."

"She told you?"

"She didn't tell me. I remember it myself."

The man looked at him once more, then no longer blocked the way.

"There's still half a house left in Lower Bay."

"Go take a look."

"But there's nothing much inside."

"It was all burned."

The people of Liu Family Gully did not ask again why they had come.

The six walked downstream along the frozen river.

Both banks of the riverbed were overgrown with withered reeds, their stalks hung with frost. Missing-Rim Liu walked beside Song Qinghe, clutching the register of fragmented names in her arms. A-Lamp held her other hand, taking a few steps before turning back to look at Xu Erxiao each time, as if afraid she might take the wrong path.

Xu Erxiao noticed her turning back and said:

"Don't be afraid."

"We're not going to find ghosts."

A-Lamp asked, "Then what are we looking for?"

"To find your mother."

"I don't have a mother."

"You do."

"Is she dead?"

"She's dead."

"Can you still find someone who's dead?"

Xu Erxiao thought for a moment.

"We can find her name."

A-Lamp nodded, seeming to understand without fully comprehending.

The old house in Lower Bay was indeed only half a wall of rammed earth left standing.

The roof beams were long gone. The stove had collapsed halfway. A patch of withered mugwort grew at the base of the wall. Wang Cheng'an took out the empty frame of the Iron Abacus and held it close to the ground to scan.

"This place has been dug through by someone."

Several rectangular pressure marks were left in the soil, like traces left behind after wooden chests or brick boxes had been moved away.

Lin Zhaoxuan lightly snapped his ink-line against the earth wall, and an echoing hollow sound came from within.

"It's not just one spot."

"There's a hidden layer inside the wall."

Xu Erxiao immediately grabbed a shovel.

"Let me do it."

He dug down along where the hollow sound was located.

The outer layer of the earth wall was quickly peeled away, revealing a layer of fire-blackened bricks inside. Wedged between the brick gaps were scraps of cloth, charred paper, and several bleached-white straw stems.

Song Qinghe raised the lamp closer.

As the green flame passed over them, the writing on the charred paper emerged line by line.

"Liu Sanniang, twenty-one."

"Liu Sanniang, carrying her young son."

"Liu Sanniang, one mu and three fen of land."

"Liu Sanniang, old name may not enter husband's household."

"Liu Sanniang, already returned to the Xu surname."

"Liu Sanniang, name stricken."

Xu Erxiao's shovel froze mid-air.

"Who wrote this?"

Wang Cheng'an took the charred paper.

"There are at least four different handwritings."

"These are records from different years."

Lin Zhaoxuan pulled a red cord from between the brick gaps.

"There's a cinnabar seal on the red cord."

Zhou Heng took a look.

"This was used for the re-registration of marriage households."

"There was originally a register of old Liu Family Gully households here."

"Later, someone split it into several parts."

"Why?"

"Someone didn't want Sanniang's old name and land deed to remain together at the same time."

Wang Cheng'an arranged the charred papers in order.

The first line was the original Liu Family Gully household record.

The second line was the marriage record.

The third line was the land contract.

But on the fourth line, an extra black palm impression had been pressed.

The palm impression only had four fingers.

"Han Shoumo?" Xu Erxiao asked.

"No," Lin Zhaoxuan said. "This seal is wider than Han Shoumo's old seal. It looks like it was added later."

Missing-Rim Liu suddenly spoke up.

"This isn't a name-erasing seal."

Everyone looked at her.

She crouched down and held the lamp light against the edge of the palm impression.

"It's a name-covering seal."

"What's the difference between covering a name and erasing a name?"

"Erasing a name is wiping the characters away."

"Covering a name is pressing the characters down."

Missing-Rim Liu said, "The old characters are still underneath. They just aren't allowed to be seen."

Wang Cheng'an flipped the charred paper over.

Beneath the black palm impression, a line of flattened characters was indeed hidden:

"Son of Liu Sanniang, name to be determined."

Xu Erxiao's breathing immediately grew heavy.

"This is me?"

"Yes," Wang Cheng'an said. "Someone recorded you first, then never gave you a name."

"What happened later?"

"Later, someone added 'son of the Xu clan' beside it."

"And then?"

"After that, 'son of the Xu clan' was scraped off as well."

Lu Yuan looked up.

"This isn't just a marriage household register."

"Someone regarded you as a name that would cause controversy even before you were born."

Xu Erxiao asked, "What controversy?"

Wang Cheng'an did not speak immediately.

The old man walked in from outside the house and stood before the half wall of rammed earth.

"Because your mother refused to hand her child over to Liu Family Gully."

Xu Erxiao turned around.

"Hand me over to whom?"

"Back then, Liu Family Gully had a rule," the old man said. "If a woman from Lower Bay married out of the village, and her first son had no father's household to acknowledge him, the child had to first enter the Liu Family Gully clan register."

"Was my mother's husband dead by then?"

"Not yet."

"But he had already gone missing."

"So the clan believed you had no father to claim you."

The wooden tablet in Xu Erxiao's hand creaked under his grip.

"My mother didn't hand me over to them?"

"She took you and left."

"How did she leave?"

"That accountant from Wang Family Village helped her."

Wang Cheng'an's head snapped up.

"My father?"

The old man nodded.

"At the time, your mother carried you in her arms and walked from Lower Bay to the river mouth. People from Liu Family Gully caught up and said the child had no father's name and could not be taken out of the village."

"Your father stood on the river bridge."

"He took out a piece of paper and said the child follows the mother, not a vanished father."

"The clan didn't accept it."

"So he tore the paper in two and told them, since there's no father's name, then none shall be written."

Xu Erxiao said in a low voice, "What about my biological father?"

The old man looked at him.

"Who are you asking about?"

"My real father."

"No one knows."

"Some say he died within the passes."

"Some say he fled south."

"Others say he never acknowledged your mother at all."

The light in Xu Erxiao's eyes gradually dimmed.

The old man let out a sigh.

"Your mother never wanted to say."

"She only said, the child is called Erxiao."

"When he grows up, he'll decide for himself whose surname to take."

Xu Erxiao lowered his head.

Behind the half wall of earth, a fire-blackened brick suddenly loosened.

Lu Yuan reached out and removed it.

Behind the brick lay an iron box.

The iron box had no lock, but the lid was covered with a layer of yellow paper that had long since dried and cracked. Written on the yellow paper were four characters:

"The child chooses for himself."

Wang Cheng'an looked at Xu Erxiao.

"This is for you."

Xu Erxiao did not take it immediately.

Lu Yuan opened the iron box for him.

Inside were only three things.

A copper button.

A short section of broken red hair tie.

And a crudely whittled wooden sliver.

Only two characters were carved on the wooden sliver:

"Erxiao."

The carved marks were very shallow, like a child had scratched them with a knife.

Xu Erxiao stared at the wooden sliver, his voice going hoarse.

"Did my mother carve this?"

The old man said, "No."

"You carved it yourself."

"You were only four years old then."

"Your mother placed the knife on the table and turned to go to the kitchen. You took the knife and scratched at the wood twice, and those two characters came out."

"When she came back, she didn't change it."

"She said, Erxiao is Erxiao."

"No one can add another name for you."

Xu Erxiao reached out and touched the wooden sliver.

"She remembered?"

"She hung that wooden sliver around your neck until you were seven."

"What happened after that?"

"After you left Little Stone Village, the wooden sliver was lost."

Xu Erxiao lowered his head without speaking.

A-Lamp walked over to him, stood on her tiptoes, and looked at the wooden sliver.

"You chose your own name too?"

"My mother remembered it for me."

"Then do you still go by Erxiao now?"

Xu Erxiao looked at her.

"Yes."

"Forever?"

He shook his head.

"Maybe not in the future."

A-Lamp thought for a moment.

"Then use it for now."

Xu Erxiao suddenly smiled.

The smile was ugly, but lighter than before.

"Right, use it for now."

Wang Cheng'an stored the three items into the physical evidence register and wrote:

"Discovered at Liu Sanniang's old residence."

"One wooden sliver, bearing the characters 'Erxiao,' self-carved in childhood, preserved by his mother."

"Copper button and red hair tie, origin pending investigation."

Just as he wrote "origin pending investigation," the copper button suddenly let out a soft sound.

A male voice emerged from within the copper button.

"The child cannot be taken away."

Everyone turned at the same time.

Beyond the half wall of earth, on the riverbed that had been empty just moments ago, stood a person in a long blue cloth robe, appearing there without anyone knowing when he had arrived.

The person held a black umbrella in his hand.

The snow had already stopped, yet water droplets continued to fall from the umbrella's surface.

His face was hidden beneath the umbrella's brim, only his chin exposed.

"The child is a name of Liu Family Gully."

"Her mother is also a name of Liu Family Gully."

"You cannot take them away."

Xu Erxiao drew his sword.

"If I don't take my mother's name, am I supposed to leave it for you?"

The person said:

"Her name belongs to the clan register."

"Taking names from the register is stealing names."

Wang Cheng'an said, "Liu Sanniang's land deed, old household records, and physical evidence are all here."

"The clan register is only one part of it."

"You cannot let the clan register stand in for the person herself."

The black-umbrella person let out a soft laugh.

"The person herself is already dead."

"The dead have no self."

Song Qinghe stepped forward with the lamp raised.

"The dead cannot speak, but what they wrote while alive can speak."

"She left behind a wooden sliver, a land deed, and a name."

"If you disagree, then produce another piece of evidence written in her own hand."

The black-umbrella person did not answer.

The water droplets on the umbrella's surface suddenly turned black. They dripped onto the snow, each one transforming into the character "Liu."

These Liu characters crawled across the ground, slithering toward Xu Erxiao's feet.

Lu Yuan drew his blade and cut them down.

When the blade's edge touched the black characters, a woman's voice emerged from them:

"Erxiao, come back with me."

"Erxiao, you cannot take the name away."

"Erxiao, if your surname is Liu, you should stay in Liu Family Gully."

Xu Erxiao's face gradually turned pale.

"This is my mother's voice."

Lu Yuan said, "It's not."

"How do you know?"

"She never said 'if your surname is Liu, you should stay in Liu Family Gully.'"

"She took you away because she refused to let anyone else make decisions for her."