The sound of silk brushing marble floors echoed softly through the Qi estate's garden corridor. Plum blossoms scattered with the wind, drifting like long-lost memories trying to find their way home.
Ming Yue stood in the Tranquillity Palace Garden, heart thudding. Snapdragons glowed beside wisteria vines, and at the centre of the lotus lake, the gazebo sat like a cradle of forgotten dreams.
She took one step onto the bridge leading to it.
Then another.
Her throat tightened.
Would they see her as theirs? Would she feel like their daughter—beyond blood?
A soft voice called behind her.
"Sister!"
Ming Yue turned, and Shen Fei came barrelling toward her with no decorum—just love. His arms wrapped around her tightly, a boyish laugh escaping his lips.
His embrace was firm. Familiar.
"You're really here. Not in a dream. Not in a story Mother told me."
Ming Yue couldn't speak. Tears spilled without shame. She pulled him closer. Their hearts beat in sync, ten minutes apart by birth but a lifetime apart by fate.
Zhang Jia, now watching from the garden's edge, wiped her eyes discreetly. She had once rocked Ming Yue to sleep before she disappeared. Seeing both children reunited—her two almost-prodigies—felt like a silent promise fulfilled.
"Young Master, that's not the posture of nobility!" she snapped, voice cracking under emotion.
Shen Fei grinned and dramatically rubbed his face against Ming Yue's cheek like a kitten. "A proper noble always clings to what matters, Jia Jia. I read that somewhere... probably."
Ming Yue laughed softly, and from the main corridor, Qian Fei and Qi Longwei approached. Their steps were elegant, but their eyes betrayed everything—loss, longing, relief.
Qian Fei's hands trembled as she reached out.
Qi Longwei nodded once, then folded his arms around them all.
No one spoke for a long moment. They didn't need to.
There was silence, breath, warmth. And through it, years were stitched back together—not with answers, but with touch.
That day, the gardens remembered.
Not just a daughter—but the echo of laughter once stolen.
And love, reborn in time's slow bloom.