"She actually started cursing Yingzi for no reason. When I heard that, my anger flared up again instantly. Just as I was about to lash out, she revealed something horrifying."

"What? What was it?" Mrs. Nangong was utterly absorbed, not realizing the story her husband was telling involved their own daughter. She was listening like an eager audience to a storyteller, urging the narrator to continue quickly.

Mr. Nangong collected himself and went on, "She said, 'Don't get angry yet; let me tell you exactly how things transpired. You just asked where I've been all these years, why I ended up looking like this, didn't you? Well, I'll tell you now. That year, on New Year's Eve, I gave birth to a pair of twins. These twins were different from the norm. The elder one was born without a heartbeat, yet he cried and fussed just like any normal infant. The younger one was completely normal. That very night, Li Taizheng took the younger one away, leaving the elder one in the cradle without even wrapping him in any cloth. I struggled up from the bed, staggering, and went to the cradle to tenderly pick up my son. Little did I know this harbinger of disaster wouldn't nurse. The moment my hand neared his mouth, he bit down hard. He kept sucking my blood until I grew dizzy, my vision blurred, and I collapsed onto the floor. Only then did Li Taizheng reappear and tell me the truth. It turned out he had kept it hidden from me for all these years—he wasn't an ordinary man. The twins I bore were Yin-Yang Brothers: the younger was human, and the elder was a ghost infant, surviving purely by drinking human blood. Then, he confined me with the ghost infant, intending for me to use my own blood to feed and raise him.'"

Hearing this, Mrs. Nangong shivered, finally grasping the dreadful meaning behind Mrs. Li's earlier, cutting remarks. She peered toward Yingzi's door, took a deep breath, and asked her husband, "Are we materialists or idealists after all? Do such things truly exist in the world?"

Mr. Nangong shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure either, but she recounted it so vividly that it's hard not to believe her, even if you want to. Think about it: Mrs. Li disappeared for fourteen years. Who would be interested in a person everyone had forgotten, only to impersonate her?"

Mrs. Nangong looked serious, largely agreeing with her husband, yet clinging to a sliver of hope. "She said our Yingzi's fate would be the same as hers. But our Yingzi never even knew that ghost infant; she's only slightly closer to Xiaoshu."

"That's what I asked her, too. She replied, 'The ghost infant is named Xiaohao. Because he drank my blood, he grew incredibly fast, looking like a teenager for years now. In the last couple of years, Xiaoshu also matured into a young woman. Li Taizheng felt the time was right, so he took Xiaohao away, preparing to marry Xiaohao off to a bride at the appropriate moment, just as I was forced to bear him another ghost infant.'" Mr. Nangong suddenly stopped here, glanced at the time—ten minutes to five—and stood up, preparing to go downstairs to meet the moving company.

But Mrs. Nangong was relentless, determined to hear the end of the story. She grabbed the hem of her husband's jacket. "Why does the ghost infant taking a bride have anything to do with our Yingzi? Our Yingzi loves Xiaoshu, and Xiaoshu is human."

Mr. Nangong was already preoccupied with matters downstairs, so he answered casually, "They look exactly alike. How do you know for certain that the one Yingzi marries is human?"

This single statement instantly silenced Mrs. Nangong. She cautiously pushed open her daughter's door. Seeing Yingzi still lying soundly asleep in bed, her tension eased considerably. "Moving isn't the end of the world," she murmured. "If we move, we move. Life will go on as usual in the new house."

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