Chapter 7 — Swapped at Birth

On the day the news was officially announced, a throng of reporters crowded outside the ancestral incense workshop of the Van family. I did not show up. Instead, I remained inside, quietly changing clothes for little Zhi Xia. The infant had learned to smile. Whenever she did, her eyes curved into crescent moons, as if brimming with captured starlight. Mother looked at us and murmured, "She looks just like you when you were little."

I gazed down at my child, and somewhere deep within my heart, the relentless bleeding finally ceased. Yet, psychological scars do not vanish overnight simply because the wicked have paid the price. When Zhi Xia turned three months old, the residential neighborhood held a fire drill. The split second the warning alarm shrilled through the air, I instinctively clutched the baby and hid inside the wardrobe. Pine Nut scratched frantically at the wooden door from the outside. When Mother finally found me, my entire body was drenched in a cold sweat. Both arms gripped Zhi Xia so fiercely that my knuckles had turned stark white. She did not forcibly pull me out. Instead, she sat right outside the wardrobe, her voice soft and soothing:

"Dang Yin, this is only a drill."

"The door is unlocked."

"Zhi Xia is resting safely in your arms."

"Pine Nut is right here with us."

I lowered my gaze. Zhi Xia had been squeezed a bit too tightly by my embrace and began to wriggle uncomfortably, yet she did not cry. Bit by bit, my rigid muscles finally relaxed. That very night, I dreamed once more of the corridors of Cheng An Hospital. In the dream, the elevator doors were slowly sliding shut. Xu Qing Yi was clutching a thermal food container. Lu Shi Qian stood squarely in front of me, blocking my path. No matter how desperately I screamed, not a single sound escaped my throat. Just as the gap between the doors was about to seal completely, Pine Nut suddenly lunged forward, seized the hem of my skirt in its teeth, and dragged me forcefully ahead. I inhaled the familiar fragrance of Frost Sandalwood.

When I awoke, the sky was still shrouded in darkness. Zhi Xia was sleeping soundly in her crib. I reached out a trembling hand to stroke her tiny face. Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open. She did not cry. She merely stared at me. Then, her little hands flailed aimlessly in the air until her fingers caught the edge of my clothes. I scooped Zhi Xia up into my arms. She snuggled close against my chest, and the subtle fragrance of Frost Sandalwood lingering behind her ear began to diffuse little by little.

I burst into tears. It was not the agonizing, heart-wrenching weeping of the past, but rather the quiet release of someone who could finally breathe again. I bowed my head and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"Mother is right here."

"This time, no one can ever take you away from me."

Pine Nut lay quietly beside the bed, its tail sweeping softly against the floorboards. Beyond the window, the morning sky slowly began to brighten. The very first batch of Frost Sandalwood in the incense workshop was awakening as well. The scent was delicate and faint, resembling a slender silken thread that gently guided my daughter back from a fabricated death and safely into my waiting arms.