The Rampant Song Dynasty

I strained to focus, and finally made out his face. Thick brows, large eyes, a straight nose, and a hint of steely resolve, though his gaze was gentle. It really was Uncle Guo! But how could he be so young? He looked several years younger than I remembered him being atop the walls of Xiangyang.

“His eyes and brows do look a little like his father’s,” Guo Jing said with a sigh as he looked at me. “But Miss Mu Nianci... Sigh, she had such a hard life.”

Huang Rong sat nearby. She picked up a handkerchief and gently wiped the corner of my mouth. “Yang Kang’s sins shouldn’t be visited on the child. Since we’ve brought him home, we should raise him well. That’s the least we can do to honor Miss Nianci’s trust in us.”

Yang Kang? Mu Nianci? My father and mother?

A loud buzz filled my mind, as if I’d been struck by lightning. Hadn’t I died? How had I become a baby? And why was I being held by Uncle Guo and Aunt Guo? Could it be... I had been reborn?

I tried moving my fingers and could feel the softness of my tiny fingernails. I listened to them speak again. Every word came clearly to my ears. This wasn’t a hallucination.

“By the way, Jing-ge, we still haven’t given the child a name,” Huang Rong suddenly said. “We can’t keep calling him ‘the child.’”

Guo Jing stroked his chin, lost in thought. “His father’s name was Yang Kang. ‘Kang’ means peace. But in the end, Kang’er strayed from the right path. We hope this child will follow the right path and mend his ways when he makes mistakes. How about... ‘Guo’? Yang Guo, with the courtesy name Gaizhi. What do you think?”

Yang Guo.