"That white-clad woman was your mother. She wore a veil then, holding you asleep in her arms," Li Jingyun said. "Her body looked very frail."
"From her words, we learned she had been following us for a day. Perhaps she sensed our kindness and lack of children, or perhaps because you also share the surname Yang. She gave the child to us!" Yang Shan finished his wife's sentence.
Yang Feilong remained silent, listening to his adoptive parents.
Sensing her elder brother's anxious and nervous mood, Yang Qingqing quietly held his large hand, wanting to strengthen him.
Feeling his sister's sentiment and the gentle caress of her small hand, Yang Feilong's tense and worried heart calmed slightly.
The couple seemed not to notice the siblings' small gestures. Of course, they might have noticed but paid it no mind.
For they both understood that Yang Feilong's mood might not be pleasant at this moment.
"Your birth mother had her reasons. According to her, her family wanted to kill her child, which is you. She was being pursued and couldn't protect her child!" Li Jingyun said, her eyes reddening. "So, she had to entrust you to us. I could see the reluctance and pain in her eyes."
Yang Feilong's heart ached inexplicably.
He could imagine how painful it must be for a mother to be unable to protect her child and have to give her son away for his safety.
No, he couldn't truly feel it.
For he had no children!
If it was so painful even without fully understanding, how heartbroken, how anguished, how reluctant must his birth mother have been?
At this moment, Yang Feilong's resentment towards his birth mother, even the hatred he refused to mention, vanished.
She didn't want this either.
She was forced into it!
"Right, what about my father?" Yang Feilong's heart suddenly stirred, and he asked in a deep voice.
"We asked her too. She said the child's father had no idea she was pregnant, nor that she had a child," Yang Shan said with a wry smile.
"..." Yang Feilong gritted his teeth in anger. "That scumbag, a degenerate who abandons his wife and child!"
Everyone: "..."
Yang Shan said helplessly, "According to your birth mother, she feared her family would pursue her and even kill your father. So she secretly found your father, broke up with him decisively, and only later, after returning home, did she discover she was pregnant."
"According to your mother, she felt she had wronged your father," Li Jingyun also sighed and said.
Yang Feilong: "..."
A hint of embarrassment flashed across his face. Was it too late to retract his insult to his father?
So his father was also a victim. And the perpetrator wasn't his mother, who was also forced by circumstances. To protect his father, she broke up with him. Perhaps his father was heartbroken at the time.
Were they a pair of ill-fated lovers?
"Your surname is Yang. Your mother said your father's surname is also Yang. When they were together, they said if they had a child in the future, a boy would be named Feilong, and a girl Yufeng," Li Jingyun said. "So, your name is Yang Feilong, and your adoptive father also has the surname Yang. This way, you don't even need to change your surname."
"Yang," Yang Feilong murmured, then asked, "Do you know my mother's name?"
"No," the couple shook their heads. Li Jingyun said, "She didn't tell us. According to her, she didn't want to implicate us; telling us would harm us. Then, she gave us a jade pendant and a prescription."
"A jade pendant? A prescription?" Yang Feilong was stunned.
"Wait a moment, I'll get those things for you!" Saying so, Li Jingyun went into the house. After a while, she came out, holding a box. She opened the box and pointed to the jade pendant inside. "This jade pendant holds the mystery of your origins, more detailed than what we've told you. She wanted us to give it to you on your twentieth birthday as a birthday gift. Your father and I have studied it, but we couldn't figure anything out. It just feels like a jade pendant, perhaps more precious than an ordinary one."
"Jade pendant?" Yang Feilong touched the jade pendant. He found it was no ordinary jade. There were formations within it. Was his mother a cultivator?
Then, he tried to activate the jade pendant, only to find it extremely difficult with his current cultivation. It would require refining, which would take at least a month or two.
"This is actually a spiritual artifact!" Yang Feilong's mind was in turmoil.
Spiritual artifacts could not be activated by cultivators below the Foundation Establishment or Innate stage. Yang Feilong never expected that his birth mother's twentieth birthday gift would be such a spiritual artifact!
Perhaps she didn't give it to him when he was younger because she was afraid he would lose it or be discovered, he mused.
"If my Qi Refining cultivation breaks through to the seventh level, and I also integrate the water and fire elemental abilities, refining it will be much easier!" Yang Feilong thought to himself. "I'll wait until my Qi Refining cultivation breaks through! After all, my Qi Refining bottleneck is already loosening; I should break through to Qi Refining seventh level within ten to half a month at the latest!"
He put away the jade pendant.
Li Jingyun continued, "As for the prescription, it was for us to recuperate. Not long after we took the medicine, we indeed conceived! And our bodies also became much healthier than before."
"This is why I said your birth mother has been a great benefactor to us!" Yang Shan said. "She healed our bodies, making us healthier, and because of the medicine she gave, we had our daughter Qingqing."
"She said if she had the chance, she would come to find you. But time has flown by, nearly twenty years. I wonder how she is now," Li Jingyun sighed.
Yang Feilong was silent for a long time.
He truly hadn't expected to receive so much information today.
His birth parents hadn't abandoned him but were forced by circumstances.
His birth mother might have been captured by her family, and his birth father might not even know he had a son!
Yang Feilong's emotions were complex.
There was no longer any resentment, only worry for his mother. As for his father, he didn't know what to say.
Call him stupid? Call him incapable? If he had been capable, why would his mother fear her family harming him? Why would she fear her family hurting him and entrust him to his adoptive parents?
Seeing Yang Feilong lost in thought, Li Jingyun glared at Yang Shan. Yang Shan was helpless; he hadn't drunk too much, but he had spoken too much, which had ruined what should have been a joyous reunion.