Her faint voice was raspy, like the broken syllables of a weary traveler who could barely speak after swallowing endless sand and dust.
But Ye Chutang heard it, and Ye Jingyan heard it too.
Ye Chutang froze. Then, as realization dawned, she looked sharply at Xiao Wu in her arms.
Ye Jingyan was shocked into a rare daze, hardly daring to believe his own ears.
'That sound just now... was that...'
"Xiao Wu?"
He murmured in disbelief.
Ye Chutang suppressed the tide of emotion surging within her, wiped the tears from Xiao Wu's face, and asked softly, "Xiao Wu, what did you call me just now?"
Xiao Wu opened her mouth, but her tears only fell harder. Her thin little arms wrapped around Ye Chutang's neck as she began to sob even louder.
It was as if she was trying to release all the tears that had been swallowed by silence over the past few years.
She was, after all, only a five-year-old child. How could she possibly bear so much?
