Mountains and rivers are waiting for you to return

Chapter 7 Photographic Memory
Pei Nai took a deep breath, feeling that the other party was cheating her.

She only gestured a few times, and she didn't even use the Pei family gun. How could we confirm her identity?
"How old were you when she died? How could you remember it clearly? People who have practiced martial arts for more than 20 years wouldn't dare to recognize moves like this."

Ju Liancheng said in a deep voice, "Tang Mingzhi grew up in seclusion in the boudoir. She always speaks softly and is afraid of being burned when drinking tea. Like any other lady from a wealthy family, she always sips slowly and carefully. Even if there are traces of water on her lips, she always wipes them clean with a handkerchief."

He stared at Pei Nai and continued, "Only Madam Yingwu, because she has been practicing martial arts for many years, her hands are covered with dust after holding the spear. She can only wipe the corners of her mouth with the inside of her clean little finger. Even though she has never touched the spear before drinking tea, this habit has always been with her."

Ju Liancheng sat back on the couch, "Besides, now that you have even forgotten my ability to remember things, is there any need to continue pretending?"

Pei Nai asked tentatively: "Do you have a good memory?"

"On the sixteenth day of the Gao month in the twentieth year of Zhengkang, when we first met, you were wearing a silk gown with a gold and silver Ruyi cloud pattern and red jadeite bead pendants on your ears. The first thing you said was, 'Ju Yan, your son doesn't look very smart.'"

Pei Nai was amazed, "You can remember this?"

Ju Liancheng nodded. Since the truth had been revealed, he no longer tried to hide it. "Mrs. Pei..."

Pei Nai quickly made a gesture to keep quiet and looked towards the door and windows to make sure that his words would not be heard by anyone.

"Shh, I don't want to get into trouble. Since I took care of you when you were a child, can you help me keep it a secret?"

Ju Liancheng paused for a moment and said indifferently, "When you were a child? I remember you combed my hair into a girl's bun when I was young and ignorant."

Pei Nai felt a little embarrassed.

She could see that Ju Liancheng might not like her very much, so she could only smile, "Isn't it just dressing you up as a little girl? You wouldn't hold a grudge against me until today, right?"

“I can’t forget anything, good or bad.”

Pei Nai said "Aiya" and explained, "I don't have my own children. Gu Jinheng's retainers are either unmarried or have given birth to little boys. I've never tied a little girl's hair, but I wanted to touch her. Xiao Mingyi has been precocious since he was a child and wouldn't let me touch him at all, so I could only do it to you. I didn't let anyone see you dressed up as a girl, so I apologize to you, don't be angry."

Ju Liancheng stopped talking and asked, "Why do you now have the same body shape and appearance as Tang Mingzhi? Is it the art of body transformation and bone shrinking?"

Pei Nai shook his head. "This is Tang Mingzhi's body. She is gone."

This answer was so shocking that Ju Liancheng could not believe it. "Why are you in Tang Mingzhi's body? Do you still have unfulfilled wishes in the world of the living? Are you using a corpse to revive your soul?"

Pei Nai looked confused, "I don't know. I don't even know how I died. I just opened my eyes and she was on top of me. I asked Nakagawa-senpai but I couldn't get a clear answer."

"How could this happen?" Ju Liancheng murmured, falling into deep confusion.

Pei Nai stretched out his hand and waved it in front of him, "By the way, do you know how I died in my previous life?"

"The heroic Madam Pei Nai died in the battle of Yagu. Ten years ago, you led the army to fight against the enemy and made the Zhubei Spear reappear in the world. As a result, you became a god in that battle. But just to reduce casualties, you finally chose to die together with the enemy general Tuoba Huo and sacrificed your life for the country."

"Shang Sanshan, Xihandao Tuoba Huo?" Pei Nai muttered to himself, and then whispered to himself: "Am I so powerful?"

Ju Liancheng's mouth twitched twice, his face was very stiff, "So what are you going to do next? Do you need us to help you inform those two?"

Pei Nai understood that the “two” he was referring to were Xiao Mingyi and Gu Jinheng, but she shook her head, “There must be a reason why I was called back. I have to find out privately first.”

Ju Liancheng remained silent again.

Pei Nai thought about the conversation just now and combined it with his understanding of Mrs. Ju, he found it even more incredible.

"Your mother has amnesia, and she forgets things as she goes along, but you can remember even the most insignificant details of your life from more than a decade ago?"

Ju Liancheng looked at Pei Nai and nodded coldly.

This was the first time Pei Nai saw such a strange person.

But she was very curious, so she continued to ask despite the other person's cold face: "Apart from the memory of our first meeting, do you remember other things as carefully as this?"

Ju Liancheng was helpless.

Pei Nai could also sense that Ju Liancheng didn't want to explain too much, probably because he remembered Pei Nai's identity and was worried that Pei Nai would report his father in the future, so he spoke reluctantly. "No matter how big or small the matter is, for me, everything I've experienced can never be forgotten, just like a series of connected scrolls, storing sounds and smells, as long as I want to see them, they are always in front of me."

Pei Nai's eyes widened. "Doesn't that mean he can master every skill he learns? He's a rare genius! Little Lian Cheng."

"." Ju Liancheng's face turned pale, "You're overpraising me. I just have a good memory, but I don't have any talent for martial arts."

His inner thoughts seemed to be written on his face, a line of words written powerfully and sparklingly: Don't set your sights on me.

Just then, Mrs. Ju pushed the door and walked in.

She looked up and saw Pei Nai and Ju Liancheng, and saw the broken pieces of the porcelain cup that had just fallen to the ground during the fight. Her loving smile froze on her face, "What happened?"

"There was a flying insect just now, and we accidentally touched it to the ground when we were hitting it." Pei Nai explained.

Madam Ju nodded and called the maids to clean up.

Ju Liancheng glanced at Pei Nai, stood up and bowed, saying, "Mother and Mingzhi will talk first. Liancheng still has some things to deal with, so I won't disturb you."

"Hey, you just came, why are you leaving again?" Madam Ju looked at Ju Liancheng's back as he left, and sighed with Pei Nai, "Your brother is like this, he never forgets things, he has a bad mood, and he has a weird temper, so you should be more understanding."

Pei Nai nodded, "I think it's okay. Most powerful people have weird tempers. It's normal."

"Strange temper? Who is it?"

Pei Nai: "."

She was overwhelmed with mixed feelings and felt very complicated inside, so she wanted to find someone to complain to: Isn't Mrs. Ju forgetting things too quickly?
Two weeks of carefree days have passed in the blink of an eye.

Early that morning, Pei Nai had just returned from practicing martial arts in the grove outside the north city gate. After hiding the black iron spear he bought from the blacksmith shop, he found the maids tidying up the house.

Anyway, she had nothing to do, so she came to help.

Inadvertently, she glanced at a copy of "The Admonitions for Women". The two words written in iron and silver strokes deeply hurt her eyes, penetrating the long and tedious years and showing her those memories.

One day after her wedding to Gu Jinheng.

Lady Duan Dinghou called Pei Nai to her courtyard. She wanted to establish her authority in front of Pei Nai, so she talked about the woman's moral character and scolded her.

She was criticized for being too arrogant and unmannerly, and for bringing shame to the Gu family.

She threw those words away and immediately asked someone to go to the study to get a copy of "Female Commandments", requiring Pei Nai to memorize it paragraph by paragraph. If she couldn't follow the usual habits and behave properly, she was not worthy of being a female member of the Duanding Marquis's Mansion. It would be better to divorce Gu Jinheng as soon as possible to avoid bringing shame to the Duanding Marquis's Mansion.

Pei Nai was also angry at that time. Who was he trying to scare?

This is a marriage granted by the emperor. You are not Gu Jinheng’s biological mother. Can you just divorce him if you want?

She wanted to throw the book in the face of the wife of Marquis Xianduan Ding, but for Gu Jinheng's sake, she endured it and slammed the door and walked away.

The angry Lady Xianduan Dinghou grabbed the table and threw all the things on the ground.

She didn't care about her image as a noble lady, pointed at the direction where Pei Nai left, and said with eyes wide open: "How disrespectful to elders! Is this the upbringing of the Pei family?! I'll send someone to ask Guo Min and your mother, they raised such a good daughter?! Look at the only bloodline of your Pei family, your Pei family is like this! You don't know the etiquette, honor, shame, respect for elders, and even don't care about me, the wife of Duan Dinghou! Do you really think you are still a descendant of the high and mighty Pei family?!"

In Pei Nai's opinion, although slamming the door was a bit rude, she had already given the marquis's family a lot of face by not causing a fight.

But her actions disrupted Gu Jinheng's plan.

Gu Jinheng came back at night with an unhappy look on his face. He questioned her in sign language, "She is nominally our mother. Didn't I say that? Now the time is not right. We still need to do enough work on the surface. Why did you offend her?"

　Ju Liancheng is probably the ancient version of hyperthymesia. (°ー°〃)
　　(I think this disease has only been diagnosed and treated in modern times. Ancient medicine was not well developed. Maybe someone really did have this disease?)
　　For those who haven't heard of it, let me share some information from Baidu Encyclopedia:
　　Hyperthymesia is an extremely rare medical anomaly, a branch of non-selective memory, clinically manifested as an automatic memory system in the brain. People with hyperthymesia use the left frontal lobe (usually this area is used to process language) and the posterior head area at the back of the brain (usually used to store picture memories) to store long-term memories. All of this seems to happen subconsciously. People with hyperthymesia have no ability to forget. They can remember everything they have experienced clearly, down to every detail.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)