He also knew that this was the only thing his father had left for his sister before he died. No wonder she treasured it so much—back then, when Aunt Bai had traveled from afar carrying the newborn Zhi Bi, it was this very jade pendant that allowed her to enter the Zhou family and become the rightful mistress of the household.
The Zhou family had been single-son heirs for generations, and this jade pendant had been passed down from ancestor to ancestor. By the time Zhou Yi's father got married, it had already come into his hands. However, when Zhou Yi was young, his mother passed away from illness. Unable to bear the pain of losing his wife, his father abandoned his young son and elderly father in utter despair and wandered off to distant lands alone. He was gone for five years, during which there was no news at all. It wasn't until five years later that his father finally emerged from his grief and called home, saying he had met a woman he loved in a faraway place, that she was carrying his child, and that he would soon bring her back to the Zhou family.
When Grandpa heard the news, he was so excited that his old ailment flared up. Upon learning this, his father rushed home. Since his new wife was heavily pregnant and unable to travel, he had to temporarily leave her behind. Unfortunately, Grandpa's condition improved quickly, but on that journey home, his father died in a car accident.
Six months later, a woman named Bai Zhi arrived at the Zhou family with a baby girl in swaddling clothes, having endured countless hardships. Around the little girl's neck hung this jade pendant—the heirloom of the Zhou family. It was said that his father had already given the pendant to his unborn daughter.
The Zhou family welcomed the mother and daughter with tolerance. After conducting a DNA test to confirm the girl's lineage, they took them under the Zhou family's wing and tacitly acknowledged the pendant's ownership.
However, from a young age, Zhou Yi had harbored some resentment toward Aunt Bai. He felt that it was this woman named Bai Zhi who had taken his father away, causing him to abandon both Zhou Yi and Grandpa for five long years. But as he grew older, he gradually came to terms with it. After all, his father had been missing for five years, and if not for Bai Zhi, he might never have emerged from the shadow of losing his wife and decided to return to the Zhou family. Without her, Zhou Yi and Grandpa would never have received his father's final news. Still, Zhou Yi could never bring himself to feel close to the woman who had replaced his mother. Yet Grandpa, pitying his daughter-in-law for being widowed so young, largely acknowledged her position, and so Bai Zhi had remained firmly seated as the matriarch of the Zhou family to this day.
But that's getting off track.
In short, this jade pendant held great significance for the Zhou family, and even more so for Zhou Zhi Bi. That was why Zhou Yi was so uneasy and insisted on watching Rong Yi perform the ritual himself.
The moon-white circular jade pendant was exquisite and delicate, smooth and translucent, its surface etched with fine, ancient patterns that seemed to bear the weight of history and the family's legacy. Zhou Yi solemnly handed it over to Rong Yi.
Rong Yi also took out her own jade pendant and placed it on the table, side by side with Zhou Yi's.
The two pendants lay together—one shaped like a graceful half-moon, the other like a full, round moon. The full-moon pendant was smaller, perfectly fitting into the curve of the half-moon one.
They merged into one, resonating together, and produced a sound as melodious as wind chimes.
The sound was incredibly beautiful, like wind chimes, like the cry of a phoenix, like the purest of ceremonial music, filling the listener with a sense of peace and joy.