“Have you any proof of your father?” was the next question.
“Yes, I have the three mementos. The half of each are in my father’s possession. These I have are the half my mother kept, and I was to present them when I found my father.”
“When she gave you these, did she tell you when she gave the other half to your father?”
Ting Lang said, “Yes.” Then he told of their parting as he had learned it from the lips of his mother. Then he went on and told how he came to start out in search of his father, the long, lonely road; how and why his father was banished. It was with many sobs and tears that the story was told, and before he was through the lady was weeping with him. As he closed she put her arm around him and said:
“I am your second mother.” [[149]]
When the boy heard this he was frightened and said, “Alas! alas! what have I done!”
“Nothing,” was the reply; “rest your heart, you are indeed my son, for I also am your father’s wife.” Then she told him the story of his father’s coming to the city, her father’s interest in him, and her marriage. “He said he had no family when we asked him and I could not know of your mother. You have a younger brother, my little son, who is nine years old. His name is Kan Lang; that corresponds with the name your father left you, and I believe all your story. The mistake is all your father’s. You are indeed his son.”
Ting Lang knelt and knocked his head to his second mother.
As she raised him up she said, “You have indeed suffered; you are the best and bravest boy I ever heard of; you shall never leave us.”
This mother, Hu Yüch Ying, was also a very beautiful character, and her sweet, gentle manners won the heart of Ting Lang and he believed her word. She sent a servant to call her own little son, Kan Lang, and when he came he asked, “Did you call me, mother?”