Zhao Qian'er suddenly liked holding hands and the caring look in his eyes.

Just like how I fell in love with Rong Erge’s abdominal muscles not long ago, I just touched it, felt it, and then I liked it.

The little girl couldn't explain why, her likes and dislikes were all up to her heart.

So her liking is just pure liking.

Like with all my heart.

Like a swing.

When she was a child, she was still a maid with short legs and a round face. She ran to the Duke's kitchen to "steal" food for the young lady. On the way, she suddenly saw a little girl of the same age in gorgeous clothes sitting on a wooden board and running back and forth. She gradually slowed down her steps, squatted on the ground, hugged her knees, and stared at her quietly for a long time.

Then, before being discovered, she sensitively turned around and ran back on her short legs, and finally found Brother Rong'er who was "taking a walk" in the melon field of the farm. She looked at him with her eyes rolled up, her two little hands behind her back, and shouted that she wanted to fly too, fly high.

She looked eagerly at Zhao Rong who was holding the melon he had picked up in his arms.

Then he looked around threateningly and opened his mouth to shout.

Seeing this, Zhao Rong accidentally slipped to the side of the road with the watermelon in one hand, blocking his way. After he was picked up by him, he simply wanted to help the owner of the watermelon to move its position out of kindness.

He ran away holding Zhao Qian'er, who was snorting and shaking her head happily.

Later, the two of them divided the big watermelon, which had just been accidentally broken into pieces by hitting a rock, in half.

While eating a melon, Zhao Rong took her to the top of the mountain behind the mountain. He pointed to a cliff that looked very steep and nodded his chin seriously.

Zhao Qian'er pursed her lips, took a deep breath, took a step forward, and kicked him hard in the calf, wishing she could kick him off the cliff and fly high.

But of course she didn't have that much strength.

So Zhao Qian'er took Zhao Rong's hands again and ran down the mountain in the opposite direction, ran to the place where the little girl in gorgeous clothes was flying, stopped far away, looked at her eagerly, and then pointed it out to Zhao Rong.

Zhao Rong shook his head and turned to leave, but she squatted down, hugged her knees and buried her head, raised one hand and pulled the corner of his small formal clothes, refusing to leave.

The two of them squatted and stood quietly.

I remember that at that time, Brother Rong'er was the son of Aunt Liu and a servant in the mansion, and was considered half a little master.

And she was still just a little maid, even though she served the young lady of the fourth room in the mansion.

But the young lady's mother had just passed away, and the master of the fourth room had not returned for a long time, so the fourth room was excluded and neglected, not to mention that the young lady was the only young daughter in the fourth room. Only the old lady would care about her from time to time and send her some food and clothes, but after all, she was not as good as the male descendants.

Therefore, Zhao Qian'er, a little maid, could never compare to Zhao Rong, the son of a worshipping monk, in the Duke's Mansion, which had already complied with the trend of the Great Chu and governed the mansion with Confucian ethics.

But she dared to pull him aside and asked Zhao Rong to get her this magical flying object. Zhao Qian'er fell in love with it at first sight and it was something that could not be erased from her little head.

There is no reason why Zhao Qian'er is so naughty and has such a bad temper, it's just because he is Brother Rong'er.

At that time, Zhao Qian'er knew that she was just a little maid.

Ever since I can remember, I have been a maid, a small maid without any parents.

That being said, if she had parents, they would not have abandoned her shortly after she was born and adopted by the Duke's Mansion as a slave.

At least we have to let Qian'er grow up a little and remember some things before selling her. We can see whether she is an ugly girl or a girl with a big appetite, whether we can afford to raise her and whether it is worth raising her.

At least Qian'er should be able to recognize her parents after she regains her memory. In this way, when she is sold to the Duke's Mansion as a slave, she will have more thoughts and concerns. In case there is a chance for them to recognize each other in the future, they can continue their family relationship. Even if she is just short of money, she can ask Qian'er for the monthly salary that she has saved with great effort and has been deducted at every level.

In the Duke of Jingnan's mansion, many maids and servants are in the same situation. Those who are luckier are even able to keep in touch with their families outside.

Well, these were the most 'cruel' parents she could think of when she was curled up in bed as a child. Well, even so, this was also what Zhao Qian'er envied, the kind who could cover their mouths and smile with their eyes closed in bed.

Because if this was really the case for her, Zhao Qian'er would not blame them. She could understand it. After all, being hungry was really uncomfortable, and selling a maid might be the best way.

As for the best parents, they are of course Brother Rong’er’s mother, Aunt Liu.

But what is it like to be an orphan since one can remember?

Zhao Qian'er didn't believe that there were parents more cruel than those above.

Zhao Qian'er didn't believe that there were parents who had just given birth to her, just took one look at her ugly, wrinkled face stained with blood, and then abandoned her like waste without any intention of raising her.

Well, being able to place her at the doorstep of a wealthy family and choosing a good location seems to be the most that can be done. The rest is up to fate, and the two sides have no connection at all anymore.

As for the wasted vegetable basket and the narrow rag wrapped around her body, it seemed that they were all for the sake of decency, their decency, so as to cover the "stranger" who had just been taken out of their stomachs to prevent others from seeing them littering.

This is no longer indifference, it is... just treating her as a piece of the suffering of pregnancy for ten months, a piece of rotten flesh cut from the body, with only pain, no feelings, not even the emotion of indifference.

Because indifference is towards people, how can we be indifferent to objects?

Therefore, Zhao Qian'er still doesn't believe that there are such parents.

Therefore, as an abandoned baby, she always felt that her situation was because her parents had their own difficulties, or they died of illness, or they were being hunted by enemies, or... they were accidentally lost, and then they tried very hard to find her, but could never find her again.

Therefore, Zhao Qian'er feels that she is extremely happy. Compared with the most "cruel" parents above, well, little Qian'er, aren't you happy and content?

She was even afraid that she had killed her mother who had been pregnant for ten months.

But if it was accidentally lost by this careless couple, Zhao Qian'er would be extremely happy but also a little sad.

Just a little.

If she had the chance to meet them in this life, she would really like to tell them.

Please don’t be careless and don’t lose your child again, even if she or he is just a little one, even if she or he is crying and troublesome, but if you lose it, you will miss it for a very, very long time...

Later, when Zhao Qian'er had some free time, she asked Aunt Liu about what had happened, smiling with her chin in her hand and showing her little tiger teeth.

Aunt Liu said that she was found lying outside the side door of the Duke's Mansion just a few days after she was born. It was the young lady's biological mother, the eldest lady of the fourth room, who was so kind after seeing her that she allowed the Duke's Mansion to take her in.

Instead of being sent to the official orphanage in Qianjing, they became quality goods claimed by brothel madams, human traffickers and other people from all walks of life.

Later, whenever Zhao Qian'er thought of this incident, she silently guessed that this might be because the eldest lady had just given birth to a daughter, that is, the current young lady, so when the eldest lady went out and saw her, although it was unlucky, she also felt some sympathy for the girl after she became a mother.

However, this compassion almost ends here.

Because she was not adopted by the fourth room where the eldest lady lived, Zhao Qian'er, who entered the mansion as a baby, first spent the first few years of her life in a place in the Duke's mansion that was specially used to deal with abandoned babies like her.

Even for such a noble person, it only takes a matter of words to ask the fourth room in the mansion to accept Zhao Qian'er specifically and make a huge difference to her treatment.

But she was just a little unwanted baby girl whose whereabouts her careless parents didn't even know. How could she be worth the time of the lady of such noble status to waste her words on?

However, the eldest lady was able to take a glance at her lying in the vegetable basket in front of the door, and then gently raised her chin to signal the clever servant to carry the basket into the house. Whenever Zhao Qian'er recalled this incident later, she was still extremely grateful, fortunate, and content.

However, despite this, she and the fourth room are destined to be together.

Later, not long after Zhao Qian'er started to remember things, the mansion was assigning maids. Because she couldn't beat the others, she couldn't snatch much food, and was malnourished. She was even more unable to beat the other abandoned maids, so she was thin and weak.

None of the managers liked her and chose this yellow-haired girl who was short, dark and thin, like a reed stalk burned by a fire in autumn.

Well, I guess in the eyes of those stewards, for a lowly maid, on such an important day when she was chosen by the master, even her hair was messy. I don't know if she didn't know how to tie it, but there seemed to be some yellow mud among the messy and dry hair, and there were a few straight and light powder marks on her cheeks.

She looks like a clever and obedient maid who is suitable to serve her master.

At the same time, she was standing at the very back of the crowd, blocked intentionally or unintentionally by several tall abandoned maids in front of her.

No one noticed it anymore.

Even though Zhao Qian'er tried her best to stand on tiptoe, tying up her hair that had been washed clean with cold well water, and enduring the pain from the eight red and swollen scratches on her face covered with white flour, she gritted her teeth and pursed her lips, opened her bright eyes that were so dry that they were out of focus, and smiled the most brilliant smile of her life.

However, it did not attract the attention of even a single manager, including Kunbo, whose behavior and appearance seemed to have not changed much over the years.

In her expectant eyes, the tall old man's calm gaze only swept across and landed on a few maids in the front row of the crowd who looked smart and lovely, and never looked back again.

At that moment, Zhao Qian'er, whose age was so great that one could not count her fingers on one hand, slowly put down her feet. Her eyes were still sparkling, but she bent her body and crouched behind the thick wall of people blocking her way.

She still had a smile on her face that she had just put on to appear more energetic to others, but it seemed that she had forgotten to restrain it, or rather, this bright smile seemed to be the most comfortable at the moment.

I have endured the pain for a long time and it has become numb. If I suppress my smile and the wound is moved, it will hurt so much that I will writhe on the ground.

So laugh.

Zhao Qian'er, who didn't understand many things and had no one to teach her, had a smile on her face, her hands on her knees and her head buried. This was also the most comfortable posture for her. When she was scratched and kicked by her peers in the morning, she maintained this posture to defend herself.

She was thin and short, and didn't eat much. She couldn't run faster than them, and it would also consume her energy.

After Zhao Qianer figured out this crouching defense method, she found it very effective.

This is also the magic weapon that she has always believed to be extremely special since her childhood, and she has always "treasured" it in her heart.

And once used, it can cause minimal pain and is the best defense.

But later, those who didn't like her face scratched her face.

Although Zhao Qian'er was young at the time, she knew that she was quite pretty. She was the only bright spot that outsiders could find at first glance on her thin body.

So after her face was scratched, Zhao Qian'er, covered in mud, ran to the kitchen and begged the bad-tempered cook in a low voice for a long time before the cook gave her a little bit of flour.

The prerequisite is that she has to carry a lot of buckets of water and clean more chimneys.

Zhao Qian'er smiled and nodded in agreement, then took the small portion of hard-earned yellowish flour and ran back to the woodshed, tightly closed the leaky door, used a dry rag to absorb the blood from the wound on her face, and applied flour to cover the redness, swelling and scratches. Although it hurt, the red marks on the little face reflected in the water tank were indeed not noticeable.

It's just that the coarse flour is like sand of a different color mixed into the meat.

And now it seems that even after all this trouble, she is still an abandoned maid that no one cares about.

Little girl, so funny.

Zhao Qian'er squatted at the back of the group of maids. In front of her were their dark silhouettes, and behind her was the bright spring sunshine slanting through the window.

The little yellow-haired girl squatted in the middle, not blocking anyone or the light.

She just raised her little head and breathed in the fresh air that was not too stuffy through the gaps between the feet of the people in front of her. She could also see the somewhat dazzling sunlight covering the ground where the housekeepers of each room in the front were standing.

Zhao Qianer smiled brightly and her thoughts were full of life.

Will she sleep forever on the cold kang in the woodshed next to the toilet? Will she open her eyes one day and find those burred wood covering her and filling her up?

Would she not even have a place to live in the woodshed, be driven out of the house, become a beggar on the street, and then have her legs or hands broken by the old beggars, and then pretend to be pitiful and beg for money? If she didn't get any money, would they give her food?

Is it impossible for her to go and kowtow to the eldest lady of the fourth room and say thank you...

She was only a few years old, ignorant and pure.

Joy and sorrow, pain and suffering, hunger and cold, sadness and fear.

It’s all pure, even the suffering.

Even now, many years later, it is still the same.

But in Rong'er's arms, she felt pure and bright love and a happiness that was about to melt her.

This feeling is just like the swing that finally started to swing on that summer day many years ago...