"Hua, where is your hometown?" Lu Mo asked again, having been interrupted by Tang Yuanyuan and Tie Dan.
Hua Xiaolou put down her soup bowl and politely replied, "My home is in a small mountain village in western Hunan."
"Xiangxi is a wonderful place with exceptionally beautiful scenery. However, your Mandarin is very standard; it's the most standard Mandarin I've ever heard from someone from Xiangxi," Lu Mo praised.
People from Hunan Province often speak Mandarin with a strong local accent. For example, the great Mao Zedong's Hunan-accented Mandarin is famous all over the world!
However, Hua Xiaolou's Mandarin is very standard. Although the retroflex endings are not obvious, you can't tell at all that he is from Hunan Province. At most, you would just think he is from the South.
"Thank you for the compliment," Hua Xiaolou said softly, her mind on high alert.
Lu Mo's eyes looked like an eagle's; he had to be careful what he said and not let anything slip.
"What ethnicity is Hua Tongxue? There are many ethnic minorities in western Hunan!" Lu Mo asked again.
"I am a Tujia ethnic minority."
"Then you must have quite a few brothers and sisters, right? Ethnic minorities can have more children." Lu Mo smiled very amiably, making people feel relaxed without them even realizing it.
Hua Xiaolou dared not relax and answered according to the form she filled out when she enrolled: "I have six siblings. I am the youngest in my family, with five older brothers and sisters."
Lu Mo's eyes fell on his fair hands, and his smile became meaningful. "It seems your five older siblings treat you very well. They must rarely make you do farm work, right?"
Hua Xiaolou's heart skipped a beat. Following Lu Mo's gaze, she looked down at her hands, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
Oops!
He instinctively pulled his hand into his sleeve, but then thought it would only make things worse, so he stretched it out again. It was long, fair, with smooth and delicate skin and evenly proportioned knuckles, perfectly matching the description of an artist's hand in the book.
It is indeed somewhat unusual for a boy from a poor mountain village to have hands like these.
But these hands were an unexpected match for Hua Xiaolou, making one feel that someone like him should have hands like these. If Hua Xiaolou's hands were like those of other rural people, dark, rough, and covered with calluses, it would be like a cow chewing on a peony, a great disappointment.
"Yes, my older brothers and sisters are very, very good to me. They don't let me do any work at all."
Hua Xiaolou intentionally mentioned two special things to emphasize how good his older siblings were to him, but it seemed a bit deliberate. Lu Mo smiled slightly, but his eyes turned cold.
"You're very lucky to have such wonderful older siblings," Ye Qingqing said with a smile, without doubting Hua Xiaolou's words.
Because Hua Xiaolou was in such poor health, it was normal for his older siblings to care for him and not let him do any work; she didn't find anything suspicious about it.
But this is because she has never lived in the countryside.
Although Lu Mo had never lived in the countryside, he had once been on a business trip and lived in a mountain village in western Hunan for a period of time. He understood the life there and was very skeptical of Hua Xiaolou's words.
It's absolutely impossible for them not to do any work at all.
No matter how much his older siblings doted on him, Hua Xiaolou's family background did not allow him to be a pampered young master.
Of course, not all the villagers in the mountainous areas of western Hunan are poor; there must be some who are well-off. But the fact that Hua Xiaolou wore patched clothes even when he went to university shows that his family was definitely very poor and he had no means to live a life of luxury.
It's impossible to grow a pair of fair and tender hands!
This kind of hand is completely inconsistent with Hua Xiaolou's background.
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