Chapter One Little Girl

  The sunlight was dense and couldn't penetrate through the thick leaves of the papaya tree, the majestic crown covering the entire courtyard.

  Pineapple fruits do not hang on branches like ordinary fruits, because of their heavy fruit, which is not what ordinary branches can bear. Most are grown on thick main trunks and branches, with a few green leaves accompanying the yellow-orange fruit, which is quite beautiful.

  Li Luyu knew that the pineapple tree was not the Tree of Life, but he also guessed that the Tree of Life should be similar to the pineapple tree, and the fruit of life would also be such a huge fruit hanging from the branches.

  Annan Xiu said that the people in Tianyun Shenjing were all picked from the tree of life, Li Luyu just thought it was interesting. Now seeing such a big tree, and thinking about it again, she couldn't help but feel a strange feeling, wondering if it's really possible to pick a pineapple fruit, cut it open, and find a white and tender baby inside?

  "Only the Life Tree in the Tianyun Empire's imperial palace can produce the Princess Fruit. This one won't." An Nanxiu said proudly.

  "What are you talking about?" Li Banyu couldn't understand what Li Luyu and An Nanxiu were saying.

  "Annanxiu thinks that people are all from the fruits picked from the tree, she thinks there are little kids in the fruits on this tree." said Li Luyou with a smile.

  Li Banzhuang looked up at the papaya tree and couldn't help but laugh, thinking that An Nanxiu was still so naive at 14 years old. "When we were in kindergarten, our classmates asked the teacher where babies came from, and the teacher told us to ask our mothers when we got home. My mother said that my brother and I were both picked from trees."

  "Ah, it's from this tree." Li Luoyu brought over a ladder, preparing to climb up and pick another guanabana: "I'll go pick some for my younger siblings too."

  An Nanxiu saw that Li Luyu and Li Banyan didn't believe her, so she raised her head disdainfully. Ignorant fools.

  Li Luoyou is skilled at picking pineapples, with a machete hanging from his waist. He first climbs up the ladder, then swings the hook rope to the upper branches, and slowly pulls himself up to step on the branches to prepare for picking pineapple fruit.

  "Be careful, brother." Li Banzhu pulled An Nanxiu away from under the tree. The pineapples that ripened in September and October were the last batch to fully mature, some of which might fall off by themselves, and being hit by such a heavy thing weighing over ten or twenty kilograms could be fatal or cause serious injury.

  Li Luyu waved at Li Banzhen from above, staggering and walking unsteadily. Li Banzhen was frightened to see this, as Li Luyu had fallen from above before and had been unconscious for a long time. Li Banzhen could never forget the fear of losing her brother that she felt back then.

  But from over three meters high place fell down, Li Luyu miraculously woke up, nothing happened, lively and jumping around.

  Li Luoyu cut down a pineapple, and then simply cut down a large cluster of pineapples, busy for more than an hour, under the tree had already piled up a small mountain-like pineapple.

  Li Luoyu jumped down from the tree, took a towel handed over by Li Banzhuang to wipe his face, drank some water, and said to An Nanxiu: "Do you want me to split one open for you to see?"

  An Nanxiu was a bit worried, what if they were all young children, would Li Luyu have to take care of them too? An Nanxiu didn't think so, Li Luyu was her attendant officer, taking good care of just one person was enough.

  As for whether the pineapple tree is a life tree or not, Annan Xiu never considered it at all, how could she make a mistake?

  Li Luoyu quickly split one open and asked An Nanxiu, "Want some?" as he peeled off a piece of fruit pulp.

  Annan took it over and turned it over repeatedly.

  "Was it like that when you were a kid?" Li Luoyu burst out laughing, "Did you grow up like that as a kid, being planted in the ground and watered, then growing big?"

  An Nan's face was hot and red, she was so angry that she stuffed the fruit into Li Luyu's mouth: "Don't laugh at me, shut up!"

  Ann felt embarrassed and more puzzled, although this life tree was a bit smaller... She still insisted that it was a life tree, not the pineapple tree in Li Rouyou's mouth. This small life tree had already borne fruit, but why were there no children inside?

  But if it's really the Tree of Life, how did it end up here? And turned into this... Is it like me, coming to Earth and becoming a normal little girl, with blood flowing from the cracks in my body? Does the Tree of Life not give birth to children either?

  Annanshuo was puzzled, but at least she had something to study and was interested in it. Annanshuo took out a small box and took a little of the pineapple's skin, seeds, pulp, leaves, and branches and put them inside.

  Li Luyu called the fruit shop owner and asked someone to come and collect the last batch of pineapple fruits.

  Pineapples have been bearing fruit since April and May, and the pineapples picked from this tree by Li Luoyu have also sold for a good price. The local pineapples are slightly inferior in taste to those from tropical regions; otherwise, Li Luoyu could sell over 10,000 yuan worth of them per year.

  Not long after, the fruit shop owner in town sent a vehicle over to collect them.

  Lǐ Lùyóu's price was cheap, and this was an unavoidable thing. After all, it was local, and the price couldn't be compared to the pineapple honey transported from tropical regions. However, Lǐ Lùyóu knew that the fruit shop had bought his fruits at a low price but didn't sell them in the small town. Instead, they were sent to the big supermarket in the city and sold as tropical pineapple honey, earning several times the difference in price.

  This is also an unavoidable thing, Li Luyou has no such connection, and the fruit shop owner has also opened up a procurement channel with the supermarket, otherwise there would be no certificates of origin or customs clearance documents, and these pineapples cannot be sold at a high price.

  The people who came were the son of the fruit shop owner, Xu Xiaocheng, and his two little followers. They were chatting in the fruit shop when the boss sent them to move the fruits.

  Xu Xiaocheng is considered a local tyrant, having dropped out of school after high school graduation, which is extremely rare in the area. After all, nowadays people won't foolishly think that reading books is useless; as long as one's family has money and can make a fortune, not reading books doesn't matter.

  Xu Xiaocheng walked into the yard, first dazedly looking at An Nanxiu. Nowadays, little girls are all raised to be fair and delicate, pretty and lovely, but a proud and arrogant girl like this one, full of an air of superiority, is not something that ordinary families can raise. Xu Xiaocheng had never seen anyone like her before.

  An Nan shot him a glance, her mouth corners slightly raised. Why were these native men so detestable except for Li Luoyu?

  Xu Xiaocheng is not actually detestable, but he hasn't read many books and has spent a lot of time socializing, so there's always an air of superficiality about him. Given An Nanxiu's aloof demeanor, he wouldn't bother trying to strike up a conversation with her.

  His eyes soon fell on Li Banzhuang, who had rarely appeared here since he went to high school. Xu Xiaocheng was even more surprised, and he couldn't help but feel that the soft and weak Li Banzhuang from middle school had grown up to be so charming, especially her body, which combined girlish innocence and plumpness, making Xu Xiaocheng and his friends look at her with desire.

  They are not as good as Li Luyu's children. Many high school students have had relationships, let alone those who have already entered society.

  "Li Zi, come back and visit your little brother, let's go to my place to play later." Xue Xiao Cheng walked up to Li Ban Xiu with a smile.

  "Is Li Zi the one you called?" Li Banzhen asked with a cold smile.

  Li Luyou frowned and walked over, making Xu Xiaocheng keep a distance from Li Banzhuang. When they were young, Xu Xiaocheng often bullied him and Li Banzhuang. Li Luyou had always been taller and stronger than others since childhood, but he couldn't fight against multiple opponents at once. Xu Xiaocheng was used to forming cliques and ganging up on people.

  "Your brother can shout, but I can't?" Xu Xiaocheng didn't mind, still grinning from ear to ear. He knew Li Banzhuang's temper well - the little girl wasn't actually a gentle soul, but it was precisely this that made Xu Xiaocheng like her even more, she had character.

  "Go ahead and shout if you dare." Li Banxian was no longer a child, but she still had the habit of relying on her brother and following him around to enjoy the sense of security his protection brought. However, sometimes she also had enough courage to solve problems on her own; otherwise, she wouldn't have dared to be alone with Yang Jingxin, who had ulterior motives towards her.

  "Li Zi!" Xu Xiaocheng winked and called out in a familiar tone, stretching out his hand to pull Li Banzhuang, "Let them move the fruit, Brother Xiaocheng will take you out to play."

  Li Rouyu pinched Xu Xiaocheng's hand and said coldly: "Xu Xiaocheng, your dad didn't tell you to come here and cause trouble."

  "We're all neighbors, it's rare to come back once, and not going home to sit for a while is also unacceptable." Xu Xiaocheng struggled a bit, but couldn't get free at all. He knew Li Luyu was stronger than him, and didn't mind much, nor did he believe Li Luyu dared to do anything to him. "You think my family has taken care of you siblings for so many years, this is something that can't be forgotten or repaid."

  "Taking care of us siblings for many years? Ha ha, buying our pineapples for 1-2 yuan and selling them in the supermarket for 4-5 yuan, what a way to take care of us!" Li Banzhen was also very aware, having seen the ups and downs of human relationships since childhood with her brother. She still remembered that once when her brother wanted to raise the price by 50 cents, the fruit shop owner took advantage of the siblings' youth and weakness, and had no way to deal with a pile of accumulated pineapples in the yard, not only refusing to agree to the price increase but also wanting to lower the purchase price.

  It was just at the beginning of the school year, and both siblings needed money, so they finally had to agree to a discounted price.

  "Is that so? Then we don't want these pineapples, you can keep them." Taking advantage of Li Luyu's momentary weakness, Xu Xiaocheng shook off Li Luyu's hand and sneered, thinking to himself that since he was poor and had a short temper, he didn't believe the Li siblings could still surpass him.

  Li Luyu smiled, actually now it's much more relaxed than before. Although he works hard, the opportunities and time for college students to make money far exceed those of high school students. He no longer needs to attach too much importance to the money from selling pineapple cakes.

  "Go!" Xu Xiaocheng called out to his two followers as they left, but once they were out of the courtyard, they were stunned - the small truck that had just passed by had vanished into thin air.

  Annan Xiu stood at the gate of the courtyard, the wind blowing gently, revealing two slender little legs. She was holding a dog-tail grass, poking at the ants crawling up and down on the wall.

  "Little sister, did you see the car just now?" Xu Xiaocheng's heart was filled with surprise and worry. The car was gone, if it was lost, he would be beaten to death by his father when he got back.

  "You bought those life fruits, one catty costs a hundred ice sticks, I'll tell you if I've seen them or not." An Nan Xiu Zheng was sticking the milk candies on the wall, not letting any ants get close, and they were circling around anxiously.

  What a boring little girl, Xu Xiaocheng looked at her doing this and had a judgment in his heart that this kind of little girl was often difficult to communicate with. He smiled and said: "You want 100 ice sticks, right? As long as you tell brother, I'll go buy them for you immediately?"

  "Brother? Are you out of your mind?" An Nanxiu turned her head, looking at Xu Xiaocheng with a puzzled expression, waiting seriously for his response.

  At noon, under the scorching sun, a child was left at home alone and ran out crying to beg for red envelopes.