Chapter One Little Girl

  Li Banzhuan walked into the old mansion with her backpack, turned on the circuit breaker and lit up the lights. The old mansion, which was still a bit chilly in September, suddenly became bright and cozy. Looking at everything that was familiar to her, but hadn't seen for several months, she felt a warmth in her heart and her eyes became moist.

  The door was nailed with a whole layer of wooden boards, and the two children who were facing each other had no resistance to adults. They lived alone in an empty house, and their hearts always felt insecure. The doors and windows of this house were all sealed tightly, although my brother said that if there was a fire, it would be extremely difficult to escape or for others to rescue us. However, compared to the dangers that could be avoided with caution, the thieves and robbers who might appear at any time were even more terrifying.

  There were two thermoses at the door, Li Banzhuang remembered that in school, a teacher broke the thermos, and her brother took back the shell, bought a new liner and installed it. One of them was used for a week before breaking, and her brother had to persuade the store owner to exchange it. Now these two have been used for five or six years and are still working well.

  Li Banzhuang came to the bathroom, holding a thermos of hot water. After she finished her business, she still had to take a bath and change clothes. Girls don't like being dirty, that's what her brother had warned her about since childhood.

  At that time, she was still a little girl. Although poor and bitter, except for resenting the father who never appeared, expecting the mother who disappeared from time to time to unexpectedly open the door for herself, but most of the time she was disappointed, there was nothing else to worry about. She was always carefree because her brother would do everything.

  The little girl envied the various toys of the children in the small town, but they wouldn't play with her because she was a poor child. She played with their toys, but she had nothing to give them to play with.

  Even kids know about fair play, people are not on the same level, can't play together.

  She could only go to the fields and dig up some mud, because her brother could use the mud to make all sorts of toys. He would make two adults with two children, he would make elephants, cats, dogs, and spend a whole day playing with her, their faces and cheeks covered in mud.

  But it's really happy!

  One time, she went to dig mud and ended up being pushed into the field by someone. She was covered in muddy water from head to toe and came back crying.

  Her brother asked what happened, she didn't dare tell her brother because the one who bullied her was the biggest and strongest kid in town. Her brother couldn't beat her, so she said she fell into the field.

  Her brother didn't say anything, but she could tell he looked exhausted. The energetic and lively child only existed in families with a father and mother. Her brother had to take care of himself and calculate his daily living expenses, it was really tiring.

  As a result, she got herself so dirty that he had to give her a bath and even wash her clothes.

  "Don't get yourself dirty from now on, girls should be clean and tidy, that's what big brother likes." Big brother boiled some water to give her a bath.

  The little girl sat in the bathtub, her cheeks still streaked with tears and muddy water. She nodded heavily: "From now on, I won't go out to play in the mud anymore, I'll just stay home and play with toys."

  Big brother fell silent, biting his teeth, not letting his sister see his tears, because he knew that at home there were no toys, only the clay dogs and cats he had made, and some rough toys made of wood.

  The next day, her brother came home very late. When she stood anxiously and nervously at the gate of the yard looking out, she saw her brother running back home quickly from afar, and she also ran over happily.

  Big brother skipped class and didn't go to school, he ran into the city, wandered around all day, and finally picked up a dusty little bear outside a kindergarten. It was quite new, probably dropped by a child in the kindergarten, trampled on several times, and no one wanted it anymore.

  Her brother washed the little bear clean and refilled it with cotton, then handed it back to her.

  The little girl fell asleep that night with her teddy bear, she was really happy. In the middle of the night, she woke up and secretly went to her brother's bedside to look at him. His shining eyes startled him, it turned out that his brother had walked all day and his feet were very sore, so he couldn't sleep.

  She didn't know what to do, she hugged her brother's leg, that was all she could do, just like every time she fell and hurt herself badly, her brother would hug her.

  The next day, the little girl happily took her own small bear and played with other children in the town, but no one paid attention to it. After all, that small bear could only be sold for about ten yuan, and other children didn't care about such a toy at all.

  The little girl didn't mind, she hugged it every day, hugging while eating, hugging while sleeping, and hugging at all times. She thought to herself that this was a gift from her brother, the most precious thing.

  That has always been her most precious gift, the one she treasured the most, and still does to this day. Li Banzhuang took out the small bear from her backpack, she takes it with her wherever she goes, having long gotten used to doing so.

  Li Banzhen put the little bear on the bathroom windowsill, and it was no longer its original white color, but had a naturally formed grayish-yellow hue. Li Banzhen had changed its cotton padding several times and sewn many needles, but its glass bead eyes still shone brightly, its nose was still black, and the corners of its mouth were still crooked upwards, just like her brother's smile, it had always been that way.

  "Brother, we're home." Li Banzhen pressed the little bear's nose and said with a smile: "Last night, Lizi told you some embarrassing things, don't laugh at me, okay?"

  She had long been accustomed to telling her brother all her concerns, but as a girl, there were some small thoughts that she couldn't share with others. So she treated the little bear as her brother and told it everything, making herself feel like a sister who still didn't have any secrets from her brother while keeping those shy and confusing thoughts and feelings that girls inevitably develop as they grow older to herself, so as not to cause her brother any trouble.

  Last night, she slept in her brother's bed, surrounded by a familiar scent that made it hard for her to fall asleep. She hugged her teddy bear and talked to it for a long time about things she couldn't casually tell her brother.

  Li Banxuan sang softly, she had a good voice, and the music teacher said that her tone was very unique, able to sing dolphin sounds and other things, and also said that she could go sing opera, high difficulty ones, but Li Banxuan didn't like it, learning music was a very boring thing, the high-difficulty singing methods that the teacher mentioned, as well as some special pronunciation methods, in Li Banxuan's view were simple and couldn't be simpler.

  Li Banzhu pulled up her hair, took a towel and tied it up, pressing against the mirror to see herself as a village girl doing chores on the ground, couldn't help but laugh. Who knew that when she was young, she had such a wish, hurry up and grow up, hurry up and grow up, just like those women who could go help her brother with things after tying a towel on her head. In her opinion, tying a towel on her head meant being a grown-up girl.

  Li Banzhuan took off her T-shirt, revealing a full and developed chest that was more prominent than girls of the same age. She turned her head to look at Little Bear, and couldn't help but blush, turning him away: "Don't look."

  Although he is my brother, after all, there are differences between men and women. No matter whether it's a hug or a kiss on the forehead, or getting into bed together, these are just continuations of childhood habits. It's just that now both people have grown up, and in other people's eyes, such habits may seem inappropriate. But how could two siblings think so much? They've been like this since they were young, who would deliberately say that from now on they can't be like this anymore?

  Isn't that the same as forcing yourself and your brother to set an uncrossable boundary between you? Neither of us think it's necessary, I know what can and cannot be done, that's enough.

  Li Banzhuang grew up and felt that she should maintain many dignities as a girl, but in fact, she didn't care much about it. However, she couldn't bring trouble to her brother.

  Li Banzhuang changed her clothes, picked up the little bear, closed her eyes and kissed the bear's nose, then stuffed it and the changed clothes into her bag. Only then did she pick up the bucket and mop, excitedly preparing to start cleaning.

  Li Luyu and An Nanxiu had not yet entered, Li Banyan looked at the gate of the courtyard in confusion, did not see the two, thinking that there must be something wrong, could it be that Xu Xiaocheng was looking for trouble again?

  But Li Banzhen is not worried, the brother now is no longer a child who needs her to fantasize about becoming a female knight to protect. She learned Taekwondo just to better protect herself, so that her brother doesn't have to worry too much. Thinking of her brother's fists and thick arms earlier, Li Banzhen smiled sweetly. These days she must hold onto her brother's arm while shopping, girls love holding arms the most, especially those of boys who can give them a sense of security and trust. Is there any sister who has held their brother's arm? There definitely isn't, unless the brother never had that awareness to protect his sister.

  Li Luyu has been working on Annan Show all along.

  He explained to her that driving a car wasn't just about being able to drive, and also explained the function of license plates, reporting lost cars and surveillance capabilities, as well as how driver's licenses weren't something that could be obtained in just a few days. In the end, he finally got Annanxiu to give up on the idea of using Xu Xiaocheng's truck as collateral for debt repayment.

  It's absolutely not an easy thing to make Annan Xiu stand in other people's shoes and consider the problem, and change her original intention. When she agreed, Li Luyu was proud and had a great sense of accomplishment.

  "But I won't return it to him." An Nanxiu thought for a moment, then changed her mind. As for Li Luyu's wasted efforts, what did that have to do with her?

  His saliva splashed onto her face, disgusting to death. Annan Xiu glared at Li Luyu and suddenly remembered the kissing scenes on TV, wasn't that even more disgusting?

  What does that have to do with me? I would never do something like that with Li Luyou, it's disgusting. Annan Xiu's heart skipped a beat and her face turned hot as she thought of that dream again.

  "You... you..." Li Rou was panting, while others were trying to talk incessantly and seriously argue with a stone sculpture, and that kind of boring and silly feeling, it's just like this.

  Seeing Annan's strange and weird expression, Li Luyu knew that she hadn't listened to him at all. She was thinking about something else that others couldn't understand again.

  "I'm going to ditch the car in that pit." An Nanxiu said, pointing to a distant pond.

  "Alright, suit yourself." Li Ruyou thought for a moment and decided to let Xu Xiaocheng deal with it.

  Annan Xiu pointed to the pit, which was actually a fish pond. Seeing Li Luyu also agreed, Annan Xiu slowly walked over and threw the car into the fish pond.

  "Li Luoyou, come quickly and catch fish, look at all these fish!"

  The fish were startled and jumped onto the shore with a splashing sound. An Nanxiu was also startled, but immediately shouted with joy, only to slip underfoot.

  The princess fell into the pit.

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