The embroidered ball lost by the eldest sister?
Xiaoliu lowered her head and thought for a while. Suddenly, she remembered the scene when the eldest sister had been looking for something for a long time and couldn't find it. Could it be that the eldest sister was looking for that embroidered ball at that time?
"I'll go and have a look. You go back." Xiaoliu stood up and walked out of the house.
Su Ling nodded. After saying "Okay", she walked away with small steps.
Xiaoliu walked to the peach tree in the back yard. She looked up at the tree, turned around, tiptoed and looked around. Suddenly, she noticed the exquisite embroidered ball caught in the tree branches.
Sure enough, it was this one.
Xiaoliu wiped her sleeves and climbed up the tree trunk bit by bit.
This peach tree was quite an old one. It was strong and tall. It took Xiaoliu a long time to climb up.
She stretched out her little hand and finally touched the embroidered ball. She grabbed it in her hand. She lifted her lips into a smile, kicked the tree trunk again and sat on the branch.
She looked down and played with the embroidered ball, finding it very interesting.
She had always seen the eldest and second sisters playing with it before, but she was always locked up by her father to recite books and couldn't play with them. She missed a lot of fun. Every time, she could only lie on the window sill and watch them play.
After sitting for a while, she got bored with the ball in her hand. Xiaoliu turned around and was about to climb down.
Unexpectedly, her skirt was caught by a tree branch. She tugged at it for a long time but couldn't pull it off.
If she kept tugging like this, the skirt would surely be torn. It wouldn't matter if her mother found out, but if her father knew, she would definitely be beaten on the palm.
Xiaoliu got a little anxious. Just as she turned her head, she saw a familiar red figure walking under the tree.
"Hey." Xiaoliu thought for a while and called out softly.
The figure paused for a moment. After a while, it turned around and looked up at the tree. It saw Xiaoliu climbing on the tree in an extremely strange posture. The young man's face changed. He wanted to ignore her.
Xiaoliu knew he was going to leave. She quickly called out a few more times and said, "Stop for a moment. Come here!"
Seeming not to like her tone of ordering people around, the young man turned around and was about to leave.
Xiaoliu was so anxious that her little hands were sweating. She had a brainstorm and said, "Brother!"
The young man paused for a moment. Slowly, he turned around and looked up at her with his phoenix eyes.
Xiaoliu was overjoyed. She softened her voice and said, "Help me..."
The young man followed her hand and saw that her skirt was caught by a tree branch. He looked up at Xiaoliu and thought secretly in his heart, Brother? He didn't have a sister like her. This little girl was quite smart for her age when it came to playing tricks.
Xiaoliu pouted and showed a pitiful look.
The young man narrowed his eyes. He secretly used his lightness kung fu and flew up to the tree. He tugged at her skirt. Unexpectedly, with a "tear", the skirt was torn open by the tree branch right under his hand.
Both of them were stunned.
After reacting, Xiaoliu widened her almond eyes. She looked up at the young man and seemed to be talking to herself, "I should have known this would happen. I shouldn't have called you..."
The young man glanced at her with his phoenix eyes. He picked her up and put her down on the side. Then he turned around and left.
In the next few days, Xiaoliu finally managed to figure out why that young man was in the Dai Mansion.
It was said that his parents had both died. He couldn't find anyone to take him in everywhere. So he could only go to a wealthy family to exchange something. Probably because he could paint and pleased the second mistress, the second mistress had kept him. He exchanged his paintings for rice.
Xiaoliu knew about this kind of people. There were often such people in the capital. Those who were poor and had no ambition had become beggars. Those who were poor but talented would go to wealthy families like the Dai Mansion to exchange something with their talents.
But Xiaoliu thought that the young man was neatly dressed. He didn't seem like a down-and-out poor man. His parents had died. Could it be that they had just passed away not long ago? Was there another hidden story?
Maybe because the eldest and second sisters were not around these days, Xiaoliu was extremely bored. Her little head was always thinking about things that ordinary people wouldn't think about.
Xiaoliu found that he didn't like to talk. Judging from his appearance, he was not yet an adult, but he seemed like someone who had experienced a lot.
The eldest and second sisters were not around, and Su Ling was boring. Xiaoliu began to shift her attention to this young man in red.
She thought that if she could get him to play with her, maybe it would relieve her boredom.
Thinking like this, she started her plan.
First, she followed him and secretly remembered the places where he usually stopped. Then she observed him in the dark. Xiaoliu found that the thing he did most often was painting.
Alas, painting, always painting.
What's so good about painting?
But when it came to painting, Xiaoliu thought of the first time she met him. At that time, he had painted a picture of her. The feeling of seeing herself in the painting was very strange. It was even more exciting than playing with the eldest and second sisters.
People who could paint must have wonderful hands.
Xiaoliu followed him for several days in a row. Finally, she got to know his preferences a little better.
He often sat in the pavilion to paint. At noon, he would rest under the tree. When the sun was slanting, he would practice his lightness kung fu and swordsmanship. He did things in an orderly manner, but he also had some quirks. He was a very clean person.
What Xiaoliu didn't know was that during the days when she followed him, he actually knew it clearly in his heart.
It was impossible for anyone not to notice a little tail suddenly appearing behind them. The key was that she followed so blatantly. Several times, he caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye, and she was still holding a small branch pretending to be a bush and secretly watching him.
Forget it. Let her play on her own.
Whenever that happened, he couldn't help thinking like this. Occasionally, he would even curl the corner of his mouth into a smile. When he realized what he was doing, he quickly hid the smile.
After following him for several days, she was tired for several days. Finally, one day, she waited in the pavilion on time. Sure enough, from afar, she saw that red figure walking slowly towards her.
Xiaoliu's almond eyes sparkled with excitement. She pretended it was a coincidence and sat in the pavilion, swinging her legs and looking around.
After a while, the young man walked to the side of the pavilion.
Xiaoliu's gaze fell on him. A look of surprise flashed across her heart-shaped face. Just as she was about to speak, she saw him bypass the pavilion and walk elsewhere.
Xiaoliu stared blankly at his back as he left. She clenched her small fist.
He must have done it on purpose!
Seeing that he didn't appreciate her efforts, Xiaoliu had no choice.
She was eager to get him to play with her. Of course, she wouldn't give up just like that.
But this young man in red never did as she wished. When he saw her, he pretended not to see her or simply ignored her. This made Xiaoliu very troubled.
On one hand, she wondered when the eldest and second sisters would return to the mansion. On the other hand, she thought about how to get familiar with him. So she simply started to follow him openly every day. Wherever he went, she would go.
In the first few days, he walked around her. In the following days, he just turned a blind eye and let her follow.
The peach blossoms were in full bloom, and the warm wind was caressing.
Xiaoliu closely followed the young man in red. She followed him around the pavilion, across the small bridge, and past the tree. But his steps were so fast that Xiaoliu almost couldn't keep up with him several times.
Xiaoliu got a little anxious. She grabbed her silk skirt and walked quickly behind. She shouted at the red figure in the distance, "Wait for me!"
The young man in red paused for a moment. His long black hair was gently tied up with a red string and hung behind his red robe. But he didn't turn back and naturally didn't stop.
Xiaoliu quickened her pace but didn't notice her feet. She didn't know which stone she stepped on. Her feet stumbled, and she fell forward.
Along with a pained cry, the flying leaves settled, and the dust rose.