Pull, Pull
Xiaoyi still didn’t quite believe him. He made Zhuang Zhuang swear again. It took quite a while to finally convince him.
Xiaoguo found it strange. Why did Xiaoyi suddenly have such thoughts? After all, everything was fine just now and nothing had happened in between.
Zhuang Zhuang was equally curious. He couldn’t figure out what Xiaoyi was afraid of. “What made you think that I would stop playing with you in the future?”
Xiaoguo also looked over curiously. Under their gazes, Xiaoyi stammered for a long time, but he couldn’t say a complete sentence. In the end, he managed to say a few keywords. The two of them summed up the words and found out the reason.
Not long ago, Shao Zhan had found a study companion for Xiaoyi. He was a few years older than him and also a head taller than him.
Although he had come as a study companion, he was actually a little playmate to Xiaoyi. However, that child did not like to play with Xiaoyi. He always claimed that he was a big child and did not play with children.
Xiaoyi was naive. He asked the boy when he would be willing to play with him. Unexpectedly, the other party replied that he would play with Xiaoyi when they were the same height.
After half a year, the boy grew a lot taller since he had been eating and sleeping well in the palace. However, Xiaoyi was the opposite. Although he was also growing, the rate of his growth was much slower.
The child became less inclined to play with Xiaoyi. Although he didn’t not isolate him, he didn’t get friendly enough, by Xiaoyi’s standards.
As time passed, Xiaoyi came to think that only those of the same height could play together. Now that Zhuang Zhuang has grown taller, he might stop playing with him because of their height difference.
After Xiaoguo’s serious counseling and Zhuang Zhuang’s repeated assurances, Xiaoyi finally felt relieved. He also understood that true friends would not cut ties because of appearances. True friends were two hearts that resonated. As long as the resonance was still there, their friendship would never disappear.
—-
Over the past few days, whenever Xiaoguo went out for a walk, she felt a faint probing gaze following her. But every time she looked back, she couldn’t find anything.
The feeling was too fleeting for her to be sure.
When she noticed it, she subconsciously thought that it was Yu Zhizhi, but she quickly dismissed her guess.
First of all, Yu Zhizhi didn’t have such “superb” tailing skills. Secondly, there was no need for the woman to follow her. After all, Yu Zhizhi seemed to think that she had become a close friend to Xiaoguo. There was no need for her to spend so much time and effort to follow her around.
She had never offended anyone here. It was hard to think of anyone who would do this.
Or rather, was someone following her?
Was she thinking too much?
This conjecture made Xiaoguo ponder for a long time. There was one time when she went out with Jiang Danhe and the two of them paid special attention to their surroundings. They didn’t discover anything or anyone that was suspicious. This indirectly proved that Xiaoguo was overthinking.
Just as Xiaoguo heaved a sigh of relief, Jiang Danhe objected.
“What did you say?”
Xiaoguo asked again in disbelief. Did she hear wrongly?!
“Don’t be nervous.” Jiang Danhe comforted Xiaoguo and told her to calm down. “I’m just saying that it’s possible. After all, you don’t feel this way for no reason.”
Jiang Danhe believed that Xiaoguo’s sixth sense did not pop out of nowhere. Since she had such a feeling, there was a 50% chance that it was not groundless.
“But I can’t think of who it is.” After Xiaoguo sat down, she thought carefully. Since she couldn’t figure it out, she decided to give up. “Sigh, I don’t want to think about it anymore. It’s probably just my imagination.”
Since she could not think of anyone, Xiaoguo decided not to think about it. She attributed her feelings to her hypersensitivity.
Jiang Danhe had another guess, but he didn’t tell Xiaoguo about it. He just decided to pay more attention in the future.
The strange thing was that in the next few days, as long as Jiang Danhe was with her, she did not feel this way. When Jiang Danhe was not around, that feeling would return.
This made Xiaoguo even more certain that it was her imagination. She was feeling too insecure.
Yu Zhizhi, whom Xiaoguo had not seen for a long time, finally appeared. Just as Xiaoguo was resting, she quietly did something big.
On this day, Xiaoguo brought Xiaoyi and Zhuang Zhuang to the pavilion to study as usual. However, the servants she met along the way were all acting strangely. They behaved normally when they saw her, but as soon as she walked past, they started whispering behind her back. She also noticed that everyone was looking at her strangely.
After arriving at the pavilion, this strange phenomenon did not go away. Instead, it became more intense.
For some reason, the servants avoided the pavilion and hid at one corner, while pointing at her and whispering among themselves.
This atmosphere affected Xiaoyi and Zhuang Zhuang. At some point in time, the two of them stopped fooling around and became cautious.
When Xiaoguo saw the kids’ behavior, her brows became so deeply knotted that they could almost trap a mosquito. She turned to look at the culprits with displeasure.
When the servants saw Xiaoguo’s face, they got so frightened that they quickly scattered like birds. In an instant, the surroundings fell silent.
Coincidentally, at this moment, a young lady passed by. She was the girl who brought Xiaoguo to the cellar.
When the girl spotted Xiaoguo, she looked hesitant. She was intending to take a detour at first, but after some thoughts, she walked towards the pavilion.
As soon as Xiaoguo saw her walking over, she was quite certain that the girl knew something. She could find out more from her.
“Madam, please come over…”
Unexpectedly, the little girl stopped two meters away from the pavilion and called out to Xiaoguo from where she was.
Xiaoguo found it strange, but then she saw the concern in her eyes and understood. The two children were around, so it was inconvenient for her to speak in front of them.
At the thought of this, she got up and walked over, but she felt extremely nervous. If it was not convenient to speak in front of a child, it must be something bad.
Zhuang Zhuang and Xiaoyi looked at each other and pricked up their ears to listen to the conversation. They were also feeling very curious.
“Madam… I just passed by the kitchen and saw your husband… having some body contact with a dark-skinned woman…”
The little girl wasn’t sure how to put it in words. Feeling a little embarrassed, she looked at Xiaoguo sheepishly. The worry in her eyes was real. She looked like she was worried about hurting Xiaoguo. The more she spoke, the softer her voice became.
“Those people saw it too?”
Xiaoguo was instantly relieved and did not take it seriously. From what the girl was saying, she finally understood why those people were giving her strange looks.
The little girl nodded, acknowledging her thoughts.
Xiaoguo chuckled. So that was the reason. “Is that dark-skinned girl from Mrs. Yang’s residence?”
Although it was a question, Xiaoguo sounded very sure. She could already guess who it was.
As expected, the young lady was stunned for a moment before nodding. “That’s right. When I was delivering ice to Mrs. Yang, I bumped into her. She always had a first-aid kit with her.”
“Hmph.” Xiaoguo snorted. It was indeed Yu Zhizhi. She knew it. She had not come to look for her for so long. It turned out that she had gone straight to her target.
“Were they just pulling and dragging each other?”
“Well… it seemed like only that woman was pulling at your husband.”
The little girl thought about it carefully and realized that it was not the two of them pulling at each other. The truth was that the woman was the one doing all the pulling.
“Did you notice my husband’s expression?”
After thinking for a long time, the young lady shook her head honestly. She had only taken a glance and did not see everything. Most of the time, she only saw the back of the man with his hands behind his back.
At this moment, Xiaoguo felt like laughing. Although she didn’t see Jiang Danhe’s expression, she could guess how terrible-looking his expression was.
Xiaoguo wanted to chat with her for a while longer, but the other party seemed to have spotted something. Her pupils constricted, and she hurriedly said her farewell before leaving.
“Aye?”
Xiaoguo wanted to stop her, but she didn’t expect such a skinny girl to move so swiftly. In the flash of an eye, she had already gone out of sight.
Just as she was feeling puzzled, she saw an elderly servant walking past the pavilion. Unknowingly, Xiaoguo’s eyes met hers, and an inexplicable feeling instantly arose in her heart.