That winter, they had a daughter born in a warm place. As Karenin promised, every winter they went to warm places until the second year.

The afternoon sun caressed her skin, and next to the cradle of rattan weaving, Seryosha teased his little sister, cooing, as he promised, he was the best brother.

Karenin came out of the house, the sleeves of his shirt slightly rolled up, still meticulous, and accompanied her to the flowers and plants.

Light purple, goose yellow, a small pink flower, swaying in the wind.

The man's hair shone in the sun.

There is no three-piece armament, simple and natural.

Anna liked such Karenin, but all the same, he loved the other side of him.

"Feeling bored?" Anna asked.

"I'm still working." Karenin said, pinching a little dirt with his fingers, sniffing lightly between his noses and frowning.

"They don't smell." Karenin said with some regret.

Anna laughed: "You can't expect them to look and smell good, one can only focus on one thing well." ”

Karenin glanced at her: "Are you saying that I can't put so much pressure on Seryosha?" ”

"I didn't, I was just talking about flowers." Anna glanced at him and said, but the corners of her mouth were clearly a smile that could not be hidden.

"Mom!"

Seryosha's voice was full of surprise, and both husband and wife looked over and saw Seryosha waving his arms vigorously and excitedly.

"Milan spoke, she just called me brother!"

Anna and the others walked over, only to see little Milan in the cradle smiling sweetly, muttering something vaguely in her mouth, and it really looked like she was calling her brother when she listened carefully.

"She's an angel." Seryosha said, then kissed his sister on the cheek.

Milan moved her body and looked like she wanted to stand up, she could now walk staggeringly.

Anna took Milan down and laid it on the ground, and Seryosha took Milan's little hand, which he was used to now.

"Da, da." Milan babbled, her fingers grappling Seryosha's hand hard, and the other pointing to the place where there were flowers.

"Okay, let's go see the flowers, and my brother will pick whatever color you want." Seryosha met his sister's needs completely and unconditionally, he wanted to carry Milan over, but his sister seemed to prefer to go over on her own.

"Slowly." Seryosha said that it was like guarding a fluffy duckling, the kind that was still unsteady in walking.

Looking at the brother and sister, Anna laughed: "I think Seryosha is more like a mother than me, more like a father than you. ”

Karenin simply said to this: "Now you can't blame me for always repeating the word father in front of her." He complained a little about his daughter calling her brother instead of her father.

Anna just smiled again.

Seryosha squatted in front of the flowers with Milan, who reached out to pluck them.

"Let's just take one, Milan."

Little Milan opened her big blue eyes and didn't understand, there are so many beautiful flowers here, but why is she only allowed to pick one?

Seryosha explained, as if he had already learned the words of a baby, explaining: "If you pick them, they will be gone, and they will hurt." ”

Milan still didn't quite understand, but she listened to her brother's words and only took one and put it in her hand.

"It's yellow, it's pink." Seryosha taught Milan to recognize colors, and when he said a word, the little one nodded, babbling and repeating a sentence, not knowing whether he really understood or not, but no matter what, he always received praise from Seryosha.

"Yes, that's awesome, that's right."

The sun was smoking, and Milan leaned on her brother's body and yawned.

"You're sleepy, aren't you?" Seryosha said.

Milan rubbed in Seryosha's arms, and then tried to burrow into Seryosha's arms, still holding the little flower in his hands.

"It's time for you to take a nap." Seryosha said, then turned to the parents who were talking and said, "Mom, father, Milan is sleepy." ”

"Take her to sleep, Seryosha." It was the mother's voice.

Seryosha picked up her sister and walked slowly, and soon arrived in their room, although Milan had her own bedroom, but she did not want to sleep by herself, her father said that she could wait for Milan to sleep alone for a while.

Seryosha himself does not have this kind of treatment, Kabidonic said that because he is a boy, Seryosha himself does not mind, after all, he also loves his little sister, Milan is as cute as an angel.

So, in a ten-year-old boy's room, there are still a lot of bows and ribbons, and pink.

Milan was not happy to go to her own cot, she liked Seryosha's big bed with his little blue blanket and even Seryosha's old stuffed animals.

"Okay, okay, you can sleep here." Seryosha smiled and compromised, he took Milan's small pillow, gave her the little blanket she liked, and stuffed himself into the other's arms as a stuffed animal.

"Can you sleep now?"

The little angel, who was already holding on, nodded, and muttered something similar to his brother when he fell asleep.

The brother and sister quickly fell asleep when they leaned together, and when Anna and the others returned, they saw that they were sleeping warmly, like freshly hatched chicks, round and tightly snuggled together.

Anna also covered Seryosha with a blanket so that he would not catch a cold.

"You're the best brother." Anna kissed Seryosha by the hair, and the sleeping child seemed to hear the compliment, and a sweet smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Five years later, Seryosha was going to the army, and he would return once in a long time.

"I'll give you a gift, and it will be with you when I'm away."

Then that spring, Milan got another friend from Seryosha, a Doberman named Mr. Will.

After his brother left, Milan would often go to the train station in Petersburg or to the boulevard, which was where they frequented.

Two months later, Seryosha did not return, but she did pick up a large civet cat, and Milan decided to call her Mrs. Rose after consulting with her parents, and not long after, her mother and father took her, Monsieur Veer and Mrs. Rose to a villa in the countryside to escape the summer.

Milan thought: "Now I can wait for Seryosha at the entrance of the village every day." ”

Karenin sometimes worries about Milan, after all, Seryosha has been gone for two months, and his daughter doesn't seem to be used to it, but Anna says there is no need to worry.

To Anna, Milan was a happy child, she just wasn't used to Seryosha's departure, and sometimes she even thought it was a miracle that they didn't spoil her with their careful pampering of the child.

When Seryosha was not around, Milan was still a happy child, no different from any other child, except that she would not take the initiative to make new friends, she behaved normally.

She got up at the right time, took Mr. Weir for a walk, then went to class, played with the children of the adults who sometimes came to visit her father, and then went to the entrance of the village in the evening to wait for some time.

Waiting for this kind of thing didn't seem like a boring thing for a child of her size.

She would bring a book or some straw to read and knit, and then she would sing, and Mr. Weir would lie down beside her, and Mrs. Rose would rest against Mr. Weir.

She spent half a month in the countryside, until one day Milan saw a boy in half-worn clothes looking at her with a strange look.

"Why are you looking at me?" For the first time, Milan took the initiative to talk.

"You're here every day, are you waiting for someone?" The boy said that he was close to Milan. He had been observing for a week, and it seemed a little strange that this young lady who seemed to be from a rich family.

Milan put down her hand, and she beckoned the boy who was taller than her to come over.

"I don't eat people." She said softly, then touched Mr. Will's ear and said, "Mr. Vir and Mrs. Rose are also friendly. ”

The boy glanced at the dog and cat looking at him, unable to fully believe the definition of "friendly", but he came closer.

"Who are you waiting for?"

"Seryosha."

"Who's that?" The boy was a little curious.

"My brother, he went to the army, he has been gone for two months and eighteen days, and I miss him very much." Milan said, his tone a little melancholy.

"But I promised him that I would be a good boy."

"I won't come back so early when I go to the army, at least until Christmas." The boy kindly reminded.

"I know." Milan said, with big blue eyes bright as if they were filled with a pool of water.

"You're weird, if you knew, you should know that waiting here won't lead to anything." The boy said that he was disgusted with the person in front of him with a "you are such a fool", even though she was indeed pretty, prettier than any little girl he had ever seen.

"You can't say I'm weird, Seryosha said it's rude." Milan softly but firmly corrected the description of the child in front of her.

"You're from the city, aren't you?"

Milan nodded, then said, "You can call me Milan, what should I call you?" ”

"Sasha, don't be so formal, I think it's weird." Sasha grinned, and he sat down beside Milan, and Monsieur Veil examined him, and Madame Rose paced to him with graceful steps, stepping on the back of his hand.

"Be friendly, cat, I'm not a bad person." Sasha said to Lady Rose, who lay down beside him and closed her eyes again.

"Lady Rose knows you're not a bad person. She usually only wants to be close to me. Milan said sweetly.

"That's weird......" Sasha wrinkled her nose before swallowing the words.

After a while, Milan heard the other person say that he was bored.

"Oh." Milan was disappointed, and she picked up Madame Rose.

Sasha patted the dust off his pants, put his hands behind his head, took two steps and turned back and said, "Hey! ”

"What?" Milan looked back, the sun shining on her black curls, her blue eyes bright, and her beautiful clothes that the children in the neighborhood had never wore, like an angel indeed.

Sasha muttered that it was indeed from the city, and then said loudly, "Come early tomorrow, let's go play!" ”

"But......" Milan blinked her long eyelashes, a little uncertain.

"I'll be with you in the evening." The boy reluctantly bowed his head and said, and when he looked up, he saw only a bright smile on the girl's face.

Sasha quickly turned around, pretending to be indifferent and striding forward, muttering, "Sure enough, it's a young lady from the city." But after walking a distance, the joy could not be hidden.

Seeing that the boy was gone, Milan touched Mrs. Rose's ear and then Mr. Ville's, and then smiled and said, "It's not just us now, when we go home, will we write to Seryosha?" ”

Mrs. Rose and Mr. Weir agreed.

Milan sang a song and walked in the direction of her home with Monsieur Vere and Madame Rose, and she thought: Seryosha had been gone for two months and eighteen days, but it was getting closer and closer when he returned.