At this time, although it was not yet a person (1), because it was getting dark early, by the time I arrived at the south gate, the main gate in the middle had already been closed. Above the tower, two teams of soldiers defending the city were doing their last rotation before nightfall.

I ran a few quick steps, and finally squeezed into the city before the small doors on either side closed.

In Yongcheng at night, thousands of lights were lit, and I couldn't care about my embarrassment at the moment, so I trotted all the way back to the house. It was not Si'er who opened the door for me, but the housekeeper, and when he saw my appearance, he sighed, and his eyes seemed to hint at something to me.

"You let her in!" The general's voice came clearly to my ears from behind the door.

When it was over, I felt a chuckle in my heart and shuddered.

The housekeeper closed his eyes and opened the door helplessly, and the general stood in the door wearing a cyan Confucian robe, and beside him stood a girl with a chuckle on her lips.

"Is that your answer to me?" He looked at me sadly, his two sword eyebrows furrowed together.

Seeing the smile on the face of the girl, I knew that I had fallen into her trap, and what I said about missing the bamboo buds of my hometown was nothing more than wanting the general to see that I was not a ghost or a ghost. What she was expecting was just a disgraced me, but she didn't expect a heavy rain to let her see a more exciting scene. Therefore, the smile on her face could not be hidden.

I didn't answer the general's words, I just walked straight to the girl, knelt on the ground, raised the rattan basket above my head, and said in a straight voice: "The bamboo fetus is here, please concubine fulfill yesterday's promise!" ”

"What did you say to her?"

The general's tone was flat and he couldn't hear the emotion, but the girl was so frightened that her knees weakened, and she fell to her knees, unable to say a complete sentence for a long time.

"The concubine said that she missed the smell of spring bamboo in her hometown, and promised to help me intercede in front of the head of the family if I could dig up what she wanted in the woods to the south."

"Are you going to go out on your own, or am I going to have someone drag you out?" The general bowed his head and said to the girl who was kneeling on the ground.

"The head of the house, the cheap maid knows that she is wrong, don't drive the cheap maid away, please!" When she heard this, her face suddenly turned pale, she cried and knelt down a few steps, and hugged the general's leg tightly.

"Drag it out!" The general sighed and said to the attendant behind him.

The girl was quickly taken out of the palace by two attendants, and the general looked at me and said, "What do you want her to say for you?" ”

I eased my mind and straightened up: "I want her to tell the head of the family that Ah Shi fought hard with this evil bone at the beginning, just to survive." Now, I have left this evil bone in case I can go back to my original beggar if the head of the family dislikes me one day. ”

"Are you afraid I'll abandon you one day?" He half-crouched down in front of me, brushed away the wet hair that was sticking to my forehead, and pressed his warm palms against my cold face.

"Don't you want me anymore?" I bit my lower lip and looked back at him, tears welling up in my eyes, "Didn't you come today just to confirm my rude charges, and then drive me out with peace of mind?" ”

"Xiao'er, that's what you think......" His starry eyes looked deep into my eyes, with a sense of pain and pity, "It seems that I treat you too well on weekdays, and after a few days of cold for you, you made this injury to accuse me." ”

"Today is the seventh day!" As soon as his voice softened, I cried even harder. In the past few years, whether I dyed his clothes with lacquer or drunk and vomited in his arms, he never scolded me seriously. But this time, he didn't say a word to me for seven days.

He sighed and gently picked me up, "I'm not going to abandon you, I just need time to figure out one thing." ”

"You... To think of... Understand what? I lay on his shoulder, as if I was going to drain all the tears I had saved in the past few days.

"I was wondering how I could make my child understand that she was no longer a beggar, that she already had a home of her own." He took me tightly into his arms with one hand, as if to whisper to himself, as if to whisper, "Take off your guards, okay?" If you are afraid, let me protect you until you are old enough to be married. ”

There is such a face in the world, which makes people feel happy and warm when they look at it, as if all suffering can be comforted and healed. Faced with such a face, the grievances in my heart disappeared at once.

"I'm not married." I sat in the crook of his arm with tears on my face and said stubbornly.

"How can a woman not get married?" He chuckled and hugged me and stood up, "Grow up so fast, I'm afraid that in a few years, I won't be able to hold you." ”

I put my arms around his neck and pressed my face against his back, and if I could keep him holding me like that, I wished I never grew up.

"If you don't get married, then when the time comes, I'll replace you to protect me, an old man, okay?" He patted my backsliding.

"Hmm!" I nodded cautiously, and engraved it deeply in my heart as the most important vow of my life.

After that night, I began to study and practice characters day and night, and in addition to the Qin script, I also learned the characters of Qi, Lu, Jin, and Wei. The books in the study, no matter who wrote them or what they were, I memorized them by heart. The general made an appointment to meet with the doorman, and I would sit by and ponder their conversations, regardless of their talents.

Seeing me working so hard, Si'er always kept shaking her head, but she didn't support it, and she secretly brought back more food every night than before. Therefore, I always laughed at her as a big mouse raised in the kitchen of the General's Mansion, and I was the little mouse she raised.

In this way, another year passed, and in a blink of an eye, it was the thirty-seventh year of King Zhou.

I am much taller than Si'er, even a little taller than other teenagers of the same age. When I wash my face in the morning, I can't help but rejoice when I look at the bright face in the water.

In fact, it is not only me who has changed in the past few years, the general has been an official in the thirty-fifth year of King Zhou. Half a year ago, the king gave him land to the west as a fief. Therefore, he will now leave Yongcheng from time to time to inspect the border passes. Sometimes, they will also live in their own mining for a month.

A few days ago, a soldier came with a message, saying that he would be back tomorrow.

"Ah Shi come out quickly, the general is back." Si'er called me loudly in the yard.

"You go first, I'll be right away!"

"Oh, hurry up!"