Sixteen years ago, Yaoxi, Shuzhou.

The green hills are far away, and the earthen houses are hidden in the depths of a peach blossom like smoke.

A group of quacking ducks were followed by a woman wearing a blue background and white floral short coats and trousers, and holding a long bamboo pole. The woman's appearance was more delicate than the peach blossom, and her skin was white and delicate, not like a girl doing farm work, but she carried a basket full of pigweed on her back.

The heavy bogweed weighed down her slender back slightly, and her cheeks were hot from the sun, and hot sweat flowed.

The woman was accustomed to this work since she was a child, and every morning after feeding the sows in the pigsty before dawn, she would drive the ducks to the stream to swim, and she would carry the basket up the mountain to pull the pigweed. When the pigweed is full of baskets, and the ducks have to be driven home with the basket on their backs, and the cycle repeats, and the rainstorm cannot be delayed.

The sweat flowed fiercely, squinted her eyes, the woman rolled up her sleeves and wiped a handful of sweat at will, buried her head and walked forward.

As soon as I walked near the door, I heard the noise in the yard, and the voice of a man with a thick voice came.

The woman's name is Ma Xianglan, she is the fifth child of the Yaoxi Ma family, and the first four are all elder brothers, it is said that the family should be very precious This girl is, but the Ma family is the opposite, this Ma Xianglan has been bullied by her four brothers since she was a child, and all the chores at home are handed over to her to do.

Ma Xianglan watched the girls from other families read and write since they were children, or learn embroidery workers, she was the only one who had endless things to do, she only hated herself for being the daughter of the Ma family, and only hated that she had the wrong baby!

"No! I disagree! Xianglan is gone, who will do our laundry and cooking? ”

As soon as Ma Xianglan walked to the door, she heard the second brother's voice coming from the yard, she stopped pushing the door, and hurriedly drove the duck under the locust tree on the side, listening to what was being said in the yard.

Walk? Where to go?

Could it be that her father and mother want to sell her to a lame man in the next village as a daughter-in-law?

The lame man in the next village came to the door early to say goodbye, and the lame man had already killed three wives, and came to Ma's house to promise three bags of rice and two pigs, and wanted to marry Xianglan.

At that time, my father readily agreed, saying that the third sister at the head of the village was only worth a pig, and Xianglan was making a lot of money, but my mother always had concerns, hesitated again and again, or said that she would think about it again and again, and send the lame man away first.

Xianglan panicked, she didn't want to marry a cripple, and she didn't want to be killed at a young age.

She hadn't been out of Yaoxi yet, she hadn't been to the town, she wanted to see it......

"What a fool! They gave fifty taels of silver! The third brother's voice rang out, "It's fifty taels!" It's enough for you to find three or five maids to serve you from white to black, and you're worried that no one will do laundry and cook? ”

Fifty taels of silver? Ma Xianglan was so frightened that her legs were weak and her heart was beating, with so much money, she had grown so big, it was the first time she had heard of it.

Not that lame man, by no means that lame man, where did he get so much silver?

Who is that...... Will spend so much money to ask for yourself?

Ma Xianglan knows that she is good-looking, but in this Yaoxi, the most important thing is a good-looking woman, and she has never heard anyone say that a daughter is so valuable.

Ma Xianglan couldn't think of anyone in the world who was so rich, and she still fell in love with herself, but there was a voice in her heart telling her that she was going!

No matter who that person is, since he can take out so much silver, he must have a good family background, and no matter what, it is better than nesting in this horse's house.

If she misses this opportunity, she Ma Xianglan may really marry the cripple in the next village!

"In my opinion, we still have to ask Xianglan what she means." The eldest brother spoke slowly, "People with power are powerful nine times out of ten, although Xianglan usually doesn't say much when she looks wilting, she is a heart-to-heart." If she doesn't want to, she will send it over when the time comes, do something out of the ordinary, and anger others, and carefully let people get angry at our Ma family! ”

"It's still the eldest brother who thinks thoughtfully!"

As soon as the fourth child echoed, he heard the courtyard door being pushed open, Ma Xianglan didn't even ask, and opened her mouth and said, "I'll go!" ”

Ma Xianglan didn't learn from her mother that she was not the biological daughter of the Ma family until the night before she left the Ma family.

Ma Xianglan's mother, Deng, soon after giving birth to the fourth child, the fourth child fell ill, and the Ma family and his wife took their youngest son to see the doctor but could not be cured, and everyone who saw it said that they would not live for a year.

The couple were distressed, and when they were worried about what they could do, they heard that there was a Temple of Mercy and Grace in the capital, and the Bodhisattva in the temple was very spiritual.

The couple handed over their three sons to the neighbors to take care of, and they took their youngest son to the capital.

In front of the Bodhisattva of the Temple of Mercy and Grace kneeling and kowtowing for three days, and begged for the ashes of the incense burner to flush the water to feed the younger son to eat, the couple has done their best, had to take their son home to listen to the destiny of heaven, did not want to go out of the temple gate but encountered a heavy rain.

It was the heaviest rain in the capital in decades.

The rain was almost up to people's knees, and the Ma couple couldn't walk, so they had to live in the back hall of the Temple of Mercy and Grace for the time being. On the third day of their stay, a little novice brought food to the door and asked them three questions seemingly casually.

I asked them if they were from the capital and where their family lived; Second, ask them the purpose of coming to the capital and when they will embark on the journey home; Three questions: When will you come to Beijing again in the future?

After asking three questions, just after the food was arranged, the little novice smiled slightly, and left immediately.

In the blink of an eye, the next day, an infant baby girl was delivered to them. Coming with the baby girl, there is also the full cost of the return trip.

Mr. and Mrs. Ma took the baby girl after a little hesitation, just as the aunt of a big family gave birth to a girl who didn't want it, and took it out and gave it away.

Anyway, I have some coils to use, and it's a big deal to throw the child on the way.

Along the way, they wanted to throw away the children several times, and there were already four children in the family, and it would not be a burden for another girl who had no strength to plow the land.

It's just that the fourth child likes to tease the baby girl, and she is happy, and her body is getting better day by day, the couple thinks, maybe this is the will of the Bodhisattva, they save a child, and the Bodhisattva will save their child, thinking about it, they finally brought the baby girl back to Yaoxi, Shuzhou, named Ma Xianglan.

Now it is someone in the capital who is looking for it, and the Ma couple can't hide it, so they reveal Ma Xianglan's life experience.

Ma Xianglan only felt that the world was spinning when she heard this, and she couldn't stand still.

She couldn't have imagined that she was from the unattainable capital, and she might even be a young lady from a wealthy family. Ma Xianglan only felt unprecedented joy, and couldn't wait to put on her wings and fly to the capital immediately. When the time comes, don't talk about laundry and cooking, I'm afraid that there will be a personal maid to serve me.

The suffering of the past ten years has disappeared, and Ma Xianglan is so happy that she is about to jump. The people from the capital specially used three carriages to pick her up, and even for fear that Ma Xianglan would be homesick and lonely, they found a girl that Ma Xianglan had always befriended, Qi Sui, to accompany her all the way in Yaoxi.

Ma Xianglan went all the way to the capital, the food and clothing were all good that she had never seen before, and the house she lived in in the capital was almost bigger than Yaoxi, she was elated, and she only felt that she was running from time to time, and she wanted to do her best to grasp this completely different life from before. Therefore, Ma Xianglan is very obedient and obedient, never asking who picked her up, what she was doing, and what people asked her to do.

Living in this big mansion that is not far in sight, I have been living in fine clothes and food for nearly a year, learning literacy, learning piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, learning rules and etiquette, and even learning what I should love to eat, what I like to do, what to laugh when I hear it, and what to frown about.

Even Qi Sui followed to learn all kinds of things, and the two of them were dizzy to learn, but they were afraid that now they would no longer have a good life, so they gritted their teeth and practiced until midnight every day, just to do everything well.

Later, Ma Xianglan felt that even her fingers were delicate and crystalline, and her breath was full of a faint fragrance of flowers, words and deeds, and she was full of eleven ladies. It seems that everything that should be learned has been learned, and from that day on, the people in the house told her that she was no longer called Ma Xianglan, she wanted to be called Gao Jia.

even took out a small portrait of the characters to tell her what each person's name is, what they like to eat and what they do, what kind of personality they have, and what kind of connection they have with Gao Jia.

It wasn't until this day that Ma Xianglan realized that she had been learning to be someone else's shadow.