There was only the faint cry of my mother in the room, and my father was always silent, and only gently blamed himself: Blame me for being too obsessed and making you tired.

The mother replied softly: I am willing.

Ai'er left quietly, and asked in her heart: Mother, how long will we endure it? When will it all come to an end?

The relationship between father, mother, and aunt seems to be far more complicated than Ai'er imagined.

After that incident, Dad stayed at home for a long time, Ai'er knew that Dad was a very smart person, he knew the contradictions and disputes in the palace, and he also knew the true face of the eldest mother, but he never interfered with anything, he just let it go, making it so difficult for the mother, but the mother said: She is willing.

The eldest mother should know her father very well, so she bullied her mother wantonly, but she never dared to touch half of Ai'er's hair, because Ai'er is the pearl of her father's palm, and it is the biggest and only taboo for her father.

For this reason, Ai'er has tried several times, such as in front of her father, she will spit out the food that the eldest mother picks up, crying and saying that there are stones in it, and the people who rush up to hand water and caress their backs, and the father is also concerned and greeting, and will frown lightly when sitting up straight, just one frown, and the eldest mother is pale; For example, once she deliberately slipped and fell in front of the eldest mother's courtyard, although the palm of her hand was bloody, but the next day the bright talc walkway in front of the grandmother's courtyard had been broken and repaired, paved with pebbles on the slate floor.

When she was fourteen years old, her eldest mother suddenly mentioned the marriage contract again, and she was always in a hurry, anxious to marry Ai'er, a thorn in her eye that could not be touched.

Ai'er sneered: The eldest mother can't wait for me to get married, is it that Ai'er has done something bad and made the eldest mother unhappy?

Dad frowned lightly and stared at the eldest lady seriously, I could feel his displeasure, he knew his love for me and everyone knew it, so no one would pluck the hair on the head of this gentle tiger.

The eldest lady replied with a stiff smile: Of course Ai'er can be lively in the house, but you are already at the age of dancing, and it will be a year later, so it's time to get ready.

Dad said softly: I'll talk about it after Ai'er is eighteen years old, don't worry.

The eldest lady then said: Eighteen years old? Anyway, our Zheng Mansion has a head and a face, and it is strange that everyone does not talk about marriage after the age of twenty-eight, how can anyone talk about marriage after the age of eighteen? If you don't know, you still think that our beloved son has a perverse personality, and her husband's family is delaying and not marrying.

Dad put down the chopsticks and looked at the eldest mother seriously: I said that if I am not in a hurry, I am not in a hurry, if Fengmei is in a hurry, is it okay to marry myself?

Although it was just a joke, no one in the audience dared to laugh.

After the meal, the personal girl Nuan Nuan asked Ai'er: Does Miss have a marriage contract? Why haven't you heard anyone mention it?

Nuan Nuan grew up with Ai'er as a girl, only Ai'er in the village doesn't know what Nuan Nuan knows, but there are few things that Ai'er knows but Nuan Nuan doesn't know.

Ai'er also knew that she had a marriage, which was made by her father and a close friend of the imperial capital before she was born, and the legendary finger belly was married. That uncle still cares about her, and every few years he will ask his father to take her portrait there, which is considered to be a face, but he never comes to see her, nor does he take the portrait of his son, he is really a weird person.

Nuan Nuan kept asking questions about the news of the son who was married on his fingertips, but Ai'er was strange and asked her: Dead girl, I'm not curious, but you are very curious, do you want to marry someone?

Nuan Nuan grabbed her pigtail and shook her head, as if she was frightened: How dare Nuan Nuan, that is Miss's future husband. It's just that if the young lady marries, Nuan Nuan will also have to marry, I'm afraid that the son is a bad-tempered person, Nuan Nuan is a dowry girl, and she has to be angry.

Nuan Nuan is really a coward, and she can be scared of anything.

In fact, Ai'er has been waiting for the day of her marriage, she doesn't look forward to what an amazing husband she can be, she just wants to get out of this cage, take her mother, and escape from the control of her mother. She also always knew that her father would often go to the imperial capital to catch up with that uncle, and maybe he would spend more time in the imperial capital than here.

Nuan Nuan asked Ai'er: Miss, the imperial capital is not very far to walk, Nuan Nuan is a little scared, you must prepare a few cars of dowry and luggage, Miss, you must remember to bring Nuan Nuan, don't leave Nuan Nuan here.

It turns out that Nuan Nuan is also afraid to stay here, a place where the gaze and monitoring of the eldest lady are entangled everywhere.

The short reunion was over, and Dad was about to leave for a long distance. When he was leaving, he gave a treasure chest customized by a famous craftsman, touched Ai'er's head and said: The wedding date is still far away, but Ai'er is about to start preparing for the dowry. When this treasure chest is full, it will be the day of Ai'er's marriage.

Dad left, and Ai'er put the original treasure chai bead chain in the treasure chest, and the candlelight illuminated the whole room.

When the mother saw it, she put away the pearl hairpin in a panic, and she weakly told Ai'er to hide these, these are the symbols of her status in her husband's family in the future, and she can't let others take them away.

Ai'er knows what her mother means, her mother's background is not as noble as her mother, and her mother's family has no one to support her, so her mother oppresses her like this. The eldest lady also "borrowed" many of her beads and bracelets in various ways, and never returned them. Most of those jewels were given by my father, and they were very valuable.

My mother always said: It's just an external object, your father's heart is in your mother's heart, it's enough.

But my father never knew that under the golden wall and silver tiles, what kind of life they really lived, the good food and clothing would be taken away by the eldest mother in a blink of an eye, maybe it was the instruction of the eldest mother, and the people in the house were also very unkind to them, the tea poured was always half lukewarm, and there was always raw rice and hair in the prepared meals, and sometimes, even the reward pastries saved by Nuan Nuan were a hundred times better than the kitchen prepared for us.

In this family, they are not even as good as their subordinates.

The mother hid Ai'er's treasure chest at the end of the bed, Ai'er sat on the bed, shook her feet and said: Mother, I really hope that I will grow up quickly, marry here, and leave with you.

The mother smiled softly: Marry here? Doesn't Ai'er have any nostalgia for this place?

Ai'er looked around, cold and cold, only Nuan Nuan has temperature, and said with a smile: What is there to be nostalgic for here, I only have my mother and Nuan Nuan, the day I got married, I will take you with me, no matter how the Huang family is, it is stronger than this.

The mother gently hugged Ai'er, patted her back and said: It's enough for Ai'er to be happy, and the mother is not important.

Ai'er said in her heart: If she passes away one day, the only thing she can't let go of in her heart is her mother, how can her mother not be important?

In April when I was fourteen years old, the grass was green.

Ai'er took a few of her favorite gold and silver beads from the treasure chest to the backyard, and she asked Nuan Nuan to find a safe place, dig a hole, and hide these things that she would not let the eldest mother take even if they were buried in the soil and rotten.

Nuan Nuan shook her hands: No, no, no, if the eldest lady finds out that we are burying valuables, we will break our hands.

Ai'er glared at Nuan Nuan, Nuan Nuan didn't dare to speak, and quietly found a place in the courtyard.

Ai'er sat alone on the swing, she liked to swing, it felt like sitting in the wind, this time there was no warmth on the side, she swinged the swing very high, high above the courtyard wall, so high that it almost lifted her away, her heart was pounding, but it felt very exciting.

She saw the scenery beyond the high walls, the grass was as blue as a brocade cloth, the white clouds were flirtatious with the birds, and not far away there was a sea of flowers like clear water dancing and flying, everything was not surrounded by walls and fences, everything was born with the trend, they were boundless, free.

Nuan Nuan screamed: Miss, Miss, are you dying? Throw it out, where will Nuan Nuan pick you up?

Ai'er looked at it but didn't stop, looking greedily at the outside world and asking: I saw a little green and white stuff in the east, what was it?

Nuan Nuan said: Mama Xiong said that it was an ominous place, and I was not allowed to look at it every time I passed by, saying that it would be evil if I saw it, how dare Nuan Nuan be timid to look at it? - Miss, if you don't come down again, I'll call someone to pull it!

Ai'er knew that if she didn't stop, the timid Nuan Nuan would really call people, so she had to stop slowly.

Nuan Nuan said that she had found a good place in the corner of the courtyard, just behind the flower bed, and only one person was allowed to pass by carefully, so there would be no flower servants walking there.

I followed Nuan Nuan to that place, Nuan Nuan dug the soil for me, and I reluctantly wrapped the beads and hairpins again and again.

After burying the hairpin, Ai'er felt a breeze coming through somewhere, and a few rays of light hit the ground through something, just marking the place where they buried the hairpin.

Ai'er searched for the source of light, and found that behind a potted plant, there was a hole, only to the calf, just behind the back altar, and it was blocked by a potted plant, and almost no one would find it.

Nuan Nuan said that it was a dog hole reserved in the previous seminary, but it was not much use later, so it was blocked with a potted plant.

This discovery has always made Ai'er very excited, she sits on the swing every day, swinging herself very high, the blue and green outside flashed with the swing and appeared, Ai'er felt more and more dissatisfied, once, that day there was a black spot in the eternal scene of no one, slowly approaching her, directly she saw that it was a person, that person seemed to be able to see her, actually raised his hand and waved at her.

For days, Ai'er could see the man on the swing, I don't know if it was a man or a woman, I only knew that he or she was wandering in the meadow alone, and I didn't know what he or she was doing. In the dark, that person seemed to be calling her, allowing her to occasionally move forward freely and freely, running for freedom.

Ai'er finally made up her mind and carried out her plan.

On the tenth day of April at the age of fourteen, Ai'er completed her first defection, wearing warm clothes and wearing warm buns, removing potted plants and getting out of the dog hole. Nuan Nuan wore her clothes and combed her hair, pretending to read and write in the room.

Before going out, Ai'er looked at herself in the mirror, although she is not a timid person, but the first time she went to a strange place alone, she was still a little nervous, but how many rounds can life have, especially for people like her, who can walk freely for herself?

Ai'er drilled through the dog hole, although the smell of the hole was terrible, and the clothes were a little dirty from the bumps, but Ai'er's heart was happy, and the strange smell was the best smell she had ever smelled in her life, because it was the road to freedom. She also had a hunch in her psyche that out of this hole, she would encounter very beautiful things in her life, which I could never have imagined in this small courtyard.

The faint smell of grass outside came to her nose, Ai'er couldn't wait to rush towards the blue plain that day, she breathed hard, opened her mouth wide, let all the flavors pour into her mouth, her heart, she swirled and jumped, until she fell to the ground exhausted, and then she laughed out loud, this is the taste of freedom, so fresh and clean, pure and touching.

At this time, a person from afar walked towards her, and it was at this hour that the person who saw it on the swing in the courtyard appeared.