"Long time no see."

Qiao Lingxiang slowly raised her head under the gaze of Gu Qingzhi and Tang Ling, on her fleshy cheeks, a bright red slap print was imprinted on it, Qiao Lingxiang's cheek on the side where she was beaten was a little swollen, and it looked extremely miserable, the tears on her face had not dried yet, and she wanted to pull out a smile towards Gu Qingzhi and Tang Ling, but she moved her mouth slightly, her cheeks hurt for a while, and she gave up making herself laugh.

"Sister Qiao, what's wrong with your face?"

Tang Ling asked worriedly, and Gu Qingzhi, who was beside her, slowly raised a hand, gently touched Qiao Lingxiang's cheek, her face was full of distress, and asked softly, "Does it hurt?" ”

There is no need to think about the source of this slap print, it must be Qiao Dabao, who had just left the Qiao family angrily, Gu Qingzhi and Tang Ling couldn't figure it out, how could Uncle Qiao, who loved Qiao Lingxiang very much on weekdays, put such a heavy hand on Qiao Lingxiang, but they were full of doubts and couldn't say much at this time, so they could only silently accompany Qiao Lingxiang.

"It's fine." Qiao Lingxiang turned her head to avoid Gu Qingzhi's hand, then slowly got off the stool, and walked towards Tang Ling and Gu Qingzhi as she spoke, "Let's eat first, and we'll go out to play later." ”

Tang Ling raised his head and looked at Gu Qingzhi, the other party's eyes were firmly fixed on Qiao Lingxiang who was leaving, his face was full of worry, but he was a little frustrated and injured, his fingers hanging on the side rubbed unconsciously, Tang Ling pulled the corner of Gu Qingzhi's clothes, and asked him, "Brother Gu, what should we do?" ”

"Let's eat with Lingxiang first, after eating, we will accompany her to relax, take her to play, and make her happy." Gu Qingzhi squatted down, touched Tang Ling's head, and said to her, after seeing Tang Ling nodding obediently, Gu Qingzhi smiled at her, but the worry on his face still did not dissipate.

After the two of them had a silent breakfast with Qiao Lingxiang, Zhou Xuemei planned to take a boiled shell egg for Qiao Lingxiang to eliminate the swelling on her face, but Qiao Lingxiang left the house in silence, leaving Zhou Xuemei standing in place and holding the egg helplessly, Gu Qingzhi hurriedly took the egg in Zhou Xuemei's hand, and promised to give it to Qiao Lingxiang After reducing the swelling, she hurriedly pulled Tang Ling to speed up her pace to catch up with Qiao Lingxiang, Zhou Xuemei watched the departure of several children in the same place, and sighed.

On the rural road in the morning, occasionally a few people passed by, and the women who passed by saw Tang Ling, Gu Qingzhi and Qiao Lingxiang, and they all greeted them happily, especially Gu Qingzhi, whose smiles were about to overflow, and they chatted with Gu Qingzhi very eagerly. Qiao Lingxiang habitually wanted to step aside at this time, not to have any unnecessary communication with these women, but before she could cover her injured face and run to the side, a sharp-eyed grandmother noticed Qiao Lingxiang's abnormality, she deliberately pulled her sharp and somewhat aggressive voice, and asked sarcastically, "Yo?" Qiao's baby, what's your face? Have you been beaten? ”

"Ouch! Aunt Liu, don't you say that I really haven't noticed, sister of the Qiao family, what's wrong? Who did you fight with? You're a girl who doesn't like to fight, isn't there something wrong? ”

Aunt Zhang, who was still beside Aunt Liu, who was about to pull Gu Qingzhi to continue chatting a few words, heard Aunt Liu's words, and quickly focused her attention on Qiao Lingxiang, who was blocked behind Gu Qingzhi, and her face was a little disgusted. Since this Gu Qingzhi entered high school, he has become taller and taller, and he has become more and more handsome, I heard that he is still an excellent student in the school, he is good-looking, has strong ability, and has a hearty personality, in their place, Gu Qingzhi is liked by some young and beautiful girls, but this guy is a tendon, he only knows how to put his mind on his sister next door all day long, this Qiao Lingxiang is so fat, like a pig, he still revolves around that doctor Chen Qing all day long, and he is messing with flowers and grass everywhere, which is not a good thing at first glance. This Gu Qingzhi is also blind, and he actually takes a fancy to her.

Seeing that those aunts were all throwing their eyes on Qiao Lingxiang's body more and more presumptuously, the expression on Qiao Lingxiang's face was a little ugly, of course she knew what color these aunts had in their eyes when they looked at her, disdain, sarcasm, and disgust. It's been like this since before, every time she walked outside with Gu Qingzhi, everyone looked at her with strange eyes, and the eyes that looked at Gu Qingzhi by the way were not very friendly. It was she who caused Gu Qingzhi. Qiao Lingxiang thought a little gloomily, especially since she went to work at Dr. Chen Qing, everyone's eyes on her have become even more unfriendly, she has always known about the rumors and rumors circulating in the village, but she tried her best not to care, saying that she was alone, as long as it didn't affect the people she cared about, but slowly, other people also entered the ranks of being broken by others, even Tang Ling was said by those people to be a useless child like her, so she got so close to her.

"Mother-in-law, my dad asked me to send something to the post office in the town, and it was a little too late for all the time, so I couldn't talk more, so we left first."

Just as Qiao Lingxiang fell into her own emotional whirlpool, and the others became more and more energetic as they spoke, Gu Qingzhi suddenly shouted loudly to the aunts in front of him, and the hand that turned his back quietly grabbed Qiao Lingxiang's hand and pinched it gently, as if to comfort her, Tang Ling on the side also grabbed the corner of Qiao Lingxiang's clothes, and kept looking at her with her head up, Qiao Lingxiang looked at the movements of the two, her heart warmed, she pursed her lips, and controlled the corners of her mouth to avoid attracting the judgment of those aunts again.

Hearing Gu Qingzhi say this, several aunts didn't say much, and hurriedly praised Gu Qingzhi's filial piety, then walked to the side, made way out, and continued to chat loudly after saying goodbye to Gu Qingzhi cordially, during this period, he didn't pay attention to Tang Ling and Qiao Lingxiang beside Gu Qingzhi at all.

When they finally found a place where no one came, the three of them sat down on the grass.

Gu Qingzhi took out the egg that was covered very hot by himself, handed it to Qiao Lingxiang, and said, "Take it to reduce the swelling, it's not too hot now, the temperature is just right." ”

"Thank you." Qiao Lingxiang took the egg that Gu Qingzhi brought over, she thanked her sullenly, and gently pressed the egg on her face. The three of them sat quietly on the ground, Qiao Lingxiang looked at the overlapping mountains in the distance in a daze, Gu Qingzhi and Tang Ling on the side looked at her quietly, they knew that they needed to let Qiao Lingxiang be quiet first, and no one spoke.

"Aren't you curious why my dad hit me?"

After a long time, Qiao Lingxiang suddenly laughed, the two bright stares around her made it difficult for her to ignore it, Qiao Lingxiang couldn't help laughing, the little depression in the morning was now slowly dissipating, she turned her head and asked them.

"I'm very curious, but don't say what you don't want to say, anyway, the little ghost and I will always stand on your side and support you." After Gu Qingzhi saw that Qiao Lingxiang, who had always been calm, finally showed his familiar smile, he finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and he fell to the grass, pillowed his head with his hands, and looked at the blue sky.

"That's right! Sister Qiao, you don't care what you do, I will always support you! Tang Ling, who was beside her, nodded, she had unconditional trust in Qiao Lingxiang, she grabbed one of Qiao Lingxiang's hands, and then raised her hand and swore an oath.

"Hahaha." Qiao Lingxiang was amused by Tang Ling's serious appearance, her heart was warm, she touched Tang Ling's hair, looked at her gently, and after a while, Qiao Lingxiang suddenly asked Tang Ling, "Lingling, have you ever thought about leaving this deep mountain?" ”

"Leave? You're leaving? As soon as Gu Qingzhi, who was beside him, heard Qiao Lingxiang's words, how could he not understand anything, he quickly sat up and looked at Qiao Lingxiang with a surprised expression.

"Sister Qiao, are you leaving?" Tang Ling heard Gu Qingzhi's words, she panicked in her heart, and was about to let go of Qiao Lingxiang's hand and hurriedly clenched it again, afraid that she would disappear in the next second.

"Why do we want to stay here forever? Birth, old age, sickness and death, coming out of the belly to scattering the ashes on the ground, do we have to be trapped in this mountain for the rest of our lives, not to see the outside world? I don't want to be trapped here, the people in the village are really strange, why do they have a natural sense of superiority, they think that if they blindly stay in Yushen Village and be protected by the mountain god, they can have a smooth ride for a lifetime, what mountain god, I think it's just the greed of a group of guys who are greedy for life and afraid of death. ”

Speaking of this, some disgust flashed on Qiao Lingxiang's face, and after noticing Tang Ling's gaze at her, Qiao Lingxiang hurriedly withdrew the bad look on her face, she rubbed Tang Ling's head with some distress, and looked at Gu Qingzhi, who had been looking at her beside her: "Ah Zhi, I think it's very unfair." Why can't the girls in the village study, can't learn technology, and only marry when they are old, and then marry and teach children, and the girls who can't marry are called no one wants, and those who are not married and have a relationship are called three and four, what kind of statement has been finished by them, we are belittled to the point of uselessness, and there are even ...... Azhi, you have been in school, you don't know, after you left here to study in other places, my dad never allowed me to go to school again, he said that it was for your sake that I went to junior high school, but you went to other places, my dad thought that the two of us must be out of play, so he wanted me to stop studying. ”

"What?! Why did you never tell me? ”

Gu Qingzhi's face was full of shock, after hearing the news, the whole person was like being struck by lightning, he stood up uncontrollably, and his voice towards Qiao Lingxiang was several decibels higher, Gu Qingzhi looked at Qiao Lingxiang with a sad face, and felt extremely ridiculous about Uncle Qiao's behavior in her mouth, and at the same time regretted not being at the beginning, and kept asking himself why he couldn't work harder at the beginning, why he overslept in the exam, so that Qiao Lingxiang could continue to study.

Gu Qingzhi knows better than anyone else, Qiao Lingxiang likes to read, she is different from many other children, she is dedicated to studying, she used to be the first in the class, the first in the grade, held many positions, and many teachers feel that it is a good seedling. He and she worked harder than anyone else, and even sometimes he didn't understand why Qiao Lingxiang had to work so learning, just like he was treating some rare treasure, and he didn't let up at all.

It turned out that it was because it was a hard-won opportunity for her.

"Because I know this is how you know the truth." Qiao Lingxiang turned her head to look at Gu Qingzhi, looking at the other party's face full of self-blame and remorse, she smiled peacefully, signaling Gu Qingzhi to calm down first, and after Gu Qingzhi sat down, Qiao Lingxiang continued, "Actually, whether it's you or not, my dad won't let me study anymore, so it's okay with you, Azhi, don't blame yourself." I grew up with you, and of course I know what weird associations you're going to have with my words, but it's not what you think, it's just that I'm getting old enough to get away from school. ”