Qiu Yan quietly said to her: "Although I have heard that there is a puppet technique in carving inscriptions, this child's work is really ugly. He can move around just fine, but he can't look closely."
Qian Nai quickly covered the puppet's ears, "Shh, children can't listen to unpleasant words."
Qiu Yan recalled something and asked, "Is there anyone here nearby?"
"how you said that?"
Qiu Yan was confused, "There doesn't seem to be a single family outside this red willow forest. Tell me, isn't that old man afraid of falling into a swamp on the way here?"
Qian Nai was stunned for a moment, "What you said makes sense."
Then he rode back on horseback.
But the old man was nowhere to be seen.
Qiu Yan covered his mouth and pointed at the child in Qian Nai's arms, "He... he..."
"What's wrong with you? You seem to have seen a ghost?"
"Look at the little puppet."
Qian Nai looked forward and exclaimed: "It's so true."
The child with the wooden face and straw palms has turned into flesh and blood, and his face and body are just like those of an ordinary child.
"A few taels of silver were thrown into the ground, and in exchange for a pink and tender little child, grandma must be very happy when she takes it back."
"I'll leave the rest to you, young lady, but how can we explain it clearly like this? You are still an unmarried little girl. Bringing a child back will cause gossip in the family for nothing."
Qian Nai thought about it and said, "I have a way."
Outside the door of Su Huating's mansion, the boy hurriedly took her in.
"Are you here?" Su Huating stepped forward with a smile.
Qian Nai opened her mouth and said, "You see, you are also a Buddhist-minded person. I heard that you are generous with money and generous, and you are very kind to others."
Su Huating didn't hear a few words from her and thought she was boring. He didn't expect that she said so much at once.
"Exactly," he said.
"You used to have nothing to do with my family, but now that we are engaged, we will be a family from now on, right?"
Su Huating said with a smile: "If you are willing to marry a talented man like me, you will have a lifelong trust."
Before Qian Nai finished speaking, she pulled out the child behind her.
The little boy stared with big black and white eyes, fluttering butterfly wings and long eyelashes.
Su Huating was so frightened that he almost vomited blood, "What is this?"
Qian Nai said, "Of course it's not my child. I'm not married yet, so how can I have a child? Oh, you may have one, but it's okay. I don't care. When you and I get married, you can bring the child back."
Su Huating said, "How am I feeling now? You are still talking nonsense. Where did this kid come from?"
"It's the kid I saw on the road when I was out riding."
He stared at her, trying to find any trace of her lying.
"Okay, it's the truth. Tell me, why did you pick up the child?"
Qian Nai smiled, "He cried a lot, so I just wanted to comfort him, and then I brought him back."
"Maybe someone got lost?"
Qiu Yan said no.
"Um?"
Qian Nai answered hurriedly, "Maybe, but we waited for a long time and no one came to see him. It was dark, so we had to bring him back."
Qiu Yan winked, why didn't he tell him the truth and said this was a puppet
Qian Nai made eye contact with her silently and was not allowed to tell him.
Su Huating saw that Qian Nai had not finished telling the truth and continued to ask, "What is this child's name?"
Qian Nai hasn't thought about it yet.
Su Huating asked him himself, "What is your name?"
He is innocent and cute, "little-"
"Xiang—" Qian Nai interrupted, "Xiangliu, yes, his name is Xiangliu."
"But I heard him say his name was Xiao." Su Huating said.
"Yes, his nickname is Xiao Liu'er."
"Xiao Liu'er?"
On the way back, Qiu Yan gave a thumbs up, "The swamp is called Xiangjun Pond, and the red willow forest, Xiangliu, Miss is really smart. Also, give him that little puppet. Anyway, others will gossip. It can’t reach us.”
Qian Nai was only thinking about when to see the puppet tomorrow. After all, when she left Su Huating's home, he held her by the corner of her clothes and cried and asked her if she could take him away. He was afraid and didn't want to be alone.
Qian Nai promised him that she would come to see him tomorrow and gave him her hairpin, saying that if there was a monster at night, she would use this to prick it so that it would not dare to come to him.
Seeing the child swinging the hairpin around, Su Huating felt uneasy and said to Qian Nai, "Are you not talking about me?"
Qian Nai smiled and said, "Of course not, I know Mr. Su is the most kind-hearted."
He can move without eating, and won't get tired without sleeping, but he also has human fears.
The first year that Xiao Liu'er came to Qian Nai's side, he was just a child.
He asked Qian Nai, "A Nai, how old are you?"
"Teenage."
"Then how old are you altogether?"
Qian Nai smiled, "You want to ask how long I can live, right?"
She stroked the little puppet's head and said, "It should live to be a hundred years old."
"How long does it take to be one hundred years old?"
"Well - for a long time, the sun rose and set many times."
"A hundred years old is forever?"
"No, it will always be bigger than a hundred." Qian Nai said.
Five years after Qian Nai and Su Huating got married, Xiao Liuer was still a child. He would not grow taller and would not change.
On the day they got married, Qian Nai told Su Huating the facts and explained the child's story clearly. Su Huating didn't believe it at first, but when he found out that this child was really different, he gradually started to test it.
He pretended to accidentally cut Xiao Liu'er's arm with scissors. Under the skin, there was a layer of wood and straw.
If the knife passes through the skin and closes immediately, he will not be hurt.
Qian Nai would teach him to write and read. Soon, he learned to read all the books and learn things from the books that Qian Nai had not told him.
To Qianna, he is a younger brother, a friend, and her child. He is a treasure she brought back.
For Xiao Liu'er, she is everything to him.
Qian Nai often told him stories, because he was afraid of the dark, so the stories she told were all light, all righteous, never evil, never dark.
Qian Nai will tell him that after the sun sets, it does not disappear, but it turns into countless small suns, hidden in the grass. The light is always there, and he has to look for it himself.
He lay on Qiannai's knees and watched Qiannai embroidering and writing.
Qian Nai told him one day that when she was very young, her father said that the sun was a friend of God, and that God would wake him up every morning, and then they would play together in the sky. After spending the day, they would go home.
Ten years after they got married, Xiao Liuer heard Su Huating tell her countless times that he loved her, and Qian Nai said in the tenth year that she did too.
When he said love, Xiaoliu'er didn't care what it was at all, but when love came out of Qiannai's mouth, he became curious. He wanted to know what Qiannai's love was.
He asked Qian Nai, "What is love?"
She smiled, "When you grow up, you will know."
Later, he wanted to grow up, and he wanted to grow up enough to understand Qian Nai's love.
However, he did not grow up. Before he could grow up, Qian Nai had a child, a real child.
For the first time, he felt that there was something more terrifying than the darkness, and it was Qian Nai's gaze that was no longer focused.
He was very anxious and asked Qian Nai, "A Nai, do you love me?"
Qian Nai nodded, "Of course, Xiaoliu'er is my child. Just like Xiaozhu'er, they are both my children. I love you."
Qian Nai began to tell stories to Xiao Zhuer. She told him about the sun and God, about light and the fragrance of flowers.
(End of chapter)