Xia Rou had cried enough, she felt embarrassed first.
Cao Yang's firm muscles and masculine aura also made her uncomfortable.
She struggled slightly, and Cao Yang let go of his arm. Seeing her red eyes, red nose, and red ears, she laughed and said, "Have you cried enough?"
Xia Rou said "Mmm" in embarrassment.
Cao Yang patted her on the shoulder, "Come here."
Walking to the tea table, I took out two tissues for her: "Wipe your snot first, it's all on my clothes."
Xia Rou blushed with embarrassment. Annoyed, he pulled the tissue in his hand, and really blew it in self-defeating—no way, his nose was stuffy.
She also peeked at Cao Yang's shirt... Cao Yang found out and couldn't help laughing: "I lied to you, it didn't get on."
He lit a cigarette, leaned on the armrest of the sofa, and leaned his long legs on the ground.
He exhaled a puff of white smoke, folded his arms and said, "Tell me, why are you crying?"
"It's nothing..." Xia Rou twisted her hands behind her back.
With his head down, a lock of long hair slipped from his shoulders.
Another strand.
The silky and smooth feeling made Cao Yang careless whether he wanted to pay attention to it or not.
He couldn't help picking up a lock of her long hair and sliding it between his fingers: "It's so long?"
"Yeah." Xia Rou glanced at him, "I haven't cut it, my hair grows fast."
"Don't change the subject." Cao Yang sullenly said, "Say, why are you crying?"
Xia Rou is angry.
Obviously you changed the subject!
Cao Yang would not admit it, and asked: "Who bullied you? Was it Cao An? I'll beat him."
"Nonsense." Xia Rou said, "No."
"Then why are you crying?"
He was chasing after him, Xia Rou didn't give him an answer, it seemed that he would not give up.
Xia Rou had no choice but to tell the truth: "They said you were seriously injured and your life was in danger."
"Just because of this?"
"Yeah." Xia Rou was silent for a while, then slowly said: "My mother is gone, and I have no other relatives. I... I'm afraid something will happen to you too."
She looked comfortable and clean in a simple home dress with short sleeves and shorts.
He folded his arms behind his back and lowered his head slightly, as if he had done something wrong.
Cao Yang felt that he felt that she had the appearance of a woman for a moment, which was really wrong.
He's grown up, but he's still a kid.
No father, no mother, no other relatives. For him who has been responsible for taking care of her, there is a fledgling plot.
His heart softened involuntarily.
"Silly girl."
He reached out and rubbed her head. Cool and smooth on the touch. He didn't want to ruffle her hair, and gently stroked her hair twice.
"Didn't I come back safely?"
Xia Rou raised her head, took half a step forward, moved closer to him, and looked at him carefully.
Cao Yang's face is still as handsome as before. But the lines seem to be a little tougher, more masculine, and closer to Xia Rou's memory.
His birthday was in February, and his birthday passed while he was outside. He is now thirty years old, in his thirties.
Xia Rou stared at his face with nice eyes.
"What's wrong?" Cao Yang asked.
"Where is the injury?" Xia Rou asked.
No. There was no scar on his jaw like she remembered.
This life is really different from the previous life!
"On the body. Don't ask." Cao Yang shook his hand holding the cigarette, "It has grown up long ago. How can you not be injured when you are a soldier."
"Don't worry." He smiled, "My fate is hard, I have to watch you grow up and get married anyway."
Xia Rou looked at him, and slowly, a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
"Then... it's done." She looked at the shadow on the floor.
Well, everyone, please always be well...
Being coaxed by him, it seemed that she had become a real little girl too.
Hey, just be a little girl.
Good…
Cao Yang kept looking at her with a smile.
It seems to see through everything.
Involuntarily, her ears turned red.
Now that Cao Yang came back, those things that seemed to be delayed by some invisible force in the dark began to work according to Xia Rou's memory.
Just like in the previous life, when Cao Yang returned, he brought back not only the scars, but also the first-class merit medal.
Soon, as Xia Rou remembered, there was an extra star on his epaulet. At the age of thirty, he was already a lieutenant colonel.
Among a group of middle-aged men, it was so conspicuous.
At the beginning of August, Commander Cao's family held a dinner party.
Small in size and fairly low key. But also because the scale is small, the range of invitees is small and the status is high.
Increasingly refined and expensive.
Many people tried their best to get an invitation. Those who couldn't get the invitations could only look for people who could get the invitations among the people they knew, and ask them to take them in.
The theme of the dinner is to get rid of summer, but everyone knows that it is actually to celebrate the advancement of Cao Yang, the eldest son of the Cao family.
The tiger father has no dogs and sons, and the lintel of the Cao family can obviously prosper for decades.
What's more, at Cao Xiong's age, he can work for at least another ten years.
The boss of the Cao family is entrenched here, and no one can avoid it.
At the beginning of the dinner preparation, Cao Xiong instructed Cao Yang: "Speak to Xiaorou about the banquet. No... It's better to ask a teacher to teach her. There will be more occasions like this in the future, so tell her to study hard."
When he said this, the four brothers were all there.
Cao Bin, Cao Xing, and Cao An all had strange expressions on their faces. Only Cao Yang remained unchanged: "Okay. Leave it to me."
However, the most surprised person at the dinner table was actually Xia Rou.
Cao Xiong made it clear that Xia Rou was allowed to attend the Cao family's dinner, which was a treatment that Xia Rou never received in her previous life.
In the previous life, whenever there was a banquet at home, Cao Xiong would instruct her: "There are too many people, it is chaotic. You should stay in the house and don't come out to run around."
She once turned off the lights, quietly hid behind the window curtain in the bedroom, and peeked at the bright clothes and shadows in the courtyard. I also once lay on the pillow, weeping because of grievance, feeling unwilling.
But without Cao Xiong's permission, she didn't dare to show up after all, and she didn't have such a thick skin.
Cao Xiong doesn't recognize her.
It was because Cao Xiong didn't recognize her, so even if Cao Yang was protecting her, those first-rate and second-rate people would not look down on her at all.
The Liang family, which Cao Yang didn't like at all, became Xia Rou's best choice.
When Cao Xiong said to hire a teacher for Xia Rou, he meant a teacher in etiquette.
Ordinary people rarely come into contact with this kind of banquet culture, after all, they don't have that kind of opportunity. The public relations activities called "banquets" that occasionally participate in large-scale events of certain industries or companies are actually different from this real banquet.
In that kind of PR, it really doesn't matter.
In a real upper-class banquet, there are too many things to pay attention to. If you are not careful, you will make a fool of yourself.
The teacher that Cao Yang invited for Xia Rou said to Cao Yang: "Miss Xia is very smart, and she can teach it as soon as she teaches it. She is also serious about learning, and she won't stop practicing seriously just because she understands."
Very appreciated in words.
Cao Yang was worried that those things were too trivial and unsystematic. Xia Rou hadn't been exposed to it since she was a child, and she became a monk halfway through. With her not-so-bright mind, it would be too difficult for her to learn. Hearing the words was a bit surprising.
"It's not that stupid." He praised Xia Rou with a smile.
Xia Rou is a little embarrassed.
Because she is not really smart, because Cao Yang had already hired a teacher for her in her previous life, and she had actually learned those things once.
tantamount to cheating.
However, even though it was an achievement obtained by cheating, it was praised by Cao Yang with a smile like this. In Xiarou's heart, there was a little joy, like a bud that just broke its shell, pushing hard against the soil on the head, getting out, facing the sun, and trying to grow.
Cheating... just cheat.
She also felt that the gains and losses in life, the causes and effects, were too wonderful to describe.
She was really desperate for her own stupidity. She was so desperate that she gave up all her previous struggles and so-called "efforts".
Learn to give up what she shouldn't have.
But it happened like this, what she couldn't ask for in the past, in this life, she got it without asking for it.
Even more so compared to the previous life, it was like a ridiculous dream.
Laugh until you wake up crying.
In the previous life, it was because of her longing that Cao Yang hired a teacher for her, and occasionally took her to other banquets, so Xia Rou appeared in everyone's sight.
However, she never showed up at the Cao family's own banquet. So everyone knew that this girl was worthless.
Yes, Xia Rou thought at that time, others judged her status by "worth money" and "not worth money". She is the orphan of one of Cao Xiong's mistresses, not Cao Xiong's child, and is not recognized by Cao Xiong.
So, she is worthless.
In this life, she stood on the neatly manicured lawn in the vast courtyard of the Cao family, facing everyone's scrutiny. She felt that these people looked at her differently.
Those who had never pinched her with the corner of their eye in the previous life, in this life will hold a cup, talk to her with a smile on their face, and quietly ask her about her identity.
This is all because, in this banquet, she stood beside the four brothers and entertained the guests with them as the host family.
Through this summer dinner, everyone who had contacts with the Cao family knew that the Cao family had an extra family.
A girl named Xia Rou.
She was wearing a fitted light pink dress, and her long hair was twisted into a bud at the back of her head, with a few pale pink roses in it. She is still young and doesn't wear too much jewelry. Only on the slender wrist of his left hand was a diamond bracelet.
It was given to her by Cao Yang before the banquet. "Make up for the birthday present I owe you," he said.
Although they are beautiful, they are all broken diamonds, without large stones, so they cannot be called precious. Just right for her age.
Simple, some small diamonds, a few pink roses. Not expensive, but decent.
As the center of the banquet, Cao Yang was surrounded by everyone, and he glanced over occasionally.
Then I saw her slim and graceful, like a rose with dew, just about to bloom.
After this banquet, Xia Rou came into the sight of others.
Interested people will naturally pay attention.
At the banquet, someone noticed that Xia Rou called the four brothers of the Cao family as eldest brother, second brother, third brother, and fourth brother.
She called naturally, without deliberate. The Cao family brothers also agreed naturally, without force.
At first, after Cao Yang came back, Cao An noticed that Xia Rou had changed his name. Then let Xia Rou also call him "fourth brother".
Not to be outdone, Cao Xing asked Xia Rou to call him "Third Brother".
Cao Bin, there is nothing to do. But in the previous life, a smooth person like him would let Xia Rou change his words to him naturally. In this life, his impression of her was much better, and it was more natural for her to change her mind than in the previous life.
So Xia Rou was allowed to call them with a more intimate title earlier than in her previous life.
When Xia Rou placed the order, someone quietly came to inquire about her identity.
Naturally, she couldn't clearly state her origin with the Cao family, but she confessed the fact that she was an orphan and lived in the Cao family.
Soon, it spread from one ear to the other in the criss-crossing of chips.
Several elders nodded slightly.
When others don't know the truth, it is rare to be able to confess your identity and not use other people's information asymmetry to put gold on your face.
Perhaps it is because of his young age that he has not yet realized the subtle interest entanglement.
But also because of his young age, when talking about his status as a sojourner, his eyes are clear and his attitude is upright, which is worthy of praise.
Because this girl has self-knowledge.
Self-knowledge, sometimes, is a rare and valuable quality.
No one can understand this better than Xia Rou.