"protect me".
There was no word of invitation in front of it, which seemed a bit coquettish and unreasonable, but speaking in a little girl's voice, it seemed to be full of incomparable trust and childlike innocence. The white pajamas on the little girl looked extremely delicate under the starlight. Xu Le watched this scene with emotion. For some reason, his heart softened for no reason. He clenched his fists and slowly approached the metal bulkhead. It was very slow, as if he was afraid that if he moved too much, it would bring terror to this poor little girl like a bird.
The little girl lowered her head, as if she didn't dare to look directly at Xu Le's face, two teardrops fell from her long eyelashes, very pitiful, her lips as tender as lilacs opened and closed nervously, her voice was so low that she could not hear: "Please. You protect me."
Xu Le squatted down cautiously, looking at the little girl's pink and jade-carved face, her eyes were slightly drooping but still couldn't hide her eyes like ink, and her two small lips felt a little bit for a while. Lost, he always felt that the little girl gave him a very close feeling, so that he did not notice the addition of two words in the second sentence of the little girl.
"Little sister, what's your name?" Xu Le subconsciously blinked and pursed his lips. He didn't want to make the little girl have some bad associations with his absent-minded appearance. His eyes finally got away from the little girl. I noticed that the little girl's hair is very characteristic. The pure black hair is straight on both sides of the cheeks, and the middle part is neatly cut into a straight line, which will be above the eyebrows and cover the forehead. Looks like... a piece of watermelon rind
"I... My name is Zhong... Fireworks." The little girl still held the doll in her arms tightly, and bravely raised her head to look at Xu Le, maybe because Xu Le's honest and honest face gave her courage, maybe It was Xu Le's straight eyebrows that gave the little girl confidence, and she murmured her name.
"This name... it's too ugly." Xu Le muttered in his heart, not knowing what the parents of this little girl did, they would choose a name that was easily ambiguous, scratched his head and said, "Come on, my name is Your little watermelon is ready."
The little girl named Zhong Yanhua opened her eyes wide and felt endless doubts, she tilted her head cutely and asked, "Uncle, why is it called Little Watermelon?"
Xu Le stretched out his index finger and touched the hairline on the girl's forehead, and said with a smile, "Because your hair looks like a beautiful piece of... watermelon rind?"
Although Xu Le did not know that the commercial spaceship belonged to the ancient bell company, and the shadow of the fourth military region of Xilin was hidden behind the ancient bell company, he could make a logical judgment that on such a heavily guarded spaceship, in the first place. Under the brilliance of a charter, at the edge of the universe far away from the border of the empire, there should be nothing that would threaten such a lovely little girl, and he didn't even think that this little girl called Zhong Fireworks or Little Watermelon was protected. Need, on the spaceship, this little girl should always be accompanied by family members.
It's just that no matter how he asks, Little Watermelon always refuses to tell him what happened or where her family is. Xu Le thought for a while and decided to find the staff on the spacecraft. After all, the little girl was a living person, and he dared not take this responsibility.
Xu Le's room was located in Area 32, which was the most remote, the most backward facility, and the quietest area in the entire spaceship. Except for the occasional noise of garbage transportation from the pipes behind the wall, during the conversation between two people, one big and one small. , no one has been here at all. Xu Le took the little girl's hand and walked outside, comforting: "Little Watermelon, if you find your family, you don't have to be afraid."
"Uncle, I'm afraid." Little Watermelon is a very sensible child, and she probably knows that she has brought a lot of distress to this unfamiliar uncle. When Xu Le took her hand and walked out, she did not struggle nonsense. He just held the doll in one hand, lowered his head and said, "There are bad people... who want to abduct the little watermelon away and go somewhere else, so that the little watermelon can never see his father and mother again."
Xu Le's footsteps stopped, he turned around and looked at the little girl's profile seriously, as if trying to distinguish whether this terrible story was a child's nonsense, or something really hidden behind the light. Shady. At this moment, he saw the dust and dirt behind the little girl's snow-white nightdress, and also noticed the smudges on the doll...
No one has come to the 32 cleaning area. With such a large spaceship, how did this little girl come here alone? What about those who watch over him? Did the little girl climb out of those pipeline passages? Otherwise, how could she be so dirty? What kind of panic should have caused the little girl who was only five or six years old to get into those dark pipes
Xu Le watched seriously for a while, Uncle Feng admired his ability to see people, but he still couldn't see any sign of the little girl lying. Without thinking for too long, Xu Le turned around and took the little girl's hand and walked back, preparing to go back to his room to think again. He was indeed a little worried about blindly handing the little girl into the hands of the spacecraft staff, at least ... It's safe to follow him, and he might as well investigate the news before making a decision.
The little girl was stunned for a moment, and then she understood the meaning of the turn, and walked quickly in small steps, in order to keep up with Xu Le's pace. He was extremely happy, his big black eyes narrowed together, like a crescent moon in the night sky of Xilin Stars.
"Thank you uncle."
"I'll be called brother... little watermelon." Xu Le has always been a neat and tidy person, he will do something to the end when he decides, holding the hand of a cute little girl, his mood is also very good, those trustworthy eyes He also squinted, like the half-wavy lake in the green space of Donglin Nature Reserve.
The Guzhong spacecraft is still carrying out the last logistical energy supply, and the time to leave the star region of the Donglin Region is about six o'clock tomorrow's standard time. During this time, Xu Le had been staying in his room with Little Watermelon. Perhaps because the budget of the Ministry of Defense was too stingy, the place where he lived as a nominally retired soldier was really a forgotten corner. There does not appear to be any monitoring equipment.
But even so, Xu Le cautiously paid attention to the movement outside the door. Through this period of chat, he gradually gained the little girl's complete trust and finally knew something. The little girl was from Xilin and left home for unknown reasons, and was taken to the ancient bell spacecraft. , will be sent to the Capital Star. She will be six years old in two months. What she is best at is piano painting, what she hates most is piano painting, what she likes most is playing with mud, and the least she plays is also mud.
Maybe it's because there are few opportunities to relax and chat like this. The six-year-old girl kept chatting like a bird. She often choked because she spoke too fast. Hair fluttered in the air.
Xu Le listened and smiled bitterly, because the content of what the little girl said was too trivial, and there was no information he wanted to know at all, and the more he listened, the more strange he felt, thinking that the little girl had misunderstood something, which led to his own misunderstanding. What... It's just that since he has promised Little Watermelon, he naturally has to continue. People always have to be honest, even for a six-year-old girl. Xu Le decided to let the little girl hide for a while until he found out the real news. in your own room.
When it was time to eat, Xu Le told the little girl not to run around, ran to the restaurant of the spacecraft, ordered a meal, and did not have much conversation with the staff on the spacecraft, but he still paid attention and found that no one listened. The official of the visiting group who went to the spaceship lost the child, but what made him vigilant was that the expressions of the soldiers in charge of security work around the restaurant were obviously more serious than a few hours ago, and a somewhat depressing atmosphere was surrounding them.
Is it because of the little watermelon? Xu Le quietly left the restaurant. He was a very unobtrusive character himself. He left with a meal without attracting the attention of others. Even most people on the spacecraft did not know that the rest in the 32 cleaning area. In the room, a retired soldier who took a downwind boat in Donglin District was arranged.
The little watermelon lowered her head and forked a piece of beef, put it in her mouth and chewed it hard, but the expression on her face revealed that this little girl really didn't like the taste of beef stew, but she didn't seem to want to make Xu Le embarrassed, but she was serious eating. Seeing the expression on the little face, Xu Le couldn't help laughing out loud and said, "Don't eat it if you don't like it. I heard the next meal will be good."
"I've eaten beef for a month and a half." Little Watermelon sighed like an adult, "Brother Xu Le, I'm afraid the next meal will be beef."
Xu Le deliberately added a spoonful of white rice to this meal. At this time, he was digging the leftover rice from the small watermelon with chopsticks. Hearing this, he couldn't help but froze. After being nurtured by the boss for so many years, he has also become extremely picky about food requirements, and said with a bitter face: "Synthetic beef only tastes the same, how can you eat it for a month and a half? It's amazing."
After sighing, Xu Le lowered his head to eat again. He didn't have the habit of wasting food. His mouth was full of beef, and he said vaguely, "There is a chance in the future, my brother will kill the bison and let you eat real beef."
The black hair on the little girl's forehead was vertical, she looked at Xu Le with a smile, and nodded earnestly. Although when she was in Xilin, she followed her father and ate a lot of wild dishes from the empire, but she still felt grateful for the words of brother Xu Le, thinking that brother is really a good person.