At that time, he was so happy that he would laugh even in his dreams, but such a beautiful marriage was almost worn out within a few years.

Thinking of Liu Caifeng's insistence on marrying Zhao Xiaoya to a fool, he felt reluctant and guilty, and his already thin body looked even more old.

Maybe it would be good to marry a fool... Looking at the white smoke coming out of the boiling water, Father Zhao's eyes became misty.

After leaving the Zhao family and without her mean and partial mother, Xiaoya's life should be better than it is now.

Even if he was deceiving himself, he could only live with this idea.

Zhao Xiaoya rushed out of the house in a hurry. She didn't run far before she felt like she had lost all her strength.

She gasped for air and endured dizziness. She was obviously a girl who was about to have haircuts, but her face was sallow and skinny, and she looked like a ten-year-old child at most.

She staggered up the mountain path. The village where she lived was surrounded by endless mountains. In the dead of night, she could occasionally hear the howling of wolves in the mountains.

Villagers who usually pick wild vegetables and fruits do not dare to go deep into the mountains for fear of being unlucky and encountering a pack of wolves and leaving their bodies intact.

But Zhao Xiaoya has been forced to work in the mountains since she was a child. All the edible wild fruits and vegetables near the village have been picked. In order to avoid being beaten, she can only go deep into the mountains.

She didn't know whether wolves were scary, she only knew that she was extremely afraid of her mother.

Zhao Xiaoya didn't know how long she had been walking, but she felt that her footsteps were so heavy that she couldn't walk anymore. In the end, she didn't care about being dirty and sat down on the ground.

In fact, the life of the Zhao family in the village is not difficult. Father Zhao is a carpenter. He usually makes tables, chairs and benches for the villagers, and occasionally sells them in the city, making a lot of money.

Zhao Xiaoya, on the other hand, doesn't even have a serious name. She just screams "Xiaoya, Xiaoya". She usually doesn't have enough food or clothing to keep her warm at home, and her life is worse than that of the livestock raised at home.

It would be fine if the two daughters in the family had a decent life, but the eldest daughter Zhao Xue was a pampered young lady. Looking at the daughters of few families in these ten miles and eight villages, she wore fine fabrics and even went to the city to learn music, chess, calligraphy and painting from her wife.

Zhao Xiaoya covered her face and couldn't help crying.

Her life was hard, but she rarely cried because she always remembered her sister who lived in the east of the village when she was a child.My sister has many children in her family. She has to give good things to her brothers. She doesn’t have enough to eat every day and has endless work to do. But her sister told her——

"Xiaoya smiles beautifully, like the crescent moon in the sky. As long as Xiaoya smiles, my sister will be in a good mood. So it doesn't matter if life is hard, we just have to smile, and if we smile, life will no longer be miserable."

She believed her sister's words and she liked to laugh.

The year before last, my sister was married off by her parents to an old widower from the next village whose three wives had died, just because he could afford the largest amount of gift money, which would be enough to marry her younger brother.

My sister still smiled on her wedding day, but it was uglier than crying.

Her sister hanged herself the year after she got married. She knew that if she didn't marry well, she would end up like her sister, so she didn't want to marry a fool from the Li family. She wanted to resist, but in the end...

Thinking of his final fate in his previous life, Zhao Xiaoya's tears fell even more fiercely.

Chapter 1 The Partial Mother (2)

She didn't know how long she cried. When she smelled the oily aroma of pancakes in the air, she thought she was delusional because she was extremely hungry, but the smell didn't go away. She put down her hand and saw the shiny pancakes.

With tears on her face, Zhao Xiaoya raised her head, a familiar figure came into her eyes, and the tears that had just stopped suddenly fell again.

The gray-haired old man standing in front of her frowned, with helplessness and reluctance written in his eyes. He put the pancake in her hand and walked down the mountain as silently as he had come.

Zhao Xiaoya quickly wiped away the tears on her face and chased after him with pancakes in hand.

No one in these ten miles and eight villages knew the name of the serious old man in front of him or where he came from. They only knew that he was a capable man. Ordinary people did not dare to go into the mountains, but he was like walking home. Every time he went into the mountains, he never came back empty-handed. A few years ago, he even killed a tiger that came down the mountain with his bare hands, which made him famous.

"Grandpa, I'm not hungry." Although Zhao Xiaoya was very hungry, she didn't want to shamelessly snatch the old man's rations.

The old man didn't look back and continued walking forward.

Zhao Xiaoya saw that the old man was carrying a wild deer and a heavy bamboo basket on each shoulder, and knew that he had made great achievements in going up the mountain today.

After sniffing, she stuffed the pancake into her clothes and stretched out her hand to help take the bamboo basket.

The old man finally stopped because of her actions and turned his head to look at her condescendingly.

"Grandpa, please ask me to help." Zhao Xiaoya has a small face because she is so thin, but her eyes are very big. "Otherwise, I will be embarrassed to get food."

The old man did not refuse in the end and gave her the bamboo basket.

Zhao Xiaoya smiled at him, gritted her teeth, slung the bamboo basket on her shoulders, and followed him with some difficulty.

Looking at the generous back in front of him, Zhao Xiaoya's mind wandered far away.

When she first met the old man, Zhao Xiaoya was only four or five years old and was already busy doing chores at home. She met the old man who had just arrived when she was collecting firewood in the mountains. At that time, he looked a little embarrassed. It seemed that he had traveled for a long time and even his shoes were worn out.

At that time, Liu Caifengtian only gave her a steamed bun. She thought he was pitiful, and although she was reluctant to part with it, she still gave him the half-eaten steamed bun and water.

The old man said nothing. After eating her food, he went to the village to find the village chief. He gave the village chief a pen of silver and bought a large piece of land about two miles away from the village. He built a bamboo building surrounded by green bamboos. Over the past few years, the bamboo forest has become more dense.

The old man never interacts with people in the village. Because he is tall and has a fierce face, ordinary people dare not approach him.

Children in Dashan Village have always been good-natured, and many families use old men to intimidate their children. If they do not behave well, the old man from the bamboo forest will come over in the middle of the night to catch the children and eat them.

After a long time, the joke "the old man in the bamboo forest can eat people" became deeply rooted in people's hearts, and it has evolved to this day and it seems to be true.

The people in the village were fine. Not to mention the bamboo house, they would not even come close to the bamboo forest. They would stay away when they saw the old man approaching.

It's just that Zhao Xiaoya is not afraid of him. She knows better than anyone else that the old man is a kind-hearted man. She met the old man several times in the mountains, and he always gave her something to eat.

When she grew up, there was no one except her grandfather who was willing to share the food at home for her.

Her hand unconsciously fell on her wrist, which was a bracelet made of animal teeth.

When the old man killed a tiger in the mountains, it not only caused discussion in villages all over the country, but also spread the word in the city.He sold all the tiger bones and meat, leaving the skins and tusks behind. He strung the tusks into bracelets and sent them to Zhao's house on the pretext that she was helping him carry things down the mountain, specifically saying that they were to be given to "Zhao Xiaoya".

Due to the old man's reputation over the years, Liu Caifeng and Zhao Xue did not dare to snatch it even if they were jealous.

Gu Qiaocheng saw Zhao Xiaoya's movements from the corner of his eye and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.When he was young, he experienced many battles and firmly believed in the theory that animal teeth can ward off evil spirits. Wearing animal teeth is a symbol of strength and bravery.He sympathized with Zhao Xiaoya in his heart, but the little girl was weak and didn't know how to resist. Even if he wanted to meddle in his own business, he couldn't help if the little girl didn't fight.

Gu Qiaocheng calmly paid attention to Zhao Xiaoya, who was struggling to keep up with him, and slowed down slightly.

Zhao Xiaoya endured the discomfort and touched the animal tooth bracelet.She didn't understand it before and thought that her grandfather gave it to her because he felt pity for her because he didn't have any jewelry. It wasn't until later that she realized his true intention of giving her the animal tooth. It was a pity that she knew it too late.

Following Gu Qiaocheng into the bamboo forest, Zhao Xiaoya's eyes were filled with nostalgia. People in the village said that this place looked sinister, but she thought it was a very beautiful place.

In her previous life, she was finally forced to marry into the Li family, and the bamboo forest was burned to the ground, along with the beautiful bamboo building. She never saw her grandfather again.

She would rather believe that grandpa has left here, and does not want to think that grandpa may have died in the fire...

Passing through the bamboo forest, the bamboo building appears in front of you.

Gu Qiaocheng, who was walking in front, pushed open the small door in front of the bamboo building, and Zhao Xiaoya obeyed the rules and placed the bamboo basket by the door.

Gu Qiaocheng finally spoke, "Wait a moment, I'll cut off a deer leg and bring it to you..."

Zhao Xiaoya turned around and ran away before Gu Qiaocheng finished speaking.

Gu Qiaocheng couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the petite figure that disappeared all of a sudden.