After tripping on a chocolate bar, Yi Qingju once again tricked the other person into accompanying her down the mountain and brought herself back to the village.
Old Li's complex emotions lasted the entire way down the mountain.
He ran a small grocery store in the village, and a chocolate bar was not something he would feel particularly pained about, but he was more concerned about his own intelligence and hurrying home to change into his autumn clothes...
"We're almost at the village entrance, Girl Ju, I'll go ahead first, you can go back by yourself."
Upon hearing this, Yi Qingju immediately did a complete 360-degree turn and threw herself to the ground.
Uncle Li was left utterly dumbfounded.
What on earth, why did she do such a big gesture?
Yi Qingju pitifully said, "Uncle, I tripped on a stone and sprained my foot, can you take me home first before going back to change your autumn clothes?"
Uncle Li: "......" Wasn't that you who fell by yourself?
She was convinced that this kindly-smiling uncle was a good person.
The key was that Yi Qingju didn't even know where her own home was.
In the end, Uncle Li still carried her back home.
When she saw the stone marker at the village entrance that read "Peach Blossom Village", a complex light flashed in her eyes.
True to his word, Old Li carried Yi Qingju all the way to her doorstep. She stood in front of the completely unfamiliar door, greatly moved, and saluted him with military etiquette, gratefully saying, "Uncle Li, you are a true hero of the nation, a courageous and righteous hero, a truly good person!"
The forever-scorned Old Li had never been praised in such a way before, and his weathered old face immediately flushed red. He bashfully rubbed his head, then rummaged in his pocket and handed Yi Qingju a packet of instant noodles, then watched helplessly as the little girl pushed the door and ran inside.
"Huh, wasn't her foot injured?"
How could the autumn-clothing hero understand the cunning schemes of Yi Qingju?
The home Yi Qingju had arrived at was a single-story house, with a badly peeling black wooden door covered in two faded red couplets. Pushing the door open led to a small courtyard, with a well on the left and a few chickens running out of their coop on the right.
Quickly swallowing down half the packet of instant noodles in her hand, Yi Qingju then called out: "Xiao Jiji, can you hear my voice?"
After a few seconds, a weak voice responded in her mind: "Host... I'm here."
Yi Qingju wasted no time with small talk, immediately asking, "What's the situation now? How did I end up here?"
"Host, the situation has changed. Some unknown novel transmigrator has targeted the original host's childhood body, planning to have a child trafficker kill the young Qi Weiran early on. The higher-ups have detected this, so the originally planned resurrection system could only be activated in this time period. You need to find a way to safely send Qi Weiran away..."
Yi Qingju frowned, then asked the next question: "Why is the original host living here, when they should have been living in S City?"
"Host... the original host is actually not the biological child of Yi Danian and Zhang Juanjuan."
Yi Qingju's first reaction was disbelief, as the parents had treated the original host so terribly, yet Yi Bingmei and the original host looked so alike.
"The original host was a child that Old Master Yi one day brought back, and no one knows where he found the child."
"According to the information, the original host had previously been living with their grandmother..."
Xiao Jiji's voice gradually faded from her mind. As she was lost in thought, a weary voice suddenly sounded from inside the house: "Is that Girl Ju back?"
Yi Qingju startled, the words "This servant is here" almost slipping out of her mouth.
Realizing this must be the grandmother Xiao Jiji mentioned, Yi Qingju hurried inside.
She had never seen such an old person before. The woman was sitting in a wooden wheelchair, her lower body covered by a heavily pilled blanket. Her white hair and frail figure, as if she would fall apart at the slightest touch, gave off an aura of utter decay.
"Grandma," Yi Qingju murmured.
Hearing this, the grandmother reached out a hand, beckoning her closer. Seeing the bloodstains on her clothes, the grandmother's hand trembled, her eyes reddening as she hoarsely asked, "Was it... those rotten kids Mao Dan bullying you again?"
Yi Qingju didn't know who Mao Dan was, so she shook her head.
The original host's grandmother was so old, Yi Qingju had to come up with an excuse to keep her from worrying.
"Damn those little bastards!"
Unexpectedly, the old woman, who had been curled up in the wheelchair seemingly near death, suddenly sprang up, grabbing a cane beside her. Baring her remaining two teeth in a grin, she quickly hobbled out, yelling, "Let's see if Granny won't break their little asses!"
Yi Qingju hugged herself, dumbfounded.
As long as she didn't break Xiao Jiji, everything would be fine...
The old woman's outburst had truly left Yi Qingju stunned.
When she regained her senses, she went to the kitchen. In the old-fashioned pot, there was a white, fluffy steamed bun and an egg, likely what the grandmother had left for her granddaughter.
She didn't take the egg, only the white bun, then rummaged around what seemed to be the bedroom, finding what appeared to be the original host's clothes - a jacket with "adadisi" printed on it, obviously a counterfeit of some famous brand.
After that, she hurried back to the hiding place of the young Qi Weiran.
Luckily, she had carefully memorized the way when she left.
"Little brother..."
After jumping into the hidden cave, Yi Qingju called out, and the sound of her voice soon echoed in the small space, along with a faint rustling.
She quickly went over.
Qi Weiran was still in the same position as when she left, now tilting his head to look at her: "You're back."
His voice was a bit hoarse, clearly from the cold.
Yi Qingju hurriedly went over and put the shortened pink jacket on him. His skin was pale, and his features delicate, at this age the color made him look even more beautiful, with an ambiguous feminine charm.
"Here, this is a steamed bun, instant noodles, and chocolate."
The thin girl kept taking things out of her pockets, placing them in his hands like precious treasures, her beautiful cat-like eyes shining with specks of stars.
Qi Weiran was taken aback.
He looked down at the food he had never tasted before, then looked back up at Yi Qingju, biting his lip: "Xiao Zhi..."
Qi Weiran didn't consciously ask which character, he just looked at her and was reminded of the small jasmine flower in the crevice of the stone.
Yi Qingju nodded, glancing at the cartoon-patterned T-shirt he was wearing: "Mm, I'm Xiao Zhi."
Specially recruited to capture Pikachu.
"Let's eat together."
Breaking the bun in half, Qi Weiran handed one piece to Yi Qingju.
She didn't hesitate, directly taking it and sitting down next to him, the two of them staring at the dark cave ceiling, eating the most tasteless yet incredibly meaningful meal of their lives.
Truthfully, even when Yi Qingju was in the orphanage, as the child queen with little ones worshipping her, she had never eaten a meal like this.
Chewing on the white bun with the chocolate, she pondered if Xiao Jiji should be able to talk now.
Qi Weiran turned his head, looking at the soft, youthful profile of the girl. He couldn't help but worry that he might end up dragging her down.
If his guess was correct, that person was still out there looking for him...
"Are you always this good to everyone?" he suddenly spoke up.
Yi Qingju looked over at him, the still-naive amber eyes holding a certain fragility and pity.
She knew Qi Weiran didn't need sympathy, so she shook her head: "No, I'll help anyone who is in trouble."
The girl's gaze was firm and bright, more beautiful than any jewel Qi Weiran had seen in his mother's jewelry collection.
She was different from those who only approached him for their own purposes. Now, when he could offer her nothing, why was Xiao Zhi still willing to help him?
There were truly people in this world as kind-hearted as the saints in the books.
"But if one day aliens attacked the Earth, and sacrificing yourself could save all of humanity, would you do it?" It was clearly a childish question that Qi Weiran would never have asked out loud, but he blurted it out by some strange impulse.
Immediately, a familiar voice rang out in his mind—
"Alien Lord, they're hiding here!"
