Although the river ditch was deep, the water was very clear.
He quickly found the monkey who had fallen into the water and swam toward her rapidly.
Jiang Xiaoxiao had been searching in the water for quite a while before she finally spotted her few radishes.
She was just about to reach out and grab them when something suddenly tightened around her neck, as if something had cinched her collar.
Jiang Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered that the adults in the village often said there lived a River Uncle in this ditch, and he was very fierce. If children were disobedient, he would drag them into the water to become river imps.
Could it be that what was tangled around her was the River Uncle the adults spoke of?
At this thought, Jiang Xiaoxiao's face went pale with fright, and she struggled desperately to break free. But because she hadn't eaten her fill and had just been beaten, after a few struggles she lost all strength.
Watching the radishes drift farther and farther away, Jiang Xiaoxiao was both angry and scared. In the end, she closed her eyes and fainted.
Qinghe Town People's Hospital.
When Jiang Xiaoxiao woke up again, it was from hunger.
She reached out to rub her eyes, but found a needle stuck in the back of her hand, with a tube attached to it, a thin tube connected to an IV bottle beside her.
Jiang Xiaoxiao had never been to a hospital and didn't know what the tube was for. She only felt that the needle in her hand was uncomfortable, so she wanted to pull it out.
Unexpectedly, at that moment, a low voice suddenly came from the doorway: "Don't move!"
Jiang Xiaoxiao was so startled that she immediately withdrew her hand and looked up at the same time.
At this look, the little girl's eyes went wide.
Under the bright incandescent light stood a stranger, a young man with refined and handsome features.
The young man was very tall, taller than Uncle Xiaomao, the tallest person in the village. Jiang Xiaoxiao almost had to tilt her head back to see his face.
He wore a brand-new white T-shirt and black pants, and on his feet were a pair of black leather shoes so shiny they gleamed.
Jiang Xiaoxiao had never seen anyone dressed like this.
The most decently dressed person she had ever seen was Uncle Xiaomao, but Uncle Xiaomao's pants weren't this well-fitted, and his leather shoes weren't this new.
Seeing her dazed expression, the young man thought she had been frightened by his earlier shout.
He walked to the bedside and said in a gentler tone than before: "River Imp, what's your name?"
River Imp?
This form of address instantly reminded Jiang Xiaoxiao of her earlier experience in the water. She looked down at herself, then at the handsome stranger before her, and suddenly understood something.
Could this young man in front of her be the River Uncle the adults spoke of?
At this thought, Jiang Xiaoxiao's little face immediately went pale, and a hint of fear showed in her round eyes.
"I—I don't want to be a river imp. River Uncle, please let me go back, I promise I'll be good and listen to Uncle and Auntie from now on…"
Although this River Uncle looked very young and very handsome, she still didn't want to become a river imp.
The water was too cold.
She would rather go hungry than soak in the water all day.
Hearing her say these nonsensical things, the handsome young man couldn't help but frown.
Could this little imp have soaked her brain in the water?
Did he look like he was old enough to be her uncle?
The young man immediately got up and called the doctor over. The doctor examined her for a long time and still only found low blood sugar.
It was only from listening to the conversation between the doctor and the young man that Jiang Xiaoxiao realized she had been mistaken.
It turned out that this handsome young man was not the River Uncle, but someone who had seen her jump into the river, rescued her, and brought her to the town hospital.
So when the doctor asked her name, she immediately answered obediently, "Xiaoxiao… Jiang Xiaoxiao."
Her voice was soft and sweet, her enunciation clear.
The female doctor could basically determine that there was nothing wrong with this little one's mind.
However…
"Your name is Jiang Xiaoxiao? Then is your father's name Jiang Wensheng?"
Jiang Xiaoxiao was stunned for a moment, then nodded, and asked curiously, "Auntie, do you know my daddy?"
The female doctor's expression was somewhat complicated: "How many people in Qinghe Town don't know your father?"
Back then, the name Jiang Wensheng was very famous not only in Huaihua Village, but even throughout the entire Qinghe Town.
Not only because he was the first university student from the town to test out.
But also because he was handsome and elegant, practically the dream lover of all the girls in Qinghe Town.
Even she herself had secretly had feelings for him back then.
The female doctor thought of the past, then looked at the little girl before her, and remembering the bruises she had seen when she examined her just now, her eyes held more sympathy: "These injuries on your body, someone hit you, right?"
But Jiang Xiaoxiao lowered her head, biting her lip, and said nothing.
Although the young man before her had saved her, and this auntie didn't seem to mean any harm, she still didn't want to tell them about being beaten.
She still remembered that when she was three years old, a volunteer teaching sister had come to the village.
After learning that she was often beaten, she had specifically gone to the village officials to report the matter, and the village had called her auntie over and criticized her.
After that day, her auntie indeed hadn't beaten her for quite a long while.
But once the volunteer teaching sister left, her auntie not only beat her even harder than before, but also often didn't give her food to eat.
From then on, she never told anyone about being beaten or going hungry again.
Seeing that she refused to speak, the female doctor didn't ask further, and lowered her head wanting to help her apply medicine, but unexpectedly Jiang Xiaoxiao withdrew her hand.
The female doctor thought she was afraid, and comforted her: "Don't be scared, it's just some external injury medicine, it won't hurt."
Only then did the little girl raise her head, a pair of big eyes black and clear: "I'm not afraid of pain, but I don't have money."
The five-year-old little girl actually didn't quite understand the concept of money yet.
But she knew that Village Chief Grandpa didn't go to the hospital precisely because he had no money to buy medicine.
Her family's circumstances were even worse than Village Chief Grandpa's, so naturally they had even less money to buy medicine. Even if they did, her auntie wouldn't give it.
So this medicine, she didn't dare use it.
But unexpectedly at this moment, the young man who had been silent all along suddenly spoke again: "You don't need to pay for this."
The little girl suddenly raised her head and looked toward him, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Just as she was about to speak, a woman's voice suddenly came from the corridor again: "Old Xu, you didn't lie to me, right? My son really picked up a little girl and brought her to your hospital?"