Right after, the door was pushed open.
Jiang Xiaoxiao looked up. This time, the person who entered was a very beautiful auntie.
Her skin was fair, and she was tall and slender.
She wore delicate, light makeup, a white trench coat, and carried a fragrant scent—just like a fairy.
No, rather, she was more like Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Jiang Xiaoxiao had been to the temple to burn incense before and had seen statues of Guanyin Bodhisattva. The more she looked, the more she felt the auntie before her resembled a reincarnation of Guanyin.
"Mom, why are you here?"
Hearing the youth's words, Jiang Xiaoxiao suddenly understood.
So this auntie was actually the beautiful brother's mother—no wonder both of them looked like celestial beings.
The beautiful auntie, Yan Qiu, glanced at the youth with a smile. "Of course I came to see what treasure my son picked up."
With that, her gaze shifted and landed on Jiang Xiaoxiao on the hospital bed, and her eyes lit up at once.
Although the little girl before her looked thin and small, her features were exceptionally well-proportioned.
Especially those big, watery eyes like black grapes—just looking at them made one like her!
No wonder her son had kindly saved her!
No one understood her son better than Yan Qiu.
The boy seemed refined and polite to everyone, but Yan Qiu knew that in this world, there was nothing that could truly make him care.
It was her own fault, really. Back then, seeing that the child had acting talent at such a young age, she had pulled him into her own crew to act. As a result, before she noticed, the child had gotten too deep into his role.
By the time she realized, he had already developed autism!
In recent years, she had taken her son to see countless famous doctors and taken countless medicines, yet her son grew more silent by the day.
A few days ago, she had discussed it with a psychologist: since the child became autistic because of acting, then let him continue acting, and see if he could find his way out through acting again.
It just so happened that she had a drama shooting on location in Qinghe Town, so she brought him along. She hadn't expected that on the very first day, there would be such a big harvest.
Her son, who had never cared about anything, had actually saved a little girl!
The more Yan Qiu thought about it, the more incredible it seemed.
As if looking at an alien, she sized the little girl up and down again, and the more she looked, the more satisfied she became.
"Baby, what's your name?"
Jiang Xiaoxiao's eyes went wide, and her little ears felt slightly warm.
Baby?
Was the beautiful auntie calling her that?
She had never heard anyone call her that, but she had heard Uncle Xiaomao call Aunt Mao that.
Uncle Xiaomao said the word "baby" could only be used for someone you liked very, very much.
So, the beautiful auntie liked her very, very much?
For a moment, not only did Jiang Xiaoxiao's ears burn, but her little face began to feel warm too.
"I-I'm Jiang Xiaoxiao."
"Xiaoxiao baby, you can call me Auntie Yan." Yan Qiu smiled gently. "Xiaoxiao baby, you live in Qinghe Town too, right? Who's in your family? Auntie liked you the moment I saw you. Would you consider shooting a drama with Auntie Yan?"
Jiang Xiaoxiao was bombarded with several "baby"s in a row, leaving her mind a bit dazed.
As for what she said, Xiaoxiao understood it even less. What was shooting a drama?
"Mom! She's so young, what does she know about shooting dramas?"
Before Jiang Xiaoxiao could answer, the youth Qi Jinchen spoke up with some displeasure: "Besides, she's still injured, and the doctor said she has low blood sugar and needs proper rest."
"I'm not asking her to join the crew right away, I was just casually asking."
Yan Qiu said "casually asking" with her mouth, but inside she was incredibly excited.
This brat—he's feeling sorry for her, isn't he?
Tsk tsk, she never thought that in her lifetime, besides books and paintings, she'd actually get to see her own son feel sorry for a living thing!
Too rare!
This girl was simply a treasure sent from heaven!
She absolutely had to recruit this girl into the crew—whether she could act or not was a minor matter. The most important thing was to make sure her son spent more time with her!
……
The next morning.
Rural folk rise early. Before seven o'clock, most of the Huaihua Village had already eaten breakfast—those who needed to go to school went to school, those who needed to work in the fields went to the fields. The village was lively and bustling.
Jiang Qingmei got up to wash, but found there was no hot water. Her face immediately fell, and she headed straight for the firewood shed: "Dead girl! The sun's already shining on your backside and you dare sleep in? Get up and boil water for your mother!"
But the firewood shed was perfectly quiet, no sound at all.
"Playing dead, are you? Just you wait—I'll skin you alive today!"
Jiang Qingmei said viciously as she pushed open the firewood shed door, only to find it completely empty.
Only then did Jiang Qingmei remember—the girl hadn't come back even by the time she went to sleep last night. Could she have run off in a huff after being beaten?
If that were really the case, it would truly be an occasion worth setting off firecrackers to celebrate!
Jiang Qingmei secretly prayed that the dead girl would leave and never come back.
But before she could even boil the hot water, she heard a sudden commotion outside—many people were heading toward the back mountain. Curious, Jiang Qingmei opened the door and grabbed someone to ask what had happened.
"Old Li says he saw a pair of children's shoes in the lake at the back mountain. He's afraid some family's child fell into the water, so he's asking everyone to help search!"
Jiang Qingmei's heart gave a violent lurch. She suddenly remembered that she'd made Jiang Xiaoxiao pull radishes last night. Could it be that the one who fell into the water was that dead girl?
At the thought of this possibility, Jiang Qingmei felt both panicked and irritated.
Sure enough, a little debt collector. Usually eating her food and living under her roof was one thing, but she couldn't even die somewhere far away!
Just making her pull a few radishes, and she managed to fall into a ditch!
If they couldn't find the body, that would be fine—when the villagers asked, she could say the girl ran off on her own. But if they found it, she wouldn't be able to explain herself even with ten mouths.
Jiang Qingmei didn't plan to go watch the commotion. She was just about to turn and close the door to go back inside when someone behind her called out: "Auntie Jiang! The old village chief wants you to come over!"
Jiang Qingmei's body froze. Forcing down her panic, she turned around and found it was Miao Cuihua, Xu Dahan's wife.
The Jiang and Xu families were neighbors, and Jiang Qingmei's relationship with Miao Cuihua was fairly good, so Jiang Qingmei quickly asked: "Good sister-in-law, what's happened? Why would the old village chief suddenly call for me?"
"A film crew came to the village—they say they're here to shoot a drama. Every one of them looks like a deity."
Jiang Qingmei's eyes went wide: "A film crew?"
Never mind how a film crew would come to a poor backwater like Huaihua Village—even if one did, what did that have to do with her?
"Yes, and they even brought your family's little Xiao girl with them. They say they want to take your girl to shoot a drama!"
Miao Cuihua wore a look of envy, secretly regretting that she had not given birth to a daughter, and could only watch helplessly as this good fortune fell to the Jiang family.
Jiang Qingmei, however, was so shocked that her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
She had not expected that girl to not only be alive, but also to have been chosen by the film crew to act. But the problem was, how old was that girl? She did not even know a single character—how could she act in anything?