Born into such a family, she felt that her life was already perfect. In this lifetime, she could completely lie back and take it easy.
Her father gave them the names Jiang Yuebo and Jiang Yueli. Her father said that “Li” meant glazed jade, hoping that his A-Li would be like beautiful crystal jade—pure, flawless, and dazzling.
As for her brother, her father said that when he was born he was fair and plump, so the character “Bai,” meaning white, suited him quite well. Thus he was named Jiang Yuebo.
Unfortunately, Jiang Yuebo was still too young to know the meaning behind his name, so naturally he had no objections. Jiang Yueli, however, shed a sympathetic tear for him.
After the full-moon celebration, she and her father had barely had time to bond before the emperor sent him to the frontier. That departure lasted three years.
She grew from a swaddled infant to a babbling toddler, and now into a delicately carved little girl, yet she had never seen her father return.
The two cousins from her uncle’s family had already started attending school, but she and her little bun of a brother could only stay by their mother’s side, playing and fooling around.
“Meimei, eat cake.”
Jiang Yuebo toddled over with a piece of white osmanthus cake in his hand, stumbling as he ran toward Jiang Yueli.
Jiang Yueli was sitting bored on the steps, propping her head up with one hand while using a small twig to scribble on the ground, looking full of thoughts.
Seeing the little fellow running toward her, Jiang Yueli glanced at the cake and twitched the corner of her eye.
“I’m not eating it. You eat it yourself.”
Jiang Yuebo raised the cake in his hand, now smeared with plenty of saliva, and stubbornly continued to look at her.
“Mother said protect little sister. If there’s something tasty, little sister eats first. Meimei eat cake.”
Although Jiang Yuebo still spoke unclearly, his meaning was basically understandable. He just had a rather stubborn personality.
Jiang Yueli scratched her head helplessly and reached out to accept the cake. Then she saw Jiang Yuebo grin widely, revealing two small tiger teeth.
Seeing those teeth, Jiang Yueli held her forehead in resignation.
She could understand that twins might look alike, but wasn’t it a bit too much for them to look exactly the same? Even the tiger teeth and dimples were identical.
She hadn’t noticed before. But ever since she had once tricked this boy into wearing her clothes and even gave him the same hairstyle as hers, she discovered something.
Aside from the slightly foolish innocence in his eyes, he looked exactly like a copy-and-paste version of her.
The only difference might be the crescent-shaped birthmark on her wrist.
After all, that was the only cheat she had brought from her previous life—a portable space nearly ten thousand square meters in size.
Originally, it had contained quite a lot of her savings from her previous life. But after transmigrating, she discovered that everything inside had disappeared. It was as if her rebirth had formatted everything clean.
Still, the space remained, which was already fortunate.
Although Jiang Yuebo was a bit clingy, he treated her very well. From a young age he knew to let her choose the tasty food and fun toys first, and he always tried to protect her.
Seeing how eager he was to be a good older brother, Jiang Yueli naturally didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm.
“Meimei, what are you drawing?”
The little fellow leaned closer and looked at the ground, but he couldn’t make out what Jiang Yueli had drawn.
Jiang Yueli sighed.
“Kid, even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”
Jiang Yuebo looked at her with a confused expression. Perhaps he could never figure out why, even though his sister was the same age as him, she seemed to understand so much more.
“A-Li! Xiao Bai! Come out quickly—your father has returned!”
Their aunt’s voice sounded from the gate.
Jiang Yueli’s eyes instantly lit up, and she ran out on her short little legs.
Jiang Yuebo still stood there blankly, thinking about who “father” was. By the time he figured it out, his sister had already disappeared.
Only when Jiang Yueli reached the gate did she realize that Jiang Yuebo hadn’t followed.
But she had no time to worry about that little brat. She hadn’t seen her father for a long time.
Jiang Yuebo might not remember Jiang Shi’an, but she did.
Over the years, whenever letters arrived from her father, her mother would read them aloud to her. In those letters, Jiang Shi’an mentioned her the most.
She was extremely satisfied with this handsome father. Hearing that he had returned naturally made her happy.
“Auntie, where is my father? Where has he reached?”
Her aunt was smiling, looking as if she had just returned from outside.
“I just heard from your uncle. He suddenly sent someone to say your father returned to the capital earlier than expected. He should be entering the city very soon. Good girl, wait here first. I’ll go call your mother, and we’ll go together to meet him.”
With that, her aunt hurried into the courtyard.
Jiang Yueli paced back and forth excitedly. Thinking that her father was coming back truly made her happy.
Because she knew her father genuinely loved her.
In this lifetime, she only wanted to be their beloved daughter. The assassin known as Seventeen from her previous life was already completely gone.
After waiting for what felt like a long time and still not seeing her aunt return, Jiang Yueli could no longer hold back.
She simply lifted her skirt and ran out by herself.
She often went out on the streets with her mother and aunt, so she was already very familiar with the capital city. The only unfortunate thing was that with her short arms and legs she walked too slowly. After running for a while she began to pant.
It would have been better to ride in the carriage with her aunt.
In her impatience, she took a shortcut.
Because of that shortcut, she ended up missing Shen Nanzhi and her aunt Hu Shi, who were chasing after her from behind.
Although Jiang Yueli was small, she was not timid.
The alley she entered was long and narrow, and beggars occasionally appeared there. But she rushed through in one breath.
Just as she was about to reach the end, she failed to stop in time and slammed into someone.
The person wasn’t very tall and staggered back half a step before steadying himself, while she fell flat onto the ground.
“Ow—”
Jiang Yueli cried out in pain. She was just about to ask who had blocked her path when she looked up and saw a handsome little boy with red lips and white teeth.
The boy looked about six or seven years old, but he was exceptionally fair and good-looking.
Seeing how cute he was, Jiang Yueli’s anger instantly disappeared. She patted the dust off her bottom and stood up.
“Are you alright?”
The boy extended his hand to help her up.
Jiang Yueli quickly waved her hand.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I still have something to do, so I’ll go first.”
In her hurry to leave, she didn’t notice that when she fell earlier, she had dropped several things.
She simply waved at the boy and ran off.
The boy looked at the items scattered on the ground, then at the little ball of a girl running away in the distance. Before he could even call out, she had already disappeared.
He walked over and picked up a jade pendant that had fallen to the ground, along with a small, delicate handkerchief that still carried a milky fragrance.
“Jiang…”
The young boy looked at the character engraved on the jade pendant and paused.
There weren’t many families with the surname Jiang in the capital. Judging from her clothes, that girl clearly wasn’t from an ordinary family. The jade pendant was also quite valuable.
It would be best to return it to her when he had the chance.
“Young master, that should be the young lady from the Zhenyuan General’s residence. Today the general is returning to the capital. Miss Jiang was probably rushing to the city gate to welcome him.”
The servant beside him spoke softly.
The young boy nodded and then said, “The city gate isn’t far ahead. Why don’t we go take a look as well? We can return these things to that girl while we’re at it.”
She was still so young. If someone with bad intentions noticed her, it could become troublesome.
The servant knew his young master had a kind heart, so he didn’t say anything more. After all, they had no urgent matters at the moment.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yueli’s small figure squeezed through the crowd.
Perhaps because she was too short, when she lifted her head she could only see countless legs.
Someone even accidentally stepped on her foot.
The pain instantly brought tears to her eyes, and she could only retreat miserably.
All these common people had heard that her father was returning, so they had gathered to welcome him. She endured it, but it really hurt terribly.
Her toes felt as if they had almost been crushed.
Jiang Yueli limped backward, still staring toward the city gate.
When the handsome little boy caught up, Jiang Yueli was stretching her neck, trying to look toward the gate.
But the crowd there had completely blocked the view.
With her tiny height, she simply couldn’t see anything.