His deep voice was like an old cello that flowed and created a special mood in the dark room. A Miao turned around and looked at him.

Shen Xinglan stretched out his hand and touched her head, then he took her hand and said, “You should know something about my childhood. I was deliberately sold to a killer organization by Bai Yongwei when I was just 12 years old.

“After meeting Le Yi and the others, we all lived in hell for six years.”

A Miao could not help holding his hand, and Shen Xinglan held it in return and squeezed it hard.

“I met a little girl when I was returning from training. At that time, she was being bullied by a child older than her. I saved her. I didn’t expect that she would be waiting for me there the next day and give me a box of lunch meat.”

The little girl stared at him with a pair of big watery eyes and insisted on giving him meat.

“My grandpa gave me this to eat, but I give it to older brother!”

Later on, Shen Xinglan learned that she was also an abducted child, but she had had better luck. An old man on the island who did not know her identity just needed someone to run errands. The little girl was chosen because she was cute.

“I will secretly send delicious food to older brother every day!” the little girl shouted at Shen Xinglan when she left.

Then, the little girl secretly sent him food every day. Sometimes he was seriously injured, and she secretly took medicine from the old man.

“What’s your name?”

“My mother told me that my father didn’t give me a name. She always just called me ‘little darling’.”

“That’s too ambiguous. Let me give you a new name.”

“Well, older brother is so beautiful, I’ll listen to older brother!”

“Okay, then… you will be called Shanshan.”

The building of virtue is also based on the protection of goodness. This little girl named Shanshan had become the only salvation during those gloomy years of Shen Xinglan. She soothed the young man’s heart from falling into darkness and let him push forward toward the edge of hope.

“Then… where did she go?” A Miao’s heart was heavy. Suddenly she remembered those stars that Shen Xinglan had contacted before. They all had one common feature, namely, their eyes.

There was something growing in the bottom of her heart. A Miao opened her mouth but did not ask for an answer.

Shen Xinglan did not see the struggle in her eyes, so he continued, “One day when I went back, I saw her being pressed down by a mercenary soldier, and she was all hurt. The mercenary soldier was taking his pants off.”

A Miao shivered and Shen Xinglan patted her arm.

“In order to save her, I fought the mercenary. As a result, I was stabbed because of the age difference. The mercenary soldier tried to kill me and Shanshan hit him on the head with a stone. In the end… he kicked her off the cliff.”

As Shen Xinglan was firmly holding her hand, he felt a sudden pain in his palm. A Miao had bitten down and ground her teeth while saying nothing.

“It’s an island surrounded by the sea. We can’t even find it.” Shen Xinglan closed his eyes. For a long time, neither of them spoke.

Just when Shen Xinglan thought that A Miao was asleep, he suddenly heard her speak.

“Do I look like Shanshan… at all?”

As soon as she said this, A Miao noticed that Shen Xinglan moved. She sat up and looked at him seriously. “Am I her body double?”

“No,” Shen Xinglan immediately said.

A Miao nodded. “Then… if Shanshan returns, will you be with her?”

This time, Shen Xinglan did not answer immediately, but looked at A Miao stupefied. After a few seconds, he shook his head. “I don’t know…”

“OK.” A Miao lay down again. “It’s getting late, go to sleep!”

Seeing her turn her back on him, Shen Xinglan discontentedly reached out and poked A Miao in the waist. “I haven’t finished yet, don’t be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.” A Miao’s voice was very insipid, but Shen Xinglan was even more dissatisfied.

“Why aren’t you jealous?” This woman did not care about him so much.

A Miao was irritated by his poking and had to turn around and look at him. “What do you want? For me to cry and say no? Or have a big fight with you?”

“I mean, I don’t know what Shanshan means to me in my heart.” Shen Xinglan tapped her forehead. “Do you think I would have any love for an eight-year-old girl?”

A Miao laughed twice, thinking, “Ordinary people wouldn’t, but you’re crazy…”

“No fake smile.” Pinching her cheek, Shen Xinglan wanted to squeeze it hard but reluctantly decided to let it go.

“I admit that the first time I felt differently about you, it was because your eyes were almost the same as hers.” Shen Xinglan looked into the air and his ears began to turn red again.

A Miao would laugh every time she saw the man become shy, but if she laughed aloud, she would die, so she endured it.

“But then it gradually became clear that you are completely different.”

The eight-year-old Shanshan always had a smile in her eyes. However, A Miao’s eyes were more brave, tough, and uncompromising to life.

“I hesitated for so long, just not sure whether I liked you because you resembled Shanshan or because you were you.”

Shen Xinglan suddenly turned his head and just saw A Miao smile.

A Miao said nothing.

As did Shen Xinglan.

“I’m happy!” A Miao said immediately, “You… continue.”

He always felt that something was wrong… Shen Xinglan stared at her for a while, and A Miao lifted her head up with a face full of honesty.

“I thought I could control it, but when I knew you were leaving with another man, I just wanted to get you back immediately and break your legs so that you could not live without me.”

“What a perverted lunatic…” A Maio cried in her heart, “So terrible!”

“A Miao…” Shen Xinglan suddenly leaned his face in.

A Miao gulped. “Wh-what?”

“Don’t leave me and love me well. Make me unable to leave you, OK?” His hand caressed her face and rubbed it slowly. “In this way, no matter what the reason, we will not separate unless I die.”

“I will try my best.” A Miao could see the seriousness in his eyes, but she could not guarantee anything.

If a man wants to leave, even if you can give your life, he will still leave.

Shen Xinglan was not very satisfied with that answer, or rather, he was quite dissatisfied. But he also knew that A Miao had not yet begun to understand, and her feelings for him were far less than his own for her.

“Then change it.” Shen Xinglan’s lips covered hers, and his vague voice clearly reached A Miao’s ears.

Shen Xinglan said, “If I were to love you well, I would make you inseparable from me. Unless you die, you will be with me.”

For a long time, A Miao remembered what Shen Xinglan said on this night and felt that this guy was such a psycho even in his sweet talk. But one day in the future, she suddenly found out that what he said was true…

The next day, after A Miao left, Le Yi looked at Shen Xinglan with inquiring eyes.

“What do you want to say?” Shen Xinglan put down the newspaper.

Le Yi smiled like a noble son. “Why do I think you and A Miao are different today?”

“Fat or thin.”

“You know what I mean!” Le Yi finished examining his wound. “Did you really eat people like animals?”

“Shut up. Do you think I’m Ouyang?” said Shen Xinglan, his face darkened.

“Well, who knows…” Le Yi remembered something. “Ouyang said he still has something to do over there. He won’t be here until the end of the month. What are you going to make him do?”

“As my special assistant, he can do whatever he wants.” Shen Xinglan smiled sarcastically. “Let’s see how far we can push that mother and son.”

A cornered dog will jump over the wall. People are not afraid of its bark, because only when it barks, people have reason to hit it.

“Boss,” Shen II came in and said, “everything is arranged.”

Le Yi asked, “Who are you after?”

“You will know in a few days.” Shen Xinglan squinted his eyes. “By the way, where is Ding V?”

“I don’t know.” Le Yi thought for a moment. “Say it’s for a few days, don’t worry about him.”

If that guy went out, he would go missing for several days. Then he returned from nowhere. It was hard to keep track of him.

“Don’t say I didn’t remind you, Christmas is coming soon. Did you buy a present for A Miao?” Le Yi felt that he really had lots of things to worry about, responsible for curing the illness and being a bosom brother.

“It depends on what she gives me,” said Shen Xinglan, tugging wildly at his face.

“You shut your mouth!” Le Yi glared at him and turned to go out.

“Wait a minute.” Shen Xinglan called to stop him. “Can I get up or sit up?”

Le Yi rubbed the space between his eyebrows. “No, not unless you’re not going to die.”

“For an hour.” Shen Xinglan looked at him. “It’s only an hour.”

A Miao knitted a scarf for Shen Xinglan.

She really did not know what to give him. It seemed that he did not want anything, so she had to go by her heart. To this end, A Miao specially bought a high-grade cashmere line with a grassland origin.

“Young lady, do you also have a holiday tomorrow?”

The day before Christmas, when Shen I came to pick her up, he said with concern, “We cleaned up the ward because we couldn’t go home.”

“I only go to school on Monday. I take three days off on the weekends.” A Miao did not pay attention to what he said. As a result, her eyes were straight when she arrived at the ward.

The red carpet, the green curtains, and the two-meter-high Christmas tree were all decorated with ornaments. The most excessive thing was that there was even a fireplace! How did he put it in?

“Do you like it?” Shen Xinglan was very satisfied with A Miao’s response. “I know you haven’t celebrated Christmas, and I will accompany you every year after this. This year’s conditions are not good, so we’ll have to make do with it.”

Although very immature, A Miao especially wanted to kneel down…

This was just the same as what she saw in the movie magazine, right?

“Like… I like it…” Her eyes glistened at everything in the room, and her expression was so cute, and he reached out to her.

“Come here.”

A Miao walked to the side of the bed and stared straight at the fireplace.

Shen Xinglan was disgruntled while holding her chin up to kiss her. More and more rapid breathing sounds intertwined in the room until A Miao felt a pair of big hands go into her clothes, and then she just fiercely pushed him away.

“Hooligan!” She jumped far away and her red cheeks made Shen Xinglan’s Adam’s apple surge.

That night, A Miao stayed up very late because she discovered that there was something in every small box under the Christmas tree.

“Are these all gold?” She took down all the boxes, with little ingots lying on the ground at her feet. They were also a cartoon version of various small animals—especially cute!

Shen Xinglan sneered at her. “And if not?”

“Hehe…” A Miao put away the gold ingots. “Thank you!”

She thought that these were all the Christmas presents from Shen Xinglan, but she did not know that the banquet was still yet to come…