Yan Liqiang was under the tree by the river, watching the stubborn and strong little girl washing her hands by the river.

At this moment, Yu Qing was still a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with a garlic face and a slightly yellow hair. Due to long-term malnutrition, her bean sprout-like figure was wrapped in a obviously wide and somewhat old-fashioned dress, which looked a little rustic. She was far less beautiful and charming than the one who had grown up four years later. However, even so, when Yan Liqiang looked at her, he still saw the familiar outline on her face four years later, especially Yu Qing's eyes, which had the brightness and resolute look that a girl of this age rarely had, just like four years later.

Yu Qing was just born, and her mother died of excessive postpartum blood loss. Two years later, her grandfather passed away. When she was five years old, her grandmother passed away. Last year, in the twelve year of Yuanping, her father, who had been tortured by illness in bed for two years, finally passed away. Since then, in this small town outside the imperial capital, a young girl who was inexperienced in the world has become synonymous with broom stars and bad luck in the eyes of others.

During the two years when her father was ill in bed, Yu Qing's family's fields and several large houses had been sold all of them to treat her father's illness and get medicine. In addition to these, in order to treat her father's illness, her family also owed a lot of money to the people in the town. After her father passed away, in the face of many people in the town, Yu Qing made needlework and thread and laundry for several inn guests in the town to make money to pay off her debts.

Yu Qing worked in the town for five years and washed clothes for five years before she paid off the money her father owed.

If Yan Liqiang did nothing, then four years later, Yu Qing, who had just paid off her father's debt, would meet her aunt who had not seen for more than ten years, and would leave the imperial capital and return to Jinling City with her aunt. After staying in Jinling City for a few days, her aunt and uncle would discuss marrying her to the silly son of a shopkeeper who runs a cloth shop in Jinling City as a daughter-in-law. Then, on the third day after her aunt and uncle received a 600 tael of betrothal gift, a heavenly disaster that fell from the sky would once again turn everyone around her into corpses under the ruins. Then, in the ruins of Jinling City that had lost the constraints of the king's law, this lonely little girl would fall into the hands of a group of gangsters and scum coveted her beauty, and end up miserably...

...

As the sky gradually darkened, the women who were originally washing clothes by the river all left with their clothes. Only Yu Qing, whose foreheads were covered with sweat, was still waving the wooden sticks on her hands by the river, and pounding and washing the clothes in her backpack over and over again.

Several teenagers in the town passed by the river and saw Yu Qing, who was beating clothes by the river. The teenagers looked at each other, and then a teenager quietly went down the stone steps, and then pushed Yu Qing's back suddenly...

"Puu..." Yu Qing suddenly rushed into the river, but the boys were already laughing and running away, shouting while running, "Broom Star, harming human spirit, broom Star, harming human spirit..."

The water by the river was not deep, only waist-length, but Yu Qing, who fell into the river, suddenly became wet after standing up.

"My clothes..."

I found that the clothes I had just held in my hand had already floated into the river with the water and floated downstream. Yu Qing walked towards the river without thinking. After just a few steps, the water suddenly flooded her neck and made her choke. But Yu Qing seemed to have not seen it, still staring at the clothes floating on the water. While walking towards the water, she tried her best to reach out her hand, trying to grab the floating clothes. The river water could not pass over her head in the blink of an eye...

"Puu..." Yan Liqiang jumped into the river without thinking, grabbed Yu Qing, grabbed the floating clothes, and then walked step by step from the river to the stone steps.

The wet hair was pressed against Yu Qing's pale face. Yu Qing raised her head and looked at Yan Liqiang, who jumped into the river and fished her and the floating clothes with a strange look. He seemed to have never thought that in the town, he would encounter such a person who could jump into the water and rescue her.

Yan Liqiang's whole body and hair were wet, his hair was still lowered with water, and there were a few aquatic plants hanging on his body. He handed Yu Qing the clothes he had picked up from his hand, "Nothing is more important than his life. Don't do such stupid things again in the future. This is just a piece of clothing!"

Yu Qing took the clothes handed over by Yan Liqiang and held them tightly in her hand. She bit her lips tightly, without saying a word, and seemed a little introverted, or she didn't know what to say to a stranger at this time. Because of the cold, her whole body was trembling gently.

Yan Liqiang smiled and looked at Yu Qing with a gentle look. Then he took out an inch of gold from himself and placed it in Yu Qing's hand. "My name is Yan Liqiang. I will leave the imperial capital the day after tomorrow and return to Ganzhou. This is ten taels of gold, which is enough for you to repay all your father's debts. If you want to leave Lihua Town, I can take you away!"

Yu Qing looked at the gold in her hand, then looked at Yan Liqiang, completely stunned, "You... why do you want to help me?" She asked timidly.

Yan Liqiang sighed, raised his eyes, and looked at the first star that began to appear in the sky. "I once had a dream. In that dream, I also met a girl named Yu Qing..." After saying this, Yan Liqiang discovered that Yu Qing had widened his eyes and looked at him without blinking. He felt that this reason was too awkward and literary for a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl. Yu Qing might not understand it. So he smiled a little embarrassedly and took down a few aquatic plants hanging on his body. "It doesn't matter if you don't want to leave with me. I won't force you. The ten taels of gold in your hand will be treated as I gave you. You don't have to pay it back. If someone wants to cause trouble for you, tell them that the person who gives you this ingot of gold is a lieutenant named Yan next to Eunuch Liu in Luyuan. If you want to die, come!"

Yu Qing just looked at Yan Liqiang, without saying a word, and did not express her opinion.

"Why, don't you believe me? I know it's a bit difficult. After all, I'll meet for the first time, but I will never bully you like those people in the future!"

Yu Qing still didn't speak...

"Okay, if you don't want to leave the Imperial Capital, maybe we will have a chance to meet again in a few years!" Yan Liqiang smiled, reached out to take down a little duckweed on Yu Qing's head, and then turned around and left. If Yu Qing didn't want to leave with him at this time, of course he could not kidnap Yu Qing.

"Wait a minute..."

A voice suddenly came from behind him. Yan Liqiang turned around and saw Yu Qing plucking up the courage to look at him. There was a hint of excitement on his pale face, "I'll go with you..."

Yan Liqiang laughed...

"But I have to wash these clothes first and send them to Evergreen Inn. Can you...can you wait for me?" Yu Qing added seriously and nervously.

"I'll wash with you, hurry up for two!" Yan Liqiang rolled up his sleeves and walked over again, squatted on the stone steps by the river, took the wooden stick for washing clothes, and began to knock on a piece of unwashed clothes. Yu Qing also squatted down and rinsed the clothes that Yan Liqiang beaten. The two of them washed all the clothes that Yu Qing brought together and sent them back to the inn. Then, Yan Liqiang took Yu Qing and paid off all the money her family owed...

...

When the moon was hanging high and the stars were flying everywhere, Yan Liqiang left Lihua Town, behind him was a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with a thin figure and a small bag.

When she walked out of Lihua Town, the little girl's steps stopped suddenly. She turned her head and looked at the lights in Lihua Town, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and then followed Yan Liqiang without looking back...
Chapter completed!