Chapter 2044 Proposal (Twenty-Nine)

Just then, a series of footsteps came closer and closer.

Ruan Qi raised her head, and before she could see clearly with her eyes blurred by tears, someone stuffed a card into her hand.

"Xiao Qi, you must be happy."

It was the voice of Lin Tingting, a childhood friend.

Then, another person came over and stuffed a card into her hand.

"My dear granddaughter, take it!"

It turned out to be Grandpa Ruan.

Ruan Qi wiped her tears quickly, and just as she was about to speak, Grandma Ruan came over with a smile.

"Grandma..."

"Hey." Grandma Ruan walked up to Ruan Qi, wiped the tears from her face, and then handed her a card, "It's not easy to meet a sincere person, our Xiao Qi is very lucky."

After that, Grandma Ruan waved her hand and left.

Before Ruan Qi could speak, Ruan Munan and Cheng Jinyan also showed up.

They walked up to her side by side and handed her a card as well.

Then, it was Nie Beilou, Ruan Fengmian, and Yang Liu.

"Master, Dad and Mom..."

Ruan Qi shouted, but before she could say anything, Nie Beilou and the other two stuffed a card into her hand.

"Although I still dislike that boy, I have to admit that he is really attentive to my baby." Ruan Fengmian raised his hand and touched the girl's head lovingly, "Xiao Qi, go forward bravely, you will always be happy."

The gentle blessing of her father made Ruan Qi's tears fall like beads that had broken off the string.

She watched Ruan Fengmian and the other two leave with tears in her eyes, raised her hand to wipe her eyes, and looked down at the cards in her hand.

There were eight cards in total.

Each card had a watercolor painting, and the characters in the painting were all Ruan Qi.

But the difference was that Ruan Qi on each card was of a different age.

Ruan Qi on the first card had a childish face, a cute ponytail, and soft baby fat on both sides of her cheeks.

[You, at the age of eleven, have forgotten a memory and continue to grow up]

——It turns out that the little Ruan Qi on this card is eleven years old.

On the next card, the little Ruan Qi in the painting seems to have grown up a little, and her facial features gradually become brighter.

[Twelve-year-old you still can't remember that memory. But it doesn't matter, stride forward, worry-free]

The third card——

[Thirteen-year-old you, gradually grew into a big girl. Although I didn't see it with my own eyes, I can imagine your immature and excellent appearance. ]

Next, it is the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh cards——

[Fourteen-year-old you, bravely walked out of Qingyun Village. You are becoming more and more outstanding, and have your own achievements. ]

[Fifteen-year-old you, should be studying abroad. That year I accepted the Xi family. Although we are not in the same country, we look up at the same sky. ]

[Sixteen-year-old you, bright, sunny, and confident. Although your life has been dim, the future is full of hope. ]

[Seventeen-year-old you, will soon become an adult. And there are finally less than two years left before we meet again. ]

From eleven to seventeen years old, Ruan Qi in the picture gradually grew up, from a young girl to a bright and lively girl.

Next, it was the last card, which was Ruan Qi’s eighteenth year.

Unlike the light-colored pictures on the previous seven cards, Ruan Qi on the eighth card was particularly bright, and even the background color behind him was full of bright and rich colors.

On this card, Xi Jiu wrote this:

[At the age of eighteen, you have finally grown into an adult. You will have a colorful life, and your family, friends, honor, and happiness will all belong to you. And that year, I walked into a temple on your birthday and lit a blessing lamp for you. The lights were always on, and I prayed in front of the Buddha: Whether I can find you in this life or not, I hope my little sun will be happy and safe. 】

Xi Jiu's handwriting has always been sharp. But when he wrote the card, he deliberately restrained his edge, stroke by stroke, carefully, pious and sincere.

Ruan Qi looked down at every word he wrote, and felt that the card in his hand was heavy.

The tears in his eyes accumulated more and more, but Ruan Qi did not dare to let them flow down. She was afraid that her tears would fall on the card and wet Xi Jiu's heavy love.

Ruan Qi stood there, holding the card, sobbing softly.

At this moment, a steady footsteps came slowly in the quiet night.

Ruan Qi raised her head.

Through the layers of tears, she vaguely saw a familiar figure.

That figure was so tall, like a towering mountain, standing silently behind her, guarding her forever.

"Jiujiu..." Ruan Qi opened her mouth and wanted to say something. But her emotions fluctuated too much, and as soon as she called out a name, thousands of words were blocked in her throat.

Helplessly, she could only look at Xi Jiu with tears in her eyes.

Xi Jiu walked over with a steady pace and a little hurriedly.

He looked at the crying little girl with some heartache, sighed, and leaned over to wipe her tears.

"Why is the baby crying like this? She's going to be a little cat."

The man joked while gently wiping the girl's face with his fingertips.

The next second, Ruan Qi suddenly raised her hand and grabbed his fingers.

"Baby?" Xi Jiu was stunned.

Ruan Qi didn't say anything, but lowered her head and spread Xi Jiu's hand in front of her.

Unlike the delicate skin of other rich sons, Xi Jiu's palms and fingertips have always had a layer of hard calluses due to years of training.

Now, in addition to the calluses, his palms and fingertips have added many deep and shallow scars.

Ruan Qi looked at these scars, and a sense of sourness surged out of her nose again.

She asked with a cry in her voice: "Were all these injuries caused in the past few days?"

Xi Jiu is not a carpenter and has never done much carpentry work. In order to be able to restore the broken wooden horse with his own hands, he had to learn the most basic carpentry skills, and then piece by piece, splice, polish, and finally successfully restore the broken wooden horse.

However, it is not that easy for a beginner to master woodworking techniques in a short period of time.

In order to achieve the goal, Xi Jiu goes out early and comes back late these days. She stays at Wang Yue's house every day and practices over and over again.

Finally, with constant training, he perfectly repaired the little wooden horse. At the same time, countless scars were left on his hands.

Ruan Qi looked at these deep and shallow wounds, and started to cry again in distress.

Xi Jiu quickly took out her hand, hurriedly wiping her tears, and kept coaxing: "It's just a small injury. It looks scary, but it doesn't hurt at all. Baby, don't cry. It won't look good if your eyes are swollen from crying."

Xi Jiu was not very good at sweet words, so she could only try to persuade Ruan Qi not to cry over and over again.

Ruan Qi gradually calmed down under his coaxing. She sniffed and asked, "That grass dragonfly, how long have you been studying for?"

Xi Jiu hesitated after hearing this question.

Ruan Qi immediately warned him: "Don't lie."

Helpless, Xi Jiu had no choice but to tell the truth.

"It didn't take long to learn, just three days."

Ruan Qi: "What about painting? I remember you couldn't paint watercolors before."

"I haven't studied for too long." Xi Jiu answered honestly, "I spend most of my time repairing the wooden horse during the day. During the breaks, I will learn to draw. I am clumsy, my understanding is not high, and I am a slow learner. A little bit. But it’s barely enough.”

Xi Jiu said it lightly.

But Ruan Qi can imagine the hardship involved.

Xi Jiu's skills from childhood to college were all used for survival. He rarely dabbled in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and he had never touched such housework as weaving grass and dragonflies.

So as Xi Jiu himself said, he is indeed very clumsy in this area, and his talent is not high, so it takes more effort than ordinary people to learn.

But no matter how hard he worked, it only took him a week to learn it.

Ruan Qi didn't dare to think deeply about the hard work involved. She only glanced at Xi Jiu with distress, then opened her hands and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you Jiujiu," the girl's muffled voice came from Xi Jiu's chest, "I really like the gifts you gave me."

More than that, I particularly like it.

These gifts were like the sincerity Xi Jiu held in his hands, heavy and warm, which made Ruan Qi overwhelmed and loved them like treasures.

Ruan Qi unconsciously tightened her grip on the man.

The man's low and gentle voice sounded above his head: "As long as the baby likes it, everything I do will be in vain."

He raised his hand, rubbed Ruan Qi's soft hair, and then took her hand.

"Baby, I have one last gift for you. Come with me, okay?"

Ruan Qi let go of the hand holding him and raised her head.

Xi Jiu smiled at her, then took her and walked towards the center of the square step by step.

In the empty and quiet square, some small lights appeared at some point. As Ruan Qi Xijiu moved, those small lights slowly lit up at their feet like stars holding the moon.

Gradually, the small lights became brighter and brighter, eventually converging into a galaxy that stretched forward from Ruan Qi’s feet until—

A water-colored curtain, like the Milky Way in the sky, slid down in the dark night.

Ruan Qi was startled by the sudden appearance of the curtain and stopped in her tracks.

The next second, soft music sounded, and a photo appeared on the water-colored curtain. And the person in the photo

——It's her.

One after another, countless photos, all of them are Ruan Qi.

Ruan Qi at different ages, Ruan Qi with different expressions, Ruan Qi wearing different clothes... They were like memories forgotten in the corner, which were dug up by Xi Jiu one by one, and finally displayed in front of the twenty-one-year-old Ruan Qi.

Ruan Qi looked at the photos that were constantly rotating on the screen, her lips trembled, and asked Xi Jiu: "These photos... I can't find many of them. Where did you get them?"

"I visited every villager." Xi Jiu turned to look at her and whispered, "Everyone has a few old photos in their hands. I looked at them one by one and finally found these. "

Xi Jiu said it lightly.

But there are so many households in Qingyun Village, and it would be a huge workload to find old photos with Ruan Qi from so many people.

Ruan Qi blinked and tried not to shed tears. At this moment, the photo carousel on the curtain came to an end, and then a watercolor painting appeared.

That was the adult Ruan Qi.

She was wearing a summer dress with a naughty silver needle stuck in her head, and behind her was the noisy corridor of the hospital.

Ruan Qi's heart moved as she looked at this familiar scene.

This place was... where she and Xi Jiu first met when they were in the imperial capital?

Before Ruan Qi could figure it out, the picture on the curtain changed and turned into another watercolor painting.

It was also the corridor of the hospital, but this time, Ruan Qi was no longer the only one in the picture. In front of her, there was another man.

"Hello, Miss Ruan, my name is Xi Jiu."

——The man in the picture said this.

But on the side of this painting, there is a completely different sentence written -

[After going round and round, I finally found you again. 】

I almost cried while writing this. It's really romantic, 1551...