Xia Zhi wore a light grayish-white summer bamboo cloth jacket, with both hands tucked into the large sleeves, and looked up at the dense crown of the big willow tree behind him, letting out another long sigh.

  The old-fashioned sighs of a young child are always very amusing in the eyes of people who are cooling off together, especially those who don't know the inside story.

  "What's wrong, Xia Zhi? Why are you sighing?" asked a young daughter-in-law who had just married into the village and was of the same age as Xia Zhi. She obviously didn't take Xia Zhi's sighs seriously and quickly asked, "Why didn't you go down to the fields with your brother today?"

  He raised an eyebrow and lazily replied with a single word: "None."

  A delicate voice, yet it reveals a jaded and world-weary tone, as if having seen through the vanity of life.

  "What's wrong with this child?" The young wife also noticed something was off.

  An old woman wearing a light blue summer gown gave the young daughter-in-law a signal, telling her not to ask anymore. She smiled and asked Xia Zhi: "Xia Shi, is your headache better?"

  "It's much better, Auntie." Xia Zhi replied.

  "That's good, that's good." Old Lady Wu looked at Xia Zhi carefully, wanting to say something but stopping herself.

  "Summer solstice, shouldn't your mother be back by now?" asked another daughter-in-law who was slightly older with a smile.

  As she stepped out, the cool air hit her, and someone reminded her of those annoying things. Xia Zhi stood up expressionlessly and slowly walked away from under the willow tree.

  "Old Liu's wife, how can you mention one pot and not the other! Stop talking!" Old Lady Wu scolded in a low voice. Watching as Xia Zhi walked away, she let out a sigh: "To have such a mother, this child is also quite unfortunate."

  Xia Zhi walked to the back door of her own home.

  The stone wall of the courtyard is just one person high, and the gate is empty and has no door.

  Like most villages at that time, Daxingzhuang Village was simple and honest, almost to the point of not closing doors at night. Although so, ordinary families in the village would still have courtyard gates, but due to differences in wealth, the courtyard gates used were all different.

  The Xia family is no ordinary household.

  The backyard of Xia Zhi's home is very small, with a short wall on the left side of the entrance surrounding a tiny garden. In the garden, there is a cherry blossom tree with lush branches and leaves, which was extremely beautiful when it bloomed. Now the fruit is almost ripe.

  Summer solstice is not in the mood to appreciate.

  She was an orphan, abandoned at birth and picked up to be sent to the welfare institution. Because that day happened to be the summer solstice on the lunar calendar, the director of the welfare institution gave her a name called Xia Zhi.

  Although she grew up in an orphanage, she didn't feel unfortunate. With her intelligence and diligence, she was admitted to a national key university, completed her undergraduate and graduate studies with scholarships and student loans, and after graduation, she entered one of the world's top 500 foreign companies.

  The company she works for treats her well, and accordingly, the competition is also very fierce.

  She is carefree and willing to work overtime when others are not, and she goes to places that others are unwilling to go on business trips. Among the same batch of people who entered the company, she quickly stood out.

  Afterwards, it was her who arranged for others to work overtime, and everyone fought for the opportunity to go on a business trip, but she could choose at will.

  In a few years, she had risen to middle management in the company, bought a car and even taken out a mortgage on a modest apartment.

  She has already paid off the loan, and her next plan is to take advantage of the suburban area still under development, and mortgage a small villa by the mountain and water, used for vacationing during normal times, and retirement afterwards.

  At twenty-nine years old, she can be said to have a bright future ahead of her.

  Suddenly someone found her through various relationships and claimed to be her biological parents.

  She met with them and soon dug out the truth.

  They were a couple who valued boys over girls and had her just to have a son, but when they found out she was a girl, they abandoned her. The reason they went to great lengths to find her was because their precious son later developed leukemia. They needed her bone marrow and also needed her money.

  She was originally still nostalgic for her parents, but after leaving the hotel in a rage and slamming the table, everything went black. When she woke up again, she had become a 12-year-old ancient rural girl.

  Born on the same day as the summer solstice, with the surname Xia, he was simply called Xia Zhi. Also because that day was May 16th, his nickname was Sixteen.

  She wished it were just a dream, but it wasn't.

  She can't go back, she's reluctant, but there aren't many things holding her back.

  After starting her career, she made her first will. If anything unexpected happened to her, all of her property would be donated to the welfare institution to help those children who had the same unfortunate starting point in life as her.

  That couple who valued boys over girls and didn't fulfill their parental responsibilities towards her won't get a single penny from her!

  The director knew the news and was afraid of being sad for a while, but there were so many little friends to take care of in the welfare institute, and the director wouldn't have too much time to grieve.

  She didn't have extra time to be heartbroken either.

  Xia Zhi's home is a four-room earth house facing south and sitting north, with one bright room and three dark rooms. Entering from the back door is the main hall, passing through the main hall is the front yard.

  The front yard is very large, with an old well under the eaves. Against the west wall of the courtyard are a chicken coop and a pigpen, and the rest is a large area of vegetable fields. The vegetables in the field have grown green and tender, with small yellow and purple flowers and fresh fruit, presenting a thriving rural landscape.

  The house is not good, but the people living in it are not lazy.

  Even so, Xia Zhi is still a poor little girl who has fallen on hard times, although she has both parents.

  Walking slowly along the small path between the vegetable field and the east courtyard wall, she pushed open a wattle door that was as high as her waist, and Xia Zhi stood on the steps looking down.

  Xia Zhi's family lived in the south of the village, and there were no other houses outside their front yard.

  Below the stairs is a gentle slope, with sparse trees on both sides. At the foot of the slope is an earth road, and at the end of the earth road is a river.

  The weather at the end of spring and the beginning of summer, after two rains, the river surface has become much wider. The water flows from west to east, flowing out from behind a small hill, passing in front of this row of houses on the summer solstice, then turning a bend and disappearing into a thicket of short trees.

  The air is fresh and the scenery is lush and green everywhere.

  This is exactly the environment she wanted for her little villa, it's just a pity...

  Xia Zhi struck a classic farmer's pose again, with a pair of kitchen knife-like eyes. Waiting to die was never her style. Tian Shi was about to return, and at her age, status, and situation, there was really too little she could do.

  Even if there is no road ahead, she will trample out a path.

  As noon approached, some chimneys in the village had already begun to emit smoke. The little ones who were wading in the river with their pants legs rolled up came ashore in twos and threes, hopping and jumping as they ran towards the village.

  That is the shallowest part of the river, and behind the small hill upstream, the water gets deeper.

  A naked little boy with a dark complexion came around from behind the mountain slope, waded through the water and landed on the shore, walking along the dirt road.

  The little guy looked like he was only six or seven years old, with a queue on his head, and his smooth body glistened in the sun, looking just like a slippery little black fish.

  The little black fish still held a grass carp tied with willow branches in his hand. The grass carp was not dead, and from time to time it would struggle and flap its tail.

  He walked with a swagger, and Xiao Jiu followed him with no sense of shame, swaying back and forth.

  Looking at the little black fish, even on a gloomy summer solstice, couldn't help but curve up the corners of his mouth.

  The little black fish has thick eyebrows and big eyes, looking very spirited.

  Taking a clear look at the young boy's appearance, Xia Zhi's eyes suddenly lit up.

  "Old uncle!" Xia Zhi Xingxing eyes, from his sleeve pulled out his hand, desperately waving at the little boy.

  New book is tender and pink, seeking collection recommendations