Yes, that was what Gu Nianbin felt exactly. She enjoyed sweeping the ground.

With her eyes looking down, she was at ease without fear or panic. The scene looked quite pleasant as if she was dancing instead of sweeping the ground.

In fact, Gu Nianbin could not see her expression. He even had no chance to look at her face carefully because she always ran away at the sight of him, or lowered her head like now. He could only see the top of her head, which was s.h.i.+mmering under the golden sunlight.

Suddenly, she straightened up. Gu Nianbin dodged behind the curtains. Seeing her remove the leave on her hair, Gu Nianbin smiled silently. She finally came to realize that. But he didn't know why he had hidden himself. He was the young master. Why had he hidden from a maid?

After getting changed, he went downstairs for jogging on the lawn. When going out, he coughed deliberately. As expected, he heard a train of footsteps. With a snicker, he descended the steps while stretching his arms, and then started to run along the trail. The lawn was half the size of a football field. After a lap, his back got sweaty.

Ah Ling came over from the side door with two steamed buns. When she saw Gu Nianbin running on the lawn, she was pretty sure that Du Xiaoxian was not under the tree, so she went around to the back of the house and whispered, "Xiaoxian.... Xiaoxian...."

Du Xiaoxian got out of the corner and answered with smiling eyes, "Ah Ling, I'm here."

Ah Ling looked at her hiding place and couldn't help laughing. "I've worked here so long, but I don't know such a place. Why do you hide here? Hurry to eat the buns. They are getting cold."

Du Xiaoxian puckered her lips, took the buns, and said lightly, "Thank you, Ah Ling."

"What a silly girl!" Ah Ling looked at her with pity. "The young master is just jogging there. You are free to sweep the ground here. Why do you hide from him?"

Lowering her head, Du Xiaoxian ate the buns slowly, and muttered, "He will see me."

"So what?" Ah Ling was amused. "The young master will not eat you! You're just scaring yourself!"

Du Xiaoxian blushed and remained silent like a tiny mimosa, stirred people's compa.s.sion in this way. Ah Ling knew that she avoided not only Gu Nianbin, but also other people in the family, and even the servants who worked with her. Because Ah Ling was her only acquaintance here, Xiaoxian didn't hide from her.

"Xiaoxian, you need to be brave. You didn't go for breakfast both yesterday and today. Wouldn't you feel hungry?"

Of course she would, but she was used to that. When she was at home, she got up every day to mow pigweed, carry water, clean the yard, etc. without having breakfast. She didn't have enough rice in the rice jar for lunch and dinner. How could it be possible for her to have breakfast?

She ate very slowly. Although she was very hungry, she did it unhurriedly. Her second aunt told her that a girl must be well-behaved at all times. She always kept that in mind. When she was a child, no one in the village would talk to her. Only her second aunt took care of her and taught her a lot. Bearing all the instructions in mind, she followed them earnestly.

Now in this place, Ah Ling was also nice to her. Du Xiaoxian thought she met a kind sister who was as kind as her second aunt. Du Xiaoxian was very grateful to her, but she didn't know how to express her grat.i.tude in words, so she lowered her head and listened to Ah Ling carefully with red cheeks.