The blind boss's nanny

The back door clicked shut, leaving Lin Xiaoman alone in the deepening twilight.

The late autumn evening wind carried a chill, and her soaked clothes clung to her skin, making her shiver.

Yuanbao scratched at the door anxiously with its claws, making mournful whimpering noises.

Lin Xiaoman hugged her arms tightly, watching the warm lights of the main house gradually illuminate.

Laughter and cheerful voices could be faintly heard coming from the restaurant, but she could only shiver in the cold night.

Lin Xiaoman looked at the tightly closed back door and sighed helplessly.

What's meant to happen will happen...

Working in such a deeply entrenched and powerful family, you're bound to encounter difficult characters.

After graduating from university, she worked in the domestic service industry. Although the job was tough, she was able to save most of her salary since room and board were provided.

Over the years, she has seen all kinds of families. The Lu family is considered a top-tier wealthy family, but apart from his strict requirements at work, Lu Tingzhao rarely makes things difficult for her because of his blindness.

Only now did she realize... the reason why things had gone so smoothly before was because there had never been a woman in the house.

A cold wind swept over her, and she shivered. She quickly picked up Yuanbao, who was also soaking wet.

The little guy trembled in her arms, his fur still dripping wet.

She tiptoed and carefully lifted the gold ingot over the railing:

"Sweetie, go warm yourself up by the fireplace."

As soon as Yuanbao landed, he ran towards the main house without looking back and quickly disappeared into the twilight.

Lin Xiaoman huddled in a sheltered spot behind a pillar, her hands wrapped around her knees.

My soaked clothes clung to my skin, and the chill seeped into my bones.

She optimistically comforted herself:

Ye Qiyun can't possibly live here every day.

Once today is over, life will return to normal.

As night deepened, the lights in the main house shone warmly and brightly, while her figure shrank smaller and smaller in the corner.

Yuanbao rushed into the main house, its wet paws scratching incessantly at the study door, making a screeching sound.

"Where did this unruly dog ​​come from!"

Ye Qiyun shrieked and scolded,

"Look at this floor!"

The winding water stains stood out starkly against the smooth surface.

Several servants rushed over upon hearing the commotion. The next second, A Zhe had already stepped forward and shielded Yuan Bao in his arms. The boy used his thin back to block all view and stubbornly squatted in place.

Lu Xingqi quickly stepped forward:

"Ah Zhe, let's take Yuanbao to the fireplace."

She took the dry towel handed to her by the maid and gently wiped the golden retriever's soaked fur.

Yuanbao squirmed restlessly in A Zhe's arms, his bright black eyes fixed on the tightly closed study door.

Ye Qiyun's icy gaze felt like a thorn in its back, and it instinctively buried its face in the boy's arms.

The warmth of the fireplace gradually dispelled the chill, and Yuanbao's fur became fluffy again, but it still prickled up its ears restlessly...

There were still no familiar footsteps coming from the study.

Dinner finally began.

Upon learning of Ye Qiyun and her son's arrival, Lu Tingzhou immediately turned his car around and missed the family dinner that evening.

When Qin Xiu pushed open the study door, Yuanbao quickly darted to Lu Tingzhao's feet, its wet nose constantly rubbing against his trouser leg.

"Good boy."

The man bent down to stroke its warm fur as he walked toward the restaurant.

After taking his seat, Yuanbao continued to pace restlessly around his chair, eventually placing his front paws on his knees and letting out urgent whimpers.

Lu Tingzhao chuckled:

"Yuanbao, I'll take you for a walk again tomorrow. Let me eat first, okay?"

"Take this beast away."

Ye Qiyun gave the order in a cold voice.

The maid rushed forward and picked up the struggling Yuanbao, whose pitiful cries gradually faded away in the corridor.

On the long table where the candlelight flickered, no one noticed Yuanbao's unusual behavior, and no one remembered Lin Xiaoman, who was still locked in the backyard.

The night wind in the backyard grew increasingly biting. Lin Xiaoman huddled in the shadow of the pillars, the chill making her involuntarily recall the difficult years of her childhood.

She was originally a child adopted by her parents because they were unable to have children.

In the first few years, she was pampered and adored, wearing pretty floral dresses and eating cream popsicles that cost five cents each.

Until my parents went to the city to work with their fellow villagers, the following year they happily told my grandmother on the phone:

"Mom, we've given birth to a big, healthy baby boy!"

The old man's face broke into a wide smile, his wrinkled features smoothing out as he gently stroked his granddaughter's hair with his thin, withered hands.

"Xiaoman, your parents will bring you to the city to study in the spring. Our family will finally be reunited."

The grandfather and grandson stayed in the old house, waiting through the entire winter.

Instead of a family reunion, all I received were a series of debt collection calls:

"Raising children is expensive, and my salary is simply not enough."

Grandma, her steps unsteady, climbed onto a stool and took the iron box containing the hidden money from the roof beam, repeatedly transferring money to that account.

Until one snowy day, the old man, clutching his last few banknotes, suddenly collapsed while lingering in front of the post office.

Lin Xiaoman knelt before the hospital bed and heard her grandmother's murmurs in her sleep:

"Xiaoman, they're not coming back..."

The accumulated snow collapsed the old locust tree in the yard, and it also crushed the girl's last hope for family.

During the most difficult winter, the grandfather and grandson lived in a drafty mud house.

Every day after school, she would go to collect firewood, her little hands would turn red and cracked from the cold, and her grandmother would always hold her hands in her arms to warm them with tears in her eyes.

Back in the present moment, the biting cold made Lin Xiaoman feel as if she had returned to the winter before her grandmother passed away.

She huddled in the corner like the little match girl, the image of the old man shielding her from the wind flashing before her eyes.

"grandmother……"

She murmured softly, her eyelids growing heavier.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from outside the iron bars.

Yuanbao was anxiously pacing around outside the railing.

Upon seeing Lin Xiaoman open her eyes, it immediately picked up the blanket dragging on the ground and tried to stuff it through the gap in the railing...

Lin Xiaoman recognized it; it was the fleece blanket she had laid out in the doghouse herself, and it still felt warm.

"You..."

She took the still-warm blanket, her eyes welling up with tears.

Yuanbao eagerly stretched his cool, wet nose over the railing and gently rubbed it against her face.

"Good baby,"

She wrapped herself in the blanket.

"Your sister didn't spoil you for nothing."

Wrapped in a blanket still warm from Yuanbao's body, Lin Xiaoman felt as if she had transformed back into the little girl being held in her grandmother's arms.

Back then, the old man always liked to pat her head and say:

"Our Xiaoman (the 14th solar term) is like a blade of grass growing in a crack in the rock; it looks delicate, but it is actually the most tenacious."

She remembered that after her grandmother passed away, it was Dean Lin Jiaqi who reached out to help her.

Just like Yuanbao right now, even after leaving, he didn't forget to bring her a blanket.

In every darkest moment of life, there is always a ray of light illuminating the way forward.

"Grandma is right."

She exhaled a puff of white mist towards the night sky.

"What's a little grass growing in a crack in the rock to get a little rain?"

If that little girl who braved the wind and snow to collect firewood could survive back then, what's a little cold wind in wet clothes now?

She's someone who's been battling fate since she was a child.

Lin Xiaoman encouraged herself as she wrapped the blanket around herself like a silkworm cocoon.