The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

(Note: The following events take place in a parallel world and are unrelated to the main text. Please do not make unfounded connections. If you are not interested, you can skip this part; it will not affect your reading of the following content.)

After we finished treading the grapes, the sun had already set.

After receiving their wages for the day from the winery owner, the girl and boy happily left the winery.

They used the money to buy a lot of delicious food and fun things.

We enjoyed the delicious food all the way home when a thin layer of dark clouds drifted in from the horizon. In an instant, a torrential downpour began, accompanied by lightning and thunder.

The boy returned to his room, closed the door, and lay down on the bed to rest.

After a day of physical labor, he felt extremely tired, especially his lower back, which was still aching.

Just as he was about to close his eyes and fall asleep, he heard a rustling sound from under the covers.

The boy was startled and quickly lifted the blanket. He saw the girl curled up beside his legs, holding an unfinished sausage in her arms, with a little oil on the corner of her mouth, and staring at him with her big, bright eyes.

"How many times have I told you? You're all grown up now, you should sleep by yourself." The boy frowned and snatched the grilled sausage from her mouth. "Also, you're not allowed to eat in bed."

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes, and her lips trembled slightly, as if tiny pearls were about to fall.

Upon seeing this, the boy's heart softened immediately.

"Alright, alright, just this once." He handed the grilled sausage back to the girl and sighed helplessly.

"Hehe, brother is the best!" The girl was overjoyed and jumped into the boy's arms, giving him a big kiss on the cheek.

"Go back to sleep after you finish eating, what time is it?" The boy pinched her soft little face, looking helpless.

"No, no, I can't sleep." The girl pouted, looking aggrieved. "I want my brother to hold me while I sleep."

Just as the boy was about to refuse, he heard a clap of thunder outside the window.

He recalled the girl's unhappy childhood, how she lost her loving mother on a stormy day, and how she developed a great fear of thunder.

After pondering for a moment, he had no choice but to give up.

"Alright then, you should go to sleep early, you have class tomorrow."

"Mmm!" The girl nodded immediately like a chick pecking at rice, buried her head in the boy's arms, and gently rubbed her little hands against his chest, like a kitten kneading.

The boy turned off the light, hugged the girl tightly, and lay down on the pillow.

But before long, the girl's little hands started to get restless, tugging at his clothes one moment and touching his arm the next, making it impossible for him to fall asleep.

"Xiaoxi, what do you want to do?" The boy lifted the blanket, grabbed the girl's pigtails, and lifted her off him.

The girl immediately put on a pitiful look, raised her hand to wipe away non-existent tears from the corners of her eyes, and said in a tearful voice, "Brother, I still can't sleep. I want to hear you read a story."

Looking at her like this, the boy hesitated for two and a half seconds, but finally softened and nodded.

He took the storybook he had just bought while shopping from the bedside table.

"After hearing this, you must go to sleep quietly and not make any more noise."

He gently tapped the girl's nose as he spoke.

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to my brother the most~" The girl happily kicked her little feet and leaned into the boy's arms.

The boy opened the book and cleared his throat: "The tadpoles are looking for their mother."

"In spring, a group of tadpoles appeared in the pond. They had big heads, off-white bodies, and long tails, and swam happily in the water."

"Wait, wait," the girl suddenly interrupted him, frowning and looking confused. "Brother, aren't tadpoles black? Why are you saying they're white?"

The boy looked at the storybook in his hand: "But it says white in the book, so maybe these are a special kind of tadpoles."

"Oh." The girl nodded as if she understood, pursed her lips, and obediently leaned back into his arms, gently holding his fingers with her small hands, listening attentively.

The boy turned to the next page and continued reading: "One day, Mother Duck brought a brood of ducklings to swim in the pond. The ducklings followed closely behind their mother, quacking loudly. The tadpoles saw this and felt both envious and sad. They looked at each other, wondering where their mother was and what she looked like. They swam up to Mother Duck and asked, 'Mother Duck, Mother Duck, have you seen our mother? Can you tell us where she is?'"

The mother duck smiled and said, "Your mother is over there, beyond the mountains and the sea. Good children, swim on and look for her ahead."

"Thank you, Mother Duck." The tadpoles swam happily onward.

Their first stop was by the sea, following the stream. There, fishermen were diligently working, wielding their black nets.

The tadpoles, without warning, were caught in the fishing net and scooped onto the boat.

"A fishing net?" The girl blinked, looked up at the boy, and asked in confusion, "The holes in the fishing net are so big, how can you catch tadpoles? They're so small."

"Perhaps the mesh of this net is a bit small?" the boy said, as he removed the girl's small feet, clad in black stockings, from his stomach and continued reading the story.

"At their second stop, they crossed the ocean and arrived in a dense forest. A kitten that was catching crabs by the river meowed and swallowed them whole."

"Ah... they were eaten?" The girl's voice trailed off, her face filled with disappointment, her lips drooping, and her eyes filled with dejection. "They'll never find their mother again."

The boy panicked, looked down, and realized he had read the wrong page number, reading the content of "The Kitten Looking for Its Mother" from the next page.

His cheeks flushed slightly, and he turned a few pages forward somewhat embarrassedly, quickly apologizing, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I misread it, I read it as a different story."

He cleared his throat and continued reading: "The tadpoles, after many hardships, swam upstream and came to a cave. At the entrance of the cave, there was a large turtle sunbathing. They chased after it, excitedly calling, 'Mommy, Mommy!'"

The turtle smiled and waved its paws: "I'm not your mother, I'm the mother of the little turtles. Your mother has big eyes on her head, wears a green coat, and has a white belly. She's in this cave, go find her!"

The tadpoles thanked the turtle and darted into the cave. The passage was long and narrow, and the walls were wet and slippery, with small, fragrant water droplets dripping down from time to time. They crawled through the stuffy cave and came to the lotus flowers in the middle of the pond, where they saw a large, round lotus leaf with a big frog perched on it.

The tadpoles swam over and shouted together, "Mommy, Mommy!"

"The mother frog looked down and smiled so much her eyes narrowed. She said gently, 'My good children, you've all grown up. Come on, jump up!'"

"The tadpoles pushed off with their hind legs, jumped forward, and hopped onto the lotus leaves. Before they knew it, their tails had completely disappeared, and they had all turned into little green frogs."

"The mother frog looked at her children and said happily, 'Come on, Mom will take you to catch pests.' From then on, the little frogs followed their mother every day, hopping around in the pond and on the ridges of the fields, busy catching pests, and becoming good helpers to humans."

After finishing the story, the boy ruffled the girl's hair: "Okay, go to sleep now."

The girl pouted and looked at him expectantly: "Brother, I want to hear you read it again."

"Ah, I still remember it!"

.......