Even if the memories of the past have been completely forgotten by him, even if the other person cannot feel love at all... the bloodline as a link still connects their hearts together.
Maria examined Annan for a long time.
She used her fingertips to confirm whether there were any scars on Annan's skin, then pinched Annan's left shoulder and upper arm, and touched her back to confirm whether there was more or less flesh.
Annan was being manipulated like a doll, but he was not impatient at all.
After Maria checked her whole body, she sighed deeply.
"Little Annan...has grown up.
She took a step back and murmured: "My body is also strong, finally."
Of course... When I left home, my strength was 7 and my constitution was 6. Now my strength is 15 points, and my constitution attribute has exceeded 50, and I have entered the extraordinary realm.
Annan thought to himself.
Maria held Annan's hand that was not holding the scepter with both hands, carefully felt the muscles of Annan's fingertips with her fingertips, lowered her head and said softly: "It's hard to be outside alone, isn't it?"
"……fine."
Annan was silent for a moment before answering in a low voice.
Hard work is not that hard.
"After all, I am not alone. I also have friends and people I can trust."
"...you should choose your friends well."
Maria raised her head and repeated with some worry: "Some friends are meaningless. Bad friends will only drag you down, lead you down, and hurt you... You must choose friends carefully, choose good friends. Choose those who can
Friends who can keep up with you, can help you, can inspire you, or can supervise you.
"Don't think... that you can take everyone to a distant place. That would be too tiring..."
Maria's icy blue eyes stared at Annan, as if she was staring at the whole world intently: "Although you are the Grand Duke now, there is no need to sacrifice your life for this country... You can still be selfish occasionally."
She spoke completely different words from Ivan and Dmitri.
Because to Maria, Annan is the most important person in the world.
Maria has very obvious "levels" for different people - how close they can be to her, what they can say, what kind of help and feedback they can give... If two friends quarrel, she should stand up
She has always had very clear standards in her heart about which side to choose.
Even more than just friends.
For Maria, whether it is power, ability, mission, glory, family affection...all these have extremely clear levels in her heart.
She is the one who truly has the heart of winter.
Perhaps because she is a relatively rare female descendant in the Winter family, her signs of returning to her ancestors are even more obvious - her personality, talents and bloodline are all closer to her grandmother.
Coldness, rationality, paternalism... and the theory of sacrifice.
If there were no "Book of Heavenly Cars", she would undoubtedly be the person with the strongest strength and will in the entire family.
In Maria's heart, Annan's "status" was very high.
Because Annan is Maria's closest relative... closer than Dmitri.
This is common sense that has always existed but is always deliberately ignored in this world and era - that is, there must be a gap in the degree of intimacy between children with the same father and the same mother.
.
Even if they are whitewashed as "brotherhood," the gap between bloodlines exists objectively.
The relationship between Maria and Dmitri is definitely not as close as that between her and Annan. Whether it is the age gap between her and Dmitri that is too big, or the fact that they only have half the same bloodline
That's all true.
An ordinary child might deliberately alienate Annan in order to make up for this objective emotional gap - to show Dmitri that this "brotherly relationship is fair and equal."
It's like when a biological child quarrels with an adopted son, he will favor the adopted son.
But Maria didn't do this at all.
From the very beginning, she realized that her feelings for Annan were stronger than those for Dmitri. She did not make any attempt to hide this, or had any intention of pursuing balance in order to show fairness... Her preference was not even half-hidden.
This is true for everyone.
In fact, this is one of the reasons why Annan was mainly taken care of by Maria - this was the strong request from Maria. Only five years older than Annan, she was able to participate in the work that Dmitri had done.
In the action of raising her younger brother responsibly, she refused to let Dmitri interfere in anything she could do.
The results are also significant.
Annan's outstanding wisdom, which he was born with, was not shown to Maria and Dmitri at first. The people who knew about it were mainly Ivan...then the grandmother, and then Vladimir.
Annan came into contact with the "Ten Fingers" even earlier than Dmitry.
Before that, Dmitry had always thought Annan was a "shy" person; while Maria thought Annan was a "gentle" person.
This is actually because Annan is too lazy to play with brats and doesn't want to lose face to this stubborn sister who works hard to take care of her.
Until Annan took Dmitri and had a bet with Fufu...
Only then did his wisdom begin to appear in the eyes of his brothers and sisters.
A long time passed after that...Dmitri gradually got used to Annan's command and supervision, but it was not until Annan left home last year and had his memory erased that Maria finally found out from Ivan.
Feeling aware of everything.
Annan can also guess why Zhoumu has been hiding it from Maria. Her character is that Annan is greater than everything else... Her idea of abandoning her memory and seeking justice, which is in line with the way of the heavenly carriage, will definitely not be affected by Mary.
Asian support.
——This is also the reason why Maria was a little out of control when she contacted Annan for the first time.
Annan originally thought that when he saw Maria after returning to China... Maria would do something more exciting. For example, she would give him a slap in the face, or hold Annan's head (where Annan was living) and cry, or she would get awkward and ignore him.
.
The result was unexpected...
He just looked at his whole body carefully.
In fact, Annan can understand Maria's thoughts.
After all, shortly after Annan was born, his and Maria's mother also died.
She gave birth to a total of four children, Annan was the third - she died after giving birth to her fourth child. The second and fourth children died at the age of two and one month respectively. Only Maria
Survive with Annan.
Maria watched her brothers be born and die, watched her mother die at a young age, and now her respected father has also left them.
——Annan has become Maria's closest relative in a real sense. Every time I look at Annan's face that is almost the same as mine, this feeling becomes more profound.
And after coming back this time.
Annan finally had differences with her.
Whether it's the warm smile that gives people a sense of strangeness, the strange-colored pupils, the curse lines on the shoulders, the body that has become stronger...
She shook her head vigorously to dispel those images.
"I brought you a gift, Annan."
Maria stretched out her hand, placed it in front of her lips, and said seriously: "It is a gift that must not be told to Dmitri... and it will definitely be very helpful to your current situation."
"...What is it?"
"it is this."
With that said, Maria took out a paw from her arms.
It's real [a paw]. A canine paw.
“I finally dug this out of the wasteland of the Poison Fern Pillar after a lot of effort...