Lu Siyuan spoke with such confidence that Lu Mingzhu deeply agreed with him, thinking her brother was incredibly amazing. He seemed to know everything.
Su Yuanyuan leaned against the sofa, finding the two children utterly adorable. Children really were so innocent in the way they thought about things.
How big was Jingbei? Especially in this era, finding Lu Zheng’an there would not be easy.
The two little ones excitedly began making plans, and Su Yuanyuan didn’t pour cold water on their enthusiasm.
They were still young, and there was no need to crush their confidence. Besides, this was exactly the age when they should be encouraged to think things through.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu talked for a long time, but Su Yuanyuan didn’t react much to what they were saying. She simply looked at them without saying a word.
The two little know-it-alls helplessly shook their heads and said in unison, “Mom is too silly. You don’t understand how important this is.”
A serious expression appeared on Lu Siyuan’s young face.
“We still have to think carefully about how we’re going to take Mom with us to follow the army.”
Lu Mingzhu nodded in agreement.
Mom had stayed at home all these years and hardly ever gone outside, so she didn’t know much about the outside world. That’s why she didn’t understand.
They had gone to the village chief’s house and watched television before. It was a big box, and everything inside was black and white. They had seen so many things on it that they had never seen in the village.
They knew that they could take a train to travel far away. As long as they had healthy hands and feet, they could go a very long distance.
Mom’s health had gotten even worse this year, while Grandpa and Grandma had treated them even more harshly. If they couldn’t find Dad soon, their grandparents would continue taking all their money. What would happen to Mom?
Su Yuanyuan was both amused and exasperated by the siblings.
“Why do you want to follow the army so badly?”
Actually, it wasn’t impossible for the three of them to live on their own.
Lu Zheng’an was the male lead in the novel, but she wasn’t the female lead. Su Yuanyuan was merely a cannon-fodder supporting female character.
According to the original plot, she and her children would eventually starve to death. If she went to Jingbei to find Lu Zheng’an, she had no idea how the plot would change.
As for the man himself, Su Yuanyuan didn’t care much.
But she didn’t want to lose her two children.
If she was destined not to end up with Lu Zheng’an, and Lu Zheng’an learned about the existence of the children, would he really let her take them away?
Su Yuanyuan didn’t dare gamble on it.
The two children were stunned by her question and looked at her strangely.
“If we don’t follow the army, how are we going to find Dad? When will Mom ever get to see Dad? Before, whenever Mom was bullied, she would secretly cry… During New Year, Mom even said she missed Dad, and that Dad’s dumplings were really delicious.”
Su Yuanyuan was speechless.
The original owner had truly had a miserable life. In the end, she hadn’t even gotten to see the man she had been thinking about for more than three years.
Forget it.
Since she had ended up in this woman’s body, she might as well help her fulfill the wish she had been holding onto for so long.
After the children were born, it was Su Yuanyuan who had raised them both.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu were both obedient and sensible. They had never pestered the original owner with questions about their father.
Their concept of a father wasn’t particularly strong. They simply wanted an answer because other children had bullied them.
An answer to why their father hadn’t returned for three years.
Even if Lu Zheng’an didn’t want her to take the children away when the time came, if the children insisted on staying with her, there wasn’t much he could do, right?
According to the original novel’s characterization, the male lead Lu Zheng’an was an upright person. His character was everything. He probably wouldn’t disregard the children’s wishes and forcibly take them away from her.
Su Yuanyuan stopped talking.
The two children continued discussing how they could get to Jingbei, going back and forth with one another as they worked out their plans.
Su Yuanyuan remembered that there had been a map among the things she had taken from the Lu family. She went to the warehouse and brought it out for them.
The two little bundles of joy looked as if they had found a treasure. They spread the map out, and Su Yuanyuan simply gave them some paper and pens.
They had never used felt-tip pens before and found them incredibly fascinating. Together, they drew out their route, chattering nonstop.
Seeing how seriously they were planning everything, Su Yuanyuan clicked her tongue in admiration.
They were actually pretty smart.
She had underestimated her two children.
But…
Su Yuanyuan raised her hand to interrupt them.
“Your plan is very good, but Mom still wants to ask one thing. Do you have money to take the train?”
She had money, of course. She was just teasing the two children.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu had only just thought of the problem.
That’s right!
Walking didn’t cost money, but taking a train did!
The two little ones looked completely at a loss.
“That’s right. We don’t have any money.”
Train tickets and food along the way would both cost money. The few coins they had saved could buy them some food, but then they wouldn’t have enough left for train tickets.
Every month, their father sent his salary home, but their grandparents took it all. When they were in a good mood, they would give Mom twenty yuan, but more often they only gave her ten.
A lot of the time, when their shoes broke or their clothes tore, they needed money to replace them. And when they were too hungry, they had to use their own money to buy something to eat.
There was simply no way to save anything.
But Lu Siyuan quickly realized something, and his eyes lit up.
“No! We’re only three years old. We don’t need to buy a ticket! Taking the train is free for us!”
After saying this, Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu looked at Su Yuanyuan at exactly the same time.
“Mom, can you secretly sneak onto the train without getting caught? Then we can ride straight to Jingbei!”
Looking at the children’s innocent expressions, Su Yuanyuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She flatly refused.
“No. Didn’t you forget what Mom told you? We can’t do anything illegal. We have to buy tickets. If you evade the fare, you can get caught and sent to jail!”
Su Yuanyuan deliberately made it sound very serious.
The children’s faces went pale, and they immediately shook their heads.
“No! Mom can’t be sent to jail. We can’t be without Mom!”
The two children spoke with complete seriousness.
But when they thought about not having enough money to buy train tickets to Jingbei, Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu became a little dejected.
If they didn’t leave this place, they would continue being bullied.
Grandpa, Grandma, their eldest uncle, and their second uncle were all bad people.
Winter would be coming again soon.
When they thought about how they had survived every winter before, both Lu Mingzhu and Lu Siyuan felt a chill run through their bodies.
Children’s emotions were always direct and sincere.
Su Yuanyuan’s heart warmed. She patted the sofa beside her and motioned for them to sit closer.
“You forgot, didn’t you? We may not have had money before, but didn’t Mom take everything from the family? Mom is a little rich lady now. We have enough money for train tickets. But are you sure you want to leave?”
What Su Yuanyuan was really asking was whether they truly wanted to follow the army.
Whenever she thought about the possibility that this man might try to take her children away, Su Yuanyuan felt troubled.
Whether or not that possibility actually existed, she couldn’t help feeling a sense of crisis.
She had finally become a mother without having to go through pregnancy, and she had two angel babies at that.
There was no way she could bear to let Lu Zheng’an take them away.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu had no idea what their mother was worried about.
They nodded seriously.
They wanted to go!
Su Yuanyuan was still somewhat uncertain. After struggling with it for a long time, she asked again,
“You really want to see Dad?”
This time, the two children didn’t immediately nod.
They shook their heads first, then nodded.
Su Yuanyuan laughed and rubbed their little heads.
“What does that mean?”
“Because Mom needs Dad.”
“When we go help Auntie Zhang at her house, she always says that it’s very hard for Mom to raise me and my sister alone. She says that if her own husband were at home, things wouldn’t be like this.”
“So we need Dad!”