Su Yuanyuan had never expected that this would be the answer in the children’s hearts. She was stunned for quite a while.
In a child’s world, many things were very simple.
Other people said that if they had a father around, their mother and they wouldn’t be bullied, so they needed their father. They hadn’t thought about anything more complicated than that.
Su Yuanyuan thought of how hard the original owner had struggled to raise the children. In truth, the children weren’t wrong.
Su Yuanyuan’s health was poor. If Lu Zheng’an were around, she really would have had a much better life.
In this era, women had far fewer job opportunities than men. A woman living alone would also be gossiped about and criticized behind her back. Without a man around, she was even more likely to be bullied.
If she were fierce enough and tough enough, those people might not dare to do anything to her. But the original owner was sickly and soft-tempered, leaving her with no choice but to endure being bullied.
Hearing the children’s answer, Su Yuanyuan inexplicably felt relieved. Fortunately, she had been worried that the children desperately longed for a father’s love. That would have made things much more complicated.
But this also showed just how much the original owner had loved her two children. For three years, she had done her best to take good care of them. When love had never been absent from a child’s life, they wouldn’t obsessively chase after “fatherly love.”
“Alright, then the three of us will go to Jingbei together. Since we’ve decided to go, we have to leave after dark. We’re setting off tonight. Otherwise, if we’re discovered during the day, we’ll be finished!”
Su Yuanyuan wasn’t naïve enough to think she could simply walk out of the village in broad daylight with two children.
Because the original owner had previously planned to find someone to write a letter to Lu Zheng’an for her, the Old Lu family had been keeping an eye on her.
Once they had decided to leave, they needed to leave quickly. Staying here any longer would serve no purpose other than suffering for another day.
Lu Siyuan thought about how much time they had left in the space and hugged Su Yuanyuan’s arm.
“Then are we leaving right away?”
Su Yuanyuan nodded.
Of course. If they were leaving, they had to do it quickly, lest something unexpected happen.
But before heading to Jingbei, she first had to write a letter to Lu Zheng’an’s military unit.
Trying to find him after arriving would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Jingbei was huge, and there were too many unknowns. Su Yuanyuan didn’t feel comfortable letting the children wander around with her, so it would be better to contact Lu Zheng’an first and give him a heads-up.
“Yes, we’re leaving now. But we won’t be able to catch a train tonight. We’ll go to the county first. Mommy needs to write a letter to your daddy first. That way, once we get to Jingbei, we won’t have to run around asking people everywhere!”
The children’s eyes immediately lit up after hearing this.
They could do that?
“Wow! Mommy is amazing! I’ll never say Mommy is silly again.”
Lu Mingzhu nodded rapidly.
“I hereby declare that Mommy is the smartest mommy in the whole world!”
Su Yuanyuan laughed at their playful flattery.
“Look at you two sweet-talkers. Let’s go out first. Pack up anything you want to take from the room and put it into the space. Once we’re done packing, we’ll leave.”
The two little ones immediately clapped their hands.
“Yay, yay! Then we won’t have to carry anything!”
The mother and her two children left the space and began packing their things separately. In reality, there wasn’t much to pack because they owned pitifully little.
They packed up their clothes and the toys they had previously picked up from other people. Other than that, there was practically nothing.
Su Yuanyuan glanced at the washbasin and simply decided to take that too. Leaving it behind would only benefit those people. She took the bedding from the bed as well.
After clearing out all the shabby belongings in the room, the originally poor and shabby room became completely empty, with nothing left inside.
The three of them stood together, looking at the bare earthen room, and burst out laughing.
“Do you think Grandpa and Grandma will be furious tomorrow when they discover that we took everything?” Lu Siyuan asked with a mischievous grin.
“Let them be angry. It’s about time they suffered a little anger themselves.”
After saying that, Su Yuanyuan took the kerosene lamp as well.
“Almost forgot this.”
The place where they lived was called Cong Village. It wasn’t a large village, and walking to the neighboring Bajiao County would take around two hours.
If they actually walked there, their feet would probably fall apart. When Su Yuanyuan had previously cleaned out the Old Lu family’s belongings, she had taken the black 28-inch bicycle that had been part of her dowry and stored it in the space. But that bicycle was too tall for her to ride comfortably.
Fortunately, she had her own bicycle from her previous life in the space. It was smaller and more compact, and its tires were more durable. It had also been serviced not long ago.
Taking two children along on a bicycle would be far too difficult, so Su Yuanyuan had them stay inside the space while she rode out of the village alone.
There was a small light on the front of the bicycle. It wasn’t as effective as modern streetlights, but it was enough.
Su Yuanyuan rode all the way out of the village and reached the county town in less than an hour.
By then, everyone in the county had already gone to sleep. The streets were pitch-black and empty, with only the occasional sound of roosters crowing and dogs barking.
Su Yuanyuan rode into a small alley and carefully checked her surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was around did she enter the space.
The moment she appeared, the two children, who had been waiting for her, threw themselves into her arms.
“Mommy, you’re back!”
“Are we in Bajiao County now? Nobody saw you, right?”
Lu Siyuan anxiously looked Su Yuanyuan over, worried that she might have been caught.
Su Yuanyuan crouched down and hugged the two children, rubbing her face against them as she happily narrowed her eyes.
“We made it safely to Bajiao County. And who do you think your mommy is? Of course nobody noticed me.”
The two little ones finally breathed a sigh of relief. While waiting inside the space, they had been worried that their mommy might get caught.
“Tomorrow, we’ll take the train and begin our journey. Tonight, get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, we officially set off!”
“Okay.”
The two little ones nodded obediently and didn’t continue pestering Su Yuanyuan with questions.
Only after escaping from the Old Lu family did the tension that had been weighing on the three of them finally ease.
That night, the mother and her two children slept on the soft, comfortable bed and had the best sleep they had ever had.
The next morning, as soon as the neighbor’s rooster crowed, Li Hua picked up an aluminum lunchbox and went to knock on Su Yuanyuan’s door.
“Third son’s wife, get up and make breakfast! Looks like it’s going to rain today, so hurry up and make breakfast. We need to get to the fields after eating. Make lunch at the same time today. Wash the lunchboxes and pack the food in advance, understand?”
There was only one final patch of wheat left to harvest. If they didn’t finish cutting it before the rain came, the entire crop would be ruined in the fields.
The room was completely silent.
No one answered.
Because the family’s money had been stolen, Li Hua had already been irritated over the loss. But right now, nothing was more urgent than harvesting the wheat. When Su Yuanyuan didn’t respond, her temper immediately flared.
“Are you sleeping like the dead? Who in this world has a life as easy as yours? You have to be invited just to get up and cook? What daughter-in-law is as delicate as you? You’re always looking half-dead and weak, and it’s annoying just looking at you! If you can’t catch your breath and die one day, then so be it. But no, you just have to stay alive and drag everyone down!”
These cruel words, cursing Su Yuanyuan to die early, were something someone said to her almost every day.
If it wasn’t her parents-in-law, then it was one of her sisters-in-law, her older brothers-in-law, or even Gouwa and A Niu, who would curse Su Yuanyuan like this.
Usually, by the time they cursed her this much, Su Yuanyuan would already be scrambling out of bed to work. Otherwise, the family would start insulting her two children.
But the normally meek Su Yuanyuan had always been very obedient. Usually, after being called once, she would immediately get up and start cooking.
Yet today, Li Hua stood outside the door and cursed for ages, but there was still no response from inside.
“Are you really dead or what? Get up and make breakfast! If you think making one meal is such a terrible hardship, then pack your things, take your two little burdens, and get the hell out of this house! You still want to eat and drink for free? Bah! You cheap wretch—dream on!”
Li Hua cursed and grumbled for a long time, but it was as if Su Yuanyuan had been possessed. She stubbornly refused to open the door.
Lu Zhengning from the next room was awakened by the noise. Wearing a blue cotton shirt, he stormed out and angrily kicked open Su Yuanyuan’s door.
“Mom’s been calling you forever and you didn’t hear her? Think you’re so important now? You’re really putting on airs, aren’t you? If you don’t want to work, then get the hell out—”
Lu Zhengning’s unfinished words caught in his throat.
Seeing that there wasn’t a single person inside, and that the room had been cleaned out so thoroughly it was practically barer than a face, Li Hua and her son froze where they stood.
Wang Chunhua walked over. When she saw that no one was there, her eyes widened in shock, and she immediately shouted:
“Oh no! Something’s happened! That sickly woman and her two little burdens are gone! Could thieves have broken into the house again last night? Hurry up and check if anything else is missing!”