Su Yuanyuan was lost in her memories when the two children exchanged a glance. They both remembered that something had felt wrong about the atmosphere at home when they returned today.
Her son, Lu Siyuan, hugged Su Yuanyuan and asked worriedly, “Mommy, I saw them saying those nasty things again just now, and the door is broken too. Did they bully you again?”
Although they were still young, with their father away and their mother in poor health, the two children had grown mature early amid all the cold remarks and taunts.
Their eldest and second uncles often bullied and picked on their mother, so whenever something was wrong, the two children could easily notice.
“Mommy, are you hurt anywhere? Did they hit you?”
Her daughter, Lu Mingzhu, grabbed Su Yuanyuan’s hand and examined it.
Both children were worried about their mother’s health. Mommy was already in poor health to begin with. She absolutely couldn’t be bullied!
Su Yuanyuan froze for a moment.
Looking at the two children in her arms, blinking their eyes as they gazed at her with worried expressions, a warm current flowed through her heart, and her gaze became even gentler.
“They didn’t bully me. They just came over and said a few things. The door was already very old. I’ll find a nail later and fix the latch back in place. What about you two? What did you do today?”
Fixing a door latch was a trivial matter for Su Yuanyuan.
What she was worried about were the two children.
In the novel, the two children had a very difficult life without their parents to look after them. But they were very sensible and never made Su Yuanyuan worry.
When she woke up earlier, the children hadn’t been in the room. She didn’t know whether the Lu family had done anything to them.
The two children carefully looked Su Yuanyuan over. Only after confirming that their mother wasn’t hurt did the two little ones finally relax.
Lu Siyuan glanced toward the doorway. After making sure no one was standing outside the crack in the door, he carefully took out a little cloth bundle.
Calling it a cloth bundle was generous—it was just a piece of torn cloth.
“Today I secretly helped Auntie next door cut pigweed. Grandpa and Grandma don’t know. Auntie Zhang gave me two cents. Mommy, hide it and use it to buy medicine when you need it! If you take medicine, you’ll get better!”
Lu Siyuan opened the cloth bundle. After checking that the two cents were still inside, he hurriedly stuffed them into Su Yuanyuan’s hand.
He was clearly only three years old, yet there was already a maturity in his expression that didn’t belong to a child his age.
“Mommy, make sure you hide it carefully! No matter what Grandpa and Grandma say, don’t let them take it! They aren’t short of money!”
Su Yuanyuan was somewhat surprised to hear Lu Siyuan say this. She hadn’t expected the child to understand everything.
Besides being intelligent, there was certainly another reason: the Lu family had behaved so terribly that even a child could see through their true nature.
After Lu Siyuan finished speaking, Lu Mingzhu carefully pulled a piece of candy from the pocket of her old clothes.
It was a large yellow candy wrapped in transparent plastic.
“I went out today and helped Auntie Zhao clean her house. She gave me one of the candies she had just bought from the supply cooperative! It’s for Mommy! Mommy takes medicine all the time. Medicine is so bitter, but if you eat candy afterward, it won’t taste bitter anymore.”
The child’s simple words of comfort were so touching that Su Yuanyuan’s eyes reddened with emotion.
She hugged both children and kissed them again and again.
Although the original owner was ill, it was clear that she had still done her best to take care of her two children.
The children were very thin, but they were clean.
Now that Su Yuanyuan had taken over the original owner’s body, she had to take good care of these two children. Besides, they were so adorable—she would never let them suffer alongside her.
“Mommy will keep the money for now. Next time, I’ll buy you two some candy. Break this candy in half and share it between the two of you. Mommy doesn’t have much of an appetite and doesn’t want candy. From now on, we’ll have lots of candy! And our lives will keep getting better and better!”
Su Yuanyuan was thinking about where to settle temporarily after taking the two children away. Then she would find a way to make a living and raise them.
The first thing she needed to do after leaving was write a letter to Lu Zheng’an.
He hadn’t returned home in so long. He had no idea what was happening at home.
Sure enough, relying on a man would only end with starving to death.
Just look at how badly the two children had been tormented, while the original owner herself had died.
Su Yuanyuan sighed inwardly.
The two children didn’t take what she said to heart. They assumed Mommy was only comforting them.
In their minds, Daddy wasn’t reliable. Only Mommy worked hard to take care of them.
Whenever Mommy was sick, they were the ones who took care of her. Grandpa and Grandma didn’t care, and would even say nasty things.
Whenever they went to help the neighbors in exchange for a little money or a bowl of food, the neighbors would praise them for being sensible. Then they would sigh about how hard their mother’s life was and tell them that they needed to grow up quickly. Once they found jobs, they would be able to eat their fill.
In the adults’ eyes, anyone who could find a job was impressive. Having a job meant having money.
They both wanted to grow up as quickly as possible so they could go out and work, then support Mommy.
They would definitely take good care of Mommy!
When that happened, whether Mommy needed to see a doctor or buy medicine, they would have money!
The two children each made their own little plans and secretly resolved to do so.
The aroma of food drifted in from the kitchen.
The two children swallowed, but after glancing at Su Yuanyuan, they sensibly didn’t say anything.
No matter how sensible they were, they were still only three years old. Whatever thoughts they had were written plainly across their faces.
Su Yuanyuan glanced at them, then pulled three flatbreads from the basket at the foot of the bed.
She had previously made them using mugwort from the medicinal herb garden in her space. They tasted pretty good.
When she had left the space, she had thought the children might have nothing to eat, so she had brought some out. There happened to be three left.
The original owner had been sick for a while and hadn’t gone out to work in the fields. If she went over now to eat, wouldn’t Li Hua and the other two branches of the family make a fuss?
Going there would only mean asking for trouble.
The moment the two children saw the mugwort flatbreads, their eyes widened.
“Mommy! Where did you get those? Did you… did you steal them? You’re not allowed to steal things!”
Lu Siyuan was terrified.
He had known something must have happened at home today.
When he saw the flatbreads suddenly appear in Su Yuanyuan’s hands, he assumed that because Mommy had seen how hungry they were, she had gone somewhere and stolen them.
Lu Mingzhu glared at Lu Siyuan.
“Mommy wouldn’t steal things! Don’t say things like that!”
Su Yuanyuan was amused by the two children. She rubbed their heads and stuffed the flatbreads into their hands.
“Siyuan is right. We can’t steal things. But Mommy had hidden these flatbreads earlier. Hurry up and eat. But don’t let anyone else know that we ate anything tonight, understand?”
The two children hadn’t eaten anything all day except a bowl of rice water that morning. Their stomachs had been growling with hunger for a long time.
After confirming that the flatbreads hadn’t been stolen, each child hugged one and began munching on it.
After their first bite, Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu’s eyes lit up.
They exclaimed in unison, “It’s so good!”
“Eat slowly. Don’t choke.”
As the two children ate, their cheeks puffed up with every bite, making them look like two adorable little hamsters.
Su Yuanyuan’s heart melted at the sight.
She suddenly felt incredibly fortunate that although she hadn’t arrived at the best possible moment, at least she hadn’t come too late.
Now that she was here, no one would make these two children go hungry or freeze.
One mugwort flatbread wasn’t enough to fill their stomachs, but they couldn’t eat too much either. Otherwise, someone might become suspicious.
It was enough to tide them over for now.
After all the commotion, night had already fallen.
In this era, once everyone finished dinner and washed up, they generally went straight to bed if there was nothing else to do.
Su Yuanyuan turned off the light and told the two children stories to help them fall asleep.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu had spent most of the day working outside and were already exhausted. The moment they lay down after bathing, their eyelids began to droop.
The room next door was still lit.
Su Yuanyuan didn’t need to think to know what those people were whispering about.
……
“Eldest, what exactly happened? Didn’t you arrange everything with the man?”
Li Hua sat on the kang, stitching the sole of a shoe. The force with which she drove her needle made it look as though she wished she could stab Su Yuanyuan with it.
That wretched woman was irritating just to look at. She couldn’t work, but she sure knew how to eat!
“I did arrange it! I gave him the money, and I even gave him a pack of cigarettes and a bag of white sugar!”
The eldest son, Lu Zhengning, was also baffled.
They had clearly agreed on everything, so why hadn’t the man shown up?
“Then where is he?”
Old Man Lu irritably took a puff from his long-stemmed pipe.
They had planned everything perfectly. Once they caught Su Yuanyuan in bed with the adulterer, they could keep her firmly under their thumb. All the money Lu Zheng’an sent home would go straight into their pockets, and she certainly wouldn’t dare say a word.
But they hadn’t even seen the adulterer’s shadow!
“Ugh! You’re such an idiot! The whole thing wasn’t even done, and you already gave him all the money and gifts! He probably laughed at what a fool you were and ran off with the money ages ago!”
Wang Chunhua’s heart ached terribly when she heard her husband’s explanation.
Even a formal matchmaking visit wouldn’t come with such generous gifts!
Who would have thought her husband could be so stupid, handing everything over without question?
“Great. Now the money is gone, and the man can’t be found either. Big Brother sure is reliable as always.”
The second son, Lu Zhenggang, sneered.
Their parents always favored their eldest brother and never seemed to have room for him in their eyes.
Everyone was annoyed that today’s plan had failed, and Lu Zhenggang couldn’t resist making a few sarcastic remarks.
“Enough! Aren’t all of you just upset over that little bit of money?”
Lu Zhengning shouted impatiently.
The expressions of everyone else in the room changed, and they all glanced toward the doorway.
Wang Xiujuan, Lu Zhenggang’s wife, immediately became anxious.
“Big Brother, what do you mean by that? You’re saying it as if you aren’t upset about the money. If you don’t care about it, then why didn’t you pay for everything yourself?”
Just as the two were about to start arguing, Li Hua slapped the table and pointed at them, scolding them.
“Are you trying to get yourselves killed? Aren’t you afraid that little money-losing burden will hear you?”
The room instantly fell silent.
Wang Xiujuan snorted and turned away, sitting off to the side to weave a straw mat.
Lu Zhengning, who had been scolded, was seething with anger. He kicked over the stool beside him and stormed outside.
Li Hua chased after him and shouted in exasperation, “Where are you going at a time like this?”
Lu Zhengning ignored her and slammed the wooden gate behind him.
“Go wander around all day, why don’t you!” Wang Chunhua cursed under her breath as she carried her child back to the room to put them to sleep.
However, Lu Zhengning wasn’t going out to wander around.
Instead, he angrily made his way to Zhao Si’s house.
He kicked open the wooden gate and was just about to start cursing when he discovered that the entire house was pitch-black.
“Where is he?”
Lu Zhengning kicked over the chicken coop beside him and cursed.
Could that bastard really have run away?