Of course, she knew exactly what the two children were going to say.
But she had every right to be confident about it.
Taking something without asking was called stealing. What Li Hua and those people had done was the real theft. What she was doing was simply turning the tables, okay?
The two children nodded repeatedly.
Exactly!
Lu Mingzhu even snorted and said in her childish voice, “Exactly! Grandpa and Grandma are really mean! They take most of Daddy’s salary, but they won’t even give us enough food. These things should belong to us!”
“These two golden longevity locks! Mommy wanted to have one made for each of us back then, but Grandpa and Grandma wouldn’t agree! Eldest Aunt and Second Aunt even showed them off in front of us all the time. This time, they’re definitely going to be furious!”
Lu Siyuan stood on tiptoe and looked at the golden longevity locks sitting on top of the dowry box. They were so shiny and beautiful.
The two children hopped around like a pair of rabbits, looking here and there before returning to Su Yuanyuan and hugging her legs from either side. Their eyes sparkled as they exclaimed in unison,
“Mommy, you’re amazing!”
“From now on, we can cook for ourselves! We won’t have to worry about Grandpa and Grandma refusing to leave any food for us anymore!”
Once, Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu had gone all the way to the entrance of the village to buy cold medicine for Su Yuanyuan. Children walked slowly, so they came back a little late.
By then, everyone in the Lu family had already eaten all the food and hadn’t left a single bite for the children.
The original owner had wanted to cook something for the children herself, but Li Hua had even scolded her for that.
Thinking about how pitiful the original owner and the two children had been, Su Yuanyuan’s nose grew a little sore.
“Oh! Right! Let’s go take a look at the kitchen!”
She had been so busy showing them all the novel household appliances that she hadn’t gotten around to taking them into the kitchen.
……
Standing in front of the huge cabinet that was emitting cold air, the two children once again exclaimed,
“Wow!”
“What’s this?”
“This is a refrigerator. It keeps food fresh, which means things inside won’t spoil as quickly. You can put fruit in the refrigerator too. When you take it out to eat, it’ll be nice and cold. You can even make popsicles yourself!”
“So amazing!”
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu were already looking at her with sparkling, starry eyes.
“This is an oven. This one is a microwave, and this is a dishwasher. Anyway, there are lots of interesting things here. Mommy will teach you how to use them next time.”
Su Yuanyuan gave them a rough introduction to the appliances in the kitchen.
The food Su Yuanyuan had previously prepared inside the space was still there. It didn’t spoil even without being stored in the refrigerator. It would automatically maintain a suitable temperature for eating—it wouldn’t become cold, nor would it remain scalding hot.
It was incredibly convenient.
Su Yuanyuan took a steamed bun and a meat bun and split them between the two children.
Then she took some milk from the refrigerator and warmed half a cup for each of them.
They had never drunk milk before because it was expensive!
The previous New Year, they had only seen their eldest and second uncles buy some for their sons to drink. The two children had been so envious at the time.
“Eat slowly. Don’t rush. From now on, we’ll be able to eat lots of delicious things. You can eat whatever you want.”
Su Yuanyuan spoke slowly to the two children, but she was also saying it to herself.
She absolutely had to take these two children away from this place.
She would never let them go hungry for even a single day again!
She only gave Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu a little food and didn’t let them eat too much.
Under that family’s constant mistreatment, they had never once eaten until they were full. If they suddenly ate too much or ate something overly greasy, their stomachs wouldn’t be able to handle it.
What surprised her was that even though she didn’t explain, the two children didn’t ask why they couldn’t eat anything else.
They had always been incredibly sensible. They listened to everything Su Yuanyuan said and always put her first.
Children this wonderful, and the original owner herself, should have been given a much better ending.
After the two children finished eating, Su Yuanyuan finally explained the existence of the space to them.
“This place belongs exclusively to Mommy. Without Mommy’s permission, no one else can enter. You can call this place the ‘space.’ This big house is our home—the real home that truly belongs to us.”
The space was absolutely safe.
Su Yuanyuan then roughly explained some of the space’s special features to the children before taking them to wash their hands.
The moment they placed their hands beneath the faucet and water automatically flowed out, the two children cried out in amazement again.
Su Yuanyuan couldn’t help laughing at them.
“From now on, we can sleep in the space every night. We won’t have to sleep on that cold kang anymore.”
Although there was a kang bed in Su Yuanyuan and the children’s room, Old Man Lu was extremely stingy. He was unwilling to give them enough firewood to keep the kang warm.
So once winter came, their kang would only stay warm during the first half of the night. By the second half, it would become cold.
The two children had fallen ill several times because of it.
Later, when there was no other choice, the original owner had to go into the mountains herself to gather firewood.
Life had been incredibly difficult.
Winter was the season the three of them feared the most.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu exchanged a glance before grabbing Su Yuanyuan’s hand and asking timidly,
“Mommy, can we stay here forever and never go outside again?”
They didn’t really understand the special nature of the space, but they understood what Mommy had said: without her permission, no one could enter.
If they stayed here forever, wouldn’t that mean no one could bully them?
They didn’t like Grandpa, Grandma, their uncles, or any of those people at all.
They were all bad.
If she could, Su Yuanyuan would of course love to keep the two children in the space forever.
She couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Their living conditions outside were practically disastrous.
When it rained, the house leaked.
When it snowed, it was as cold as an ice cellar.
Unfortunately, Su Yuanyuan could only shake her head helplessly.
“No. There’s a time limit for staying here. We can only stay for half a day each day. If we stay for more than twelve hours, we’ll be forcibly sent back outside.”
Fortunately, twelve hours was still a fairly long time.
“Although we can’t stay in the space all the time, we can sleep here every night. There are no mosquitoes, and we don’t have to worry about bugs. We can use the remaining time during the day whenever we want to come in. How does that sound?”
Su Yuanyuan patiently explained it to the two children.
In her previous world, she had been unable to become pregnant, and perhaps that was why she had always been especially fond of children.
Even so, she knew that raising children wasn’t easy.
But these two children were practically little angels. They were incredibly easy to care for, obedient and sensible, and never threw tantrums.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu truly lived up to being twins. Even the way they nodded was perfectly synchronized.
The two children answered in their sweet, childish voices,
“Okay. We’ll listen to Mommy.”
Su Yuanyuan gave them some more oil-free wheat biscuits. After they finished eating, she took them out of the space.
The moment they emerged from the space, they heard Li Hua cursing and complaining in the courtyard.
She was saying that her eldest daughter-in-law was useless, her second daughter-in-law couldn’t do anything properly, and her third daughter-in-law was an even bigger sickly burden.
There wasn’t a single person in the family whom she didn’t scold.
Except herself, of course.
Su Yuanyuan glanced over the two children’s faces before squatting down and looking at them seriously.
“No one can find out that Mommy has been giving you extra food. When you go outside later, pretend that you’re still hungry and haven’t eaten enough. You have to act properly! Otherwise, the three of us are finished!”
Su Yuanyuan exaggeratedly drew a finger across her throat in a throat-slitting gesture.