Mu Xinyao looked at her, her eyes filled with astonishment and scrutiny. Then, she showed a troubled expression. “Miss, it’s not that we’re unwilling to… It’s just that our family’s situation is really…”
Lin Peiru saw her expression and immediately knew there was hope!
She quickly interrupted Mu Xinyao, rattling off her conditions at lightning speed. “Auntie, don’t worry! I absolutely won’t cause any trouble for your family!”
“I only need one room. I don’t care how small it is!”
“For meals, I’ll eat with your family, and I’ll hand over my monthly food ration to the household!”
“And I’ll also pay three yuan a month for rent!”
Three yuan!
Mu Xinyao and Huo Yunqiao both sucked in a breath.
In an era when a worker’s monthly salary was only twenty or thirty yuan, three yuan was practically a fortune for their impoverished family!
Mu Xinyao hurriedly shook her head. “No, no! Miss, that’s too much! I heard from the villagers that other educated youths who rent rooms only pay two yuan a month!”
Seeing this, Lin Peiru was delighted. She immediately followed her lead. “All right! Whatever you say, Auntie! Then two yuan it is!”
Mu Xinyao was stunned by her straightforwardness, only realizing a moment later that she hadn’t even agreed yet!
This girl… how did she manage to seize the opportunity so quickly?
“Miss… this matter… still needs my son to make the decision.”
Again! Huo Yunshen again!
Lin Peiru closed her eyes and steeled herself. She immediately brought out her trump card!
Her eyes reddened. The cheerful smile on her face from moments ago instantly filled with tears, and her voice took on a sobbing tone. She looked so pitiful that anyone who heard her would feel heartbroken.
“Auntie… I… I’m just a girl. I’ve only just come here from the city, and I don’t know anyone or anything around here. I’m scared…”
As she spoke, she secretly pinched her own thigh, and tears immediately fell with a plop. “I just walked around the village, and I felt that your family was the cleanest. You and your sister look like such wonderful, wonderful people!”
“If I stay with another family, I’m afraid… I’m afraid they’ll bully me…”
“Please, Auntie, just let me stay here. Boo-hoo…”
Her tearful plea completely stunned soft-hearted Mu Xinyao and innocent Huo Yunqiao.
Neither of them had ever encountered such a situation before. For a moment, they were completely at a loss, their hearts aching for her.
Mu Xinyao struggled to speak, just about to comfort her, when her face suddenly turned deathly pale!
She abruptly clutched her chest. Her lips instantly turned bluish-purple, and her entire body curled up as she gasped desperately for breath. Cold sweat poured down her forehead.
“Mom!!” Huo Yunqiao was scared out of her wits and rushed toward her, crying.
“Mom, what’s wrong?! Don’t scare me!”
Completely panicked, she turned around and was about to rush outside. “I’ll go get my brother! I’ll get him right away!”
“Don’t go!” Lin Peiru immediately stood up. “There’s no time!”
At this critical moment, all traces of the weakness Lin Peiru had been pretending to have vanished instantly. In their place was a calmness and composure that made people feel inexplicably reassured.
In her previous life, Huo Yunshen had mentioned countless times that his mother suffered from heart disease. In those years, with medical supplies and medicine in such short supply, there had been no way to treat her properly.
Because of this, before coming to the countryside, she had gone through connections to buy the most effective emergency medicine she could find on the black market.
She had done it specifically for this moment!
“Yunqiao, don’t panic! Have Auntie lie flat and prop up her head!”
While giving instructions rapidly, Lin Peiru swiftly pulled a small brown medicine bottle from the cloth bag she carried.
She poured out two pills. With one hand, she supported Mu Xinyao’s head, while with the other, she accurately placed the pills beneath her tongue.
“Auntie, keep them there! Don’t swallow!”
Time seemed to stretch endlessly at that moment.
Huo Yunqiao’s cries caught in her throat as she stared rigidly at her mother, afraid to move even an inch.
Who knew how long had passed? Perhaps only a minute or two.
The labored breathing of Mu Xinyao, curled up on the kang, finally began to ease.
Her bluish-purple lips slowly regained a trace of color.
The tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed as well.
She had survived.
The heart Lin Peiru had been holding in suspense finally dropped heavily back into her chest.
“Mom…” Huo Yunqiao called tentatively, her voice still carrying the remnants of tears.
Mu Xinyao slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze was still somewhat unfocused, but when she saw her daughter’s anxious face, and then the beautiful stranger beside her…
It was this girl who had saved her.
“I… I’m fine now…”
Mu Xinyao’s voice was weak, but filled with the relief of surviving a catastrophe.
She struggled to sit up and gave Lin Peiru an immensely grateful smile. “Miss… thank you… I… this is an old problem of mine. I never know when I might…”
She couldn’t even bring herself to finish the sentence.
If not for this girl, she might have…
Lin Peiru immediately seized the opportunity!
The calmness and composure on her face vanished without a trace, replaced by a shy and expectant expression.
“Auntie, then…” She paused, her long eyelashes fluttering like two little brushes, tickling at the heartstrings. “Can I stay at your house?”
After saying that, she seemed to think it still wasn’t enough. She blinked her crystal-clear eyes and added in a soft yet perfectly reasonable voice, “Auntie, I just saved your life, you know.”
Mu Xinyao: “???”
The overwhelming gratitude that had just surged through her heart instantly came to a halt.
She was completely stunned.
This… this girl…
Was she emotionally blackmailing her?!
But when she looked at Lin Peiru’s beautiful face, which practically screamed Please say yes, Mu Xinyao’s helpless amusement was quickly replaced by a more complicated feeling.
She thought about it again.
This girl really did have a good heart.
The medicine had obviously been precious, yet she had given it to her without the slightest hesitation.
She was decisive and remained calm in an emergency. She was even more dependable than her own daughter, Yunqiao.
And all she was asking for was a place to stay. She was a beautiful young girl who had come from the city and had no one here. What had she done wrong?
Most importantly…
Why had she happened to be there precisely when Mu Xinyao had her attack?
Why, just when Mu Xinyao was helpless, had this girl happened to have life-saving medicine with her?
What did that mean?
It meant they were destined to meet!
She was a benefactor sent by Heaven to help their family!
Once she came to this conclusion, the last trace of suspicion in Mu Xinyao’s heart disappeared.
She made the decision immediately!
“Stay! Of course you can stay!” Although her voice was still weak, her tone brooked no argument. “You saved me. How could I refuse such a small request?”
Huo Yunqiao was completely dumbfounded.
“Mom?!” She tugged at her mother’s sleeve and hurriedly reminded her in a low voice, “Shouldn’t we ask my brother first?”
With her brother’s personality, if he came home and found a stranger in the house—and a woman this beautiful at that—who knew how furious he might get!
Her daughter’s reminder made Mu Xinyao hesitate slightly after finally managing to sound so decisive.
After all, she knew her son’s cold, stubborn temperament all too well.
But that hesitation lasted only a moment.
She immediately straightened her chest, and on her weak face appeared a stubbornness remarkably similar to Huo Yunshen’s.
“It’s fine!” She waved her hand. “Your brother can’t win against me.”
Huo Yunqiao: “…”
Lin Peiru: “…”
She finally understood.
The stubborn streak in Huo Yunshen that not even nine bulls could pull back—she finally knew exactly who he had inherited it from.