12
Warehouse Space, Chicken Thief
Before Gu Wenshu could answer, Xiaoni, lying beside her, began to cry: “Mommy, Mommy, I want Mommy.”
As soon as she cried, Sanbao, who was asleep, also started crying. However, he didn’t call out for his parents but wept silently, like a helpless child lost in a dream, desperately searching for a way out. Each tear that fell seemed to strike right at the hearts of Gu Wenshu and Li Xiuran.
Gu Wenshu held Xiao Ni’er close, while Li Xiuran gently comforted Sanbao in his arms. Perhaps the soft whispers of their parents pierced through the layers of darkness and illuminated the children’s dreams, for the two little ones gradually quieted down and drifted back to sleep.
Gu Wenshu held Xiao Ni’er tightly, kissed her forehead, and said firmly, “The children need their mother. I wouldn’t feel at ease leaving them with anyone else, so I won’t leave for now.”
When Li Xiuran heard her say “for now,” his arms tightened around Sanbao. Through the darkness, he looked in the woman’s direction and said, “Today, you have only two choices. First, tomorrow I’ll give you five hundred yuan, we’ll get a divorce, and from then on, you will not see the children again. Over time, they will naturally forget you. The second choice is to stay, treat the children well from now on, and stop thinking about leaving. Otherwise, I won’t hesitate to let the children grow up without a mother.”
“Think it over carefully and tell me your final decision tomorrow morning.”
After saying this, he closed his eyes, still holding Sanbao.
Gu Wenshu stared into the darkness, Li Xiuran’s words echoing in her mind.
If she stayed, it would be for a lifetime. If she left, she would never see the children again.
If this man had given her such a choice before the children had nightmares, she might have chosen to leave.
But now, feeling the child in her arms, who, even in sleep, clung tightly to her clothes, she wondered—should she really leave?
Lost in thought, she eventually fell asleep.
In her dream, she returned to the moment before boarding the plane. She was inspecting the main warehouse of the supermarket. As it was close to the New Year, the warehouse received daily shipments of supplies, which were then distributed to supermarkets nationwide.
Seeing the milk and bread on the shelves, she suddenly felt hungry. Thinking that it was her dream, she decided she shouldn’t let herself go hungry.
She took a bottle of milk and a piece of Rousong Bread and began to eat.
As she ate, it felt as if someone was shaking her, and she heard a child’s sweet voice beside her ear: “Mommy, I need to pee.”
She woke up instantly, realizing she was now in the 1970s. Just as she reached out to take Xiao Ni’er to the bathroom, she noticed she was still holding the milk and Rousong Bread in her hands.
She was dumbfounded. These were the things from her dream—how could they have been brought into reality?
Before she could ponder further, Xiao Ni’er kept calling out that she needed to pee, and the man sleeping on the outer side of the bed also woke up. Panicked, she tried to stuff the items back into her dream.
To her surprise, the moment she thought of it, the items in her hands vanished.
Just then, the oil lamp was lit. She quickly handed Xiao Ni’er to Li Xiuran and said, “Be careful. It’s dark outside, and there’s no oil lamp.”
Yue Province, Yun City, Luo County, An’nan Commune had been electrified years ago, but power outages were frequent, so they relied mostly on oil lamps. At that moment, she deeply felt the inconveniences of living here.
Just as she was worrying, a beam of light shone from outside the room.
Gu Wenshu was stunned—this man had actually brought a flashlight when he returned.
While he was out of the room and Sanbao was sound asleep, she once again thought of the milk and Rousong Bread. Sure enough, the milk and bread she had just consumed in her dream were now in her hands.
As soon as she thought about putting the items back, they vanished.
Immediately after, she envisioned a can of milk powder, and a tin of Nestle Milk Powder promptly landed in her arms.
She stared at the milk powder in her embrace with a silly grin, her entire being buzzing with excitement. The hand holding the powder trembled slightly.
It seemed she had brought along the entire warehouse of the supermarket.
Having a warehouse space meant that even in the resource-scarce seventies, she wouldn’t go hungry.
She wasn’t actually afraid of pain or hardship—what she feared most was hunger.
Back in the orphanage, because she refused to compromise, she was often beaten and starved. She didn’t fear the beatings, but she dreaded hunger. The sensation of an empty stomach was unbearable, often keeping her awake all night. Sometimes, the hunger would become so intense that her stomach ached and acid churned in her gut. Her childhood was spent enduring hunger and beatings.
Even after she grew up, in her eyes, the most terrifying thing in the world was still starvation.
Now, no one could beat her anymore, and with the warehouse, she wouldn’t go hungry either.
As these thoughts swirled in her mind, her eyes grew slightly red. Hearing footsteps, she quickly returned the milk powder to the space.
Lowering her head to compose herself, she then looked at the father and daughter who had entered. Holding the drowsy Xiao Ni’er, she lay back on the bed. Perhaps because of the warehouse, she was too excited to sleep. Closing her eyes, she recalled the days of struggling to survive in the orphanage.
Being beaten, going hungry, locked in dark rooms, bullied by older children—until she finally fought back, clashing with others.
Throughout those scarred childhood years, it seemed she had never enjoyed a proper meal or a good night’s sleep.
Even after returning to her biological parents’ home in her teens, where she had enough to eat and wear and slept in a clean room, she still felt lonely. She didn’t fit in with that family and was mocked by her siblings. So, she could only bury herself in studying, determined to surpass them all, to make them look up to her.
From childhood to adulthood, all her sense of security had come from herself—or rather, she had never truly felt secure.
Holding the little girl tightly in her arms, she wished desperately to shield these two children from life’s storms.
She whispered, “Li Xiuran, I’m not leaving.”
Loneliness was too terrifying. She had lived in solitude for thirty years, and now, with a chance to start over, she yearned for the sunlight.
And these two children might just be the rare beams of light in her life.
She wanted to hold onto them.
Li Xiuran, lying on the outer side of the bed, wasn’t asleep. Hearing her words, he remained silent for a long moment before finally uttering an “Mm.”
Neither had anything more to say. For a while, the room was eerily quiet, as if they could hear each other’s breathing.
Early the next morning, Li Xiuran went for a run around the village and then returned with some helpers to assist with the move.
Granny Li didn’t go to work that morning. Instead, she spent the entire time in the yard cursing and grumbling, calling Li Xiuran heartless and an ingrate for abandoning his parents to live a better life.
The helpers were a few cousins from the same clan who were close to Li Xiuran. Upon hearing her rants, they all felt like rolling their eyes. The story of Granny Li trying to brush Li Xiuran off with just five yuan had already spread far and wide. Clearly, she was the one who had disowned her son, yet she still had the nerve to stand there and curse.
They couldn’t say much, so they quickly helped Li Xiuran move all his belongings, eager to leave this place sooner and start their own lives. After all, living with such a mother-in-law was unbearable for any normal person.
Li Xiuran placed the two children on the cart used for hauling the items. He glanced around but didn’t see Gu Wenshu. Just as he was about to look for her, he heard his sister-in-law’s furious roar from behind the house: “Gu Wenshu, you damned little thief! How dare you steal my chicken?”