The chickenpox was very serious that time, and my mother had to buy medicine for my sister and me. However, few children were willing to take medicine, and my sister and I were no exception.

My mother was afraid that my sister’s chickenpox wouldn’t heal, so in order to coax her into taking medicine, she bought her several beautiful flower-themed hairpins.

[Lianlian, after you take the medicine, Mommy will give you these beautiful hairpins to wear, okay?]

Girls have no resistance to these beautiful objects. Although my sister was reluctant to take the medicine, she still closed her eyes and swallowed the medicine after looking at the hairpins. She got her beloved hairpins as she wished.

I stared at the pills in my hand, tears blurred my eyes. Hair, I also wanted to have long hair and wear beautiful hairpins, but my mother said that the hair was too long and it would be a waste of shampoo, so she cut my long hair, but she kept my sister's hair.

Same illness, same medicine, but such different treatment. I don’t know if I’m used to it, but this time I didn’t cry. It turns out that enduring grievances can become a habit.

I used to think medicine was very bitter and unpalatable, but this time, when I took it, I didn’t taste anything. I don’t know if the medicine was no longer bitter, or if my heart was too bitter, covering up the bitterness of the medicine.

My sister watched me swallow all the medicine in one gulp and her eyes widened in surprise.

[Mom, when has Xiaoyu ever stopped being afraid of taking medicine? He swallowed it all in one gulp. He's amazing.]

[That was her fault. If she didn't eat, would she die of illness?]

My mother's words were so harsh that my sister didn't dare to say anything more and just took the medicine obediently.

When I was twelve years old, I learned to be strong and independent.

When I was fifteen, I ranked first in the school. When I got the certificate, I was very happy. It was not because I ranked first in the whole school, but because I had a certificate. In the village, a certificate was a very rare thing. If a family had one, the whole village would talk about it.

I was thinking whether my mother would be very happy when she saw this certificate. So, even though I was walking back from school alone, I was in a very good mood. I was imagining all the way how my mother would feel when she saw this certificate. Would she be very happy? Would she hug me? Would she talk about me in front of other people?

I walked only half of the two-hour journey. I was so excited to see my mother's performance that I walked very anxiously.

When I arrived at the door of my house, I saw my mother carrying a basket, and I excitedly called out "Mom".

My mother didn't look back at me, but just said in a very bad tone, "I'll eat your mother's food."

No one knows how big a blow this sentence was to me. All my expectations were shattered.

Later, I found out why my mother was so angry that day. It was because my father sold the only plowing cow in the family and did not come home all day because he attended a parent-teacher meeting. My mother was busy at home all day and took out all her anger on me.

When I was fifteen, I realized that I was a punching bag. My mother could vent her accumulated anger on other people on me.

On the same day, a mute, about fifty or sixty years old, came to our house and told my father that he could dig manure for our family for ten yuan a day, with food provided. Farmers were very busy in spring, and ten yuan was not much, so my father agreed.

I felt very sorry when I looked at his old body, but I had no right to interfere. From the conversation between my mother and father, I learned that he was kicked out by his son and daughter-in-law, and had no way to make a living and had to rely on himself.

My family is a typical rural family. In rural areas, it is normal to favor boys over girls. However, there is also a saying in families without boys: the older ones are loved, the younger ones are cared for, and the one in the middle suffers the most. This saying is the most appropriate for my family.

I was the middle child of three sisters. My older sister had endless new clothes and my younger sister endless delicious food, but I only had my older sister's old clothes to wear, and it was never my turn to eat. Regarding all this, my mother said, "We're poor. You need to go to school, and we don't have enough money, so you just have to make do." Her words of "make do" made me make do for twenty years.

My name is Xie Yu, my elder sister is Xie Lian, and my younger sister is Xie Fen. My elder sister is one year older than me, and my younger sister is two years younger than me. However, when I was born, family planning was strictly enforced in rural areas. A normal family could only have two children at most. Otherwise, if there was one more, there would be a fine. My father had no choice but to report us as twins. Outsiders never suspected it because my elder sister is very small. Even though she is one year older than me, she is not as tall as me.

My elder sister has been sickly since she was young, so all the delicious food belonged to her, and I could only watch. In my memory, my parents never hugged me, and they didn’t even give me the most basic praise. They thought that as long as I had enough food and clothes, that was enough. But they didn’t know how envious and jealous I was when they hugged my elder sister.

When I was a kid, my favorite part of Chinese New Year was being taken to visit relatives. I'd get to eat all sorts of delicious food I couldn't normally eat, and my family might even give me some money. It wasn't much, only five or ten yuan, but it was a significant amount of pocket money for me, and it was the only time of year I'd actually touch money. But even those opportunities were few and far between. My parents would take my older sisters with them and assign me chores.

The villagers told my mother, "How's your second daughter? I haven't seen her in a long time. When she comes, bring her over to meet me."

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!