Chapter 971: First Cry, Second Make a Trouble, and Third Hang

After the lively meal, Chen Guifen and Tian Guihua helped to collect the dishes.

Lu Miao took the children to wash up first.

At night, Lu Miao and Tian Guihua had a private conversation, and then he took Mingxia and Baichuan to sleep in the main house.

Across the main room, Fu Jingyou and He Erge took Shi An, Ming Yi and Min Jie to sleep in the side room.

The adults were talking in low voices, and the children were burrowing and laughing in the quilts. Both rooms were quite lively.

However, after the old couple of the He family finished cleaning up the place, they walked back with flashlights in their hands.

When they got home, the yard was dark and quiet. The old couple looked at each other and both thought something was weird.

Normally, he would yell and complain, but why is he so quiet today?

Then I thought, it’s almost the New Year, so it would be better to have some peace and quiet.

The old couple said nothing, locked the gate, and went into the house.

At this moment, there was a "bang" in Brother He's room, and the sound of a chair being knocked over was heard.

Normally the old couple would have ignored it, but after listening for a while, they heard some rustling, and after the chair was lifted up, there was no more movement.

He Hongjin felt strange and swung the flashlight in that direction.

In a blink of an eye, I saw Minmin lying on the window with disheveled hair and looking out with tears in her eyes.

He Hongjin was still angry with the eldest brother and his wife, and his chest felt suffocated, so he didn't say anything.

Chen Guifen felt distressed and couldn't bear to watch, so she asked in a hissing voice:

"Min girl, are your parents asleep?"

Minmin crossed her arms, wiped away her tears and said:

"Grandpa, Grandma, my parents took my brother to Gadi's house."

[Gade: Dialect, meaning grandpa.]

Chen Guifen was stunned for a moment, took He Hongjin's flashlight, walked over to take a closer look, isn't it?

Minmin was the only one left in the room.

Chen Guifen opened the door and beckoned Minmin over:

"They left, why didn't you follow them?"

Minmin lowered her head and said nothing.

Chen Guifen could think of something and sighed:

"Forget it, have you had dinner?"

Although she was asking questions, Chen Guifen had already taken Minmin to the main house.

He Hongjin lit the light in the house and locked the door. The two old people and one child went to the kitchen holding kerosene lamps.

Chen Guifen lit a fire, washed up, and cooked two eggs and a bowl of shredded pork noodles.

There was no small table in the kitchen, so He Hongjin brought a chair with an armchair.

Minmin sat on a small stool at the stove entrance and ate while leaning on a chair.

The little girl's jacket was thin, and the sleeves were black and stained with grease.

The wrist holding the chopsticks was as thin as a vegetable stalk, but he was picking up the food very quickly, as if he was afraid that someone would snatch it away.

He Hongjin glanced at it twice, then turned away and smoked his pipe.

Chen Guifen blew her nose quietly, went back to the front room, fumbled around for a moment, and brought over the washbasin, basin, and other things.

In addition, the cotton-padded clothes that had just been brought from the Fu family were also brought over.

He Hongjin fetched some water and took the bucket to the front room to soak his feet.

Chen Guifen locked the front and back doors of the kitchen tightly.

She took a comb and combed Minmin's messy hair, then added some water and rubbed Minmin's face and back.

I changed the water twice and managed to give Minmin a bath and make her look clean.

Chen Guifen asked Minmin to take off her dirty clothes and changed her into a baggy jacket and cotton-padded clothes.

The little girl was so thin that when she raised her hands to put on her clothes, her ribs on both sides were exposed.

If she let it go, Chen Guifen might even scold Brother He and his wife.

Now she is too lazy to even curse.

He is a heartless person and will not listen to you no matter how harshly you scold him.

Chen Guifen rubbed the corner of her eye calmly and asked Minmin with a nasal voice:

"Are you full? If not, I'll cook you another bowl of noodles."

Minmin moved her mouth, smiled, and thrust out her round belly:

"I'm full, so full! My mother-in-law's cooking is so delicious."

Chen Guifen burst into laughter and touched her dry hair:

"Wash your feet and wait for me to finish cleaning up. Then you can sleep with me tonight."

"Um!"

Minmin was delighted. She brought the small basin to the stove, warmed herself by the fire, rolled up her trouser legs and put her feet into the basin.

Minmin breathed a sigh of relief as she wrapped the hot water around her feet, which were as cold as iron.

So comfortable...

It hasn’t been this warm in a long time...!

Minmin grinned happily, then smiled briefly and then pouted again, lowering her head and scrubbing her feet silently.

Chen Guifen went out and brought back a pair of cotton shoes.

The shoes were Chen Guifen's own. They didn't fit Minmin well, but they were better than straw sandals.

After Minmin finished washing, Chen Guifen took over.

When Chen Guifen was soaking her feet, she saw Minmin sitting on a chair, her feet arching in her shoes. Occasionally, she would bend over and stretch out her little hands to touch them, and she was so focused that she couldn't calm down.

Chen Guifen asked:

"What's wrong? Are your shoes too big to fit? I'll be in bed soon and I'll be tired."

Minmin shook her head and said truthfully:

"My feet are itchy."

Itchy feet?

Chen Guifen wiped her feet and put on her shoes, then took off Minmin's shoes and took a closer look.

The feet, which were not much bigger than the palm of a hand, were covered with bruises and had swelling and broken skin in several places.

It's frostbite.

After looking at Minmin's two feet, Chen Guifen pushed aside her sleeves to look at her hands. Sure enough, her hands also had varying degrees of frostbite.

Thinking of Minmin, Chen Guifen felt sad and silently let go of the child's sleeves and trouser legs.

Chen Guifen said nothing.

There were still some carbon sparks in the stove. Chen Guifen cut a few pieces of radish and heated them in the stove with tongs.

Afterwards, I held Minmin's feet in my arms and applied hot compress with radish slices.

The itching caused by frostbite can be fatal. The swollen skin is delicate and fragile, and it hurts even if you touch it lightly, let alone scratch it.

It is even better when hot radish slices are applied on it.

Minmin shrank back with a cry:

"No, it's so hot and hurts!"

"Just bear with it, just for a while, after a burn it will feel much better tomorrow..."

Minmin couldn't break free and cried because of the burns from the radish slices.

Chen Guifen was not in a much better condition. She was sweating profusely in just a few minutes.

Fortunately, the radish slices were no longer hot, so there was no need to continue applying them.

Chen Guifen poured some water for washing feet, patted Minmin, and went to the front room to rest together.

Minmin has frostbite on her hands and feet, and she always feels very itchy when she sleeps at night.

After Chen Guifen scalded her, she didn't feel as itchy as before when she slept at night.

Her hands and feet were no longer making trouble, and she finally slept in a warm bed after a long time. Minmin breathed a sigh of relief and felt so happy.

The little girl slept on the inner side of the bed next to her grandparents, and soon fell asleep and began to snore clearly.

In the darkness, Chen Guifen nudged her husband:

"Let's be tough. Can we keep this girl at home? She's already thirteen years old. During the day, I saw that she's not even as tall as Shi An."

He Hongjin scolded:

"You said you'd let her stay? It's not like we haven't done that before. Don't you know what kind of person her mother is?"

Minmin's life was not easy, and the old couple had said they wanted to keep her at home.

But Zhao Lanxiang disagreed. Every time she did, she would cry, make a fuss, and even threaten to hang herself.

The old couple really had no idea what to do.