Chapter 109 Mo Honghong Revisited

Everyone ate candy and cookies, talked with Molly about the changes in the village, and everyone had smiles on their faces, full of hope for the future.

Molly was happy for them; she saw that many houses had replaced their thatched roofs with tiles, which showed that everyone's lives were getting better.

Molly's smile faded only when she saw Mohe come out.

More than two years had passed since they last met, and Mo He looked so haggard that Molly almost didn't recognize him. This reminded Molly of Mo He during the drought, when he was skin and bones and had a sallow complexion.

The only difference was that Mohe was heavily pregnant.

"Don't cry." Molly hugged Mohe, her gentle voice having a calming power.

But Mohe couldn't hold back her tears, and her silent words soaked Molly's clothes.

The people around fell silent. The envy they had felt for Molly just moments before had turned into pity for Mo He.

A woman who is six months pregnant suddenly loses her husband, has a two-year-old daughter and a mother-in-law in her fifties. This is really too difficult.

Molly nodded to the people around her, said goodbye silently, and led Mohe home.

"Don't cry, it's bad for the baby," Molly advised.

Upon entering the house, Li Xiaoju was holding her two-year-old granddaughter by the fire. The granddaughter was already asleep. Li Xiaoju's face was numb, and her eyes were so red and swollen that she could not open them.

"Is it Molly?" Li Xiaoju asked in a hoarse voice.

“Yes, it’s me,” Molly said. She didn’t like Li Xiaoju, but at this moment she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. A woman who lost her husband early and her son late in life, a hateful and miserable woman, she really couldn’t bring herself to hate her.

"I'll pour you a cup of hot water." Li Xiaoju said, standing up, only to find herself holding her granddaughter in her arms, her expression blank.

“I can do it myself,” Molly said. There was a kettle boiling on the brazier. She went to the kitchen to get a bowl, poured herself some water, and put it aside to wait for it to cool down before drinking it.

Mo He washed her face, and the tear stains on her face were gone.

"How's the packing going?" Molly asked.

Mo He nodded, "Everything that can be taken away has been packed up, and the rest will be given to relatives."

"Let's leave tomorrow," Molly said, looking at Mo He. "Are you feeling alright?"

Mo He nodded. "Okay."

"Leaving tomorrow? Aren't you going to stay a few more days?" Li Xiaoju felt uneasy and reluctant.

“Let’s leave tomorrow. Let’s change the scenery and give my sister a change of mood. Staying at home isn’t good for her baby.” Molly’s words were calm, directly addressing what Li Xiaoju cared about most.

Sure enough, upon hearing that it was bad for the baby, Li Xiaoju immediately became anxious, "Fine, we'll leave tomorrow."

She handed the baby in her arms to Molly, saying, "Could you please hold this baby for me for a while, Molly?"

Molly took the unfamiliar little niece in her arms; she was light as a feather, about the same weight as her own Ji Yi. She switched her arms, and the little girl just frowned slightly before falling back asleep.

Li Xiaoju hurriedly grabbed the incense, candles, and paper money, then looked at Molly with a fawning smile in her eyes, "Molly, do you still have any of the candy you brought back?"

"Yes." Molly, holding her little niece, went to the car and got a bag. Inside were not only candies and cookies, but also some fruit, which Molly had specially set aside.

"May I take some?" Li Xiaoju asked cautiously.

Molly nodded. "Take whatever you like."

Li Xiaoju was overjoyed. She grabbed two handfuls of candy, then a handful of cookies, and took two of each type of fruit, filling her basket to the brim.

"I'm going out for a bit, I'll be right back. Molly, you rest first, I'll kill a chicken and make you chicken soup when I get back."

“She’s going to say goodbye to her son. Is your older sister going?” Molly asked.

"I'm not going." Mo He shook her head, then asked Molly, "Are you hungry?"

Molly nodded. "I'm hungry."

"There are sweet potatoes in the fire. You eat one first, and I'll go cook rice," Mo He said, standing up and walking outside.

Molly didn't refuse. Looking at her back, she saw how thin she was, not like a pregnant woman. She hadn't expected her older sister to be living such a hard life.

Li Xiaoju returned shortly after. As soon as she got home, she went to the chicken coop, grabbed the fattest hen, killed it, plucked its feathers, chopped it into pieces, and put it in a clay pot to make soup.

Just then, Molly's little niece woke up. Her small face had a pair of eyes that took up a third of its area. She stared blankly at Molly, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes. She then turned her head to look to the side, but didn't see anyone familiar.

The next second, she opened her mouth to cry, but Molly stuffed a peeled White Rabbit candy into her mouth.

The sweet taste spread in her mouth, and her little niece immediately closed her mouth, her beautiful eyes instantly lighting up.

“Panpan, I’m your aunt, do you know me?” Molly asked.

Zhao Pan shook her head, then nodded.

Molly laughed. "It's okay if you don't know now, you'll find out later."

“This child is shy, it’s strange that she didn’t cry when she saw you.” Mo He sat back down by the fire and reached out to hug Zhao Pan.

“I gave her a piece of candy when she opened her mouth to cry,” Molly said honestly.

Mo He laughed, "No wonder."

"Big sister, why didn't you tell me about your family's hardships?" Everyone else's lives are getting better, so why is her sister's family getting worse?

“It wouldn’t have been difficult, but your brother-in-law fell ill several times, and his medical treatment cost a lot of money.” Mo He said with a bitter expression, “After being sick a few times, your brother-in-law’s health got worse and worse. He felt guilty, thinking he was a burden on the family, so he worked even harder, which only made his health worse—”

Mo He paused for a moment, then said, "Second sister, lend me some money first, I'll go and pay back the money I borrowed from the villagers."

Molly: "How much do you want?"

Mo He: "One hundred and eighty yuan."

Molly didn't say anything, but counted out five hundred yuan and gave it to Mo He, "Consider this your salary in advance, five months' salary."

Mo He was stunned. "One hundred yuan a month? That's too much! Molly, don't pay me such a high salary just because I'm your sister. How will your cake shop make money if the salary is this high!"

“I also pay the chef 100 yuan a month. You are the store manager I trained, so your salary naturally can’t be lower than the chef’s.” Molly was telling the truth.

Mo He paused for two minutes before asking, "Am I capable of this?"

Molly: "So, sister, you need to work harder. You'll have someone to guide you in the early stages, but after you give birth, you'll be able to stand on your own."

Mo He immediately felt the pressure, but for the sake of her two children, she did not back down. "I will try my best."

Molly woke up early the next morning.

She loaded the food, furniture, clothes, and blankets into the car, and finally put a cage of chickens and a basket of eggs on it.

“I’m afraid there won’t be anywhere to raise chickens in Beijing,” Molly said.

"They weren't raised there; they were a gift for your mother-in-law's family. There's not much good stuff in the countryside; these are the only chickens we can offer." Li Xiaoju smiled somewhat embarrassedly.

Molly: "Thank you."

She helped her sister into the car, then carried her little niece in, and then it was Li Xiaoju's turn. "You can sit in the front passenger seat."

Li Xiaoju didn't know which one was the passenger seat; it was Molly who showed her the seat and told her to sit down.

Molly was the last to get on the bus. As the door closed, she turned to Mohe and said, "Sister, lie down if you're tired. Panpan, you should too. You got up too early, so you can sleep for a while now. If you're hungry, thirsty, or need to use the restroom, just call me."

Mo He nodded. "Okay. I understand."

"If it's your first time riding in a car, you might feel dizzy or nauseous. Please let us know so we can stop the car and let you rest for a bit."

Worried that Mo He and the other two might get carsick, Molly tried to drive slowly and steadily.

It was quite chilly in the morning, and there weren't many people on the road. When Molly saw someone squatting in the middle of the road, she almost thought she was seeing things.

"parking."

The man stopped the car.

Molly stepped on the brakes.

"My daughter has a high fever. Are you going to town? Could you give us a ride?" the person who flagged down the car asked urgently.

Molly looked at Li Xiaoju and said, "Auntie, please sit with my older sister and let them sit in your seat."

Li Xiaoju gave way, and Molly opened the car door. The person outside struggled to climb into the car, but was helpless against the door, as if afraid of damaging something precious, and dared not move.

Molly didn't say anything, but reached out and closed the car door. "Hold on tight, the car is starting."

The car started moving.

Molly glanced at the woman and child in the passenger seat out of the corner of her eye. The woman was dressed in patched clothes, and the sleeves were too short, revealing her bluish-purple and slender wrists. The same was true for her feet; the trouser legs were also too short, and her ankles were thin, as if they would break if you twisted them.

I thought her older sister had it tough enough, but I never imagined there were others like her. Even worse, those bruises...were they from being beaten?

Molly remained silent.

The person in the passenger seat remained silent.

When they arrived in town, Molly stopped the car, opened the door for the woman, reached into her pocket, and stuffed a wad of cash into the baby's swaddling clothes in the girl's arms.

"You—" the woman choked up.

"Go see the doctor for the child," Molly said. After thinking for a moment, she stuffed a handful of White Rabbit milk candies and cookies into her hand and said goodbye carefully, "Goodbye."

She gave away three or four hundred yuan, and only had a little over a hundred yuan left, which was for gas and food on the road.

The girl got out of the car, holding the child, and watched the car drive away. "Goodbye, Molly."

Thank you, Molly, you saved me, Mo Honghong, once again.

No, you not only saved me, you also saved my daughter.

Mo Honghong was in tears. She gritted her teeth, gripped the money in her hand, and decided not to go back. She would take the money and her daughter and leave this place, never to return.

"Was that Mo Honghong just now?" Mo He asked.

Molly hummed in agreement. "You recognized her, sis?"

“She married into the next village. I’ve seen her a few times,” Mo He sighed. “She married a divorced man. I heard she was beaten by her husband every day. It only stopped for a while when she was pregnant. After her daughter was born, the man became even worse. He almost beat her to death once.”

Molly just hummed in response and didn't say anything else.

“When your brother-in-law died, our father sent someone to tell me not to go back. He said that unless I aborted the baby and left Panpan in the Zhao family, I shouldn’t acknowledge him as my father anymore.” Mo He chuckled self-deprecatingly. “He was afraid that I would be a burden to him.”

Molly remained unfazed. "Isn't this great? We can go live a good life and not feel guilty towards him anymore."

Mo He chuckled, "You're right, it's quite good."