That night, there were no stars or moon, and the sky and the earth seemed to merge into one...

Hua Shi was sitting under the eaves, with little Huaying lying on her knees, burying her face and closing her eyes sleepily.

He seemed to be extremely sleepy, but Hua Xiao and Hua Li were still crying. After so long, he began to feel hungry again. Now he was both hungry and sleepy, so he pestered Hua Shi, wanting to tell her that he was hungry.

But the atmosphere in the yard was too depressing. Even though he was still young and didn't understand anything, he hesitated and didn't even shout that he was hungry.

The little guy rubbed his eyes and could not see his two brothers and sisters clearly, but he could still vaguely hear their sobbing.

He sighed softly...

I don't understand why I'm still crying after crying for so long...

After a while, there was a sudden sound of rustling footsteps outside the low wall.

"Bang!"

In the quiet courtyard, there was a sound of the gate being pushed open forcefully.

With disheveled hair and a disheveled appearance, Li walked in silently with tired steps and head lowered, like a walking corpse.

Hua Xiao and Hua Li stopped crying.

Hua Shi thought about the afternoon when Li went crazy and made a big fuss. Seeing her now, she couldn't help but feel a lingering fear. She tensed her body, stood up, pulled the sleepy little Huaying, and dodged to the side.

Li looked very abnormal. Her back seemed to have bent overnight. She hunched over with her head down. She didn't look at anyone and walked straight into the main hall.

After a while, I heard the sound of her opening and closing the door.

It was quiet in the darkness, without a sound or movement...

"Burp..." Hua Li took a breath and burped. Her eyes, wet from crying, looked blankly towards the main hall.

After crying for so long, both of them were tired. They took breaths, and their tears dried on their faces, making them look wilted.

Hua Shi asked the two to go back to sleep and talk about it tomorrow.

Hua Xiao and Hua Li cried for so long that they seemed to have accepted the fact that what had happened. They were just in a depressed mood and did not respond. They walked back to the house silently.

Hua Xiao rubbed Xiao Huaying's puffy head and whispered, "You should go back to your room and sleep."

The little guy stood still, clutching his hands, and said slowly: "But...but, I'm hungry."

Hua Shi was stunned for a moment, glanced at the dark sky, and said helplessly: "Then wait for me for a while."

Soon, Hua Shi cooked a small bowl of lean meat porridge and brought it out. After it cooled down, Xiao Huaying held the bowl and slurped it, finishing it in a short while.

Hua Shi sat aside, watching the swaying shadow of the candlelight, immersed in thoughts, silently.

This meat is rabbit meat. Eleven and Xiaohei had just brought it back from the mountains today. She cut a small piece of meat from the rabbit's leg, chopped it up, and cooked it with rice.

"I-I'm full."

The sound of little Huaying's baby purring suddenly rang out, interrupting Hua Shi's messy thoughts.

"Uh." Hua Shi took the empty bowl from his hand and put it aside.

I stood up and looked at the cold corpse lying on the wooden board in the hollow courtyard, and felt a headache.

She couldn't move him under the eaves right now. If it snowed at night, he would probably be buried in the snow the next day...

Suddenly, a small hand gently pulled the corner of her clothes.

The little fellow, who had eaten and drunk his fill, now had bright eyes. He tilted his head back, blinked, and looked at her curiously, whispering, "...crying?"

He made a tearful gesture, pointed his little finger at his face, and then pointed in the direction of the house.

Hua Shi looked down at him and said, "Are you asking why they are crying?"

"Yeah." Xiao Huaying nodded immediately.

Hua Shi paused, without hiding anything, and sighed deeply before saying, "Because Dad died."

"…die?"

He didn't understand what this meant...

Why do we cry when someone dies?

Hua Shi realized that he was too old to understand the meaning of this word, so he explained, "Dead means he will never wake up again, and we will never be able to see him again."

The little guy nodded, not quite understanding.

If I can't see him? It won't be a big deal...

He still didn't understand why he was crying?

"Okay, go back to your room and sleep."

Hua Shi saw that he tilted his head, still a little confused, and had no intention of saying anything further. Instead, she urged him to go back to the room and sleep.

Lying in the cold quilt, Hua Shi closed her eyes. She thought she would not be able to sleep, but when the quilt became warm, she fell into a deep dream in a short while.

Until the second half of the night, there seemed to be some noise coming from outside the house through the thin wall.

Hua Shi was so sleepy that she found it difficult to open her eyes. She woke up in a daze, but eventually she couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell into a deep sleep again.

Before she fell asleep, she seemed to vaguely hear Li's harsh curses, the old man's wheezing, and the slapping sounds of something struggling...

Hua Shi thought she was dreaming, and her frown soon relaxed.

She didn't notice that she was awakened in the middle of the night. The black cat that was originally sleeping beside her pillow fell lightly to the ground. The cat's eyes that emitted a faint glow in the night stared at the closed door strangely.

Hearing the sounds of struggle and noise not far from the house, he meowed softly...

The next day, Hua Shi suddenly woke up from his sleep and opened his eyes.

The sky outside was already bright, and the sound of falling snow could be heard clearly in my ears...

She seemed to have had a dream last night, dreaming about Li... What was the content of the dream...?

I thought carefully about it, but I couldn't remember anything.

"call……"

She sighed deeply.

I remembered the body still lying in the yard outside the house...