"Xiaofang! Where have you been all these years?!"
"Sister-in-law..."
Seeing Zhang Yumei's agitated state, Xu Fang felt that she had acted very wrongly, since her older brother and sister-in-law had always treated her very well.
However, she believed only what her parents and third brother said. If she had gone home and met with her sister-in-law after being rescued, she might have discovered the truth long ago.
Although it is still unclear what exactly happened back then, Xu Fang believes that it was not her elder brother who sold her.
Because in her elder brother and sister-in-law's eyes, she saw heartache, longing, and sadness, but not guilt.
"Come in first, don't stand at the door."
Zhang Yumei held Xu Fang's hand and kept asking her how she had been all these years.
Huang Qinqin poured Xu Fang a glass of water, and then sat down with Xu Hongxia in the corner, quietly listening to the elders talk.
Xu Fang took a sip of water and slowly recounted her experiences over the years.
“Back then, my parents sold me to a human trafficker from another province. I was taken to a house and locked up with other trafficked people. I thought I would only be sold to other places.”
"Later, soldiers came to rescue us. It turned out that one of the trafficked girls was the daughter of a military leader. After much investigation, they finally found the location where we were being held."
"We were rescued later, and they said they could take us home, but I'm different from the others. My parents sold me, and I didn't dare to go back."
“I was afraid that I would be sold a second time after I went back, so I lied and said that I had no family and begged them to give me a new household registration. So I registered my household in Chenjia Village, the sixth brigade of Hongqi Commune.”
"However, because I lived alone, I was targeted by some local hooligans not long after I arrived in Chenjia Village. Later, my husband saved me. My husband's family was very poor, and his parents died early. He raised his younger brother and sister on his own, so he was still unmarried at the age of twenty-seven."
“He didn’t mind that I was older, and I didn’t mind that he had many younger siblings, so we got married not long after. After we got married, he was always very good to me. Although our living conditions weren’t great, I was very happy.”
“I also have two sons. Now that my younger siblings are all grown up, our family’s conditions are much better than before.”
"I came to the city this time to buy some fabric to make new clothes for the New Year."
Although Xu Fang kept saying that she was very happy, Zhang Yumei touched her hands and felt that they were particularly rough, which made her think that she must work very hard.
Zhang Yumei said with heartache, "It's all my fault, sister-in-law. If I had been more aware back then, maybe you wouldn't have suffered so much..."
Xu Fang reassured her, "Don't blame me, sister-in-law. Even if you realized something was wrong that day and stopped it, if Mom and Dad wanted to sell me, they would have found another opportunity sooner or later."
"It's also my own fault for listening to them. Thinking about it, it makes sense. Given my brother and sister-in-law's character, how could they possibly do such a thing?"
After hearing this, Xu Weiguo's fists never loosened. He couldn't understand why they could be so heartless. That was their own daughter, their own sister!
"Second sister, I'll take you to see Mom and Dad right now and get to the bottom of this. I'll make sure they give you an explanation!"
Xu Weiguo stood up and was about to rush out, but Xu Fang quickly grabbed him and stopped him, saying, "Brother, wait a minute, it's getting late. I'll come with the head of the household another day, and then we'll go find Mom and Dad together."
"We definitely need to find out the details, but there's no rush. I need to go back to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some cloth. It's not easy for me to come out all this way."
Hearing her say that, Xu Weiguo had no choice but to give up, but said, "We'll come to see you during our break this week. I'll go to the food factory now to get my bicycle and then I'll take you back."
Zhang Yumei then said to Xu Fang, "There's no need to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy cloth. Keep the cloth coupons you have. There's still some cloth at home, so take it back and use it."
"No need, sister-in-law, you can keep it for the children."
Seeing Zhang Yumei rushing inside to get the cloth, Xu Fang felt embarrassed and didn't want her older brother and sister-in-law to spend money.
She didn't believe that her elder brother and sister-in-law's family had enough cloth. In the village, many people's clothes were always new for three years, old for three years, and patched up for another three years.
It wasn't just the older children who passed on their clothes to the younger ones. In Chenjia Village, there were two families who had five or six daughters, and they only had two sets of clothes in total. They could only put on their clothes and go out when someone had to go to work.
Zhang Yumei wouldn't listen; since the family didn't really need much fabric, she went straight into the storage room.
Seeing that only a few of them were left, Huang Qinqin started a conversation with Xu Fang.
"Second Aunt, how old are your two children?"
When Xu Fang mentioned her two sons, her expression softened: "The older one is twelve years old, and the younger one is nine. They're both young boys, and quite mischievous."
Upon hearing the ages of Xu Fang's two children, Huang Qinqin had another idea.
"Hongxia, you stay here and chat with your second aunt. I'll go inside and help Mom find something."
"Uh-huh."
......
Fabric was easy to find; Zhang Yumei put all the new fabrics in her house into a box.
However, she wanted to take some other things for Xu Fang to take with her, so she kept rummaging through the storage room.
When Huang Qinqin came in, she saw Zhang Yumei searching frantically. After waiting a while, seeing that Zhang Yumei still hadn't found her, she had no choice but to call out to her, "Mom."
"Huh? Qinqin, what brings you in?"
When Zhang Yumei heard Huang Qinqin call her, she stopped what she was doing.
Huang Qinqin pointed to the fabric beside her and asked, "Mom, are you planning to give this fabric to Second Aunt to take back?"
"Hmm, what's wrong?"
Zhang Yumei's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Huang Qinqin was unhappy? But she wasn't that petty.
Huang Qinqin wasn't reluctant to part with the fabric; it was just that she noticed Xu Fang's expression was a bit unnatural when Zhang Yumei said she wanted to give the fabric back to Xu Fang.
She had just asked Xu Fang about the child's age and felt that giving her fabric might not be the most appropriate thing to do.
So he suggested to Zhang Yumei, "Mom, I think Auntie thinks it's too expensive for us to give her the fabric directly. I'm afraid she'll feel burdened."
"I just asked around, and my second aunt's children are twelve and nine years old. I think it might be better to get her some of Junhui's old clothes from when he was little. What do you think?"
Zhang Yumei's eyes lit up. That's right! How come she hadn't thought of that? She had kept the clothes that Junhui and Hongxia wore when they were little in very good condition, and the fabric alone seemed too precious.
But if you give them some old clothes, you won't have that feeling. And even though they're old clothes, the quality is still very good. If you take them out and alter them, you might be able to make a few new outfits.
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