"Uncle, dinner is ready over there!"
After Shen Xiaobei sat in the earthquake shelter for a while, a boy who looked to be in his teens and dressed in tattered clothes ran over and shouted to a middle-aged man.
Hearing the boy's shout, the people in the shed and the people in the next shed all stood up with their bowls or lunch boxes.
As soon as Shen Xiaobei sat down, he suddenly felt his whole body was extremely heavy and he didn't want to move much.
So he just sat there and didn't get up.
A woman in her fifties, with a haggard face and unsteady steps, saw that she didn't get up to go get food, so she couldn't help but ask her, "Girl, why don't you go get food?"
"Oh, I'll just sit for a while and go."
"Don't go too late. If you go too late, the steamed buns will be all gone and you'll only be able to drink porridge."
"Oh, thank you for telling me, I didn't know when I first arrived."
"I just saw that you seemed to have just arrived, so I told you to avoid being hungry tonight. This night is long, and I don't know how hard it would be to go on an empty stomach."
"Oh, thank you, Auntie. I'd better go with you to get food now!"
"Hey, let's go then."
Hearing the woman's words, Shen Xiaobei smiled implicitly, took out a lunch box from the luggage bag he was carrying, and walked with her to the lunch station at the resettlement site while chatting.
For dinner, each person was given a big steamed bun and half a spoonful of clear porridge.
Not being full, but not being hungry either, is enough for Shen Xiaobei.
Because she had eaten some dry food and drank a bottle of water on the way to the resettlement site.
After getting the meal, she returned to the shed. The woman who went with her to get the meal sat next to Shen Xiaobei.
The woman told her with a sad face that her mother-in-law, husband and son were all gone in the earthquake.
Only one of her legs was seriously injured, the others were minor injuries. After recuperating for these days, she has recovered a lot, but she still has difficulty walking.
A few days before the earthquake, her daughter-in-law took her four-year-old child back to her parents' home, more than ten miles away, to celebrate her father's birthday. There has been no news since then.
The woman said that her daughter-in-law was pregnant for more than six months.
If she hadn't thought that her daughter-in-law and grandson might still be alive, she would have wanted to go with her husband and son.
What's the point of leaving her alone in this world?
I have lost my family, my house, everything. I don’t know where to settle down in the future. Living is just suffering.
Hearing the woman's eyes filled with turbid tears, Shen Xiaobei felt sad and his eyes instantly turned red.
With a choked voice, she comforted the woman, "Auntie, there's no news from your daughter-in-law, which means there's still hope. Don't be too discouraged. Maybe soon, your daughter-in-law will find her here with the child."
"Hey, these days, I also comfort myself like this every day."
"But I've been waiting here every day. I've been waiting for the People's Liberation Army, the doctors and nurses, the government officials, and even you, a girl from another province, to come. But I haven't been waiting for my daughter-in-law and grandson!"
"Girl, tell me, do I still have hope? How can I have hope? Wuuwuwu..."
After the woman finished asking and answering her own questions, she lowered her head and began to cry quietly.
Seeing her crying so sadly, Shen Xiaobei hurriedly took out a pack of tissues from his luggage bag, pulled out two sheets and handed them to her.
"Auntie, this is for you. Don't be too sad..."
"Thank you, young lady. No thanks."
When the woman saw Shen Xiaobei handing her the paper, she immediately raised her hand to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes and stopped crying.
"Hey, girl, I feel better after telling you this. Don't worry, as long as the bodies of my daughter-in-law and grandson are not found, I will wait for them."
"Auntie, this is the right way. People should always learn to give themselves some hope."
Shen Xiaobei and the woman chatted in low voices for a while while munching on steamed buns.
The disaster relief site is currently without water and electricity, and people have no water to wash at night. After eating, some people sit, some lie down, and some walk outside the tent.
Although Shen Xiaobei felt very tired, she really couldn’t sleep in such an environment.
With the help of a few stars in the sky and the faint candlelight from some sheds, she went out for a walk after the woman sitting next to her curled up and lay down with her eyes closed.
Because she was not familiar with anyone else except this woman, she also carried the bulging luggage bag with her to deceive others.
Shen Xiaobei took out a flashlight from his luggage bag, actually from the space.
A man walked some distance outside the resettlement site and came to a place with quite high terrain.
Then he plucked up his courage and walked up carefully.
Standing on this high ground, she looked around and saw only gray ruins everywhere under the dark blue sky that seemed very mysterious.
The sheer size of the ruins was truly astonishing.
In that vast ruins, she could vaguely see some faint lights like fireflies in the distance. They should be kerosene lamps or candlelight emitted from other resettlement sites.
"Xichuan, where are you now? Are you far from me?"
Shen Xiaobei looked at the ruins in the distance and muttered to himself with a sentimental heart.
Standing here alone and looking out at the view, she realized that she missed Duan Xichuan so much, and missed every ordinary day when she could see him and be with him.
Only now did she realize how precious those ordinary days were.
She secretly swore in her heart that for the rest of her life, she would cherish every day with Duan Xichuan.
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