Chapter 299
When Yunmian woke up, fine snowflakes had begun to fall outside the window, and the house was obviously livelier and brighter than in the afternoon.
Seeing her sitting up from the bed in a daze, a white-haired old man came over with a smile, picked up the dazed little granddaughter from the bed, put on her shoes, and then gently touched her warm cheek with his rough, calloused fingers.
Yunmian yawned, and subconsciously leaned over to lie in the other's arms, calling softly, "Grandma~"
"Be good, Mianmian. Wake up and eat." Chen Huafang patted her granddaughter's frizzy hair.
"Oh~" Yunmian was led forward by her grandmother's hand, successfully avoiding the bottles, paper shells and copper wires on the ground along the way. When the door curtain was opened, the cold wind from the window suddenly blew in, and Yunmian instantly woke up from her sleepiness.
The next second, she was hidden behind her grandmother, who used her old body to block the flying snow and cold wind for her.
When they walked into another small shed and closed the door, under the dim light, an old man was holding a bowl of hot porridge and carefully feeding it to the blind Yun Mujin. When he saw them coming, a soft smile appeared in his cloudy eyes.
"Mianmian, come and eat." He called out, but his hands did not stop moving. After feeding his daughter another spoonful of porridge, he stirred the spoon in the bowl, and then scooped up a piece of white stuff with orange-yellow solids and fed it to his daughter's mouth.
Yun Mujin stopped chewing, frowned sharply, and asked in a low voice: "Dad, did we boil eggs tonight?"
Yun Yuanzhe smiled and fed another spoonful, then replied, "I cooked it. I thought it was snowing today, so your mom and I went out and picked up some scraps and exchanged them for some money, so I cooked an egg for each of us to ward off the cold. How do you think this poached egg is? Is it cooked well enough?"
He is lying.
Yunmian walked to the table and when she looked down, she saw a cute round poached egg in her bowl, but there was only porridge with some sweet potato cubes in her grandparents' bowls, nothing else.
Yun Mujin didn't know whether he had discovered it or not. After swallowing the egg in his mouth, he nodded and replied, "Yeah, the heat is just right."
Then the gentle smiles in the eyes of the two old men became even softer, like a small warm flame in winter, making people reluctant to look away.
Yunmian did not expose their daily lies as her grandparents shook their heads to stop her.
But she raised her small spoon, divided the plump poached egg in her bowl into three portions, and quickly scooped it into their bowls.
Under the orange light, with her grandparents looking at her helplessly, Yunmian happily ate her piece of fried egg, and then said to her mother in a sweet voice: "Mom, grandpa's fried eggs are so delicious. When I learn how to cook, I will cook them for mom, grandpa and grandma~"
This made the three of them laugh. Grandma touched her head lovingly and said with a smile, "Our Mianmian is really a filial child, but you are still young. In the spring, I will send you to kindergarten. Grandma promises you that when you go to school, you can eat such delicious poached eggs every day, okay?"
Yunmian nodded vigorously: "My mother, grandparents and I all have them. We each have a poached egg every day!"
No one can be left behind and no one is allowed to lie secretly.
Hearing the meaning of her granddaughter's words, Chen Fanghua turned her head and raised her hand to casually wipe away the tears in her eyes. Yun Yuanzhe wiped her daughter's mouth that was stained with soup, carefully placed the bottom of the bowl, which was no longer particularly hot, in her hands, and guided her to reach out and hold the handle of the spoon.
In this small, poor family, the one who needs care the most is not the youngest Yunmian, but both the youngest and the one who needs care the most are very sensible and do not cause more trouble to the two old people.
So the blind Yun Mujin can eat and dress by himself, and find his way to clean the house, while the young Yun Mian stays with his mother and takes care of her every day, so that his grandparents don't have to worry about home all the time.
But the family does not allow Yunmian, a five-year-old child, to learn how to cook. That does not particularly reduce their burden. On the contrary, if the child gets scalded or has any other accident, they will regret it for the rest of their lives.
Yunmian didn't know what her grandparents and mother were thinking. She squatted beside her mother and washed dishes with her using the hot water that her grandfather had warmed in the pot. Not far away, her grandparents were skillfully and neatly sorting the garbage they had picked up during the day so that they could take it to a nearby recycling station on a tricycle the next morning and sell it quickly.
And because they sorted and classified the waste, the owner of the scrap yard would occasionally give them a few cents or a dollar more.
Yunmian stood on tiptoe and placed the bowls one by one in the shabby but clean cabinet, and then used a clean towel to wipe her mother's hands bit by bit. Then she squatted down and helped her grandparents sort out the garbage.
The system has been anxious all day about how to help Speed overcome the initial financial difficulties. This game requires rapid accumulation of funds. Now seeing Yunmian's small figure squatting on the ground and sorting the garbage carefully, it suddenly dawned on itself.
Who says you can’t make money by picking up trash?
Maybe you can find treasures in the trash can? !
Although I can’t get rich by picking up garbage, I can at least make sure Mianmian and her family can eat two more neatly-cooked, round eggs, right? !
The system did what it thought of. Due to the rules, it did not explain it explicitly. It only whispered to the child in front of her confused eyes: "Mianmian, it will snow tomorrow. Your grandfather has a cold, but he doesn't show it. But if he goes out to pick up trash in the snow tomorrow, his cold will definitely get worse."
Yunmian looked up suddenly, and under the puzzled gaze of her grandparents, she stood up and stood in front of her grandfather. She touched her grandfather's forehead with the back of her clean hand, and indeed found that it was a little hot.
"Grandpa, you have a cold." The child frowned in worry, and unsurely touched his forehead with his backhand. Then he reached out to pull his grandfather who was sitting on the ground: "You can't sit on the ground when you are sick. Grandpa, wash your feet and go to bed. Otherwise, if it gets serious tomorrow, you will have to take bitter medicine."
The child's innocent advice made Yun Yuanzhe, who originally wanted to hold on, lose the will to resist.
He smiled bitterly and sighed, then stood up and washed quietly, wiped his daughter's face, then turned around and slept on the low bed not far away.
Perhaps in the eyes of children, the most painful thing about being sick is having to take bitter medicine, but for the two elderly people in this family, being sick means having to take injections and medicine, and injections and medicine... are not cheap, so what else can they do with that money?
With a few dozen dollars, you can buy twenty or thirty eggs to cook for your daughter and granddaughter every day, which can last for more than half a month.
They can save money to buy their granddaughter a pair of cotton shoes that fit her feet. It's so cold in winter, but she is still wearing shoes that are a little too big for her. They were picked up by them, and the torn parts were carefully sewed up by Chen Fanghua with needle and thread. But if she had a pair of brand new cotton shoes, the little one would be as happy as a little bird. She would run around the house in those shoes for several days and would not be willing to take them off.
Or you can wait until Mianmian goes to kindergarten and buy her a beautiful school bag, some new pencils and stationery...
Dozens of dollars can be broken down and spent carefully by two thrifty old men, but they will never allow any money to be spent on their aging bodies, so they will not allow themselves to get sick. Even if they spend one more cent on themselves, they will feel heartbroken and think that they have wasted money.
Yunmian didn't understand all this, but seeing that her grandfather had laid down obediently, she busily and skillfully poured hot water for him and found more clothes from home and put them layer by layer on his worn-out thin quilt.
After all this was done, the child was still worried. He squatted beside the bed and touched the old man's forehead from time to time, and then touched his own forehead with his backhand for comparison, and then comforted him like a little adult: "Don't be afraid, Grandpa, you should have a good sleep, and your cold will be gone by tomorrow morning. You should stay in bed and sweat, so don't lift the quilt secretly. I will watch over you. Grandpa, if you are thirsty, just tell me and I will get you some water..."
Yun Mujin listened attentively to the noise of her daughter busying about all night. Her fingers, which had been clenched because of her father's illness, loosened little by little. She sat beside her mother, quietly listening to the old lady muttering in a moving voice about how cute and sensible Mianmian was, and how she was so well-behaved when she was a child.
Then her baby Mianmian should look similar to her when she was a child, right?
Yun Mujin only remembered that her daughter was a small, wrinkled ball when she was born. She was really not pretty, but her parents would not let her say she was ugly. They said that all children were like that and that she would become prettier day by day. No matter what, they would not let her say Mianmian was ugly. This made the two old people angry, so they talked about how ugly she was when she was a child to compare her with the newborn Mianmian.
But she never thought that she would never have the chance to see Mianmian grow up.
If she had known earlier, she would have praised the little one in the cradle every day, and carefully recorded her every change, whether she cried, laughed, or looked at her with her big round eyes...
Even though she would try to feel the contours of her daughter's facial features with her fingers every day, she could never imagine how cute the little one in front of her would become now, or how lively and beautiful she would be when she smiled.
Her daughter is by her side every day, but in her world, both parents have memory portraits of the past, but this little one who calls her mother softly is just a dark and blurry shadow whose appearance cannot be seen clearly from beginning to end.
This was unfair to Mianmian, but Yun Mujin had no way to change this unfairness.
She could only often recall her childhood appearance, and then imagine that Mianmian was somewhat similar to herself now, but it was more like seeing her younger self across the years.
I was nothing like the happy little guy next to me at that time.
Yunmian stayed by her grandfather's bed until he fell asleep, then she stood up, gently stamped her numb feet, and walked gently to her grandmother's side under the light.
"Grandma, can I go with you tomorrow?"
Chen Fanghua subconsciously wanted to refuse. It was going to snow tomorrow and her husband caught a cold today. What if Mianmian also caught a cold when she went out? Children's immunity is very low.
But before she could say no, Mianmian grabbed her sleeves with her little hands, half-lying on her and whispering coquettishly, "Grandma, please, tomorrow grandpa and mom will rest at home, I will go out with grandma to pick up paper shells, I am very capable, I can run over and ask my brothers and sisters for the water bottles and garbage bags in their hands~"
Chen Fanghua: “…”
I don't know what happened, but the words to refuse were on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't bring myself to say them.
Mianmian: (jogging) (looking up and smiling) Sister, can you give me the bottle you finished drinking? Thank you, sister~
Mianmian: (squatting beside the trash can) (bright and shiny) Auntie, can you give me your takeaway paper box? Thank you, auntie~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine:
1 Zishujun;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution:
Hungry 200 bottles;
Shi Xiaozu 72 bottles;
Jun Beizhi, Very Tired Muddlehead 20 bottles;
10 bottles of Xiaolan Zhiyun;
5 bottles of tea;
3 bottles of Jinhuan, Kulin and Hai;
2 bottles for postpartum women;
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