"Wait, no, you don't need to go. I'm fine, I'm really fine, my head doesn't hurt anymore. If I can't remember, I can't remember. Anyway, we can get to know each other again. Aren't we all... family? Right? Haha... Uh haha—" Anle tugged at the corners of her mouth, her smile more like a grimace.
Damn it, you can say whatever you want, but you can't just take medicine randomly.
Don't you understand this principle?
What an ignorant family!
It's terrifying to be uncultured!
"Lewa, are you really alright?" An Mancang opened his mouth, his weathered eyes filled with worry.
"It's okay, I'm fine. I don't need to see a doctor... or get any medicine. I just need to rest for a couple of days."
"Alright, let's eat quickly then. We haven't eaten anything all day in town, and we're starving. Mom, give the steamed buns to little sister so she can take good care of herself." An Ning grinned, showing off her little white teeth to An Le.
"I gave four of those steamed buns to Aunt Zhu, and there's one left, so I'll give it to Lewa." Qiao Qiuniang wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes. Seeing Anle's energetic appearance, she sniffed, turned around, and went out to serve the food.
At the dinner table, the family gathered around a low, four-cornered table with a missing piece on one of its legs, and the stools they sat on were the same wooden stools that Anle had seen when she woke up.
Anle sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), clutching a white steamed bun in her hand. She glanced at the family sitting below the kang, their hands filled with wild vegetable pancakes. Her gaze then fell on the several bowls of thin porridge on the ground table, so thin it was almost impossible to see her reflection. She couldn't bring herself to eat.
Oh my god, it's a terrible sight! What kind of life is this family living?
Did this happen when the Japanese soldiers entered the village and couldn't get any food?
Is this just short of them gnawing on tree roots and bark?
Anle glanced at the gaze that seemed to burn like a small flame—
The guilty little fellow was staring straight at him—no, to be precise, at the white steamed bun in his hand.
Anle smiled mischievously and shook the white steamed bun in his hand. The little guy's eyes followed the shaking, his gaze fixed on the white steamed bun.
"Little guy, come here."
Anle waved to Ankang, and Ankang came running over with his short legs, standing on the edge of the kang, his body just level with the edge.
"Here, have some."
Ankang stuck out his little tongue, licked his lips, swallowed, and shook his head.
"Fifth Sister eats, Fifth Sister eats, and the illness will fly away."
“You can fly away even without eating, and you can fly away the same way if you eat this.” Anle snatched the vegetable pancake from Ankang’s hand and stuffed the steamed bun into Ankang’s hand. “Sister, you can eat this.”
An Kang glanced back at Qiao Qiuniang and An Mancang. Seeing that Qiao Qiuniang's eyes were red and she didn't say anything, he grinned and took a big bite of the white steamed bun.
Anle smiled, feeling a little heartbroken. This family's life was truly too hard. She rubbed Ankang's little head and thought, "This little guy, he's so young, yet he already knows how to read people's expressions."
An Ning glanced at the white steamed bun in An Kang's hand, sighed, and muttered a complaint.
"Mom, you're so naive! You could have just given Grandma Zhu two steamed buns, why did you give her four? Our family only gets five steamed buns a month! You should have kept two for yourself!"
Qiao Qiuniang lowered her eyelids and spoke with a look of lingering fear.
"If Aunt Zhu hadn't carried this child back from the mountain, he would have been eaten by wild wolves there."
Kangwa was with Lewa at the time. If he hadn't come back with Aunt Zhuzi, he would have gotten lost in the mountains and been carried off by wolves.
This rescue saved two lives; it was worth it.
This life-saving kindness is greater than anything else; four steamed buns are not much.
Anle looked at Qiao Qiuniang in surprise, "Eh?"
This woman doesn't seem to be the kind of person who's easily broken and just cries with tears in her eyes.
Isn't that quite reasonable and understanding of human nature?
An Ning remained silent after hearing this.
An Mancang nodded.
"From now on, if there's anything we can do to help Aunt Zhu, we'll do our best. We can't help with big things, but we must do our best with small things. That's what a benefactor she is."
After saying that, he turned to look at Anle on the kang (a heated brick bed), "Lewa, you can't go up the mountain to steal bird eggs anymore. It's too dangerous in those mountains. What if a wild boar or something runs out?"
An Yi's small face was gloomy, filled with suppressed anger.
"It was that fat guy who instigated it. He told us the other day that bird eggs tasted just like chicken eggs, so he went up the mountain to collect them and had his mother cook them for him when he got back!"
Don't let me see him again next time. If I do, I'll beat him until he's crying for his parents!
"It's all his fault. If he hadn't been so talkative, my little sister wouldn't have gone up the mountain to steal bird eggs, and she wouldn't have fallen and hurt herself, forgetting all about our family."
Anle glanced at the indignant An Yi. This was the original owner's third brother.
An Ning glared at An Yi, who seemed to enjoy making things worse.
"Alright, getting angry won't help. Now that this has happened, don't cause any more trouble. If your grandparents find out, they'll break your legs."
Besides, should we just go because someone else is urging us to? This is also our little sister's fault. She listened to that fat man instead of the village elders and our parents.
Who doesn't know there are wolves in those mountains? Who doesn't know we can't go there? She has legs, but she insists on going anyway, what can you do?
"If anyone's to blame, it's our little sister! She couldn't control her legs!"
Qiao Qiuniang gave the two of them a reproachful look.
"Stop fooling around, you two, hurry up and eat, it'll get cold!" After saying that, Qiao Qiuniang turned to look at An Mancang and asked curiously.
"How did sales go this time in town?"
"That restaurant was really ruthless in its price-cutting. A bundle of firewood was only five coins, and a whole cartload of firewood only sold for fifty coins. The two pheasants, on the other hand, sold for sixty-two coins."
Tomorrow, I'll go up the mountain to chop some more firewood.
An Ding finished the porridge in his bowl and spoke thoughtfully.
“Dad, I’ll go up the mountain with you tomorrow to gather firewood. Let’s earn some more money for Grandpa and Grandma. Maybe if Grandpa and Grandma are happy, they’ll let Third Brother and An Tai go to school. I think Third Brother is good at going to school. The other day, Third Brother ran to the school to eavesdrop on Master Meng’s class. He said he learned and remembered all the characters that Master Meng taught.”
An Ning's face flushed red, and the obvious anger and resentment on her face showed that she was furious.
"Hmph, I get angry just thinking about this. I say Grandpa and Grandma are biased. They are all grandsons, so why do they only let my second uncle's son, An Tai, go to school, but not my third brother?"
And they insist that An Tai is smarter than Third Brother. I think it's clearly Third Brother who's smarter. An Tai went to learn to read from Master Meng for several days and came back without recognizing a single character. What good is a fool like that going to school? Isn't it just a waste of money? It's so unfair!
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