"Gurgle..." Pei Yao's stomach rumbled. She touched her stomach and thought, "I'm so hungry. I guess I need to find something to eat."
She had no appetite for the black mixed grain and wild vegetable dumplings that Pei Erlang gave her yesterday, so she didn't eat them.
She only ate the small sweet potato that Pei Xuan handed her when she was extremely hungry, but one sweet potato was not enough to fill her up.
Pei Yichen, holding Pei Xuan's hand, also stood in the courtyard. The two of them looked at Pei Yao not far away, both feeling somewhat apprehensive.
According to my second uncle, my cousin Pei Yao has been living with a farmer in the countryside for all these years since she went missing. That family is so poor that they can barely afford to eat. They found my cousin and planned to have her as a child bride for their mentally challenged son.
My cousin has suffered a lot over the years.
When Pei Yao was first brought back to the Pei family, she was very strange and didn't talk much. No, she hardly spoke at all.
Later, when he was exiled, he became even quieter, always staying by himself and ignoring them.
...
Pei Xuan's dirty little hand came from the side and timidly grabbed Pei Yao's: "Sister, here you go."
Pei Yao looked at the child in front of her, who was holding a hard, dark-colored wild vegetable dumpling that she had handed her...
This was the second sentence the child spoke to her.
The first sentence is: Sister, here you go.
The second sentence is also: Sister, here you go.
Pei Yao was somewhat touched. This child herself was so thin and pale from hunger, yet she still kept thinking of her, her older sister.
Pei Yao was an orphan in her previous life. Her parents died early, and she grew up in the village, relying on the kindness of others for food.
So when this child called her "sister," a strange emotion stirred within her, though not much, and she didn't know if it was a lingering emotion from the original owner.
Pei Yao handed the small vegetable dumpling back to Pei Xuan and gently patted her head, saying, "Sister isn't hungry, Xuanxuan, eat."
Pei Xuan was pleasantly surprised. A smile appeared on her dark little face, and her eyes sparkled: her older sister was talking to her!
This was the second time her older sister had spoken to her!
The first time was when I went up to my older sister and called out to her as soon as she got home. She replied with: "Get lost..."
Pei Yao had no idea what Xiao Xuan'er was thinking, after all, she thought a four-year-old child couldn't possibly have any inner thoughts.
However, she quite liked children. Seeing the little dumpling's smiling face, her mood improved a bit. She reached out to hug the dark-skinned child, but failed when she raised her hands.
It seems he's still too thin and weak; he can't even lift a four-year-old child.
Pei Yao withdrew her hand, scratched the back of her head, and gave an awkward laugh: "Hehe..."
Pei Xuan had never been hugged by her sister, so she didn't understand her sister's behavior. She tilted her head and blinked at Pei Yao.
Pei Yao: So cute, I really want to pinch her cheeks.
......
Pei Yao realized there was no food left for tonight. Even during her exile, at the very least, the officials would give her a dark, mushy grain and vegetable dumpling. Now, she would have to rely on herself.
She went to the kitchen and began to rummage through it, with Pei Xuan and Pei Yichen, one big and one small, silently following behind her.
Pei Yao looked around and found that the kitchen was very large, with half of it used for storing firewood and the other half for cooking.
However, very little could be found; apart from a chipped kitchen knife and a few large, dented earthenware jars and bowls, there was nothing else.
Oh, right, there are also two flints and a tool for catching seafood in the corner of the stove.
Pei Yao had seen this tool before, and even used it before, since she went to university in Qingdao.
For a while, she watched a lot of videos about beachcombing and became obsessed with it. She bought a lot of beachcombing tools and went to the beach with her classmates whenever they had a holiday.
This tool is a round stick with a thick, sharp iron rod inserted through it, which can be used to knock oyster shells off the beach.
Pei Yao sighed.
This family is truly destitute.
I looked up at the sky and realized that the sun would probably set in another hour or two. I needed to find something to eat quickly, or I would go hungry tonight.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to the beach with Uncle Niu to go beachcombing, so I can't skip eating.
With that thought in mind, Pei Yao turned her gaze to the courtyard not far away.
Although overgrown with weeds, it's not hard to tell that the area on the left used to be a vegetable garden, as a few sweet potato vines were growing wildly and sparsely on the ground.
Pei Yao was overjoyed; if there were sweet potato vines, there might be sweet potatoes growing there.
She picked up the chipped kitchen knife and decided to tidy up the weeds.
As soon as she got over there, Pei Yichen came over and took the kitchen knife from her hand: "Cousin, let me do the weeding."
Pei Yichen didn't know what his cousin was going to do. He thought she was going to cut the weeds in the yard. He looked at Pei Yao's skinny body. At fourteen years old, she was not as strong as his ten-year-old body.
He is now the only man in this family.
Not entirely...
boy……
When my father passed away, he told him to take good care of my cousin and Ah Xuan!
Pei Yao was a tomboy in modern times, and she liked to do everything herself. But right now, her body was as weak as a bean sprout, so it was really not suitable for her to do everything herself. She didn't say anything.
"Okay, after you cut down this dry grass, collect it and put it under the bed later. It'll keep you warm when you sleep."
Without even thinking, Pei Yao guessed that there wouldn't be any bedding or similar items in the room, based on how clean the kitchen had been.
Although the weather wasn't cold, sleeping on hay was still more comfortable than sleeping on a hard board.
"good."
Pei Yichen looked at Pei Yao with bright eyes, feeling the same surprise and delight as Pei Xuan. Was his cousin talking to him?
This was the first time his cousin had spoken to him. His cousin even said that these withered grasses could be used as a bedsheet.
He recalled how he was sometimes lucky on his journey to exile, when he would encounter haystacks, and occasionally his father would lay a layer on the ground, which was indeed warm to sleep on.
My cousin is so smart!
Pei Yao was busy looking for sweet potato vines and didn't notice her little cousin's little eyes.
"These sweet potatoes are a bit too small, but at least they're still edible."
Pei Yao used a stick to pry out a sweet potato the size of a fist, and Pei Xuan ran over excitedly to help dig it up.
The two sisters dug around in the yard, having a great time. Pei Yao didn't even leave the sweet potato vines behind, picking off all the tender ones, since the vines could be eaten later.
Yunniang and Chen Fang came out of the room carrying a pile of garbage. Yunniang saw her two daughters and nephew busy in the yard, some cutting grass and others digging soil, and her heart ached.
I don't know if I can go on living like this, especially my eldest daughter. She had only been with us for a month and then she had to suffer like this again.
My feelings of guilt also increased.
She walked over, glanced cautiously at her eldest daughter, and tucked the sweat-dampened hair from her forehead behind her ear.
She said with concern, "Yao'er, are you hungry? Your mother and your aunt haven't eaten the wild vegetable dumplings these past two days. We secretly saved a few. Wash your hands and let's eat some to fill our stomachs. Later, your mother will go with Uncle Niu Er from the village to the beach to pick up those clams...oysters, and then we'll have something to eat."
Yunniang had never heard of the things Uncle Niu Er mentioned, and she couldn't quite remember the names now that he was talking about them.
Pei Yao stopped what she was doing, looked up at the gentle-looking woman in front of her, and saw that it was her mother.
Although she had no feelings for this mother, now that she had been reborn as her daughter, she intended to be a good daughter.
"Mother, I dug up some sweet potatoes in this field. Let's cook some sweet potatoes later."
Yunniang looked at Pei Yao, and was just as surprised as the others. Yao'er was talking to her? And even called her "Mother"?
Since her husband found their daughter six months ago, she hasn't said a word to them or called out to them.
She and her husband always felt guilty towards their daughter. Although their daughter's disappearance was an accident, the suffering she endured in the countryside over the years was real.
She understands that her daughter doesn't want to talk to them now that she's back, and she probably feels resentful.
I had originally planned to bring my daughter back and make amends in the future, which would naturally soothe her heart. But I never expected that she would be exiled again.
She and her husband felt increasingly guilty towards their daughter.
Unexpectedly, Yao'er actually spoke to her today. She was easily moved to tears and couldn't help but want to cry.
She turned her back and began wiping away tears.
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