"Half a person's height in water should be enough to drown this little brat, right?"
What? You want to drown her?
Shen Lili was woken up by the noise. When she opened her eyes, she found herself tightly covered and wrapped in a quilt. Her vision was dark, and she could only feel her body being moved up and down.
She remembered that just now an old man with a white beard had said to her, "Your merits are complete, you shouldn't die so young. I bestow upon you a destiny of great fortune, and grant you eighty years of life."
She was overjoyed, thinking that after a lifetime of hard work, she had finally found peace. But how come she was killed off as soon as she appeared on screen?
Shen Lili wanted to call for someone to stop, but when she opened her mouth, it came out as "Eeeeeeeee..."
The two old women holding Shen Lili stopped abruptly: "The child is awake! Hurry up, just leave her here!"
Before Shen Lili could recover from the sound she had made, she felt a chill run through her body as the blanket was pulled off, revealing two old women in front of her.
"The Bodhisattva has eyes; we're just doing this for money, so please don't blame us!"
Shen Lili struggled in vain and could only stare blankly as the two people swung their hands, and the two-year-old baby was thrown into the river with a "whoosh-thump".
The two old women, feeling guilty, turned and ran after throwing the baby into the river, completely unaware that a school of fish suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swarmed towards the baby.
The sudden appearance of a lucky koi fish signifies the arrival of a person with profound fortune.
Shen Lili's thin undergarment was instantly soaked, and she realized that she had been abandoned!
The school of fish beneath her swarmed the little baby in one direction, and Shen Lili kicked her feet haphazardly, using the fish's strength to keep herself from sinking.
"Gurgle... Oh my god... gurgle..."
On the other side of the river, the three sisters-in-law of the Shen family, as usual, went to the river to wash clothes in the morning frost.
The soapberries were crushed and smeared on the clothes, then the clothes were patted repeatedly with a washing mallet, creating a small amount of foam.
"Alas, these days are getting harder and harder. Drought and snowstorms are hitting us all at once, and I heard that there was even an earthquake in the southwest recently!" The speaker was Chen, the wife of the second son of the Shen family.
Once the conversation started, mentioning the continuous natural disasters, even Liu, the usually composed eldest son's wife, sighed: "Who says otherwise? I don't know what's going on these past few years, the harvests have been getting worse year after year, and countless people have starved to death!"
Southland County has a mild climate, and its winter snowstorms are not as severe as elsewhere, but droughts can still be deadly. This year is an exceptionally severe drought.
“…Jimmy…glug glug glug…” Suddenly, a soft sound reached the ears of the three sisters-in-law, followed by the rapid splashing of water.
Yang paused in her work, then listened intently for a while longer.
"Sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, listen, can you hear something?"
Liu and Chen stopped, puzzled, and listened attentively.
The noise of washing clothes was gone, and only a soft, hesitant voice drifted in, seemingly accompanied by the sound of splashing water.
It sounds like... a child who has fallen into the water is crying for help!
Realizing this, the three sisters-in-law quickly put down what they were doing and rushed towards the source of the sound without even drying their hands.
On the other side of the river, under a pear tree, a little girl who looked about two years old was struggling and splashing in the water.
Because of his young age, he was frightened and could not speak clearly, only babbling and mumbling a few unclear "help" cries.
Damn it, I just turned into a little kid and I can't even talk anymore!
The river water was bone-chillingly cold, and Shen Lili felt as if she were about to drown in this boundless water.
Shen Lili struggled to stick her head out of the water, her short legs kicking and coughing up the water that had gotten into her mouth, her face flushed.
Help! Pear is drowning...
Shen Lili exerted all her strength to keep her small body from sinking for quite a while.
"Oh my, whose child is this? He's so young and you don't even look closely!" Mrs. Chen exclaimed.
"Quick, quick, save him!" Mrs. Yang frantically tried to pull the child out.
Liu, quick-witted and agile, picked up a long branch from the side and squatted down by the river to reach the little girl in the water.
The three sisters-in-law were so busy that they didn't notice the group of fish behind them scattering in all directions, leaving only two big, fat fish that were nudging the little girl from behind and carrying her to the shore.
Unbeknownst to them, a carriage was speeding along the official road beside the river, followed closely by two men riding black horses.
In her dazed and confused state, Shen Lili vaguely heard the voices of several women. Feeling the branches poking her, she wisely did not resist and instinctively tried to move closer to them.
Madam Chen and Madam Yang stood guard nearby, and as soon as the little girl approached, they scooped her up.
Even as Shen Lili was pulled from the water, she remained dazed.
In this situation, Shen Lili has probably time-traveled.
While others start as princesses, why did she almost die again right from the start?
Shen Lili was on the verge of tears, her lips trembled, and the baby's soft cries echoed along the riverbank.
Early spring still carried the chill of winter, and the river water was icy cold. Shen Lili was only wearing a thin undershirt; the two-year-old had been soaking in the river for who knows how long, and her whole body was chilly.
Madam Yang tenderly hugged the little girl in her arms and quickly pulled out a handkerchief to roughly wipe her down, but the girl was soaked through, and a handkerchief couldn't clean her at all.
Shen Lili felt a pang of sadness. The child was frail, and she was terribly cold, shivering in the wind. She tried to speak, but only sobs escaped her lips.
Shen Lili's wailing and sobbing appeared to the three sisters-in-law of the Shen family as the fear and helplessness of someone who had fallen into the water.
Liu tossed aside the branch she had just used to reach the heavy pears and said decisively, "It's still chilly. Such a small child will definitely catch a cold. Let's hurry back and change her into clean clothes!"
Ms. Yang nodded repeatedly. For some reason, she felt very distressed whenever the thin, small baby cried, and her heart ached with a dense, persistent pain.
When Shen Lili opened her mouth, all that could be heard was sobbing. Her childlike instincts made her burst into loud sobs, her little hands tightly clutching Yang's clothes, her face scrunched up, and her eyes almost disappearing from her sobs.
Yang carried Shen Lili and ran quickly towards the main road, with Chen following behind to support her.
The river is at the end of the village, next to the main road. Usually, people take the side road to wash clothes here, as it's much faster to take the main road.
As they approached the main road, Shen Lili suddenly looked up and stopped crying, looking towards the other side of the road: "Oh, someone's coming."
Yang didn't hear clearly: "What?"
The baby in her arms shivered in the cold wind. Thinking that the baby was cold, Yang quickly quickened her pace.
"My darlings~ It's me~ My new book is out!"
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