The three younger brothers all had large heads, thin necks, bulging eyes, and were extremely thin. They were the thinnest children compared to the children from the other branches of the family.
At this moment, Du Yuhan hated Liu Cuilian's ruthlessness and favoritism even more, and also hated her grandfather Du Dachuan's inaction.
These are all his own grandchildren, but he doesn't care about them at all. Well, he has a whole bunch of grandchildren, so he doesn't really care.
The two younger brothers knew it was food when they saw their older sister come in carrying a bowl.
The second child, Du Haichao, is already eight years old and very sensible; he won't fight with his older sister for food. But the youngest brother, Du Haisheng, is only four years old. When he saw his sister bring in a bowl, he looked at her with longing eyes.
Du Yuhan sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and waved to her younger brother, saying, "Haisheng, come here, I have some food here, come and have some."
As soon as the little guy heard there was food, he quickly crawled over to Du Yuhan.
Du Yuhan hugged her younger brother and held the bowl to his lips. The little guy had only had a little porridge that morning and wasn't full at all. He was hungry and started drinking the porridge from the bowl that Du Yuhan was holding.
When Du Haifeng entered the room and saw his older sister's behavior, he didn't say anything. He knew it was useless to say anything; his older sister always put her younger brothers first.
His eyes welled up with tears at the thought of his grandmother's favoritism. They were all children of the Du family, so why did their branch of the family have to suffer such unfair treatment?
Although little Du Haisheng was only four years old, he was already quite sensible. After drinking some porridge, he looked up and pushed it towards Du Yuhan, saying, "Big sister, eat."
Du Yuhan looked at her sensible younger brother and smiled, "Big sister has already eaten, how about we give some to your second brother?"
The little one nodded and said, "Give it to Second Brother."
Du Yuhan handed the bowl of porridge to her second brother, Du Haichao, and said, "Haichao, drink the rest of the porridge so I can wash the bowl."
Du Haichao shook his head and said, "Big sister, I'm not hungry, you drink it."
Du Yuhan said, "I've already drunk it, hurry up, don't make my older sister have to hold the bowl again."
He then shoved the bowl of porridge, which had only a little left, into his younger brother's hand. Du Haichao had no choice but to drink the rest of the porridge.
After tidying up, Du Yuhan told her younger brothers, "Stay home and be careful. It's too cold outside, so don't go out. Your older sister still needs to gather firewood."
Du Haifeng quickly said, "Sister, I'll go with you. We can bring back more at once."
Du Yuhan nodded at her younger brother, who was shorter than her, and said, "Okay, you come with me. Haichao will stay home and look after your little brother."
Du Yuhan and her brother took the straw rope and went out of the house again.
Du Haifeng walked beside Du Yuhan and complained, "Your eldest cousin is older than you, yet Grandma made you go and collect firewood all by yourself. Who wouldn't want to stay indoors on such a cold day?"
Du Yuhan said, "My eldest cousin is getting married soon, so of course my uncle and aunt want her to take good care of herself. Besides, our second branch of the family has always been the one who suffers the most, so of course I'll be the first one to do any work."
To the north of Xikou Village is a mountain, though it is not high, it covers a large area and there are no fierce wild animals, so children and adults often go up the mountain to collect dry branches to take home for firewood.
Because they were walking against the wind, their pace was slower, and it took Du Yuhan and Du Haifeng half an hour to reach the foot of the mountain. The siblings split up and began collecting dry branches.
After watching her brother separate from her, Du Yuhan entered her spatial dimension and took out the quail eggs she had found in a restaurant in the spatial mall last time.
Quail eggs, though small, are rich in nutrients and are the only type of egg that can be used as wild bird eggs.
There were quite a few eggs in the space, and anyone could easily recognize them as chicken eggs. But pheasants were rarely seen on this mountain, so she had no excuse to take them out; the only ones she could use were the boxes of quail eggs she had found.
She found several spots in the woods and disguised them as bird nests, placing quail eggs inside each. Once ready, she called out to her younger brother, Du Haifeng, "Haifeng, come quick, look what I found!"
Du Haifeng immediately ran over when he heard his sister calling him.
Du Yuhan pointed happily to a nest of bird eggs and said, "Haifeng, look, I found a nest of bird eggs."
Du Haifeng looked with delight at the dozen or so bird eggs in a bird's nest in the grass on the ground that his sister was pointing to, and excitedly exclaimed, "Sister, this is great! We can take these bird eggs home and cook them!"
Du Yuhan nodded happily and said, "Yes, we can cook them when we get home and give my second brother and younger brother some extra nutrition. You can also look around. I found this nest of eggs because I saw some wild birds fly away."
Du Haifeng nodded excitedly and began searching carefully. He soon found a nest, which thrilled ten-year-old Du Haifeng.
This is food; if we secretly hide it so no one finds it, it can feed my younger brother for several meals.
Spurred by the discovery of the bird eggs, Du Haifeng continued his search, finding three more nests before disappearing from the search.
Du Haifeng was already very content. He never expected that coming out to collect firewood with his older sister today would bring such a pleasant surprise.
He had come here to collect firewood with his older sister before and had come across bird eggs, but he had never found several nests at once. He was really lucky today.
Du Haifeng carefully put all the bird eggs together and counted them for a long time. There were forty-three of them, which was quite a lot.
Du Haifeng said, "Sister, we can't let Grandma know about this, otherwise none of us will get to eat it."
Du Yuhan nodded and said, "Do you even need to tell me? We can't take it all home; we have to hide some. We'll take some home and secretly cook it when we're heating the kang (a traditional heated brick bed). We'll eat it when we go to bed at night. If we give it to my younger brother, we'll crush it up and mix it into his porridge so he doesn't accidentally tell anyone."
Du Haifeng nodded and said, "Yes, we must be very careful. Where should we hide these bird eggs?"
Du Yuhan said, "We'll dig a small pit, line it with dry grass, put the bird eggs in it, and bury them. Let's remember the location so we can take some back with us when we come to collect firewood."
Without hesitation, the siblings dug a small pit with a thick branch and a machete, lined it with dry grass, gently placed the bird eggs inside, and then covered them with another layer of dry grass and leaves, so that no one could find them.
The siblings each carried a bundle of dry branches on their backs and had a few bird eggs in their pockets as they walked home. They were very careful along the way, afraid of breaking the eggs.
With food to eat, the siblings felt warm inside, and even the howling wind didn't make them feel cold.
After returning home, Du Yuhan quickly hid the bird eggs, making sure no one outside the second branch of the family found them, otherwise it would cause a family war.
The Du family only eats two meals a day in winter. Besides the one in the morning, the other meal is eaten around two or three o'clock in the afternoon.
When Du Yuhan and her younger brother returned home, the family was already cooking. It was Du Yuhan's aunt and older cousin who were cooking.
Cooking is a good job, and you can even sneak a few bites when no one is looking. Such a good thing is never going to happen to the second wife.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
