Old Mrs. Xia raised her frozen hands and knocked on the door, her voice hoarse and unpleasant.
"Xiangbei, please let me in. I'm cold. This isn't my fault."
"Xiangbei's wife, you saw it from the side. It wasn't the mother who knocked over the hot water. It was the child who knocked it over himself."
"North, north..."
No sound came from inside the door. Old Mrs. Xia knew that they would not open the door. This had happened more than once. They just found a random excuse to drive her out. It was simply because they didn't want to support her anymore. She wrapped herself tightly in her old cotton coat and walked out step by step.
It was drizzling outside. The New Year was approaching and the weather was getting colder. There was a thin layer of ice on the ground and you could fall if you weren't careful.
She is old, and if she falls, it will be a disaster. Although she has children and grandchildren, no one likes her as an old lady. Thinking about her life, she has never wronged anyone, so why is her old age so miserable?
She shivered as she held a broken umbrella and came to the door of her eldest son's house. She coughed a few times and said, "Xiangdong, it's Mom. Open the door."
There was a quarrel inside, followed by the eldest daughter-in-law's impatient shout, "Mom, it's not our family who will support you this month. Please go back. This time, I won't open the door."
Old Mrs. Xia wiped the snot from her face that was frozen and begged, "Wenying, Mom just wants to drink some hot water. I'll leave right after I finish drinking and not disturb you."
"If you want some hot water, go to Chen Xiangbei's house. He's the one supporting you this month. I still say the same thing, I won't open the door."
Old Lady Xia: "Xiangdong, Wenying..."
Seeing that there was no more sound from inside, Old Mrs. Xia had no choice but to lift her stiff legs with great effort and slowly leave.
As she aged, her children were unwilling to support her. After much push and pull, they finally agreed to each child supporting her for a month. In the first few years, when she was still able to work, these children were quite accommodating and would always give her a smile. But as she grew older and became increasingly ill, their impatience grew.
The old woman was lucky. She was served comfortably and passed away, leaving her to be rejected by the children like a ball.
Old Lady Xia came to her second son and said, "Xiangnan, Mom is here. Let Mom in and drink some hot water. I'm cold."
The lights in her second son's house suddenly went out, and no one paid any attention to her no matter how she shouted.
Old Mrs. Xia sighed. If it really didn't work out, she would just stay in her own shabby house for the night. She would go back tomorrow when Xiangbei's anger subsided.
She has no money, as she gave it to her children in previous years. She has no pension, and her children won't give her money either. It's good enough for her to have something to eat.
She didn't know where to go. It was late at night and many of her old neighbors and friends had been picked up by their children to prepare for the New Year. Only a few were left and were preparing to leave. She was all alone and she didn't want to disturb them.
Her shabby house was in a remote alley. Old Mrs. Xia squinted her eyes and walked carefully. However, she was old and her movements were not very agile. She didn't know what she stepped on, but suddenly she slipped and hit her head heavily on the wet wall, and she fainted.
When she woke up, she was soaked, her forehead was burning, but she couldn't make a sound. She had a severe headache and couldn't see clearly.
It was still dark, and there was no one on the road. She was in pain and afraid. She groped outside, trying to stand up, but she had no strength left. She felt her umbrella, but the ribs seemed broken, and the umbrella flipped over and rolled away, completely useless.
The alley was dark and the street lights were broken. Who would have thought that a seriously injured old lady was lying here.
"Help..." Old Mrs. Xia used all her strength to shout out these two words, but unfortunately her voice was too soft. Everyone in the house inside the wall was sleeping and no one heard it.
She vaguely recalled that when she was still young, she was obedient to her husband, loved her son, and raised her children's children. She took care of the housework for the eldest son all her life, gave her job to the second son, and gave most of her money to the third son.
Finally, after his house was demolished, he divided the demolition compensation and the house equally among them, and he only got a shabby house that was worse than a pigpen.
That shabby house was drafty on all sides, with a leaky roof and no place for a bed. It was barely big enough to put her belongings in. She had wanted to keep a good house for herself, but unfortunately they tricked her into selling it.
Her good sons, at that time, all said sweet words, that they would take care of her in her old age, and that it was useless for her to keep the house. She was so happy at that time, thinking that she had finally come to the end of all her hardships and it was time to enjoy her life.
After selling the house, they often sighed in front of her, saying that they had no money.
At that time, she was deceived by her sons, thinking that since they could support her, there was no point in keeping the money. When they cried poor again and again, she gave them her money.
But who knew that later, this shabby house would become her frequent haunt. There was a pot in the house that she had picked up. Sometimes when she was kicked out, she would go to pick up some wood to make something to eat. Sometimes it was wild vegetables, sometimes it was rotten vegetable leaves.
The city isn't the countryside, where firewood and wild vegetables are readily available. When it rains, it's pouring outside, but it's just a drizzle inside, and it's impossible to light a fire. She's too old to do housework. Originally, the older sister from the Yin family said she'd have her grandson do it for me after the Lunar New Year, but unfortunately, I probably won't be able to wait.
Old Lady Xia thought about her unfilial sons:
The eldest lady scolded her every day and sometimes even pushed her.
No one in the second brother's family paid any attention to her, and sometimes they didn't even prepare meals for her.
The third brother's family took her out to do something superficial, but when she came home, they were sarcastic and often locked her out of the house.
She had clearly dedicated her entire life to them, but why were they still complaining that she was biased and calling her an old fool?
No one respects her, and raising a son cannot prevent her from getting old.
She thought of her daughter who died early. The only person she felt sorry for in this life was her Xiang Hong.
Her Xiang Hong, who still cared about her even after being forced to go to the countryside, would send her wild produce. She was the most filial child since childhood, the one who would give her eggs to eat and the one who felt sorry for her when she was tired.
This was karma, she was unwilling to give up her job to Xiang Hong, forcing her to go to the countryside. In the countryside, Xiang Hong was tricked into a hasty marriage. Because Xiang Hong's betrothal gift was given to the eldest daughter-in-law to keep the family quiet, she was looked down upon and bullied by her in-laws, and finally died in the winter.
She was going to die now, in winter, and in her next life, she would be Xiang Hong's slave. She looked vaguely at the little light in the distance, her body gradually getting colder.
Ten days before New Year's Eve, Old Mrs. Xia died leaning against the wall.
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