Su Xueli felt a pang of pain in her heart. "Then why are they all urging their daughters to get married?"
Liu Fengying sighed and said, "It's not right not to get married. Men should marry when they are of age and women should marry when they are of age. That's how it's been for generations."
Yes, that's how it's been done for generations.
Su Xueli sighed inwardly, then carried the firewood back to her room.
Yan Yan warmed herself by the fire and drank a bowl of brown sugar water before she felt warm. However, her hands and feet, which had chilblains, became itchy as soon as they were warmed up, so she scratched the back of her hands and stomped her feet.
Su Xueli rubbed her swollen hands and said with heartache, "Yan Yan, take off your shoes and rub your feet. Don't stomp your feet."
Yan Yan painfully took off her shoes and rubbed her toes, which were swollen like carrots from the cold.
Su Xueli touched her worn-out cotton boots and asked her, "Yan Yan, you make shoes all day long, can't you make yourself a new pair of cotton boots? These are so old, they're not warm at all."
Yan Yan shook her head: "My younger brothers' feet are all covered in nails. I'm so busy making shoes for them every day, I don't have time to make any for myself. I did make a few pairs of cotton boots, but my mother won't let me wear them. Consider them part of my dowry."
Actually, if I hadn't been selling things at the market these past few days, my hands and feet wouldn't have been so frostbitten.
Su Xueli instructed her, "Don't say anything else. Go to the market tomorrow and wear the new cotton boots. Forget about dowry, just wear them to keep warm first. Also, bring an extra pair of gloves. If you don't take care of yourself, who will?"
Yan Yan rubbed her frostbitten hands and feet and nodded.
She suddenly burst into tears again, sobbing, "Sherry, how come you're so lucky? Look how good your parents are to you, they don't favor your brother at all. How come I was born from a stone..."
Su Xueli didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only say, "Since your parents don't care about you, you have to care for yourself. You can't let them take advantage of you anymore."
Look at you, you started learning to do housework when you were just a few years old, and you raised your younger brothers. How can your parents have the nerve to say they raised you? Did they raise you? You raised four sons for them.
They don't care about your sacrifices at all, so why would you continue to sacrifice for parents like that?
Yan Yan cried and said, "I knew it a long time ago, so I wanted to leave this family as soon as possible."
Su Xueli thought to herself: It's a pity you jumped into the wolf's den and then into the tiger's lair. Cui Huabiao is even more cruel to you than they are.
"Sister." The second brother arrived with the fourth brother.
Yan Yan saw her younger brother's eyes warm up again, and she reached out and pulled her fourth brother over, saying, "Come here and warm your hands."
He then asked, "Second brother, what are you doing here?"
The second son said, "Your mother is calling you home. Your father is feeding the livestock, and your mother is heating the chicken feed. She wants you to come home and cook."
“Your sister isn’t coming home. She’s having dinner at my house. Go back and tell your mother.” Su Xueli said sternly.
The second child is 13 years old. By all accounts, he should be sensible and should protect his older sister. However, having grown up seeing his sister being enslaved by their parents, they have become accustomed to it.
The second child muttered, "If my sister doesn't go back to cook, we won't have anything to eat."
Su Xueli scolded him, "Can't you do it? Can't your brother do it? Your sister started cooking for you when she was four years old. How old are you now?"
The second son argued, "Mom said we're boys, so we can't cook."
"Boys can't cook, but your sister is a girl, so she shouldn't work in the fields. How come your sister works in the fields like you guys?"
The second son had nothing to say.
Her best friend was speaking up for her, and Yan Yan couldn't ignore it. So she said to her younger brother, "Second brother, you take fourth brother home. I'm not going home to cook."
The second brother had no choice but to lead the fourth brother away.
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