Chapter 284 Little Star
"But this colored paper...you bought it, didn't you?"
Qiao Wanyin, with her sharp eyes, immediately noticed the scattered wrapping paper in the corner. "You have to accept this money."
She insisted on taking out ten yuan from her pocket and stuffing it into Li Hongmei's hand, saying, "You've been so busy running around, even paying out of your own pocket. How can I take the kindergarten's money without asking you to compensate me? That's not fair."
Li Hongmei waved her hands repeatedly, her face flushed red: "No, no, no! What are you doing? I'm helping my own sister, not an outsider. How can I take money? If you're so formal, how will I dare to help you in the future? I absolutely refuse to take this money!"
Qiao Wanyin refused to take it back, her tone firm: "This matter must be made clear. You put in the effort and spent the money. This ten yuan isn't much, but it's a token of your appreciation. If you don't accept it, I'll feel even more guilty. If you refuse again, I'll really get angry."
Li Hongmei couldn't refuse, so she blushed and accepted the money.
But no one expected that the next day, she would secretly go to the town's general store and use the ten yuan to buy several fluffy little teddy bears, several small wooden horses painted with varnish, and a pair of swaying cloth tigers.
When no one was looking, she quietly slipped them into each child's desk drawer, and stuck a small note on the corner of the drawer with the words "For the best little one" written in crooked handwriting.
That afternoon, the sun was setting, and golden rays filtered through the treetops into the courtyard.
Qiao Wanyin was sitting in her office staring blankly at her lesson plan, her brows furrowed. Her mind was filled with the pinyin and arithmetic problems the children would be learning next week, and she was feeling quite overwhelmed.
Suddenly, a clear laugh came from the courtyard, ringing out like a wind chime.
She looked up, instinctively walked to the window, and looked outside—
Li Hongmei was squatting on the ground, her arms outstretched like wings, her eyes narrowed into slits as she laughed, shouting loudly, "The eagle is coming—chickens, run!"
A group of children surrounded her, laughing and holding hands, forming a line and jumping to avoid the "eagle's" pursuit.
A chubby boy was running too fast and almost fell. Li Hongmei caught him quickly and rubbed his head, making the child giggle.
The sunlight shone on her face, giving it a golden edge.
She laughed without restraint, her face flushed, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She seemed to have returned to her teenage years, innocent and radiant.
Qiao Wanyin leaned quietly against the window, watching that scene. Suddenly, her heart felt as if it had been gently bumped by something, and a large part of it softened.
She stared blankly, wondering: Am I...?
Have I always been too serious about things?
Treating everything as a burden and weighing every choice repeatedly, we forget that there is such simple and pure joy in life.
Just as she was lost in thought, a deep voice suddenly sounded behind her—
"Director Qiao."
Qiao Wanyin turned around and was startled: "Aunt Li? What are you doing here?"
Aunt Li stood at the door, holding a small bag of fruit in her hand, her face showing a mixture of shyness and gratitude. "A few days ago, my grandson Xiaojun suddenly developed a high fever, and his temperature was almost 40 degrees Celsius in the middle of the night. It was your second sister-in-law, Li Hongmei, who braved the heavy rain and carried him step by step to the town hospital."
Her voice unconsciously softened, as if she were talking about something she had kept hidden for a long time, "I used to... sigh, I really misjudged her. I always thought she was a quiet, cold person, and I even thought she was selfish and indifferent, but this time... she saved my child."
Qiao Wanyin's heart skipped a beat, as if she had been hit hard by something invisible.
She opened her eyes wide, her lips parted slightly, but she couldn't utter a word.
Why has she never heard anyone mention this before?
Not a single word has been heard from inside the family?
At dinner, she went to the kitchen and whispered to her mother-in-law, "Mom, cook two more dishes. Everyone has worked hard today."
Then she carried the freshly cooked braised pork and stir-fried spinach back to the table with a gentle smile on her face.
"Second Sister-in-law," she picked up a piece of glistening, fragrant braised pork and put it into Li Hongmei's bowl, "I heard that it was raining heavily that day, and you even carried Xiaojun to the hospital? Such a big thing, how come I never heard you mention it once?"
Li Hongmei kept her head down, her fingers gripping the chopsticks, her eyes fixed on the rice in her bowl.
The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, as if she wanted to laugh, or perhaps she was a little embarrassed. "It's nothing serious, just a small matter. The child has a fever, his face is flushed, and his eyes are lifeless. We can't wait any longer. We can't just stand by and watch him suffer."
Qiao Xuezhi was eating a steamed bun when he heard this and immediately interjected, "The rain that day was like it was pouring down from the sky, and the thunder was deafening! When your second sister-in-law came back, she was soaked to the bone, her shoes were full of water, and she was shivering all over."
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
Li Hongmei suddenly raised her head, glared at him, and said in a reproachful tone, "I'm perfectly healthy. A couple of gusts of wind and I'll be dry. I'm not that delicate. What's the big deal? Why bring it up? It'll only cause trouble if others find out."
Looking at her stubborn expression, Qiao Wanyin suddenly felt a tightness in her chest, as if a heavy stone was pressing down on it.
She stared blankly at Li Hongmei—her second sister-in-law who was always taciturn and buried in her work. It turned out that she had been doing so much quietly behind the scenes.
Yes or no……
Has she always thought too badly of people?
Did she only see the surface indifference, but never truly understand how much resilience and kindness was hidden within that frail body?
She suddenly realized that all her previous prejudices against her second sister-in-law were like a layer of dusty glass, obscuring the true nature of the situation.
Today, a crack finally appeared in the glass, letting in a beam of light.
She took a deep breath and spoke softly, her voice low but sincere:
"Second sister-in-law," she said, "you've been so kind to us all these past few days. Thank you so much."
It's late at night.
The wind howled softly outside, and the leaves rustled.
The entire village fell silent, with only a few houses still having their lights on.
In Old Zhang's small house, there was only an old light bulb hanging from the roof beam. Its dim yellow light swayed and flickered, making the shadows on the wall sway gently as well.
Several bags of wheat that hadn't been moved were piled up in the corner, and the air still carried the dry smell of wheat after it had been sun-dried all day.
Li Hongmei sat on a small wooden stool by the bed, her head down, mending Qiao Xuezhi's shirt with a hole in it, stitch by stitch.
Her fingers were rough, but her movements were very skilled, and the thread moved swiftly through the fabric.
Occasionally, a shadow of a dark cloud would flash past the window, and her profile would appear and disappear in the light.
Qiao Xuezhi squatted on the threshold of the door, a pipe dangling from his mouth, puffing away.
The embers flickered in the darkness, like a tiny star that refused to go out.
After a long while, he suddenly exhaled a thick cloud of smoke and spoke in a low voice: "Red Plum."
Li Hongmei paused, looked up at him, and asked, "Hmm?"
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