The little ones chattered incessantly throughout the journey, seemingly having so much to say. The quietest time was mealtime. Chen Yanling went out and bought several train meals, which the children eagerly awaited. Previously, they had always traveled by train with their mothers or aunts and had never eaten train food before; Xia Liang had always brought them dry rations and braised meat from home. They had been curious about train meals for a long time, and today they finally got to eat them. Gu Yunxi completely forgot about the food her grandmother had prepared for her that morning and started eating with her cousins. Gu Yuanzhi's face scrunched up after her first bite, looking like she wanted to vomit but dared not. Xia Yuxuan spat it out, saying, "This is so awful!" Xia Xinran was angry at her brother's wasteful behavior and grabbed his ear, saying, "How awful is it? Even if it's awful, it's still food. Just because our living conditions are better now doesn't mean we can't enjoy it!" "Wasting food! Remember what Grandpa and Grandma said? They never had enough to eat back then." Xia Yuxuan wouldn't listen, shaking her head and shouting, "I won't eat! I won't eat! I'd rather starve than eat!" Xia Xinran was angry, but she was just a child. Seeing that she couldn't do anything about her brother, her eyes reddened with anger, tears welling up in her eyes. Gu Yunxi stepped forward to comfort her cousin, "Cousin, you don't need to worry about him. It's his business if he doesn't eat. Let him go hungry for a few meals and see if he'll eat then. There's still a day and a half before we reach the capital, and three or four more meals. Let's see if he'll eat in the end." After saying that, she turned to Chen Yanling and said, "Aunt Chen, don't buy food for my cousin for the next few meals. He's wasting food, money, and coupons." Chen Yanling also felt that Xia Yuxuan was going too far. Some of her junior brothers were not even as old as him, and they were still not getting enough to eat. Although the food wasn't very good, it wasn't unpalatable either! So she nodded in agreement.
After dinner, the three girls huddled together whispering. Chen Yanling and Tian Longhui discussed martial arts on the side. Xia Yuxuan, ignored by everyone, felt lonely. However, seeing that no one paid attention to him, he couldn't bring himself to talk to them and decided to isolate them all. When it was time for dinner, Chen Yanling went to buy the food again. When she returned, she saw that there were six portions in her hand. Xia Yuxuan was happy, knowing that there would be some for him. His stomach had been growling since noon, but he was too embarrassed to say so. Finally, when it was time to eat, he was about to go forward to take the food when Gu Yuanzhi said directly, "Aunt Chen, you bought an extra portion. My cousin doesn't want to eat." Chen Yanling originally felt that it was bad to waste food, but she couldn't really argue with a child, so she bought Xia Yuxuan's portion anyway. Hearing his younger cousin Gu Yuanzhi say this, Xia Yuxuan, disregarding whether he was hungry or not, echoed, "That's right, you bought too much, I won't eat it." His eyes reddened as he spoke. Chen Yanling, noticing his pride, comforted him, "But I bought an extra portion. If you don't eat it, it'll be a real waste. We can't finish the extra, so please help us! We don't want to waste food." Hearing this, Xia Yuxuan managed to hold back his tears, saying, "Okay then! I'll help you out of kindness, but I don't really want to eat it." He took the lunchbox Chen Yanling handed him and wolfed down his food. Gu Yuanzhi wanted to say something, but her older sister stopped her. If her younger sister said anything more, her little cousin might not only go hungry today but also cry his eyes out. Thinking back to when she and her sister went out, her grandparents packed them lots of food—biscuits, milk candy, imported chocolate, and braised beef made by Grandma Wu. Han Yulan practically wanted to empty the house for the two sisters. Feeling the money and receipts her grandparents had given her in her pocket, the little girl was happy; she had savings! Because Grandma Wu was getting old, she had originally wanted to come to Beijing with them, but Xia Liang refused. Her in-laws were also getting old, so they decided to let Grandma Wu stay in the provincial capital while Xia Liang found someone in Beijing to take care of the two little ones. Therefore, Grandma Wu didn't come back to Beijing this time. Gu Yunxi took out the braised beef and shared it with everyone. Xia Yuxuan immediately reached for her chopsticks, tasted a piece, and then stuffed it into her mouth one after another, saying, "This is so delicious!"
Although Gu Yunxi didn't like her cousin's behavior, she didn't say much, just moved the braised beef a little further away from him. That night, they each had their own bed. The two lower bunks were for the smaller Gu Yuanzhi and Xia Yuxuan, Gu Yunxi and Xia Xinran slept in the two middle bunks, and Chen Yanling and Tian Longhui slept in the two lower bunks. They had barely lain down when they heard a "thud." Chen Yanling immediately grabbed the flashlight from beside her pillow and shone it towards the sound. She saw Xia Yuxuan had fallen off the bed and was now sitting on the floor rubbing his elbow. Chen Yanling immediately got out of bed and asked, "How are you? Where did you fall?" She pulled him over and checked his elbow. Chen Yanling breathed a sigh of relief and said, "No problem, nothing's injured. Does anything else hurt?" Xia Yuxuan shook his head and said, "Only my elbow hurts, nothing else hurts." As she spoke, Chen Yanling shone her flashlight on his elbow, which was scraped, but it wasn't a big problem. After comforting him, she told him to go to bed. When he looked up, he saw two little ones peeking out and Gu Yuanzhi craning her neck. Chen Yanling told them to go to sleep early and then climbed into bed herself.
The next day, Xia Yuxuan finally ate properly and didn't cause any more trouble. Chen Yanling and Tian Longhui felt much more relaxed, since they were asked to pick up the children in case something happened on the way. With so many children going missing these days, they had previously said that taking care of two children would be easy, but now taking care of four was a bit of a challenge. After a long and tiring journey, they finally arrived in Beijing. Gu Yunxi saw her mother and uncle waiting for them at the station, along with two unfamiliar uncles and aunts. Xia Liang also saw her little daughter's face pressed against the window, her smiling face flattened and her features distorted. Xia Liang was both amused and exasperated; her little girl really didn't care about her appearance at all!
After picking up the children, the group returned to the Gu family home in a grand procession. Xia Liang settled them all in and then went to buy groceries to prepare dinner for them, since they probably hadn't eaten well on the train these past two days. Her eldest daughter, Gu Yunxi, said, "Mom, I want to go grocery shopping with you." Seeing that her daughter was full of energy and showed no signs of fatigue from the long journey, Xia Liang nodded and said, "Okay, let's go."
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