"Uncle, Aunt, Eldest Brother, Brother Minghai, you're back!"
The group turned around and saw a thin girl carrying a large basket on her back.
The basket was filled with firewood.
Liu Zhaodi was the first to react and asked, "Are you Er Ya? Shu Ying?"
It's no wonder Liu Zhaoti was hesitant to recognize the girl.
The child in front of me was so thin and frail. In this cold weather, his cotton-padded clothes were too short.
The exposed calves and half of the arms were frozen red.
His hands were red and swollen, like ten carrots.
Han Shunde looked at the child, thinking to himself.
How does your own brother treat children?!
In this freezing weather, how could you send a young woman out to the mountains to gather firewood?
"Where are your father and brother? Why aren't they out gathering firewood?"
Why didn't you stock up on more firewood before it got cold?
Han Shuying lowered her head and remained silent, then raised her head and greeted them again.
"Aunt and Uncle, Brother Minghai, you've come to see Grandpa and Grandma, right? Let's go now."
Han Zhaoxiong and Han Minghai hesitated for a moment.
I was originally going to leave after saying goodbye to them, but now I'm caught in a dilemma – whether to stay or leave.
After thinking for a moment, Han Minghai spoke.
“It won’t work if neither Zhaoxiong nor I go back.”
My mother will worry, because we originally agreed that we would return after seeing my uncle and aunt off.
"My mother will get worried if she can't wait for me to return; she'll come looking for me down the mountain."
Han Shuying lowered her head in disappointment, rubbing her hands, which were red from the cold, repeatedly.
Suddenly her stomach rumbled.
The little girl covered her stomach, feeling even more embarrassed.
Han Minghai couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he took out three wild vegetable cakes and a boiled duck egg from his basket.
This was given to him by Li Lanzhen this morning.
He placed it in Han Shuying's hand.
"It's too cold, so don't go out. What if you, a young lady, encounter wild animals or fall down while out?"
At that time, you were helpless, crying out to heaven and earth.
Han Shuying is 11 years old this year, but she is thin and weak with sparse, yellow hair, just like an eight or nine-year-old child.
Han Minghai couldn't understand it.
When they lived here, this girl had a round face, was lively, and loved to talk and laugh.
How did it turn out like this?
He looked up and glanced in the direction of Forget-Worry Valley.
He sighed inwardly and said to Han Shunde and the others.
"I'm going back now." She said, glancing at Han Zhaoxiong.
At this moment, Han Zhaoxiong saw his second uncle's younger sister, who was dressed in thin clothes, had a sallow complexion, and was extremely thin.
She was very angry. She didn't know if her second uncle didn't care or if her grandparents' patriarchal mindset was tormenting her again.
He wanted to go with Han Shunde and Liu Zhaodi to Forget-Worry Valley.
Let's see how they actually live!
“Okay, Brother Minghai, you go back now. I’m going with my parents to Forget-Worry Valley to see my grandparents.”
Be careful on your journey. You don't need to pick us up. There are three of us.
Han Minghai waved his hand, said nothing more, and strode away without looking back.
Han Zhaoxiong turned his head and saw Han Shuying tightly holding the wild vegetable cakes and boiled duck eggs that Han Minghai had given him.
"Little sister, aren't you hungry? Eat quickly, and then we'll go inside."
Upon hearing this, Han Shuying looked at Han Zhaoxiong with teary eyes, nodded, grabbed a wild vegetable pancake, and stuffed it into her mouth.
After taking a couple of bites, something suddenly occurred to me.
He quickly handed the other two pieces of cake to Han Shunde and Liu Zhaodi.
"Uncle, Aunt, you should eat too."
He handed the duck egg in his hand to Han Zhaoxiong, saying, "Brother, you eat it."
None of the three of them answered.
"You eat, we ate on the way."
Looking at her flushed face and her incoherent speech, I could see...
Han Zhaoxiong quickly took out a water bag from his basket and handed it to her.
"Second sister, eat slowly and drink some water. There's no rush. We'll wait here until you finish eating before we go back."
His words brought tears to Han Shuying's eyes, which fell in a steady stream onto her swollen hand and onto the wild vegetable pancake.
She took a sip of water and slowed down her eating pace, biting the pancakes slowly as if she were chewing something up and swallowing it.
After finishing a wild vegetable pancake, she looked up at Han Zhaoxiong.
"Big brother, I'd like to take these two pancakes home for my dad and my brother, is that alright?"
Han Zhaoxiong and the other two were taken aback.
Han Shunde asked her, "Er Ya, tell your uncle what happened at home? Are you starving?"
Didn't your Aunt Lanzhen leave behind some grain when she left?
Liu Zhaodi angrily asked her, "Is it because your grandfather doesn't feed you enough? All he does is make you work. Making a little girl like you out to gather firewood in this freezing weather is not something a human being should do!"
She said that because Liu Zhaodi saw that the child was not getting enough to eat or wear.
She then thought that her father-in-law, who was the village chief, was probably starting to manipulate the second son's family again.
They currently do not know what happened in the Valley of Forgetfulness.
Han Shuying lowered her head and remained silent no matter what they asked her.
Han Zhaoxiong handed her a handkerchief and said gently, "Erya, pack up the cakes and duck eggs and take them home for your father and Zhaocheng to eat."
Han Shuying took the new blue handkerchief, wrapped the two pancakes and the duck egg in it, and stuffed them into her cotton coat.
Seeing her cautious movements, the three of them felt truly distressed.
What exactly happened to this child?
When Han Shunde saw the Valley of Forgetfulness, the joy he felt at the prospect of seeing his parents had faded.
He felt sad, angry, and confused.
After they left, did people in the Valley of Forgetfulness go hungry and cold? Or is someone causing trouble again?
Han Shuying wiped her mouth, patted herself, and smiled slightly at the three of them.
"Uncle, Aunt, Brother, let's go."
They paused for a moment as they entered the gates of Forget-Worry Valley.
Because the gate to Forget-Worry Valley was wide open, all the stones that had blocked the way had disappeared, and there were no obstructions on the gate; it was simply wide open.
Furthermore, Han Zhaoxiong observed that there was no one guarding the area at all!
All three of them were puzzled.
Han Shuying also saw their eyes and expressions, and lowered her head to speak softly.
"The stones blocking the gate were pushed aside by wild buffalo and wild boars."
After you left, the bison and wild boars all rushed out of this gate at night and ran into the mountains.
The three of them paused, and Han Zhaoxiong said incredulously.
"What?! Such a thing happened?! Didn't you keep a close watch on things properly?"
Han Shuying shook her head.
The three of them then fell silent, wondering how much a child could possibly know!
They continued walking forward, the path leading from the gate into the valley was lined with thick snow on both sides, and the caves in the distance were covered with a thick layer of snow.
Only the area in front of each household's doorway in front of the cave had been cleaned up, revealing the brown earth beneath.
"Uncle, Aunt, Brother, you go to Grandpa and Grandma's house first, I'll go home first."
Han Shunde and his two companions stopped in their tracks once again.
What's going on here?
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