After breakfast the next day, Su Li filled each child's pocket with pumpkin seeds and fruit candies, and let them go out to play while she prepared the second novel at home.
Tiedan and a few others went to Xie's house and gave the melon seeds, fruit candies in their pockets to Xiangzhi, Xianglan, Xiaofang and Xiaoqin. When Lai Fu reached out to take some, they turned around and ran away without even looking at them.
They covered their pockets while running. It seemed that Fu had not caught up with them. Several children were playing on the side of the road.
While playing, I saw a barefoot boy carrying firewood on his back and picking it up with his head down.
Several children approached, thinking about what their mother said and what was in her pocket. "Do you want to play with us?"
Dan looked at them suspiciously. They had just beaten him up yesterday, but today they wanted to play with him. He didn't believe that they were suddenly so stubborn.
"You...are you going to beat me up? Let me tell you, I'm not someone who can be bullied." He sniffed and turned his head to look. If they came together, how could he run to avoid getting beaten?
Tiedan assured with a smile, "Don't worry, we won't beat you up!"
Xiaodan looked at Tiedan and the others and asked again uncertainly, "You really won't hit me?"
Hu Zi rolled his eyes at him and said, "We won't beat you. It's wrong for children to fight. Look, this is for you to eat."
Xiaodan looked at the melon seeds and fruit candies in Huzi's hand and swallowed his saliva. "Why are you giving them to me? Are they poisonous? Are you going to poison me and then beat me up? I know you're a liar."
Tiedan peeled a candy and put it in his mouth. "It's not poisonous. Take a look. Eat it! My brother won't hit you, and you can't hit him either."
The boy snorted, "I don't want to fight."
Shitou took a handful of melon seeds and fruit candies from Huzi's hand and stuffed them into Xiaodan's pocket.
I looked down at the dirty feet of my kids. They were so pitiful. They were better off now than before. They still had shoes to wear before, although they were torn. But their mother was very kind to them now.
"Come play with us, bastard!"
"I have to collect firewood. I don't have time to play."
Tiedan looked at the firewood that Xiaodan was carrying. They used to collect firewood, but now their mother doesn't let them do any work.
"Damn it, let's be friends! I'll pick up firewood with you, and you can play with it for a while after we pick up some."
As he spoke, he bent down to pick up some dead branches. Huzi, Shitou and Baoya followed suit. Looking at them, Dandan felt a pang of pain in his heart and his eyes became moist. He wiped his eyes and bent down to continue picking up firewood.
After a while, he picked up a pile of them, tied them up with a rope, and sat on the ground. Tiedan, Huzi, Shitou and Baoya sat around him.
Xiaodan felt a little awkward and turned his head.
The little guys didn't say anything for a while. Hu Zi quietly took out the cold chicken leg from his pocket and put it in Dandan's hand.
"Eat quickly."
The egg looked at the greasy, golden chicken drumstick in his hand. Although it was cold, it still smelled delicious.
He swallowed and asked, "What are you doing?"
"What else can I do? I'll give you some meat. Eat it quickly. It will be delicious when you get home."
I haven’t eaten meat for a long time. The last time I ate meat was a few months ago. My younger brother accidentally dropped some meat on the ground while eating. His stepfather and his mother didn’t see it, so he picked it up secretly and ate it. Of course, he thought it was delicious!
Tiedan and Shitou didn't think that Huzi would hide anything, so they simply took out the things in their own pockets and put them in Huzi's hands.
Dan was a little confused. What was going on? Did they fight and give each other meat as compensation?
But it was because he was too hungry that he snatched Baoya's food. Wasn't he the one who made the mistake?
Baoya saw that her brothers all had things, she searched her pockets and saw only some snacks. Seeing her brothers pouting, she felt that she was being excluded. Why didn’t they take her with them?
Dandan couldn't help it, he was so hungry that saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth just by looking at it. Every day at home, his stepfather only allowed him to drink a bowl of wild vegetable and corn porridge, and he could only eat a vegetable cake when he was in a good mood.
He grabbed the chicken leg and gobbled it up voraciously. As he ate, tears started to flow down his face. He could eat meat before, when his father, grandparents were still alive.
When his father got home from work, he would lift him up high and ride on his neck. His mother would smile and tell his father to be careful. His grandparents would also secretly give him food.
He now has no father, no grandparents, and it is the same as if he had no mother. She only has her stepfather and younger brother in her heart. No one will secretly leave food for him, and no one will hold him up high.
Hu Zi saw his son Xiaodan crying and felt sorry for him, "Xiaodan, don't cry. You see, you don't have a father, and we don't have a father either, but I'm not crying."
Xiaodan was feeling sad, and when he suddenly heard Huzi say this, he immediately said angrily: "Are you annoying or not? It's none of your business if I cry. Why are you so annoying?"
Hu Zi's face tightened when he was scolded. Humph! Sure enough, Da Dan is still that annoying guy. He said he has no father anymore.
Tiedan glared at Huzi and said, "Don't be angry, Huzi didn't mean that. He just wants to be friends with you. Look, aren't we all the same? Oh! We are not the same. Baoya and I don't have a father or a mother anymore. Fortunately, Aunt Su is willing to be our mother."
Shitou also felt that his brother was really bad at talking, "Yeah! That's right, bastard. We want to be friends with you. You see, you can still find your father's grave when you cry, but my brother and I can't even find our father's grave. We are all the same children."
Perhaps the topic was too heavy, and the children were silent. Only Baoya said, "Same children."
Looking at them, Dan felt that they were right. Hu Zi and Shi Tou's father didn't even have a grave, so they were more pitiful than himself.
They are the same children and can be friends.
The little kids held their cheeks in their hands with sorrow, waiting for Su Li's cry. Tiedan stood up, patted the grass on his butt, and said to Xiaodan, "Mom has left us. We need to go home. Can you carry so much firewood by yourself?"
The boy pulled the rope and said, "Okay."
A few people said goodbye to Dan, and started to walk home slowly.
Xiaodan touched the snacks in his pocket, hesitated for a moment, and chased after him, "Hey!"
Hu Zi frowned, "What are you doing!"
"In the future...if someone bullies you, you can tell me and I will fight back for you. Thank you...thank you for the meat and candy."
Hu Zi raised the corner of his mouth, "Tuo, then...then you can come to our house to play with us in the future. My sister is the youngest, and we can protect her together."
"Yeah!" Xiaodan couldn't help but smile.
Tiedan took two steps forward, thought for a moment, and then walked back. "You must have hidden the melon seeds and fruit candies that Dadan gave you. Otherwise, when you get home, you won't be able to eat them, and you might even get beaten. So you must have hidden them."
He nodded, "I will."
"If you're hungry in the future, come find me. Our mother is very kind. Don't be afraid. When you grow up, you can earn money to pay me back."
Xiaodan raised his sleeves and rubbed his eyes, "Hey."
When she got home, Su Li had already put the food on the table: braised pork, pork ribs in soy sauce, stir-fried green vegetables, kelp soup, and soft white flour buns.
As the children were eating, Shitou suddenly sighed. Su Li decided to smile. What could be on such a small child's mind? "What's wrong, Shitou? Don't you want to eat?"
Shi Tou said worriedly, "It's too delicious. I haven't eaten such delicious meat during Chinese New Year. Today I played with Xiaodan, his father has a grave mound, but our father doesn't. I don't even remember what my father looks like." After saying that, he took a sip of the soup.
Su Li's mouth twitched as she looked at him. "Son, why are you comparing your father's grave with others? You are so filial. I don't think you are much of a filial son."
Hu Zi also said: "That's right! Our father doesn't have it. When I was a child, my father was very powerful. He could lift me and a rock at the same time."
The little guys huddled together with a wronged look on their faces, eating and sighing. Su Li felt a little distressed.
Xie Zhengchuan and his wife seldom came back home in the past few years since they got married, but whenever he was at home, he would do everything he could, including washing clothes, cooking, cleaning, and so on, and his wife didn't even have to do anything.
"No, don't think about it, hurry up and eat. You should be happy today, right? You have gained a new friend."
"Mom, if you're hungry later, can you come to our house for dinner?"
Hu Zi knew that many families only had two meals a day, and their family ate so much, there was no one else in their village. He heard other children say that they would show off everywhere after eating a meal of white noodles, but he didn't even tell them that their family ate meat every day!
But their mother worked hard to earn money. She had to write every day, knit clothes for them, and cook.
"Sure! But you have to do it secretly! If your mother finds out, she'll be mad."
"Well, thank you, mom. You are so kind."
"Little flatterer, eat quickly."
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