It’s the first day of the new year, and Yi Xiaoqiu can’t stay in bed anymore.
The children in the team visit every household, so she has to prepare some snacks.
The housekeeper did prepare some various dried fruits, but Yi Xiaoqiu didn't take out any of them out of caution.
Anyway, if she wants to eat it, she can just hide and eat it by herself. To be on the safe side, it’s better not to take it out.
Yi Xiaoqiu prepared a full fruit plate of melon seeds, peanuts and fruit candies. The melon seeds and peanuts were all produced on the farm. The housekeeper knew that she was celebrating the festival there, so he specially fried a lot of melon seeds and peanuts.
To celebrate the occasion, she also placed some oranges and apples.
Although it is a bit tricky, it is not impossible to get it at this time of year.
Yi Xiaoqiu didn't go out. He kept the kang warm and left the door open.
After a while, the chattering of children could be heard in the front yard.
It turned out that Liu Xiaoqin from next door brought a few friends to the educated youth site to pay her respects to Yi Xiaoqiu.
She brought a few children who had helped Yi Xiaoqiu collect firewood, and as soon as they entered the educated youth site, they went straight to Yi Xiaoqiu's room without looking anywhere else.
As soon as Xiaoqin entered the house, she saw the big red apples and oranges on the kang table.
When the children came in, they were stunned. Looking at the fruit, they didn't know what to say.
"Sister Yi... Happy New Year!" Liu Xiaoqin was the first to look away from the apple.
She had never seen apples so red, so big, and so fragrant. She could smell the fragrance of apples as soon as she entered the house.
"Sister, your new clothes are great..." The other children also came to their senses and couldn't help swallowing.
It is normal for children to be greedy when seeing such delicious apples, but they all know that apples are very expensive, and they dare not even think about letting them eat them.
"Come, thank you for coming to pay your respects to me. These are for you." There were four children in total. Yi Xiaoqiu saw that they were empty-handed and knew that they had come running towards her as soon as they left the house.
It was rare that someone still remembered her, so Yi Xiaoqiu was not stingy and stuffed a big apple and an orange into each of their hands.
"This... Sister Yi, this... is too much, oranges and apples, I can't accept them." Liu Xiaoqin was anxious.
When they visited other people's homes, they were lucky to be given a few peanuts. They had never seen such valuable apples and oranges, let alone taken them.
"This is given to you by your sister. Keep it quickly, otherwise I will be unhappy." Yi Xiaoqiu put a lot of melon seeds, peanuts and candies into the pockets of several people.
"Thank you, sister... This is too much..." The children were so excited that their faces turned red. They stood there at a loss, not daring to move.
"No, kid, hide quickly so other kids don't see you. Go visit next door! Mr. Shen should have some good food there too. It'll be gone if you're late."
These children helped her collect firewood, and Yi Xiaoqiu was willing to give them apples and oranges.
There will definitely be no children waiting for the next arrival.
"Thank you, sister!" After hearing what Yi Xiaoqiu said, several children hurriedly thanked her.
Liu Xiaoqin took her friends to visit Chen Ruofei next door again.
I had such a great time paying respects to Yi Zhiqing today! I didn't expect that paying respects to Yi Zhiqing would yield such a great result.
Aren’t these kids looking forward to New Year’s Day just for this day?
No matter whose house you visit, whether it's peanuts or melon seeds, you can always get some snacks by asking for them.
Sister Yi is so generous!
This apple is really big, and she has never eaten an apple before!
After paying her respects to the educated youth, she would put the food away and save it for later in the day to eat slowly.
Sure enough, when they came to the next room, Shen Ruofei had quite a few snacks, including sour and sweet plums, which they had never seen before.
There are also chocolate candies, which are also foreign things I have never heard of.
There are also small bags of spicy strips, which are so delicious!
That's not all. Next door, Su Zhiqing has a lot of dried fruits, dried peaches, and exquisite pastries...
Several children returned from the educated youth site with full loads.
"Let's get the food here first, and then go to other people's houses to pay our respects! Hide the food so no one can see it. If other children find out and come, Sister Yi won't have anything to eat."
"I got it, Sister Xiaoqin. I'll take it secretly now and come back here later to meet again. Let's go to someone else's house." Xiaojun, Liu Xiaoqin's number one lackey, was the first to show his support.
As soon as he left the educated youth center, he headed straight for home.
Xiaojun hid the things at home. As soon as he went out, he saw Guo Xiaochuan from next door sneaking out from the backyard with his sister.
"Xiaochuan, what are you doing?"
"Brother Xiaojun, my father and stepmother didn't give us food yesterday. I was hungry, so you took me out to find something to eat." The little girl, who looked about sixteen years old, spoke eloquently.
The little girl was wearing very thin clothes and was shivering from the cold as she stood next to her brother Guo Xiaochuan. Her brother was not much better off, his face was blue from the cold.
"I don't even give you food after you've grown up? Your stepmother is so mean!" Xiaojun said angrily.
The two families lived next door to each other. Xiaojun knew that the brother and sister were often bullied by their stepmother, but Guo Xiaochuan never asked others for help, so outsiders could not interfere.
In the past, Xiaojun's mother couldn't bear to see Guo Xiaochuan and his sister suffer so much, so she would occasionally secretly give some food to them. But it was just a drop in the bucket. After all, no one's food comes from the wind.
Xiaojun suddenly slapped his thigh.
"I know where there is food, come with me!" He then took the little girl and went straight to the educated youth camp.
Yi Xiaoqiu had no idea what Liu Xiaoqin and the other children were thinking. She closed the door to the inner room and went into the farm to have breakfast.
The housekeeper made dumplings in the morning, and Yi Xiaoqiu had a good appetite and ate more than twenty in one go.
Before she finished eating, she heard a sound outside. Yi Xiaoqiu hurried out of the farm and opened the door to the inner room.
Another group of children came. When they saw Yi Xiaoqiu coming out, they stood outside the door and bowed to her. They saw the snacks in the house but did not touch them.
There were seven or eight children in this group. Unlike Liu Xiaoqin and the others who were dressed warmly, two of them were dressed very thinly. Not only were their clothes worn out, but they were also wearing thin shoes.
The two children looked somewhat similar, seemingly like brother and sister. The older boy was about nine years old, and the younger girl was about six years old.
They were wrapped in a tattered cotton jacket that was obviously altered from an adult's clothes, and they were wearing cloth shoes with a hole in them. Their toes, which were frozen purple, shrank inwards when they saw Yi Xiaoqiu looking at them.
In the Seventh Company, Yi Xiaoqiu had never seen children dressed so thinly in winter.
It must be so cold to go out wearing so little!
Yi Xiaoqiu and her husband hurriedly pulled the two children into the house.
"Why did you come out wearing so little? It's so cold outside!"
It’s so cold, my toes might freeze off.
Look at these kids, their faces are chapped.
"Sister Zhiqing, Guo Xiaochuan and Guo Xiaocao's biological mother Daqian is gone. No one takes care of them. Their stepmother didn't even give them dinner." Xiaojun said quickly.
After hearing what Xiaojun said, the two siblings lowered their heads in embarrassment and didn't dare to look at Yi Xiaoqiu.
The kang was warm, and Yi Xiaoqiu wanted to pull them to sit on it.
As a result, the two siblings stood by the kang and refused to get up. They looked at the clean kang surface and then at their dirty clothes.
Seeing that look made Yi Xiaoqiu feel sad. This stepmother was too cruel. She didn't even give the child dinner.
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