After all, Xia Linsheng had limited contact with this sister. Seeing her anxious, he stopped talking to her and just tried to reason with her:
"Okay, so you're not lazy, but you're afraid of getting dirty? But think about it, Paralytic Zhao has a good trade. If you learn a few hours from him, you can go home and earn money. Isn't that better than learning a few hours from someone else? Besides, if you learn a trade from someone else, you'll still have to do the same dirty work like cleaning toilets and emptying spittoons. It's all the same. Not just you. In our army, there are soldiers who do service, raise pigs, dig fortifications, and dig manure pits. They're all honorable jobs. There's no hierarchy in labor!"
Xia Xiao'e bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes: "It's not that... I, I... Big Brother, you don't know anything, you don't know anything at all... I'm not afraid of getting dirty or tired, I..."
She was speechless and tears fell from her eyes.
Yu Sui saw all of this happening in the kitchen.
Thinking of the details Yu Hemiao had mentioned, she stepped forward and whispered in Xia Linsheng's ear, "Don't say it. Do you think that when Paralytic Zhao had to pee, he deliberately let those apprentice girls hold his thing? Was that dirty work or tiring work?"
Xia Linsheng was stunned: "Is this true? Why didn't anyone tell him?"
Yu Sui gave him a glare. "It's definitely true, but if you ask why no one reported him, you're a fool. Do you think any girl in our hometown would admit to doing something like this? How can someone report it if no one reports it?"
Xia Linsheng clenched his fists: "God damn old scoundrel! We can't let him go!"
Yu Sui: "We can't let this kind of person go, but we have to wait for the right opportunity. Don't be angry for now, just watch, he's bound to get into trouble. I heard about this from my eldest sister a while ago, and it was still a small-scale incident, but now it's spread to Xiao'e and the others. This old scoundrel is about to seek his own death."
Xia Lin was angry for a long time, and then he looked at Xia Xiao'e who was crying so sadly, and he didn't know what to say.
Although Yu Sui did not welcome Xia Xiao'e, she absolutely did not approve of letting the little girl go to such a den of wolves.
The room was silent for a moment, and Xia Xiao'e's crying sounded particularly suppressed.
Xia Linsheng listened for a while and interrupted her: "Don't cry. Even if that's the case, didn't you write a letter to tell us before you came?"
Xia Xiao'e sobbed:
"Mom said that if I told you, you definitely wouldn't agree. You and I are not from the same mother, and we don't share the same values. I don't think so. When we were little, you were the only one who treated me well, big brother. I know you wouldn't bully me. But I know Secretary Zou is close to you. If we ask for a letter of introduction, he might not give it to us. Besides, Mom is afraid of Sun... If Big Sister-in-law tells Mom to know, then..."
Xia Linsheng waved his hand: "Okay, you have so many excuses. Then let me ask you again, why did you evade the fare? You are breaking the law. Do you know?"
Xia Xiao'e had just put her tears away when tears started to flow again:
"Brother, actually, Mom gave me money to buy a train ticket and asked you to take me to the train station. But you got there, took the money, and disappeared. You said you knew a lot of people could ride the train without buying a ticket. I was very angry, but what could I do? I couldn't find him no matter how hard I looked.
Later, a man kept looking at me, and I was scared, so I asked a beggar at the train station how I could take the train to your place. The beggar asked me to give him all the eggs and steamed buns I brought with me before he told me. I gave them to him and said, "Brother, I'm hungry, and I don't want to stay in my hometown anymore. I will never stay at the Paralytic Zhao family. Please take me in. I'm not lazy at all. I'm a hard worker."
Xia Linsheng and Yu Sui looked at each other, feeling helpless.
Yu Sui then asked Xia Xiao'e, "Who cuts your hair?"
Xia Xiao'e: "A beggar. Her clothes are also beggar's. She said that this way no one would know I was a woman, otherwise I would be sold."
Yu Sui exhaled: "Let's eat first. After we're full, we can discuss this matter."
Xia Xiao'e took the initiative to run to the kitchen: "Sister-in-law, let me serve you some rice."
Yu Sui: "Just sit down. Wait until your hand is healed. The doctor said you should try not to touch water with your hand for the next few days."
Xia Xiao'e tried to smile: "Sister-in-law, I'm fine. I'm used to being a carer at home. A little frostbite is nothing. I wash all the clothes at home."
Yu Sui looked at her seriously and said, "This is not your home. You have to listen to me. Sit down first."
Xia Xiao'e had no choice but to leave rubbing her hands.
But she was also sensible and didn't really sit there. She watched Yu Sui bring out the food and knew that Yu Sui took the initiative to arrange it neatly. She was always trying to please him.
Most of the time, Xia Linsheng would get dinner in the cafeteria and just heat it up when he got home. Rice was also gotten in the cafeteria and put in lunch boxes. Each person would get a bowl first, and whoever wanted the leftover rice could get more.
Xia Linsheng sat over to the dining table and saw that Yu Sui liked to eat shredded pork with pickled cabbage, so he immediately moved it from Xia Xiao'e's side to Yu Sui's side.
Xia Xiao'e blushed: "Oh, sister-in-law, do you like it? I don't know, I just put it casually."
Yu Sui didn't explain, and the family ate quietly.
Xia Xiao'e still ate very quickly, and a bowl of rice was finished in less than three minutes.
Yu Sui looked at her from the corner of her eyes, turned the empty bowl around a few times, and finally put it down: "Brother and sister-in-law, eat slowly, I'm full."
Yu Sui put the lunch box in front of her: "Just finish these."
"I...I'm full...I'm going to make porridge with this tomorrow...right?"
Yu Sui didn't answer.
Xia Xiao'e waited for a while and then ate up the remaining half of the lunch box.
She put down her chopsticks and whispered, "Brother and sister-in-law, I was just hungry for a few days and ate a little too much. I won't be hungry anymore, so I can eat less."
Xia Linsheng and his wife remained silent.
At night, they lay on the kang and sighed together: "Oh, it's really terrible!"
Yu Sui smiled bitterly: "Are you soft-hearted?"
Xia Linsheng: "What about you? Did you soften your heart earlier than me?"
Yu Sui: "I've always been soft-hearted. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have called you that day to pick her up at the door."
"Indeed. I... well, when they were little, I tried hard to get along well with Li Afen, so I took care of both of her children. Since she was little, Xiao'e has been much more obedient than her brother. I took her to my grandmother's house, and even she said that this little one doesn't look like Li Afen. She's quite sensible and more like my mother's own child. I also take good care of Xiao'e."
"What now?"
"Now... I was originally thinking of sending her to the train station and making special instructions to the people on the train to take her back home properly, and then have Ma Yingxiong pick her up. That way, she could get back home safely. But now that the matter of that paralyzed Zhao Ye has happened, alas, I know that Li Afen doesn't love this little girl that much. Daughters are just money-losing goods, raised as free labor by the family. If I send her back home, she will definitely have a hard time."
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