The crowd gradually dispersed, and not a single person dared to approach them and speak to them.
Seeing that the two children were frozen stiff, Chen Yunyun quickly took them home and lit a fire by the earthen stove, making the whole house warm and cozy.
Niu Niu and Da Wa put their summer jackets back on and wrapped themselves in the fleece quilt.
There was no other way; the family was just too poor. Each person only had one warm garment, which was always soaked with water and wouldn't dry for two or three days.
Niu Niu's pointed chin was now covered with tears, and her big eyes looked at Chen Yunyun as she sobbed, "Mom, he really fell down by himself. I didn't push him, and neither did my brother."
Chen Yunyun knew, of course, that Niu Niu was innocent. She patted Niu Niu's head and said softly, "Yes, Mother believes in Niu Niu."
The eldest child, who had been silent all along, suddenly raised his head, his dark eyes fixed on Chen Yunyun, and spoke up, his voice a little hoarse, "Why did they frame us? Why drag Mother into this?"
This was the first time Da Wa had spoken to her on his own initiative. She paused for a moment, carefully choosing her words, before replying cautiously, "Because of interests."
The two children listened very attentively. Chen Yunyun sighed inwardly and continued speaking.
She also wanted to teach the children to be innocent and naive, but in this world, innocence and naivety would only harm them.
Perhaps it would be better to let them realize the true nature of this world sooner rather than later.
“It’s normal that the villagers don’t help us, because they don’t want to offend Zhang the hunter.”
“Zhang the hunter is skilled; he can hunt and use arrows. Moreover, he is narrow-minded and vindictive.”
"If you were in their shoes, would you want to deliberately offend someone like that?"
The two little ones pondered for a moment, then slowly shook their heads, their faces turning even paler.
"Now look at our family. Your father is in the army, and it's just the few of us at home. Even if you've wronged us, what can you do? Do you think we, a widow and her children, can come to your door to settle scores?"
After listening, Niu Niu seemed to understand something. "So they are afraid of offending Zhang the Hunter, but not afraid of offending us."
Chen Yunyun nodded, her eyes filled with pity as she looked at the children. She continued, "That's called bullying the weak and fearing the strong."
“Tiger’s mother and the others are in the wrong, but they want to take it out on us. So they can only bring up your birth mother’s affairs and put all the blame on us so that we can be ostracized by the villagers.”
After such a detailed explanation, the children finally understood.
Da Wa suddenly recalled what happened last year. One of the reasons his mother died in childbirth last year was that she was arguing with someone in the village and was rudely pushed, causing her to fall to the ground and suffer postpartum hemorrhage.
The villagers stood around watching the spectacle, while he and Niu Niu cried and begged them to save their child. They all stood by coldly, feigning concern and sighing in sympathy.
"What a terrible thing!"
"So pitiful..."
When my mother died, on the day of her funeral, the pallbearers were drunk and threw the coffin to the ground. The villagers were all terrified and shrank back, praising my mother but secretly cursing her for causing trouble and wishing her eternal damnation!
How could they be so disgusting?!
The eldest child was filled with hatred; he felt like he was about to grind his teeth to powder!
Chen Yunyun was applying medicine to the wound on her eldest child's head when she heard the submersible system suddenly speak.
[Attention, Host: Da Wa's corruption level is 10%, and Niu Niu's corruption level is 8%. Please complete the task: reduce the corruption levels of both children. Success will reward you with 100 points, failure will deduct 50 points.]
Chen Yunyun was taken aback. She had expected that Da Wa would have a dark side value, but Niu Niu looked so well-behaved, how could she also have an 8% dark side value?
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