"Mom, can I have a candy?"
A little boy tugged at his mother's clothes, called out softly, and kept looking in the direction of the "Wonderful House".
There was a bucket at the door of the "Wonderful House", and on top of it was a small basket with some candies scattered in the basket.
The colorful candy wrappers reflected brilliant light under the sunlight, immediately attracting the attention of children passing by.
The mother holding the little boy's hand was very young. She was wearing a long black cotton coat and a half-new gray scarf that covered her entire head and neck.
She squatted down, followed the little boy's gaze to the small shop where the candy blue items were displayed, and then looked at the little boy's eager eyes.
Gritting her teeth, she carried the little boy towards the candy store.
Her name was Xiaoya. When the snowstorm hit, her husband went out to look for food for their family of three and never returned.
Xiaoya and her young son struggled to survive in the apocalypse. Fortunately, the 756th Regiment officially arrived in Antu County soon after, and Xiaoya and her son quickly received two disaster relief packages, saving them from starvation.
However, the original house was in the remote east of the city. After the end of the world, the residents of the entire town gathered in the Sheshan area. The place where she lived was sparsely populated and not suitable for a single woman to live in.
Xiaoya hardened her heart, took her son, packed up the few useful things in the house, and moved to a refugee shelter near the market.
There were no stable conditions like a shelter here, so he barely built a small shack with the help of his neighbors to shelter himself and his son from the wind and rain.
Fortunately, she had brought two barrels of food grain and oil from home, which she exchanged for some supplies at the market, which provided enough food for the mother and son to last for a month.
After that, she participated in the work of clearing snow.
Every day, I leave early and return late, just to bring back a meal ticket. I can barely fill my stomach and my son's stomach, and my life is hard but peaceful.
However, due to long-term malnutrition, my son has not grown much in the past six months and is becoming increasingly thin.
Xiaoya knew her son hadn't eaten anything nutritious in a long time. Not to mention milk, he hadn't even had a piece of candy in a long time.
"Mom, when can I have a candy?"
Xiaoya felt a lump in her throat. Her son's innocent and beautiful wish was right in front of her, but as a mother, she couldn't even fulfill this small wish for her son.
She felt a little sad, but still helpless.
As a single woman, it was already very difficult for me to support my son. Where could I find those things for him? Unless...
Xiaoya shook her head.
She has a good appearance and is only 26 years old this year. Even after giving birth to a son, time seems to have left no trace on her face.
With such a beautiful face, in the current environment, it is natural that many people will covet her.
However, the base had a set of rules and regulations that prohibited forcing women. As long as Xiaoya stayed within the boundaries of Antu County, it would be difficult for these people to force her.
But all along, she has had a suitor who lives in a shelter.
The suitor's surname was Li, and she always called him Brother Li. Brother Li used to be a neighbor in her hometown. Because he farmed in the countryside, his family had a good supply of food, so after the apocalypse, he paid a certain amount of money and lived in Shelter 042.
Brother Li was over thirty, and his appearance was unremarkable, even a little ugly, but he was a nice person. Perhaps because they were neighbors, he would occasionally take care of the mother and son.
Xiaoya knew that Brother Li was actually quite interested in her, and after learning that her husband was missing and she was single again, he did not force her to do anything.
She was actually very grateful to Brother Li, and knew that if she showed some compromise with Brother Li, her son might be able to live a happier life than he was now.
At least you don't have to stare at a candy.
But……
The light in Xiaoya's eyes dimmed, and she held her son's hand a little tighter.
She and her husband have always had a good relationship, and she is unwilling to betray him like this.
On one side is her dead husband, and on the other side is her precious son. How should she choose?
…
"Mom, look, this is milk candy. It tastes like milk!"
Her son's childish voice came into her ears, bringing her back to reality.
The little hands, red and swollen with chilblains from the cold wind, were pointing at a candy in a milky white package in the basket.
Xiaoya took a closer look and realized it was actually White Rabbit Milk Candy. She remembered that this was something she had eaten as a child.
Even when she was little, Xiaoya was reluctant to eat it because it was too sweet and sticky, and she wasted a lot of it. But now, in front of such a store, it seems extremely precious.
Xiaoya sighed. How could this be? She was afraid that time was going by and things were getting worse. Even a piece of this candy would be a luxury for her next generation.
Poor thing, her son has never tasted this sweet and sticky candy!
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but grit her teeth and walked towards the store.
She hid the two remaining meal tickets close to her body in her pocket. These were the meal tickets she had saved up with great difficulty over the past few days. They could be exchanged for four steamed buns and two potatoes, which would be about eight taels of rice.
She didn't want to spend it so lavishly, but...
Her son's little wish was right in front of her, so she decided to ask.
…
The person in the shop is Liang Shuyu. Since his family opened this small shop, the business has been unexpectedly good.
It may be because although the things here at Lu Qin are strange and weird, most of them are things that people need... and Lu Qin can even "find" goods specifically for those customers who need goods.
Within a few days, this inconspicuous little shop in the corner of the market became popular and was even called the "Treasure House".
So Liang Shuyu simply quit his job at the trading house and focused on taking care of his own small shop.
Lu Qin knew how much his mother was fussing, so he didn't bother her. He just told her about his arrangements for snacks and the like.
These snacks are more than just food.
For example, candy is a good energy source, as are various beef cubes, pork jerky, duck gizzards, chicken feet...
This kind of "meat" snack is a rare delicacy in this era when chicken, duck, fish and meat are in short supply.
So many people wanted to buy it back. But Lu Qin insisted on the purchase limit principle. Except for children who could exchange three bags at a time, everyone else could buy one bag with food.
Her inventory was not enough to supply such a large city, so she had to do the next best thing and follow the example of Tangyuan Store, selling less and placing more orders.
After all, the most important purpose is to provide these children with a way to "make money" to support themselves, and to reduce the chances of parents abandoning their children.
Liang Shuyu was moved after hearing this. "Ah, it's not easy for children either... This snack is good. I can take it home and put it in the dishes or rice. I can even save money for seasoning. If I don't take it home, I can sell it and supplement the family income."
"Mom knows her limits, you don't have to worry about it."
Liang Shuyu was sitting aside and dozing off. The temperature had dropped sharply in the past two days. The temperature outside was almost 30 degrees below zero, and this was during the day.
Even the number of people setting up stalls at the market was much less than usual, but fortunately their family had this shop, so they could still withstand the wind, snow and frost.
Lu Qin asked her mother to move the alcohol stove at home to the store so that she could boil a pot of hot water from time to time to warm herself up.
"Little one, which candy do you want? Did you bring back the bottle cap?" Liang Shuyu asked with a smile.
"Bottle cap?" Xiaoya was stunned and looked up at Liang Shuyu. Seeing Liang Shuyu's gentle face, she couldn't help but feel puzzled.
"Hey, you don't know, those are the rules I set for the children to exchange things. The children can find things by themselves, and I will exchange them!" Liang Shuyu explained.
Xiaoya found it a little unbelievable: "Really?"
"Yes, it's written here! But it's only for children." Liang Shuyu pointed to the small blackboard behind him that served as a sign.
It was clearly written on it:
"Three bottle caps for one candy"
The little boy seemed very clever. Suddenly, he called out in a baby voice, "Grandma, can I exchange this for candy?"
The little fist stretched out from the mother's arms and opened.
There was a small iron box inside.
There were also a few glass beads inside, the kind you often see on curtains.
Liang Shuyu looked at the little boy with some hope in his eyes and felt a little helpless.
This is probably all the treasures a five-year-old child has!
She thought for a moment and took out a candy from the basket beside her: "Sure! You can exchange these for a small candy."
The little boy blinked his eyes and took the candy happily, but then his face fell again: "Grandma, can I have another one?"
Liang Shuyu smiled and said, "No, you can't do that. Bring the bottle cap back tomorrow to change it. Eating too much sugar will cause cavities."
The little boy was very disappointed. He clenched the candy in his hand for a moment, then opened it and handed the candy to his mother.
"Mom, you eat."
Xiaoya's eyes, which were already a little sad, suddenly couldn't stop shedding tears.
She looked at her son's tender and sensible face and burst into tears.
"Mother……"
The little boy seemed unable to understand why his mother cried so sadly when she saw the sweet candy. He was a little at a loss.
"It's okay, Mommy is just so... so happy." Xiaoya couldn't stop crying.
No matter what, she is just a young mother. Many times, when she is exhausted, treated unfairly, or even bullied, she thinks of her previous happy life.
The contrast made her pain more obvious.
Xiaoya had thought more than once about following her husband and leaving this damn world, but every time she returned to the small shack and saw the sleeping face of her young son, she felt that she should continue to live.
She just carried the burden and struggled to survive.
The small candies in front of me seemed like the kind that no one would pick up if they dropped on the ground two years ago, but now...
It was not only precious food, but also her son's precious heart.
"Mom doesn't want to eat it, Xiaobei can eat it. Mom doesn't like sweet things." Xiaoya pushed the candy back to her son and said with tears and laughter.
"Don't cry, Mom. Eat something sweet and you won't cry!" The little boy reached out and wiped the tears from his mother's face. "If Mom doesn't eat, Xiaobei won't eat either."
"You're a child, of course you want to eat candy." Xiaoya peeled off the candy wrapper for her son and put it back in his hand.
This is an amber-colored lump of candy.
The little boy took it carefully, reaching out to put it in his mouth, but seemed reluctant to do so. He just licked it and smiled: "Mommy is so sweet! Candy is really sweet! Try it!"
While his mother wasn't paying attention, the little boy suddenly stuffed the candy into Xiaoya's mouth.
The long-lost sweetness came to Xiaoya.
It had been a long time since she had tasted candy. It was as if... a gentle hand was comforting her, telling her to live well.
She looked at her son. There was no reluctance on his face. Instead, he fed her the candy proudly.
"Mother……"
Liang Shuyu couldn't stand seeing this kind of scene. He hid behind and wiped his tears. After thinking for a while, he secretly took out another candy and gave it to the little boy.
He even specially picked out the milk candy that he had just taken a fancy to.
“Thank you, grandma!”
The little boy's childish voice of thanks echoed in his ears.
Liang Shuyu was very pleased and patted his little head: "Eat it quickly, eat candy with mommy!"
"Yeah! Let's have some candy together!"
His little face was full of excitement.
Peel off the candy wrapper and put the candy into your mouth.
The milky and sweet taste flowed down his tongue into his stomach, as if the entire winter had melted away.
Xiaoya hugged her happy son, but she couldn't stop crying.
She kept thanking Liang Shuyu: "Auntie, thank you so much... I..."
Xiaoya knew that the person in front of her was kind and wanted to give her and her son a small gift, but her son could accept it, but she, as an adult, could not accept it with peace of mind.
After thinking for a moment, she pulled out a carefully preserved meal ticket from her pocket and handed it to Liang Shuyu: "How much candy can one meal ticket buy? I want to buy some."
Liang Shuyu shook her head. She knew that being a mother was not easy.
If Lu Qin was unhappy, she would still worry about her.
But she couldn't disappoint her mother, so she took an old plastic bag and put a small bag of candy, a few small bags of snacks, and a piece of compressed biscuit with a scallion flavor in it.
Of course, these things far exceeded the value of a meal ticket. But as a mother, Liang Shuyu could not bear to see such a situation.
She handed it to Xiaoya: "Take it."
Xiaoya kept thanking her and even pulled her son Xiaobei along: "Hurry up and thank grandma!"
"Xiaobei thanks grandma!"
…
The mother and daughter braved the cold wind and walked away.
All I could hear was the young mother instructing her child: "From now on, you have to pay for things others give you, do you know? We can't take things from others for free."
"Yes! Xiaobei knows! Mom said that it's not easy for everyone, and everyone has to work hard to have food! Xiaobei will also work hard in the future! In exchange for food for Mom!"
"Hey, Xiaobei is so good..."
…
The "Wonderful House" became deserted again.
Liang Shuyu looked at the mother and daughter's backs as they walked away and laughed at himself.
As expected, my daughter always knows me best. I will lose money if I open a small shop.
Fortunately, Lu Qin himself does not intend to make a fortune by selling these snacks and the like, and it is enough to maintain a balance between income and expenditure.
In the cold winter, there must always be a "wonderful little house" and a soft-hearted God.
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