Xiaoyi Village and Zhao Village were right next to each other, separated only by a small river. Crossing the small stone slab bridge, one would arrive in Zhao Village.
It was now noon. Although early sumr had just begun, the midday sun was fierce, and the villagers who had been working in the fields were gradually returning ho.
Walking along the road, Sun i occasionally encountered fellow villagers coming back from the fields.
Just as she reached the entrance of Zhao Village, she t Shi Tou’s wife, Sun Liuniang. Sun Liuniang’s maternal family was from the sa village as Sun i’s, and the two had known each other since childhood.
Coincidentally, after they married, their husbands, Zhao Shitou and Zhao Dong, were also good friends. Now, with the two families living as neighbors, separated only by a wall, their bond was very strong.
Upon seeing Sun i, Sun Liuniang greeted her warmly. After exchanging only a few words, Sun Liuniang brought up Sun i’s Elder Sister-in-law, Miss Zhu.
"Tsk tsk, I tell you, your eldest brother was truly unlucky to marry a shrew like Miss Zhu. But then again, he passed away early; who knows if that was a blessing or a curse."
Sun Liuniang was a simple person without a malicious bone in her body. Her only flaw was a tendency, common among countryside won, to gossip and criticize anything she found displeasing.
Today, she must have witnessed so of Miss Zhu’s misdeeds and was beginning to grumble indignantly.
"Once your eldest brother passed and the family property was divided, Miss Zhu completely showed her true colors. She’s nothing but a lazy glutton. Her three children are the ones who suffer—no, wait, now it’s two. I heard she sold her daughter this morning! Tell , in these peaceful and prosperous tis, with favorable weather, what family would be driven to sell their children? If you ask , she’s just heartless!"
Sun i sighed silently but didn’t respond to Sun Liuniang’s words.
Sun Liuniang knew Sun i’s disposition; Sun i wasn’t one for gossip, so Sun Liuniang didn’t expect her to join in and continued her tirade alone.
"I an, it’s the height of sumr, and she’s at ho resting while her two children are out working. If I recall correctly, her eldest son is only ten, isn’t he? And the younger one is just eight.
"Although children from farming families are hardy and start working young, she herself is resting while making her children do everything. What kind of behavior is that?
"Let tell you, that woman is asking to be struck by lightning! And who knows how she’s mistreating those two children at ho? Right now, under that scorching sun, those two kids are still toiling in the fields. Passing villagers told them to go ho and eat first, but they don’t dare!"
Zhao Zhitong, who had forgotten about this matter, was suddenly reminded and felt distressed. Subconsciously, she hugged Sun i’s neck tightly and whined, "Mom~"
"There, there, it’s okay. Mom’s here," Sun i said softly, adjusting Zhao Zhitong in her arms.
Sun Liuniang, engrossed in her rant, didn’t realize her words had distressed Zhao Zhitong. Just then, she turned her head and saw several villagers hurriedly approaching, seemingly carrying soone.
As the group drew nearer, she recognized the person being carried and exclaid in shock, "Oh my, isn’t that Miss Zhu’s eldest son? What happened to him?"
Sun i also recognized him, her face mirroring Sun Liuniang’s surprise.
Among those carrying Zhao Cheng was Tian Cuihua, the Village Chief’s eldest daughter-in-law. As they walked, she quickly explained what had happened.
Her account was much like Sun Liuniang’s speculation: it was a scorching day, and the two children were still working in the fields. Tian Cuihua, being kind-hearted, had naturally gone to say a few words to them.
Just as she was about to tell them to go ho, Zhao Cheng had suddenly collapsed. It had given her a terrible fright, and she had quickly called over other passing villagers to help carry him back to the village.
One of them, an experienced villager, could tell at a glance that the boy hadn’t fainted from heatstroke but seed to have collapsed from hunger.
Sun i listened in astonishnt.
When the family property was divided, my mother-in-law, Mrs. Wang, was certainly stingy, Sun i recalled. However, my Elder Sister-in-law, Miss Zhu, was a widow with orphans. The clansn had already felt it was quite generous to allow her to establish a separate household, so they naturally wouldn’t have let Mrs. Wang act unscrupulously during the division of assets. As a result, Miss Zhu still received a considerable amount of property: twenty mu of land, and enough flour and wheat to feed her family of four until the next wheat harvest. This didn’t even include the ten taels of silver Mrs. Wang had also given her. So, I was baffled when I heard today that Miss Zhu had been forced to sell her daughter. Initially, I thought perhaps she favored her sons so extrely that she sold her daughter to provide better for them. But now, with her eldest son fainting from hunger, that theory doesn’t hold water. It seems the Village Chief’s wife was right after all. The good things truly don’t reach those children. She wasn’t slandering Miss Zhu!
The group hurriedly carried Zhao Cheng towards Miss Zhu’s house.
Unexpectedly, when they arrived, they found the main door tightly shut. They knocked for a long ti, but no one answered; it seed no one was ho.
Tian Cuihua was puzzled. "That’s odd. It’s midday. If Miss Zhu isn’t ho cooking, where could she be?"
They couldn’t get into the house, but the boy couldn’t be left unattended. So, Sun i offered to take him to her ho for the ti being.
Seeing Sun i take responsibility for the children, the other villagers breathed a sigh of relief. After helping carry Zhao Cheng to Sun i’s house, the kind-hearted villagers dispersed to their own hos.
Sun i went to the kitchen and ladled a bowl of cooled boiled water from a wooden barrel. They didn’t have a kettle for boiling water quickly, and she would never let her family drink unboiled water directly from the storage vat. So, after cooking dinner each evening, she would boil a large pot of water and pour it into a clean wooden barrel to cool.
After filling the bowl, Sun i took a spoonful of white sugar from the sugar jar, stirred it into the water until it completely dissolved, and then carried it out.
With such long-term malnutrition, Zhao Cheng must have low blood sugar, Sun i deduced.
She fed him more than half the bowl of sugar water, and he slowly regained consciousness.
Seeing him awake, Tian Cuihua and Sun Liuniang both sighed in relief. They said goodbye to Sun i and headed ho, as they also needed to prepare their midday als.
Once the others had departed, Zhao Cheng and his brother Zhao Yu thanked Sun i and said they should be heading ho.
Seeing how terribly thin the children were, their bodies, faces, and clothes caked with dirt, they looked like motherless waifs.
Recalling the Village Chief’s wife’s words, Sun i quickly stopped them. "Your mother isn’t ho. Why don’t you wait here for a bit? I’ll cook so noodles for you. You fainted; you should eat sothing before you go."
Zhao Zhitong, leaning on a nearby table, also tried to persuade her two older cousins, "Brothers, don’t go! Mom’s noodles are delicious!"
"No, no, we won’t eat," the two boys refused repeatedly.
As they spoke, they tried to leave. How could Sun i really let them go? With Miss Zhu not at ho, they would either return to the fields or have to wait outside their door under the hot sun.
Whether out of pity for the children or concern for her own reputation, I can’t just let them go back like this, Sun i resolved.
So she insisted they stay for a al. Perhaps because Sun i pressed them gently, Zhao Yu, the younger brother, inadvertently blurted out, "We... we can’t eat anything from your house, Aunt," he mumbled, his voice growing quieter towards the end.
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