Raising Children in a Reconstituted Family [1960s] - CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2

　　”Don’t be afraid. Mom won’t hit you; get up quickly.”

　　The woman’s gentle words reduced the fear in the two children’s hearts. She had already accepted the original owner’s memory and hated her for bullying the weak and fearing the strong, but she had to hold it in so that the two children would not mistakenly think that she was angry.

　　The two children stood up tentatively, their eyes fixed on her, as if they were judging the truth of her words. Gu Yan also waited patiently for the children to trust her. After all, the original owner had a domestic violence and split personality record. She smiled gently one second and then raised her hands in anger the next. It was normal for the children to be afraid of her.

　　The two little girls saw that she didn’t go to get the broom on the kang, and the smile on her face didn’t change at all, so they boldly stood beside her. After all, she was their own mother, and she would only hit them a few times when she got angry, not like how their grandma did.

　　”Mom, does it hurt? Do you want me to rub it for you?”

　　The girls were timid, and they were still young, but they also had pity for their mother.

　　”It doesn’t hurt.” In fact, her waist hurt a little, and it was probably bruised. But this was nothing for her, who had been practicing martial arts since she was a child and often got bruises. The key thing now was to solve the problem of the three of them being hungry.

　　As soon as she said this, the two children’s stomachs started growling, and then her stomach also growled. The two children covered their stomachs and wanted to say something, but their eyes subconsciously looked outside the house.

　　”Damn it! You dare to fight with your man. This is against the will of heaven.”

　　”Help my second brother into the house first, or he’ll be soaked in the rain.”

　　”Second sister-in-law, please open the door.”

　　”Second sister-in-law, open the door quickly; what are you waiting for?”

　　The angry scolding and urging came through the door, and the two children were so scared that they couldn’t help but tremble, and subconsciously hid behind her. Although this mother was often useless and couldn’t even protect herself most of the time, But this time she was pregnant with a little brother, and she had just fought with their father for the little brother; maybe she wouldn’t be beaten blindly anymore.

　　”Ignore them.”

　　Gu Yan spoke coldly, stretched out her hands to grab the wrists of the two children, paused for a moment, and then sighed. Is this an arm? It’s not as thick as a reed stick. It’s just skin and bones, without any flesh.

　　”Hungry, huh?”

　　The two children nodded. “It’s time to cook dinner on the stove. Let’s go get the pots and get some.”

The eldest girl stopped talking halfway. After what her mother did today, would they be beaten to death by her father and grandmother if they went out? She was very hungry, but the fear of being beaten was also terrifying!

　　Looking down at her mother’s belly, the child gritted her teeth and turned to get the clay pot for rice. The younger sister was even more timid and followed her elder sister closely.

　　”Mom, wait a minute. I’ll go get some food and be back soon.”

　　The shouting outside the door had already moved into the main room, which was separated from the side room by a wall. The old lady’s scolding could be clearly heard through the blue bricks. It was as loud as a bell and seemed to be more powerful than the three of them. Seeing the child reaching out to open the door, the woman came over and stopped her.

　　”Don’t go; mom has delicious food here.” Opening the door was another hassle. She felt weak and had a stomachache, and she really didn’t want to fight with anyone again.

　”Really? What do you have, mom?”

　　The child’s clear eyes showed disbelief and relief at having escaped from the dilemma. The younger sister, behind her, tightly grasped her sister’s clothes, looking at her mother with eyes full of longing.

　　”Sit there and wait.”

　　She reached out to carry the two children to the kang. The children realised her intention and refused, “Mom, don’t carry us. You are still pregnant with our little brother. We will go by ourselves.”

　　The two children brought a small stool and climbed up on it, then sat down on the kang. The elder sister took a piece of rag from the pillow and covered her eyes, and then reached out to cover her younger sister’s eyes.

　　”We won’t look. We won’t peek.”

　　The woman felt sour and bitter in her heart, as if she had been soaked in unripe lemon juice. She was such a sensible child, but it was a pity that she was born in this era and in such a family.

　　According to memory, she took out the key and opened a big box in the room. She took out a few packs of compressed biscuits wrapped in tin foil from the space as if to cover them up. After thinking about it, she took two boxes of milk. These things were the supplies she had stockpiled after the outbreak of the apocalypse. Time did not move in the space, so they did not go bad.

　　”Okay, open your eyes.”

　　The outer packaging was torn off and thrown back into the space, and two pieces were handed to each child. The two smelt the rich aroma of milk, sesame, and peanuts, and their mouths instantly watered.

　　”It smells so good.” The elder sister took it and studied it for a while, then asked, “Mom, what is this?”

　　”Biscuits, eat them quickly.”

　　Seeing that her mother had spoken and that her voice was so gentle and her face so calm, the younger sister bravely lowered her head and took a bite.

　　The compressed biscuits were a bit hard, and it was quite difficult for the child’s little teeth to bite them. But slowly grinding off a little bit, the sweet flavour melted in the mouth, making the child, who had never tasted sweetness, want to hold it in her mouth forever and not swallow it into her stomach.

　　”So sweet and fragrant.” The elder sister was a little bolder and took a bite and chewed it quickly. “Mom, you eat it too!”

　　”Yeah, mom eat too.”

　　Looking into the two children’s happy eyes as they chewed the food carefully and were reluctant to finish it all at once, Gu Yan couldn’t tell what she felt. She felt sad, but also a little distressed and pityful.

　　The three of them had two compressed biscuits each, and Gu Yan quickly swallowed them with milk but still didn’t feel full. She stroked her big belly and didn’t eat anything else. It wasn’t that she was afraid of not having enough food. Her space was level six, and the supplies collected in it were enough for the people of the town to eat for five years.

　　”I ate too fast and didn’t think much, as I’m hungry, but I can’t handle eating too much at once.” She muttered a few words to herself, then handed the other two cartons of milk with straws to the two children.

　　”Mom, what is this?” It was the eldest child who asked the question.

　　”It’s milk; it is very nutritious. Drink it quickly.”

　　”Hmm.” The elder sister took a sip of the straw. She didn’t like the unique, fishy smell of fresh milk. But this thing was thick and had a faint sweetness. It must be a good thing.

　　”It tastes good.” The child ate the biscuits with milk and quickly swallowed a piece of biscuit. She quietly put the remaining piece into her clothes and hid it, preparing to eat it slowly later, or leave it for her mother, who was pregnant with her little brother.

　　It was completely dark outside as well as pitch dark inside. There was a sound of footsteps, and it seemed that the whole family had gone to the stove to cook food and came back.

　　It is late autumn now. In the morning, everyone was still picking corn in the fields. In the afternoon, it rained too heavily, and the team leader was afraid that everyone would trample the ground, which would be too hard to plough, so he gave everyone a holiday.

　　After eating and drinking, they lay down on the kang. There was not even a torn mattress under them. The mother and her two children lay on the torn mat.

　　The eldest sister obediently took the quilt from the kang and covered her mother with it. The two sisters huddled on either side of her. She could smell a smell on the quilt between her noses, and she, who had mysophobia, instantly wanted to vomit.

　　There are two quilts in this room, and the quilt cover and quilt inside are patched. Forget about the quilt cover. It is only washed once a year in the warm summer. The people who use it are those who deal with the land all year round. They don’t have the conditions to take a shower, so they can only wipe it. It’s normal for it to smell. Men’s quilts are probably even more smelly.

　　Reaching out and pulling the quilt down, the indescribable smell seemed to fade a lot. The younger daughter shrank back into the quilt, and the older daughter wanted to pull the quilt up because she was scared she would be cold, but she was a little afraid.

　　”Mom, aren’t you cold?” It was late autumn, and the family hadn’t yet started a fire. It was still very cold at night in the Shangdang area of the Taihang Mountains.

　　”It’s not cold.” She tossed back and forth several times. With a big body like a watermelon, it was uncomfortable to lie down. And there were two children beside her. If she moved, they couldn’t cover themselves with the quilt.

　　”Go and cover yourself with that quilt.”

　　The child hesitated for a moment, turned her head, and glanced at the main room across the wall, then obediently got up and pulled over another quilt.

　　The two girls obediently crawled to the other side, and Gu Yan dared to turn over happily. She moved back and forth like a pancake and heard the child’s light snoring in her ears, but she still couldn’t fall asleep.

　　”Open the door…you stinky woman, open the door for me.” The man’s shout was accompanied by the sound of “bang bang bang” on the door. The force was so strong that it seemed to tear the house apart. If the landlord’s house was not built solidly and the door panels were not made of thick elm, it would probably have been broken apart.

　　Gu Yan is now a pregnant woman with a big belly. According to her memory, she is already more than seven months pregnant. She doesn’t know how big a seven-month-old belly should be. But at this time of year, her belly seems a little out of the norm.

　　She was already in a bad mood when such a big ball suddenly stood up. Not long after finishing her meal, she felt like going to the toilet. But these people challenged her again and again.

　　She took out a rolling pin from the wall cabinet, according to her memory, and went out with it in one hand. The two little girls, who had just fallen asleep on the kang, were also woken up. They didn’t know what to do and hid in the corner again out of fear.

　　Perhaps it was true that a mother and daughter were connected by heart. Gu Yan seemed to sense the fear in their hearts and turned back to comfort them softly, “Don’t be afraid; mom is here.”

　　These words were spoken without any sense of awkwardness, as if she had always been their mother. Perhaps from the moment she read the book, the children touched her heart. These two children, who could never get rid of the harm caused by their original families, made her feel even more pity.

　　The door was opened from the inside by her, and the man who had been trying to knock on the door with all his strength stumbled and fell into the door, almost falling flat on his face. The old lady at the side also stopped cursing and bent down to see if her son was okay.