Chapter 671: The Five-Zero Motherhood System (28)

Following her grandson's small hand, Grandmother touched an apple larger than two adult fists, and her eyes instantly filled with tears: "A kind soul! It must be some kind soul who secretly came to comfort the two of us. Good people will be rewarded!"

Gouwa scratched his head in confusion: "But I didn't see anyone come in! Grandmother, it really was sent by an immortal; the immortal went 'whoosh' and left as soon as it was delivered."

"If there really were immortals in this world, your father and the others wouldn't have... Sigh, alright, let's not talk about that. Bring the things inside first. With these, the two of us can have a good New Year!"

Gouwa nodded vigorously and said sensibly: "Grandmother, Gouwa will go measure the rice to cook meat porridge. Grandmother will drink the porridge and eat the meat, and your eyes will get better."

"Good, good, Grandmother will eat, and Gouwa will eat too."

"Okay!"

Beifang Kaoshantun—

"Big sister, I'm so hungry!"

The three-year-old Xiaodouding clutched his stomach, curled up on the kang, and cried out in hunger with teary eyes:

"When can we eat?"

"I'm hungry too." Seven-year-old Dadi lay against the window, his two hands taking turns pressing down on the window paper that was bulging from the wind, and sighed, "I miss Dad! When is Dad coming home? He said when he left that he'd be back for the New Year, why isn't he back yet?"

Twelve-year-old Da'ya already knew that their father had sacrificed his life; she secretly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, sniffled, and said:

"Be good, little brother. Dad must have been held up by something. It's okay, Mom and Big Sister are here! Once Mom gets back from Grandma's house, we'll have grain for the New Year!"

That was what she said, but Da'ya didn't hold much hope for her mother borrowing grain from her maternal grandmother's house.

Her grandmother had always looked down on her mother for marrying a poor soldier, and now that her father had sacrificed his life on the battlefield, her grandmother was likely to look down on their family even more.

"Bang!"

Hearing the commotion from outside the house, the three children turned their heads in unison.

Da'ya had already gotten up to open the door; fearing the cold wind would blow in, she only opened a small crack.

But after one look, she immediately threw the door open and ran out to help the person on the ground up.

"Mom! Mom, are you okay?"

Li Qiaoniang shook her head weakly: "Mom is fine, I just slipped by accident. Help Mom up."

In truth, she was both hungry and tired, and her strength was failing her.

After receiving the news of her husband's sacrifice, their branch of the family had been split off, and the grain they were allotted wouldn't even last until the spring, let alone until next year's summer harvest.

Even then, they had reduced three meals a day to two, and every meal was thin porridge so watery you could see your own reflection in it; let alone the children who didn't understand, even an adult couldn't take it.

She had thought about going to her maiden home to borrow some grain, at least to let the children have a full meal on New Year's Day.

As it turned out, just as she was about to knock on the door, she heard her parents and two younger brothers in the main room roasting by the fire, discussing marrying her off again.

"Chen Tiejiang agreed to let Big Sister marry into his family and give us twenty yuan, but there is one requirement: Big Sister can only go over as she is, she cannot bring the children."

"The pig butcher also said he doesn't want the children. His previous wife bore him three sons, which is enough to carry on the family line; he just wants a woman to warm his bed. If it happens, he can give us two hundred catties of grain."

"Grain is currently seven or eight cents a catty, so two hundred catties would be fifteen or sixteen yuan at most. Looking at it this way, Chen Tiejiang is still more generous."

"So, Chen Tiejiang it is?"

"Don't be in such a rush to agree. Let him hang for a few more days; it would be good if we could get five more yuan."

The discussion inside the room was heated.

Outside the room, Li Qiaoniang felt a chill in her heart and was trembling with rage.

Chen Tiejiang? That widower who had beaten two wives to death?

Her "good" maiden family didn't care about her life or death at all; they were only calculating how much profit they could get from her remarriage.

In their eyes, she, the daughter, was just something to be traded for money and grain. Not only had they never asked for her thoughts, they hadn't even considered what would happen to the three children at home if she remarried.

Li Qiaoniang's gaze dimmed; she numbly withdrew her hand that had been about to knock on the door, and without looking back, she stepped through the snow that was deeper than her calves, walking unsteadily back home.

"Mom! Let me help you inside."

Da'ya used all her strength to support Li Qiaoniang into the room.

The warmth inside the room seemed to melt Li Qiaoniang's frozen heart, turning into tears that streamed down as she sobbed silently.

"Mom, is it because Grandma wouldn't lend us any grain?" Da'ya sensibly wiped her mother's tears away. "It's okay, Mom, we'll just endure it. If we're hungry, we'll drink water."

"I'll drink water."

Dadi sensibly picked up a broken bowl, fed his little brother a mouthful first, then took a mouthful himself: "Mom, don't cry. After drinking water, I'm not hungry at all."

Xiaodouding looked at his older brother blankly and clutched his own little stomach. Brother is lying! I'm clearly still very hungry.

Dadi was afraid he would blurt out the truth and was just about to cover his brother's mouth when his vision blurred, and he saw something appear on their family's kang.

"Mom!"

Seeing clearly what was on the kang, Dadi didn't know whether to be afraid or happy:

"Meat! Such a big piece of meat! Wow! And such fresh vegetables! Is this a big pear? What a huge pear!"

"Wow!" Xiaodouding also let out a gasp of wonder.

Li Qiaoniang and Da'ya were also stunned.

"Where, where, where did this come from?"

"Mom! There's also grain! So much grain!"

Fine grain and coarse grain added up to forty catties, piled up like a small mountain in the children's eyes.

The plump grain and wheat kernels were not shriveled at all! Every single corn kernel was golden and plump!

Da'ya looked up at the roof made of packed sorghum stalks; there were no holes, so how did these things get here?

"Could it be that Dad..." She wanted to ask if it was Dad protecting their family from the beyond.

But she heard Dadi say: "So it was Dad who sent it? Then that's it! When Dad left, he promised me he'd be back for the New Year, but he hasn't come back yet. Big Sister said he was held up by something and couldn't come back, so he sent us food instead!"

As he spoke, Dadi nodded as if it were a serious matter: "Then I forgive him!"

"That's great! We have grain and meat to eat!" Xiaodouding clapped his hands in joy.

Mother and daughter looked at each other: "..."

"Quick! Kowtow with Mother!"

Li Qiaoniang came back to her senses and hurriedly told the children to kowtow together in gratitude.

There was no need to ask who they were kowtowing to; in short, whoever gave them this life-saving food, they would kowtow to that person.

Similar scenes were also taking place in the northern grasslands, the western mountains, the Loess Plateau...

During some of the drops, they happened to encounter military leaders visiting to offer condolences, and this scene was quickly reported level by level in written form.

The high-level government officials who received the news and verified it were shocked.

Fortunately, the families of martyrs who received the "condolence gifts" knew that "wealth should not be flaunted" and did not spread the word; the investigation conducted by the government was also carried out in secret and did not alarm the common people. Otherwise, it would likely have become news that was the subject of heated discussion by the entire nation.

If there were trending searches in this era, this would definitely be the existence that dominated the top of the list.

People in this era were already superstitious, and if they knew about such a situation, they would likely believe even more in the talk of ghosts and gods.