Chapter 229: I Have No Money

Dani looked at her already dirty clothes, then looked at the new clothes her aunt was handing her, and whispered, "I don't have any money."

If it weren't for the fact that they were the only two people in the room, and if An Yinan's attention hadn't been entirely on her, she really wouldn't have been able to hear those four words clearly.

"Auntie doesn't want your money. When you grow up, you can make clothes for Auntie too, okay?" An Yinan coaxed the little girl.

Dani looked up at An Yinan, then nodded firmly, "Okay, in the future, Dani will make clothes for Auntie."

A sentence of childish words, yet it made Dani remember it for a lifetime.

An Yinan helped the little girl change into the clothes; although they looked a bit big, they were still more pleasing to the eye than the dirty clothes from just a moment ago.

Liu Tiezhu went to the Secretary first and submitted his divorce application.

After these two incidents, the entire Northeast Military Region had no good feelings toward Wang Erhua; when Liu Tiezhu submitted the application, it was just a symbolic inquiry, and no one particularly tried to persuade him otherwise.

For a person like that, to still urge them to reconcile, wouldn't that be ruining a person?

After submitting the application, Liu Tiezhu returned to the Family Quarters. Upon entering the room, he asked Wang Erhua directly, "Where is the cotton-padded jacket I bought for Dani?"

Wang Erhua grunted and said, "It's in the cabinet. That girl doesn't like wearing new clothes, she said it was hot."

Liu Tiezhu ignored her and went straight into the inner room.

Wang Erhua followed behind, asking anxiously, "What are you doing? Stop rummaging."

Liu Tiezhu searched the entire cabinet; apart from Wang Erhua's and Jindou's clothes, where was there a single one of Dani's? Even his own only had one set of casual clothes.

"Where is the cotton-padded jacket I bought for Dani?" Liu Tiezhu turned around and saw the woman behind him.

He discovered that he could never see Wang Erhua clearly.

Wang Erhua said miserably, "Big Brother's Tie Zhu didn't have clothes to wear, and anyway Dani doesn't like the cotton-padded jacket, so I mailed it back to Big Brother's house."

"Isn't it just a piece of clothing? Did that money-losing goods talk bad about me to you? I knew that money-losing goods' heart was turned outward, she's just not one of our own family!"

Liu Tiezhu listened to her words, feeling her twisted values.

She wouldn't let her own child wear it, yet she mailed it to her maiden family's eldest brother's child.

All the things he had bought for Dani and Erni for so many years had all ended up benefiting her maiden family?

How thick-headed must he have been?

For so many years, he hadn't even discovered the kind of life his own daughter was living!

"Where are you going? Come back." Seeing Liu Tiezhu walking outside, Wang Erhua hurriedly followed behind and called out to him.

From beginning to end, Wang Erhua had never once cared about where Dani had gone!

That night, Liu Tiezhu wrote a letter home, telling his mother roughly about what had happened at the Camp; he didn't go into too much detail about the specific matters, fearing his mother would worry.

He really couldn't go on living this life; in the future, he would take his mother and the three children to live together.

That same night, An Yinan used white flour to make a pot of dough-drop soup.

Chatting with Dani, she discovered that this child basically never got enough to eat; at home, only after Wang Erhua and Jindou finished eating would the leftovers be hers.

"Auntie, you eat first, I'll eat after you're done." Dani picked at her hands, feeling somewhat at a loss.

At home, she wasn't allowed at the table; only when her father came back to eat could she sit at the table, and she still had to watch her mother's expression. She couldn't touch a drop of oil, otherwise, after her father left, her mother would beat her.

That was why she liked her father very much.

An Yinan held her hand and gently pinched her little cheek, "Silly child, when eating, everyone should sit together, and a family should eat happily and harmoniously."

"Here, you don't need to wait for others to finish before you eat."

Chen Xun was very silent; in fact, this point somewhat exceeded his understanding.

How could a person like Wang Erhua be worthy of being a mother?

Dani blinked her large eyes; after being washed clean, she was very pretty, just a bit too thin.

"Is it okay?"

An Yinan nodded affirmatively, "If Auntie says it's okay, then it's okay."

Only then did Dani pick up the bowl. It was her first time eating white flour; the dough drops in the bowl were so thick. She wouldn't have to go hungry today.

If it weren't for Dani's stomach, An Yinan would have made four dishes for the child no matter what, to let her have a good meal.

However, having been underfed for years and with no oil or fat in her diet, her stomach was too delicate and needed to be adjusted slowly.

Dani ate with satisfaction, using her little spoon to cherishly scoop only a tiny bit, then putting it into her mouth to savor the taste. It was so delicious.

At night, fearing Dani would be scared, An Yinan put her in her own room, and under Chen Xun's mournful gaze, pushed him into the room that belonged to him.

Chen Xun grabbed the little hand that was pushing him, then wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her lips like a dragonfly skimming the water.

"This is interest; you'll have to compensate me later." His voice was hoarse and alluring.

It made An Yinan's face flush red; this man was becoming more and more skilled.

"Rest quickly, I'm going back." An Yinan fled back to her room as if escaping.

She spread out the quilt. When they got married, her godmother and Big Aunt had both mailed her quilts, so she had quite a few quilts here.

The quilts her friends had sent were left by her in the house in Beijing.

She laid out a separate bed for Dani and placed a slightly lower pillow.

"Sleep here, is that okay?" An Yinan asked.

Dani nodded hurriedly; this kind of life was something she had never dared to dream of before.

"Then go to sleep. Auntie needs to work for a while. If you get scared or cold in the night, just call Auntie, okay?" An Yinan asked.

Beibei was very independent, and because he was a boy, and because of his lofty ambitions, she had to be hard-hearted; she couldn't be an indulgent sister, for an indulgent sister ruins her brother!

But for Dani, her pity and heartache for her outweighed her need for discipline.

"Okay." Dani obediently took off her clothes and then crawled into the quilt.

It was so warm, and the quilt was so soft!

This was Dani's most direct sensation. Before coming to the Military District, her grandmother would also make quilts and cotton-padded jackets for them, but they weren't as soft as Auntie's quilt.

It was fluffy, as if a cloud were covering her body.

So comfortable.

An Yinan was afraid of disturbing Dani's sleep, so she lit a candle and turned off the electric light in the room; this translation work lasted until the middle of the night.

At first, Dani felt the novelty of it, but later, watching An Yinan's focused expression as she worked, she watched for a while and fell asleep without realizing it.

When the two of them woke up, Chen Xun had already gone to train.

"Auntie." After waking up, Dani greeted An Yinan with a beaming smile.

An Yinan ruffled her hair, taking care to avoid the bumps, and smiled gently, "Why are you so well-behaved?"

Dani smiled shyly; Auntie praised me.

After getting up, An Yinan cooked two bowls of noodles; she had already told Chen Xun yesterday that he didn't need to bring food from the cafeteria for the time being.

Dani's stomach couldn't handle that, so it was better to cook for themselves first.

Something soft and mushy, with just a little bit of oil added.

On her first day at An Yinan's place, Dani was still very reserved, but later she took the initiative to take on the responsibility of washing the dishes; to make her feel at ease, An Yinan let her be.