CHAPTER 212: CHAPTER 212: POOR WOMAN

"Xiao Xue, why did you bring someone else’s child here?" Li Jianshe asked after finishing his meal with nothing to do, looking up to see Lin Xue holding a little girl’s hand.

Looking at the adorable and sensible little girl, Lin Xue smiled and said, "Can’t I take her as my god-sister?"

"Is that okay? God-sister?" Li Jianshe’s eyes widened in surprise.

"Enough, finish your meal quickly and get back to your seat!" Zhang Yuan pulled him up.

His loud question caught the attention of those eating nearby.

In fact, even if Li Jianshe hadn’t asked, people were already looking their way.

"Stop pulling, Brother Yuan, I’m going back now!" Li Jianshe groaned as he walked back to his berth.

"Shu’er, come sit here! Don’t stand!" Lin Xue quickly called Shu’er over once the noisy person left.

Although mother and daughter were dressed in old and patched clothes, they were very clean.

Lin Xue liked that—no matter what you wore, clean and neat always made someone likable.

"Sister, I..." Shu’er stood hesitantly, not daring to sit.

Lin Xue could see she was worried about dirtying the sheets with her small, considerate nature, which made people inexplicably heartbroken.

She moved inward and pulled Shu’er down to sit: "It’s okay, sit quickly, sister’s food is getting cold, you should eat!"

Lin Xue was kind-hearted, but she hadn’t considered the child’s feelings. She sat her down and passed her the chopsticks.

"Sister, I just ate over there, you can eat by yourself! Shu’er is not hungry!" The little girl didn’t take the chopsticks but gently pushed them back to Lin Xue.

"But what to do, sister can’t eat anymore. If we waste food, it’s bad, right? Would you help sister, Shu’er, by eating this meal?" Lin Xue, looking genuinely concerned, spoke with an expression of distress.

A simple meal of coarse grains and vegetables with little oil seemed like, from Lin Xue’s viewpoint, a plea to help her finish it.

But in Shu’er’s eyes, it was a treasure. They usually had no access to such food, living with her grandmother, where her aunt was stingy, always giving them the worst food, the kind mixed with bran.

Though her grandmother wanted to help, the conditions didn’t allow it, and their family’s grain was strictly rationed, leaving them often hungry.

Over time, they grew accustomed. Every time her father sent living expenses, her aunt took it, calling it food expenses, leaving them almost nothing.

"Then I’ll help you eat, sister!" Shu’er said adorably, "Wasting food is a crime, right?"

Whenever she couldn’t eat the mixed bran cakes, her mother always told her wasting food was a crime, and even a small amount shouldn’t be wasted, otherwise, Heaven would punish them by letting them starve.

A five-year-old child, echoing her mother’s words, dared not refuse any food, eating whatever her mother gave, even when wild vegetable porridge tasted bitter, she swallowed it without blinking.

Because it was food.

"Yes! Exactly, go ahead and eat!" Lin Xue patted her head.

"Sister, can I share some with my mom?" Shu’er asked with eyes full of yearning.

Lin Xue’s eyes immediately turned red; the child’s sensibility made her both like and feel pained.

Such a young child, thinking of her mother first upon having something nice.

Lin Xue didn’t respond immediately but looked at Zhang Yuan, who nodded, and they tacitly agreed.

"You eat yours; there’s another meal here for your mom. I’ll take it to her, okay?" Lin Xue coaxed her in a reassuring tone.

"Really? Brother can’t eat his either?" Shu’er’s eyes lit up, sparkling.

"Yes! Brother can’t eat it either! You go ahead and eat! I’ll take it to your mom!" Lin Xue said, handing the chopsticks back to the little girl, then picked up Zhang Yuan’s untouched meal—he had only eaten an egg.

When Lin Xue delivered the meal box to the woman, she initially refused to take it until Lin Xue insisted she bought too much, and it would go bad if not eaten.

The woman was full of gratitude, which made those watching on the side mouths water.

Although train meals didn’t require ration tickets, two and a half cents was still something some people weren’t willing to spend. They brought dry food on the journey, with the train providing hot water, just enough to prevent starvation.

From the woman’s words, Lin Xue learned they also headed to the Capital City. The woman’s husband was once a soldier but now downgraded to a service soldier, enabling him to bring his wife and child over. However, he couldn’t personally come to fetch them, so he sent an address and money through a letter, instructing the woman to bring their daughter herself.

Luckily, the woman was educated enough to boldly travel with her daughter.

They were unlucky and couldn’t get hard seat tickets, ending up squeezed at the door.

It’s needless to say how hard it is for a woman carrying a sack of luggage and a five-year-old daughter to travel alone on a five or six-day train journey to the Capital City.

Mother and daughter couldn’t even secure a decent spot, leaving the five-year-old nowhere to sit or rest, forcing the woman to bravely ask the train attendant to let her daughter stay inside.

Originally, she just wanted the daughter to enter the sleeper carriage and stay by the door but unexpectedly met a kind person like Lin Xue, who took the daughter in, let her sit in a berth, and now provided them with a meal box to eat.

The boxed meal was the best food she had eaten in years.

Although it may sound exaggerated, during holidays the family did have decent food, but the mother and daughter rarely got to enjoy it.

On this journey, her sister-in-law discovered the letter, taking most of the money and tickets, leaving barely enough for the fare, and she couldn’t spare money for her daughter to have a boxed meal.

She was afraid they wouldn’t find her husband’s address quickly in the Capital City, making her guard the remaining money dearly; going hungry was secondary, but having her daughter sleep on the street was unacceptable.

Lin Xue listened to the woman’s story while waiting for the aluminum meal box.

She learned quite a bit.

She originally lived well with her in-laws; her husband was a soldier, so she lived with her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, under her in-laws’ care. But since her brother-in-law got married, her mother-in-law’s attitude worsened, and after having her daughter, her in-laws, valuing sons over daughters, drove her out. Back at her parents’ home, she was still mistreated by her sister-in-law, truly a woman with a harsh fate.

Though feeling sorry for her, Lin Xue would try her best to help when possible, but ultimately fate required personal effort to change.

"Alright, you’re not much older than me; let me call you Big Sister. Calling you ’Auntie’ sounds old. Big Sister, I’ll go back inside! Don’t worry about the child; I’ll look after her on this journey! Focus on yourself!" Lin Xue said, seeing the woman had finished eating, rising to take the meal box.

"Thank you, sister, thank you! Once I find my husband, I’ll have him thank you!" The woman hurried to stand.

"You stay seated! I’ll help if I can; it’s nothing!" Lin Xue waved her hand and returned to her compartment in the sleeper.

Behind her, the woman’s eyes were slightly red, touching her full belly, her heart full of gratitude.

After years of misfortune, maybe this was the dawn she hoped for.