Seeing Gong Jian's painful expression again, the middle-aged woman finally stopped crying. Just as she was about to come over to check her eldest son's injury, the door curtain opened and a young voice appeared in the room.
.
"Mom, is eldest brother awake? I boiled an egg. Can you feed it to eldest brother?"
Gong Jian struggled and refused to close his eyes. He turned his eyes with difficulty, and then he realized that the person who came in through the curtain was a thin little girl.
Gong Jian knew that this was his little sister Gong Yue. Although the little girl was ten years old, due to long-term malnutrition, she looked like a seven or eight-year-old child.
Her hair was withered and yellow, her small face was frighteningly pale, and her pointed chin made her eyes look astonishingly big. It could be seen that she was full of deep concern.
The little girl was wearing an ill-fitting gray-black dress. It looked like it was made from a man's old clothes. But even such a dress was still covered with patches, large and small. But this child
He took care of himself very cleanly. Although his clothes were a little worn, they were not dirty at all.
Gongyue came in holding a large porcelain bowl in both hands. The middle-aged woman immediately stepped forward to take the bowl. As soon as she took it, she immediately felt the heat: "It's so hot, Yue'er, how did you bring it over? Quickly touch your ears.
.”
The little girl was obedient and quickly put her hands on her earlobes. This action exposed her two matchstick-thick arms from her wide sleeves.
Gong Yue had been nervous just now, holding the big bowl. Now that her mother was carrying it away, she had the energy to turn to Gong Jian, who was lying on the bed: "Ah, brother is awake. Brother, are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?"
Gong Jian had regained some strength at this time. He smiled weakly at the girl and whispered: "Little sister, brother is fine, don't worry."
The middle-aged woman here has already supported Gong Jian, half leaning on her body, and handed the coarse porcelain bowl to his lips: "Eat, Jian'er. Are you hungry too? Eat quickly."
Only then did Gong Jian see what was in the bowl. A hard-boiled egg was floating alone in a large bowl of water. He took the woman's hand and began to slowly drink the soup in the bowl one mouthful at a time.
With his peripheral vision, he caught sight of the little girl's throat beside the bed, and she couldn't help but swallow along with him. Alas, his family was really poor. He didn't know who he borrowed this egg from.
There was a little bit of salt in the boiled eggs in the bowl. The water had a salty taste in his mouth. It made Gong Jian's throat feel a lot better.
He had no intention of eating the egg in the water. Every time it floated to his lips, he turned around and drank the soup next to it.
Soon, he drank most of the bowl of water. After that, he stopped opening his mouth and raised his hand to push the bowl away, indicating that he couldn't drink any more.
When the middle-aged woman saw the egg left in the bowl, her eyes turned red again.
Gong Jian was afraid that she would start to lose her temper again, so he immediately spoke: "Mom, I can't eat now. I'd better let my little sister eat the eggs." When he opened his mouth this time, his voice had obviously recovered a lot.
The little girl was so thin that it made people feel distressed. But after hearing Gong Jian's words, the girl quickly waved her hands, lowered her head and retreated out of the house. "Brother, mother, I'm not hungry. I don't want to eat. I want more."
Go boil water."
The woman wiped her eyes and looked up at Gong Jian: "Jian'er, you'd better eat, you are weak now." She also felt sorry for her little daughter, but her eldest son had just collapsed from exhaustion, so she was even more worried.
She needs nutrition. After all, she is a mother who is incompetent, so I feel sorry for these children.
But Gong Jian insisted. He lay back on the bed, closed his eyes and said, "Mom, let me sleep for a while. You'd better let me eat that egg. In such a hot weather, it will go bad tomorrow. Don't
It’s a waste of food.”
The woman looked at Gong Jian who was already lying on the bed with his eyes closed to rest, then looked at the big bowl in his hand, and then quietly exited the room.
She hurried to the woodshed, where her youngest daughter must be sorting firewood. The woman couldn't help but sigh deeply. The family's situation had been fine before, but since the head of the family was injured, the family suddenly lost its backbone. Now the child
It's impossible for us to eat even one egg.
She looked at the remaining egg in the bowl, feeling bitter and happy at the same time. No matter what, her children loved each other and were united. It was this that made this woman no matter how much she suffered.
Despite all the hardships, he still persevered.
The woman walked out of the house with the bowl in hand, and found her little daughter directly in the woodshed. Looking at the tattered coarse clothes, the woman's eyes turned red again. This little daughter's life was the most miserable.
Not to mention that before, their family's life was average in the village, but now, he couldn't even buy a decent dress for his little daughter. He really owed her too much.
"Yue'er," the woman walked over, picked up her little daughter who was still busy, and put the bowl into her hand: "Yue'er, be good, eat this."
The little girl held the large porcelain bowl as if she was holding some rare treasure. After holding it carefully with both hands, she kept shaking her head and declined to the woman: "Mom, I don't want to eat. My brother is sick.
, let him eat. Yue'er has eaten, Yue'er is not hungry."
The woman touched her daughter's sparse and yellow hair and said distressedly: "You can eat it, your elder brother specially left it for you. If you eat it, he will feel at ease."
The little girl hesitated a little, but then she held the bowl with both hands and stuffed it into the woman's hand: "Mom, then you can take it to replenish your father's body. Yue'er is in good health, so Yue'er doesn't need to eat eggs."
The woman's hand caressing her little daughter's head paused for a moment, then sighed softly: "Your father doesn't know how to eat it. Yue'er is good, eat it quickly."
Gong Yue thought about it, and it was obvious that she knew her father's temper. She also thought about her eldest brother who had just woken up in bed, and her second brother who was still working in the fields as a day laborer for others.
"Mom, why don't you stay and give it to the second brother when he comes back? The second brother has been working too hard recently."
Thinking of her second son, the woman also sighed. The family really had no choice but to force him at such a young age to work as a day laborer in other people's fields.
Although the second son is a part-time worker, in fact, the work he does is no less than that of the long-term workers. They just bully Gong Yu, a half-year-old boy, and are not willing to pay the wages of an entire labor. Recently.
It's time for the wheat harvest. The second son has been working day and night at the master's house these days and cannot go home at all. (To be continued)