C5

On a July day, hot, wet bedding was inevitable.

A Jin was well-behaved. She took a fan and sat on the edge of the bed to let the heat dissipate.

"Mother, when will father come back?"

How could a peasant woman of a small mountain village like her know that he had asked her about national affairs with just a single sentence.

If the monarchs were incompetent in battle, the border wars could not be avoided frequently.

If her husband didn't come back, would she be able to raise the two children by herself?

It would not be a problem to eat light food, but she did not want the children to stay in this isolated mountain village for the rest of their lives.

"Jin, do you miss dad?"

"Yes, I do. With father here, no one would dare to bully us. "

"Then, can we go to the border to look for daddy together?"

A Jin was so happy that he hugged Su Zhi. Actually, he had wanted to go find Nie Rufeng since a long time ago. The memory of his father's strong body didn't even dare to bully himself.

Although the family was always short of money, father was the head of hunting, he never starved, and would always bring snacks from the market to satisfy his and Little Dou Bao's craving.

"When we're done with the food, mother will make some dry rations and we'll eat on the road. Let's go look for Daddy together."

Not without reason.

From what the Zhang clan said today, it could be seen that there were plenty of people in the village who didn't want her to live well.

With such a big commotion, no one tried to stop her, they all stretched out their necks, waiting for her to make a joke of herself.

Such a place wasn't worth it for her to continue staying in!

She was lost in her thoughts while in a trance as she coaxed the two children to sleep. In a daze, she once again dreamt that the plane had malfunctioned, then she screamed out in fear.

When she woke up, the sky was already bright. The bean bun beside her was still sleeping soundly, but A Jin had gone off somewhere.

Su Zhi got off the bed, pushed open the door, and saw a toddler using her tender shoulders to drag back a bundle of firewood that was half the height of a person.

"Jin, what are you doing?"

A Jin dragged a bundle of firewood back to the kitchen, so tired that she couldn't even stand up straight. A relieved smile appeared on his sweaty face. "Mother, the firewood at home is gone. I went to chop some back."

Su Zhi hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed his small hand. As expected, she saw that there were a few cuts on it.

The tip of her nose ached and her eyes reddened from the pain.

A Jin quickly retracted her hand to comfort her. "Daddy always said that I was a man who wanted to protect mother and sister. Now that Daddy is not here, A Jin can protect you all. "

"Good child."

Su Zhi's heart ached, but she felt helpless.

Her body was delicate, no better than it was last night when she went to fetch water to wash. Her arms still ached from the pain. He didn't know if it was due to the lack of nutrition, but his two calves were also extremely sore.

It was probably because this child noticed something, so he got up early to chop firewood for her to share her worries.

Su Zhi endured her heartache and embraced the well-behaved and sensible child. Such a good son made her want to raise him up to adulthood.

"Mother will make breakfast for you and your sister."

She went to the kitchen and dug out a handful of rice and mixed it with the grated corn grains from the mill and made a pot of porridge.

It was good to have rice porridge to nourish the stomach, but unfortunately he did not eat.

Su Zhi wondered if she could go outside and see if there was anything she could use.

"A Jin, yesterday you dug a sweet potato, today you and mom will go there again, maybe there will be more."

A Jin nodded.

After having breakfast, Su Zhi brought A Jin and Little Dou to the only two dry fields in the Nie family.

Su Zhi looked at the structure of the mountain village and realized that it was indeed very poor.

It was not easy for the Zhuang family to get enough food and drinks during their time in the city, and if they were to encounter a disaster or something like that and the government collected taxes, they would probably starve to death.

This place was far away from the county city of Qing He County, but it didn't seem like a paradise, a beautiful scenery.

There are bare hills and barren yellow soil.

There were only a few dilapidated buildings, and even the smoke couldn't rise from the chimneys.

It was raining, and the soil was soft and sticky.

Su Zhi pulled her two children along a narrow path, attracting a few curious gazes from time to time. Most of them were so poor that they couldn't even afford to marry their wives.