Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family-Chapter 952 - Struggle for Survival
Chapter 952: Chapter 952 Struggle for Survival
Chapter 952 -952 Struggle for Survival
“That’s different! Nowadays, your body is covered in poison sores, and even the doctor has instructed you to rest as much as possible and not to overexert yourself,”
Granny Peng carefully folded those proclamation papers and tucked them into her bosom. She then turned back to the stove, added some more firewood, measured some millet and mixed it with the coarse cereals, washed them clean, and poured them into the pot to cook.
This was to be their meal for tonight.
Granny Peng was indeed not young anymore. Fortunately, her ugly looks and her black, flat body helped her blend in with the group of men doing hard labor, earning some hard-earned money. Most of the silver she made was used to treat the poison sores on her body, only a small amount of silver was left to buy some food to bring back home.
“Granny Peng, it’s all because of me that you suffer!”
She subconsciously touched her face towel, feeling exceedingly distressed.
“What talk of dragging down or not! If it weren’t for you pleading with the Old Master Marquis initially, how would the Emperor spare my life?” Granny Peng rolled her eyes fiercely.
She then picked up half a buk choi, washed it meticulously, shredded it, and sprinkled it into the porridge. She added a pinch of salt to the mixture and continued to add firewood to the fire.
“How could that be? Initially, if you hadn’t given your clean water to my Niuniu, Niuniu probably wouldn’t have made it. That year, you saved Niuniu, and now you’ve saved Sisi. Twice you’ve given us the gift of life. Sisi has no way to repay, and yet it has led to dragging you down, Granny Peng. My heart…”
Liu Sisi lifted her face towel a little higher with her hand, trying to cover the poison sores on her face.
At that moment, she took the opportunity to jump into the Yellow River while Zuo Xingyu turned his head to fetch his veil hat. She thought dying there wouldn’t be a bad choice, but as fate would have it, she was caught by a fishing net downstream and was dragged onto a ship.
The boatman, seeing she was still breathing, got the idea to quietly take her back to the city and sell her to a human trafficker. The trafficker wasn’t a local and was just about to gather enough people; she took everyone onboard and headed south.
All along the way, Liu Sisi had an unrelenting fever. The trafficker initially didn’t notice her, mistakenly thinking she was hurt from being trafficked. But, seeing that she didn’t get any better, the trafficker sold her off cheaply to another one.
After several transfers, she ended up at a brothel, but the persistent fever that wouldn’t subside, along with the bleeding from her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, truly frightened the Brothel Owner, especially the poison sores that gradually appeared on her face, resembling the girls with vile diseases. They ordered her to be thrown into the burial mound.
Her body had been tormented by the disease to the brink of death, and the pageboy who disposed of her was lazy; he didn’t even notice when the straw mat she was wrapped in fell off. She ended up lying stark straight on the roadside, a point of gossip for countless passersby.
By chance, Granny Peng passed by and heard her voice. That’s when she recognized her and took her home.
Throughout this journey, Liu Sisi felt as if she had wandered around the King of Hell’s Palace a few times and then crawled back again. As the poison sores erupted, her high fever began to abate. However, her once beautiful face was now horribly disfigured; she had to cover it with a face towel and helped to copy books as a means to contribute a little to the household expenses.
“What talk of dragging down or not. I’ve lived a lifetime, and to have someone to accompany me in my old age is a gain!”
Granny Peng waited until the last flicker of flame in the stove extinguished before lifting the pot lid, releasing a faint, distinct aroma of the food.
“Granny Peng, you’re always comforting me… Let me do it, you rest for a while.”
Liu Sisi tried to step forward to help.
But Granny Peng pushed her back to her original place: “Don’t move! You clearly aren’t cut out for this kind of work! Just sit there, I’ll be done immediately,” she said as she skillfully ladled out the porridge.
“These are things I’m used to doing…”
Not only can she make porridge, but she can also prepare many other types of food, right?
“You know how to do these rough tasks? The lotus flower you embroidered last time is still displayed inside.” Granny Peng placed the bowl on the wobbly little table and beckoned Liu Sisi to eat, “Come sit down and drink the porridge while it’s hot, it’ll be dark later.”
This home was extremely poor and certainly didn’t have any extra silver to buy charcoal.
Speaking of the embroidery, Liu Sisi’s cheeks turned red, and she immediately lowered her head, “That was a careless mistake…”
That pillowcase took Granny Peng a long time to embroider, and Liu Sisi, after the fever subsided, wanted to help with what she could and took up a bit of the embroidery. Unexpectedly, it required redoing entirely, wasting Granny Peng’s efforts.
In fact, she wasn’t skilled at embroidery, but she was very good at cooking.
She reached out and tightly grasped the chopsticks, looking at the poison sores on the back of her hand, her gaze dimmed. Surely she couldn’t let the pus from her hands get into the cooking pot, could she?
“You, after all, are…” Moreover, you are still a patient, you should be resting. Once you’re cured, you can then come everyday to help me make porridge or hire someone to take care of this old woman.”
“Okay! If I can get rid of these poison sores, I will certainly hire someone to take care of you.”
Liu Sisi smiled happily and then picked up the bowl.
After the meal, she returned to her room intending to copy another book. Although the money earned from copying books was meager, it was still an income, wasn’t it?
Granny Peng watched as Liu Sisi disappeared behind the door, moved her lips slightly, then clenched her jaw tight.
No! She couldn’t speak. She still remembered the pitiful look in Liu Sisi’s eyes when she first saw her.
The twists and turns in those great mansions were too numerous to count, and one look at her told you something had happened. Revealing her whereabouts might help her or harm her, it was a double-edged sword.
Liu Sisi worked hard on her copying in the dim light, continuing until it was completely dark outside, and then she stopped writing and lay down at the head of bed.
She thought carefully about what she should do next. Although copying books also earned some money, the income was too little. If she could write books herself, write down the likes of “Water Margin,” “Journey to the West” that she had read before, as well as so many love stories she had seen in her past life, she could perhaps earn some more silver…
The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.
No sooner had this thought emerged than it grew like vines, unstoppable.
Lying in bed, covered with a stiff and moldy quilt, she carefully recalled the content she had read. Nearly sleepless through the night, as soon as dawn began to break, she got up and immediately started to write.
Once she started, she couldn’t stop, and it wasn’t until Granny Peng returned from the wharf that she realized she had been writing the entire morning.
Pleased, she put down her brush and looked at the simple story drafts on the table, smiling with satisfaction!
Hopefully, this time she could exchange them for a few more copper coins! The coarse cereals at home had run out again.
