“Okay.” Xunxun promised her father with great reluctance, but she fixed her eyes on the television which was a black screen. Her mother was gone, and she really missed her mother very much.
When Lu Yi went back, Xunxun had already fallen asleep. Looking diminutive, she slept on her own small bed and her tiny small face was terribly thin. But her eyelashes slightly curled up and were still very long. She looked very beautiful.
The little girl was looking more and more like her mother. Lu Yi thought, when Yan Huan was a child, she must also be so beautiful, and also a gem inside the palm of her parents. However, her parents had long passed away and left her all alone, solitary and impoverished. Later, it must have been a mistake of her past life to have even caused her to lose her life.
It was just that having lived through her life once again, her life became better after great difficulty. But why did something happen to her again? Not to mention Xunxun, even though he was unable to bear the fact that Yan Huan had passed away until now.
There was still an expectation in his heart as well as hope that his Huanhuan must now be in a certain place and she could not come back. As long as he persevered, as long as he waited, as long as he continued to look, she would finally come back. She would come home for there were him, the three children including Xunxun at home.
He walked over and crouched down beside his daughter’s small bed. Then he gently stroked his daughter’s little face.
“Our Xunxun is the best, right? Papa knows you’re thinking of Mama.”
“And Papa also misses your Mama.”
At this time, the winter season had arrived again. In the world of ice and snow, the last pieces of leaves on the branches were also blown away and scattered. And then not knowing when, the bare branches were also tainted by the winter cold, and winter snow.
In the distance, that swathe of frigid cold was daunting and made people not want to get close.
The fire in the stove burnt from time to time, and the flames outside the stove also occasionally speckled out. The surrounding walls had peeling paint on them with large patches already fallen off. There were a few broken chairs which should have been thrown away or used as firewood as well as a table with a missing leg. It was now propped up with half a block of brick and it could continue to be used.
No one would be willing to throw away every blade of grass, a single branch, a table and a chair, even if they were broken, and then rotten.
It was a small village in the mountain, which was far away from the city, but also far away from the civilization of a tiny village. The village was located in a remote mountainous area. The dozens of families here had lived in this place for generations, almost cut off from the world. There was not even electricity available here. People used original oil lamps to illuminate things. The things every family used were also passed down from generation to generation.
There was no electricity, no television, no washing machine, no natural gas. The fuel that the village used to light fires for cooking was the firewood picked up from the mountains.
They would break up tree roots on the spot or chop up a few large trees with an axe, which would be enough to burn for a good few days.
And in this room made out of clay, a woman came out. She wore old and shabby clothes on her body, and her body was also patched up in several places before she dragged a leg to walk out.
She took a bundle of firewood from one side and then added a few firewood inside the old stove. Then she sat up by the side of the stove and leaned against the stove to give her warmth.
She lifted her face and there was almost no flesh on her face. There was also a big scar on the other side of her face, which made her face look a little scary. She buried her head between her legs, and then tightly gripped her knees with force.
The wind outside almost blew down the rotten window, which also brought the distinctive chill from the mountains.
This place stood by the side of the mountains, and the wind was very cold.
She then hugged her legs tightly and almost shrank herself into a ball. Only then, it seemed that she could give herself some warmth and let herself some semblance of warmth.
Her face had been destroyed and was very ugly. But those eyes of hers were still very beautiful. They were regular almond-shaped eyes and the corners of her eyes were very long. Her eyelashes were also curled. It was a pity that these eyes were born in this ugly-looking face.
She touched her face. There was no mirror here, so she did not know what she looked like now. But from the reflection on the water, she could vaguely see her current appearance.
It was indeed very ugly.
Moreover, there was her leg. She put her hands on her leg and gently pressed. It seemed that there was the initial pain. The pain of a broken bone was the kind of pain that would be impossible for her to forget.
It was just that because of the limited medical conditions here, her leg was broken and now she was crippled.
She had become an ugly person as well as a cripple. She took another firewood and tossed it in the old stove. With the temperature coming from the stove, at least she would not freeze to death.
Come tomorrow, she was going to find something which she could use, to see if she could borrow some plastic sheets to seal up the window. Otherwise, she might not survive this winter.
She held her legs tightly again and clung onto the little warmth. Otherwise, she might have been frozen to death this winter.
And not far away, there was a bed with a torn blanket filled with cotton wool, which was unable to block out any cold at all. It also could not hold any warmth. However, even these things were the only items she had now. Otherwise, she would really be without a shelter and not even a roof that could provide a shield from the wind and rain.
The wind outside was still blowing, and the stove was extinguished in the middle of the night. She did not know whether the fire naturally extinguished on its own or it was snuffed out by the wind. When she wanted to pick up the firewood to light the stove again, she felt somewhat defeated. There was not much firewood left. Even if she went to pick up firewood tomorrow, the firewood that she brought back would also be damp with moisture and could only be used after putting them out to dry for a long time. If not, they would not be of much use even if she had picked them up and brought them back. It would be impossible to start a fire by using them to light up.
She just forgot about it and stood up. She could also feel the outside wind again on her back, sending chills to her back again and again. She felt as if she was not wearing any clothes in the winter and completely naked, standing in the world of ice and snow, and then she would literally freeze to death.
She pulled aside that torn cotton wool filled blanket. She got into bed under the covers. She used the torn quilt to wrap herself tightly within but was afraid to lie down for real. She also did not dare to sleep, especially at night when it was time to sleep.
Because it was too cold. She was afraid of freezing to death, and she was also afraid of succumbing to illness from the cold. So, she was the same every night, leaning on the old stove so that she could feel a trace of warmth. And it was also due to the fire inside the stove that she was barely able to hang onto her life.
She stretched out her hands and the fingers on those hands had been frozen till they were red and swollen like radishes. It was almost impossible for fingers to hold tightly.
