Xunxun quietly let her father hold her, while she stared out the window with her huge eyes. She was so small. Sometimes she stayed so quiet that she forgot to cry. He had no idea what was on her mind right now, all she knew was that she refused to fall asleep. Although she was a good girl, she behaved just like her mother. What a stubborn and troublesome little girl.
Lu Yi gently rubbed his daughter’s little head. Xunxun lifted her little face, giving him a look of grievance. With a pair of big misty eyes, she really was lovable. At the same time, it made his heart ache, as Lu Yi knew that Xunxun missed her mother and was looking for her.
“Go to sleep, will you?” Lu Yi coaxed her daughter while saying, “Look, the sky has turned dark, daddy needs to work tomorrow and make money to buy milk powder for you and your brothers. If I don’t go to work, you and your elder brothers will go hungry.”
Xunxun held her father’s thumb with her little fingers and obediently nodded her little head, agreeing that she would go to sleep.
Lu Yi held his daughter in his arms while coaxing her to sleep and she fell asleep not long after. Now she was being a good girl and stopped being noisy. She was as thin as a small skeleton, yet she refused to drink her milk properly. As timid as ever, she loved to cry instead of talking.
Lu Yi woke up very early in the morning. The first thing he did was to make a bottle of milk for his daughter and feed her. If others had fed her, she would not drink it properly. She was already as thin as a skeleton, he was afraid that his daughter would disappear if she became any thinner.
“Come, let’s eat.” Lu Yi placed the milk bottle in his daughter’s little hands, “You drink your milk, I’ll eat my rice.” He took a bun on the table and started eating while Xunxun held her own bottle and drank her milk.
After finishing her milk, Xunxun obediently sat in her baby chair. Lu Yi would feed her a mouthful of porridge occasionally. This little girl did not really like porridge, but she would let her father do the honor as long as he fed her. However, she could not eat too much as her stomach would not be able to bear it.
Lu Yi stood up, holding his daughter with one hand. He wrapped her up in his shirt and used his coat to cover her, getting ready to bring her to the Lu family and hand her over to Ye Shuyun. He could not bring Xunxun to work as his work forbade it. Besides, if he were to get busy, he would not be able to take care of the child. Not to mention how young Xunxun was, it would be painstaking to make sure she drank water every hour and look out for her diaper.
“Xunxun, let grandma hold you, it’s been a long time since grandma has seen our little Xunxun.” Ye Shuyun hurriedly took over her granddaughter while stroking her face. The soft and warm feeling gave her a sense of relief. She would feel awfully bad if this child were to have another headache or fever again.
“Xunxun, bid goodbye to daddy.” Lu Yi reached out to his daughter.
The little girl compliantly reached out her little hand to bid her father goodbye.
Lu Yi withdrew his hand, opened the door and walked out. Xunxun’s eyes reddened after Lu Yi was gone as if she was going to tear up again.
“Be a good girl, Xunxun. Don’t cry. Let’s go and play with your brothers, okay?” Ye Shuyun quickly comforted her granddaughter as she was afraid that the baby was going to burst into tears again. If she were to cry, her grandmother would really cry along with her.
Ye Shuyun quickly brought her to Xiao Qi and Xiao Guang to play together. The brothers were playing with toy bricks. As soon as they saw their little sister, they stood up and wobbled over, each holding one of their little sister’s hands.
They then let their sister have all their blocks. Xunxun wiped away her tears with her little fingers, sat on the floor and started to play with her elder brothers. Since young, both the brothers knew they had to offer up to their younger sister. Little sister was the smallest, thinnest and of course a cry baby.
All the males in the Lu family doted the females. Naturally, both the elder brothers also doted on their little sister. They were fine with not having any fun toys or good food or drinks that they came across, and would generously give it to their little sister if she wanted any of those. However, never expect them to hand over anything when it comes to strangers.
Little Xunxun was the only girl in the family and also the youngest, which was why everyone poured their love on her, even her brothers who were only a few minutes older than her did the same. They doted Xunxun and loved her the most. They would silently accompany her, cry with her, and even refuse to eat and drink if she were to do so.
Heavy snow fell on Sea City. This snowfall was very heavy as it had been snowing for three days and three nights. This was Sea City’s heaviest snowfall in recent years, and it was definitely one of the coldest winters ever.
Although it was freezing cold out there, it was warm and cozy in the house.
Xunxun crawled around the floor. Even though she still walked wobbly, she was good at crawling. She crawled to the window, placed her small hands on the glass and looked at the vast expanse of white outside.
Lu Qi and Lu Guang immediately looked for their sister when they realized she had disappeared. They found their little sister by the window, both the boys walked over while holding hands together. Each of them sat on either side of their little sister, holding her hands while watching the icy white world outside together.
It was really cold outside.
Yan Huan opened the door with her clothes already changed. As the weather had turned cold, the amount of firewood needed also increased. On the contrary, the number of customers coming to have their hair cut decreased as well. Thus, she got ready to go out and bring back more firewood.
She was afraid that she would let her mind wander if she stayed in one place for too long, which was why she wanted to look for something to do to occupy herself. Or else, she thought she would really strangle herself to death in a small village like this.
Being in this place was like being totally isolated from the world. There was no electricity, computer or handphone here. She could not find anything familiar to her, nor was there anything about her.
She did not even have a proper name here and so far, she was still an outsider, a nameless outsider.
The snow fell continuously onto her. It was only one or two sheets at first but she lost count on how many sheets had fallen on her after that. While blinking her eyes, those snow that had fallen onto her long eyelashes were melted away into drops of water by her body temperature.
As a matter of fact, she really liked snowfall. The weather was not as cold when it snowed, but at the same time, it brought a sense of cleanliness to the world. In addition to the white midwinter, this place was colorless, cold and desolate.
After tying up two bundles of firewood, she hauled the firewood onto her back. Should she now be thankful that she was once enlisted in the army and did all the weight training exercises? Otherwise, she would not be able to adapt to this circumstance so easily. Now she was able to survive even in this type of environment.
