Chapter 14: Can’t Starve to Death

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Can’t Starve to Death"Brother, go ahead and eat. Nuannuan is not hungry anymore." Today, she made a mistake and forgot to prepare some food for herself. Now, not only does she have to share some of her brother’s meal, but her brother, after laboring hard in the fields, comes home to an unsatisfying portion, having to give some of his portion to her. This is how the siblings have been getting through these years. Is he really their own father, or is it as if they have all been stepfathers and stepmothers to them? After eating, they rested for a while before the Qin Family went back to the fields. Sёarᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Hu Li poked Qin Xiangnuan’s forehead with force, "You little brat, remember to make the meal. If you dare to sneak any food, I’ll break your legs," she warned fiercely, confident that Qin Xiangnuan wouldn’t have the nerve to do so. Qin Xiangnuan bowed her head and said nothing. To others, her silence seemed to be out of fear, so much so that she wouldn’t even dare to take a deep breath. It wasn’t until Hu Li left that Qin Xiangnuan lifted her face, her deep eyes flashing a clear mockery and sarcasm. She had secretly saved some flour and started the fire to make pancakes to eat in the evening. Hu Li knew Qin Xiangnuan couldn’t make pancakes because she was too weak to do so, so Hu Li would take care of it herself. However, making noodles or cornmeal mush was simple enough. At the moment, Qin Xiangnuan was huddled up tightly over the fire pit. It was so cold, and she needed to think carefully about how to earn some money without anyone noticing. She took her brother’s clothes and held them, worn out, with no one to mend them. The clothes Qin Xiangyang and Qin Xiangnuan wore were the old, unwanted ones from Qin Pengfei. In these times, everyone had a hard life. Their family, having more members, lived a particularly dry existence with very little extra cash. Even Qin Pengfei, who Hu Li cared about the most, didn’t have many decent pieces of clothing. Thus, what ended up on Qin Xiangyang was even more limited and already worn out. Qin carefully climbed off the heated brick bed and rummaged through the cupboard for a long time until she found a needle and thread. Then she climbed back on the bed and began to mend her brother’s clothes, stitch by stitch. As the darkness fell outside, the people would be returning home soon. Qin Xiangnuan put down the clothes she was mending, ran to the kitchen, and prepared the cornmeal mush. She just added water, brought it to a boil, and then poured in the cornmeal, waiting until it was nearly ready. She scooped a little into a small bowl, stealthily ate, then washed the bowl and wiped her mouth clean. She couldn’t understand why she had been so foolish in the past not to sneak some food. Perhaps it was because she was only five years old and couldn’t remember that sneaking food was an option. She and her brother were too honest and too easy to bully. Therefore, it’s said that the good are deceived, the kind are ridden. And there’s another saying: good people don’t last, but a pestilence lingers on for a thousand years. Hu Li returned and was quite pleased to see the prepared cornmeal mush. After she chased Qin Xiangnuan out, she went to the kitchen to make pancakes. The cornmeal mush was not filling at all and after peeing a few times, they would be hungry again. For these rural folks, if they don’t have a full meal in the evening, they’ll be too hungry to sleep. Nevertheless, these pancakes, being made from fine flour, were a precious commodity that Hu Li reserved for herself and her own children, and not for Qin Xiangyang and his sister. They could go eat air, as they wouldn’t starve to death anyway. If starvation could kill them, would they have grown this big?