Chapter 24: Asking for Help
"Aunt Hua, are you there? It’s me, Nuannuan."
She stood outside, just calling out for someone.
"Eh, Nuannuan is here," Aunt Hua came out from the kitchen, clearly also in the middle of cooking. "Come in and sit down, it’s so cold outside," she hurriedly grabbed Qin Xiangnuan’s little hand, only to find it pitifully small and icy cold. But that’s not all, the child’s hands, both were swollen with chilblains, looking just like little carrots.
This was truly heartbreaking. Qin Guohua really wasn’t worth a dime, so careless with his own flesh and blood, his son and daughter. He didn’t act like a father at all.
Aunt Hua pulled Qin Xiangnuan over to the stove to warm up and took out a steamed bun from her own basket, stuffing it into Qin Xiangnuan’s hand, "Nuannuan, eat this first. Auntie’s meal will be ready in a bit, you can have some then."
She ruffled Qin Xiangnuan’s hair, feeling utterly heartbroken.
Here was a five-year-old child, so skeletal and clearly starving.
"Aunt Hua, no need, I’m not hungry," Qin Xiangnuan quickly tried to return the steamed bun to Aunt Hua. Every household was struggling these days, how could she take from Aunt Hua?
"Just take it, child. Your aunt doesn’t lack this bit of food," she insisted, placing the bun back in Qin Xiangnuan’s small hands.
Qin Xiangnuan, facing the glow of the fire inside the stove, felt its overly warm light on her face, feeling for a moment as if she were sitting inside the stove, her whole body comfortably warm.