Chapter 399: Can’t Survive Anymore
She said she couldn’t bear the load, hoping her nephew and niece would help, but those who usually ran about quickly as if they were flying, all suddenly seemed to have changed faces. None were willing to help, either citing other matters or showing impatience.
Her sister-in-law even scolded her, accusing her of acting like a delicate lady of a wealthy household. Weren’t they all rural maids, unable to carry ten pounds of grain? She might as well stop eating altogether, for what use was there in keeping such useless beings alive?
Having no other choice, Song Chunhua carried the ten pounds of grain home, clueless about what to do. She swallowed her pride and asked a neighbor for help, managing to exchange it for five pounds of coarse rice.
She noticed that the firewood at home was also running low, which had never been an issue before; the house had always had a full supply stacked up.
Song Chunhua went back to ask her brother and nephews for some firewood, but her sister-in-law cursed her and turned her away.
She berated her for always coming back to her parental home as a married aunt, asking for this and that, shamelessly. Just because she helped pay off some gambling debts, did she have to be so troublesome? She had asked for rice the day before yesterday, firewood today, and would she be asking for their very lives tomorrow?
Her sister-in-law told Song Chunhua to have some dignity. If she could endure, then endure; if she could save, then save. Her brother and nephews had their own families to take care of and couldn’t manage to look after a married aunt.
She shouldn’t return to her parental home frequently to invite disdain.
Song Chunhua, who never knew how to retort, was scolded by her sister-in-law until her face turned purple. Covering her face, she cried all the way back home.
Lacking the strength to gather firewood, she made do by cooking a pot of porridge every day, scraping by from morning till night.
Although she often had headaches and fevers previously, and couldn’t get out of bed, subsisting on one meal of porridge a day, she surprisingly did not fall ill.