Chapter 153: Aunt Wu’s Helplessness
Chapter 153: Chapter 153: Aunt Wu’s Helplessness
After Fu Xiaoxiao talked back, the aunt saw the way people were looking at her wasn’t right, so she put away the corn, gave a cold snort, and left with her things.
Fu Xiaoxiao didn’t bother with her. She was traveling with four kids, and she kept a good amount of caution toward any stranger. She hadn’t forgotten this was an era when human traffickers were rampant.
After waiting a while, the train finally pulled in. Fu Xiaoxiao had the four children get on first, then followed right behind them.
"Make way, make way!" Lu Chen shouted from the front, while Lu Lin pulled them along, inching forward with difficulty through the packed crowd.
The train carriage was filled with the stench of sweat, smoke, and all kinds of food mingled together.
After much effort, she finally managed to get Lu Lin and the other three to their seats. As soon as Fu Xiaoxiao sat down, she hurried to open the window beside her. She felt like she was about to throw up.
Breathing in the fresh air from outside, she suddenly felt like she’d come back to life.
"Mom, drink some water, quick!" Seeing that Fu Xiaoxiao’s face had gone a bit pale, Lu Lin quickly took the thermos out of his backpack and poured her a cup of water.
"Thanks, that’s just what I needed." Fu Xiaoxiao smiled, rubbed Lu Lin’s head, and took the cup, gulping down several mouthfuls.
"Girl, it’s not easy being out on the road. These four kids of yours are really sensible." An older woman in the neighboring seat was holding her own endlessly crying child. Seeing that Fu Xiaoxiao was traveling with four children alone, there was real admiration in her eyes.
Just this one child was already driving her crazy, yet this woman had four—and all four were boys.
"They’re all good kids." Fu Xiaoxiao smiled at the woman in the next seat.
"Waaah..." The child in the grandma’s arms was crying so hard it was practically tearing his lungs apart, and no matter how she tried to soothe him, it was useless.
"Ay yo, my little ancestor, can you please stop crying? I’m really scared of you now." The older woman looked down at the baby in her arms, her face full of helplessness.
Fu Xiaoxiao could tell the baby was only a newborn, and the older woman clearly didn’t look like she’d just given birth. Could it be that this child...
Judging by the woman’s appearance, she didn’t look like a trafficker, but she obviously wasn’t used to the child. That made Fu Xiaoxiao think more about it.
"Auntie, with him crying like this, why are you the only one taking him? Where’s the child’s mother?" Fu Xiaoxiao looked at the older woman and asked.
Hearing Fu Xiaoxiao bring this up, the woman sighed. "This baby is my grandson. When my daughter-in-law had him, she had a difficult labor. They barely managed to get him out, and then she had a massive hemorrhage. They couldn’t save her. Poor child, lost his mother the moment he was born..."
The four kids looked at the baby, their eyes full of sympathy.
Born and already without a mother.
"Then where are you taking him?" Fu Xiaoxiao was taken aback; she hadn’t expected the baby’s mother to have died right after giving birth.
"I’m taking him back to the countryside to raise. My son stayed there to deal with my daughter-in-law’s affairs, and there’s still a whole pile of things at home. I could only take the child back first." The older woman had a headache over it too. "You saw it yourself—I haven’t looked after a baby in years. This little ancestor keeps crying nonstop, no matter how I try to soothe him he just won’t stop."
Watching the baby cry until his face turned purple, and seeing how clumsy the woman was as she shook him, it really was like she said—her hands were a little out of practice.
"So noisy! Whose kid is that, can’t you make him stop crying?" Because the child kept on crying, the people around them were getting more and more irritable.
The older woman was startled and started shaking even more.
Seeing the way she was shaking him, Fu Xiaoxiao thought the child would get shaken into a concussion. He was only this tiny; how could he withstand that kind of shaking?
"Auntie, how about I give it a try?" Fu Xiaoxiao felt sorry for the baby and spoke softly.
"Really? Then I can’t thank you enough." The whole trip, no one had lent a hand. Now that Fu Xiaoxiao offered, the older woman was overjoyed and quickly placed the baby into Fu Xiaoxiao’s arms.
She’d been holding him the whole way, and her arms were exhausted.
Fu Xiaoxiao took the baby, rocking him gently. Under her gentle soothing, the baby gradually calmed down, and with the added exhaustion from crying for so long, he actually fell asleep in her arms.
"Ay yo, you’re really something. I’ve held him all the way here and he wouldn’t sleep, but the moment you pick him up, he’s out." Seeing the baby asleep, the older woman’s eyes went wide. She looked at Fu Xiaoxiao gratefully. "You really saved my life!"
"How can a little thing this tiny be so tormenting!" The older woman thumped her own arm. After carrying the baby the whole way, this was the first real chance she’d had to rest.
The four kids gathered around curiously, looking at the little baby in Fu Xiaoxiao’s arms.
Lu Chen reached out a finger, and the little baby, still in sleep, actually raised his tiny hand and grabbed onto Lu Chen’s finger. Lu Chen was thrilled. "Mom, he’s holding my hand."
"Shh, don’t wake the little baby." Lu Lin clapped a hand over Lu Chen’s mouth, afraid his loud voice would wake the baby who had just fallen asleep.
"Girl, where are you all headed?" The older woman was reluctant to lose a helper like Fu Xiaoxiao and wanted to see if they were going the same way.
"We’re going to Qinghe County." Fu Xiaoxiao remembered Chen Xiu’s address: Taoyuan Village, Huaxi Town, Qinghe County.
"That’s perfect, let’s go together then! I’m getting off at that stop too." The older woman was delighted to find that Fu Xiaoxiao was headed in the same direction.
"Where are you going, Auntie?" Fu Xiaoxiao asked in return.
"My home is in Taoyuan Village, under Huaxi Town, which is under Qinghe County." The older woman readily gave her address.
Fu Xiaoxiao paused—that really was a coincidence. "Then it truly is. I’m going to Taoyuan Village exactly."
"Really? That’s wonderful." The older woman happily patted Fu Xiaoxiao’s hand. "My husband’s surname is Wu, he’s the village carpenter. Just call me Aunt Wu. Girl, what’s your name?"
"Aunt Wu, my name is Fu Xiaoxiao. These are my two sons, this is Xiao Lin, this is Xiao Chen. And these two are my friend’s sons, Stone and Wood." Fu Xiaoxiao introduced them with a smile.
"Hello, Grandma Wu." The four children could tell Fu Xiaoxiao’s attitude toward Aunt Wu was different from the way she’d treated that earlier aunt, so they obediently greeted her.
"What good kids. When we get to the village, Grandma will blow sugar figures for you." Aunt Wu looked at the four well-behaved boys and smiled as she spoke.
After chatting for a while, Aunt Wu and Fu Xiaoxiao grew much closer. Maybe it was fate, but they really hit it off.
"Let me tell you, this time I really... had my eyes opened. I don’t even know whether to call myself unlucky or what..." Aunt Wu had suffered quite a few wrongs on this trip to the city.
"What happened?" Fu Xiaoxiao smelled gossip and asked.
"My daughter-in-law comes from a well-off family. I don’t know how she ended up fancying my son, insisting she’d marry no one but him. When they got married, her parents straight out told us that with our son being with their daughter, we wouldn’t have to worry about anything, we just had to make sure their daughter was happy. The way they talked, it was as if my son were marrying into their family, looking down on us, with every word implying that my husband and I were ignorant." Aunt Wu grew more and more angry as she spoke.
"We knew they looked down on us, so we didn’t force ourselves on them. We just thought, fine, the boy’s married, we’ll mind our own lives. But look, it’s only been a year, and after my daughter-in-law died in childbirth, her parents actually don’t want this child. I had no choice but to bring him back to the village first and figure it out later. Tell me, what kind of thing is that..."