Chapter 3: Improving Life

  After finishing all these things, the courtyard looks much more comfortable and at least gives people a sense of home. Before, there were fallen leaves everywhere, it didn't look like a home at all.

  Then she found San Ya and helped her comb her hair. San Ya handed her two hair ribbons from her pocket, saying that her brother had bought them for her in town. Lin He helped her braid a small bun like Xiaoyan's, and the little girl looked much more spirited and pretty.

  Lin He found that the girls in this family all resemble their mother, and San Ya's appearance is also very similar to her mother's, except that San Ya's facial features are a bit softer. If she could keep up with life, nutrition and other aspects, San Ya would be a perfect little loli, extremely beautiful. Unfortunately, this family is too poor, in an era where even basic warmth and food cannot be guaranteed, what else can you talk about?

  After sitting in the courtyard for a while, I heard voices speaking outside.

  Xiao Bao immediately ran out and said: "Mom and Dad are back!"

  Then a man and woman came in from the gate, the woman was their mother, Lin He had seen her that morning, and the other man must be his father.

  Lin He stood up and shouted: "Dad and mom are back!"

  Lin Er'niang's mother's surname is Huang, so she is called Huang Shi. Huang Shi came over and said: "Girl, are you feeling better now? Is your head still hurting?"

  Lin He said it doesn't hurt anymore. On the other side, Lin He's father was saying: "Girlie, you still have injuries on your head, take a rest for now."

  Lin He took a look at this father, Lin Er Niu's father is called Lin Er Niu, an ordinary farmer, about 175 cm tall, with very dark skin, so dark that his original age can't be seen, he shouldn't be too old, probably in his thirties, but because of long-term physical labor, his actual age looks older, however, from what he says, he seems to be a caring father.

  Lin Er Niu and Huang saw that the house was spotless, as if it had been transformed overnight. They couldn't help but feel a little surprised. As they usually spent their days working in the fields, household chores were left to Er Ya. This young girl had never cleaned the house so thoroughly before, and today was no exception. Lin He saw them and immediately said, "I saw that the courtyard was full of fallen leaves and wasn't easy to walk through, so I swept it clean." Huang smiled and said, "You're really something, with your injuries you can't even rest at home without getting bored, but sweeping the courtyard has made it much cleaner, not bad."

  Lin He thought they were back for dinner and said, "Dad and mom, take a rest, I'll go cook."

  Huang said: "I'll come".

  Lin He followed her in and saw that her mother had taken out a few sweet potatoes from under the wooden frame in the kitchen, and also took out two white buns and a handful of wild vegetables from the house. Lin He wasn't very good at using the stove for cooking, so she called San Ya to do it instead. She watched from the side, as in her past life she had never used this kind of stove before. Fortunately, it wasn't a particularly technical task, and once you grasped a bit of the trick, you could use it easily.

  At noon, they had boiled wild vegetables, steamed sweet potatoes, and two white buns, one for Xiaobao and one for Linhe. Linhe handed the bun to San Ya, but Huang Shi refused. In the end, she still broke off half of it for San Ya. Children are growing up now, so good things should be given to them. Actually, Linhe forgot that she was also just a seven-year-old little girl. Linhe ate a sweet potato and half a white bun, which filled her belly.

  After lunch, Father and Mother went to work in the fields again. Lin He took his younger brother and sister to play by the field, and also wanted to see what was outside the village, to see if they could find something to do to earn some money and improve their current life.

  It's now the time when late autumn is about to turn into winter, and there's nothing good to plant. Father and mother are also digging up sweet potatoes and wild vegetables in the field, with no other things to do. Lin He followed them to the field, where father and mother were digging sweet potatoes. Lin He took his younger brother and sister to walk past the mountain next to it, wanting to see if there's anything edible on the mountain. In ancient times, the trees on the mountain grew very luxuriantly, so there should be something.

  Lin Er Niu over there shouted: "Just play by the side, don't enter the mountain, it's very dangerous inside."

  Lin He asked San Ya what was going on. San Ya said: "Sister, you've even forgotten this? Our family's Third Uncle just wanted to go into the mountains to hunt for something to sell, but he never came back. Now it's just Third Aunt taking care of Xiao Shan and Xiao Yun alone. After that, nobody dared to go in anymore."

  "Oh, I see! It seems that there are indeed some valuable animals in this mountain. If only we could go in and get some, our family is really in need of some income now. With winter approaching soon, looking at the thin clothes on my family members and myself, as well as the thin quilts at home, how are we going to make it through this winter? Just thinking about it makes me worried."

  Unfortunately, she was only a seven-year-old girl, what could she do? If she did too much, others might think she was a monster. She didn't even know if monsters existed in this era. Thinking about it made Lin He laugh; she had the kind of talent that made her like to daydream at any time, and by the end, she didn't even know what nonsense she was thinking about.

  The whole afternoon, Lin He took San Ya and Xiao Bao to the mountain edge for a walk. Apart from collecting some firewood, there was no other gain. When she had dinner in the main house today, she saw that Huang's house seemed to have a kang (heated bed), thinking that in the past winters, they should have been crowded on one kang together as a family.

  Now there is nothing else to pick up, take advantage of the time before winter to collect some firewood back home. If not, this winter the whole family will have to huddle together on a kang to get through it. I myself want to find a way to earn some money, but I have no skills or resources, and I'm too young to do anything, so just think about how to muddle through this winter first.

  Three may have been used to doing these things early on, and the speed of picking up firewood was quite fast. Xiaobao is still young after all, just treating it as a game to play with excitement, picking up a piece of firewood and immediately handing it over to Lin He, Lin He praised: "Xiaobao, you're really great!" And then went to pick up firewood again, but even if they tried their best to collect more firewood to take back, there wasn't much firewood on the mountain. Winter is approaching, every household needs firewood to get through the days.

  Lin He raised her head and saw the towering trees inside the mountain, thinking that if she could go in once, it would be great, even if there were no other gains, bringing back some firewood would be good too. There must be a lot of them in the mountains, and no one will go in. Lin He made up her mind while thinking, before winter comes, she must find a way to persuade her parents to let herself go into the mountain once.

  But Lin He saw the nominal father's tense appearance, and even the mountain edge didn't want them to get close. If they wanted to persuade them, it would be more difficult than entering the mountain. First of all, they had to solve this problem.

  Just as she was thinking about it, Huang's voice came shouting "Er Ya, go home"; Lin He didn't react at first, stunned for a moment, before realizing that the call was for her. She thought that the most urgent thing to do was probably to change her name, did this family not have any decent names? In the past, poor families were all like this, it's said that the lighter the name, the easier the person is to raise, and at that time, most people didn't have much culture, they just took simple and easy-to-remember names.

  A family of five walked home together. Lin He looked at the basket in Huang Shi's hands, which contained some sweet potatoes and wild vegetables. Lin Er Niu carried a tool resembling a hoe on his back, walking behind them. Although they hadn't been with this family for long and were also quite poor, Lin He felt that these two foster parents were very good to the children. She thought it was her own good fortune to have such parents in this world.