Lin Xiaoyan's stomach was bulging, sweat trickling down her pale face. At the moment, she did not even have the strength to lift her hands but still caressed her stomach worriedly.
" Big brother, can you pour me a bowl of water?" Lin Xiaoyan's weak voice brought heartache to Lin Daniu.
At the side, Lin Daniu hurriedly brought a bowl of water and took it inside.
She was worried, really worried.
Afterall, she was on the run together with her two very young children who were both handicapped, both boys were partially blind.
People from the place she had been were all cruel. When she was pregnant with the older twins, they poisoned her. She had given birth to two boys but they suffered with a defect because of the poison.
Now she's pregnant again with another twins. She didn't want her children to suffer and die nor live with nothing but torment and schemes, so she escaped from that cursed place.
She wanted to give birth soon but didn't have any strength left. She stared at her big brother. She knew how worried and frightened he was but nothing could be done this time.
" How's Xiaomu and Xiaonan?"
" Asleep." Lin Daniu replied shortly. He didn't want her to worry about her children, with her condition, she can't afford to worry about others than herself.
It's been a long time but the babies won't come out.
Lin Xiaoyan pursed her lips. " Big brother when I die..."
Lin Daniu gave her a sharp glance, cutting her words down. " You will live. You have to."
Hot tears streaming down her face.
" But still, you have to promise. Look after my children big brother, please."
When the matriarch of the Lin family had sold her to a traveling merchant, her big brother, Lin Duan who was working at the docks rushed all the way home. The two of them belonged to the third branch of the family. After their parents died from illness because of their grandparents' neglect, her elder brother become her only pillar of support.
Her big brother looked for her everywhere year after year. It was when six months ago that finally, finally he had found her. She was taking refuge in a dilapidated temple with her two children. Starving and almost at their last breath when a familiar voice got her.
When she opened her eyes, it was her older brother. Lin Xiaoyan cried all her grievances, all her suffering and misfortune to her big brother.
He told her that he cut his ties from the family clan and looked for her. He can't accept that his beloved younger sister was sold. A few taels of silver took his sibling away from him.
It was an endless chase for him. When he found her at the verge of losing her life with the little ones. He felt that it was him who was breathless and dying. Their parents were gone. He didn't want her to follow their parents yet.
Lin Daniu had been wandering around with nothing but an old dilapidated house at the far end of Old Oak Tree Village. He was an outsider after all. There was no doctor nor midwife who can help his sister in giving birth. He was helpless.
Outside the room, two little children stood by the door. Their little hearts were listless.
Not long, they heard a loud excruciating shout and their body stiffened. Their small fist curled up tightly. After the loud cry of their mother, followed a series of cries of two infant. Their hearts heaved a sigh of relief.
The two of them happily barge inside the room, not minding the reprimand after. They were both partially blind so the faint and hazy light that their eyes can capture give little help to their sight. They can only hear the loud cries of their newly born siblings.
" Uncle...." Xiaomu muttered in his soft and innocent voice.
His vision caught the blurry figure of his uncle. He was standing still motionlessly. Xiaomu subconsciously grabbed his younger brother's little hand.
Xiaomu and Xiaonan heard their uncle sobbing. Their little legs moved climbing on the bed. " Mom..."
Their mother who used to give them warm hugs was now cold. Her arms won't hug them back anymore. " Mommy....mommy."
The old dilapidated house was filled with gloom and sorrow.