"Mother, wake up, wake up! Please, wake up!" A young girl's voice, soft and tear-choked, pleaded desperately, her small shoulders trembling with sobs.
"Le'er, don't disturb Mother. She's just sick. She'll get better if she rests more," a young boy, speaking with a steadier tone, tried to console her. But despite his effort to sound calm, his words carried an undertone of fear and sorrow.
Guo Le'er clung tightly to her older brother's tattered sleeve, her tear-streaked face trembling as she whimpered, "But... but what if Mother doesn't wake up?"
Guo Zhu, though equally terrified, did his best to appear composed, reassuring his sister, "Don't worry, Le'er. With me here, nothing will happen to you. Mother will recover. She will, for sure."
Chen Xi felt an excruciating pain in her head, as though it were splitting apart. An overwhelming darkness engulfed her, threatening to swallow her whole. But the faint voices of the two children seemed to pierce through the void, touching the softest part of her heart. A comforting warmth spread through her cold, lifeless body.
Summoning all her strength, Chen Xi struggled to open her eyes. The slight flutter of her eyelashes drew gasps of surprise from the two little ones.
"Mother's awake!"
As her vision cleared, Chen Xi was met with the sight of two dirt-streaked children whose clothes resembled those of beggars. They called her "Mother," but their disheveled state hardly seemed to match children with a caring parent. Despite their grimy faces, their eyes shone brightly, large and clear, brimming with innocent tears that stirred an inexplicable tenderness in her.
However, when Chen Xi glanced around and saw the dilapidated shack they were in, her heart sank. Wide-eyed, she took in her surroundings, utterly at a loss.
Le'er panicked. "Mother, why won't you talk to me? Did I make you angry? I'll be good from now on—don't be mad at me, please!"
Chen Xi's entire body stiffened. She barely managed to croak out, "Mother...?"
Just moments ago, she had caught her boyfriend cheating, stormed out in a rage, and been hit by a car. Could her luck get any worse? And now, out of nowhere, she had these two kids?
Her head throbbed painfully as a flood of foreign memories surged into her mind. The body she now inhabited belonged to a woman named Li Xiangli. This crumbling shack was her home, and the two pitiful children in front of her were her own. As for the man of this household—ha! It turned out she was a widowed young wife.
Chen Xi wanted to bang her head against the wall. "Seriously, heavens, could you be any crueler to me?"
As Chen Xi stood frozen, unable to fully grasp her new reality, the little girl in front of her suddenly burst into tears. "Mother doesn't want me anymore! I'll be good from now on, I promise! Don't ignore me, please!"
Half of Chen Xi's heart melted. She quickly scooped the sobbing child into her arms. "Don't cry, Le'er. Mother would never abandon you. I was just a little dazed. You're such a good girl; how could Mother bear to leave you?"
Perhaps it was the lingering emotions of Li Xiangli, but as Chen Xi looked at the two children, she felt a warmth bloom in her chest. Even in this freezing, wind-leaking shack, wearing tattered clothes, she found the sight of these two children made everything seem less bleak.
Seeing their mother finally awake, even Xiaozhu, who had been holding back tears, let his guard down. With reddened eyes and clenched fists, he declared, "Mother, that Mr. Feng is no good! Please don't marry him. Le'er and I aren't afraid of hardship. As long as you're with us, we don't care if we have to eat coarse bread every day."
Le'er sobbed and added, "That's right! He's a bad man. When you were beaten, he ran off without a word. Don't marry someone like that, Mother. We don't need a stepfather—we just need you."
By now, Chen Xi had fully absorbed Li Xiangli's memories and understood what the children were talking about. After marrying into the Guo family, Li Xiangli's husband had been sent to war as the family's sacrificial male when their village was required to provide soldiers. Tragically, he had died in battle, leaving her a young widow, pregnant with her first child.
Shunned by her in-laws, she was driven out of the main house with her children and forced to live in this broken-down shack. Poverty, hunger, and cold became their daily reality, and it was no surprise the children were so thin and frail.
But as if things couldn't get worse, Li Xiangli's beauty caught the attention of a wealthy town ruffian named Feng An. He tried to woo her under the guise of providing for her children, promising wealth and a better life. In her desperation, Li Xiangli had foolishly agreed to marry him.
However, Feng An's advances enraged the Guo family matriarch, who dragged Li Xiangli through the village, screaming insults and accusations of impropriety. Feng An, frightened by the spectacle, fled the scene, leaving Li Xiangli to face the shame and a severe illness that had kept her bedridden until now.
Chen Xi's heart ached as she gently caressed the children's faces. "Le'er, Xiaozhu, don't worry. Mother won't do anything foolish again. I'll stay with you both forever. I won't marry anyone else. Ever."
Disclaimer:
I am not the original author of this work. This is a translated version of the original text, shared for reading and reference purposes only. All rights to the original content belong to the original author. I do not claim ownership of the original work or its characters. This translation is intended solely for informational and entertainment purposes.