Farmhouse Green Plum

As time passed, the coldness of the ground seeped into Daya's bones through her knees and legs, and she was almost frozen to death.

At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded outside the courtyard gate, "Daya! Daya! Are you home?"

Daya turned her head to look at the door, and took the opportunity to interrupt Li's chattering, "It's Xiaoxiang."

Li couldn't help but frown, "Why did she come to see you on such a cold day?"

Daya also had this doubt. Although she had agreed to go to the county to sell herbs today, she couldn't go because it was snowing. Xiaoxiang came to see her at this time and was so anxious. Could something have happened?

Li was just expressing her doubts casually, not asking Daya. Without waiting for an answer, she said, "Go ahead."

Daya quickly stood up, rubbed her frozen calves, turned around and strode towards the door.

Just after taking a few steps, Li called him back: "The food is cold, heat it up."

"Okay." Daya had to suppress her anxiety, picked up the bowl from the cupboard, put it in the kitchen first, and then went to the courtyard gate to see Xiaoxiang.

"How did you come?"

"Do you have any dry firewood? My mother is sick and needs to make charcoal, but all I have left is pine needles."

"Are you sick?" Daya was shocked. If you get sick at this time of year, in such a cold weather, you might die.

Xiaoxiang was so anxious that she almost cried: "It snowed last night. My father was afraid of the cold, so he wrapped himself in the quilt, and my mother got sick from the cold."

"But we don't have much dry firewood left at home." Daya was in a dilemma. This was the first year they tried to chop firewood. They were not strong enough and had to go to the county frequently, so they didn't cut many branches.

This winter is particularly cold. In mid-October, grandma Li started to bake the oven. After half a month of baking, she might not be able to survive the rest of the month.

Yesterday, my second uncle was still regretting that he didn't take the time to chop firewood when the weather was hot, and he was planning to go to the Xu family to borrow some in a couple of days.

"What should we do?" Xiaoxiang was completely panicked, her voice trembling, "Laidi's family doesn't have much, and my cousin's family doesn't have much either."

"The Xu family!" The eldest girl thought of Xu Yulan's house. "Let's go borrow some from Xu Yulan! Uncle Xu chopped a lot of firewood in the summer, so he must have some extra!"

"But I'm not familiar with their family." As the only adult in the village who would go chop wood, Xiaoxiang's first family was his.

But the Zhao family and the Xu family had basically no contact, and she was too shy to go and borrow money, so she went to Lai Di's house and her cousin Zhao Xiaocui's house nearby.

Not only the Zhao family, but in fact the Xu family rarely interacted with other families in the village. Daya pursed her lips and said, "I'll go with you to borrow it."

Xu Dahe had been bitten by a snake before, and she had had a lot of dealings with the Xu family.

Daya went back to the room and said something to Li, then went to Xu's house with Xiaoxiang.

Xu Yulan opened the door and saw them. Without waiting for them to speak, she said, "You are here to borrow firewood, but we have none left.

Early this morning, the village chief came to borrow a backpack, and then my aunt came, and my father carried a large backpack to her family.

A few days ago, a few families came to borrow money, and now what's left is barely enough for our own use."

Xu Yulan became angrier and angrier as she spoke. These people in the village usually gathered at the entrance of the village to chat when they had free time, but now they all came to her house to borrow firewood.

It was said to be a loan, but in fact it was never returned. Her parents chopped firewood for the whole village.

The last glimmer of hope was shattered. Xiaoxiang cried anxiously, "What should I do? It's freezing cold now. There's no dry firewood on the mountain. Without a charcoal fire to keep warm, my mother will die."

"Don't worry, we'll think of a solution." Daya comforted her quickly, trying to think of which family in the village might have extra firewood.

But I didn't expect that this winter was very cold. Even those who were strong could not bear it. Those who had elderly and young children at home started to roast the oven early.

After all this consumption, even those who had storage now don’t have much left.

This is the first snow, and it will only get colder later. Even Daya doesn't dare to share some of the remaining firewood at home with Xiaoxiang.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "I have some extra pine needles at home, and you should have some too. Why don't we use them first and then go to other villages to ask. If that doesn't work, we can only buy charcoal."

"My father won't give me money. This morning I asked Grandpa Huang to come and treat my mother, but my father wouldn't allow it, saying it was a waste of money."

"But in this weather, we need dry firewood for a fire, and every household can barely take care of it themselves, so how can we have extra to lend to others?"

As she spoke, Daya couldn't help but glance at Xu Yulan, expressing her sincere admiration for the Xu family. In such a cold day, the Xu family was still willing to lend dry firewood to others, even though those people didn't have much contact with their family on weekdays.

Just when they were anxious and at a loss, Chen's voice came from the courtyard, "Yulan, let Daya and Xiaoxiang come in."

Daya and Xiaoxiang looked at each other, and hope rose in their hearts.

Sure enough, after entering the courtyard, Chen signaled Xiaoxiang to give her the backpack, went into the kitchen and filled a small basket with firewood, and handed it to Xiaoxiang: "These are all we have, so use it as it is."

Looking at the pieces of firewood, Xiaoxiang's tears welled up even more. "Thank you, thank you Aunt Chen, I...you..."

She was so happy that she was incoherent and didn't know what to say to express her gratitude.

"Okay, carry it back and grill it for your mother."

Xu Yulan was a little unhappy: "Mom, what will we do if we give them this? This is all we have left."

“Everyone has difficulties and needs help from others. When your father was bitten by a snake, it was with the help of everyone that he was sent to the hospital in time and saved his life.

Now that Xiaoxiangniang is ill, we will do whatever we can to help her. We have no elderly or young children at home, so we will get through this if we can hold on.”

Speaking of Xu Dahe being bitten by a snake, Xu Yulan couldn't say anything no matter how reluctant she was. After all, it was the busy farming season and only Xiaoxiang's uncle, aunt and Aunt Meihua were willing to accompany them to the county.

Xiaoxiang wiped her tears, imitated what was done in the opera, knelt on the ground, kowtowed deeply to Chen, and said: "I will never forget your kindness. If I can be of use to you someday, just give me a call..."

"Pfft!"

Chen was amused by her inappropriate way of thanking her. She couldn't help laughing and stretched out her hand to pull her up. "Hurry up and get up. It's winter now. It's not good to get cold air into your body. Go back quickly. Well, I have received your thanks."

Daya was stunned and felt a pain in the tip of her nose. As an outsider, Chen was worried that Xiaoxiang might get a cold while kneeling on the ground. She had been kneeling for so long and her grandmother didn't ask her to get up. She never thought about whether she would get frozen or develop a chronic illness.

Maybe, she didn't care. After all, she had stopped Song Yuan from going out these days, worried that he would catch a cold.

Xiaoxiang relied on Chen's strength to get up, and with her help, she carried the backpack on her back. After thanking her again, she hurried home.