Three Women in the Cage

Xinxin carried the loaded sweet potatoes home. When she got there, she poured out all the sweet potatoes. Looking at these big and small sweet potatoes, she didn't know how to cut them into small pieces!

Usually my mother cuts it into very fine pieces, but it’s obviously not up to standard now!

Xinxin had no choice but to take a knife and try to cut the sweet potatoes into pieces. She held the knife handle with both hands and chopped it down. With a "crackling" sound, she actually cut off a few sweet potatoes!

This way of exerting force was simple and quick. Xinxin held the knife and chopped it down continuously. Obviously, there was no method in her operation, and the pieces of sweet potato flew everywhere!

Xinxin had no choice but to move her steps, pick up the scattered fragments with her hands, pile them together, and chop them down again!

But my hands are getting more and more numb, and the sweet potatoes are still in pieces here and there. I really don’t know how my mother and sister were able to cook them so delicately in the past!

After mechanically repeating the movements, my right hand became sore, so I switched to my left hand. I don’t know how long it took, but I finally managed to cut the sweet potatoes into finer pieces!

Put the food into the pot little by little, then put on the fire and cook.

After the food for the two stinky pigs was cooked into the pot, the clock on the wall had already pointed to eleven o'clock, but the food was not ready yet!

Xinxin turned and walked towards the rice jar, reaching down to grab the rice bucket to fill it with rice, but she couldn't get any rice in! Xinxin was puzzled, how could there be no rice?

I threw the rice bucket aside and reached into the bottom of the rice jar. It turned out there was no rice at all! The food that had once been plentiful was now not even enough to feed the whole family!

Xinxin used her hands to scoop out the rice from the bottom of the jar bit by bit, and finally managed to get a small bucket of rice. She thought that this amount of rice would definitely not be enough to cook dry rice, but she had to cook it.

After much thought, I decided to add more water and cook a pot of porridge! It should be enough for her and her mother to eat!

I just don’t know if drinking porridge is enough for my mother to replenish her energy after working so hard!

With a sense of worry, Xinxin drained the bucket of rice, poured it into the pot, then added two scoops of well water and covered the lid!

After the fire was lit, I listened to the water in the pot slowly boiling and emitting a fragrant aroma. I opened the lid and took a look. The original water had been evaporated a lot, and the porridge in the pot seemed to have decreased a bit!

I'm afraid it's not enough for one person, so I'd better add some water, or even just drink some rice soup with a fragrant smell!

She added two more buckets of well water, and watched the rice slowly blend into the well water, slowly turning into a thick soup, and then a faint fragrance came!

I looked at the cooked porridge with satisfaction and carefully put it in a large porcelain bowl! A large bowl full of fragrant porridge was brought to the dining table!

Xinxin covered it with a lid, sat in front of the stove where pig food was cooked, added firewood to it, and burned her hands while doing so!

Seeing the clock on the wall pointing to twelve o'clock, her mother should be back soon. She kept her eyes on the door while she was lighting the fire, hoping that her mother would show up soon!

Half an hour passed and her mother still didn't show up outside. She heard a "gurgling" sound. Xinxin looked down and found that she was hungry. She touched her stomach and looked at the porridge on the table which was no longer steaming!

She swallowed her saliva. She really wanted to drink a sip. Otherwise, she could fill a bowl for herself and leave the rest for her mother.

But my mother should be back soon. There is not much porridge to begin with. If I serve a bowl of it to others first, I don’t know how much less it will be.

Mom won’t have enough to eat! And it doesn’t look good! Let’s just wait for Mom to come back and eat together! We’ve already waited so long, so it doesn’t matter if we wait a little longer!

But the porridge was cold, and Mom would definitely want to drink hot porridge when she came back! Xinxin carefully carried the big bowl of porridge and put it into the pot which was still warm!

Cover the lid and warm up the bowl of porridge!

After doing all this, Xinxin sat back on the stool and continued to warm the fire while waiting for her mother!

Just when she was feeling sleepy from hunger, there was finally a noise at the door. Yang Yu hurried in, his body covered in wet mud!

"Third sister? Is the meal ready? I'm so hungry!" Yang Yu asked anxiously, walking towards the stove!

Xinxin listened to her mother's voice and knew that her mother must be very hungry at this time, so she quickly replied, "It's cooked and is warming in the pot..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Yu opened the lid of the pot!

Looking at the bowl of porridge, he showed a puzzled expression and asked, "How can you cook porridge without any oil or water? How can you fill your stomach?"

Xinxin hurriedly explained, "Mom, there's no rice at home, so I cleared out the rice from the bottom of the jar. I thought that cooking dry rice wouldn't be enough, so I cooked porridge!"

Yang Yu hadn't realized they were out of rice. He was a little surprised and asked, "No rice? You're eating so fast? You're having trouble even having enough to eat and eat now?"

She sighed. Now that the children are getting older, the food can no longer satisfy their appetite!

But now she was really hungry. Even this little bit of porridge was full of temptation. She thought of filling her stomach first!

He sighed and said, "Let's just have porridge! I'll pick some more vegetables later and boil them in water!"

After saying that, he took out the bowl of porridge, then raised his head and gulped down the porridge in big gulps! He didn't even have time to pick up a pair of chopsticks, nor did he think to ask Xinxin if she had eaten yet!

Xinxin was stunned as she watched the porridge being finished in seconds! She watched her mother put the empty bowl on the stove and go into the inner room. She couldn't even say a word, as she hadn't eaten yet!

She felt a little aggrieved. Her mother hadn't even asked her if she had eaten yet. Did she think she had already eaten, and that the food still warm in the pot was reserved just for her?

Xinxin felt mixed emotions for the moment. She didn't want to explain anything now. Otherwise, her mother wouldn't be able to make a bowl of porridge, and it would make her feel guilty instead!

Mom was too tired and too hungry. She must have needed that bowl of porridge more than herself. She just thought she had eaten it, so she didn't ask herself! Xinxin comforted herself!

She touched her protesting belly, and tears flowed uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

The salty taste slid into her mouth. She licked it with her tongue and swallowed it, as if it could satisfy her hunger!

Later, my mother didn’t ask how the sweet potatoes were pulled out of the pot, because she didn’t know that the sweet potatoes that were brought out earlier had been used up!

Xinxin didn't tell her what she had done, nor did she say how difficult it was to do those things!

Because no one will ask her, and no one will listen to her!

And her loving mother would just think that everything is so normal!

She also knew that what she had done was nothing compared to what her mother had done. It was not worth mentioning!

I don’t know why, my heart is empty, she never smiles again, her face is always droopy, her eyes are getting sadder and sadder, she doesn’t want to open her mouth anymore, to say a word about loneliness or sadness!