Three Women in the Cage

When Xinxin returned home that day, she found the front door open. She was wondering why her mother was home today, as she shouldn't be out working on the farm at this hour.

She walked in with doubts and found that her mother was not in the kitchen. She became even more confused. She walked in carefully and called out to her mother tentatively.

A weak reply came from the bedroom. Xinxin hurried over and saw her mother lying weakly on the bed, looking at Xinxin as she approached.

Xinxin didn't expect her mother to be sick. She asked in a panic, "Mom? Why are you sick? Are you feeling unwell?"

Yang Yu forced a smile and said: "I don't have a cold, I just feel weak all over and want to lie down in bed. Oh, it's all because of my body. I have delayed another day of farm work..."

Even in this state, my mother was still thinking about farm work. She said distressedly, "Mom, you should take care of your health first. There is always a lot of farm work to do. By the way, why do you feel so weak? Did you just start today?"

Yang Yu said bitterly, "Maybe it's because I eat vegetable leaves every day, which are not very nutritious, and my body can't handle it. I wanted to get up in the morning, but I just couldn't muster the strength, so I just lay there until now."

Fearing that Xinxin would worry, she comforted her, "It's okay, you've been lying down all day and you're feeling much better now. I'll get up right away and make you some food so you can eat and go to school."

As he said this, he was about to get up.

Xinxin quickly tried to dissuade her, "Mom, lie down quickly. You haven't eaten anything all day, and you're still worrying about me eating."

"Just take a good rest today. I'll go cook."

After Xinxin finished speaking, she walked out with red eyes. She knew in her heart that her mother had not eaten and still had to do farm work, so her body would be exhausted sooner or later!

She wanted her mother to eat some food and not just eat the meaningless vegetable leaves all the time.

But looking at the empty kitchen, there was nothing nutritious to eat except vegetables and sweet potatoes. What should she do in this poor situation?

Sighing, Xinxin still made a pot of green vegetable leaves.

After watching her mother finish the vegetable soup, she left reluctantly. She was worried about her mother's health on the way and was in a daze. She didn't know when she arrived at school.

I sat there blankly on the stool, like a soulless body, when suddenly there was a "click" and something fell. I lowered my head and found that it was my meal card.

He bent down woodenly to pick up the meal card, and suddenly thought of something, and tightened his grip on the card.

Soon it was noon and everyone rushed to the cafeteria. Suddenly a voice came, "Who can change my meal card? I don't want to go home for dinner today. I want to eat at school."

Xinxin turned around and saw Yang Jia, a day student, asking loudly to the classroom. She wanted to go over and switch with her, but changed her mind and gave up.

Yang Jia was notorious for his love of fighting in school, so he had to take the initiative to ask her for compensation, but she was afraid that she would not get the money.

Just as she was about to leave the classroom and look for someone else to exchange, Yang Jia suddenly called out to her, "Hey, do you have any money on your meal card? Can you buy me a meal?"

Xinxin was startled and quickly lowered her head and said, "There is no money in the card, I can't change it."

Yang Jia snorted, glared at her dissatisfiedly, and then muttered: "You don't even have money for a meal? I'm afraid you don't want to change it for me."

Xinxin lowered her head and said nothing. Yang Jia looked at her and thought that the head teacher usually cared about her very much. He didn't want to cause trouble and be criticized by Teacher Wu, so he wiped Xinxin's body and left angrily.

After Yang Jia left, Xinxin thought about trying her luck in the cafeteria. Coincidentally, she saw Tan Liu forgot her meal card in the dormitory, so she helped Tan Liu pay for a meal. Tan Liu wanted to say that she would use the meal card to pay for her next time, but Xinxin asked her for cash.

Tan Liu thought that he had to top up the money anyway, so he agreed to take the cash.

Xinxin took the cash she had earned and put it in her pocket excitedly. She thought to herself that she could buy a few pounds of noodles when she got home from school so that her mother wouldn't have to eat leaves and could replenish her body.

With excitement, I finally waited until school was over. As soon as the bell rang, Xinxin rushed out of the classroom impatiently.

On the way home, Xinxin passed by a family that specialized in making noodles. Their noodles were all handmade, cheap and delicious.

His home is on a hillside, and getting there requires passing through an alley that is rarely visited. Walking in it always gives people a dark feeling, and this kind of darkness inevitably leads to people raising a few local dogs, whether for protection or for their owners' company.

Sure enough, this family also raised local dogs. When Xinxin approached their house, two ferocious local dogs suddenly rushed out from inside, running towards her barking wildly. Xinxin was so scared that she turned around and ran without thinking, screaming as she ran.

Hearing Xinxin's cry, the owner came out of the house and shouted at the two dogs that were chasing and biting her.

Seeing the two dogs being driven away by their owner, Xinxin finally stopped to catch her breath, still in shock. After catching her breath, she stood a few meters away, tears of panic and fear in her eyes. She looked at the owner with grievance and resentment and shouted, "Old man, I want to buy a few pounds of noodles. Can you please let your dogs stay away? I'm scared."

She felt so wronged. She had finally earned some money and wanted to buy a few pounds of noodles, but a dog suddenly jumped out and frightened her so much that she ran away.

When she was escaping, she was unwilling to return empty-handed, but she was also afraid of being bitten by the dog. In the conflict between unwillingness and fear, she screamed and cried in grievance.

At that time, she screamed and begged the owner to come out so that she could buy a few pounds of noodles.

Sure enough, the owner of the house heard it, otherwise, she wouldn’t know how to get home today.

Standing a few meters away, she looked at her master with grievance and pity.

The owner of the house was an elderly man. He smiled and said, "Come, don't be afraid! I'm here to protect you."

After saying that, he chased the local dogs to the back house and approached them slowly with trepidation. The closer she got, the closer the local dogs in the house howled. Xinxin was afraid that they would ignore the old man's scolding and rush out again to chase and bite her.

But she couldn't give up. She wanted to buy a few pounds of noodles and bring them back to her mother.

She suppressed her fear and pleaded as she walked, "Old man, please don't let the dog out. I'm scared."

The owner was finally amused by Xinxin's appearance. In order to reassure her, the owner patted his chest and assured her: "Don't worry, they won't dare to act recklessly with me here..."

Sure enough, with the owner's guarantee, Xinxin felt relieved and slowly came to the owner's yard.

Looking at the noodles hanging all over the yard, she felt a sense of simplicity and naturalness. She carefully looked at them and selected the thicker and wider noodles. The old man filled a bag for her.

He handed it to her cheerfully and said: "Take this noodles back and try it. I guarantee you'll be satisfied! You can't buy it outside..."

Xinxin happily walked out of the alley with the noodles. The dog was still barking in the distance. Xinxin was holding the bag, afraid that the local dog would chase her, so she hurriedly ran down the mountain.

"Huff huff," after a while, she finally ran down the mountain, she was already out of breath from exhaustion.

She stood there for a long time to calm down. She didn't want to buy a few pounds of noodles and made herself so embarrassed. She felt really useless. She would never dare to tell her mother such an embarrassing thing. It was too shameful.

Feeling annoyed, Xinxin walked towards home and soon arrived home.