country bumpkin

At Kong Xiujuan's house in Yicheng, chaos erupted again, with chickens running wild and dogs barking and squawking.

The reason was that Kong Xiujuan bought a bag of calcium milk biscuits, gave five pieces to Sun Limei, five pieces to Yunya, and gave the rest of the bag to Sun Guoqiang.

Yunya felt that her mother was being unfair, so she started making a fuss. Actually, Yunya wasn't particularly greedy and just wanted to eat a few more cookies.

Don't forget the treats the teacher gave out on Children's Day; Yunya saved more than half of them for her younger brother.

She resented her mother's favoritism; Kong Xiujuan always gave the best food to her son first, and only shared a small portion with her two daughters.

Sun Limei was used to this way of sharing food at home, but Yunya, who had been back for so long, still wasn't used to it.

She felt that even if her mother divided things fairly, she could still give her share to her younger brother so that she could feel at peace.

At this moment, Yunya cried out in grievance, "Mom, am I not your biological daughter? Why do you always dislike me? How can you live with yourself by being so biased?"

Kong Xiujuan was furious: "What, you think you're in charge of the family now? Guoqiang is your younger brother, he's the youngest, you should all give way to him. He's our family's only son, if you were a boy, we wouldn't have wanted your brother."

Yun Ya shouted angrily, "So what if he's a boy? What's so great about him? You don't like that I'm a girl? Then why didn't you send my sister away too? You only sent me away. You owe me this, and you're still being biased."

Enraged, Kong Xiujuan grabbed Yun Ya's arm, pulled her behind her waist, and bent down to slap her buttocks hard several times.

Yunya cried out, "You don't want me, so why did you bring me back? You don't care about me when I come back, so I don't want to come back at all!"

Kong Xiujuan exploded like a firecracker, roaring, "If we had known you were like this, we should have strangled you long ago! What are you doing here? You're just a troublemaker!"

Yunya kept chattering: "Strangle me? Humph! Murder is against the law, you won't get away with strangling me either."

Kong Xiujuan was so enraged by Yun Ya's words that she was practically fuming. She then increased the force of her blows, lashing Yun Ya's buttocks hard.

After she finished hitting Yunya, Kong Xiujuan released her and took her son to the yard, completely ignoring Yunya's cries.

Sun Limei was startled by the atmosphere and quickly sat quietly to the side, not daring to say a word for fear of being implicated and beaten.

Holding the remaining half-pack of biscuits, Sun Guoqiang followed his mother into the yard.

Once inside the courtyard, Kong Xiujuan continued making cotton-padded jackets, while Sun Guoqiang sat on a low stool eating biscuits.

Today is Saturday, so there's no school. After crying her fill in the house, Yunya put on her schoolbag and took her savings (given by her maternal grandmother) to her aunt's house.

She had been wanting to visit her third aunt's house for a long time, but hadn't had the chance yet. This time, she would go secretly without telling her mother, to see if her mother would be anxious.

Thinking this, Yunya left the room. Kong Xiujuan saw Yunya walking out with her schoolbag on her back and assumed she was going to Sun Fei's house across the street to do her homework, so she ignored her.

Yunya successfully crossed the courtyard and arrived at the shop behind Gao Qinglian's house. She called her third aunt and told her that she was going to take the bus and asked her to meet her at the bus stop.

After making the call, Yunya, carrying her schoolbag and holding her aunt's address, waited for the bus at the bus stop.

The bus stop is just 10 meters south of the shop. Yunya looked at the map on the bus stop sign and waited patiently.

While waiting for the bus, Gao Qinglian saw Yun Ya, but she was busy selling steamed buns and didn't have time to pay attention to her.

About 10 minutes later, the bus arrived. Yunya looked at a sign hanging in front of the bus window that read bus number 13.

Once she confirmed it was the right bus, Yunya quickly ran onto it. Several other people boarded at the same stop.

Seeing that there were quite a lot of people, Yunya quickly found a seat near the front. She didn't want to go to the back; the further back she went, the more likely she was to get carsick.

She won't get carsick even if we don't travel far. However, we should still be careful.

Once on the bus, the ticket seller started collecting money. Yunya needed to ride for five stops, each stop costing one mao (0.1 yuan), so five stops would cost five mao (0.5 yuan).

Even at such a price, many people are still reluctant to take the car.

The car kept stopping and starting, and the journey that took half an hour by bicycle took the same amount of time by bus.

When we arrived at the department store and farmers' market near my aunt's house, the bus stopped in front of the bus stop and waited for everyone who was supposed to get off to disembark before slowly driving away.

As soon as Yunya got off the bus, she saw her third aunt, Kong Xiufen, standing there waiting for her.

Yunya was overjoyed and ran over, shouting, "Third Aunt, Third Aunt, I missed you so much!"

Kong Xiufen saw Yun Ya running over happily and said with a smile, "Oh my, it's only been a few days, and our old glutton has grown taller!"

Yunya wasn't angry at all when she heard the nickname her third aunt gave her; instead, she felt a sense of closeness to it.

Kong Xiufen took Yunya's hand and led her back to her home. Her home was only 7 meters south of the bus stop, very close.

Yunya felt a warm glow in her heart as her aunt held her hand.

As she approached the main gate, Kong Xiufen stopped and bought a bag of sponge cakes and two other pastries from the cake shop across the street.

Yunya's eyes crinkled with laughter when she saw the delicious food. Kong Xiufen paid for it and carried the treats home.

As Yunya walked, she talked to her third aunt. Kong Xiufen asked her, "Yunya, did you tell your mother about your visit to my house?"

Yunya hesitated and stammered, unwilling to answer. Kong Xiufen immediately understood; she hadn't told her older sister that Yunya had come to her house.

Kong Xiufen said, "If you don't tell your mother that you're visiting your third aunt's house and won't be going home tonight, they'll be worried."

Yun Ya pouted, "Hmph, she's not worried about me at all! She has an eldest daughter and a youngest son, why would she care whether I live or die?"

Kong Xiufen sensed something was up and asked, "What happened? Did you get into a fight and get beaten up, and then sneaked here?"

Yunya was stunned by her aunt's insightful words. Her aunt was truly amazing; she had so many tricks up her sleeve. No wonder she was so good at business!

Kong Xiufen then advised, "Yunya, if you want to stay overnight at my house and play for another day, you must tell your mother, otherwise they will be worried sick."

Yun Ya said dismissively, "They don't care about me at all. When I went out with my schoolbag, she didn't even ask me where I was going. She ignored me completely."

Kong Xiufen firmly said, "No, you have to listen to me. Otherwise, I'll send you back this afternoon."

Yunya had no choice but to compromise and said, "Alright, Third Aunt, I'll do whatever you say."

Kong Xiufen asked, "What's the phone number for that shop on the corner? I need to ask them if they can send a message to your mother."

Yunya said, "We should go. We often buy things from her store, we know each other and we're old neighbors."