There are also cornbread buns, why haven't they been brought out?
"Save the cornbread buns for tomorrow morning."
"Half a bowl of porridge is enough for the evening."
The children's words left Ye Yunniang feeling both helpless and perplexed. She couldn't understand why her two sons were being so frugal with themselves.
"Don't be so hard on yourselves. There's food at home," Ye Yunniang explained once again.
"I know there is, but our classmates at school—"
"Don't mention your classmates. Say another word, and you're not going to school tomorrow." Ye Yunniang was truly fed up with the school lately. They weren't focusing on their studies properly, just constantly comparing who had it worse.
Looking at the two of them, so thin their faces had lost their plumpness, Ye Yunniang felt both heartache and frustration.
"Your whole school is full of people going hungry. I don't believe there isn't a single one who eats their fill."
"There are. Jindou and Jingao eat quite well every day." Thinking of the meat bun Jindou had shared with him, he couldn't help but swallow.
"Du Cheng also eats pretty well."
"You two already eat poorly enough. It's always wilted vegetables every day, cornbread buns that scratch your throat, and porridge so thin you can see your reflection. Other families eat like that because they have no choice, they have no grain. We have food at home. Why on earth do you two insist on making our family live so bitterly?" Ye Yunniang truly couldn't comprehend Li Pan and Li An's thinking.
"Mother, we're going to sleep at night, eating more is just a waste," Li An offered an explanation.
"Yeah, once we're asleep, we won't feel hungry anymore," Li Pan added.
"Not hungry, huh? Then just don't eat at all." Angry, Ye Yunniang picked up the bowls of porridge in front of them and placed them on the stove. She turned, sat down, and lowered her head to drink the porridge from her own bowl.
After finishing it in a few gulps, Ye Yunniang rinsed her bowl, took the hot water from the stove to wash up, and returned to her room, ignoring her two sons still sitting in the kitchen.
After washing, she lay down to rest.
Knock, knock, knock... The sound of knocking came at the door.
"Mother, can we come in?" Although they asked, the two children had already entered the room.
"Mother, we were wrong," Li An apologized.
"Mother~ Don't ignore us. We were wrong." Li Pan came to the bedside and grasped Ye Yunniang's hand.
Ye Yunniang pulled her hand back and turned to face the wall.
Li Pan looked back at Li An. What should we do?
Li An walked to the bed, took off his shoes, climbed over Ye Yunniang, and lay down facing her.
"Mother."
Ye Yunniang didn't want to look at Li An, so she turned over, now facing Li Pan who was lying there.
She slid down under the covers, pulling the quilt over her head.
Li Pan and Li An exchanged a glance and simply burrowed their way in.
"You two, get out."
Li Pan and Li An said in unison, "No, we want to sleep with Mother tonight."
"I don't want to sleep with you two. Get out."
"We won't go out. Mother, don't send us away."
"Mother, we were wrong. Please be magnanimous and forgive us."
"Mother, we'll listen to you from now on."
"Yes, we'll listen to Mother."
"Really? You'll listen to me?"
"Yes, we'll listen."
"Then get out first."
"No."
"You just said you'd listen to me, and now you're disobeying?"
Li An and Li Pan hesitated, then got out.
Ye Yunniang sat up, leaning against the headboard, arms crossed.
"Tell me, why are you being so hard on yourselves?"
Li Pan and Li An looked at each other and began to explain the whole story.
One day on their way home from school, Xu Dalei and Xu Erlei stopped them to apologize, saying they shouldn't have distanced themselves.
After all, they had played together for several years, and both Li Pan and Li An felt reluctant to lose them.
They agreed to be with the Xu brothers again and consciously kept it from Ye Yunniang.
So, Li Pan and Li An started playing with the Xu brothers again, and along with the two Jin brothers, the six of them spent every day together, even having lunch together.
Teacher Du's school had a canteen, but due to the drought and difficulty buying grain, the canteen wasn't providing meals.
Students brought their own lunches, and the canteen offered a heating service.
Bringing their own meals meant each family's food situation was on display.
Before, both the Li and Jin families were willing to spend on raising their children. The children from both families brought lunches with meat and vegetables, sharing with each other when they ate together. Everyone thought it was fine.
But when they started eating with the Xu brothers and saw the sweet potatoes and cornbread buns in their lunch boxes, and listened to them talk about the meals of other classmates, the four of them realized their own food was good, even somewhat conspicuous.
Eating together, the Xu brothers had poor food, while they had good food. Sharing meant they were at a disadvantage. Especially since Xu Erlei had a big mouth and talked about it outside.
Come lunchtime, others would crowd over, suggesting they all share.
Li Pan and Li An couldn't stand it—the meals their mother had carefully prepared for them being snatched away by classmates.
So they asked Ye Yunniang to switch to making cornbread buns for them to take to school. At the same time, they spread the word that their family was running low on grain.
Their actions made some people stop eyeing them, but a few with thick skin would still come over at mealtime, shamelessly begging or even grabbing.
Because of this, Li Pan and Li An even got into fights. However, they were stopped by the teacher on duty at the school, who punished each of them to copy 50 pages of large characters. As Teacher Du said, if they had the energy to fight, they couldn't be that hungry.
Li Pan and Li An didn't dare fight anymore, but seeing those shameless people still trying to mooch off their food made them deeply unhappy. Finally, Li An proposed a solution: if you can't beat them, join them.
They would be poorer than others, more shameless than others, and go mooch off other people's food.
Sure enough, this tactic worked. No one asked to eat with them anymore.
Some people, unable to bear their shamelessness, said privately that they were acting this way because Xu Erlei had put them up to it.
Not exactly 'put them up to it,' but Xu Erlei had said in front of them that the Li family ran a shop and did business, so they had money, and at home there were only a widow and her daughter-in-law.
Bothering Li Pan and Li An wouldn't lead to any trouble.
"So we went to confront Xu Erlei. At first he tried to deny it, but after I mentioned the specific time and place, he admitted it." Li Pan still felt hurt saying this. Xu Erlei had been his closest playmate for as long as he could remember.
"Erlei, why would he say such things?" Ye Yunniang didn't understand.
"He said it was to get back at us. He said we betrayed him by playing with Jindou." Li An recalled Xu Erlei's words.
"But it was his mother who drove us away and forbade us from playing together!" Li Pan thought of before, when Liang Maimiao wouldn't let them go to the Xu house, saying harsh things. He felt a sense of wronged injustice.
"Don't play with those two anymore from now on," Ye Yunniang frowned.
"We don't associate with them now. It's just that they keep talking about our family—" Li Pan couldn't continue.
"Talking about our family how?"
"They say my brother and I eat poorly every day, but there's the smell of meat at home, saying you're favoring Pingping.
They say they've heard a man's voice at home, that you have a lover, Mother. They also say they've heard crying, suspecting Grandmother is having a baby." Li An took over, relaying everything the Xu brothers had said.
"An, why did you say everything?" Li Pan was anxious.
"How did he hear crying?" Ye Yunniang was suspicious.
"He heard it before when he came to our house to play. He went to the backyard and heard crying from Grandmother's room." Li Pan explained, then added with concern, "Mother, what if they find out about Grandmother and Little Aunt's situation?"
"You don't need to worry about your grandmother's affairs," Ye Yunniang reassured them.
"But if people find out Grandmother is keeping a young lover, what will happen to Little Aunt in the future?"
