Chapter Thirteen: You Are All Mother's Children

Yunshuang's mind cleared in an instant.

She sat up abruptly and scooped up the little girl who had curled into a ball like a small potato, her cheeks flushed red. Her voice trembled, “Er Ya, what’s wrong?”

By now, dawn was just breaking outside. The autumn morning was cold and chilly winds slipped through the cracks in their roof, mercilessly biting their skin.

Yunshuang didn’t care about the cold. She wrapped Er Ya, who could only utter “It hurts,” tightly in a blanket, then quickly changed into a set of clothes.

At this moment, Gou Dan was also startled awake. He rushed to Er Ya’s side, calling her name anxiously, “Er Ya, Er Ya! What’s wrong? Please… please don’t scare me…”

As he spoke, his voice began to break with sobs.

Yunshuang finished getting ready to leave, then went over and picked Er Ya up, trying to steady her voice as she told Gou Dan, “I’m taking Er Ya to see the doctor. You stay and look after the house.”

There was no doctor in the village. Usually, they had to wait for a traveling physician to pass through, or make the trip to the county town to seek medical help.

Fortunately, Changsheng Village wasn’t far from the nearest county seat, Shanyang. By wagon, the journey took just a little over half an hour.

But her family had no carriage. When the original owner had been ill, she’d managed to tag along with others heading to town, or taken advantage when another villager brought a doctor back.

Most of the time, she had simply endured her sickness.

As for these two children, the original owner scarcely remembered them falling ill, apart from the occasional minor ailment. Thinking back now, that in itself was unusual.

When Gou Dan heard her, he bit his lip and shook his head firmly. “No! I want to stay with Er Ya!”

Yunshuang understood his feelings, but she hadn’t the energy to argue. She only said, “Then hurry and put on more clothes—it’s cold this morning,” and stepped out with Er Ya in her arms.

The neighbor, Sister Hua, had a donkey cart. She could only ask Sister Hua for a ride.

As luck would have it, she ran into Sister Hua just as she came out, carrying a basin of dirty water. Seeing Yunshuang with the child wrapped tightly in a blanket, her face ashen, Sister Hua was startled and quickly realized something was wrong. She hurried forward, “Shuangniang, what happened—?”

“Sister Hua, Er Ya is sick. Can you take us to town in your donkey cart? She needs a doctor right away!”

Sister Hua quickly reached out to feel Er Ya’s forehead and gasped, “Oh no, she’s burning up! Shuangniang, don’t worry—I’ll get Old Li to take you both to town right now!”

People in the village rose early. Sister Hua hurried inside and dragged Old Li, who hadn’t finished his breakfast, out to ready the cart.

Old Li was an honest farmer, not much of a talker, but reliable in a pinch. Hearing about Yunshuang’s trouble, he said nothing and went to bring out the donkey cart immediately. Yunshuang carefully laid Er Ya on the cart. Gou Dan scrambled up beside her, his eyes never leaving his sister.

After climbing aboard herself, Yunshuang looked at Sister Hua with deep gratitude. “Sister Hua, thank you. I truly don’t know how I can ever repay you…”

“Don’t talk about that now! Go on, hurry! The child’s health is what matters!” Sister Hua stepped forward to urge Old Li to get moving, and called out to her eldest daughter-in-law to fetch a thicker blanket for Yunshuang and the children.

The autumn wind of the northern morning was nothing to trifle with. If Er Ya was already sick, the other two couldn’t afford to fall ill as well.

That would truly be a disaster.

Yunshuang wrapped herself and the children in the blanket Sister Hua lent them, holding Er Ya tightly in her arms. From time to time, she would gently wipe the beads of sweat from the child’s forehead.

After all this, Er Ya slowly regained some awareness. She opened her feverish, exhausted eyes with effort, uneasily biting her cracked lips and murmured weakly, “Mother, I’m sorry, I got sick…”

Yunshuang froze, hugging her even tighter, forcing a smile. “Why are you apologizing, Er Ya? It’s not your fault for falling ill.”

It was her fault.

These two children had never had enough to eat for years; their bodies must be terribly frail. And yet, she let them eat so much at once—how could their stomachs bear it?

She was an adult, after all. Last night’s meal had just satisfied her, but for them, it was far too much.

And with the weather turning colder, the family had only a single patched, thin blanket. The past two nights, the three of them huddled together just to keep from freezing.

But it was only she who didn’t feel cold. The truth was, her grown body was no comparison for such small children.

She had never cared for children this young before, and the memories of the original owner were of little help. She had made a grave mistake.

Last night, she had thought that with those two taels of silver, their lives would slowly improve.

Now she realized, their situation allowed for no gradual improvement at all. The precarious hardships bearing down on them could erupt at any moment. Perhaps she could still struggle through, but the children could not.

“Mother…”

The anxiety on Er Ya’s face had not faded; her eyes reddened as she spoke, “Will you abandon me? When Niuniu in the village got sick, her grandmother said… they had no money for treatment, so they… left her behind… I never saw Niuniu again…”

“Mother, please don’t leave me. I’ve tried… so hard not to get sick…”

Yunshuang’s heart twisted, not with pain, but with an unbearable ache.

Gou Dan immediately chimed in, “Er Ya, I will never leave you, never!”

Yunshuang reached out to brush back Er Ya’s sweat-dampened hair, speaking softly, “Your brother is right. How could I ever abandon you? You and your brother are my children—I could never love you enough. Don’t think such things. Close your eyes and rest.”

Er Ya studied her mother’s face for a moment, and seeing she was not lying, her lips curled in a small, contented smile and she closed her eyes in relief.

Yet her tiny hand, clutching Yunshuang’s clothing, never let go.

Old Li drove them to Shanyang County as swiftly as he could, so in less than half an hour they arrived. When he asked which clinic to go to, Yunshuang replied, “Uncle Li, please take us to Tongxin Hall. Thank you for your trouble!”

Old Li glanced at her, as if he wanted to say something but held back, finally only nodding.

Yunshuang understood well enough. Shanyang County, sitting on the border, was constantly threatened by war. Most ordinary people were reluctant to live here. Those who remained were mostly military households or those too poor to move.

So the town was not prosperous, with few good clinics. Of the two reputable ones—Tongxin Hall and Huayang Pavilion—Tongxin Hall’s fees were more transparent.

Old Li’s hesitation was likely out of concern that she might not have enough money to pay for Er Ya’s treatment.