She Only Cares About Cultivation

"Who can say for sure, but since Sister An Yi said so, it must be true. Even if it’s not true, we don’t need to investigate further. After all, where she comes from doesn’t matter. What matters is, she’s truly sincere towards us. Look, she’s indifferent to the people in the village."

Qiuxia nodded, deeply agreeing: "That’s true. You can’t really call it indifference, it’s more like just nodding acquaintanceship. She never socializes, she’s too quiet."

Caihua laughed: "Sister An Yi isn’t quiet at all. She’s very happy when she’s at home. I’ve seen her many times singing and dancing, she’s so good at it. You can tell she’s an educated person."

Qiuxia then thought of a possibility: "Sister was once a young lady from a prominent family, how could she be like us? Her father was a hero of the Republic. There’s no mention of her mother, and her identity is so mysterious. Maybe her background wasn’t good, but it’s been smoothed over because of her father, so she doesn’t want to talk about it, which is understandable."

Caihua nodded, "Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. In our eyes, she’s just our sister, a sister who’s good to us."

"Since it’s Sister’s instructions, let’s be obedient and stop selling. We can sell for a few more days before the New Year, but once the heavy snow blocks the road, we’ll stop to prevent any incidents."

We thought this winter would pass peacefully like that, but who would have guessed, on the road to selling tofu, the two of us saw an Old Lady with a baby in her arms, and she just threw it into the grove. Then the sound of a baby crying came over.

They quickly ran over and grabbed the Old Lady: "Why did you throw the child away?"

"What do you want a girl for? To lead a miserable life like her mother? It’s already lucky I didn’t drown her in the chamber pot. Nowadays, people can’t even get enough to eat, why bring another burden? I want a grandson, not a worthless girl. If you can’t stand it, take her with you and find her a nice family, she was born on October eighth."

The Old Lady took one last look at the grove and finally left with gritted teeth. Caihua had already run to the grove when she turned away, picked up the baby, nestled in the snowy hollow.

"At least there’s some conscience, knowing to dig a windbreak for the child, otherwise she’d be blown to death if she was left there. How cruel, she’s so tiny, if you count the time, she hasn’t even finished her first-month confinement. How can someone be so heartless? What do we do, Sister?"

Li Qiuxia looked around, "In this freezing cold, there’s no one around. Leave her here for a while, and she’ll freeze to death. This is a human being, not livestock! Let’s put her on our cart first, maybe we’ll find someone willing to take her in, or we can borrow milk. We need to sell off this tofu first."

The two of them agreed instantly, but on their way back, there was no family willing to adopt a girl. Though a woman did feed the baby once. In the end, they returned to the village with the baby. Because of the cold, there weren’t many people on the road, but some still noticed.

"Oh my, where did you pick up this child? Doesn’t look like she’s even a month old, so tiny."

Qiuxia sighed: "We found her on the road, nobody wants her. We asked many families, but nobody was willing to adopt. So, we had no choice but to take her back."

As they spoke, the child started crying again in the swaddling cloth, Caihua rubbed her hands.

"Oh no, she must be hungry again. Hurry, go to Sister An’s, see if there’s anything to eat. We haven’t even lit the stove at home!"

To save firewood, the sisters always took out the fire whenever they went out, and reignite it when they got home. This way, they could save a lot of firewood, but the downside was, returning home felt like entering an ice cellar, so cold they kept stomping their feet.

Carrying the baby all the way back, their hands practically went numb from the cold.

When they arrived at the An family’s place, the nut circled around them twice and then walked away. Now, it was in free-range mode and would only bark at strangers. The sisters who often visited were already familiar, so it would only wag its tail to please them, as they’d bring a piece of tofu every time they visited. But this time, they brought nothing?

Oh, they did bring something, holding some noisy thing in their arms!

The nut wagged its tail and slipped into its own nest. Since winter came, its owner had set its nest near the hall wall because it was close to the stove, which gave off a bit of warmth, making it not too cold.

An Yi, who was kneading dough in the hall, suddenly heard the cry of a child and peeked her head out in surprise.

"How did you end up bringing a child home?"

"Sister, you’re amazing! How could you tell at a glance that we picked her up?"

"If you didn’t pick her up, did you steal her? In such cold weather, throwing away a child is truly heartless!"