After the family split up, my stepmother and scumbag father begged me to come home.

However, she didn't say these words.

Some things have to be done little by little. First, plant the seed of hope, then water it slowly. A child's heart is like a field of crops; you can't expect to harvest the grain the day after you sow the seeds.

"Let's go, let's go back first." Lin Qianqian turned around and started walking again. "I'll tell you what to do when we get home."

The basket swayed on her back, the cassava and wild vegetables huddled together, making a soft rustling sound.

Ding Xiaohu quickened his pace and caught up with her, walking side by side.

"Sister Qianqian".

"Um."

"Are those cassava balls sweet?"

"sweet."

"How sweet?"

Lin Qianqian thought for a moment: "It's even sweeter than today's honey."

Ding Xiaohu's eyes shone like two stars, and his steps were even lighter than when he went into the mountains.

Lin Yulong followed, his basket filled with bird eggs lined with several layers of wild vegetables, so they were perfectly intact and not a single one was broken.

The three people walked back along the way they came.

Sunlight filtered through the trees, slanting slightly more than in the morning, and its color changed from bright white to a warm orange-yellow. Their shadows were stretched very long, cast crookedly on the decaying leaves, like three roads leading home overlapping each other.

Lin Qianqian walked at the front, her mind already racing: how to make cassava starch, what size basin she needed, whether she had gauze, what to use to store it after drying, who to sell it to in town, and how to set the price...

She walked while thinking, her pace neither fast nor slow.

The two little ones behind me had already started discussing "what milk tea tastes like." One said it was sweet, and the other said it was both sweet and salty. After arguing for a while without reaching a conclusion, they finally decided to wait until it was made before judging.

Lin Qianqian listened to their chatter and a slight smile curved her lips.

That's life.

Chew it bite by bite, swallow it bite by bite.

Save the sweet things for later, and swallow the bitter ones too.

But as long as we can keep moving forward, there is still hope.

They didn't know that it was fortunate they didn't find anything today.

A storm is brewing quietly, like a small fire suppressed in a stove; it looks extinguished, but it's still glowing underneath, ready to ignite at the slightest breeze.

The cause was Widow Wang.

Yesterday on the mountain, she saw Lin Qianqian and her brother from afar. She didn't pay much attention at the time, but when she got back, she told others about it. She said she saw the two Lin children acting suspiciously on the mountain, looking for something. When they saw her, they covered their baskets and wouldn't let her see, like they were guarding against thieves.

The story was passed around a few times, with some additions and subtractions, until it finally reached Wang Hehua's ears and became—"The Lin Qianqian siblings dug up something valuable on the mountain, but they're hiding it tightly to avoid being seen."

Wang Hehua just returned from her parents' home yesterday, and hadn't even had a chance to sit down properly.

She only found out after she returned that during the time she was away, the two "bastard children" from the second wife's family had already been separated from their families.

The old house felt much quieter with two fewer people, but what annoyed her even more was that she had barely come back and hadn't even caught her breath when Old Mrs. Lin ordered her to make breakfast.

The stove was cold, the water tank was half empty, and no one was chopping firewood.

In the past, she wouldn't have had to do these chores. Although she looked down on the two women from the second wife's family, they still did all the work they were supposed to do.

Lin Qianqian would get up before dawn to start a fire, and although Lin Yulong was young, he could carry firewood, hand out bowls, and help out.

Free labor, little food, easy to use, she had long been used to it.

Now look what's happened, they just broke up like that.

Her mother-in-law is quite generous; the second wife moved out and lived separately. Why doesn't she care?

Wang Hehua grew angrier the more she thought about it, and the knife in her hand became heavier, making a "thump thump" sound as she chopped the cutting board.

She was just looking for a way to vent her anger when Widow Wang's words were like a tinderbox, handed right to her.

She wiped the water off her hands on her apron, then turned and went to the main room.