Granny Zuo waved her hand, "No need to be so polite with Granny. Your father and mother used to help our family a lot. If you don't accept this, it'd hurt the relationship between our two families, and Granny can't allow that. Oh, here, eat a cake first. I made it fresh this morning, it's still soft, hurry and eat it while it's hot. Poor child, you must be hungry, right?"
Qixun thought so too, and she really was hungry, so she didn't stand on ceremony anymore. She took the palm-sized cake and started nibbling on it.
Bread made from unleavened dough, to Qixun who could recall all kinds of delicacies from her previous life, really didn't taste great, but in the countryside, this already counted as the finest food. The wheat aroma was strong, and the unique sweetness of wheat made Qixun, who was hungry, salivate, so how could she possibly dislike it?
Her heart was full of gratitude toward Granny Zuo. As she ate, she smiled and said, "Granny's cakes always smell the best."
Granny Zuo patted her head affectionately and said, "Eat slowly, Granny will get you a bowl of porridge. Warm up your stomach."
There was still a clay jar in the basket, with mixed grain porridge inside, and two clean bowls as well.
Her family's pots and bowls hadn't been burned, but they were all covered in soot and hadn't been cleaned yet.
Granny Zuo waited for her to finish her porridge and didn't tidy up the bowls, figuring she'd still need them for another couple of days. She let her lie in bed and told her not to get up; if she got sick at a time like this, it'd be no joke.
Qixun obediently agreed. Granny Zuo helped her tuck in the quilt before putting on her raincoat and leaving the room. "I'll go back for now. If anything happens, just call out. I can hear from my house."
Once Granny Zuo left the yard, Qixun lay on the bed wrapped in the ragged quilt, not wanting to move at all. Just a little movement made the straw underneath creak, and the sound of autumn rain outside had absolutely none of that poetic beauty of "rain on withered lotus," instead, mixed with the autumn chill, it only made her feel all the more bleak.
She hadn't been lying there long before she slowly drifted off to sleep, only to be woken by the sound of someone entering the yard.
Qixun rubbed her eyes and hurriedly pushed open the wooden window to look outside, to see that the rain had stopped. Her sister and little sister in this life were following behind an old man and a young man into the yard.
The sturdy man of about fifty leading the way was her uncle Zeng's eldest son, Yan Hongyun, whom she should call Granduncle. The teenager next to Granduncle, carrying the shoulder pole, looked about fifteen or sixteen, tall and thin, with delicate and handsome features. He was Granduncle's eldest grandson—her older cousin, Yan Lingzhou.
Trailing behind the two was a slender, pretty girl with especially bright almond-shaped eyes—her older sister, Yan Lingsu. The little girl beside her, frowning as if deeply worried, was her twin sister, Yan Lingyu.
In her previous life, Qixun was an only child. Both her parents were in the military. Her mother died on a mission when she was three; her father didn't remarry and was too busy with work to take care of her. She was raised by her unreliable uncle, who was a CEO.
However, her uncle married late, only getting married because of a child when she was about fifteen or sixteen. Her little cousin was sixteen years younger than her, the age gap so big that he felt like the next generation. Even when she lived to thirty-eight and still felt young at heart, always busy in a lab like a dog, she barely had any experience spending time with her little cousin.
The memories from these few years in this life couldn't compare to the decades in her last one.
Seeing her older sister and little sister right now, it felt pretty magical; all her worries before sleep vanished into thin air.
Happily, she jumped out of bed and ran to the main room door to greet her granduncle. "Qixun greets Granduncle."
Then she grinned at her cousin and sisters, "Brother Lingzhou, Sis, Little Five."
Granduncle Yan Hongyun shook off the mud on his shoes at the door, came in first, and saw Qixun wearing only thin underclothes. He frowned, touching her head. "Why are you just in your underclothes? I heard from your sister you fainted yesterday. Are you feeling better now?"
She'd been sleeping when the fire started, got smoked out and fainted, and was carried out by her second brother. That's why she was only in her underclothes; everyone else managed to grab their clothes, otherwise the whole family probably wouldn't have been able to step out today.
"I'm fine. I had a slight fever before but feel much better now."
"Go lie down in bed quickly. If you get cold, you'll just make your mother worry for nothing."
Yan Hongyun looked around the house, frowning as he instructed, "This house has been empty for years, it's really dilapidated. When your mother comes back, you all should move to my place. We'll tidy up a room for you and your sisters, and let your second brother and Brother Zhouu share another room."
There were five people in their household. Living at someone else's place would really be inconvenient.
Qixun hadn't answered yet when Third Sister Lingsu, who was scraping mud off her shoes at the threshold, quickly said, "We can just wait for Mom and Second Brother to come back and clean up. It'll be fine."
Yan Hongyun didn't insist, deciding to discuss again when his nephew's wife came home.
Meanwhile, Brother Lingzhou had already put down the load he was carrying, picked up Qixun, and set her on the bed inside, tucking her in and scolding with a smile, "If you don't have outer clothes, you should stay put in bed. If you get sick and cry again, I won't have any silver coin to buy you sweets to coax you."
The action of picking up wasn't very harmful, but it was highly insulting.
Thinking back to her childhood in her previous life, both her dad and her uncle loved to carry her like this. Qixun couldn't help but roll her eyes, but since it was really cold, she curled up obediently on the bed.
There wasn't anywhere else to sit in the room, so Yan Lingzhou said, "Grandpa, I only brought some grain and two quilts over. Looks like they have nothing here. How about I go back again to get Qixun some clothes? She can't stay like this. And also, we should bring more firewood, bowls, chopsticks, and some oil and salt."
Yan Hongyun waved his hand, "Carry Qixun on your back, let's head home first. This house is like an ice cave, and Qixun's ill, she can't stay here."
Granduncle's house wasn't spacious either. Uncle Zeng lived with him; his own three sons hadn't split off yet. His sons had eight kids among them, so in their small two-courtyard house, nearly twenty people lived together.
If their family moved in, it really wouldn't be convenient.
Lingsu quickly said, "Granduncle, there's really no need. I'll light a brazier in the room for Qixun to warm up. Plus, didn't Brother Lingzhou just bring over some quilts? Mom will be back this afternoon. Little Five and I can tidy up the house in the meantime. No need to bring firewood either—there's almost half a room of it in the west house, and our old back room wasn't burned, there's more wood there. Oil and salt aren't needed either, Mom and Second Brother went to town to buy them. Once these three rooms are cleaned up, we can stay in them. When the weather clears, we'll tidy up the hearths. Once winter comes and the kang is lit, it won't be cold."
Seeing the little girls refused to move, Yan Hongyun sighed. With the eldest nephew in the Capital City and not back until after the yearly exams, that's at least half a year away. After that fire, the family lost everything. How could their days be easy after that? There was no way not to help them some.
Luckily, most families in Yan Family Village were relatives, so these kids wouldn't be left to starve or freeze no matter what.