"Dad, you must be hungry. Let’s get you up to eat," Bai Jiu said, the word "Dad" rolling naturally off her tongue the moment she walked in.
It was clear that she had wholeheartedly accepted the Bai Family.
"It’s Jiu’er. It really is Jiu’er." Father Bai had thought he was delirious from his illness. Now that he saw her in person, his anxiety finally melted away. "It’s good that you’re back. So good."
Bai Xingguo stepped forward to help him up, propping quilts and clothes behind his back so he could sit more comfortably.
"I’m back, Dad, so you can stop worrying. I’m doing perfectly fine." Bai Jiu knew exactly what Father Bai was fretting over. "I’ve been living well. Look, I’ve even put on some weight."
Over these past few days, not only had she nursed the children back to health, but she had also grown fairer and plumper herself.
Bai Jiu carefully served Father Bai his soup, feeding him spoonful by spoonful. Soon, the bowl was half-empty. She didn’t feed him the rest directly; instead, she poured it over his rice to soften it.
"Dad, have some chicken. It’s freshly stewed."
Eating the meal personally hand-fed by his daughter, Father Bai found the food incredibly appetizing. He finished it in no time, but feeling like he wasn’t quite full yet, he wanted more.
"You shouldn’t eat anymore. If you do, your stomach will hurt. We can have more later." Bai Jiu set the bowl down, acting completely blind to the grievance written all over the old man’s face.
"That’s right! Mom said we should eat small, frequent meals. That’s how we stay healthy," Xiuxiu, the clever little girl, immediately chimed in to support her mother.
Father Bai affectionately patted her small head. "Yes, our Xiuxiu is absolutely right. Grandpa will eat more later."
It had been so long since he had tasted something so delicious that he had momentarily given in to gluttony. A single meal brought Bai Jiu and her father much closer together.
Bai Xingguo’s eyes turned red at the heartwarming sight. It had been far too long since their home was filled with such joy and laughter.
Meanwhile, Mother Bai returned home with her second son. The closer they got to their house, the stronger the mouth-watering aroma became.
"Mom, whose family is cooking meat? It smells amazing." Bai Xingbang took several deep sniffs.
Mother Bai looked at her son’s emaciated appearance, her heart aching. Although her sons weren’t pampered as much as her daughter when they were little, they had still been raised with meticulous care. But now...
"Let’s hurry home. I’m worried about your dad." If she hadn’t been denied time off, she would never have left her old man’s side. Her husband was severely ill this time, and she didn’t know if...
Thinking of him made Mother Bai feel terribly miserable. She wondered why the hospital didn’t have any medicine, and how anyone could endure an illness just by toughing it out. All of her late father-in-law’s medicines were gone, and there was nowhere to find more. Few people in the family could identify medicinal herbs, and they were too afraid to go searching in the mountains anyway.
She let out a heavy sigh.
As they arrived, they noticed the people from the Wang family next door peering into their yard. Mother Bai was thoroughly disgusted by this family. But what could she do? They were poor peasants. They constantly used their class status to throw their weight around. Over the years, she had simply grown used to it.
What other choice did she have? She just had to avoid them.
The moment they stepped through the door, Bai Xingbang’s nose twitched even faster. "Mom, the smell of meat seems to be coming from our house!" With that, he took large strides toward the kitchen.
When he saw the dishes resting on the stove, Bai Xingbang went crazy. Meat. So much meat! He didn’t even know how long it had been since he had last seen such incredible food, let alone tasted it.
"Xingguo! Xingguo!" Bai Xingbang wasn’t the type to keep the good stuff to himself. Instead of immediately digging in, he loudly called out for his older brother, who was home today.
Bai Xingguo was currently in the bedroom, chatting with his father and younger sister. He hadn’t expected to hear his younger brother’s voice so soon.
"Jiu’er, it’s Xingbang. He’s back. I’ll go out and see," Bai Xingguo said, standing up to head outside.
He was eager to tell everyone that his younger sister had returned. Going to fetch her today had been his own idea. He had initially thought their father wouldn’t make it, but to his surprise, his little sister had brought back life-saving medicine.
"I’ll go with you, Xingguo." Bai Jiu also wanted to see her family members as soon as possible.
The original owner had a great relationship with her brothers when they were children. Later, when she started studying medicine, she had even used the two of them for little experiments, which had earned her quite a few scoldings from their grandfather.
Bai Xingguo didn’t stop her, and the two of them quickly left the bedroom.
Not seeing his brother, Bai Xingbang also started walking toward his father’s room. They ran directly into each other in the main hall.
At that moment, Mother Bai’s voice rang out from outside. "Why are you running so fast? Keep your voice down. Don’t wake your dad, or he’ll start feeling sick again." Her voice sounded rather weak. It was a testament to how exhausting her day at work had been.
The first thing Mother Bai wanted to do upon returning was check on her husband. But then...
"Jiu’er..." Indeed, the moment she walked in, she locked eyes with the daughter she hadn’t seen in years.
"Mom," Bai Jiu called out instinctively.
"WAAH, my baby!" Seeing Bai Jiu brought all of Mother Bai’s suppressed sorrow rushing to the surface. Breaking down in tears, she rushed over to Bai Jiu and, without another word, pulled her into a tight, desperate embrace.
Bai Jiu wrapped her arms around the old woman, who looked vastly different from the memories she had inherited. "Mom."
As the mother and daughter wept bitterly, Bai Xingguo and Bai Xingbang couldn’t help but tear up as well. Only they knew the true depth of their family’s struggles.
After crying for a while, Bai Jiu, fearing that the elderly woman would damage her health from so much weeping, hastily stopped her own tears. "Don’t cry, Mom," she comforted gently. "I’m back. I’m finally back."
She supported her mother as they walked into the bedroom.
Bai Xingbang desperately wanted to step forward and call out to his sister, but for a moment, it was as if he had lost his voice. His mouth hung open, but he couldn’t force a single word out.
Once inside Father Bai’s room, Bai Jiu sat Mother Bai down to help her calm her emotions.
"Mom, look who’s here." Afraid of letting the old woman wallow in her sorrow, Bai Jiu pulled her twin children forward to lighten the mood. "Xiuxiu, Zhengyang, hurry up and say hello. This is your grandmother."
Xiuxiu and Zhengyang had just gotten familiar with their grandfather, and now they were meeting their grandmother. Truthfully, the two were quite excited, and they called out loudly, "Grandma!"
Just as expected, the sight of the two children pulled Mother Bai out of her grief.
"Oh, such good, sweet children." Mother Bai gently took the two little ones’ hands, her face radiating affection. "You’ve both grown so much. The last time Grandma held you, you were just newborns. Who would have thought you’d get this big in the blink of an eye?" Years had passed, and the children had indeed grown up.
"You held us when we were babies, Grandma? Mom never told us that." Ever since they were old enough to understand, they had never met their maternal grandparents or uncles, so they had been looking forward to meeting their mother’s side of the family with great anticipation.
"Of course I did! You were so tiny back then. Since you were twins, you were different from other babies right from the start. You’d cry together, get hungry together, and even soil yourselves at the exact same time. You nearly ran your mother ragged back then."
Children were naturally the ultimate mood-lifters in any home. With them stepping in, no matter how heavy the sorrow, the atmosphere would inevitably soften.
Meanwhile, Bai Xingbang finally found his voice. "Jiu’er, I missed you so much." Bai Xingbang was only two years younger than Bai Jiu.
They had spent countless hours playing together when they were children. Because their oldest brother, Xingguo, had been kept close to their grandfather’s side since childhood, he had always carried himself with an air of elder-like authority. As a result, the two younger siblings hadn’t exactly been friendly toward him. If they hadn’t eventually matured and realized how fiercely their older brother always protected them, the relationship between the siblings might never have improved.