Soon, the Xu Family’s large room came bustling into the clinic, causing quite a commotion.
Looking at the crowd in front of her, Xu Mumu recalled her memories and called out to each person one by one.
"Mumu, how did you fall into the water?" Madam Chen tenderly stroked Xu Mumu’s cheek with her rough hand. Xu Mumu’s face still looked a little pale, and Madam Chen’s heart ached for her.
"I slipped." Xu Mumu smiled slightly but didn’t say more, wanting to understand the situation first to avoid saying anything wrong.
After getting some medicine from the clinic, the family took Xu Mumu home.
"Sis, sis, are you feeling better?" After resting for a night, Xu Mumu sorted out her thoughts. As soon as she got up, the room door was knocked, and the visitor was a boy around ten years old.
"Little brother, why aren’t you in class?" Xu Mumu’s voice was somewhat hoarse. The boy, with a round face, looked quite cute.
The boy skillfully poured some water from a nearby warm water pot into a bowl by his mouth. The bowl was one of those earthen ones and even had a chip.
"I took the day off." Xu Minglei grinned; taking care of his sick sister at home was such a good reason to be absent.
Xu Mumu lowered her head, drinking the water the boy brought over.
After drinking the water, Xu Mumu felt a bit more comfortable.
Looking at her fair hand, Xu Mumu lightly pressed her lips together; she had actually entered a book.
But being able to continue living felt great.
She had rolled and crawled through the apocalypse for over half a year and had almost forgotten what the sky looked like.
"Sis, are you hungry? Grandma warmed an egg for you in the pot. Do you want to eat it?" Xu Minglei looked at his sister with some concern. What happened to her? Was she still unwell?
"Yes, I want to eat." Xu Mumu instinctively licked her lips. Eggs, in the post-apocalyptic world, chickens had become extremely vicious, and trying to catch them or take their eggs could easily get you pecked to death.
"Wait a moment, I’ll get it for you." Xu Minglei immediately dashed off to fetch the boiled egg for Xu Mumu.
With Xu Minglei gone, Xu Mumu finally had time to observe her surroundings. This was her room, even older than her grandmother’s house in the countryside that she’d seen in her past life.
The room wasn’t large, with dirt walls covered in newspapers, a wooden cabinet next to the bed that held the original owner’s clothes, and besides the cabinet, just a bed. An under-bed basket contained some books, which were the original owner’s textbooks.
The quilt on the bed was also somewhat stiff, likely used for many years.
"Sis, here’s the egg, eat up." Xu Minglei ran in with the egg.
Looking at the egg, Xu Mumu’s heart warmed. The original owner was very cherished at home because her mother Li Caixia dreamed of auspicious clouds before she was born and secretly consulted the village’s old blind fortune teller.
It’s said that the old blind man had real skills and was particularly good at fortune-telling.
The blind man predicted a daughter, blessed with a good fate, bringing prosperity to the family and husband.
Upon hearing the blind man predict a girl, Li Caixia almost went to hit the blind man.
However, she did take some of the blind man’s words to heart and later shared them with Xu Mumu’s grandmother.
That same night, Li Caixia gave birth to a fair-skinned girl, shocking both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, since then, Xu Mumu had always been very loved.
The Old Xu Family was quite large, with the Xu couple still around, and they had four sons and two daughters.
The eldest, Xu Hai, who was Xu Mumu’s father, married Li Caixia from the neighboring production team. They had two sons and a daughter, the eldest son Xu Minghui, who was nineteen and considering proposals.
The second daughter, Xu Mumu, was sixteen and studying in her second year of high school in the county, currently at home recovering from illness.
The youngest son, Xu Minglei, was only ten and attended elementary school in the village. He didn’t like school and was quite mischievous.
The second son, Xu Jiang, married Qian Ying and had two daughters: the elder daughter Xu Xue, fifteen, and the younger daughter Xu Wan, twelve.
The third son, Xu He, married Lin Juan, and they had a son, Xu Dongbao, who was ten, the same age as Xu Minglei, living in the county. Xu He was almost a live-in son-in-law with the Lin Family.
The fourth son, Xu Po, married Sun Huiping and had fraternal twins, Xu Tao and Xu Jiaojiao, both eight years old.
Eldest sister Xu Chunmei married into a more distant village, while sister Xu Qingxing married into the county, and her husband had a commodity grain job, living comfortably.
The family was large, and food was scarce, making life difficult.
"Let’s share it." Xu Mumu split the egg in half, giving one half to Xu Minglei.
In her memory, Xu Mumu often shared her food with Xu Minglei, so they had a close sibling relationship.
"Sis, you eat. You’re still sick." Xu Minglei swallowed hard, painfully pulling his gaze from the egg. He feared if he stared another moment, he’d snatch the egg to eat.
Big sis was still sick. It was all Xu Xue’s fault, the dead girl pushed her into the river. Luckily, he had dealt with Xu Xue, hmph.
Indeed, even if Xu Mumu didn’t say, Madam Chen pried the truth out of Xu Xue and her sister, learning the truth.
Knowing the truth, the sisters naturally couldn’t escape a beating.
"I can’t finish it. You eat. Otherwise, I won’t." Xu Mumu said with a smile, thinking her little brother was quite cute.
Xu Minglei looked conflicted; he knew the egg was delicious. Looking at the split egg, its enticing aroma attracted him, making him swallow again, wanting to eat.
"Then, I’ll just eat a little bit. You haven’t recovered yet, sis, you should eat more." Xu Minglei, broke his half into another piece, ate that half, and left the rest for Xu Mumu.
"Okay." Xu Mumu smiled faintly. Her little brother was well-behaved, making her a little fond of him.
Xu Mumu ate the rest of the egg in a few bites; she had almost forgotten the taste of boiled eggs, quickly finishing most of it off.
"Sis, don’t worry, I’ve already avenged you." Seeing Xu Mumu finish the egg, Xu Minglei no longer thought about it and mischievously told her.
Looking at her little brother, Xu Mumu’s eyebrows twitched as she feigned nonchalance: "What did you do?"
"I threw a rock at Xu Xue, that dead girl, when she wasn’t looking. Her forehead is bleeding." Xu Minglei said excitedly.
"When did you hit her?" A bad feeling arose; her little brother was too vicious, no wonder he’d end up a little thug in the future.
"Just now, I saw her fall outside. That dead girl always fakes sick; she’s probably doing it again to blame us. Luckily, she didn’t see me." Xu Minglei said proudly.