Only when Erlaizi had finished his tirade and the room fell silent did she, trembling with fear, sneak into her stepfather’s room. She locked the door behind her and, with the famished, desperate gaze of one who had been starved for too long, began rummaging through the cupboards in search of food.
Her stepfather was a shiftless layabout who often brought home treats—pastries, fried rice sticks, rice crackers, fruit drops—but her mother and she had never tasted any of them; he consumed them all himself.
After finding a package of shortbread and a handful of fruit drops, Yuanchun poured a glass of cool boiled water. She ate one piece of shortbread and hid the rest away. Climbing onto the kang, she pulled out her mother's quilt to cover herself and fell into a deep sleep until dawn.
Chapter 1091