"You watched them grow up too. They've never done manual labor in their lives—how could they possibly handle that kind of work? Yuanchun, you're a good girl. As long as you just relent a little and give us back your uncle's half-month's wages, I—"
Yuanchun coldly cut her off. "Ma Xiaolan, nobody is born knowing how to pick coal cinders or scavenge through garbage. I had to learn bit by bit myself. If I could learn to do it, what makes them too good to try?"
"Back then, you had no qualms about forcing me—a mere seven or eight-year-old child—out to collect cinders and scavenge just to make money. They could sit back and watch without a care while I got up before dawn and worked after dark just to feed them, even deliberately snatching away the white flour steamed buns I earned so I went hungry. Why on earth should I have any pity for them?"
Chapter 222