Just as Gu Yundong entered the courtyard, she heard a voice from inside the room, tinged with a hint of confusion, “Mom, big sister seems different from before. She used to always cry and be especially afraid of pain, but now she suddenly… suddenly seems more like a man.”

Gu Yundong: “…” What kind of talk was this? What did “more like a man” even mean?

But it was true that her personality was quite different from the previous Gu Yundong. She needed to come up with a reasonable excuse.

However, before she could think of one, Gu Yunshu’s voice sounded again, “It must be because grandpa and grandma kicked us out, which upset big sister. And dad isn’t here, so she feels like she has to protect and take care of us. Big sister is really not easy. Mom, do you know of any way for me to grow up all of a sudden and become the strong one in the family? That way, big sister won’t have to pretend to be so manly, and I’m so useless right now.”

Yang tilted her head, not quite understanding, “I’m already grown up, I’m so tall.”

Gu Yundong felt complicated. This little one was young, but he was quite concerned.

But from the sound of his voice, she could tell that his throat wasn’t too badly affected. It seemed that although the marks on his neck from when Gu Dahe choked him were shocking, he wasn’t actually injured too badly.

Gu Yundong lifted the things in her hand and walked with slightly heavier steps, causing the noise inside to immediately stop.

She pushed open the door and saw Gu Yundong standing with her hands outstretched in front of Yang and Gu Yunko, her face tense and vigilant.

Seeing her, they both breathed a sigh of relief. A big smile appeared on Gu Yunshu’s face, “Big sister, you’re back.” His gaze then shifted to the things in her hands, and his eyes instantly lit up, “Did you find something to eat?”

“Yeah.” Gu Yundong placed the bag on the ground. “I’ll go to the kitchen and see if there’s any water.”

She turned and went out again. There definitely wouldn’t be any water left here. She was just putting on a show, so she found a pot in the kitchen and poured mineral water from the space into it before returning to the room.

Gu Yunshu, on the other hand, was already staring wide-eyed at the big bag of white rice in disbelief. His voice stuttered, “B-big sister, where did you find this? It’s so much, and so white.”

He had never seen such big and white rice grains before. Each grain seemed transparent, even better looking than the most expensive rice in the town’s rice shop.

Gu Yunshu couldn’t help but swallow, feeling like he was dreaming.

“I found it under the bed in one of the rooms next door,” Gu Yundong said.

Gu Yunshu was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized, “I know, that family must be like Auntie Er, secretly hiding food and forgot to take it when they fled.” He nodded vigorously.

When they were preparing to leave the village earlier, Auntie Er had secretly taken out two large bags of dried sweet potatoes from under the bed to hide and take away. It was what she had secretly saved for herself to eat over the years. Unexpectedly, she was caught by Nai, and the whole Gu family knew about it.

Now hearing that this big white rice was found under the bed, Gu Yunshu immediately found a reasonable explanation.

Gu Yundong felt like she didn’t need to bother coming up with excuses. He always managed to find one for her.

So she nodded, “That’s probably it,” and closed the door, reigniting the pile of firewood from earlier.

Adding water to the pot, Gu Yundong planned to cook some porridge.

The whole family was very hungry, with empty stomachs, so they could only eat something soft.

She poured in a big handful, and Gu Yunshu immediately felt distressed, “Big sister, less, less, I’m not that hungry, I can eat less.”

“Don’t you want to grow up quickly? If you don’t eat more, how will you grow up?”

Gu Yunshu hesitated for a moment, feeling conflicted. He wanted to grow up quickly, but they didn’t have much food. If they ate too much now, what would they do later?

As he struggled, Gu Yundong had already skillfully started cooking the porridge.