Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Now that dinner was over and the room was warm, that faint smell seemed to waft out again, subtly but persistently.

Wei Siao had actually been feeling very uncomfortable for a while. When he was still with the Wei Family, bathing before bed had been as routine as washing hands before a meal.

But everything had changed since they came here.

There was no bathroom here, no bathtub, and certainly no shower.

That bad woman, Yan Xue, not only refused to heat water for them to bathe, but also called them smelly every single day.

She told them to stay far away from her.

But Wei Siao didn’t know how to boil water himself; the countertop was too high for him to reach. The first time he’d tried, he’d not only burned himself, but the hot water had also injured his younger brother.

Remembering that time, he felt so guilty he didn’t know what to say.

After a long moment, Wei Siao clenched his small hands. He stroked his brother’s head and said, “Little Xiang, don’t be sad. Tomorrow, Older Brother will figure something out.”

As he spoke, he gripped the hem of his clothes with his sweaty hands, mentally planning how to approach ‘that woman’ tomorrow.

Wei Sixiang didn’t understand what Older Brother had in mind; he just felt sure that Older Brother would find a way. So, he showed a few tiny teeth and smiled warmly.

“Really, Older Brother? That’s great!”

The two little ones huddled by the stove for warmth. Wei Siao frowned, remaining silent for a long time, while Wei Sixiang drew pictures on the ground with a charred stick.

This was the scene Yan Xue saw when she entered, carrying a large bucket.

In the simple, not-so-clean room, illuminated by a single yellow light bulb, two boys sat on small wooden stools. It was somewhat heartwarming, yet also heartbreaking.

She placed the large bucket filled with hot water on the ground.

She thought, good thing she had extraordinary strength; otherwise, this bucket wouldn’t be something just anyone could haul.

Heating such a large bucket of water wasn’t easy. The electric kettle and the…

The moment the two little ones saw the bucket in her hands, they stared at it with longing eyes.

But they only stared; the two children sat obediently without moving, their timid expressions betraying a fear of doing anything wrong.

Yan Xue chuckled, “What are you still looking at? Come on over and take a bath.”

The two little ones exchanged a glance, still not moving.

Yan Xue urged them again. Only then did Wei Sixiang glance at his older brother before turning and pouncing toward her, his eyes shining brightly.

“Really, mom! You’re going to give us a bath?”

He was both surprised and delighted, surprised that mom seemed to know exactly what they were thinking.

Did their mom really have magic?

“Of course! The water’s all here. If you don’t bathe, am I supposed to?”

After she finished speaking, the two little ones stood in front of her in unison.

It sounded lovely in her imagination, but only when it came time to actually get started did Yan Xue realize that taking care of these two little ones was quite difficult.

First, there was Wei Siao, who was currently too shy and stubborn to undress in front of Yan Xue…

Next, there was Wei Sixiang, who had been overly enthusiastic and had already stripped completely naked in an instant…

Yan Xue: “…”

After all, both children were already several years old. Having never taken care of little boys herself, she was still a bit conflicted.

She reached out her hand, then dropped it, repeating the motion several times.

The completely naked Wei Sixiang was already trembling from the cold. He shivered, standing by the edge of the bucket, staring fixedly at her, his innocent eyes holding a hint of grievance.

Yan Xue couldn’t bear it. With a resolute heart and closed eyes, she picked him up and directly placed him into the tub.

That left her and Wei Siao staring at each other.

Yan Xue’s hands, once again awkward, didn’t know where to put themselves.

“Older Brother, come quickly and take a bath! The water is super warm,” Wei Sixiang said, leaning over the edge of the tub, his big eyes with their wet eyelashes blinking and blinking.

Wei Siao looked at his brother, comfortable in the tub, and felt envious too, but his two small hands still clutched the hem of his clothes, not moving.

Actually, it wasn’t just shyness; it was more because both he and his brother were very dirty.

What if the water got too dirty later and… their mom would despise or find them disgusting again?

A minute later.

Under his brother’s summons, Wei Siao’s little head seemed to have figured things out, and he started to undress. However, the wound on his leg hadn’t healed yet.

In the end, Yan Xue bathed Sixiang in the tub while simultaneously using a wet towel to help Wei Siao, who was still outside the tub, bathe himself.

Her shyness quickly vanished. At this point, Yan Xue just wanted to see everything work out.

The water turned murky in no time. All three of them saw it, and the two boys blushed, too embarrassed to speak.

Yan Xue’s beautiful eyes subtly shifted, and she too pretended not to see anything, maintaining her usual expression.

While using the soap, the two little ones were still playing with bubbles on each other’s heads. The two little ones laughed, and Yan Xue laughed too.

After they finished laughing, she even secretly used her crappy phone to snap a photo of the two little ones, just their upper bodies.

In the quiet village night, the sounds of joy and laughter from their home seemed to pierce the sky, shaking a handful of white snow from the rooftop.

After washing bodies, then washing heads, and then changing the water to wash again, and finally bathing both little ones and changing their medicine, Yan Xue was physically and mentally exhausted, covered in sweat.

However, after this ordeal, once the two little ones were clean and fresh, lying on the bed, Yan Xue felt an immense satisfaction in her heart.

She truly hadn’t expected that she, unmarried in real life, would be living a child-rearing life so early.

What’s more, these two children didn’t even need her to give birth to them, and they were well-behaved.

This was probably the ‘painless child-rearing routine’ that her internet sisters envied!

After resting for a few minutes, Yan Xue heated water to rinse herself off, then gathered and washed all of the two little ones’ clothes. She didn’t go to sleep until late into the night.

Outside the window, the white snow piled up deeper and deeper. With the end of the month and the New Year approaching, the three of them finally got a good night’s sleep that day.

Around past 10 o’clock, Yan Xue was woken up by a stir at the small door of her room.

After her experience of being accosted yesterday morning, her heart sank with a thump. It couldn’t be someone breaking in for revenge, could it? she thought.

But the two brats were still in the next room!

Yan Xue panicked. She jumped out of bed, grabbed a stick on impulse, and walked towards the door.

Silently counting 1, 2, 3, Yan Xue forcefully opened the door, ready to swing the stick. But the stick missed its target, and a small figure immediately recoiled.

When she clearly saw who was outside the door, she patted her chest and let out a long breath, secretly ecstatic that the stick had missed its target.

“Siao, what are you doing here so early in the morning?”

After being discovered, Wei Siao’s face turned crimson, his eyes darting around, not speaking. He held something in his hands behind his back, looking at her, and after two glances, he wanted to run.

He was swiftly caught by Yan Xue, who had quick reflexes.

Joking aside, her Taekwondo skills and strength were definitely not fake; grabbing a small child was as easy as catching a kitten.

But seeing Wei Siao’s hesitant manner, Yan Xue actually felt a little sad.

She asked herself, Haven’t I been good enough to these two little ones these past two days?

Even if they didn’t call her mom, they couldn’t possibly still hate her that much, could they?

How could this child still want to harm her?

She remembered that in the original book, the intricate depth of Wei Siao’s thoughts had all been forged by the Original Yan Xue’s hardships.

According to the description in the original book, this child, Wei Siao, possessed an extremely strong desire for revenge.

In the months before the Original Yan Xue’s death, this child was daily plotting how to make the Original Yan Xue die an even more miserable death.

Yan Xue scrutinized him from head to toe. She wondered, ‘This child wouldn’t be holding a rope behind his back, planning to strangle me in my sleep, would he?’