Yun Jian’s eyes twitched. She was greeted with a sight of beer bottles littering the floor. The thick foul smell of beer and the rancid odor from inside of the unit intertwined and produced a horrible stench.
There were only a handful of items in the house. It was a one-bedroom apartment with a small coffee table in the living room that looked like it was going to break at any time. Somewhere near the window lay a bed with a thin sheet on it. Anyone who slept there, especially during a winter like it was currently, would feel the cold wind that blew in through the thin cracks of the window at night. Other than four to five bowls and cutlery, as well as a worn-down stove, there was nothing else.
This was Duan Li’s home.
Yun Jian knew that Duan Li did not come from an affluent household from her first glance at her dressing, not that she would ever judge a person’s worth with money, but she did not expect Duan Li to come from such an impoverished family.
In fact, Duan Li was able to study in Wuning Yi Elementary School despite poverty because she was subsidized by the national aid for poor students. Her sister, Duan Ya, was a similar case. Without the country’s subsidy for poverty-stricken students, Duan Li’s family condition would never allow both of them in schools.
“Jiejie, Yun Zhu, my father isn’t home. Come in, I’ll get you some water,” Duan Li told Yun Jian and Yun Zhu after she pulled her six-year-old sister to sit at the bed by the living room window.
She then went to the kitchen to fetch Yun Jian and Yun Zhu a glass of water each, to which the latter accepted them.
After that, Duan Li collected the beer bottles strewn across the floor to place them by the corridor’s staircase so she could bring them down to the dumpster together with the trash later.
Not only did little Yun Zhu not frown at the environment here, but he was also chatting animatedly with Duan Li on the only stool in the house.
Duan Li’s younger sister, Duan Ya, did not say a word all along.
Yun Jian was not one to complain about the condition of the place either as she sat on Duan Li and Duan Ya’s small bed upon Duan Li’s invitation.
It went without saying for Yun Jian. It was a one-room unit without a bathroom. If they needed to use the toilet, they had to go downstairs for the public restroom. Duan Li and Duan Ya slept on this tattered bed by the living room window, so the only bedroom there was must be their father’s room.
Forget pampering the girls, it was obvious that the girls’ father did not even have the most basic father’s love for them.
Yun Jian suddenly felt her heart ache for Duan Li.
“Jiejie, my father’s not coming home today. Stay for dinner. I’ll make a good meal!” Duan Li invited Yun Jian sincerely.
It took Yun Jian a moment of hesitation but she nodded ultimately. She noticed that each time Duan Li mentioned her father, she got a little scared. Just from what the girl said just now, if her father was coming home today, she would not dare to ask Yun Jian and Xiao Zhu to stay for dinner.
Looking at how Duan Li was eager to prove herself, Yun Jian nodded finally with a smile at her.
The girl went to the stove and began to prepare for the meal with ease.
After some time, a pot of a relatively hearty meal to Duan Li and her sister was produced—it was a bowl of congee with only a handful of rice grains with a few pieces of vegetable floating on it.
The world was never fair. The rich drove luxurious cars while the poor could barely fill their stomach.
To Duan Li, having vegetables in her food was already a sumptuous meal. Meanwhile, what she enjoyed in school was true delicacies to her as Wuning Yi Elementary School served decent food.
