"Cold-blooded? Ungrateful?"
"Do you still remember that winter when I was ten, when I braved the heavy snow to gather firewood in the mountains, only to catch a chill and burn with a fever that wouldn't go down after I came back, leaving me unable to get out of bed the next day?"
"I lay there for two whole days, and not one of you brought me even a bowl of hot water. None of you were willing to call a doctor or get me medicine."
"The woodshed was freezing, with drafts coming in from everywhere. My whole body was ice-cold. After finally managing to crawl up, I wanted to burn some charcoal to warm myself, but what did Old Madam Su say?"
"She cursed me, saying I was born cheap and couldn't die, so there was no need to waste firewood on me. Not one of you said a word. You just made me endure it."
"But the very next day, when Su Baozhu caught a cold after playing snowball fights with someone on her way to school, what did you do?"
"You called a doctor and got her medicine, held hot water bottles against her, fed her fine noodles and meat broth, and even got the pampered girl three days off school."
"Heh. Back then, I stood in the freezing rear courtyard, looking at the windows glowing with bright lights. I only felt that my heart was even colder than the snow on the ground."
"Many times, I wondered if I really wasn't your child, but the child of your Su Family's enemy—someone your Su Family had picked up to repay a debt."
How many times had things like this happened? It was far more than once or twice.
A heart didn't turn cold all at once. It