Just then, a little boy covered in mud rushed in clutching a bundle of wild greens. He flopped down beside the straw mat, his eyes red-rimmed:
"Granny... don't die. Please don't die. Qingyang will listen from now on. I won't be naughty anymore."
"Granny, look! Qingyang knows how to find food now. I found these in the woods at the foot of the mountain. They can be eaten. Lots of aunties were digging them up."
The little boy pushed all the wild greens he had gathered in front of his grandmother, crying as he anxiously tried to show her that he had grown up.
With muddy hands, he wiped his tears haphazardly, then obediently knelt beside the straw mat.
"Granny, I won't let you work anymore. From now on, I'll go dig every day and bring back lots and lots. Then we won't go hungry, Granny. Please don't die. I don't want you to die."
The little boy had wanted to be strong, but the fear of losing his only remaining relative made him tremble uncontrollably. His tears would not stop, and in the end, he threw himself onto his grandmother and began to sob loudly.
The old woman's withered hands, covered in dark spots, tightly clasped her grandson's muddy little hand. Her face full of reluctance, she urged him, "Qingyang, listen to me."
"From now on, listen carefully to your brothers and sisters. Work more, eat less, and don't make them angry. Do you understand?"
"Granny, you don't want me anymore either? You're leaving too? You don't want Qingyang anymore?" Little Qingyang was terribly uneasy and utterly lost.
At such a young age, he had already endured his younger sister's death, followed by the deaths of his grandfather, father, and mother. Now even the granny who had cherished him