Jufang pointed to the things on the table. "My mother found a few more winter clothes for you two. Some were mine, some were hers. A few are even new—we never wore them after they were made. Take them and see if they fit. There are two quilts as well. They're gifts, so don't try to return them."
Once Lijuan sat down, she studied the dishes on the table. To her, this was already an extraordinarily lavish dinner. She could not quite say her mouth was watering, but her appetite had certainly been stirred. Her heart, which had seemed dead, suddenly came alive again. She picked up her chopsticks without thinking, then hovered, unable to decide which dish to start with. Jiaxing knew her through and through. He picked up a piece of red-braised pork and put it in her bowl. Lijuan promptly popped it into her small mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed.
From the moment little Lijuan left Hengda Primary School and entered the cotton mill, it was as though she had stepped into another world. At school, she had teachers and classmates, desks and books. Reading rang out in the classroom, and games filled the playground. Life had been hard there too, but at least she could eat her fill. She also had the comfort and care of her two older brothers, and a bright future to dream about. The world might not have been Heaven, but life had held promise and hope.
As soon as Lanzhen finished speaking, Jiaxing asked Lijuan, "How was your first month as a child worker? Are you managing?"
The twenty-third day of the eleventh lunar month was the winter solstice for Chinese people. When Jiaxing came home from school that day, his mother told him to see whether Lijuan and