Shi Lili returned from the fields carrying a hoe. She had grown up pampered by her family, and on her very first day working in the fields, the hoe handle had rubbed blisters all over her hands.
An Mother sat in the shade of a tree watching the children. The moment she spotted Shi Lili, an educated youth newly sent down to the countryside, she set her sights on her.
She gave her eldest grandson a pat, and he immediately understood what his grandmother wanted.
"Mom! I'm hungry."
The An Family's Dabao suddenly ran up to Shi Lili and threw his arms around her thigh.
He tilted his filthy little face upward, showing what he thought was his most innocent smile.
His little hands, which had just been playing in the mud, left two handprints on Shi Lili's trousers.
The female educated youths accompanying Shi Lili couldn't help frowning at the sight of An Dabao.
"Lili, let's go."
Shi Lili thought differently from them, however. The more she looked at the child, the more pitiful she found him.
The urge to hold An Dabao kept rising in her heart.
"Mom! Dabao's hungry! Mom! Will you be Dabao's mom?"
There wasn't a trace of childish innocence in An Dabao's tone. The female educated youths with Shi Lili actually saw sleaziness and calculation in a child of five or six.
"Young lady, you're really lucky. Our Dabao is terribly shy around strangers. But when he sees you, it's like he's seeing his own mother."
An Mother came over carrying her youngest grandson, her face wreathed in smiles that never reached her eyes.
Thanks to her sworn enemy, An Mother recognized the fabric of Shi Lili's clothes at a glance.
The colors of her clothes might look no different from those of the