Li Anguo returned home from his father's courtyard and found his frail wife cooking for him.
His two daughters were obediently helping their mother prepare the meal. When they saw Li Anguo return, they ran over happily.
Warmth filled Li Anguo's heart. He took his daughters into the room and, seeing that his bag was still unopened, crouched down, opened it, and took out two cloth dolls.
"Here, Xueping, Xueqin, one each!" Li Anguo handed the dolls to his daughters.
"Dolls!"
"They're so pretty!"
"Are these for us?" The two girls' voices were full of delighted surprise.
"Of course they're for you." Feeling his daughters' joy, Li Anguo was happy too.
He had only thought to buy them on his way back because he had seen Li Juan with toys like these. Before, the most he had done was have his wife, Chen Lirong, make the girls toys such as little beanbags.
At his eldest brother's home, Li Anguo had experienced a family atmosphere completely different from the one back here in his hometown. Daughters did not have to do extra work, and sons did not necessarily receive special treatment.
They were treated the same.
Thinking of how old his daughters already were without a single decent toy, and how the village's traditional attitudes meant people looked down on them, Li Anguo felt angry and helpless.
"What did you spend money on that for?" His wife looked over. "Those must have cost quite a bit each?"
In this environment, Li Anguo and his wife had an unspoken agreement to keep their expenses as low as possible, all to save enough money to pay the fine-to have another child, even though Chen Lirong was not in good health.
So when Chen Lirong saw that Li Anguo had bought toys for the