"Has Le'er not woken up yet?" Shen Qinglan asked Dong Yao.
"Not yet," Dong Yao replied. "That little one sleeps a lot during the day and keeps his parents up at night."
"You only realize a mother's hardships after becoming one," Shen Qingju sighed. "Mother raised the four of us; how much must she have endured!"
"Once you get through it, it's all good," Dong Yao laughed. "Though the bitterness comes first, sweet times will follow. Haven't we come through it all?"
Shen Qingju said, "It's all thanks to Qinglan's success; otherwise, we'd probably still be enduring hardship."
Dong Yao looked at Shen Qinglan, smiling with relief.
She hadn't expected that the one with the least promise would end up being the backbone of the family.
Back then, when they found out the child was simple-minded, villagers suggested smothering her or abandoning her in the hills. Otherwise, she would surely burden the whole family.
