On December 22, 1999, the "winter solstice" in the 24th solar term of the lunar calendar, the proverb cloud "When the winter solstice arrives, every household eats dumplings".

A small but warm house wafted out a burst of aroma, Xia Jun in an apron lifted the lid of the pot, and the white and fat dumplings were tumbling up and down in the hot water.

In the living room, 6-year-old Xiao Xia snuggled up to her mother, touching her mother's round belly, "Move, Mom, move!"

Mom touched Little Summer's head with a doting face, "Do you want a sister or a younger brother?"

"I want them all. The big-eyed little summer looked up and smiled stupidly at her mother.

"Silly girl, there's only one baby in her belly. ”

"That's not right, Mom!" Xiao Xia blinked her big ignorant eyes and gently brushed her hand on her mother's belly, "You see this is my sister's little hand, and here is my brother's calf leg." ”

The innocent little summer amused his mother, Xia Jun also came out of the kitchen with a smile, he carried the hot dumplings under the nose of the little summer, "Our little princess's favorite dumplings in summer are here!"

Xiao Xia picked up the dumplings with her hands and put them in her mouth.

"Hot, come, mom blow. Mom took the plate from her husband's hand and blew hard, trying to cool the dumplings quickly. Xiao Xia on the side smashed her mouth, looked greedy, and shouted coquettishly, "Mom, hurry up." ”

Her cute appearance amused Xia Jun, "Come on, Dad will blow it for you too." ”

Xiao Xia also blew dumplings together like an adult, but she squirted out a large piece of saliva, and the room resounded with earth-shattering laughter, and Xiao Xia also showed her missing front teeth, laughing together.

However, this happiness and smile stopped forever in this moment.

A little more than a week later, the mother showed signs of premature labor and was taken to the emergency room of the hospital, and the doctors decided to perform a caesarean section immediately.

Xia Jun took Xiao Xia anxiously at the door, the operation began, and the doctor quickly took out the baby, but when she was preparing for the stitches, the mother had an amniotic fluid embolism and the situation was very critical.

Xia Jun fell to his knees and begged them to save his wife, but in the end the doctors just shook their heads helplessly at him, and the helpless Xia Jun screamed his wife's name in grief on the ground, and his fists were bloody.

Later, Xia Jun fell into deep self-blame and remorse, it would be good if he didn't give birth to this child, he began to anesthetize himself with alcohol, and drank until midnight every day before coming back, and fell asleep when he came back.

He had become unkempt and stubble, and he didn't care about Little Summer, and he didn't want to see the son who killed his wife.

Fortunately, there are neighbors to help take care of it, the baby is very well-behaved, don't cry or make trouble, eat and sleep, the Jinhua sister next door always says that this child will have a future in the future.

This state lasted for half a year, until one morning, Xia Jun, who was asleep on the sofa with a wine bottle, was awakened by a scream, it was his daughter who was making milk powder for her younger brother and was accidentally scalded by boiling water.

He grabbed his daughter's hot red hand, and since his daughter was born, he treated her like a little princess, and when she was just able to walk, he was distressed for more than a week when she accidentally bumped into the table. But now, he looked at his daughter's delicate little hands with a lot of scars, and a sadness welled up in his heart, what has he been doing in the past six months, Xia Jun couldn't help crying.

"I don't hurt, Dad, it really doesn't hurt. Little Summer anxiously comforted her father. Who knows, but it made Xia Jun cry even more, he hugged his daughter and said vigorously, "Summer, Dad is sorry for you, Dad is sorry for you..."

Xia Jun quit drinking and named his son, who had no name, Xia Yu, a homonym wife Wang Yuzhen, who always missed his wife.

After three years like this, Xiao Xia and his younger brother slowly grew up, and they became more and more skinny, although there was Sister Jinhua to help take care of it, but Xia Jun was still too busy, and the family was often described by Sister Jinhua as a kennel. Sister Jinhua hinted many times that Xia Jun was looking for another one, not for herself, but also for the good of the two children, and children with a mother and a child without a mother are different.

Xia Jun, who still loves his deceased wife in his heart, has been very hesitant, until one day, Xiao Xia Yu ran back with blood on his head, because several bear children bullied him, saying that he was a wild child, and the angry little Xia Yu fought with them, but he was outnumbered, and a big hole was opened by a stone on his head, Xia Jun was very distressed, and after thinking about it, he decided to listen to Sister Jinhua and find a stepmother for the two children.

Xia Jun was a former soldier, and after being discharged from the army, he was assigned to a wildlife protection station and became a veterinarian. This kind of work was still very decent at that time, and soon Sister Jinhua introduced Tian Zhaodi, a divorced woman with a daughter from the countryside.

Listening to Sister Jinhua, Tian Zhaodi's husband and in-laws are very patriarchal, they dislike Tian Zhaodi for being born a girl, and feel that they can't hold their heads up in front of the villagers, so her husband uses Tian Zhaodi as a punching bag, either beating or scolding, and even openly looking for a junior outside to give birth to a son for himself. Tian Zhaodi couldn't help it, she didn't ask for anything at home, so she took her daughter out of the house and went away.

After several contacts, Xia Jun and Tian Zhaodi confirmed their relationship in this way, received a marriage certificate, and formed a new family.

In the first two years, because of the new hostess, the family has rejuvenated, Xiao Xia and Xiao Xia Yu are no longer the grizzled and dirty they were before, their clothes are always clean and neat, Xia Jun is quite satisfied with this life.

However, as the days go by, the true nature of man becomes more and more exposed.

Tian Zhaodi is becoming more and more eccentric, whatever is delicious is given to her daughter first, the malnourished Fei Fei is getting fatter and fatter when she first came, and Xia and her younger brother can only watch Fei Fei eat, at that time, the KFC store had just opened in the city, Tian Zhaodi secretly took her daughter Fei Fei to eat, and came back when she was full.

When it was hot in summer, Fei Fei was clamoring to eat popsicles, and Xia Xia and Xia Yu also wanted to eat them, but their stepmother said that the money was not enough, and they would buy them for Summer next time.

Fei Fei sat alone on the table and ate a whole popsicle, and after eating, she threw the wooden stick of the popsicle on the table, and there was still uneaten chocolate on the stick.

Xia Yu, who was only five years old at the time, was really hungry and licked the popsicle stick. This scene is seen by Summer, who snatches the popsicle stick from her brother's hand and throws it on the ground.

The stepmother likes to put the change in the first compartment of the drawer, and in the summer she secretly took a five-cent sheet to buy a popsicle for her younger brother, and the younger brother happily took a big bite of the popsicle wrapped in a chocolate shell, and suddenly, he realized that the sister opposite was looking directly at the popsicle in his hand, and he handed it to his sister, "Sister, you eat."

Summer swallowed her saliva, shook her head and said, "Sister doesn't like to eat, you can eat quickly."

The younger brother took a big bite and finished it in a few moments.

Summer took her satisfied brother home together, but unexpectedly, the black-faced stepmother was waiting at home, she found that the money in the drawer was missing, and when she saw the chocolate marks on her brother's clothes, she instantly understood.

"I took it, Auntie, it has nothing to do with my brother," Summer stood up and protected his brother behind him.

"Be a thief at a young age, and grow up to have it," the stepmother was very angry, she had been here for so many years, and she was not bad for these two children, they only called her aunt, and even her mother didn't want to call her, the more she thought about it, the more angry she became, and wanted to let Summer understand her status as a hostess.

So she locked Summer in a dark and damp, no sunlight in the basement, no one was allowed to open the door for her, Xiao Xia Yu was afraid to cry at the door of the basement "sister", but the stepmother didn't care at all, and threatened him "Do you want to be locked in too".

It was dark in the basement, the temperature was very low at night, and from time to time there were "squeaky" rats running by, Xiao Xia cried and called out to his father in fear, but his father on the mountain didn't know what was going on at home, he just felt panicked inexplicably.

The next day, Xia Jun, who was afraid that something would happen to his family, rushed home early, Tian Zhaodi didn't expect him to return so early, and panicked.

Xia Jun found that her daughter was gone, Tian Zhaodi could only say that she had gone out to play in the summer, and she wanted to get Xia Jun out of the way to release Xiao Xia in the basement.

Xiao Xia Yu pulled the corner of his father's clothes and cried to the basement, and said intermittently, "Sister... Sister", Xia Jun realized what was happening.

He rescued from the basement Xiao Xia, who was unconscious due to fear and lack of water, and Xiao Xia was cold, her hair was soaked with sweat, and she was clinging to her scalp.

Xia Jun's heart once again surged with the fear of losing his wife that year, and he kept calling for his daughter and pouring water into her mouth, but the water flowed from the corners of her closed mouth and could not drink it at all.

Tian Zhaodi was scared, and she kept defending herself. "It was the summer that stole the money and I locked her in, I didn't think it would be like this..."

"Popsicles... My sister took the money to buy popsicles..."Xiao Xia Yu said intermittently while crying.

Xia Jun immediately understood what was going on, he had already found out that Tian Zhaodi was eccentric, she always gave the biggest chicken leg to her daughter Fei Fei at the dinner table, for the sake of family harmony, he couldn't say anything, but he didn't expect that this woman would do such a thing behind his back, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became.

"Tian Zhaodi, I want to divorce you!!"

Tian Zhaodi panicked even more, Xia Jun was still good to her and her daughter, unlike the ex-husband who killed a thousand knives before, not only deducted food and clothing, but also used violence against them, she just wanted to punish Xia, and never thought about divorce.

At this moment, a small hand gently patted Xia Jun's arm, and it was the unconscious little summer who woke up.

"Dad, I'm fine", Xiao Xia's eyelids drooped, and he spoke weakly. "Don't blame Auntie"

Listening to his daughter's words, Xia Jun's heart hurt even more, how much his little princess had suffered, he hugged his daughter and cried, "It's all bad to blame dad, it's all bad dad..."

Xia Jun didn't mention the divorce again, and Tian Zhaodi didn't dare to abuse Xiao Xia like that anymore, although she still favored her daughter, but she wouldn't be as partial as before.

In this way, time passed quickly, Xia, Xia Yu and Xia Feifei also grew up, and the cost of living became bigger and bigger, and the contradiction between Xia Jun and Tian Zhaodi became bigger and bigger.

Tian Zhaodi dislikes Xia Jun's work and doesn't make much money, and often pays for his own rescue of injured small animals, which makes the life of the family even tighter, Tian Zhaodi wants him to change jobs many times, but Xia Jun refuses, the work of the aid station is not like anything else, no young people are willing to come, and those who stay are all old people, once Xia Jun is gone, this aid station is even more empty. For this reason, Tian Zhaodi often quarreled with Xia Jun and scolded him for being a wreckage with no ability.

Influenced by his father, he also likes small animals very much in the summer, and learned some knowledge of animal rescue with his father. At the end of the college entrance examination and when I wanted to apply for universities and majors, I asked my family in the summer that I wanted to study animal medicine.

"What's the use of learning this, there is already a useless one at home", the stepmother sneered, "It's better to learn something else to make money, and share it for the family as soon as possible." ”

Xia Jun, who was silent and frowning, did not refute a word, but just took a sip of wine.

Later, in the summer, she went to a local university and chose a popular major in the market, and she was always rated as a "good student" because of her excellent character and learning.

In the summer, just after his freshman year, Xia Jun died protecting the endangered wild animal, the pangolin.

When Summer learned the news, Dad had already been sent to the funeral home, she looked at the familiar figure lying in the cold freezer, tears welling up like a tide, from now on no one in this world will hurt herself so much, no one will smile and call herself "little princess" again.

Not long after Xia Jun's burial, Tian Zhaodi broke up, and she took half of the compensation and left with her daughter Xia Feifei.

In the summer, in order to support his younger brother and pay for his own tuition, he started various part-time jobs, working hard to make money, wearing a dress and a pair of sneakers back and forth repeatedly.

Fortunately, God has eyes and will not treat kind people badly, and the younger brother who is competitive is admitted to the best high school in the city with the first grade in the school, becoming a model for the whole school's publicity, and in the summer, after graduation, he successfully entered the city's famous CY company.