At mealtime, Zhou Zhaodi places a pig's foot in her niece's bowl: "Guibao's been through some tough days lately, she needs to eat more meat."
Helian Qiao, who was joyously gnawing at her pig's foot, nodded vigorously in agreement: "It's been rough, really rough."
She too felt as though she'd had her fair share of suffering, almost starved to death.
Hearing this, Ma Xiulian, sympathetically, added another pig's foot to her bowl: "We'll make up for all the meat you've missed in the past few days."
So, of the four pig's feet that came off the small wild boar, three ended up in Little Princess's bowl.
Chen Jianguo quietly picked up the last piece, ladled some soup and peanuts, and carried it into the room for Zhao Mei.
Ma Xiulian didn't object. After all, Zhao Mei had narrowly escaped death giving birth to a grandson for the Chen family. If it weren't for Guibao, she would have died. She deserved to eat something good to recover.