One spring evening, after the busy season of spring plowing, Wen Qian fell ill.
She suddenly felt cold and covered herself with an extra blanket.
In the middle of the night, she vaguely felt feverish and had a headache, but being too tired, she simply turned over and went back to sleep.
An An noticed something was wrong in the early hours of the morning when she touched her mother and felt her skin was very hot.
An An immediately got up to light a lamp, then searched for the spare medicine in the house and prepared some lukewarm water.
An An woke Wen Qian and asked how she felt. Wen Qian thought she probably had a cold.
An An gave her some fever-reducing medicine, and the fever quickly subsided. The mercury thermometer was wrapped in several layers of cloth; Wen Qian said she had bought it online before the catastrophe.
An An didn't know what online shopping was and couldn't imagine life before the catastrophe. Although she had read about it in books, it didn't feel real to her.
Using this tool to measure Wen Qian's temperature, the previous high fever had already gone down, but An An was still very worried because Wen Qian kept dozing off.
An An kept waking up, unable to sleep soundly, checking the temperature with her hand, worried that her mother's condition might worsen.
When daylight came and Wen Qian woke up, she heard noises from the kitchen.
An An was in the kitchen making porridge and small dishes. This was what her mother used to do when she was sick, and she would also give her something sweet to eat after taking medicine.
Now An An was doing the same, copying her mother's methods.
Wen Qian's fever had broken, but she felt weak all over, so she sat up in bed to eat breakfast from a small table placed on the bed.
Although she had no appetite, she knew she had to eat. This was what Wen Qian used to tell An An.
In the process of raising a child, she had encountered situations where the child was sick, but fortunately, they were never serious problems. The medicine from the doctor and what she had bought beforehand were still sufficient to handle these situations.
Now that she herself was sick, An An was taking very good care of her, even remembering the words she used to persuade An An to take medicine.
After finishing her meal, Wen Qian sat leaning against the wall, gazing out the window.
Because she was sick, she didn't go out, so An An went out for a while to check the nearby traps.
After dealing with the catch, An An hurried back home, though she didn't know if her mother would be scared being alone at home.
But she knew that when her mother was sick, she herself was scared. The older she got, the more scared she became.
Even though she was no longer a little child and could do many things, in front of her mother, she was still a child.
Wen Qian didn't feel lonely or scared at home, but she thought of her grandmother. It seemed that every time she got sick, she would think of her, especially after the catastrophe.
As time passed, the images in her mind gradually became blurred. This seemed to be a rule, even though she had things and photos of her grandmother, she still couldn't avoid forgetting.
An An had heard many stories about her great-grandmother from her mother. Often, her mother would repeat these stories, not for An An to hear, but to prevent herself from forgetting.
Wen Qian saw An An return, then go in and out preparing lunch. She felt that the child had really grown up.
It took Wen Qian a week to fully recover from this illness, with An An taking care of her the whole time.
This wasn't the first time Wen Qian had been sick, but before, when An An was still little, she could only help by fetching water.
Going even further back, when Wen Qian was alone, she would place medicine, food, and water by her bedside, convenient for taking care of herself when she couldn't get up.
Every choice had its pros and cons. When she was alone, there was no one to take care of her. When she had someone by her side, she was responsible for the child's safe growth.
Now the child had grown up and could take care of her too.
At noon, when taking medicine, An An gave Wen Qian a piece of candy, just like she used to receive as a child.
As An An gradually grew older, although no one around her deliberately told her she was adopted, she gradually became aware of this situation.
Wen Qian had health records about her, starting with her name, noting she was less than a month old, along with other health conditions.
This meant that when she met her mother, she was less than a month old, and her birthday was the day they met.
This fact corresponded with her childhood memory of calling Wen Qian "grandma," and when she asked Wen Qian about it, Wen Qian told her the truth.
An An was old enough to accept these things, and Wen Qian believed that even if she told the child the truth, the child would process it well on her own.
That was indeed the case. Wen Qian saw An An feeling down for a few days, but then she returned to normal.
Later, she found out that during this time, An An had gone to two neighbors' houses to inquire about the details of that year. Although surprised, the neighbors eventually told her the truth.
The stories from all three people were similar, which meant that was indeed the truth. An An was very sad because she had hoped she was really her mother's biological child.
But soon after, she came to understand. If blood ties were really that important, her mother wouldn't have picked her up and raised her so well.
If being biological was really that important, her birth parents wouldn't have abandoned her at the dock, not even bothering to send her to an orphanage.
What did it matter if she wasn't biological? She still grew up happily with all her needs met. She and her mother lived well together.
It should be the same in the future, so this storm quickly calmed, as if it had never happened.
But Aunt Da Ning raised a question to her: if one day someone came to claim her, what would she do?
An An gave a cold laugh, without answering.
Seeing her eyes, Da Ning felt that An An was exactly like Wen Qian. When angry, their eyes were equally sharp, as if they could see right through people.
Seeing that An An didn't show a hint of hesitation or reluctance, Da Ning felt relieved. If this child was soft-hearted, she would have felt that Wen Qian had raised her in vain.
Clearly, An An wasn't easy to fool either. If such a thing really happened, the other party would certainly not be able to take advantage of the Wen family.
Both aunts had described An An's growing up experience, and they also emphasized Wen Qian's hard work. They truly felt that Wen Qian had raised the child very well and that she had done it wholeheartedly.
Da Ning gestured to show the scene of their first meeting, describing how small An An was then, and now she had to look up to talk to her.
An An certainly understood their meaning. As onlookers, they saw clearly how her mother had devoted herself, so they hoped this neighbor would have a happy late life.
Wen Qian had told An An about her past, including the fact that she was adopted. The people who found her were her grandparents.
An An wondered if it might have been her great-grandparents, whom she had never met, who had influenced her mother to take her in when they first encountered each other.
After these events, An An became even more dedicated to hunting and farming, and grew even more attached to her mother.
This child had always been good at being affectionate, which Wen Qian didn't find strange at all.
