Mrs. Vance dropped to her knees, startling lody Sumrs.
lody quickly bent down to help Mrs. Vance up, stamring, "Don’t, don’t, don’t! There’s no need for this. Please don’t do this! Get up!"
Being knelt to by an elder made lody feel like she was losing years off her life.
But Mrs. Vance insisted, "Miss Sumrs, you saved my family’s lives, but I repaid your kindness with malice... This is all my fault! I’ve wronged you!"
If Mrs. Vance’s remorse was a 90 out of 100 when her theft was exposed, right now, it had shot up to 999.
Mrs. Vance was filled with regret. She gripped lody’s sleeve tightly and said through her tears, "Miss Sumrs, my family owes you two lives... No, four lives! You saved my entire family! From now on, if you ever need anything, just ask!"
Mrs. Vance was willing to give her own life just to repay lody’s kindness.
lody waved her hands frantically, struggling to help Mrs. Vance up. "No, no, no, you don’t need to do this. I’m begging you, please just get up first!"
Just as lody clumsily managed to get Mrs. Vance back on her feet, Mrs. Vance’s daughter-in-law, Susan Warren, also realized what was happening.
The thought that lody had saved her and her son, yet she had stolen and eaten pork from lody’s ho, filled Susan Warren with sha and regret.
She choked back sobs and said to lody, "Our benefactor! Thank you for saving and my son!"
With that, Susan Warren clutched her belly and also moved to kneel before lody.
Seeing this, lody was so horrified she thought her soul would leap out of her skull!
She rushed forward, grabbing Susan Warren to stop her from kneeling, and kept repeating, "Don’t! Don’t do this! Please don’t!"
Watching Mrs. Vance and Susan Warren crying their eyes out, a complete ss of tears, lody was at a total loss. She turned and shot Officer Tate a pleading look.
’I really can’t handle this scene!’
Officer Tate cleared his throat and said, "Alright, since you recognize your mistake, we’ll be leaving now. I hope you’ll keep your promise, not repeat this offense, and not tell anyone what happened today."
Mrs. Vance and Susan Warren nodded repeatedly. Even Susan Warren’s son obediently nodded along and said in his small, childish voice, "I definitely won’t tell!"
After that, lody didn’t dare to linger. She grabbed Officer Tate’s arm and bolted out of there.
...
After finally escaping from Mrs. Vance’s apartnt, lody let out a long sigh of relief.
She turned and gave Officer Tate a helpless look, complaining, "Officer Tate, you really threw to the wolves back there!"
Officer Tate had been trying to hold back his laughter the entire ti, the corners of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
’lody Sumrs is a few years younger than , a college student who only graduated a little over a year ago, yet she always has such a calm deanor. That was the first ti I’d ever seen her so flustered,’ Officer Tate thought.
Hearing lody’s complaint, he cleared his throat and replied, "I was worried about you, that’s why I told them. Now that their family is indebted to you, you’ll be a little safer in the future."
lody was speechless. ’Why do I feel like this has only made things more complicated?’
...
******
After parting ways with Officer Tate at the elevators, lody Sumrs went straight ho.
Just then, a fine, dense black snow began to fall again outside the window. lody glanced at the date. If she wasn’t mistaken, the sky should be clearing up soon.
lody originally thought the matter with Mrs. Vance was over, but unexpectedly, Mrs. Vance ca knocking on the Sumrs family’s door that evening.
This ti, Mrs. Vance didn’t ask to co in. She just spoke through the door, "Miss Sumrs, these things at your doorstep are a small token of our gratitude. Please, you must accept them!"
As if worried lody would refuse, Mrs. Vance put the items down and ran back to her apartnt as soon as she finished speaking.
lody felt helpless. She had no choice but to open the door and bring in the two large bags Mrs. Vance had left.
Seeing this, Miss Lowell and Grandma gathered around curiously, asking, "Where did these co from? What is all this?"
lody opened the two bags and saw they were filled with various items.
There were two brand-new down jackets, a pair of new snow boots, and a thick woolen blanket that still had the tag on.
Besides that, there was a pile of candles and lighters, a pile of solid alcohol fuel, a small bag of bamboo charcoal, two chocolate bars, and a piece of pork—a piece clearly larger than the one they had stolen from lody.
Grace Sutton looked at the pile of items, puzzled. "Where did all this co from?"
’Where else could it have co from?’ lody thought. ’This must be the "compensation and thank-you gift" that Mrs. Vance scraped together by emptying her ho.’
With a sigh, lody had no choice but to recount the events of last night and today to her family in the living room, telling them everything from start to finish.
Grandma and the others were utterly shocked after hearing the story.
Grace Sutton asked in astonishnt, "Good heavens! She really climbed up here with her bare hands?! We’re on the 16th floor! How could she be so bold? If she had fallen, she would have died!"
Miss Lowell, on the other hand, said with concern, "You said the pregnant woman’s eight-month belly only looks like it’s five months along? If that’s the case, can the fetus even develop properly? And now pregnant won can’t even go to the hospital to give birth. That’s just too dangerous..."
Grandma also sighed and lanted, "That whole family is so ill-fated. The son passed away tragically, and the daughter-in-law is carrying an unborn child. Oh, how are they supposed to survive..."
’No wonder Mrs. Vance was so persistent in scrounging for supplies from all her neighbors...’
lody looked at the two bags of items before her, a headache brewing.
She had seen the bare walls of Mrs. Vance’s ho and knew that to gather these two bags of items, the Vance family must have given everything they had.
These two bags were hardly even a luxury for the Sumrs family, but for Mrs. Vance, they were a lifeline.
lody couldn’t keep these things.
So she sighed and said, "We don’t need this stuff. I’ll take it back down to her."
Grandma and the others nodded in agreent. "That’s right, we don’t need this. That family—an old woman, a young mother, and a child—is already so vulnerable, and she’s pregnant on top of it all. Life is already hard enough for them. If they give all this to us, they won’t be able to survive. Quick, take it back!"
lody thought for a mont, then went to the kitchen to grab so sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. She also found two boxes of vitamins and calcium tablets from the storage room, along with three bags of milk powder, and stuffed them all into the two large bags.
Then, Grace Sutton and lody carried the bags and knocked on the door of 1505.
A mont later, the door to 1505 opened.
A blast of cold air hit them the mont the door opened. The temperature inside 1505 was even lower than it had been when lody and Officer Tate were there that morning.
The door was opened by the sa little boy, who was as thin as a matchstick. He was wrapped in a thick down jacket that was too big for him, its hem dragging on the floor.
The boy was holding the listless chihuahua, the two small creatures sharing body heat to stay warm.
The little boy recognized lody. His eyes curved into crescents as he called out happily, "It’s you! The lady who saved us!"
lody: "..."
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