Standing there for a moment, she overheard people whispering about the siblings' circumstances.
When the siblings were in elementary school, their father fell seriously ill and passed away. Their mother, unwilling to let them suffer others' scorn, stubbornly refused to move forward. Feeling pity for the three of them, the factory allowed their mother to take on his father's temporary job at the screw factory.
Their mother wasn't well-educated, and the screw factory had no easy jobs. She had to work, care for the children, and endure malicious gossip, keeping her nerves on edge every day.
But misfortunes never come singly; the year after her mother's job became permanent, she fell seriously ill and passed away within a few months. Her sister was just a month away from finishing middle school graduation. To support him, she took over her mother's job.
