Two hundred yuan might not sound like a huge sum in later eras, but in Xiao Weiguo's household, it was a fortune.
Eighteen-year-old Xiao Weiguo lived with his four younger brothers and sisters.
They had no other income besides a few mu of barren land, and ever since their parents passed away, Xiao Weiguo had refused to do a single day of farmwork.
Fortunately, his younger sister Xiao Shanshan, who was only a year younger than him, had been sensible since childhood. She single-handedly tended to the crops, barely managing to keep the family fed.
As for the third-oldest sibling, Xiao Jian, he had grown so weary of Xiao Weiguo's beatings and verbal abuse last year that he ran away from home in a fit of anger. Right before leaving, he glared at Xiao Weiguo and uttered a single warning:
"Take good care of our sister and the two youngest, or else..."
At the time, Xiao Weiguo had paid no attention to those words, never imagining they would turn out to be a prophecy.
Because Xiao Weiguo had not only brought about Xiao Shanshan's death, but in the end, driven by money, he had even given away his younger brother and sister to be adopted by strangers.
Until the day he died, Xiao Weiguo never received another piece of news about them.
For these reasons alone, Xiao Jian's hatred for him unto death was entirely justified.
In his previous life, Xiao Weiguo could no longer survive in his hometown and was forced to look for other options.
Right as the wave of migration to the south hit in the 1990s, he followed the crowd down south to trade in garments. To everyone's surprise, he used his glib tongue to grow his business larger and larger.
Within just a few years, he owned his own factory and became a billionaire many times over.
It was only then that Xiao Weiguo realized the importance of family, but it was already too late. Some were dead, and the rest were scattered. Wealthy as he was, he could never make amends for the deep regrets of his early years.
Now reborn into this lifetime, Xiao Weiguo understood what mattered most, and he swore never to let the tragedies of his past life repeat themselves.
No matter what, he had to find the runaway Xiao Jian and take good care of his younger brothers and sisters. Growing old together as a family was the greatest happiness of all.
Xiao Weiguo vowed silently in his heart that he would give his siblings the happiest life possible, so they would never have to worry about survival again.
Wasn't it just two hundred yuan?
With his perspective from decades in the future, how could he possibly be stumped by such a trivial problem?
Xiao Weiguo pulled his sister up from the ground and reached out to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.
"Shanshan, I'm sorry. Your older brother was no good in the past. Don't worry, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I'm going out to earn money right now—even if I have to carry heavy loads for people, I will pay this money back."
Xiao Shanshan shook her head, her eyes still filled with despair.
How many times had her eldest brother said words like that, yet when had he ever changed?
Her expression sent a pang through Xiao Weiguo's heart. The impression he had left on his sister over the years could hardly be erased by a couple of sentences.
"Shanshan, can you trust your brother just this once? The last time, I swear..."
Xiao Weiguo was sweating profusely with anxiety, completely at a loss for what kind of oath could prove his sincerity.
"Sigh!"
Xiao Shanshan let out a sigh, dusted off her clothes, and walked back into the main house without a word.
What did believing him matter? What did doubting him matter?
Xiao Weiguo was her brother, and nobody could ever change that fact.
At least his behavior today showed a sliver of a brother's demeanor when he stood up to block the wedding procession.
Xiao Shanshan made up her mind. If worse came to worst, she would just wait until the autumn harvest to sell what little grain they had and pay off the two hundred yuan. Even without this brother, she would find a way to keep her younger brother and sister alive.
Xiao Weiguo watched his sister's thin back, a turmoil of emotions churning in his chest.
He understood that no matter what he said right now, he couldn't change her impression of him. He would simply have to use concrete actions to prove himself.
He fetched a basin of water, washed off the mud from being beaten, tidied his hair, and found a set of relatively clean clothes to change into before stepping out the door.
In his past life, he had read plenty of transmigration novels where the protagonists dug up wild vegetables, caught fish, or scooped up shrimp to make their first pot of gold and rise to the peak of success.
Yet here on the Great Plain, everywhere he looked were neatly tended crop fields. There were neither wild vegetables blanketing the mountains nor wild fish and shrimp within arm's reach. Trying to make money that way was simply impossible.
He decided to head into the county town first to see if there were any ways to make a living, so he could at least pay back that two hundred yuan; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to face Shanshan.
"Ring-ring-ring!"
A crisp bicycle bell sounded from behind him.
Instinctively, Xiao Weiguo stepped aside to the edge of the road, waiting for the bicycle to pass.
Instead, the person behind him hopped off the bike and called out to him.
"Xiao Weiguo, where are you headed?"
The familiar voice was crisp and melodious. Without even turning around, Xiao Weiguo knew who it was.
"Liu Ye, I'm heading to the county town. What about you?"
The newcomer was Liu Ye from his village, as well as his former junior high classmate—the only classmate he still kept in touch with.
Liu Ye's family background was quite good; her father worked at the sock factory in the county town. She herself taught at First High School.
In those days, having two people in the family eating state grain with a fixed monthly salary was something many people envied.
Compared to Xiao Weiguo in his tattered clothes, Liu Ye was dressed far more respectably.
A floral dacron shirt, a black pleated skirt, black velvet flat shoes, two long braided pigtails, and a pair of deep dimples when she smiled.
For that era, she was the absolute embodiment of the nation's goddess.
Liu Ye patted a large package strapped to the back seat of her bicycle.
"My dad's factory couldn't pay their wages, so they gave out these socks as payment instead. There are so many, and you can't eat them or drink them, so I want to haul them to the county town and see if I can sell some off."
"Socks?"
Xiao Weiguo's eyes lit up.
"How many pairs do you have? How much are you planning to sell them for?"
"This is my dad's two months' salary given in lieu of cash. There are five hundred pairs in total. I figured at four fen—wait, four jiao a pair, I'll sell as many as I can."
An ordinary worker's monthly salary in those days was generally under a hundred yuan. According to Liu Ye's math, at four jiao a pair, five hundred pairs would fetch two hundred yuan—equal to her father's two-month salary, so she wouldn't be taking a loss.
"So cheap?"
Xiao Weiguo found it hard to believe.
Socks at the supply and marketing cooperative usually went for anywhere between one yuan eighty and two yuan. He hadn't expected the sock factory to price them so low when clearing wages for the workers.
In reality, the production cost of the socks was only three or four jiao; it was just that by the time they reached ordinary buyers, the price had ballooned to around two yuan.
The factory had no cash, so it could only pass the socks to the workers at cost price. Even so, few workers were willing to take them. After all, accustomed as they were to planned distribution and unified purchasing, a huge pile of socks was hardly as useful as hard cash.
"Liu Ye, I'll offer five jiao a pair. Sell them to me, how about that?"
Xiao Weiguo stepped up with a grin and pulled a pair of socks out from the corner of the package to inspect them.
"What do you want with so many socks?" Liu Ye asked, puzzled.
"Never mind all that, I'll take the whole lot at five jiao a pair. But I don't have money right now, so you'll have to come with me."
Xiao Weiguo checked the quality of the socks and confirmed there were no issues. A plan was already forming in his mind.
"Really?"
"We're old classmates, would I lie to you?"
Xiao Weiguo took the bicycle from Liu Ye, had her sit on the back seat with the large package strapped to her shoulders, and then mounted the bike, pedaling off in the opposite direction.