When heaven is arrogant, it brings rain; when man is arrogant, it brings disaster.
Sure enough, before Xiao Weiguo could swagger for long, a patch of dark clouds drifted across the sky, and a torrential downpour poured down without warning.
There was no help for it, as there was nowhere to shelter from the rain on either side of the road. Xiao Weiguo had no choice but to pour the rice into a large plastic bag containing the flour, and then shove everything else that was afraid of getting wet into the rice bag in one go.
That way, he wouldn't have to worry about his newly bought items getting soaked.
As for the rice and flour, he could just find a sieve to separate them when he got home; it was no big deal.
After a hard ride back to Xiaotun, dusk was already falling. Kitchen smoke was curling up from the roofs of every household, and the heavy rain had stopped.
Arriving at his front gate, Xiao Weiguo hoisted everything onto his shoulder and returned the bicycle to Liu Ye.
"Thanks again..."
Liu Ye turned, mounted her bicycle, and rode toward her home.
"Hey, don't forget to ask your dad about the socks!"
Xiao Weiguo shouted at her retreating figure.
"Got it!"
Liu Ye's crisp reply came back from afar.
"Hehe!"
Xiao Weiguo turned around and smacked his lips.
"Tsk tsk! So pretty!"
Pulling back his thoughts, he carried his load toward the house.
In the kitchen, Xiao Shanshan was starting the fire to cook.
There was only half a bowl of rice left in the house, so she picked a few wild vegetable leaves from the fields and tossed them into the pot together.
This would be the evening meal for the three of them—herself and her younger siblings.
As for that eldest brother of hers, he had gone out in the morning to make money, and once he left, he stayed out all day. Only a fool would believe he could earn any money; who knew where he had gone off to freeload and sponge off others again.
If they had to rely on him to take care of this family, she and her younger siblings would have starved to death long ago.
If not for his utterly despicable behavior, their second brother wouldn't have run away from home, with no news of him to this day.
"Sigh!"
Xiao Shanshan let out a sigh.
No matter how bitter life was, it still had to be lived—not just for her own sake, but for her twin younger brother and sister, who were only eight years old.
The red flames inside the stove hearth flickered and danced across the rough skin of her face. Though she was still so young, the traces of hardship had already crept onto her forehead.
The front gate creaked softly as someone walked into the courtyard.
Xiao Shanshan knew it must be her eldest brother returning. Given this little bit of rice in the pot, it looked like there would be even less to go around tonight.
"Shanshan, Xiao Jiang, Xiao Yue, your older brother is back! Look what I brought you all?"
Xiao Shanshan in the kitchen remained entirely unmoved, not even lifting her eyelids. She was long used to her eldest brother's deception, beatings, and scolding. Bringing them things? Ha! What a fairy tale.
The two twins playing in the main room, upon hearing his voice, were so frightened that they scrambled up from the ground in a flurry, retreating into the corner of the brick bed and curling their bodies tight.
Every time their eldest brother ran out of money, he would beat them. Hearing his voice, they instinctively wanted to find a safe place.
Xiao Weiguo stood in the courtyard waiting for a long time, and seeing that not a single person acknowledged him, he could only sheepishly poke his head forward and glance into the kitchen.
"Shanshan, stop cooking. I bought something delicious; you just need to heat it up."
Xiao Shanshan raised her head, as if she had misheard, her clear, wide eyes fixed intently on Xiao Weiguo.
Xiao Weiguo put down the things from his shoulder and pulled out four pig trotters and a roast chicken from the plastic bag.
"Look, Shanshan, I wasn't lying."
The fragrant aroma of the pig trotters and roast chicken instantly spread through the small kitchen. Xiao Shanshan could barely keep herself from swallowing hard.
"Where did you get the money to buy this? You didn't steal it, did you? Or did you go gambling again?"
She couldn't believe her eyes. For how many years—ever since their parents passed away—had they not eaten food like this?
Xiao Weiguo hurriedly waved both hands to explain.
"Shanshan, it's really not what you think. I honestly bought this with my own money. There's no trick to it at all."
"Your money? Where on earth did you get money? Didn't you lose all two hundred yuan gambling yesterday? Did you sell me off again?"
As she spoke, tears streamed down Xiao Shanshan's face.
She wasn't afraid of hardship, nor of fatigue; what she feared most was being repeatedly deceived by her own biological brother. If only her brother could straighten up—even if he did nothing at all and just stayed home every day to look after the two little ones—she wouldn't be having such a difficult time.
Looking at her heartbroken younger sister, Xiao Weiguo felt a sharp pang in his heart. What kind of wicked sins had he committed in the past, to let such a sensible sister be tormented by him into this state?
"Shanshan, this time I've genuinely turned over a new leaf. I will never screw you over again. I'm doing business with Liu Ye now. If you don't believe me, you should at least believe Liu Ye, right?"
With that, he placed the items on the stove counter.
"Come on, I'll take you to Liu Ye's house right now to prove it to you."
Seeing him speak with such sincerity, and even bringing up Liu Ye, the famously talented young woman of the village, Xiao Shanshan couldn't help but believe him.
Liu Ye came from a wealthy family and had been well-brought-up since childhood; she certainly wouldn't associate with her brother in wrongdoing. Since he dared to say such a thing, it had to be true.
"But, but... you spent all the money. What about the two hundred yuan bride price?"
Xiao Shanshan finally stood up and placed the pig trotters and roast chicken onto the steaming rack inside the large iron wok.
Though her heart ached for the money, since he had already bought them, letting them go to waste would be a shame. She could just use this opportunity to satisfy the cravings of the two little ones. She certainly couldn't bear to waste food.
Xiao Weiguo reached into his pocket again and pulled out a thick stack of large-denomination ten-yuan bills—easily thirty or forty of them.
"Look, this is all I earned just today."
As he spoke, he counted out twenty bills from the stack, put them into his pocket, and handed the rest to his younger sister.
"After we eat, I'll go return that two hundred yuan to them, and you can keep the rest. From now on, you'll have the final say on everything we buy for the house."
Whether Xiao Shanshan believed him or not, with those colorful banknotes spread out right before her eyes, it was impossible for her not to be moved.
"You're really not lying to me? Is the sock business really this profitable?"
This was the first time her eldest brother had ever brought money *into* the house. In the past, he had only ever taken money *out*.
"No, never again."
Seeing her younger sister gradually start to trust him, Xiao Weiguo's heart swelled with emotion.
He took his sister's hand and picked up the plastic bag from the floor.
"Come with me, I bought new clothes and more food for all of you, too."