Boom!
A muffled thunderclap rang out across the heavens. In the depths of winter, a rare bolt of lightning tore through the torrential wind and snow, ripping open the night sky.
It illuminated the young man's mud-smeared face, pale and ghastly as a ghost.
Xiao Jian struggled to his feet, seeming half-mad. "I may not understand, but I know this much: even if one would rather die, one's integrity and backbone must never be cast aside!"
His figure staggered as he headed toward the distant cliff.
Master Liu held an Oiled Paper Umbrella and quietly watched it all, with no intention of stopping him.
He merely said, "You care only about your own backbone and integrity, but have you ever considered your elder sister's sacrifices, grievances, and pain?"
Xiao Jian's entire body stiffened. His expression shifted uncertainly as he stood blankly at the edge of the cliff, unable to take that final step.
Scenes of relying on each other for survival, from childhood until now, flickered through his mind like a galloping lantern show.
Whenever there was food, his elder sister had always made sure he ate his fill first.
As he grew older, she began sleeping alone on a pallet on the floor, giving him the family's only bed.
In the sweltering summer, when he slept, she would constantly fan him and drive away the mosquitoes, while she herself was bitten until she was covered in welts.
Whenever he occasionally woke in the dead of night, she had only just finished working and was preparing to lie down.
Every day, his elder sister seemed to possess inexhaustible strength, doing endless work—laboring for others to earn money, plowing fields, watering crops, digging wild vegetables, mending clothes, cooking for him, boiling water, washing laundry...
She worked until deep into the night,