Page 4

A few minutes later, police cars arrived with sirens blaring, and the girl's parents rushed over as well.

Watching the girl burst into tears as her family held her close, Lu Chi quietly slipped away into the crowd.

Lu Miaomiao sat properly at her desk, doing her homework. To save electricity, the lights were off at home, leaving only an energy-saving lamp on the desk, its light covering no more than the small space around it. The alarm clock ticked away second by second, making a "click-clack" sound. Clutching her rumbling stomach, Lu Miaomiao lay sprawled over the desk and stared at the countless lights outside the window.

A few faint sounds came from the entryway. Lu Miaomiao's ears perked up, and she dashed out of the study, calling loudly, "Big Brother, you're back!"

Lu Chi carried a backpack, a dirtied school uniform, and some instant noodles. He switched on the small light in the entryway and said apologetically, "Sorry, I got back late. You must be starving, right?"

Lu Miaomiao shook her head. "I cooked some porridge in the rice cooker and ate half a salted duck egg."

After a pause, Lu Miaomiao asked, "Big Brother, why did you get back so late today? I stayed home all day. It was so boring."

Unlike Lu Chi, Lu Miaomiao, who had only just started second grade, was still on her long weekend break. With no one else at home, Lu Chi did not dare let her wander around outside alone. He could only keep her at home to do her homework.

Lu Chi set his backpack on the sofa and went into the kitchen to cook without even stopping to catch his breath. Lu Miaomiao leaned against the doorway, watching her brother fumble with the gas canister, boil water, wash vegetables, and tear open the instant noodle packets. Wrinkling her nose, she said, "Instant noodles again?"

Lu Chi paused slightly, blinking with a guilty look in his eyes.

Lu Miaomiao apparently remembered her brother's "heroic deeds" of nearly causing food poisoning the last two times he had tried to stir-fry vegetables. She hurriedly said, "How about you teach me how to use the gas canister, Big Brother? I can fry eggs!"

"No. Gas canisters are too dangerous." Lu Chi rejected his sister's suggestion with a serious expression. He cracked two eggs into the pot, added a cake of instant noodles and two bundles of dried noodles, tossed in a sausage, then stirred everything with his chopsticks. Just as he decided it was about done and was about to turn off the heat, Lu Miaomiao reminded him from behind, "The seasoning! The seasoning! You haven't added the seasoning!"

Lu Chi froze, then began frantically searching for the seasoning. In the end, he found the well-hidden instant noodle seasoning packet inside the noodle bag, which he had nearly thrown into the trash. By the time he added it to the pot and stirred a few more times, the noodles had gone mushy, and the eggs had been shredded into bits, happily rolling around in the soup.

Lu Miaomiao secretly glanced at her somewhat helpless brother and quickly said, "Um, eggs broken up in noodle soup taste good. I love eating them like that. The soup is really tasty."

As she spoke, she swiftly took two bowls from the cupboard and urged him with a grin, "Big Brother, hurry and dish out the noodles. I'm starving."

By the time the siblings took their first bites of noodles, it was already eight thirty in the evening.

Cradling her bowl and noisily slurping soup, Lu Miaomiao sighed, "I wonder when Mom and Dad will be able to come over... It'd be nice if Second Brother could come back too."

Lu Chi took a bite of the limp noodles and said, "Mom and Dad are still back in the village, busy hiring trucks. Your Second Brother is filming with the crew, so he can't come back either."

After a pause, Lu Chi looked at his sister and asked, "Is my cooking really that bad?"

Lu Miaomiao blinked and replied firmly, "Big Brother, the instant noodles you make are already really good. I think you're very talented at cooking instant noodles. Really. Look, how many times have you even made instant noodles? And they're already cooked!"

Lu Chi: "..."

Lu Miaomiao smacked her lips, feeling that this praise might have been a little weak. Lowering her head to bite into the sausage, she mumbled, "Actually, the food at the school cafeteria is pretty good too. Things like spicy hot pot and mashed potato rice... They're just kind of expensive!"

Two liang of rice cost fifty cents, a scoop of mashed potatoes cost one yuan, and one meal came to one yuan fifty. A bowl of spicy hot pot was nothing but vegetable leaves, and after two bites with chopsticks, there was practically nothing left, yet they still dared charge four yuan for it. Things in the city were way too expensive!

Lu Chi fell silent for a moment before saying, "I still have over a hundred yuan on my meal card. When school starts on Monday, I'll go to the elementary division to find you and transfer another seventy yuan to you..."

"No." Lu Miaomiao shook her head. "If you transfer all the money to me, Big Brother, you won't have enough to eat."

"Our school has a subsidized meal area. One yuan gets you a dish and soup, and you can eat your fill." Unfortunately, that system only applied to exceptionally poor students who had entered the middle school or high school divisions with outstanding grades or other special talents. The elementary division, where the students were divided by district and were either wealthy or powerful, was not included.

Seeing that Lu Miaomiao still wanted to say something, Lu Chi reached out and rubbed her head. "Be good."

Feeling the warm palm on her head, Lu Miaomiao puffed out her cheeks. As a girl, did she eat too much?

Before Lu Miaomiao could properly wallow in self-pity, her brother's gentle voice sounded over her head again. "You've finished all your homework, right? I'll check it after dinner. Do you have anything you need to recite or be tested on?"

Lu Miaomiao quickly answered. While Lu Chi cleared the dishes and washed his school uniform, she recited several ancient poems and passages she was required to memorize. Then, as Lu Chi corrected her homework, she said hesitantly, "Big Brother, I want to watch TV."

"Go ahead. Don't stay up too late. Go to bed at ten. Tomorrow, I'll take you out for a walk."

Lu Miaomiao answered with a cheerful grin and ran off to watch television.

At nine in the evening, after finally finishing grading his sister's homework, Lu Chi leaned back in his chair and stretched. He wandered around the study for a while to loosen up.

This three-bedroom apartment near Yanda Affiliated High School was an employee dormitory rented by Lu Heng's agency for him. Half a month earlier, his second brother, Lu Heng, had participated in a reality show called Life Swap, planned by Huaxia Entertainment. During filming, he had accidentally discovered a group of human traffickers. After taking down more than a dozen traffickers by himself, Lu Heng received a twenty-thousand-yuan reward from the relevant authorities and signed with Huaxia Entertainment, becoming an actor. As one of the terms of the contract, Lu Chi and Lu Miaomiao, who had originally attended the county high school and village elementary school, had also transferred to Yanjing to study with Huaxia Entertainment's help. Their parents, meanwhile, had used the twenty thousand yuan to rent two large trucks and started running long-haul freight routes.