Lin Wan just lowered her head and didn't speak at that time, merely responding faintly. Apart from guilt and guiltiness, what occupied her mind the most was looking at Mom and her brother standing in front of her covered in patches, feeling disgusted, thinking she was embarrassed. She didn't say much, took the quilt, clothes, daily necessities her Mom and brother brought from afar, along with five dollars, and returned to campus.
She didn't care at all where her family stayed that night. Did they have money on them? How did they get here? She didn't ask a single question.
Thinking about these things, Lin Wan felt angry and ashamed, cursing herself a million times in her heart, feeling worse than pigs and dogs. She thought why didn't she just die back then, staying at home only to make her family sad…
This lifetime she made up her mind to treat her Mom and brother well. In this life, she must not disappoint her brother and mother, must not let her brother have regrets. She could skip college, but her brother must attend, even if she had to wait two years or go to a night school.
As Lin Wan had just tidied up, leaving the door open, she looked up to see her Mom and brother covered in patches standing outside.
Seeing her Mom and brother, they looked no different than at the school gate years ago. They must have gone crazy looking for her.
"Mom... Brother..." The long-lost relatives, missed day and night, how many days and nights had she not seen them? Her eyes turned red for a moment, choked with emotion.
Liang Hongmei searched for her daughter for over ten days, and the family was almost driven crazy with worry. She had a bellyful of words to say, a bellyful of words to scold, but the flames of anger in her heart turned into heartache and self-blame upon seeing her daughter. If it weren't for her incompetence, the two children wouldn't have suffered, and her daughter wouldn't have run away from home.
Lin Wan stepped forward to hug Liang Hongmei, her tears fell continuously. "I'm sorry, Mom, I was wrong. I was too willful, making you and brother worry."
When did her daughter ever apologize to someone? This was probably the first time.
Liang Hongmei patted her daughter's back, choking with sobs and a bit of self-blame. In the end, only heartache remained. "You're just a teenage girl, how could you have such a big heart to run away from home? It's not like our village where one could survive for a year or half without money. You only had so little money with you, what could you do with it? What would I do if anything happened to you? If it wasn't for villagers spotting you here yesterday, we wouldn't know how long we'd have to search. How have you been these days alone outside? Come home with us now."
"Sis, I've discussed with Mom, and we've decided to let you go to college this year. As for living expenses, I've got it covered; you just focus on studying. If there's anything you're not satisfied with in the future, make sure to communicate with the family. Don't leave quietly like this again. Luckily, nothing happened. If anything did happen, how would Mom and I live?"
The situation was too similar to back then. It was all her fault.
Her willfulness caused mom and brother such heartache and self-blame. Luckily, heaven gave her a chance to start over. She must make up for the regrets of the past life. Thinking of this, Lin Wan wiped her tears, smiled, and led Mom and brother inside.
She closed the front door casually, took them to the inner room, pulled out the more than twenty dollars she earned these days and the few food tickets she had, saying, "Mom, look, this is what I earned these days. Brother's grades are better than mine; let him go first… Brother, from now on, leave the money-making to me. You don't have to worry about living expenses in college."
"Twenty dollars? You've just been out for a few days? Where did you get the money, even starting a business?" Liang Hongmei couldn't believe this was the child she had spoiled rotten?
"Sis, our family may be poor, but we can't do anything illegal." Brother Lin Yinghui also obviously didn't believe her words.
Both of them felt her money source was unclear.
"I'm telling the truth," Lin Wan said, pointing to the cart outside, "Look, I sell these pancakes usually, selling dozens a day."
Liang Hongmei and Lin Yinghui looked at the big characters on the cart, along with the two earth stoves. It did seem like she was doing business.
"Xiao Wan, our family is poor, but three generations are all poor farmers. We've never done these disgraceful businesses, no matter how poor. You can't do this in the future," Liang Hongmei felt a little scared, pulling her daughter along.
"Mom, what are you saying? Now it's the reform and opening-up period, loudspeakers outside shout every day to become self-reliant to have enough food and clothing, encouraging us to become wealthy and prosperous. What I do is legitimate business, I just want our family to live a bit better, not illegal."
Only two years have passed, and a large portion of people still can't accept it. Doing business now would be looked down upon, always underestimated. Lin Wan could understand this, as indeed, few people started individual businesses then.
"Others haven't done it, so we shouldn't be the first." Liang Hongmei was a completely uneducated rural woman.
Never standing out, always following the crowd.
"Mom, you're wrong about this. Now society is open, times have changed. Old patterns have been broken, now everyone is striving for wealth, what's wrong with that? I think Sis is very thoughtful; she's doing a great job. Our family relies on just over three acres of land to barely make ends meet, it's not enough to support our family of three."
"This…" While Liang Hongmei hesitated, just then, the loudspeaker outside sounded the set slogan on time. Thinking about how she had taken care of two children alone over the years, enduring much hardship and bullying from villagers, she didn't want the children to continue living such harsh lives.
Thinking of this, Liang Hongmei subconsciously nodded, "If we can earn some money, let's do it too."
"Hmm"
"Hmm"
The siblings felt delighted seeing their mother agree.
"Where did you get the money to buy these things?" Liang Hongmei only knew her daughter left with just nine dollars.