Ji Shijun was just about to tell the coachman to drive away when he thought of something and said, "Miss, I'm a few years older than you. Let me give you a piece of advice. In the future, you should rein in your temper when you're out. Otherwise, you'll be the one who suffers."
Zhao Luoyu pursed her lips. Her elder sister and second elder brother often told her the same thing, but she never listened. "I don't want to be a coward!"
"Going head - to - head with others is recklessness. You're a young lady. Can you beat those three strong young men? I can see that you're polite and well - spoken. You must have read more books than them. You may not be as strong as them physically, but you must be able to outsmart them. So, why not use your strengths against them?"
"That's sneaky and hypocritical!"
"No, it's self - preservation. Do you want to go head - to - head with others and get beaten to death, making your family sad? Or do you want to use your brain to protect yourself and your family? You can think it over carefully."
Hearing the words "protect the family", Zhao Luoyu's stubborn expression softened a bit.
She looked up at the departing carriage and seemed to be lost in thought.
When Zhao Luoyu returned with the uneaten wild vegetables and silver, Zhao Luoning was cooking at home.
In the cold winter, they couldn't afford dry firewood. The wet firewood they picked up from the mountain in a hurry wouldn't burn no matter how hard they tried. Instead, it filled the air with smoke, making Zhao Luoning's eyes teary.
Zhao Luoning couldn't stand the choking smoke anymore and had to run outside for some fresh air. As soon as she stepped out, she saw Zhao Luoyu standing at the door.
"Luoyu? What happened to your clothes? Did you get into another fight?"
Zhao Luoning was quite helpless. Her younger sister was even more difficult to discipline than her younger brothers. She got into fights every now and then. As a young lady, she already had quite a few injuries on her body.
Zhao Luoyu didn't want her sister to worry, so she shook her head and said, "I fell."
How could Zhao Luoning not see through her? She sighed and said, "Luoyu, go and rest first. Wait for me for a while. The meal will be ready soon."
The so - called meal was just wild vegetable soup. And since it had snowed in winter, wild vegetables were getting harder to find, so the soup was getting thinner and thinner.
Zhao Luoyu handed the wild vegetables and the money bag to Zhao Luoning.
"Where did you get this silver?"
"I found a job. This is the advance payment from the boss."
"What kind of job pays so much silver?"
Zhao Luoyu shook her head and said, "I don't know. He said he was from the Ji family."
"From the Ji family?"
Zhao Luoning handed the money bag back to Zhao Luoyu. "Luoyu, return the silver to him. We can't take this money."
"Elder sister, why?"
"Do you know what kind of family the Ji family is? They're one of the most powerful families in the city. They even have connections in the government. Do you think they'd really hire you to work? You might have been deceived."
Thinking of this, Zhao Luoning felt it was dangerous. She took the money bag back from Zhao Luoyu. "I'll go and return it for you. It's too dangerous for you to go."
Zhao Luoyu: "..."
She really wanted to remind Zhao Luoning that they were born on the same day. She was only half an hour older than her.
Zhao Luoyu told her what had happened. Seeing that Zhao Luoning was still worried, she said, "Elder sister, can I ask elder brother to go with me to return it tomorrow? Take this silver quickly. Do you really want our whole family to starve to death?"
Zhao Luoning looked at Zhao Luoyu suspiciously and then took the silver.
"After elder brother takes you there tomorrow and makes sure everything is okay, I'll use this silver."
Knowing that her elder sister was stubborn, Zhao Luoyu didn't force her.
She walked into the room.
This small courtyard had only two bedrooms. One was for Zhao Luochun and Zhao Luojing, and the other was shared by their mother and the three sisters.
Zhao Luoyu walked to the bed and found a new pair of shoes on it.
She remembered those shoes. They were made by their mother for Zhao Luoning.
Their mother had made a new pair of shoes for each of the children, but Zhao Luoning had never worn hers.
Zhao Luoyu seemed to think of something and rushed to the kitchen.
Zhao Luoning's eyes were full of tears from the smoke. She was taking the wet firewood out of the stove while persuading.
"Luoyu, go out quickly. Don't get choked."
Zhao Luoyu's eyes were fixed on the shoes on Zhao Luoning's feet.
They were their mother's shoes, very big. Zhao Luoning couldn't fit into them at all. To keep them from falling off, she had sewn several strings on them and then dragged them around while doing housework for the whole family.
"Elder sister, your shoes..."
"Oh, I saw that your shoes were worn out. I don't need mine. It's fine for me to wear mother's shoes. You wear them."
Zhao Luoyu's eyes welled up with tears.
The shoes were so big. How could she wear them?
Not to mention that Zhao Luoning had to run around doing housework, she wasn't even tall enough to reach the stove when cooking. She had to stand on a chair in front of the stove.
Climbing on and off the chair every day was really nerve - wracking.
Moreover, at this moment, she was so choked that she could hardly see clearly. It was very easy for her to trip and fall.
Zhao Luoyu thought for a while, then rushed back to the room, picked up the kerosene lamp on the table, and ran back to the kitchen.
She poured the kerosene on the wet firewood.
The kerosene caught fire as soon as it touched the sparks.
"Luoyu, what are you doing? This is all the kerosene we have at home. Mother still needs it at night."
"What does she need it for? At night, she just sits there looking at those old things that father gave her. What's so interesting about them? That jerk doesn't want us anymore. There's nothing worth missing."
"But... what you've done..."
"Elder sister, don't worry. I've found a job now. I'll make money and protect you in the future. Not to mention this little bit of kerosene and these wild vegetables, in the future, whatever you want, I'll get it for you!"
Zhao Luoning, with a "black - bearded" face from the smoke, looked up at her stubborn younger sister.
She didn't have the heart to dampen her enthusiasm. She gently stroked her head with a tender smile.
"Okay, I believe you, sister. I'm waiting."
Thanks to the wild vegetables Zhao Luoyu brought back, there was finally something in the family's wild vegetable soup.
Zhao Luoyu was helping Zhao Luoning light the fire at the stove. She remembered what Ji Shijun had said to her on the street and looked up at Zhao Luoning.
"Elder sister, do you think we have any strengths?"
"Strengths? We're so poor. What strengths can we have?"
"Today, that Boss Ji said that I should learn to protect myself and use my strengths against others' weaknesses. I've read more books than beggars, so I can use my brain to deal with them. But what if I meet a really learned person?"
Zhao Luoyu was actually quite smart. She could draw inferences from one instance.
Zhao Luoning thought that it was good for her younger sister to realize the difference between genders earlier. Otherwise, she always regarded herself as a boy and got into fights with others.
"We're women. Women are inherently weak. If we have any strengths, it's using softness to overcome hardness."
"Using softness to overcome hardness? Does it mean I have to bow to those stinky men?"
"No, it's..." Zhao Luoning didn't know how to explain it to her younger sister.
While cutting the wild vegetables, she said, "Luoyu, what do you think are the strengths of that woman outside father's family?"
Just mentioning that woman made Zhao Luoyu angry.