2 Brother and Sister Ⅰ

The setting sun dyed the entire sky as red as the vermilion satin. It was the time for the people in the White Plain Town to prepare their dinner.

In the slums, north of the town, the carefree kids were playing happily together while their parents were preparing a light meal, and teenagers gathered to enjoy their relaxing time.

A boy in rags, lay prone on the muddy ground of the clearing with his head clasped in arms tightly, trying hard to protect his face as seven or eight youngsters and adults around were kicking and punching him heavily.

"Stop, guys ! Stop ! " minutes later, a young man sitting nearby on a small mound exclaimed.

All men stopped immediately. After a while, the boy on the ground slowly squirmed.

"Hem! Not dead?"the young man on the mound groaned, "okay, I'll try to repeat it once again. Join us Sole Dragon Gang and work for our head Brother Dragon!"

"I won't! Why do I have to pay you half of my earning!" coughing violently, the boy struggled to his feet and shook his head.

With a dusty face and a hint of delicateness and firmness in his eyes, the young boy looked only twelve or thirteen years old.

"Half?! Just ask the guys around you if they can survive without handing over 70 percent of their income. Don't you know Brother Dragon has thrown you a big bone? Jackass! " the man on the mound scoffed.

"No! I won't pay anything!" the boy replied firmly.

"Hem!" the man on the mound snapped, " look, look, our thief expert wanna do it the hard way. Well, gentlemen, please continue your performance."

Again the boy was covered by a hail of kicks and punches.

"Enough! " a moment later, the young man on the mound shouted, "you lucky boy, don't let me see your fucking face again. Guys, done!" Clapping their hands and cursing, other men followed him to leave.

Right after they all disappeared, the boy was struggling to get up and stumbled away.

…

It was getting dark. A few rough cabins scattered on the edge of the woods outside the walls of the White Plain Town, with holes in some of their roofs and walls. Soaking up the last bits of sunlight, the boy opened the door of the last cabin.

"Brother, is that you?" a childish and tender voice came.

"Yeah, it's me!" the boy quickly replied and went in at once.

There was nothing in the cabin but two big rocks at the corner and two haystacks beside the wall. A little girl lay on the haystack, looked less than ten years old

.

Her hair was tied two little horns, and on her sallow and thin face, large eyes were as pretty and innocent as clear spring in forest. In spite of hot summer now, the girl was covered with the gray bedclothes, only showing her upper body.

The boy couldn't refrain from a shiver when entering the cabin. It was cooler inside.

Once seeing the girl, his eyes immediately showed a gentleness before he took out an oily paper package from his armpit in shirt and carefully opened it — a white steamed bread inside.

"Come on, you must be very hungry," he handed it to the girl.

"Brother must have been busy for a day. You must be more hungry," the girl shook her head.

"I am not hungry. I've already had one, this is yours," the boy smiled and shoved it into the girl's hand, then took off one of his worn shoes of which some of his toes got out ahead, searching for something in it.

Seeking for a while, his face turned gloomy and took off another one and groped it hard.

The two shoes were of different size and styles, which were picked up from goodness knows where.

"What's wrong, brother?" the girl whispered.

"It's okay," the boy stopped searching and frowned.

"Lost the copper coin?" asked the girl tentatively.

(copper coin: a type of ancient Chinese currency, 20000 copper coins = 20 silver coins = 1 gold coin)

Still not giving up, the boy grabbed that shoe and knead it up again and again, and only got a long sigh after a long time. He dropped the shoe and sat on the ground, seemed to be drained every strength of his body.

"Forget it, brother..." the girl broke the steamed bread into two halves and handed one to him.

"I'm really sorry!" the boy took the half and gave it a bite subconsciously, with sudden tears filling in his eyes.

"Brother, you don't need to blame yourself," the girl said," as the folk doctor confirmed, it is only the royal doctor who might cure me. But how could we get his help even with enough money?"

"There must be some way to save you, trust me, even with more money or anything I can do!" shaking his head, the boy groped for a broken jar between the rock and the wall, poured out a pile of copper coins and counted them.

The girl was staring at him, sad and heartbroken. The last time he took her to the folk doctor for a diagnosis and ran out of all his saving, hundreds of copper coins. Then hardship works for another year only got him less than one silver coin now.

My brother's suffering is all for me. I'm really a terrible disaster! As she said to herself, something clicked in her mind. She put down the rest of steamed bread, and unexpectedly jumped down from the haystack. No one knew where she got the strength.

"What are you doing?" the boy said by surprise, never had he seen her moving so quickly.

"I wanna go out for a walk."

"But your body..." full of concern was written on the boy's face.

"It's okay, just a walk, brother."

"Okay, let's eat up them on the way," the boy picked up her steamed cake and helped the girl go out of the door.