Shen Xiaoling, The Hamster

Got two hundred dollars!

Upon hearing those words, Shen Xiaoling put her homework aside and immediately flew toward her brother. She was literally flying, her feet barely touched the ground! 

"Where?! Where?!" Shen Xiaoling asked anxiously, "What weapon could possibly cost that much? It's two hundred dollars!" 

To her, two hundred dollars was a huge fortune. 

"This one." Hong Xiaofu opened his pack and showed her the huge sword inside. 

He laughed, "Zhao Ming said that if I managed to win this he would give me two hundred dollars!" 

"Really? Shen Xiaoling stared at the weapon blankly. 

She honestly could not understand why anyone would spend money to buy virtual weapons. Two hundred dollars could cover half of her monthly living expenses; how many savoury crêpes was that? 

However, Zhao Ming saw things differently. He joked about the two hundred dollars reward for that weapon because he did not think it was possible to get it. If he could use money to buy that weapon directly, forget two hundred—he would be willing to spend two thousand without hesitation! 

That was the top-notch weapon. 

"It's true, of course it's true!" Hong Xiaofu quickly took out his phone to text Zhao Ming. 

<Brother Ming, what are you doing?>

<Doing homework, there's so much work today. What's up?>

<I got a new weapon.>

<Really? What did you get? Tell me so that I'll be happy about it?>

<Drake War Drum.>

<Is that a joke? It is not easy to obtain thing. Out of so many people in our area, I have only seen three this weapon, and you are saying it? don't believe you, I'm falling for it!>

Hong Xiaofu fell silent.

Wow, he does not believe it. How could he doubt me?

Without explaining further, Hong Xiaofu took out his phone and took several photos and sent all of them onto Zhao Ming. 

For a few moments, nothing came through from the other side. 

Then, suddenly, Zhao Ming sent a voice message. He sounded extremely agitated and he was literally screaming, "Shit! Brother Fu, you were this good?! You really unlocked it?! Look at you! You got it on your first try?!" 

<Of course. How's it? I wasn't lying right?>

<Go offline first, I want to go online and see it for myself! Wow you are seriously too good. Brother Fu, my real brother! This weapon is something that have been dreaming about!>

<Okay okay, I'll go offline now.>

After going offline, Hong Xiaofu chatted with Zhao Ming, who went online immediately to make sure that Xiaofu had really gotten the weapon. He finally believed it.

Transferred from Zhao Ming: 1000 yuan

When she saw the message, Shen Xiaoling screamed, "Oh my god, did he just send you one thousand dollars?!" 

"Hehe, now you know how valuable this weapon is?" Hong Xiaofu giggled. However, he did not press Accept. 

"I can't take this money. We had agreed to two hundred, we can't do this." 

Shen Xiaoling nodded her head enthusiastically and said, "Right, right. They have been taking care of us, we cannot do that!" 

The two children sat together and shared silly laughter, yet refusing to accept the money. 

Although they were poor, they had to keep their dignity. 

We will only take it if it is ours. If it is not ours, we will not take a single cent. 

We should always uphold these values. 

Another message from Zhao Ming came through. 

<What are you calculating? Just accept it!>

<We agreed on two hundred, I can't take a thousand from you.>

Zhao Ming sent another voice message, "Why are you so out-dated and inflexible? If we can make a deal with this weapon, people would buy it for even 20 thousand!"

<I thought we agreed not to sell this.>

Silence fell again, then…

Ping!

Transferred from Zhao Ming: 200 yuan

<Does this work now?> 

Hong Xiaofu joyfully accepted the money and said, "This works! Thank you boss, I earned two hundred!" 

Zhao Ming, who was staring at his phone screen, shook his head and said, "People love the functions of this weapon… such an amazing weapon, I must flaunt it!

Zhao Ming quickly entered the class group chat. He sent four photos at once, adding a caption below the photos: <Are you looking at this? Brother Fu is exploding with swag today! The Drake War Drum in our hands! Hahaha!>

Right after he sent the message, the class group chat blew up.

Liuwei: <Wow! Is this for real? Brother Fu is too cool, please look out me! I hope the army boots of Caligula!>

Wang Meng: <Me too! I want Lyra!> 

Zhang Hui: <I wish…>

The students were taking turns making their wishes and the ambience in the group chat was good. Zhao Ming jokingly acted as if he was superior.

<You think your wishes will work? I spent two hundred dollars to make my wish come true!>

<We can't afford it-->

They were all having fun joking around. 

Su Ying immediately sent a text to Hong Xiaofu. 

<Congrats, you earned two hundred?>

<Yup, I seem to have some luck today, got it the moment started game, hehe.>

<Good luck! Oh right, tomorrow is the day of assessment for Awakener's potential. You must go to sleep early tonight, my dad said that lack will affect results test!>

<Is that true? Okay then, I'll go to bed once I finish my homework!>

As he happily put his phone away, Hong Xiaofu took a glance at Shen Xiaoling who was beside him. Seeing how hopeful she looked, he quickly handed his phone to her and said, "You can have it, you can take everything! Look at how impatient you are, will the money run away?" 

"I'll only know after looking at it!" Shen Xiaoling snatched the phone away at once. She checked the amount that was in Hong Xiaofu's account before grinning brightly and said, "Oh yes, we passed the five hundred mark! Hahaha! Brother, good luck! Let's work toward one thousand!" 

Xiaofu fell silent.

He did not know how he had raised his sister with such a character. She was like a hamster, her only hobby was to watch things accumulate into something greater each day. 

It started when she was nine years old. She had once picked up a fifty-cent coin from the streets, so she went to find a wine barrel to be used as a savings box. Everytime she had a fifty-cent coin, she would put it inside, and now...

She couldn't hold up the wine barrel anymore.

She would let out a silly smile just by hugging it. She said that she had already saved 743.5 yuan.

Gosh! 

Hong Xiaofu had just realised that Shen Xiaoling also had a large sum of money—more than seven hundred. That was surely a lot.

"Are you done being happy about this?" Hong Xiaofu took his phone back and said, "Quickly finish your homework and go to bed." 

It was a quiet night. 

----

The next morning, Hong Xiaofu got out of bed at five to prepare breakfast. 

Having to manage a household with little money and a younger sister to look after, he could not afford to spend money on breakfast. Thus, he cooked porridge and ate it with Chinese pickled vegetables, which only cost about fifty cents a bag. He arrived at school early, went for a morning jog, and headed to the classroom. 

Mr Li Hong had soon placed a brown object, about one square foot in size, in front of him. He hit the table and said, "Alright students, the equipment to test for the Awakener's potential has arrived this morning. We had a simple meeting earlier on. I will now explain the functions of the equipment and read you the research report."

The whole class instantly fell silent.

Was that the equipment for the assessment of the Awakener's potential? 

They might have been able to find out what the researchers had discovered until then.