Chapter 4: Brother's Support

"Qianqian, the clams are here spitting out sand. You go play by yourself first, I'll finish my homework, and call me in half an hour. I'll change the water for the clams." After much toil and effort, the siblings finally made it home before the sun was at its hottest and most intense, too tired to even lift their arms.

"Okay, Mom said that from now on you should read English for half an hour after you get up in the morning and after you finish your homework." In her past life, due to problems with pronunciation and intonation, Luo Shufan was often laughed at by classmates, which led to his later dislike for English and just getting by. But this time, with Rebirth by his side, she won't let such things happen to her brother. Luo Qianqian rubbed her arms and smiled sweetly.

Luo Shufan, just pulling out a chair, paused, "Mom said that when?""Go play, don't disturb me anymore."

"Brother, you need to study hard. Qianqian is waiting for you to teach her." Luo Qianqian made a 'yeah' gesture in her heart and went off to clean the shells she had gathered.

She filled a washbasin with water and dumped all the shells into it, scrubbing away the mud and sand. Thinking of the shell bracelets, necklaces, and shell carvings that sold well in her previous life, Luo Qianqian wasn't sure if she could do well, but since she had decided to do it, she wanted to do her best.

After fussing for a while, Luo Qianqian, looking at the basin of muddy water and the half basin of uncleaned shells, ran disdainfully to her brother's room and asked mysteriously, "Bro, have you finished your homework?"

"Not yet. The Chinese teacher is so annoying. It would be fine just memorizing this stupid poem, but she wants it written five times, and it's so long." Luo Shufan, looking at the Chinese textbook on his desk, was frustrated. Math was just numbers and was quickly settled, and English was just a few words and was also quickly dealt with, but Chinese was so lengthy.

"Bro, let's make a deal. If you clean the shells for me, I'll do your homework. How about that?" It was a good chance to practice writing and could pretend that her brother had taught her, making everything easier to handle later on.

"Pfft, do you even know how to write? Can you count to 100 yet? Do you understand Hanyu Pinyin? Can you hold a pen properly? Can you..." He didn't finish his sentence because his little sister, holding a pen and carefully writing, had already started.

"I don't know, but I can imitate, just like drawing," Luo Qianqian suppressed her discomfort and forced a cute, clueless demeanor. Cleaning shells was too tiring, and she hoped mother wouldn't scold her when she found out.

"Right, right, just like drawing. Look, just these three poems, each one written five times. I'll go help you clean the shells." Luo Shufan swallowed his surprise, and with a face full of delight, said, "I'll teach you these three poems in a while. Once you've memorized them, Mom will definitely praise you."

"Sure, and it's also time to change the water for the clams." Luo Qianqian pretended not to know her brother's thoughts, since, after all, for students, there's nothing more hated than homework, even more so than exams, because the top students, the Scholar Gods, would rather have exams every day to widen the gap with the average ones.

Luo Qianqian looked at her own handwriting. The first attempt was lopsided with big and small letters, the second was more or less uniform, and by the third it had caught up to her brother's scrawly writing. The fourth was neat and straight, unlike her brother's, so the fifth was an imitation of his scrawl. The troubles of being a child perhaps lay in not holding the pen properly, writing slowly, and the strokes being uneven, but it was just homework, after all, and teachers likely wouldn't check too closely.

After organizing her brother's homework notebooks and checking the other homework, math was fine, neatly done, being a strong subject, while English was so sloppy it was hard to make out the letters, only vaguely recognizable against the vocabulary list in the English book. She sighed softly, tidied up the books, dumped the trash and paper scraps from the schoolbag, put the pens into the pencil case, stuffed the scarf into the side pocket of the backpack, and also packed tissues and a water bottle. Having arranged everything, Luo Qianqian hopped down from the chair, placed the backpack on the table, and went to see how her brother was doing.

Luo Shufan sat on a small stool, patiently scrubbing at the shells in the basin. The water in the basin was already clear, but Luo Shufan kept scrubbing them one by one. Since his sister liked these things, he wanted them to be clean and beautiful so that later she could help him write the damn Chinese homework. Thinking this, he didn't notice Luo Qianqian smiling behind him.

"Bro, do you want to make money?" Luo Qianqian suddenly leaned on Luo Shufan's back, her soft, sweet voice ringing in his ear.

"What crazy idea did you come up with this time? Don't tell me it's about selling clams, I'm exhausted today, I can't handle this every day," Luo Shufan said as his hand gently tapped on Luo Qianqian's head.

"No, look how pretty the shells we collected are," Luo Qianqian swayed on her brother's back, and Luo Shufan, fearing she might fall, stopped his work and protected her.

"Sell shells? These things don't cost money, anyone who wants them can just pick them up," Luo Shufan said nonchalantly. However, in his memory, such closeness from his sister was the first time since she had become sensible, so he didn't really mind what she actually said, focusing on enjoying the pride of being an older brother.

"We could modify them a bit, like turning them into bracelets, necklaces, or even pen holders?" Luo Qianqian tried to make her voice sound naive and wildly imaginative.

"How would you modify them?" Luo Shufan raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Glue, awls, elastic bands, and bases for things like pen holders," Luo Qianqian countered.

"Whom do you want to sell to? Others can see and make them too," Luo Shufan asked seriously after thinking it over.

Luo Qianqian smiled slightly, "How about the train station? There are many people from out of town there, they need souvenirs for business trips or tourism. As a keepsake from Coastal City, don't you think shells would be a great souvenir, brother?"

Luo Shufan pulled Luo Qianqian in front of him and looked at her seriously for a moment: "I really wonder if you're my sister, how could my sister be so clever?"

"Brother, you aren't dumb either, otherwise, how could your grades be so good? Do you agree with my idea?" Luo Qianqian squinted like a little fox, "If we earn money, we can buy you a soccer ball."

"You've thought it through, I guess I don't have any reason to disagree, do I?" Luo Shufan stretched out his hand and tousled his sister's soft, short hair into a mess.

"Hehehe, if you agree, contribute your pocket money to buy the tools, and it's best to buy some nail polish to make the shells prettier. But for now, coloring pens might do."

"I knew it wouldn't be that simple, how about telling mom? Let her buy it for us?" Luo Shufan instinctively blocked the few coins in his pocket.

"It's supposed to be a surprise for mom, plus do you think she'd be comfortable with us running around like this?" Luo Qianqian naturally sat in her brother's lap, "Before your holiday starts, we'll collect shells on weekends, and I'll clean them while you're at school. When the holidays come, we'll go sell them."

"You've planned everything, huh? Alright then, when I go out to buy groceries in a while, I'll get you what you need. If we don't make money, I'm definitely going to spank you hard!"

Luo Qianqian's money-making plan was decided amidst Luo Shufan's threats and Luo Qianqian's light laughter.