“Brother, I’m begging you. Our family has gone into so much debt to treat your illness. Once you get better, you must cut ties with those people. Ethan, find a job, will you?” After saying this, the little sister lost hope: “Forget it, a leopard can’t change its spots. How can I expect you to change?”

　　Being looked down upon like dirt by a little sister barely in her teens, Henry Walker wished he could find a hole to crawl into, let alone open his mouth.

　　“Open your mouth!” Seeing him refuse to eat, Grace glared with her apricot eyes and said, “Just a few words and you want to go on a hunger strike? If you’ve got backbone, prove it to us—then your little sister will kneel and apologize to you!”

　　Henry Walker’s face turned bright red with embarrassment.

　　Seeing he still wouldn’t eat, the little sister pouted and said, “Second brother, don’t be childish. Our family isn’t what it used to be. There’s no millet in Fuyang, and mom used a laying hen to trade for these ten or so jin. We haven’t even tasted a bite ourselves!”

　　Henry Walker let out a deep sigh and finished the porridge, not wasting a single grain.

Chapter 0002: Oh My Goodness, Brother

　　At this moment, Edward Walker came back with the medicine. Their mother was busy making shoes. Seeing him carrying the medicine, she was overjoyed and said, “They really gave it to you?”

　　“Yeah.” Edward Walker nodded, handed the medicine packet to his mother, and then took a bracelet out from his clothes and gave it to her.

　　“What’s this?” Seeing his sheepish look, his mother understood everything and forced a smile: “They didn’t fall for it, did they?”

　　“When they saw it was something from you, of course they were extra cautious,” Edward Walker said sullenly. “They had an expert look at it and said it was copper with a layer of gold powder.”

　　“A bunch of blind fools, it’s clearly real gold!” His mother shamelessly slipped the gilded bracelet onto her wrist and dropped the subject. “So how did you get the medicine?”

　　“The Lin family’s girl was getting medicine for her mother. When she saw me being scolded by those people, she paid for me.” Edward Walker answered honestly. “She said she’ll come visit my little brother in the next couple of days.”

　　“Hmph, so fake.” His mother cursed, “The Lin family caused us so much misery. If she dares show up, I’ll break her legs!”

　　Edward Walker didn’t dare talk back to his mother and just shrank his neck, saying nothing.

　　“I haven’t asked yet, how much does this medicine cost per dose?”

　　“One hundred wen…” Edward Walker said in a low voice.

　　“So expensive?” His mother gasped, wiped her sweat, and said, “If he has to take it for a month, even selling me wouldn’t be enough…”

　　“We’ll have to think of something else…” Edward Walker sighed. “Mom, I’ll go check on my brother.” With that, he went to sit in the west wing for a while, then left, looking troubled.

　　At lunch, when his mother saw Edward Walker’s wife hadn’t come out again, she knew it was because she found the food unpalatable. The Wang family basically had three meals a day of vegetable soup with coarse rice, sometimes with a bit of soy-braised broad beans—hard to swallow, to be sure… Of course, you have to have options to be picky. His mother, Edward Walker, and Grace had no choice, so they ate every last bite…

　　Seeing Edward Walker’s wife still hadn’t come out, his mother divided the bowl of rice meant for her among the children. “Don’t waste it.” No one worried about whether Edward Walker’s wife would go hungry, because she always managed to secretly buy good food and eat it alone in her room while Edward Walker was at work.

　　So when she didn’t come out for the meal, the whole family knew Edward Walker’s wife was eating by herself again. But since she spent her own dowry and didn’t eat in front of them, no one could say anything.

　　His mother finished eating first, then took the dozen or so pairs of cloth shoes she’d made in her spare time over the past half month, wrapped them in a bundle, and went to the market to sell them. Today happened to be a market day. She should have gone in the morning, but was delayed by Henry Walker’s situation…

　　After the siblings finished eating, Grace cleaned up the dishes, while Edward Walker returned to his room, looking preoccupied. His sister called him, but he didn’t hear.

　　Thinking her brother had argued with her sister-in-law again, Grace didn’t think much of it. After finishing her chores, she took the bowl of medicine to feed Henry Walker. Just as he was about to finish the big bowl of herbal soup, suddenly, a burst of shouting and cursing erupted from the east wing—Edward Walker’s wife.

　　Grace gloomily patted her forehead and muttered, “Here we go again… If you’ve got guts, try yelling when mom’s home.” Though angry, as a child she couldn’t get involved and could only listen.

　　“Well, well, Billy Walker, you’ve had a runny nose your whole life, and now you’ve finally learned some tricks!” The voice suddenly became much clearer, obviously because the battleground had shifted from the room to the courtyard. “You’ve even learned to steal!”

　　“Who are you calling a thief?” If it was just general scolding, Grace would have pretended not to hear, but when her sister-in-law called her big brother a thief, she got angry, put the bowl down on the table, rushed to the door, and confronted her sister-in-law.

　　“Ask him yourself, did he steal or not!” Edward Walker’s wife, holding a broom, pointed at Edward Walker hiding behind the water jar, glaring fiercely. “He took my jewelry while I was sleeping—I caught him red-handed!”

　　“How can it be called stealing between husband and wife?” Seeing his sister come out, Edward Walker blushed and said awkwardly, “Mom says husband and wife are one—what’s yours is mine.”

　　“Nonsense! That’s my dowry!” Seeing Edward Walker trying to argue, Edward Walker’s wife furiously charged at him: “That’s the property of the Hou family, it has nothing to do with your Wang family!”

　　This woman was tall and strong—if she hit him, Edward Walker really couldn’t take it, so he had no choice but to run around the yard, begging for mercy as he ran: “I was just borrowing it, okay? I’ll pay you back when I earn some money!”

　　“Why did you steal my jewelry? Are you seeing someone else outside?” Edward Walker’s wife shouted angrily.