Chapter 17: As Expected, My Younger Sister is a Good Sister

Chapter 17: My Little Sister Is Indeed a Good Sister

Her family assets, including the rice cakes Bai Lie had given her, had all been exhausted. Now that she was back to square one, her emergency food supplies urgently needed to be restocked. How could she possibly continue to sleep soundly?

Although she was incredibly sleepy, Shuyue climbed out of bed the moment she sensed movement outside.

Sweet potatoes and the like—she absolutely could not miss out on those.

The old lady was busy packing something into an earthenware pot. She paused when she saw Shuyue approaching and smiled, "Yue-ya tou, you're awake? Go wash your face quickly; it's time to eat."

Shuyue rubbed her eyes and gave a soft acknowledgment. While washing her face, she happened to run into Er'ya.

Er'ya looked puzzled. "Why are you up? I was just about to go call you!" Er'ya turned her head and lowered her voice, "Did you smell the fish soup last night too? I heard you knocking on the door, but they didn't give you any to eat, did they?"

As she spoke, Er'ya curled her lip. "And here I thought Grandma doted on you so much; she wouldn't even let you into the kitchen."

Shuyue: "..."

She didn't feel like the old lady doted on her at all; in fact, the way the old lady looked at her last night made her skin crawl.

Wait, no...

"You even knew I couldn't get into the kitchen?"

Er'ya: "..."

Er'ya chuckled. "Actually, it would've been useless even if you had gotten in. That was to nourish the bodies of the men like Grandpa who are out working, and to nourish the brains of those who go to school." As she spoke, Er'ya slurped up some drool.

Shuyue: "..."

There were only a few children in the family who didn't work, but the eldest cousin Qingshan and the second cousin Shitou went to school, so they were the only ones who didn't get any!

But, looking at Er'ya slurping her drool, it was obvious that she was the only one who didn't get any.

Shuyue kept a straight face and shook the water off her hands.

She didn't say a word. Er'ya, unaware that Shuyue had already seen through the truth, just giggled.

"Second Uncle is coming back today. You should tell him you smelled the soup and want to drink some."

"If I say I want to drink it, he can just conjure it up for me?"

What did she mean by "coming back today"? Was the person she saw yesterday a fake?

No...

Who exactly wanted to drink fish soup?!

And why was Er'ya so sure that Bai Lie would grant her every request?

Although, her father really was quite good to her.

The old lady had already packed the pot and the sweet potatoes. Seeing them talking, she called out, "Come over once you're done washing. Eat while it's hot, or it'll get cold soon."

Shuyue and Er'ya quickly responded and followed her into the kitchen.

Breakfast was wild vegetable, sweet potato, and corn grits porridge, along with steamed sweet potatoes.

The bright colors of the wild vegetables, the golden-yellow corn grits, and the chunks of white-fleshed sweet potato made for a visually pleasing combination.

Shuyue had always assumed the family only had sweet potatoes in the morning; she hadn't expected there to be porridge as well.

But seeing that Er'ya wasn't the least bit surprised, it was clear that she had just taken it for granted. It was possible they had it every morning, and she just hadn't caught it before.

The old lady handed each of them a bowl of porridge and a sweet potato, then picked up her things and headed out.

Shuyue was just about to taste the porridge when she noticed Er'ya staring straight at her.

Shuyue: "..."

Shuyue didn't understand why, but after looking closely, she realized that while they had identical bowls, her bowl of porridge was filled almost to the brim, while Er'ya's bowl was only about two-thirds full.

The same went for the sweet potato; hers was clearly larger than Er'ya's...

Shuyue: "..."

!!!

Once, twice, three times.

If the old lady truly favored her, that would be one thing, but was it really just simple favoritism?

"Do not worry about scarcity, but worry about inequality." The old lady held the power of distribution in the house. Er'ya getting less wasn't the old lady's fault—the blame would only fall on her.

Shuyue wasn't sure if the old lady was doing a bad thing with good intentions, but—

"How about I share some of my porridge with you?"

She tentatively asked Er'ya. Sharing a bit of porridge didn't matter, but she needed to keep the sweet potatoes to dry as emergency rations; the bigger they were, the better, so she absolutely couldn't share those.

Er'ya immediately broke into a smile. Her dark, thin, and sallow face lit up brilliantly. This little sister was indeed a good sister.

It didn't matter if Grandma wasn't good to her; her little sister was good to her!

Besides, she was already pleasantly surprised that they were even allowed to share the porridge this morning.

Seeing this, the corners of Shuyue's mouth lifted slightly before she lowered her eyes.