C15 I Can't See Through Her

Zhou Ruonan strode forward, her heart pounding, but she knew she had to face the situation head-on.

"Isn't that... Zhou Ruonan?"

A surprised voice came from ahead, and to her surprise, she recognized the two people in front of her.

Zhou Dawei quickly moved behind his sister, his face still showing fear, but he glared defiantly at the two troublemakers.

"Zhou Hu, Zhang He, what do you want?" she asked. Even though they were classmates, she knew that didn't mean much to these hooligans.

One of the guys, who had a faint scar on his face, grinned at her. "Oh, nothing much. This little kid seemed lonely, so we thought we'd keep him company."

"Zhou Hu, this is my brother," she said, nodding toward Zhou Dawei behind her.

Seeing that the two weren't backing down, she thought for a moment, then stepped forward and handed them a dollar with a smile. "My brother and I will be around here for a while. Look out for us, okay? Here's a dollar to buy yourselves some smokes."

Zhou Hu and Zhang He were taken aback. They hadn't expected Zhou Ruonan to just hand over a dollar like that. They were only planning to extort a few cents from the kid.

A dollar was quite a bit more than they had anticipated.

As the siblings walked away, Zhou Hu frowned, looking at the dollar bill in his hand.

"Why do I feel like Ruonan's acting a bit strange? Especially that smile—it reminds me of someone from my mom's generation," Zhou Hu muttered under his breath.

Zhang He chuckled as he pocketed the dollar bill. "Why overthink it? It's a dollar! That's enough for us to have some fun for a while."

On the way back, Dawei looked furious, clearly upset about giving money to those two slackers.

"Big Sis, I'm so mad. We worked hard all morning, and then we just handed them a dollar," Dawei grumbled as he walked beside Ruonan.

Ruonan offered him a snack, saying, "Dawei, you have to understand that sometimes it's better to pay up and avoid trouble."

Even though Ruonan said that, she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. After all, a dollar isn't a small amount these days.

The siblings trudged along the muddy path, their pant legs covered in dirt. "Mom's definitely going to scold me when we get back," Dawei worried, glancing at his mud-splattered clothes.

Ruonan held up a piece of lean meat and said, "I promise Mom won't be mad at you."

Just then, the roar of a tractor engine came from behind them, driven by an old man in gray clothes.

"Isn't that Zhou's kid? School's out already?"

Ruonan felt a surge of happiness and called out, "Mr. Qian, are you heading back? Could you give us a ride?"

Mr. Qian didn't refuse and smiled, "Hop in! You can help your folks with chores when you get back."

He glanced at the woven bag in Dawei's hand and asked, "Oh, isn't today Sunday? What are you two doing in town?"

Ruonan earnestly folded the woven bag and sat on it, grinning, "Just felt like taking a stroll around the county with Dawei. What about you, Mr. Qian?"

Mr. Qian sighed and replied, "We're out of groceries at home, so I'm heading to town to get some."

Ruonan nodded, realizing that many families were running low on supplies.