The Fisherwoman - Chapter 2

By the time I arrived, the gang leader had already pressed the blade against Ling Xuan’s cheek.

Ling Xuan stared at the point inches from his face. He had gone pale, but he still clenched his jaw and refused to yield.

At that critical moment, a brick of justice descended from the heavens and struck the back of the thug’s head with perfect speed and accuracy.

Years of spearfishing ensured I hit my target on the first try.

The leader dropped.

The men holding Ling Xuan let go in a panic. Ling Xuan seemed frozen with terror, staring blankly as I charged into the backlit alley.

“What are you standing there for?” I pinched his cheek hard enough to bring him back to his senses. “Run!”

I grabbed him and fled in the confusion. Only after we had thoroughly shaken them off did I stop with the breathless boy in tow.

“For your own safety, you can’t keep living there.”

My tone left no room for argument. “Come with me. Until you’re eighteen, I’ll be your guardian.”

Ling Xuan rubbed his palm uneasily and kept his head down. He said nothing, but at least he didn’t ignore me and walk away as before.

He was proud, not stupid. Between coming with me and having food and shelter, and staying to face the thugs’ revenge, he knew which choice made sense.

He was also young and thin-skinned. After rejecting me so firmly, he was too embarrassed to reverse himself aloud.

As the older sister, naturally I gave him a way to save face.

“You don’t get a choice. I’m very overbearing. If I say I’m repaying a debt, then I’m doing it. No one can stop me.”

And so Ling Xuan was “forced” to move in with me.

I rented a place near his school. I hadn’t brought much money and couldn’t initially afford anything nice.

To keep him from living on scraps, I looked for work in the city. With no education and no connections, I couldn’t find a good job.

After thinking it over, I became a server in his school cafeteria.

For one thing, the job let me eat my fill. For another, I could see Ling Xuan more often and perhaps improve our relationship.

It was a lovely dream.

Reality lasted three days before Ling Xuan drove me out.

The sight of me grinning and waving a serving ladle at him left him speechless. Even with a knife against his face, he hadn’t been this agitated.

“You’re a young woman, and you came here to be a cafeteria auntie? Is this a job you should be doing?”

I thought it was excellent work. “All your classmates line up at my counter.”

The sunny, energetic boys crowded around me calling me “Miss” with the same delighted expressions as the big yellow dog at the village entrance begging for bones. What could be more pleasant?

Unfortunately, Ling Xuan refused to call me his older sister, and he didn’t want his classmates calling me that either.

He insisted I quit and find something proper and respectable.

Slow as I was, I finally realized the problem.

“Are you embarrassed to have your sister working here in front of your classmates?”

Falling from young master of the Ling family to little brother of a cafeteria worker was quite a drop. Thick-skinned and perfectly happy as I was, I had failed to consider a teenage boy’s sensitive pride.

Ling Xuan turned his face away without explaining. “You’re not my sister. We aren’t related.”

I took that as confirmation.

Perhaps it wasn’t only the cafeteria. My stubborn country accent, my ways of thinking that differed so sharply from those of city people, even the ridiculous snack hamper I’d carried when we met—Ling Xuan might have found all of it intolerable.

Once I understood he had no wish to treat me as family, I thought for a moment, then calmly accepted it.

“All right. That doesn’t matter.”

Repaying the debt was my responsibility. What Ling Xuan thought of me didn’t change my duty to care for him.

Still, I had to respect his feelings. Since he disliked me, I shouldn’t keep shamelessly trying to win him over.

I accepted his wishes with great consideration.

“Then I’ll find another job, and I won’t bother you at school anymore.”