Mr. Xiao's Unconditional Love

The village was precisely the way she remembered it - impoverished and backward, with children running around barefoot. Most of her childhood play pals had only made their academic progress as far as a junior in high school before they succumbed to societal pressure and began working abroad. Others stayed behind, loafing about the village with nothing better to do.

These idlers, if lucky, would be given a house and an arranged marriage. Those who could not afford it would continue to live with their parents. On the other hand, if they were unlucky, they would end up becoming manual laborers in the field.

The only option for women here was to marry into a good family that could provide them with a lifetime of comfort and security. Education was merely a luxury that they disdained to continue.

Qiao Tian's incident was an example that the villagers used to make their point clear - that education leads to nowhere.

"Why do you study, girl? Two or three years are more than enough for you to be literate. You should spend helping your family to farm or raise the pigs instead. Once you're older, you can go to the south and work in a factory with an annual income of 2,000-3,000 Yuan!"

"What's good about being educated? Look at the boy from the Qiao family, he's already finished his tertiary studies but cannot even graduate with a certificate, not to mention getting a job. So many years in school and so much money spent on books, but all for nothing."

These were the latest gossip that she had been hearing.

Her family was not rich, but they had enough to send all three siblings from the family to school. Her father, Qiao Xingmin, graduated from high school but did not make it to college; it was something he always regretted. He knew exactly how important education was, so regardless of his financial constraints, he insisted on sending his children to school.

Her eldest sister made it to the third junior year before she quit, simply because her results were too terrible to continue her studies.

Her brother, Qiao Tian, was an excellent student with exceedingly good results. As soon as he graduated from his junior year, he began his tertiary education in a college and took a five-year course. Back in the olden days, having graduated from a college was almost synonymous with succeeding in life.

Ye Qiao herself had spent 12 years with the Qiao family, and the amount of education that she had received was nothing less than what she ought to have.

It was a cozy afternoon, and Ye Qiao spent her time idling by a tree as she watched a group of children fish for crayfish by the pond.

She would be leaving for N City the next day to visit her brother and this time, by train.

She had a lot in mind recently. To be given a second life was something that she was thankful for, so she intended to make full use of it and turn her family situation around; this time, for the better.

The child from the Chen family already had about half a bucket of crayfish by now. Those days, crayfish was not even considered as a delicacy. It was just something that children enjoyed catching as a competition. Without their parents' help, the children would usually sizzle the crayfish by the fire on their own.

Who would have thought that 20 years from now, crayfish would end up becoming more valuable than prawn?

Hot and spicy crayfish, crayfish braised with 13 spices, stir-fried crayfish with garlic, the list goes on. Soon, she began craving for a crayfish feast.

"Xiao Qiang, do you remember me?" Politely, Ye Qiao talked to an older boy among the kids.

The 12-year-old boy shook his head in denial. However, he blushed at the unexpected encounter with Ye Qiao, whom he regarded as beautiful and stylish.

"I'm Qiao Qiao! Are you selling the crayfish? I can pay you 50 cents for the whole lot."

50 cents sounded like a good deal. It was enough for the boy to afford a water gun.

Xiao Qiang agreed to the business without giving it a second thought. He promptly grabbed his sister's bucket and put all the crayfish together and said, "They're all yours!"

His sister began sobbing as a result of the daylight crayfish robbery. Quickly, Ye Qiao took out a White Rabbit milk candy from her purse and handed it to the little girl. Her face immediately lit up with glee. It was not easy to get milk candy in rural places like this.

The milk candy had successfully grabbed the attention of the children. With expectant faces, they offered their crayfish, too, in hopes that they could get some milk candy in return.

"Sure! Sure! Everyone gets one!" Ye Qiao was happy with the deal and offered the rest of her milk candy to the children.

Her father was perplexed when he saw the bucket full of crayfish that she had carried all the way home. "Silly, what's so good about crayfish? I'll ask your mother to get you some prawns from the fresh market tomorrow morning!"