Chapter 4: Delivering Gifts Is My Forte

With her small hands cupping her cheeks, Ai Xiaomei gazed at the line Yang Fan had just written, while Xu Zihan’s eyes lingered on those words, lost in thought for a long time.

How often had she felt such despair, and who could have truly understood it? Yet now, in this moment, that sentence glimmered in her heart like a faint beacon—its light subtle, but as steadfast as a lighthouse.

“Brother, what are you planning to do?” Ai Xiaomei asked.

“Come on, let’s divide the work—one goes out, one stays home. You pick first,” Yang Fan replied.

“Of course I’ll pick to go out. What’s fun about staying home?” Ai Xiaomei said.

“All right, then go out now and find a restaurant—just a simple one that offers boxed meals. Order three meals a day for sixty people, for tomorrow, and have them deliver it to us.” As he spoke, Yang Fan handed Ai Xiaomei the last five hundred yuan he had, adding, “Plus the four hundred you have, that’s nine hundred in total. It should be just enough.”

Ai Xiaomei nodded vigorously, her heart light as she quickly pocketed the money.

“Yang Fan, you—” Xu Zihan began.

“This all happened so suddenly. Even if everyone tries to borrow money to get by, it takes time. People are far from home—if we can help, we should,” Yang Fan said.

“I mean, now that you’ve spent all your money, how are you and your sister going to manage?” Xu Zihan asked.

“We still have instant noodles, don’t we? Several boxes, in fact!” Yang Fan forced a laugh. He truly was going to live on instant noodles now.

Xu Zihan fell silent. After years in society, she’d grown used to selfishness and excess, but someone like Yang Fan—such people were rare indeed.

Who would risk plunging themselves into hardship for the sake of strangers?

“Sister Zihan, do you want to come with me?” Ai Xiaomei asked.

Xu Zihan nodded slightly. “Of course.”

“That’s great!” Ai Xiaomei exclaimed. She glanced at Yang Fan, quickly gathered up her scattered snacks, clutched them tightly, and locked them away in her bedroom before leaving.

Yang Fan curled his lip—who was going to steal them anyway? Just the sight of that troublesome girl was enough to make him sigh.

“All right, go on, hurry up!” Yang Fan urged, and only then did Ai Xiaomei and Xu Zihan link arms and leave together.

After they left, a sense of gloom settled over Yang Fan. Fifteen days left—how were he and Ai Xiaomei going to get by?

Still, doing good was not something he could ignore. If he really turned his back on everyone, his conscience would never let him rest.

It felt like a responsibility. He didn’t consider himself a particularly good person, but he wanted to try to do the right thing.

“Whatever. One day at a time. If it comes to it, I’ll ask the boss for an advance.”

With that thought, his gaze fell once more on the slip of paper. He kept writing the same sentence over and over, as if to carve it into his heart.

Ai Xiaomei and Xu Zihan returned an hour later. Ai Xiaomei’s face was alight with excitement, while Xu Zihan still looked incredulous.

“Did it work?” Yang Fan asked.

“It did! Two days’ worth of meals, not just one, for nine hundred yuan,” Ai Xiaomei replied.

Yang Fan smiled. It seemed that in front of Ai Xiaomei, nothing was impossible. In fact, her very existence was something of an impossibility.

It proved once again just how remarkable his super-powered little sister was.

“Brother, remember, you owe me nine hundred now. With the two thousand from today, you owe me two thousand nine hundred in total.”

“Wait, no—plus the four hundred Mom gave me, you owe me three thousand three hundred.”

“Then give me back the four-thousand-yuan phone I bought you,” Yang Fan retorted, rolling his eyes.

“Why should I? I got that from you fair and square!” Ai Xiaomei huffed, plopping onto the sofa.

“Fine, Ai Xiaomei. You’re something else,” Yang Fan said. Ai Xiaomei snorted, grabbed a bag of snacks from her room, and bit into them fiercely.

Xu Zihan was still in a daze. She had watched as Ai Xiaomei had left the restaurant owner utterly speechless—so much so that, even though the owner was essentially taking a loss, he seemed to think he was making a huge profit.

That kind of ability—that was true genius!

“Xiaomei, you’re amazing,” Xu Zihan praised her again. Ai Xiaomei, who had been sulking, immediately perked up with pride.

Night fell. Because Xu Zihan’s home had been broken into, she was afraid to stay there alone. This was where Ai Xiaomei came in—she went home with Xu Zihan to keep her company for the night. Yang Fan was only too glad; with Ai Xiaomei gone, he could finally get a peaceful night’s sleep.

That girl never slept at night, always watching TV in the living room, making it impossible for Yang Fan to rest in the bedroom. Now, with his spirits lifted, he found he actually couldn’t fall asleep from excitement.

Standing on the balcony, staring into the darkness, Yang Fan absentmindedly reached for the fish food. He paused.

“I wonder if the cleansing pill I won is actually effective. Better let the fish try it first—if there are no side effects, then I’ll take it myself. Medicine really shouldn’t be taken carelessly.”

He considered this for a moment, then happily shook a pill from the bottle and dropped it into the fish tank.

After watching for a while and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Yang Fan, exhausted, gave up and went to bed.

The next morning, Yang Fan, Ai Xiaomei, and Xu Zihan divided the work, going door to door to deliver breakfast to everyone. Along with the meals, they distributed those slips of paper.

“Dawn comes after the darkness!”

“Xiaofan, what’s all this about?” someone asked.

The three of them knocked on each door, spreading a ray of hope into the hands of every neighbor.

Half an hour later, downstairs—

“How did it go on your end?”

“Brother, all done! Auntie Li even gave me a lollipop,” Ai Xiaomei beamed.

“I finished too,” Xu Zihan said. It was clear that after last night, her despair had completely vanished.

And helping others brought its own blessings—it made her feel happy as well.

“All right, let’s go home and catch up on some sleep. By the way, Zihan, what about you?” Yang Fan asked. He had his thesis to write today, so he wouldn’t be making deliveries.

“I can’t go until the afternoon. My show’s tonight.”

“Sister Zihan, can I come with you?” Ai Xiaomei couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course!” Xu Zihan smiled. In such a short time, she and Ai Xiaomei had become fast friends.

“But maybe next time—tonight I have a feast to go to.”

“Where did you get a feast?” Yang Fan asked.

“Aren’t you having a farewell dinner with your classmates tonight?” Ai Xiaomei replied.

“What’s that got to do with you? You’re not one of my classmates.”

“I’m your sister! When there’s a feast, of course you have to take me along!”

Only Ai Xiaomei’s lively voice echoed in the hallway.

Downstairs, the neighbors were abuzz with conversation.

“That Xiaomei girl brought us breakfast today, and she said we’d have boxed meals for the next two days, so we shouldn’t worry.”

“I got mine too. Those siblings, and the new girl Zihan—they’re all such good kids!”

“Yes, and the slip of paper—they’re telling us to look ahead.”

At noon, when the three went downstairs to deliver lunch, they found the neighbors already waiting to collect their own meals.

“Xiaofan, how could we let you three deliver everything? We decided to just come and get it ourselves.”

“Auntie Sun, don’t say that! Delivering things is my specialty—you all know I come from a delivery background,” Yang Fan joked.