Sister and Brotherly Love Source: Real Story, Anonymous I was born in a far village by the side of the mountains. Day by day, my parents plow the dry yellow soil with their backs facing the sky. I have a brother, three years younger than me. At one time, just to buy a hanker chief, in which at those times all the girls around me have one of their own, i stole 50 cents from my dad's locker. Dad eventually realized it very soon. He made me and my brother kneel down facing the wall, with a thick bamboo stick in his hand. "Who stole the money?" he asked. I froze dead with fear, too afraid even to move a muscle. Dad didn't hear anybody confessing, so he said, "Fine, if that is so, both of you shall be punished!" He raised the bamboo stick highly from above getting ready to strike us. Suddenly, my brother grabbed his hand and said, "Dad, i was the one who did it!" That long thick stick then stuck his body countless times. Dad was so furious that he kept on whipping it on him until dad ran out of breath. Afterwards, he sat on our red bed of bricks and scolded, "You have learnt committing theft in this very house now, what other disgracing deeds would you commit later in the future? You deserved to be hit to death! You shameless thief! That night, mom and me embraced brother in our hugs. In that middle of the night, i suddenly started crying. My brother shut my mouth with his small hand and whispered softly, "Sis, don't cry anymore. It all had passed." I still always hate myself for not having enough courage to step forward confessing my crime. Many years had passed, but that incident still felt to me like yesterday. I would never forget that look on my brother when he protected me. At that time, my little brother was 8 at age, and me 11. When my brother was in his last year of the junior high school, he graduated well to proceed to prefectural senior high school. At that same night, i was accepted to enter a provincial university. That night, my dad sitting on the backyard, taking his tobacco pack, one by one. I heard him grunted, "Our two children had very good results...such good results..." Mom wiped her tears and drew his breath, "What is it use for? How could we afford to support them both at the same time?" Right at that time, my brother walked out towards dad and mom, and said, "Dad, i don't want to continue my school anymore, i have read enough books." Dad swinged his heavy arm and hit my brother straight at the face. "Where did you get such a damn shit weak spirit from? Even if it requires me to beg money at the streets, i shall school you both until the end!" And so he knocked every house in the village to borrow some money. I drew my hand as gently as i could towards my brother's swollen cheek, "A boy must continue his schooling; or else he would never leave this valley of poverty." Me, on the other hand, had decided not to continue to university. Who could expect at the next day, before dawn, my brother had left home with some of his old clothes and few dry nuts. He slipped to my bed and left me a note:"Sis, to enter a university is not easy. I will go find work and send you money." I hold that paper on my bed, and cried endless tears till i almost lost my voice. At that year, my brother aged 17, and i was 20. With all the money that my father had borrowed from the whole village, and the hard earned money that my brother earned from moving bags of cement here and there at a construction site, i finally reached my third year at the university. One day, i was studying at my room, when my roommate entered and told me, "There is a villager waiting for you outside there!" Why would a villager look for me? I walked out and saw my brother from afar, his whole body was dirty covered with cement ashes and dust. I asked him, "Why didn't you tell my roommate that you are my brother?" He replied, smiling, "Look how bad i looked. What would they think of you if they find out that i am your brother? Wouldn't they laugh at you?" I felt so touched and my eyes started to get wet of tears. I wiped off the dust and dirts from my brother's clothings and said, "I don't care what others say! You are my brother no matter what! You are my brother no matter how you look..." From his pocket, he drew out a hair clip shaped of butterfly. He wore it to me, then explained, "I saw all city's girls wearing it. So i think you should also have one." I couldn't hold myself much longer. I pulled him to my hug and cried on him. At that year, he was 20 years old, i was 23. At the very first time i brought home my boyfriend, the broken shattered window was replaced, and everywhere in the house seemed cleaned by then. After my boyfriend went home, i danced like a little girl in front of my mom, "Mom, we don't need to spend so much time like this to clean our house!" But she said, smiling, "It was your brother who went home earlier to clean the whole house. Didn't you see the scar on his hand? He was injured fixing the new window glass..." I went in to my brother's little room. Seeing his skinny thin face, i felt like a thousand needles stroke through me. I put on some healing oil on his injury and bandaged his wound. "Did it hurt?" I asked him. "No, no, its not. You know, when i worked at the construction site, stones would roll and fall to my feet at every time. Even it didn't stop me from working and..." At that middle of the sentence, he stopped. I turned back my face and body away from him, shedding unstoppable tears from my heart. At that time, my brother was 23, i was 26. When i got married, i lived at the city. Many times my husband and i invited my parents to come and live with us, but they never want to. They said, once they leave the village, they don't know what else to do. My brother disagreed as well, saying, "Sis, just take care of your parents-in-law. I will take care of dad and mom here." My husband became the director of his factory. We wanted my brother to get job as the manager at the factory in maintainance section, but my brother refused the offer. He stubbornly started his work as repairman. One day, my brother was on a ladder to fix a cable, when he got an electric shock, and was hospitalized. My husband and i went visiting him. Seeing the white bandages all over his his feet, i complained, "Why did you refused to be a manager? Manager doesn't have to do such dangerous things like this. Look at you now, such a serious injury. Why didn't you listened to us before?" With a serious look on his face, he justified himself, "Think about my brother-in-law, he just became a new director at that time, and i am almost uneducated. If i was hired as manager like that, what kind of bad impact he would have on his reputation?" My husband's eyes was also filled with tears, then i said in my cry, "But you were uneducated was also because of me!" "Why talk about the past?" My brother grabbed my hand. That year, he was 26 and i was 29. My brother was then 30 years old when he married the daughter of a farmer of the village. In his wedding, the mc asked him, "Who do you respect most and you love most?" Without even thinking, he answered, "My sister." He continued telling back of a story that even i could hardly recall. "When i was in primary school, the school was at different village. Every day my sister and i would walk for two hours to get to school and to return home from school. One day, i lost one of my glove. My sister gave one of hers to me. She just wore one and walked that far. When we reached home, her hand shivered so much of the very cold winter that she could not hold her chopsticks properly. Since that day, i swore, for as long as i live, i shall take care of my sister and be good to her." Applauses flooded the hall. Every guest then drew their attention to me. Very difficult words i said out of my mouth, " In my life, the person i am most grateful of is my brother." And in this most happy moment, tears flooded from my eyes like river.