Chapter 18

I stood up with a sudden “whoosh.”

“It’s you???”

I looked Ethan up and down in disbelief, and a name buried deep in my memory slipped out-

“Goldie?!”

Ethan’s smile froze instantly, revealing a rare hint of embarrassment.

“Hey, that name… let’s leave it in the past…”

In my childhood, there was indeed a brief period when I had a “brother.”

As an only child in that isolated mountain village, I was quite the oddity.

But my parents loved me dearly. They understood the limitations of their circumstances and poured all their love into raising one child-me.

When I was eight, they brought home a “brother” from the foot of the mountain.

The boy was a few years older than me, with an unfamiliar face.

I heard he had fainted by the roadside, lost his memory, and couldn’t recall his name or family.

With no other choice, my parents took him in and tried to help him find his family.

They called him “Goldie.”

Although he was down and out, he had delicate skin and a refined demeanor, different from us, like a cherished treasure.

The time with a “brother” was the happiest memory of my childhood.

No one in the village dared to bully me anymore.

“Brother” would always stand in front of me.

One day, a few well-dressed people with city accents came to the village.

Brother asked me, “What are they here for?”

“They said they’re here to give money to impoverished households.”

“Our family seems pretty poor, right? Maybe we can fix the leaky roof?”

I laughed innocently and said, “Just wait and see.”

A month later, the village chief’s son’s family built a brand-new brick house.

Our roof completely collapsed after a heavy rainstorm.

Later, “brother” miraculously regained his memory and found his family.

Before he left, he held my hand tightly and promised, “I will come back and make sure you live a good life!”

What is a good life? As a young girl, I didn’t quite understand.

I just wanted money to treat my father’s illness and fix that leaky, broken roof.

But I waited and waited, and nothing came.

Until my father passed away, and my mother and I were driven back to my grandmother’s house by the villagers who saw us as bad luck, I never saw “brother” again.

But I never resented him.

He was just a teenager at the time, and in those days, what could he have done?

Later, the burdens of life gradually buried these memories deep in my heart.

Now, “brother” stood right in front of me.