Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

Lin Xiaoshuang and Chen Tingting ran very fast, and in less than ten minutes, they returned, panting, carrying the things.

Bai Li opened the medicine box, poured a glass of warm water, and carefully helped the old lady up to feed her the medicine.

"Grandma, just take your medicine and you'll feel better." Bai Li's voice was unusually gentle, without any airs or disdain for the old woman's smell.

The old lady swallowed the medicine in a daze, drank some water, and her breathing became a little more stable.

Her cloudy eyes looked at Bai Li, then at Li Jiaxin, who was standing to the side crying.

"Young man...you're Jiaxin's friend?" The old lady's voice was weak, but she still forced a polite greeting.

"Yes, I'm her brother, her adopted sister." Bai Li smiled as he tucked the blanket around the old lady. "Don't worry, with me here, Jiaxin won't suffer any injustice."

The old lady nodded, her gaze falling on Li Jiaxin's purple hair, her expression complex, and she sighed.

"This child... has a hard life. Her parents are rarely home, and I can't control her. I'm just afraid she'll go astray outside..."

"He hasn't gone astray." Bai Li interrupted the old man, his tone certain:

"Jiaxin is very sensible and hasn't done anything reckless outside. This hair... that's the current trend, you don't understand, it's called fashion."

"Really...?" The old lady didn't understand anything about fashion, but when she heard someone praise her granddaughter, she still managed a smile: "That's good...that's good."

After taking the medicine, the old lady quickly drifted off to sleep.

The room fell silent, with only the ticking of the old wall clock remaining.

The group quietly left the room and stood under the eaves in the corner of the courtyard.

Chen Tingting took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, habitually wanting to light one to calm her nerves.

Just as he put the cigarette in his mouth, he saw Bai Li's gaze sweep over him, his hand trembled, and he awkwardly stuffed the cigarette back into the cigarette case.

"Um... big brother, we can't smoke here, right?" Chen Tingting scratched her head, a little embarrassed.

They used to think smoking was cool and blowing smoke rings was stylish.

But watching Bai Li feed the old man his medicine just now, she suddenly felt that the cigarette in her hand was burning hot no matter how she held it.

When faced with true responsibility and commitment, their so-called "coolness" is nothing but a joke.

"Jiaxin." Bai Li looked at Li Jiaxin, who had been keeping her head down and remaining silent, and asked, "Do you know why you were afraid to come back before?"

Li Jiaxin trembled slightly but did not speak.

"Because you think you're useless." Bai Li hit the nail on the head, showing no mercy.

"You're afraid to go home."

"I'm afraid of seeing the disappointment in my elders' eyes, and I'm afraid of being powerless to help my family's poverty."

"So you would rather pretend to be carefree and indifferent in public to cover up your inferiority and fear in your heart."

Bai Li's words were like knives, cutting through their disguises one by one.

Lin Xiaoshuang lowered her head and couldn't see her toes.

She was also a left-behind child, growing up with her grandfather since she was little. Every time she came home, her grandfather would only ask her if she had eaten, never what she was doing.

She didn't dare to say it.

Chen Tingting bit her lip, and her eyes reddened.

"Big brother...you're right." Li Jiaxin finally raised her head, her face streaked with tears, her voice choked with sobs:

"If it weren't for you today, if it weren't for those few hundred dollars... I really don't know what I would have done."

"I even... I was just thinking that if there's no other way, I'll sell myself."

"Even if it's only two hundred yuan, I'll go if it can buy medicine for my grandma."

These words are heartbreaking to hear.

This is the most real predicament faced by girls from underprivileged backgrounds.

When all other paths are blocked, their bodies become their only source of capital.

"Stop spouting this nonsense in the future." Bai Li glared at her, then stuffed the 800-plus yuan in cash that Lin Xiaoshuang and Chen Tingting had just returned into her hands.

"Take this money."

"Big brother? This..." Li Jiaxin held the thick stack of red bills in her hand, feeling like it was burning her.

"Your grandmother is sick, so you should stay home and take care of her. This money is not for you to squander."

"Go buy some brighter light bulbs and replace them. This room is so dark it's like a haunted house; even a healthy person could get sick living here."

"Go buy a new three-piece bedding set, pure cotton, not those fancy synthetic fabrics."

He paused, then counted on his fingers: "There are still thirteen days until the New Year. Get your grandma a new cotton-padded coat. The old lady should have a fresh look for the New Year."

Li Jiaxin held the hot money in her hand, but her whole body seemed to have been paralyzed.

The sounds around me gradually became distorted, but the face of the man in front of me was excessively clear.

A sliver of light, filtering through the gaps in the roof tiles, fell precisely on his profile.

In this room filled with an atmosphere of poverty, he was like a radiant being who had stumbled into another world.

No one had ever told her these things.

The older men she used to meet would only try to trick her into "getting a room" or "having a drink with me tonight."

No one ever cared whether her grandmother slept comfortably, whether the lights in the room were bright enough, or whether she had new clothes to wear for the New Year.

"Feed".

A slender hand waved in front of her eyes, stirring up a gentle breeze.

Bai Li frowned: "What are you spacing out for? Have you lost your mind?"

Li Jiaxin suddenly snapped back to her senses, her cheeks instantly burning.

She frantically lowered her head, staring at her toes, her fingers digging into the soles of her shoes.

"I'm...I'm listening." Her voice was so soft it was like a mosquito's hum.

"You're listening, aren't you?" Bai Li crossed his arms, leaned forward slightly, and stared into her evasive eyes. "So, what I just said, how many times a day should you take that box of cephalosporin? How many pills each time?"

"what?"

Li Jiaxin looked up, her purple bangs covering half of her eyes, her gaze filled with confusion and emptiness.

We were so focused on looking at their faces and being touched that we forgot all about taking the medicine.

"Um... three... three times?" she tentatively guessed.

"collapse!"

A sharp flick of the wrist landed directly on her forehead.

"Ouch!" Li Jiaxin clutched her forehead, tears welling up in her eyes from the pain, but she had no anger at all. Instead, she felt a tingling sensation in her heart.

"Guess? Keep guessing?" Bai Li rolled her eyes at her, reached out and picked up the medicine box on the table, then put it back into her other hand.

"Listen up, if you still can't remember this, I'll shave off your purple hair."

Bai Li pointed to the instructions on the medicine box and patiently explained:

"Take this anti-inflammatory medicine twice a day... Also... drink plenty of warm water, and don't let your grandma drink tap water."

As he spoke, he underlined key points on the medicine box with his finger.

Looking at his earnest profile and listening to his rambling instructions, Li Jiaxin felt a lump in her throat and her vision blurred completely.

Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably, falling in large drops onto the box of medicine with a soft "pat-pat" sound.

She didn't want to cry, but she couldn't help it.

The feeling of being trampled on like mud for too long, and then suddenly being lifted up and having the dust brushed off, is enough to shatter all her psychological defenses.

"Why are you crying? I'm asking you to remember the dosage, not to write your will."

Bai Li looked at her crying uncontrollably, and although he said he was disgusted, he took out a pack of tissues from his pocket and roughly pressed one to her face.

"Wipe your nose clean, don't put the medicine on it."

Li Jiaxin grabbed a tissue and wiped her face haphazardly, crying and laughing at the same time, looking completely silly.

Chen Tingting and Lin Xiaoshuang, standing at the door, watched the scene inside the house and both fell silent.

Chen Tingting touched the cigarette pack in her pocket, her hand trembling slightly.

She remembered the dilapidated courtyard in the countryside of Ping County, and the grandfather who always chased her with a broom but would secretly slip boiled eggs into her bag when she left.

Lin Xiaoshuang leaned directly on Chen Tingting's shoulder, sniffling with red eyes.

They are all wild grasses, spirited young women who strive to survive in the cracks.

Some people flourish with a little sunshine, while others sprout with a little rain.

For so many years, everyone only regarded them as weeds, but Bai Li treated them as flowers.

"Big brother..." Lin Xiaoshuang cried out.

Bai Li turned her head, looked at the two girls at the door whose eyes were as red as rabbits, and sighed.

These aren't just energetic young women; they're a group of children starved for love.