Chapter 9
With enough food and more resources around her, my sister visibly grew taller.
After winning a gold medal in track and field, I hurried back to see her at school.
She was coming out of the gates with her classmates, laughing and talking.
At last, I saw something rare in her expression: ease.
Just then, she looked up and spotted me at once in the crowd.
Beside the busy street, she pointed me out proudly to her friends. “Look! That’s my sister! She’s a track athlete!”
At that moment,
her eyes shone with pride.
After that,
fortune finally began to turn in my favor.
Once I’d qualified for the national team,
my university track coach asked to speak to me alone. “Zhao Zixuan, you’ve made something of yourself!”
The urge to cry rose inside me.
Then,
the coach patted me, looking deeply pleased. “You’ll be training with the national team now. I hope to see you on television one day, bringing honor to our country!”
I nodded through tears. “You will!”
Once I began training with the national team,
I had more chances to compete too.
Before every event, I seized every available moment to train.
Soon, I finally pushed past my limits on the track and won the first national gold medal of my life.
After the medal ceremony, reporters crowded after me. “Congratulations on qualifying to compete overseas! Are you confident you can bring home glory for your country?”
With tears in my eyes, I faced the cameras. “It’s what I’ve dreamed of my whole life!”
Perhaps fate was playing a cruel joke.
Around the time I won gold, someone from home told me Mom had been in a traffic accident while out earning money to support my uncle’s household. Her life wasn’t in danger, but she’d broken her leg and could no longer work.
The brother she’d always been so proud of hurried over. Not to pay her medical bills, but to distance himself from her. “Sis, I’m married now. You’d better stop coming to my place. I don’t want the neighbors getting ideas.”
It was as if someone had struck her.
All her life, she’d been taught that an eldest sister was like a mother.
But once she’d lost her earning power and broken her leg, Uncle forgot everything she’d done for him. He was even afraid she’d become a disabled burden on him.
From then on,
Mom called me every day from a different number.
Someone who knew me had told her they’d seen me win gold on television.
She still couldn’t understand. “A gold medal? She won plenty of those for her school growing up. What good are they?”
“Who says they’re no good? Your daughter’s on the national team, and she’s won gold. Of course she can earn a lot of money! And it isn’t just about money. She can compete for her country!”
Mom repeated their conversation to me. At the end, she sounded smug.
“Who’d have thought you were such a treasure? You must have plenty of money now! Hurry and send me some. I still haven’t raised the operation money I promised your uncle. You’re my daughter. Now you’ve won that national team gold medal or whatever it is, let’s see him look down on me again!”
“Mom, you…”
The small impulse I’d felt to help her went out completely at those words.
After a moment’s thought, I finally told her.
“By the way, I forgot to mention. I’ve moved my household registration out of the family.”
“From now on, my sister is the only family I recognize.”