In the end, Ma Dongmei proposed that she would raise her little sister. She had plenty of breast milk, more than Wu Jun could drink on his own.
Ma Simai and Wu Jun shared the same birthday, so Ma Dongmei simply raised her sister and son as if they were fraternal twins.
By the time she was in the fourth grade, Ma Simai felt her name was too rustic and wanted to change it, but Ma Dongmei flatly refused.
At the time, it cost over a hundred yuan to change a single character on the household registration book. For two characters... how much would that cost? The family simply wasn't in a position to afford that.
Ma Dongmei felt it was completely unnecessary. It was just a name, after all. Their father wasn't very educated, so his naming skills were limited; none of the four sisters had a name that sounded particularly good.
Ma Simai refused to give up. She resorted to a mix of threats and bribes to get Wu Jun to join her in a hunger strike, promising that if they succeeded, she would introduce him to her best friend, Yunyun.
This whole charade went on for over a week. They were openly on a hunger strike, but secretly snacking on the side.
One day, Ma Dongmei was furious and demanded of her younger sister, "Are you going to eat or not!"
It would have been better if Ma Simai had kept her mouth shut. But the moment she spoke, she let out a full-sounding burp. "If you don't change my name, I'll starve to death before I eat… *BURP*~" she declared with a look of fierce determination, mid-burp.
Ma Dongmei immediately burst out laughing. She was left completely speechless by her little sister.
This story was always brought up for a laugh whenever the Ma Family gathered for the New Year, eventually becoming a classic holiday tradition.
In the end, one way or another, her name did get changed to the Ma Siyu she was today.
However, more than a decade had passed, and Wu Jun still had no idea what that best friend Ma Simai had promised to introduce him to even looked like.
After she got her way, Ma Simai claimed her best friend had transferred to a school in the city...
"That girl you just sent off was really pretty. Your girlfriend?" Ma Siyu asked, looking at Wu Jun curiously. "Well, well, my dear nephew. See a pretty girl and you betray the cause just like that? If this were the war, you'd have been prime traitor material."
"She's not my girlfriend, just a friend," Wu Jun explained, putting some distance between himself and Ma Siyu.
"Dinner, a walk, a movie… you went through the whole routine, and now you're telling me you're 'just friends'? Nephew, I just have one question: can you take a beating?" Ma Siyu said, reaching out to pinch Wu Jun's ear.
"It was you, wasn't it?" Wu Jun dodged her vicious grasp and pointed at her. "I knew I felt someone staring at me! Ma Simai, how bored can you be?!"
Ma Siyu patted Wu Jun on the shoulder, her face a mask of disappointment. "I nearly twisted my neck into a pretzel spying on you at the movies, and after all that, you just sent the girl home? Nephew, your EQ is seriously lacking."
Wu Jun said, "There's nothing wrong with my EQ, I'm just not looking for a relationship right now. Besides, your spying was distracting me."
Ma Siyu rolled her eyes at him, then her expression suddenly turned serious. "When is my brother-in-law's surgery?"
At the mention of his father's surgery, Wu Jun's expression turned serious as well. "It's in six days, on July 8th."
"I just got paid. It was a good month—nearly twenty thousand yuan. Take this for now," Ma Siyu said, unzipping her small shoulder bag to pull out the cash. "I have a business trip tomorrow, so I won't have time to go to the hospital."
"We don't need it. We already have enough," Wu Jun said, placing his hand on hers to stop her.
Ma Siyu had grown up in Wu Jun's home, where she was even more doted upon than Wu Jun himself.
Rural families usually had two children, but because of her, Wu Guangqiang and Ma Dongmei never even had a second one.
She hadn't understood when she was little, but as she grew up, Ma Siyu came to realize just how much her third sister and brother-in-law had sacrificed for her.
When Wu Guangqiang fell ill this time, she was the one who helped the most.
Of the more than 400,000 yuan needed for the initial costs, she had provided 170,000.
Although Ma Siyu earned a good salary, typically well over ten thousand yuan a month, she had always been a big spender.
She had taken out a loan for a house and another for an entry-level BMW X1. Her paycheck was practically spent before it even had a chance to warm her pocket, leaving her with almost no savings.
Wu Jun had repeatedly asked where she got the money, but he could never get an answer out of her.
She claimed she didn't have time to go to the hospital, but Wu Jun knew the truth: she was too scared to go. Every time she saw his father lying in the hospital bed, she would burst into tears—a raw display of emotion that made her seem far more filial than he, the man's own son.
Frowning at his rejection, Ma Siyu scolded him unhappily, "Wu Jun, this money isn't for you, it's for my brother-in-law's medical bills. Don't you be stubborn with me."
"Who's being stubborn? We really have enough," Wu Jun said. "Haven't you talked to my mom recently? You can ask her."
"Where would you get that kind of money?" A terrible possibility occurred to her, and she suddenly grabbed the collar of his shirt, warning in a cold voice, "If you dare to give up on his treatment, I will never, ever forgive you!"
'They had been short over 80,000 yuan. It's only been about twenty days... where could he have gotten that much money?'
Wu Jun pried her hand off his collar. "I'm the national distributor for a brand of rice now. Do you understand? The *national* distributor. The rice sells like crazy. I'm counting so much money every day my hands go numb…"
Wu Jun launched into the speech he had been rehearsing for over twenty days. He spoke for five or six minutes straight, leaving Ma Siyu utterly dumbfounded.
In his telling, the process of landing the national distributorship was fraught with peril and obstacles. But ultimately, through his own relentless efforts, the other party was won over by his sheer charisma, and he successfully secured the deal.
"There's over 300,000 yuan in this card," Wu Jun said, pulling out his bank card and waving it in front of her. "Mom still has the two hundred thousand-something that was left over. It's more than enough for the surgery."
"Alright, alright, I get it! You're a big shot now, you're rolling in it," Ma Siyu said, snatching the card and stuffing it back into his shirt pocket with a look of mock disgust. "Put it away, what are you showing off for?!"
Ma Siyu knew Wu Jun better than he knew himself; she knew he wouldn't joke about something like this.
Seeing that Wu Jun's luck had turned and he was now thriving, she was genuinely happy for him and her sister's family from the bottom of her heart. Her words, however, remained as sharp and merciless as ever.
Although she suspected his story about landing the distributorship was a bit exaggerated, maybe even complete bullshit, the facts were the facts. He had earned over 300,000 yuan in a little over twenty days, and she had to accept that reality.
"It's getting late," Wu Jun said with a laugh, feeling a bit sleepy. "My mornings are worth thousands, you know. I need my beauty sleep. Can't be wasting time chatting with an idle person like you." He then added matter-of-factly, "Give me a ride back to the supermarket."
Ma Siyu rolled her eyes. "Get a taxi yourself."
"But a taxi isn't as comfortable as your BMW. I'm telling you, Ma Simai, you get stingier every day," Wu Jun whined, refusing to budge.
It wasn't that he really wanted to enjoy a ride in a BMW; they were both so busy all the time that they rarely got to see each other, and he just wanted to spend a little more time with her.
"Taxi!" Spotting an approaching cab, Ma Siyu waved it down. Without another word, she shoved Wu Jun toward it. "Get in, you. Still dreaming of a BMW? You think your butt is made of gold or something?"
Ma Siyu handed a hundred-yuan bill to the driver through the window. "Driver, Tianyuan Community. If he tries to get out before you get there, break his legs for me."
The taxi driver: "…"
"Cheapskate," Wu Jun muttered, making a gesture at Ma Siyu. He stopped struggling. 'Well, I didn't get to ride in the BMW, but at least I'm saving on cab fare... not a bad deal.'
The driver took the money from Ma Siyu, hit the gas, and the car sped off.
The taxi hadn't gone far before the light at the intersection turned red, forcing it to a stop.
Wu Jun looked back and saw Ma Siyu getting into another taxi.