The Day You Choose Someone Else

Seeing this, the village chief’s eyes darted around shrewdly. He cleared his throat and said,“Lora, we know how hard you’ve worked and everyone in the village remembers your kindness. But these mangoes were grown by all of us, working from dawn to dusk. All year round, we count on this harvest.” He pointed to the villagers behind him. “Look at your uncle. His son is in college, waiting for tuition. Denna’s husband is still sick. We’re not like you. You can just start a live stream and make big money easily.” Uncle Jackson chimed in from the side, “For you, 2,000 dollars is like a meal. For us, it’s half a year’s living expenses.” The village chief held the QR code out in front of me again. “You’re such a big streamer; you wouldn’t fuss over such a small amount with the villagers, would you?” Hearing this, the villagers all straightened up. They started chiming in together, “Exactly! Gifts in your live stream fly everywhere—what’s two thousand more or less?” “It’s not easy for us to farm. You just talk on camera and make money. You should share some with us!” Denna wiped her tears. “My husband’s medical bills aren’t even covered. You can’t just eat our mangoes for free.” I could hardly believe my ears. “Denna, you say you can’t cover the medical bills? Other years, your mangoes would have rotted in the fields by now. But this year, just your batch alone sold 8,000 pounds. At the current price, that’s at least 11,000 dollars. How can you still not cover the medical bills?” Denna was suddenly at a loss for words, her eyes avoiding mine. My uncle quickly tried to smooth things over, “That’s a different issue! Right now, we’re talking about you eating mangoes for free!” I looked at him, so self-righteous and couldn’t help but laugh a little. For the past two weeks, I’d been sleeping only three or four hours a night, my throat hoarse and sore, still pushing through every live stream. The team had been gnawing on cold buns and sleeping on army cots with me. What were we after? We just wanted the villagers to have a better life. But now? They took the money they’d just earned and turned around to argue with me over tasting mangoes. I looked down at the corners of my mouth, worn raw and suddenly couldn’t understand what I had been busy with for the past two weeks. Seeing me silent, my uncle pointed at my nose and scolded, “Lora, you’ve forgotten your roots! Back then, your parents were dirt poor. If the village hadn’t helped cover your tuition, would you even have made it this far? When you were in school, you ate at our house every day and now you’re quibbling with us over this petty money?” “Exactly! We treated you better than our own daughter. You can’t be so ungrateful!” A few elders joined in, pointing fingers, “You shouldn’t have even sent her to school—look at the ungrateful child she’s turned out to be!” They kept piling up every small favor from my childhood, slapping them on me like whips. I took a deep breath, forcing my voice to stay steady. “Uncle, you’re right. I did eat at your house a lot when I was younger. But do you remember? I always waited until your big dog, Bobby, finished eating before I dared to go to the stove and take the bowl that was specially left for me. Sometimes there’d still be scraps of meat in the dog’s bowl, while my bowl only had watery porridge.” Denna hurried to interrupt, but I raised my hand to stop her. “As for the tuition, you may have forgotten. But my dad knelt in your main hall back then and signed an IOU, mortgaging our house, agreeing to three percent interest, before you finally lent three hundred dollars. The village committee’s accounts should still have a record of this.” Yovie’s eyes turned red. She planted her hands on her hips and stood firmly in front of me, her voice fierce. “The first thing Lora did after starting work was repay her debts. She worked all day and streamed at night, saving up enough to pay back every cent with interest. Not only did she pay the interest, she even gave each family an extra thousand dollars. And as her uncle, you even said the interest was too little back then!”

She pulled out photos from her phone, “Over the years, Lora has donated 14,000 dollars to repair the village roads and another 7,000 dollars to build a school. Do we need to go through all these accounts?” The villagers looked at each other and some began to shrink back. Uncle Jackson opened his mouth, his face turning pale and then red. The village chief’s daughter, Olive Brown, pushed through the crowd with a few young people. She crossed her arms and looked at me sideways. “Lora, it’s pointless to bring up these old accounts now. Back then, helping you was out of kindness. Isn’t it only natural that you give back to the villagers now? Besides, it was your own promise to help the villagers sell the mangoes for free. You can’t just go back on your word, can you?” The young people behind her all nodded in agreement. Olive then looked at the mango boxes in the warehouse and sighed. “We know you’re not short of money and you always say during your livestreams that helping farmers should follow the rules. You can’t just break the rules yourself, can you? You ate so many mangoes while livestreaming; you can’t just let that go for free.” She gently pushed the payment QR code toward me, her voice still soft, “2,000 dollars for you might be like buying a small bag, but for the villagers, this is a year’s hard work.” The blond kid behind Olive added, “If your fans find out you ate for free in the village, you might lose followers, right?” “We’ve been recording everything, Lora, you decide what to do.” A few young people immediately raised their phones and started filming me, shouting, “If we don’t get this money today, we’ll post the videos online!” Uncle Jackson shoved Yovie aside and yelled angrily, “If you don’t pay today, don’t think you can leave Leverant Village!” The warehouse was noisy. Villagers surrounded me, each holding out their hands for money. A few guys from my team were so angry their eyes turned red. Welsey pushed the blocking villagers aside. “Do you even have a conscience! When Lora was working herself to exhaustion and ended up in the hospital on IV drips for you, where were you?” Yes, I was naturally allergic to mangoes. But my fans only recognize me as this livestreamer. Every time I tasted mangoes during a livestream, my body broke out in dense red rashes. I could only wait until the livestream ended and rush to the hospital for IV drips overnight. Every time, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep right in the hospital chair. And now… they actually wanted me to pay for tasting mangoes. Looking at all the angry faces in front of me, my heart completely sank. I barely even had the strength for a bitter smile. Another guy from my team started shoving with the villagers. “How ungrateful! Do you know how many people begged Lora to help sell their goods? If Lora hadn’t acted out of loyalty and helped you sell for free, your mangoes would have rotted in the fields long ago!” Seeing things about to get out of control, I raised my voice, “Everyone stop!” Immediately, everyone went quiet. I picked up my phone and scanned the payment QR code. “Money’s transferred—2,000 dollars.” I showed the payment success screen to the village chief. “Now can we go? Pack up, let’s head back.” Yovie bit her lip, almost crying, “Lora… this money shouldn’t be given…” I shook my head and walked out of the warehouse first. Behind me, I could hear villagers whispering and some were proudly counting the money that had arrived. Some even clapped excitedly in celebration. Just as I reached the warehouse door, Olive hurried after me and grabbed my wrist. “Lora, there’s one more thing we need to make clear.”

“Other livestreams are selling mangoes of the same quality for 2,1 dollars, but you insisted on 1,85 dollars.” “That’s a difference of 0.25 dollars per pound. With thousands of pounds sold across the village, that’s not a small amount.” A few villagers behind her immediately realized this and crowded around. “Exactly! That price difference needs to be paid! At least another 28.000 dollars!” Yovie threw herself in front of me to shield me, her voice trembling. “Have some conscience! The other sellers’ mangoes are premium, each individually bagged during cultivation. The mangoes from Leverant Village vary in size. If it weren’t for Lora carefully sorting and packaging them, selling them at 1,85 dollars would already be considered high!” She pulled out the shipping documents and slammed them onto the boxes. “Just for shipping insurance alone, we spent about seven thousand dollars! And what about the boxes, ice packs and labor. Weren’t all of those paid out of our own pockets? And now you’re complaining that we sold them too cheaply?” Welsey, eyes red, added, “Do you know how many favors Lora had to call in on the platform just to negotiate this price?” Hearing this, Olive sneered and proudly lifted her chin. “I studied business in the city. Don’t try to fool me with these words. The cost difference between premium and regular mangoes isn’t even 0,28 dollars. That price gap is just your kickback. Besides, shipping insurance definitely wouldn’t cost seven thousand. You must have inflated the numbers. I’ve seen this kind of trick many times!” A few villagers immediately started shouting in agreement, “The university student said it, it must be true! Hurry up and make up the difference!” Yovie’s voice trembled with anger, “The money for your studies was funded by Lora. This is how you repay her? And what kind of business course did you study if you can’t even account for packaging loss?” Uncle Jackson waved his hand, clearly not wanting to listen and shouted loudly, “Stop with the useless talk! If you don’t pay today, don’t even think about leaving!” I held back Yovie, who was about to argue again and opened my phone. “28.000 dollars, right? I’ll pay.” The payment confirmation beep sounded especially clear in the warehouse. The villagers craned their necks, staring at the screen; some even stood on tiptoe. “Now … can we go?” The village chief rubbed his hands and nodded repeatedly, “Of course, of course! Lora really is a big internet celebrity—so straightforward!” I helped my parents walk out and my team quietly followed. Behind us, villagers cheered and someone shouted, “We’re rich!” Back in our large apartment in the city center, my mom was still wiping her tears, “That’s 28.000 dollars…” I stood in front of the floor‑to‑ceiling window, looking at the stream of headlights below. “Mom, don’t worry. The way they took that money… I’ll make them spit it back out the same way.” I gave my team half a month off. Their salaries stayed the same and I even transferred an extra seven thousand dollars to each of them as a travel fund. Two months later, the second batch of mangoes in Leverant Village ripened. The village chief came straight to my company, shouting the moment he walked in, “Lora, livestream for a few days and help us sell this new batch of mangoes! This time you have to sell them for 2,82 dollars a pound. You have a lot of fans, so you can definitely sell them!” Smiling, I opened a drawer and handed him the contract. “Mr. Brown, I now have 30 million fans. The commission for promoting one batch is 70,000 dollars—payment first, livestream later.”