[Older brother lost his job and could only beg on the street, but our strength was too weak. Moreover, older brother had two burdens, and we were just idly consuming, resulting in us becoming rats living off garbage.]
[Three months later, when my brother and I went out to pick up garbage, by the time we returned, our home had been ransacked.]
[I rushed into the room and stepped on broken shards of pottery. On the empty grass mat lay only my sister's little hat, stained with unfamiliar muddy footprints. My brother frantically searched every corner, even digging into the mouse holes.]
[I don't know if my sister was sold off or dead... I could only pray in my heart that she could survive, because with us, she, as an infant, wouldn't survive, she would have died sooner or later.]
[I didn't see her corpse, so I firmly believed she was still alive somewhere.]
[Even if the possibility was just a sliver.]
