REBORN RICH WITH A SYSTEM

Chapter 4

“Ah, how do I check it?” Raven asked. “I have to go to the bank,” he continued.

Raven wiped the sweat covering his entire body. His shirt was soaked with perspiration, and his breath was coming in short, rapid gasps.

Perhaps it was because he had never done hard work before, making carrying this firewood feel so excruciating. It even felt as though his soul was about to leave his body.

Raven pushed the thought of the system he had read earlier to the back of his mind. To be honest, he half-believed it. How could money possibly just appear out of nowhere?

He pushed the bicycle, now loaded down with firewood, once again. Instead of heading home, Raven pushed it straight to the house of a neighbor who was about to host a celebration.

“Is Mrs. Tina here?” Raven asked when he arrived in front of a fairly large house. Several people were bustling about, a sign that a lot of activity was going on inside.

“What is it, Raven?” A middle-aged woman approached him.

“Ma'am, you're hosting a celebration, so you need firewood, right? Just buy all of this, for only fifty dollars,” Raven said.

Mrs. Tina frowned. “I didn't order any wood from you, Raven. I've already gathered my own.”

“Well, it's not here yet, is it? I've brought it directly to you, Ma'am. You can use all of it right away,” Raven replied.

Mrs. Tina looked at Raven with deep suspicion. Who in the world didn't know Raven's reputation? So it was only natural for Tina to suspect him.

“Did you take this firewood from Laila?”

“No, Ma'am. Laila and my mother told me to sell it.”

“Get a grip, Raven. Live an honest life. Have some pity on your wife and mother, and you have so many younger siblings,” Mrs. Tina said, lecturing him instead.

“I've turned over a new leaf, Ma'am. Just pay fifty dollars for this. I want to buy food for my siblings. They haven't eaten since this morning.”

Finally, after quite a while, Mrs. Tina agreed to pay for the firewood, even though she didn't really need it. Consider it charity to help the children at the orphanage.

Raven stared at the money. He needed to check the balance in his account, and that meant he had to go to the district town, which would require fare.

In the end, Raven set aside ten dollars to use for his trip to the bank to check his money.

With the remaining forty dollars, Raven brought home ten kilograms of rice, as well as eggs, chili peppers, and cooking spices.

“Where's the wood?” Laila asked in a panic when she saw Raven return empty-handed.

She had been hoping that if everything sold today, they might finally be able to eat proper, thick rice instead of watery porridge.

Instantly, Laila felt deeply disappointed in Raven. She clutched her head, feeling as though she had misplaced her hopes in the man.

“I sold all of it to Mrs. Tina.”

“Then where is the money? Do you even realize that all of us are starving? Earlier we only got fifteen dollars, and even then you took five of it. Look, the little ones are only eating rice porridge with instant noodle broth.”

Laila burst into tears. She felt she truly had no hope left with Raven.

In Laila's mind, the money from selling the firewood had already been squandered at the gambling table.

Yet in her mind's eye earlier, if they had gotten thirty dollars, at least they could have scraped by until the next day.

Usually, a single basket of firewood was valued at five dollars. They had gathered around six baskets of wood earlier.

“I bought these instead,” Raven said, handing two large black plastic bags to Laila.

Laila and Mrs. Aisyah looked at each other.

Laila immediately pulled the bags from Raven's hands and peeked inside. Her eyes went wide when she saw a substantial amount of rice, eggs, and other cooking ingredients.

While a wave of guilt washed over her, suspicion still lingered. “How much did you sell it for? Where did you get all of this?”

Laila's gaze was sharp and probing. Her suspicion that Raven had used the money for gambling vanished, only to be replaced by a different kind of suspicion.

Raven's behavior was already beyond the pale. Aside from his hobbies of gambling, heavy drinking, and laziness, Raven had even been known to steal in the past.

“From the firewood earlier.”

“Don't lie. The wood we gathered earlier couldn't possibly buy this much stuff. Take this back if it's the result of stealing.”

Laila pushed the bags back toward Raven. They were poor, but they would never feed their younger siblings with stolen goods.

“I swear to God, I sold it for fifty dollars earlier, and I used forty dollars to buy all of these things. I borrowed the rest because I need to go to the district town.”

“Fifty dollars? As if anyone would want to buy firewood for that much!”

Mrs. Aisyah had remained silent the whole time. She gazed at the son she had raised. Raven's eyes genuinely showed he wasn't lying. But as a mother, it was also hard for her to believe Raven.

“You can ask Mrs. Tina. I'm not lying.”

“Mrs. Tina's orchard is huge. If they wanted to, they would just go pick up wood right there. Why would she buy it from you?”

“Well, I don't know. When I brought it over there, she wanted to buy it.”

Not long after, as it happened, Mrs. Tina came by to deliver an invitation because she was hosting a celebration at her house. Finally, Laila and Mrs. Aisyah believed Raven.

Laila immediately set to cook the rice and eggs. The fragrant aroma filled the cramped little house. The younger siblings waited near the hearth, dying of curiosity about what real rice and eggs would taste like.

“Yay! We're finally eating rice!” they shouted when Laila served the rice and eggs onto each of their plates.

Seeing that, Raven's heart melted. Even just eating rice and eggs made his siblings this happy. And they didn't even each get a whole egg; Laila had undoubtedly stretched them.

A few eggs had been beaten with water and flour to make them go further.

In his future life, Raven would even be able to eat meat every day. He would never lack food. His eyes stung with heat, but he held back so he wouldn't cry.

Raven looked at Laila. It was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Raven began to panic and worry.

“Mom, this afternoon I'm going to Mr. Broto's orchard, okay? His wife came by earlier asking for help to harvest eggplants there this afternoon,” Laila told Mrs. Aisyah.

Cough!

Raven, who was in the middle of spooning rice into his mouth, immediately choked into a cough. “No, you're not allowed to go.”

Laila looked at Raven in surprise. Normally, Raven never forbade her from doing anything; in fact, the man always pushed her to work and work so he could take her earnings.

“I get paid for it there. At least I can bring home a little money and some eggplants for all of us to eat,” Laila replied.

“No means no. You are not going anywhere. You're just staying home.”

Raven would not allow a single crack for that event to become reality.

“What is wrong with you? Look, I only have this much money in my hand. If I don't work, what are we going to eat?”

“Even the leftover grocery money, you took that too,” Laila added softly as she lowered her head, bracing herself for Raven's usual anger.

Yet, after waiting a few seconds, Raven didn't get angry at all. The woman looked up, staring at her husband in disbelief.

Laila felt as though Raven was no longer the man he used to be.

“Starting today, let me be the one to work. Tomorrow, I will look for a job, and you and Mommy should just stay home and take care of the little ones,” Raven replied.