The Day You Choose Someone Else

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.”