茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 136: Little Shiling Liu

In a private kindergarten somewhere in Star City.

In the classroom, it was currently free playtime. Children played with their close pals, building with blocks, playing house, or various games, and they were all energetically engaged.

But there was a slightly chubby little girl sitting alone in a corner, engrossed in a one yuan coin.

She set the coin on the back of her hand, then tried to slide it between her fingers, flipping it by moving her fingers, making it roll between them.

However, each time the coin rolled to the next finger gap, it would fall off.

Then, ‘Little Fatty Girl’ would pick up the coin and repeat the process, undeterred and delighted as if it was a toy even more fascinating than a Barbie doll.

This ‘Little Fatty Girl’ is none other than Liu Shiling, Xiang Kun’s former neighbor from apartment 706.

After moving with her mother to Star City and adapting to a new environment, her personality underwent a significant change.

The previous ‘Little Fatty Girl’ was always eager to make friends, despite being marginalized and isolated in various children’s groups. She was always jovial, enjoying following popular children around and always thrilled by bustling social scenes.

But now, she no longer tried to actively make friends with the children at her new kindergarten or integrate into different circles. Instead, she spent most of her time alone, intensely fascinated by an ordinary-looking one yuan coin.

Her aloof attitude, ironically, often attracted some children to approach her, curious about what was so magical about her coin that she could play with it tirelessly.

The old Liu Shiling would certainly have enthusiastically shared her own story, explained the origins and the magic of this coin, told them about Uncle Bald, and surely lent the coin to other children. She has always been a generous and sharing child.

But now, she barely acknowledged others, showing little desire to make friends with other children. She cherished the coin so much that she wouldn’t let anyone else borrow it, not even touch it.

‘Little Fatty Girl’ believed that the coin was the “magical coin” and “lucky coin” that Uncle Bald gave her. It had magical powers, she just hadn’t mastered them yet.

She felt that Uncle Bald was very cool and skilled when he played with the coin, and she wanted to be like him. She wanted to become strong so that she could protect her mother if anyone ever tried to bully her.

With her plump little hand, Liu Shiling placed the coin on the thumb and flicked it up, causing the coin to somersault in the air.

But when she tried to catch it on the back of her other hand, she found the coin was gone. It had been snatched out of mid-air by another hand.

A somewhat handsome boy held the coin and quickly hid it behind his back. Liu Shiling’s pretty brows furrowed; she was unhappy and said, “Give it back to me!”

“Guess which hand the coin is in. If you guess right, I’ll give it back to you,” said the boy with a mischievous smile.

Without any hesitation, Liu Shiling immediately said, “Left hand.”

The boy was taken aback, quickly shifted the coin from his left hand to his right behind his back and then showed his right hand, “Wrong guess! This coin is mine now!”

Liu Shiling’s eyes widened in disbelief as her anger started to flare up. Her eyes teared up, the corners of her mouth downturned as if she was about to burst into tears any second. Subconsciously, her gaze shifted towards the small plastic shovel used by children to play with sand in the corner, but remembering Uncle Bald’s instruction in her mind, she quickly looked away.

She sniffed, didn’t continue to argue with the little boy, instead, walked directly to the door to find the teacher.

The teacher walked over, frowned and said to the little boy: ‘Wang Ke, return the coin to Liu Shiling.”

However, the little boy spread his hands out, saying with an innocent look: “I don’t have it, I didn’t take her coin! She was carelessly playing with it, I don’t know where it fell. ”

The teacher was somewhat exasperated. Disputes among these children were the most difficult to manage, and moreover, the current requirements for preschool teachers were very strict – they had to guide and convince the children, rebukes were not allowed.

Just as she was contemplating how to convince the mischievous boy, Liu Shiling suddenly looked up and said loudly to her: “Teacher, can I borrow your phone? I need to call 110.”

The teacher was taken aback: “What for?”

She pointed at the little boy: “Wang Ke stole my thing, he’s a robber, I need to call the police and have him arrested!” She pointed at the security camera in the corner of the classroom, “The monitoring has recorded everything, you can’t deny it, Wang Ke! You will be arrested and go to jail for a hundred years! You won’t be able to play with toys, play games, or watch cartoons. And your mom will spank you every day!”

Because Liu Shiling’s voice was loud and full of determination, it attracted the attention of all the children in the class. Even the teacher from the next-door class heard the commotion and poked her head in.

The teacher was dumbstruck, and the little boy Wang Ke was first astounded, then as if realizing something, he burst into tears.

Under the sobbing confession of Wang Ke and the corroboration of the other children, Liu Shiling found her coin under a cushion nearby. She picked it up and, as if nothing had happened, went back to her corner to play by herself.

“Shiling’s Mom, was Liu Shiling like this in her previous kindergarten too?”

At the end of the school day when the parents came to pick up their children, the teacher of Liu Shiling’s class asked Shiling’s Mom to stay back for a chat.

After listening to the teacher’s description of Liu Shiling’s behavior in kindergarten, Shiling’s Mom offered a bitter smile. She had an inkling that her daughter’s abrupt change of character was due to a past event involving an intruder in their house.

She initially thought a new environment and some time might bring about a change, but it didn’t seem straightforward now.

Not only at school but at home as well, Liu Shiling no longer sat on her small stool as before, glued to her favorite cartoons on the television. Instead, she would keep flipping the coin endlessly.

Shiling’s Mom too had thoroughly examined the coin but did not find anything out of the ordinary. She knew, the things that Xiang Kun had said to their daughter were only to placate her for the moment; terms such as “magical coin” and “lucky coin” were casual remarks. The magical showy effect was probably due to some trick.

However, the straightforward and naive Liu Shiling took the coin as a magical treasure.

Shiling’s Mom was not overly worried, assuming that as time passed, or perhaps in a year or two as her daughter grew older, she would naturally understand.

Besides, the novelty factor of an item couldn’t keep a child engaged for long.

Perhaps, not much later, something new would distract her, and then the carefree, food-loving, eager-to-play daughter would be back to her usual self.

Thus, Shiling’s Mom placated the teacher with nice words, made up some excuses for Liu Shiling, and hoped that the teacher would pay extra attention to her so that she wouldn’t be bullied.

In the end, looking at Liu Shiling playing with the coin from a distance, the teacher chuckled: “However, the little Shiling is very loving towards animals. We have a few rabbits in our garden, she often goes there to feed them, and regularly squats by their side, talking to the rabbits, encouraging them to grow quickly.”

Shiling’s Mom’s expression stiffened slightly, she subconsciously looked back at her daughter. Of course, she knew why her daughter was paying attention to the growth of the rabbits….