茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Liu Shiling sat in the kindergarten classroom, staring out at the pouring rain outside, falling into a daze.

Outside, occasional thunder and lightning struck. The other children in the classroom were all making noises and covering their ears, some laughing, some screaming, creating quite the ruckus.

But Liu Shiling opened her eyes even wider, as if she wanted to see something in the distant lightning that lit up the sky.

Last night, she quietly asked Xiang Kun through QQ if the lightning storm on TV was “super magic” and who was the “magician” who performed it.

As a result, Xiang Kun said it was his “magic”.

Having received this answer, Little Fatty Girl was super excited but also felt an increased sense of urgency.

Although she knew Uncle Bald was very powerful, knew both “magic” and archery, and had numerous powerful pets, even if other “magicians” could cast powerful “magic” like “lightning storms”, they still probably wouldn’t be as powerful as Uncle Bald.

But she had always thought that Uncle Bald wasn’t most proficient in “magic”, after all, she wanted to become a “Great Wizard” in the future to help Uncle Bald fight villains and monsters!

But now she suddenly discovered that Uncle Bald’s “magic” was far more powerful than she had ever imagined!

This made Little Fatty Girl a little anxious. She hoped that when she and Uncle Bald fought against villains and monsters in the future, she could play a crucial role that would make Uncle Bald say “Oh, Xiao Lingdang, you’re so amazing. If it weren’t for you, we would be in trouble!” instead of “Xiao Lingdang, you just play around with magic for fun. Leave the rest to Uncle to take care of”.

So Liu Shiling began to ponder, how could she make her magic so unique that it would be more powerful and useful than Uncle Bald’s lightning storm?

The young female teacher beside Liu Shiling, who was staring out of the window and daydreaming, asked, “Shiling, what are you looking at?”

Liu Shiling looked up at the teacher with her little face, “Watching the thunder and lightning.”

The teacher didn’t find this answer surprising and asked, “Have you finished the drawing assignment?”

Liu Shiling took her hands off the table and showed her drawing to the teacher, “Finished.”

The teacher had asked the children to draw animals today – pets at home, animals seen in the zoo, or those seen on TV, anything could be drawn. If they couldn’t think of what to draw, they could even borrow picture books for reference.

The teacher looked and found Liu Shiling had drawn a kitten riding on the back of a bird, probably an eagle, of similar size.

“This is Custard Pie, isn’t it? Why is the eagle carrying it also yellow?” The teacher asked.

Since the beginning of this semester, Liu Shiling’s drawing skills had improved greatly and she was among the top in her class. This big ginger cat was not the first time Liu Shiling had drawn, so the teacher was very familiar with it and knew that it was a pet at Liu Shiling’s house, called “Custard Pie”.

However, the previous “Custard Pie” drawings by Liu Shiling always had various peculiar elements, such as many wings, many eyes, etc., and they oddly harmonised, causing the teacher to sometimes wonder if Liu Shiling had a talent for abstract painting.

The “Custard Pie” riding on the yellow eagle today, however, had no strange elements. It was a normal kitten, with a big face, short legs and a chubby body; it was drawn rather nicely.

However, Liu Shiling shook her head and said, “Teacher, it’s not an eagle, it’s a canary.”

“Ah? A canary?” The teacher was taken aback, surprised, “How could a canary be so big and carry a cat?”

“Why can’t canaries be that big?” Liu Shiling also looked at her strangely with wide-open eyes.

The female teacher opened her mouth as if to say something, but appeared to remember something instead, she laughed shaking her head and said, “Hmm, Shiling, you’ve drawn this canary quite well, did you see it on TV?”

“It is owned by an incredible big sister, its name is ‘Sparkle’, a very impressive and intelligent canary—it’s even smarter than my ‘Custard Pie’ at home,” replied Liu Shiling.

The female teacher praised Liu Shiling a few times more, before continuing to inspect the other children’s drawings. Compared to the dazed Liu Shiling, who had long finished her drawing, most of the other children had only drawn half.

The rain outside was getting heavier, this sudden heavy downpour soon filled the kindergarten yard, situated on low-lying terrain with inadequate draining system, with ankle-deep floodwater.

The female teacher answered a phone call, walked to the window and glanced at a small truck driving into the kindergarten’s gate, she told the children to focus on their drawings and not to run around, then she left the classroom, put on her rain boots, ready to help unload goods.

The kindergarten’s principal, the only two male teachers they had, along with few other female teachers who were called over, were all ready to help unload the truck as quickly as possible to prevent the goods from getting wet.

After the goods have been unloaded, the driver got back in the truck, making ready to leave the kindergarten, but when the driver was trying to turn the truck around, maybe due to the heavy rain reducing visibility, or just the driver’s carelessness, the rear of the truck hit an electric pole, which then slowly fell into the rainwater.

At this moment, two male teachers were still standing in the water wearing raincoats.

Liu Shiling, who had been staring aimlessly outside, saw this happen, her eyes widened in shock and her heart began to race.

If it were other children, they might not know what would happen when water comes in contact with electricity, or the consequences of electrocution. But after Xiang Kun had thoroughly educated her on the dangers of electricity, while demonstrating his control over it, including various possibilities of electrocution and its consequences, she was very clear about what harm could come to those teachers in the water if the electric pole fell there.

At this instant, the two coins that she had in her pocket seemed to be summoned, they flew out and ended up in the hands she had hanging by her sides, where they were firmly gripped.

Accompanied by a streak of lightning in the distance, the entire kindergarten, including the better half of the neighboring block, experienced a sudden power outage.

Then Liu Shiling just slumped onto the table, fell asleep with a light smile on the corners of her lips, still clutching the coins in her hands, as if she heard Uncle Bald praising her in her dream for making use of magic to save people.

The sudden power outage made the children in the classroom wail out, but since it was actually still daytime, even though the lights went out, it wasn’t really that dark, and having everyone around them, left the children shouting in thrill, without really being scared.

Upon the completion of the unloading, the principal quickly got the teachers to go back to class to appease the children, making sure they didn’t run out. He then went over to check on the careless truck driver with the two male teachers who were still standing in the rainwater.

“Thank goodness our power lines are buried, there’s no power lines on that pole, otherwise it could have been dangerous.” One of the male teachers remarked close to relief.

“Indeed…at least it didn’t fall and hit anyone,” the other teacher agreed. But then frowned and added, “But…if there were no power lines on that pole, why did our power go out?”

As they approached the driver’s window, they noticed the driver looking straight up at the building in the kindergarten with a mix of fright, astonishment, and confusion in his eyes, as if he had just seen a monster.

“Hey, are you okay?” One of the male teachers asked.

“That…that…” The driver pointed towards the top of the building, appearing to be in shock.

“What?” The two male teachers followed his gaze, but saw nothing strange outside the bleak sky and the pouring rain.

The driver kept opening and closing his mouth but couldn’t seem to find his words.

Just after the collision with the electric pole, he was about to look at the principal when he unexpectedly noticed something strange above the main building of the kindergarten—a sudden halt in the rain, and all the water converging into something odd—looking very much like a standing crab.

Despite the power outage in their surroundings, he had clearly seen the creature formed of flowing water in the light of the flash of lightening.

But in the blink of an eye, the monster disappeared, and the rain began to fall over the building again, resuming its curtain-like form.