On the last day of the semester, the school held a small evening party.
The teacher stood on the stage and said, "Everyone, please bring some food from home too."
"Oh, no!"
"Teacher, please don't!"
The students below the stage reacted very strongly.
Li Xiaoya rested her head on her arm, unable to hold back a small smile at the corner of her mouth.
An Ying quietly watched her from the side.
She thought to herself, so Li Xiaoya can smile after all.
After the teacher left, Li Xiaoya, in a rare moment of initiative, invited them: "Do you want to come play at my place?"
"No, no, no, boss, let's not."
"Yeah, why don't you come play at my house instead?"
Li Xiaoya tilted her head: "My dad went abroad for work."
"Really?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Then, can we come?"
"Sure."
Zhou Xiaoshu couldn't help but tug at Li Xiaoya's sleeve: "Why are you inviting them over? Just invite me, that's enough! Uh, at most add An Ying..."
"What are they anyway? We barely know them. They're just idiots who follow you around calling you 'boss' but can't help with anything," Zhou Xiaoshu muttered quietly.
Why?
Because... because that old grandpa seemed to really like children.
And he looked so sad...
If he had more and more children around, would his eyes still be swollen from crying?
Because Ke Muning wasn't there, this group of kids eventually happily followed Li Xiaoya in a crowd.
Apart from her scary dad, there were no other rules at Li Xiaoya's place, which was great!
And it seemed her dad didn't teach her who she could or couldn't play with... unlike their families.
"Let's go, boss!" They crowded around Li Xiaoya as they left the classroom.
Of course, they still had to tell their families they were going to a classmate's house.
When their parents heard on the phone that they were going to Li Xiaoya's place, they immediately bristled, their whole bodies on alert.
"You're still going?"
Their faces turned pale.
But unfortunately, their children couldn't see them through the phone.
"Yeah, her dad's not home anyway."
"..." The parents on the other end of the line began to wonder how they had raised such foolish children.
But what did elementary school kids care about such things?
They arrived at the Zhang family home.
"Wow! How come it's different from the house last time?"
"I know this... it's very, very expensive here."
Old Mr. Zhang heard the chattering voices and couldn't help but put on his coat, slowly walking out supported by his secretary.
"Is this what she meant yesterday about bringing friends over to play?" Old Mr. Zhang murmured.
The secretary was also shocked: "Yes, so many... friends."
Among the children, some were well-behaved, and some were little rascals. But in front of Li Xiaoya, their "boss," they all seemed exceptionally obedient, doing whatever they were told.
What remained was only the purest side of children.
"Do you know how to play Monopoly?" A child looked up and asked Old Mr. Zhang.
Old Mr. Zhang regretfully said, "I don't know how."
"An Ying can teach Grandpa Zhang," said Li Xiaoya.
An Ying was startled: "How did you know?"
"I saw you playing it last time."
An Ying licked her lips nervously and said, "Then, I'll teach you."
She had always had a relatively low presence in the group, and never imagined Li Xiaoya had been quietly paying attention to her...
Unlike these little brats, An Ying had been exposed to many people in Jin City's upper-class circles through her father's influence.
She knew who Old Mr. Zhang was.
But... but why was Li Xiaoya willing to give such an opportunity to her?
An Ying's heart was pounding.
Was it because she had helped Li Xiaoya tell the teacher last time? But that was just a small thing.
An Ying couldn't figure it out, but this didn't affect the joyful atmosphere that followed.
Old Mr. Zhang sat down and played Monopoly with them, and also taught Li Xiaoya how to play Chinese chess and Ludo.
The difficult times seemed to pass by so quickly.
When they left, Old Mr. Zhang felt a bit of loss.
But unexpectedly, when he woke up the next day, there was an empty space at the dining table.
Old Mr. Zhang put down his chopsticks and couldn't help but ask, "Where's Xiaoya?"
"Young Master Qin said her family member's condition seems to have improved a bit, so he took her home for a few days to check on things."
"Oh."
Old Mr. Zhang turned his head to stare at the courtyard outside.
It was empty again.
He hadn't felt the loneliness and silence to be so unbearable before... He looked down at the array of food in front of him.
It all looked unappetizing now.
"Didn't the little one really like these shrimp dumplings? She should have finished them before saying goodbye," Old Mr. Zhang muttered softly.
Meanwhile, Qin Sui was holding Li Xiaoya's hand as they walked in the park.
"Leaving like that wasn't very polite," Li Xiaoya said quietly. "He'll be sad, won't he?"
Qin Sui's voice was very calm, so calm it seemed almost cruel: "People get used to what they have. It's only when they can't have something that they're willing to make efforts and changes for it."
"When it suddenly changes from lively to quiet, that loneliness becomes unbearable... Then, your hope for his help becomes a natural thing."
Qin Sui paused after speaking, and couldn't help but crouch down and ask, "Do you think I'm scary? Manipulating people's hearts like this."
Li Xiaoya sighed softly and looked at him, saying, "But it's for me... If you're scary, then aren't I even scarier?"
How could she, as the one benefiting, call others scary?
Qin Sui suddenly hugged her: "Xiaoya..."
"Hmm?"
But Qin Sui didn't say anything else.
"If you feel this isn't good for Grandpa Zhang, can we make it up to him in the future?" Li Xiaoya asked proactively.
"Mm-hmm."
Qin Sui thought, when will you be able to treat me better than Sheng Yuxiao?
He was looking forward to it...
But just as this thought crossed Qin Sui's mind, Li Xiaoya's phone rang.
The call was from Sheng Yuxiao.
"Hello."
"Everything's arranged in Jiang City. Are you free to go together tomorrow?"
"Yes!" Li Xiaoya's eyes lit up.
It felt like she was getting closer to her mother from the past.
After hanging up the phone, Qin Sui took Li Xiaoya back to the Zhang family home once more.
Old Mr. Zhang was surprised to see them return.
He felt it wasn't quite right, but still asked: "Has your family member's condition worsened again?"
Li Xiaoya shook her head: "No, I just wanted to have a meal with you before I go to Jiang City."
If she kept the old grandpa company for a while longer, he probably wouldn't feel so sad.
"What are you going there for?"
"To find my mother's belongings."
Old Mr. Zhang thought of the content from the variety show.
She really was a pitiful, but also lovely child who loved her mother very much...
Old Mr. Zhang suddenly said: "I'll go with you." After saying this, he felt it was a bit abrupt, so he quickly asked, "Is that alright?"
"I was thinking, maybe this old man might be able to help a little somewhere?" he added.
He should be able to help.
Old Mr. Zhang gave a look to his secretary on the side, silently asking him to contact the Chief Inspector of Jiang City first.
Meanwhile.
The parents of the third-grade class one students anxiously waited for several days, but didn't receive a call from Ke Muning.
This visit to Li Xiaoya's place had been extremely uneventful.
They finally asked their children: "When you went there, was Li Xiaoya alone in the house? Besides her father, were there no other family members?"
"No one else. But she had a grandfather there, I think it was her grandfather? He was very nice, he played games with us and even let us play with mud..."
"Play with mud?" The corners of the adults' mouths twitched, thinking what a low-class activity that was. So dirty.
"Li Xiaoya's house is also very big, it's a courtyard house, right next to some palace. I remember dad saying the houses there are the most expensive... Li Xiaoya is really rich."
"Next to what palace?" It's normal for that foreign man to be rich, but buying such a courtyard house isn't just about having money. He wouldn't even qualify to purchase it!
"Living in that area, they can't be ordinary people, right?" The adults stroked their chins, frowning as they thought carefully. "That area should be... it should be where the Zhang family lives. Because Old Mr. Zhang's son grew up there as a child, so he never moved to Zhongnanhai for recuperation..."
"It can't be such a coincidence, can it?"
The man opened a search engine, found a photo of Old Mr. Zhang attending an event, and showed it to the child: "Does her grandfather look like this?"
The child first shook their head.
The man thought to himself, that's true, it couldn't be such a coincidence. Old Mr. Zhang had never mentioned having a granddaughter, and even if he did, she wouldn't be attending an elite school.
But the child immediately nodded again: "She looks a bit older than in the photo... and not as fierce. He has a very good temper, and even feeds Li Xiaoya."
...It really was true! The man was stunned.
After a moment, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "No, seriously, what kind of bizarre creature is this Li Xiaoya in your class?"
Was her family pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle?
But who has a child assembled from bits and pieces, and they're all big shots?
