Free Web NovelChapter 177: Chapter 175: The Three Little Ones Meet a Little Sister
Wen Lan had already rushed to the second floor at the speed of light.
Bai Su knocked again, only to find the door was unlocked.
She tentatively pushed the door open. "Little Treasure?"
There didn’t seem to be anyone inside. She frowned slightly, opened her smart device, found Wen Xiaobao’s account, followed it, and sent a private message: "Are you at school or somewhere else?"
A reply quickly came back: [I’m outside. Dad took me out.]
Seeing this, Bai Su finally breathed a sigh of relief.
A child that young could easily be abducted by human traffickers if a parent wasn’t watching.
She placed the congee on the front counter and sent Wen Xiaobao a message: [Auntie brought you some seafood congee. When you get back, have your dad heat it up before you eat it, okay?]
Wen Xiaobao: [No need.]
But Bai Su pretended not to see it, simply leaving the congee on the counter and turning to leave the general store.
After she left, Wen Lan came down from upstairs, his gloomy gaze falling on the bowl of congee on the front counter.
He snorted coldly and strode over, about to throw the congee away.
The moment he picked up the congee, a fresh, sweet aroma drifted into his nostrils.
Wen Lan’s expression froze for a moment. He stared intently at the congee in his hands, his nose twitching involuntarily as it followed the scent.
After two minutes of silence, Wen Lan relented, setting the congee down. ’I just want to see where this woman is better than me, that’s all. It’s not like I’m eager to eat this stuff.’
Wen Xiaobao was always going on about how delicious that woman’s cooking was; his ears were about to fall off.
’Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Time to reclaim my paternal dignity in front of Wen Xiaobao!’
He popped the spoon out of the lid, scooped up a mouthful, and put it in his mouth.
A plump, springy shrimp was mixed into the thick, smooth congee.
The congee barely required chewing, but Wen Lan savored that mouthful for a long time.
He suspected he wasn’t fully awake and was hallucinating.
’Otherwise, how could he get a divine feeling from a bowl of congee?’
’How ridiculous.’
Wen Lan stared at the congee in the bowl for a long while before deciding to go upstairs and take a shower to clear his head.
He turned and went upstairs, his steps still a bit unsteady.
After his shower, he inexplicably changed into a more presentable shirt, dried his hair, and came downstairs looking clean and refreshed.
But he saw Wen Dabao crouching on the front counter, her tail dangling from the ceiling fan, finishing the last mouthful of congee from the container.
Wen Lan: "..."
Wen Dabao wiped her mouth with her sleeve, looked up, and saw her formally dressed old man at the top of the stairs. A question mark seemed to pop over her head. "Dad, are you going out on a date?"
Wen Lan gritted his teeth. "No."
Wen Dabao found this even weirder. "Then why are you dressed so pretentiously? I thought you were going out on a blind date."
Wen Lan stared intently at the bowl in her hands, a vein popping on his forehead.
Wen Dabao: "...?"
Without hesitation, Wen Lan turned and stormed back upstairs. He irritably ripped off his shirt and changed back into a black tank top.
*
International Elementary and Kindergarten.
Wen Xiaobao was shoved to the ground. A few children looked down on her as if she were some kind of freak. "What makes you think you can go to the same kindergarten as us?"
"Get out!"
"Liar! You’re not allowed to eat in the same cafeteria as us!"
"Your family just runs a crummy little general store! How could you have possibly eaten food made by Duke Bai Su herself? You don’t even think before you lie!"
"You don’t even have a mom! My mom said that Beastmen who take their father’s surname are lower-class. Lower-class people aren’t worthy of eating Duke Bai Su’s food, so you must be lying! We don’t play with liars!"
"You’re not allowed to eat in the same cafeteria as us."
Wen Xiaobao’s food was snatched away, leaving her clutching only a small can.
They wouldn’t let her into the cafeteria to eat with them.
This wasn’t the first time.
Feeling wronged, Wen Xiaobao left the cafeteria, hugging the small can that was all she had left.
She found a nearby pavilion to sit in, tore open the children’s food can, and clumsily took out a spoon to dig in.
Thinking about how they had ostracized her these past few days, Wen Xiaobao couldn’t help but pout. She took a bite of the awful-tasting canned food.
She didn’t like this flavor. None of the kids in the entire kindergarten liked this flavor.
But she wasn’t fast enough to grab any of the other flavors.
If she told a teacher that someone had stolen her food, the teacher would just tell her to hurry up, take her can, find a place to sit, eat, and then go back for a nap. They’d tell her not to cause trouble.
She wasn’t causing trouble.
She knew it was because the teachers saw that her father only ran a general store, while the other children’s parents were either nobles or from powerful, wealthy families.
So she didn’t bother telling the teachers anymore.
Wen Xiaobao took another bite of the canned food as aggrieved tears streamed down her face.
’I really want to eat the pretty auntie’s cooking.’
Suddenly, a fragrant aroma tickled her nose.
The little rabbit looked up abruptly, her face tear-stained, and twitched her nose.
’So fragrant... Am I imagining it?’
’It feels like I can smell the pretty auntie’s food.’
Wen Xiaobao blinked blankly at the sky, then got up and followed the scent.
She went around a dense thicket of bushes.
Wen Xiaobao saw three people not far away—or to be precise, three older boys from the elementary school division.
They were sitting cross-legged on the grass, sharing food from their lunch boxes.
The smell must be coming from their lunch boxes.
’It smells so good...’
’I really want to eat some.’
The little rabbit gulped.
"Who’s there?!" The handsome older boy with a dog’s tail suddenly barked out, his unfriendly gaze sweeping over and landing precisely on Wen Xiaobao.
Wen Xiaobao froze in fear, half her body still stuck in the bushes, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.
"Huh?" Bai Xiaolang paused. "Look over there."
Hearing this, Bai Xiaoshe and Bai Xiao Zhu also turned to look.
The three boys’ gazes fell on the little rabbit head poking out of the bushes, their eyes filled with curiosity.
’How does this little kid look so much like their mom?!’
Her nose and eyes were all red, as if she’d been bullied.
Startled, Wen Xiaobao quickly tried to shrink back.
But Bai Xiao Zhu’s spider silk was faster. It wrapped around the little rabbit’s body and pulled her out, sending her tumbling onto the soft grass right in front of them.
Wen Xiaobao was a little scared. "I... I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to spy on you!"
The three of them curiously gathered around the little rabbit.
"Look, don’t her eyes look like Mom’s?"
"Maybe all Drooping Ear Rabbits look like that?"
"No, no, she looks exactly like that Leia! Could it be her in disguise?"
Bai Xiaolang glanced at Bai Xiao Zhu and asked speechlessly, "Are you saying that this person, who looks like a little glutinous rice ball and has obviously just been crying, is the world’s number one assassin, Leia?"
Hearing this, Bai Xiao Zhu looked at Wen Xiaobao and became a little uncertain himself. "Well, her eyes and her aura don’t really match, but her appearance is an exact copy!"
Bai Xiaoshe narrowed his eyes, a glint of wisdom flashing within them. "You guys, what if Mom absent-mindedly gave birth to a pair of little rabbit twins at some point, but she doesn’t know it herself?"
