In the third-floor faculty cafeteria, Su Yue and her colleague got their food and found an empty table to sit at.
"Su Yue, some of the new first-graders I have this year are just super cute." Wang Jiao, a language teacher sitting at the next table, chatted about her morning class while eating lunch.
"Is that so? Then I’ll have to take a good look this afternoon during their music class and see if they’re really as cute as you say," Su Yue said with a smile.
After finishing lunch with her colleague, Su Yue went to the restroom. On her way out, as she walked toward the faculty office, she pulled her phone from her pocket and sent a message to Lin Li.
"I just finished lunch. Have you eaten?"
The message went unanswered. Lin Li probably hadn’t noticed someone had texted him.
Su Yue put her phone away. Just as she was about to continue toward the faculty office, she suddenly spotted a little girl squatting in front of the goldfish pond in the distance.
Now an elementary school student, Zhou Tongtong was wandering around the campus alone after lunch.
It was her first day of elementary school, and she was full of curiosity about everything on campus.
Looking this way and that, she unknowingly found her way to the goldfish pond near the faculty office.
"Wow! So many little goldfish." Zhou Tongtong’s small, round face was filled with delight as she watched the goldfish swimming about in the pond.
Suddenly, a faint, almost invisible, pale-gold Spiritual Light flashed in her wide, round eyes.
Then, the little goldfish, which had been swimming around aimlessly and without any pattern, began to gather in front of Zhou Tongtong.
"You must be hungry, right?" Zhou Tongtong crouched down, her smile growing even brighter as she looked at the little goldfish gathered before her.
Then, she reached into her pocket, took out a small pack of cookies, tore it open, pulled one out, crumbled it, and tossed the pieces into the pond.
The moment the cookie crumbs hit the water, the little goldfish scrambled over each other to snatch them up. In an instant, ripples spread across the calm surface of the pond.
"Don’t fight, don’t fight! I still have plenty of cookies!" Zhou Tongtong said to the scrambling goldfish as she pulled out another cookie, crumbled it, and tossed it into the pond.
Just as she was happily feeding the little goldfish in the pond, a pleasant, melodious voice suddenly came from behind her.
"What are you doing?"
Zhou Tongtong, who had just pulled out another cookie and was about to crumble it and toss it into the pond, instinctively turned her head at the sound of the voice.
Zhou Tongtong saw a tall, fair-skinned beauty with a well-defined figure—a young woman even prettier than her own mother.
Thinking about what she had been doing, she looked a little flustered and stammered a greeting to the young woman, "H-hello... Teacher."
Su Yue looked at the very cute little girl with the ponytail, her gaze falling on the cookies in her hand. She asked, "What’s your name? What grade and class are you in?"
Zhou Tongtong stood up, hesitated for a moment, and then answered truthfully, "My name is Zhou Tongtong. I’m in Grade 1, Class 1."
"Zhou Tongtong, the school has rules against bringing snacks to eat. You should know that, right?" Su Yue said.
"Teacher, I didn’t eat the cookies," Zhou Tongtong explained.
"Even if you didn’t eat them, you can’t bring them to school. Besides, the school has special food for the goldfish in the pond. It’s also wrong to feed them cookies like this..." Su Yue said.
"I’m sorry, Teacher. I won’t do it again," Zhou Tongtong quickly apologized, lowering her head.
Seeing Zhou Tongtong’s sincere apology, Su Yue smiled and said, "Since this is your first offense, I’ll let it slide this time. I won’t tell your homeroom teacher. Now, hand me the cookies..."
When Zhou Tongtong heard that Su Yue wouldn’t tell her homeroom teacher about her bringing snacks to school and feeding the goldfish, she immediately thought, ’This beautiful teacher is such a good person!’
Su Yue took the cookies from Zhou Tongtong. Seeing the little girl still standing there, looking up at her, she reminded her with a smile, "Alright, the lunch break is almost over. You should hurry back to your classroom!"
"Goodbye, Teacher." Zhou Tongtong nodded and then turned to leave.
’That kid really is cute!’ Su Yue thought as she watched Zhou Tongtong walk away, then ate the last two cookies the little girl had left.
’Huh, these cookies are actually pretty good. So it’s this brand! I’ll have to buy some online later to keep at home for when I get hungry.’
Su Yue tossed the plastic cookie wrapper into a nearby trash can and continued on her way to the faculty office.
WHOOSH...
A gentle breeze blew, sending ripples across the surface of the pond.
After eating the cookie crumbs Zhou Tongtong had fed them, the little goldfish waited expectantly for the little girl to give them more.
But they waited for a long time, and no more cookie crumbs fell into the water. So, they all dispersed.
...