“Lanlan, today is your first day at school. I know this school and its environment is completely different from your old school. Adjusting here may be difficult for you in the beginning. If you feel unadjusted or bullied by anyone, quickly tell mom,” An Qinyan said as the car was parked in front of the Jingyuan High School.
An Xiulan nodded her head obediently. ‘My mom is so kind and nice.’
“Don’t forget to bring your phone with you,” An Qinyan said again. Her daughter had a habit of forgetting her phone anywhere. Weren’t teenagers supposed to be fastened with their phones all the time?
“Mom, what if I don’t like the school?” An Xiulan asked in a soft voice. She had never been to school before. And the knowledge that she had obtained didn’t belong to her. How was she supposed to be adjusted at this new place called school?
“Then, mom will buy this school and make it likeable for you,” An Qinyan said in a serious tone.
An Xiulan glanced at her mother and sighed. ‘Never mind, I will just try to adjust in the temple of education or our family will be brought on the street.’
This school looked very big. Even bigger than her house. It must be very expensive to purchase such a building for nothing.
“Don’t worry, mom. Xiulan will certainly like the school,” An Xiulan said as she tried to get out of the car window.
“Wait,”An Qinyan suddenly said loudly as she saw her daughter leaving for school. She pulled two credit cards from her handbag and passed them to her daughter. “Use these cards if you want to buy anything.”
An Xiulan quietly took the cards and waved goodbye to her mother. How was she supposed to use these hard cards to buy things? Was it a token of money or something similar to that?
Never mind, she would just use the currency notes given to her by Butler You this morning for her expenses.
When An Xiulan was about to enter the school gate, her eyes suddenly fell on a small restaurant opposite the school gate, selling glutinous rice balls dipped in delicious syrup. Since she was a transfer student, she was asked to come early to school to take extra classes to complete her missed syllabus. This was the reason why the school road was empty at this time of the morning. Merely, one or two students could be seen walking on the road.
The glutton named An Xiulan wasn’t able to resist the temptation of rice balls. Her feet dragged her to the small restaurant which was run by a middle-aged woman.
The middle-aged woman gazed up to glance at a very adorable girl dressed in a brown check skirt, crisp white shirt and a black blazer. The great of the school embroidered on her blazer. Her big doe eyes were gazing at the rice all greedily. If she could she would swallow all the food presented on the stall.
“Little girl, do you want to buy rice balls?” The woman asked the girl when she saw her staring at the food.
An Xiulan looked at the woman, blinking her eyes and when the words registered in her slow head, she nodded her head.
‘Yes. Food. She is here for the food.’*
“Here,” The woman passed her the paper bag. “This will be fifty Yuan.”
An Xiulan passed her two credit cards, aka a token of money, to the woman.
“We don’t accept cards,” The woman said with a small smile. “But you can pay through WeChat.”
An Xiulan just stared at the lady, not being able to understand her meaning. What was wrong with the modern man? Why couldn’t they accept one medium of transaction?
“You don’t have WeChat?” The lady asked the girl who was staring blankly at her.
An Xiulan shook her head. Suddenly, an idea struck her otherwise slow head. “Do you accept the red paper?”
“Red paper?” It was the restaurant owner’s turn to be bewildered.
This child…where did she come from?
“Yes, red paper,” An Xiulan said as she pulled out two hundred Yuan notes from her school bag. She showed the red paper to the woman and asked again.
“Just take it for free, ” The restaurant owner said with a sigh.
An Xiulan smiled brightly and bowed to express her gratitude properly.
The woman went in to take orders from other people when she felt that this girl was out of her understanding.
As she was about to put her notes back in her school bag, she watched two unruly boys snatching money out of her hand.
“Hey, little girl. Didn’t your dad teach you not to bring so much money to school?” A boy said with a laugh. He had dirty blond hair and was wearing a cheap earring on his one ear.
“No, my dad is a scumbag,” An Xiulan said with a straight face. “My mom says we must not listen to scumbags.”
“Boss Lao, this girl is making fun of you, “The other boy chimed in. He was a fat kid with dishevelled hair and was wearing a dirty uniform.
“Are you making fun of boss Lao?”The blond boy asked her in a threatening tone.
An Xiulan shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
The blond boy was about to laugh but her next question rendered him speechless.
“But who is Boss Lao?” An Xiulan asked the question in such a serious manner that the local gangsters were left speechless. They couldn’t tell if she was pretending to be dumb or making fun of them. In both conditions, they must not leave her.
“Do you even know who Boss Lao’s daddy is?” Blond’s sidekick asked with a sneer.
An Xiulan gasped, putting her hands on her mouth. “You…you are…”