Marrying My Bestie's Ferocious Brother - He Calls Me His Baby!-Chapter 264 - 263: No Kids Left in Kindergarten? They’re All Lining Up to See the Sheep!

Chapter 264: Chapter 263: No Kids Left in Kindergarten? They’re All Lining Up to See the Sheep!

Military District Kindergarten.

The senior class was half-empty.

The remaining half were lying on their desks, their cries filling the room.

"I don’t want to go to school! I want to watch Happy Sheep!"

"Boohoo... Brother Xiao Hu has already seen it, I haven’t!"

"I want to find Aunt Lin! The books here are boring!"

The young female teacher on the platform was so anxious that she was sweating profusely, and the pointer in her hand was making loud "bang bang" sounds on the blackboard.

No one paid her any mind.

There was even a bold boy who threw his Chinese textbook on the floor and stomped on it twice.

"This stupid book doesn’t have any color! I won’t read it!"

In the office.

"Bang!"

An enamel teacup was slammed heavily on the desk, tea splashing everywhere.

Principal Zheng Xiulan had a dark face, her chest heaving intensely.

She was in her fifties, her hair meticulously combed, wearing thick glasses perched on her nose, known for her strictness.

"This is outrageous!"

Zheng Xiulan pointed at the young teacher who had barged in, spittle flying.

"What are you doing here? You can’t even manage a few kids?"

The young teacher, Xiao Liu, shrank her neck, almost in tears.

"Principal, it’s really not my fault... Early this morning, Xiao Hu was waving some kind of cloth book around the courtyard, and the spirits of these kids were captivated by it."

"Cloth book?"

Zheng Xiulan’s brows knitted into a knot.

"What kind of cloth book could be more interesting than textbooks? That’s just an excuse! It’s playing hooky!"

She stood up abruptly, the chair scraping the floor with a piercing "squeak."

"These little brats are too spoiled on normal days!"

Xiao Liu explained in a low voice, "I heard... I heard it was painted by Mr. Gu’s wife, and it’s really well done, in color, and tear-proof..."

"From Gu Yanshen’s house?"

Zheng Xiulan snorted coldly.

"A capitalist’s daughter indulging in all this frivolous hedonism!"

She picked up the attendance sheet from the desk, rolled it into a stick, and smacked it hard against her palm.

"Teaching kids not to want to go to school and gathering for troublemaking in the courtyard, this is defying us educators!"

"This is disrupting the teaching order!"

The more Zheng Xiulan spoke, the angrier she became.

In her thirty years in the courtyard, she had never seen such a situation.

Dozens of children collectively boycotting class just to see some "sheep"?

Utterly ridiculous!

"Let’s go!"

Zheng Xiulan walked out briskly, her demeanor tightly buttoned.

"Take me to see!"

"I just have to see what kind of goblin could be captivating all these children!"

Xiao Liu dared not delay and quickly followed behind.

The two exited the kindergarten gates, heading directly to that famous "gathering place" — the open space outside the Peking University Staff Family Courtyard.

Along the way, Zheng Xiulan kept a stern face, her pace brisk.

She had already come up with a hundred criticisms in her mind.

When she saw the truant children later, she would reprimand them sternly!

She also had to find the parent leading this "poisonous plant" movement and give them a good lesson on political thought education!

A hundred meters from the clearing.

Zheng Xiulan stopped dead in her tracks.

It was too quiet.

According to Xiao Liu, wouldn’t dozens of children gathered together be a ruckus?

Fighting, screaming, running around, that was expected.

But now.

The clearing ahead was silent.

Not even the sound of birds chirping.

"Where are they?"

Zheng Xiulan cast a glare back at Xiao Liu.

"Didn’t you say they all ran here? Where did they all go?"

Xiao Liu was also dumbfounded.

She pointed to the big locust tree ahead.

"Principal... they’re over there."

Zheng Xiulan squinted, adjusting her glasses.

It was an incredibly eerie scene.

Under the big locust tree, was a dense crowd of people.

All of them were half-grown children.

The eldest were seven or eight years old, the youngest three or four, even a few snot-nosed toddlers.

There were at least forty or fifty of them.

On usual days, if these kids gathered together, they could raise the roof.

But now.

They seemed to be under an immobilization spell.

Each one squatted on the ground, forming a huge concentric circle.

Layer after layer, both inside and out.

All of their heads were eagerly craned towards the center.

Like a flock of little quails waiting to be fed.

No one spoke.

No one quarreled.

No one even fidgeted.

Only the occasional sound of sniffles could be heard.

Zheng Xiulan had lived for half her life and had never seen this bunch of demon lords behave so obediently.

Even during the flag-raising at the kindergarten, these brats were never this solemn!

"Pretending to be ghosts!"

Zheng Xiulan muttered under her breath.

She quietly paced forward, stealthily approaching.

She wanted to catch them in the act.

To see if they were gambling, or reading some unhealthy comic books!

Getting closer and closer.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Zheng Xiulan stood on the outer edge of the crowd.

The kids inside were so engrossed, none of them noticed the dark-faced figure behind them.

"Have you finished looking at this page?"

From the center, a youthful yet commanding voice sounded.

It was Xiao Hu.

"L... looked at it!"

The circle of children answered in unison, their voices lowered for fear of disturbing something.

"Then I’m flipping it!"

Like a general, Xiao Hu solemnly announced.

"Flip it, flip it! Brother Xiao Hu, please turn the page!"

A child on the outer ring stomped anxiously, stretching their neck like a giraffe.

Zheng Xiulan stood on tiptoe.

Through the gaps between people.

She finally saw what was surrounded in the center.

It wasn’t paper.

It was a thick, soft book, seemingly made of fabric.

Xiao Hu extended his dirty little hand, carefully pinching the corner of the book.

Gently flipping it.

A dazzling bright red suddenly pierced into Zheng Xiulan’s vision.

It was a painting.

In the painting, a wolf wearing a crown held a frying pan, chasing after a plump, fluffy sheep.

That color.

Too vivid.

Red like fire, gray like iron, green like jade.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, illuminating the fabric.

The scene seemed alive, exuding a layer of warm luster.

Zheng Xiulan was stunned.

She had taught books her whole life, the most advanced she’d seen were the colorful comics in Xinhua Bookstore.

But compared to this.

They were nothing but dull, faded wastepaper.

The lines, as fluid as a dance.

The colors, so full they seemed to flow out.

Most importantly.

The fabric surface was spotless, without a wrinkle.

She knew the destructive power of children.

A book in their hands could become a tattered mess within half a day.

Yet this book, touched by so many dirty hands, fought over by so many kids.

Was still brand new!

"Red Wolf is so fierce!"

A little girl with pigtails shrank her neck, pointing at the wolf in the painting.

"It’s because her husband didn’t catch the sheep!"

The chubby kid next to her immediately explained.

"Next page! Does Happy Sheep think of a plan on the next page?"

The children excitedly discussed, their eyes shining with a radiance that they never had in class.

Such focus.

Such yearning.

Such genuine happiness.

Like a boulder, it hit hard on Zheng Xiulan’s chest.

The attendance sheet in her hand fell to the floor, "plonk".

The sound wasn’t loud.

But amidst the silent crowd, it was oddly harsh.

All the kids, like startled rabbits, turned their heads together.

To see that familiar, stern face.

"Principal... Principal!"

Someone cried out.

"Woosh."

The children, who had been huddled together, erupted in chaos, scrambling and crawling away.

A large gap suddenly opened.

Leaving only Chen Xiaohu sitting in the center.

Still clutching the precious book, dazed and seated on the ground.

Unable to run, unsure of staying.

Zheng Xiulan didn’t look at the fleeing children.

She took step by step towards Chen Xiaohu.

The shadow loomed over him.

Chen Xiaohu trembled with fear, instinctively tucking the book into his chest, guarding it fiercely.

"P... please don’t confiscate my book..."

He cried out, his voice choked with tears.

Zheng Xiulan halted.

She leaned down.

The eyes that usually were critical and stern, now fixed intently on the corner of fabric peeking out from Chen Xiaohu’s embrace.

She extended her hand.

Chen Xiaohu closed his eyes, expecting a hit.

But the slap did not fall.

The wrinkled hand gently pinched the spine of the book.

"Let me see."

Zheng Xiulan’s voice was somewhat hoarse.

"Give it here."