"Name."
"Huai Shi."
The crisp voice answered, yet the recorder behind the desk remained utterly unmoved.
As though he had seen this routine countless times before, Vice Principal Isaac could not even be bothered to adjust his glasses. Without looking up, he asked again, "Name?"
"Next should be age."
The little girl across from him offered a seemingly helpless reminder.
She sat in a chair far too broad and enormous for her. Long black hair flowed down from her fair shoulders like water, winding across her dress and nearly reaching the floor.
In the afternoon sunlight, each strand of hair reflected a dazzling golden glow that left one dizzy and entranced.
"Name?" Isaac asked again.
"I haven't decided yet. Let me think."
Resting her chin on her hand, she pondered for a moment before suddenly snapping her fingers. "Huai Shang Xunmei... Rose Rose Yuling. What do you think?"
The absurdly long name, delivered in one breath for a full five minutes without stopping, left Isaac's pen hovering above the paper, trembling slightly. Only slightly.
After a long while, it fell again.
He wrote two characters.
Huai Yuan
"Age?" he asked again.
His expression remained calm and unruffled, without a trace of impatience, as icy and aloof as ever.
"Eighteen?"
The girl continued pondering. "All right, let me count. I should be twelve this month, right? I'll probably be eighteen in a few months anyway... Putting down eighteen first isn't wrong. Let's just go with eighteen, then I won't have to change it later."
Isaac's expression did not change as he wrote: Unknown
Then, without pausing or asking another question, he wrote female in the gender column. The delicate and adorable little girl immediately raised her brows, seemingly annoyed. "You dare presume my gender?"
"Ms. Huai... Yuan."
Isaac spoke, striving to