Tears slowly welled up in the little girl's eyes.
"I... I..."
The little girl began to sob.
A tear slid down her cheek.
"I..."
"Hic~"
The little girl let out a sobbing hiccup.
"Nini?!"
Qianqian immediately reached out and gently patted the child's back.
"Don't cry."
Qianqian gently wiped away the tears at the corners of the child's eyes.
"Mommy was wrong to act that way just now."
Looking at the child, who was sobbing in fits and starts, Qianqian's eyes filled with concern.
"Mommy's sorry."
"Mommy was just too worried about you."
"That big rhino is—"
"No."
"Not just to you."
"It's dangerous to Mommy, too."
"If you approach it recklessly, it might attack you."
"You could get hurt."
"I... wasn't... hurt."
The little girl shook her head without thinking.
Her sobs made her voice come out in broken fragments.
"Mm."
Qianqian had noticed that, too.
Aside from the scratches on her arm, just as that student had said, the child really didn't have any other injuries.
There was nothing unusual about her complexion, either.
When Qianqian had seen her earlier, the girl had smiled and called out to her, her face clearly rosy.
She had looked bright and cheerful, too.
Not like now, with her little face scrunched up from crying like a newborn kitten.
"Thank goodness."
Qianqian buried her face against the child's neck for a moment.
The little girl shifted uneasily.
"M-Mommy?"
Her mother's apology and unusual behavior had almost made the child forget to cry.
Qianqian lifted her head.
She drew back slightly from the child.
She gazed into the child's eyes.
The child's round, watery eyes reflected her clearly.
"Nini, you said you threw yourself onto the big rhino?"
"...Mm."
The little girl nodded timidly.
But then