"If I can't hug him..."
Ruan Xinyan wasn't ready to give up. "What about just touching him?"
"Can't I even touch him?"
"I'm sorry."
Xiao Xiao shook his head.
"Ruan Xinyan."
Little Bell smiled, her eyes narrowing. "I was right, wasn't I?"
"...Mm."
Ruan Xinyan looked at Little Bell, then at the Little White Fox, and finally nodded.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
From the conversation between the two little girls, Xiao Xiao could more or less guess what had gone on between them.
Still, he wanted to hear the children explain it themselves.
"Big Brother, it's like this..."
Little Bell animatedly launched into the story. Ruan Xinyan's "admission of defeat" had clearly made her very happy.
On the last day before the school holidays, Ruan Xinyan had brought her cat to school.
It was a beautiful white Persian cat.
Its heterochromatic eyes—one amber, one blue—had left all the students amazed.
The stream of compliments from everyone had pleased Ruan Xinyan very much.
Even though she tried to hold it in, a hint of pride still showed on her face.
But then an out-of-place conversation suddenly reached her ears.
Though the two girls were only whispering, she could hear them clearly over the surrounding noise.
"Little Bell, look! What a cute, beautiful little cat!"
"Mm."
"But I know a Big Brother who has a Little White Fox. It's much, much cuter and prettier than this cat."
"Really?"
"Rea—"
"How could that be?!"
Unable to listen any longer, Ruan Xinyan cut in unhappily. "My Jenny is the cutest and prettiest."
Jenny had always been the center of attention whenever she went out.
This was the first time anyone had said to her face that Jenny couldn't compare to a