It was a clear, fine night, and usually around this time Annie liked playing by the seaside with her little bear, Tibbers! Although Tibbers always expressed strong protests, not once could he stop Annie from dipping both the little bear and herself into that crisp, cool seawater!
Today was an exception, however, and right now Annie was sitting in Coulson's equally red little sports car wearing a pretty little red dress, because Annie's classmate Angelina Roberts was having her birthday tonight, and she had invited Annie and other classmates to attend her birthday party.
"What's wrong, Annie? Don't you like attending classmates' birthday parties? You seem a bit unhappy, or so I've noticed." Driving along, Coulson kept glancing sideways at Annie, finding that she looked somewhat listless. Could it be that she didn't like parties?
"Not at all! It's just that Angelina begged me to play another tune for her as a birthday gift, and I'm debating whether or not to do it!" Annie propped her chin in her hand, looking gloomily out the window.
"I remember the teacher saying your harp playing is wonderful, and your grade is going to be an A-plus! Since that's the case, playing a tune for a classmate should be a really good idea, right?"
When he was a kid, Coulson hadn't been too keen on going to classmates' parties either, because that meant bringing gifts! He liked receiving gifts, but spending his own allowance to buy presents for classmates wasn't all that fantastic. Now Annie only needed to go play a single tune, which ought to be a breeze. Why wouldn't she want to do it?
"Because what I play is no ordinary tune; it's a magic tune! If, um, you listen to it too much, it's not very good for people!" Carefully, Annie turned her face back toward the window so Uncle Coulson wouldn't spot her awkward expression.
"Oh? A magic tune? Sounds pretty nice. Why would this magic tune be bad for people?" As for musical tunes, Coulson had heard plenty, but a magic tune was something he genuinely had never heard of! Therefore, he was extremely curious about it.
"Because, because... if you listen to magic tunes too much, you get addicted! It has a tiny, tiny bad effect on the soul, just a tiny bit! But if you only listen once or twice occasionally, then there's no problem at all." After thinking it over, Annie honestly told the truth.
(So listen here, Lady Annie! I've told you many times before! Telling you to practice properly and not spend all day thinking of these crooked ways! Adding enchanting demonic sound into your harp music—not only does listening to it too much make people addicted, it also easily causes irreversible damage to the soul! That's why your Valoran Performance Convention explicitly forbids doing this! Can't you learn from that Sona and play the instrument properly and with your heart? The way she plays is truly wonderful, even a bear like me loves listening to her performance!)
Shut up! Tibbers, I've decided right now that I'm not taking you to the party tonight!! Annie yanked her schoolbag over, shoved little bear Tibbers—whom she'd been cradling in her arms—all at once inside, and tossed the bag back behind the seat. That'll teach you to talk trash about me! That'll teach you to like Sona! See if I don't lock you in the little schoolbag!
"There's actually such a thing?" Coulson found the notion that magic tunes could be addictive rather novel. He could understand drug addiction, but getting addicted to listening to a tune? Inconceivable! As expected, things in the magical realm were a bit difficult for him to grasp.
"But if I remember correctly, you've only played it once before, haven't you? In that case, playing it once more shouldn't matter, right?"
"Right! Exactly! Uncle Coulson, you're totally right, playing it one more time should be fine!" Hearing Coulson's words, Annie's eyes lit up, solidifying the idea of playing one more tune tonight. Anyway, she'd only played it twice in total altogether. Addicted? Nonexistent! At worst, she just wouldn't play it ever again no matter what after this.
"Oh right, Uncle Coulson, let me tell you something. I think your sunglasses are totally drop-dead cool—unless it's nighttime right now!"
"Ha... well, sorry!" Awkwardly, Coulson took the sunglasses off the bridge of his nose. With it being dark now, he had no idea when he'd put the sunglasses on; perhaps it was just a habitual secret agent gesture?
"Well, wearing sunglasses when driving at night is indeed pretty silly!" Coulson shrugged and admitted his mistake. "But Annie, you actually use words like 'drop-dead cool'? Where'd you learn that?"
"The internet, duh! What about it?" Annie indicated that ever since she learned how to surf the web recently, the things she'd picked up were countless!
"You even know how to surf the internet?! Who taught you?" Coulson was slightly startled. Could it be a teacher?!
Things on the internet were a mixed bag, and little Annie was just eight years old right now—an age most susceptible to bad information. If she were an ordinary human, educating her would be one thing, but Annie was a dangerous extraterrestrial weapon comparable to a strategic thermonuclear warhead! If, by some real misfortune, she managed to corrupt herself on the internet, there would be hell to pay!
Precisely because of this, Coulson and Melinda had never previously taught Annie how to use a computer, nor had they ever surfed the web in front of her, dreading that Annie might be influenced by bad elements online. Yet now Annie had taught herself to surf the internet? Coulson felt this piece of intelligence was extremely important and had to be taken seriously! Where had she learned it? Who taught her? And what was her purpose?
"Jack the fat kid from class taught me. I bribed him with a few roasted frogs!" Annie smiled triumphantly, though the next second she puffed up her cheeks again. "Speaking of that dead fatty makes me mad! He ate the most when we ate the frogs, but when the teacher questioned us, he was also the first one to sell me out! He's just so bad!"
So that was it! Coulson hadn't expected a chubby little kid to ruin his plan of guiding Annie into becoming a good girl! From now on, he and Melinda would definitely have to thoroughly monitor Annie's internet usage and not let her learn any more of those bad things online!
"Oh right! Speaking of frogs, I forgot to ask the other day. Annie? How on earth did you ever think of eating frogs?" Regarding this, Coulson expressed extreme puzzlement! Could frogs even be eaten? He certainly had never eaten one!
"Well... um... let me think." Annie bit her finger, recalling the events of that day. "Anyway, at the time I just thought those little frogs looked different from the ones in our Voodoo Lands! The frogs over here are big and ugly! The ones here are small and cute, and looking at them made me want to eat them... Yep! That's how it was!"
"You want to eat small animals just because they're cute? Why is that?" Coulson was dumbfounded. What kind of logic was that? Her outlook on life was completely warped, wasn't it? This remark had nearly caused him to rear-end a cargo truck ahead of them!
"Uncle Coulson, you're so weird! Cute animals are just supposed to be eaten, aren't they?" Annie looked at Coulson with a curious expression. Animals were simply meant for eating!
When she was in the Voodoo Lands, she hadn't eaten a few of those small animals! Things like crocodiles, little dinosaurs, big tigers, or lions! Anyway, whenever Annie went out to play and got hungry, whatever struck her fancy got roasted and eaten! Still, the kind of frog from the school lab was truly the first she'd ever eaten. Too bad she didn't remember to bring seasonings at the time... What a shame, Teacher Maine would definitely never give her a second chance.
I'm weird? Aren't you aliens the ones whose worldview is abnormal? Lips twitching, Coulson turned his head away.
He didn't want to argue any further with the little girl. Perhaps extraterrestrials really were like this? In that case, we earthlings shouldn't go around pointlessly trying to correct them! He'd need to write this matter into his report later: Valoran customs differed from Earth's, and this point warranted serious attention!
Coulson felt that he'd better stop discussing these issues with Annie! The two worlds were different; perhaps to the people of Valoran, anything with a head and tail could be eaten as long as it was an animal? This couldn't help but send a chill through him!
Whatever! Forget about all that; for now, he had better hurry up and drive to drop Annie off at the party. Then he could steal a moment to grab a cup of coffee, and wait until the party ended to rush back and pick her up! A pleasant day could be slogged through just like that.
Time flew by! It was already past 9:00 PM, and the party was over. Mr. Roberts and his daughter personally escorted Annie out to the doorway, and little Angelina stepped forward to gently hug Annie. Entrepreneur Roberts, with a trace of glistening tears in his eyes, looked at Annie gratefully from the side.
"Thank you, Annie! You really are a little angel! Thank you so, so much today."
Roberts and his wife had shared a deep affection, but as fate would have it, ever since his wife passed away two years ago, he had never been able to emerge from the shadow, remaining perpetually immersed in the grief of his departed wife... His daily routine was chaotic, and he drank heavily! He even rarely attended to company matters.
A short while ago, after Angelina came home from school, she had excitedly told him about her new classmate Annie. According to her, Annie's harp playing allowed her to see Mom—Mom was up above the moon, she was doing extremely well, and she had even hugged her.
Regarding this, Roberts figured it was just the overactive longing of a little girl; he had merely noted it in his heart and hadn't taken it too seriously.
This time, however, taking advantage of the opportunity of his daughter's birthday party, and harboring a shred of expectation along with some complicated emotions, he had ordered an exquisite harp from a musical instrument company. Because he knew that the girl named Annie would attend his daughter's birthday party, perhaps he ought to take the opportunity to listen to her play?
Ultimately, facts proved that his most cherished daughter, Angelina, had not lied to him!
Tonight, not only did he hear the most beautiful and moving music in the world, but as he drifted and soared through the starry sky upon the currents of the melody, he indeed saw her up there upon the moon—his wife! The two of them gazed longingly at each other, embraced tightly, and poured out their hearts! It was a communion of souls! In that single instant, he forgot everything and distanced himself from sorrow...
So paradise truly existed!
Good heavens! Roberts swore that starting today, he would never degenerate again! He was going to pull himself together, not just for her sake, but for the sake of their daughter as well.
"Thank you, Annie, and God bless you!" Embracing his daughter, Roberts said softly, watching as Annie climbed into Coulson's car.
"How was the party tonight?" After starting the car, Coulson turned his head and asked Annie softly in the passenger seat beside him.
"It was great!" Annie blinked, looked at Coulson as he drove, and appeared somewhat absent-minded, not really wanting to answer Uncle Coulson's question. She was currently pondering a problem.
"That's good!" Coulson looked at Annie, the corners of his mouth curling into an eerie arc. "So, how about Uncle Coulson takes you somewhere fun in a bit?"
"Huh? Somewhere fun? Okay!" Suddenly smiling, Annie turned around, grabbed her schoolbag, and hauled her little bear Tibbers out into her arms. She seemed to have discovered something quite fun, and her big, azure-blue eyes were full of mischievous mirth.
(Stupid earthlings! Tibbers gave a disdainful pout at Coulson driving the car.)
(Revision One)
Before you continue