Truth Can't Be Spoken Casually! Because No One Will Believe You!

Coulson had been swamped lately, fully focused on assembling the Avengers and smoothing out communication and teamwork among the members. Though all members had been recruited, they hadn't even met each other yet.

These past two days, Coulson had been planning to arrange that, but organizing a gathering of Avengers under Hydra's nose was nearly impossible. If Hydra found out he was secretly bringing this group together, they'd probably lose their minds on the spot!

Look at this! There's the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and that little alien girl sorceress—what exactly does Coulson mean by gathering these violent types in private? Who put you up to it? That charcoal-head? What's the goal?

Oh! And Black Widow and Hawkeye? No, no! Those two don't count, they're just extras—Hydra doesn't even consider them a threat! Just a high-level female spy and a brain-damaged idiot who only shoots arrows.

Think about it, with technology this advanced, why would Hawkeye choose archery? Range, power—any gun is a hundred times better than your bow, right? You say the bow is silent? Fine! SHIELD has hundreds of suppressed weapons for you to pick from!

No matter how skilled you are with a bow, how far can your arm strength shoot? How many times can you draw? You've wasted your good eyesight on nothing but posing with a bow! If you used a sniper rifle, SHIELD would at least have one more ghost sniper, wouldn't they? With SHIELD's vast resources, is it really that hard to customize a special firearm for you?

Well, none of that matters! The most important thing is: at his busiest moment, Coulson saw a call on his phone from the last person he wanted to talk to—Annie's teacher, Ms. Mayne, that stuffy old stick who loves calling parents in for talks!

"Melinda, seriously, God is my witness! I don't like Ms. Mayne one bit." Coulson sighed as he stood in front of the school gate.

It hadn't even been a month, and Coulson and Melinda, two senior SHIELD agents, were once again walking through the gates of Julia Academy as Annie's guardians, their moods complicated.

No need to guess—Annie must have caused some trouble again! Sure enough, Ms. Mayne had called them both, insisting they come to the school as soon as possible!

"You're right, I don't like it either!!" Because every time Melinda came to school, she had to put on that uncomfortable outfit.

No matter how much they disliked it, they had to endure it. As long as Annie was in school and they were her legal guardians, they had to obediently show up and face the teacher's scolding after getting that call.

Coulson and Melinda stepped into the familiar office once more and sat in the same seats as last time. You could say this was their second visit, right? The awkward atmosphere of facing the teacher in the office made them deeply uncomfortable—compared to this, they'd rather face that roaring charcoal-head in the director's office.

"Ms. Mayne, did Annie cause trouble again? Like grilling frogs? Or cats and dogs?" Unable to bear the stifling silence, Melinda broke the ice.

"Trouble?" Mayne Lynsky thought for a moment. Annie hadn't caused any trouble lately. That wasn't why she'd called these two—who claimed to be Annie's guardians but acted so sneaky they didn't seem like good people.

Last time, Ms. Mayne had already figured out these two weren't good people. The school security guard had almost been called because they kept glancing around warily and even spotted the hidden cameras! People who acted like that were either spies or thieves—in Ms. Mayne's eyes, they weren't good!

"No! Annie hasn't caused any trouble. On the contrary, she's doing well in all her subjects!"

Ms. Mayne recalled the fire dragon displayed in the most prominent spot in the student works showcase.

That was Annie's clay creation. The entire clay dragon was incredibly lifelike, with even the scales clearly visible. When Annie's art teacher saw it, she was utterly stunned, praising Annie as a future great artist!

In her excitement, the teacher placed Annie's work in the showcase, in the most eye-catching glass cabinet, without even questioning Annie about stealing other students' clay. Because to make that dragon, Annie had "borrowed" everyone's clay!

"If she hasn't caused trouble, then why did you call us here!?" Coulson's tone turned sharp. If there was no trouble, why drag them to school? Was this fun? He was incredibly busy! Coming here had thrown off his entire day's schedule!

"It's like this: I want to know what kind of environment Annie grew up in, and what exactly you've been teaching her as her guardians. Because I've discovered that Annie has learned to lie! I believe you may bear an undeniable responsibility!" Ms. Mayne said firmly.

She believed Annie was definitely the best student in her grade! But now, this top student had learned to lie! The culprits behind this had to be these two temporary guardians! Maybe they hadn't fulfilled their duties, or their bad habits had misled Annie, turning a good student bad—this was unforgivable!

"Take a look at her essay. See what she wrote!" Ms. Mayne shook her head and angrily handed over a notebook.

"This..." Coulson and Melinda exchanged a glance, then took the notebook. Annie, lying? That couldn't be!

Because in their memory, Annie never lied. Even when her words were hard to understand, it always turned out she was telling the truth! Confused, they opened the notebook together.

Annie had filled the pages with wobbly letters. To them, her English was still shaky, but that was understandable—she hadn't been learning it long. Just writing it out was impressive!

It turned out Ms. Mayne had assigned a diary-style essay, asking students to write about the two or three happiest things from recent days.

Annie's essay went like this:

May 2nd, Sunny.

I'm so, so happy today! I made a deal with the charcoal-head director! I got a plane! Aha! I finally have my own flying mount! The plane is being modified now. I asked them to paint it fiery red and named it: Princess Annie!

But Aunt Melinda said tonight they removed all the weapons! Well, not all—there's still a belly-mounted Vulcan cannon? But they won't give me any ammo... That black bear tricked me! I called and yelled at him! He said he kept the deal by giving me the plane, but ammo wasn't part of it. So annoying!

May 5th, Sunny.

Today, my Princess Annie was finally modified. After an hour of lessons from Aunt Melinda, I flew it out. I almost crashed into the sea at first, but Aunt Melinda pulled it up just in time.

Aunt Melinda flew it really high, then gave me control back. Then I ran into a metal weirdo! I chased him hard with Princess Annie! But later, we ran out of fuel and fell into the sea—how lame! Later, I found out he wasn't a metal monster, but Iron Man?

May 7th, Cloudy.

After school today, with nothing to do, I decided to take Princess Annie out again. But Uncle Coulson refused to come. Hmph! Fine! As long as Aunt Melinda was with me. Soon after takeoff, we spotted that metal weirdo Iron Man again, but we couldn't catch him—he was too fast and vanished in a flash. Too bad!

On our way back, two planes ambushed us! They were bad guys! Shooting cannons and missiles! They damaged my Princess Annie! So I got mad and used my secretly modified Vulcan cannon to blast them into melted scrap. Now my plane's being repaired, and those lazy guys say it'll take forever!

Well, after reading Annie's essay, Coulson and Melinda were speechless. Everything in it was the honest truth! Not a single lie!

Sometimes things were just this ridiculous—when you seriously told the truth, people thought you were lying! If Annie had caused trouble, like roasting some poor teacher's or student's pet, they'd grit their teeth and take the scolding.

But now, Annie had written a perfectly honest diary, and they were dragged in for a lecture again! Was there no justice? Look at the teacher's comment: "Due to parental and guardian influence, the child has learned to lie at a young age. As parents (guardians), you must deeply reflect, optimize the child's environment, and provide positive, uplifting family education."

Coulson didn't even want to recall how it all ended. He just felt exhausted—mentally exhausted!

After picking up Annie from school and heading home, the three of them—Coulson dictating, Annie writing, Melinda advising—spent over half an hour crafting a "proper" essay for Ms. Mayne! In this version, nothing was true; Coulson made it all up. But surprisingly, it earned high praise from Ms. Mayne and even an A grade!