The Male Protagonist’s Daughter

There’d been a few students who witnessed the tragedy yesterday.

It was no doubt a huge shock to young primary school children. Thus, there were students from each class who had taken a day off, and the class teachers approved all the requests. During the 10 minute recess break, the patch of grass outside the primary 1 classrooms weren’t as crowded as usual.

The students in class were gathered in small groups and talking about the incident from the day before. Some of the students didn’t even witness the incident, and yet they were able to describe the happenings as if they were there themselves.

“Have you all seen a pig being slaughtered? Let me tell you, it was 100 times scarier than the slaughtering of a pig!”

“There was blood all over the floor. When my father cycled past that area today, there were still specks of blood on the floor! It was so scary, my father says that we’ll be taking another route to school for the next two days, we won’t be going past that area.”

“Exactly, there were two students from our class who were absent today, even the class monitor from Class 2 didn’t come for class.”

“This is horrifying. The class monitor from Class 2 is such a capable and brave person, yet even she is absent. I heard that she cried yesterday.”

Shen Yan shut his pencil box, turned around and stared at the gossiping students.

The students were scared of Shen Yan’s blazing stare and instantly kept their mouths shut.

‘Oh no! I almost forgot that Shen Yan is close to the class monitor from Class 2!’

That was a good point, they weren’t sure if Shen Yan was around yesterday. They supposed not, if not, he would’ve definitely taken a day off. Who wouldn’t have nightmares after witnessing such a horrible thing?

The boys slowly crept out of the classroom.

After some time, a few boys awkwardly garnered up the courage to approach Shen Yan and whispered, “Shen Yan, did Luo Shuyan fall sick today?”

Shen Yan was reading while he looked up at the person talking to him.

‘What did that have to do with this student? Why did he walk all the way here to ask me a question like this?’

He’d always been a very aloof person. So, his silence was already an answer for the boy asking him about Luo Shuyan.

The boy had heard that Shen Yan and Class 2’s class monitor were close, and people often saw them arriving and leaving school together. Although he found Shen Yan’s aloofness very scary, he took a deep breath and courageously asked, “Shen Yan, do you know when Luo Shuyan will be back? I owe her money.”

Shen Yan looked at him with an odd expression on his face. “What money?”

Luo Shuyan knew someone from his class? And she even lent money to them?

The boy was flustered. “I went to the bookshop the day before yesterday and my money was stolen. So, Luo Shuyan helped me to pay for my items. I wanted to return the money to her yesterday, but I forgot.”

“Oh, I’m not sure,” Shen Yan replied.

“He’s not — not sure?’

The boy wasn’t sure what to do.

It’s been a few days and he didn’t think it would be nice to not return the money.

Would Luo Shuyan think that he ws purposefully forgetting about it and not returning her money?

He didn’t want to leave a bad impression on his schoolmates.

Nevertheless, he also heard that Shen Yan and Luo Shuyan were neighbors. So…

He pondered for a moment before taking 5 cents out from his pocket and placing it on Shen Yan’s table. “Shen Yan, if you happen to run into Luo Shuyan, could you help me return this to her?”

Shen Yan wasn’t a fan of being a “messenger dove”.

Yet, when he thought about Luo Shuyan… He didn’t nod or shake his head in response.

The boy let out a sigh of relief. He assumed that Shen Yan had agreed. Just as the boy was about to leave, he realized that he forgot something. He searched his pockets and took a few milk candies before placing them on Shen Yan’s table. “Shen Yan, could you pass these sweets to Luo Shuyan too? I forgot to thank her that day.”

Instantly, he was met with a death gaze from Shen Yan.

He wasn’t sure why but he felt as if he was asking for his own death.

He looked down and at the sweets on the table. He immediately picked them up and ran away.

Shen Yan chuckled in his heart.

‘Luo Shuyan is already sick of milk candies like this.’

Though, is Luo Shuyan feeling any better? Is she not eating again? He wasn’t willing to buy more fried skewers for her. Those things weren’t prepared under sanitary conditions; he saw the stall owner touching the skewers right after he’d accepted customers’ money.

Wouldn’t it make things worse if she were to get food poisoning?

However, what should he do if Luo Shuyan isn’t eating properly?

–

Luo Shuyan didn’t think that she had many more days left on this earth. Her first reaction was to let her father know about the weird dream that she had. Her father surely wouldn’t let her die so easily on his watch, she was sure her father had a way to save her. She put the pen down on the table and told her father in a serious tone, “Papa, I had a dream yesterday.”

Luo Tianyuan, who was stapling some of his documents, looked up at her and smiled. “What good dream did you have?”

Good dream?

How can that be a good dream!

Luo Shuyan frantically shook her head like a rattle drum.

“It wasn’t a good dream. I dreamt that Papa…” Before she could finish her sentence, she started sneezing. “Achoo, achoo, achoo!”

She was puzzled.

She continued to sneeze, and she couldn’t stop no matter how she tried.