"Can I have two?" Chaochao asked tearfully, turning back to look at Ye Wanwan.
Ye Wanwan said emotionlessly, "No."
Before Chaochao could speak again, Ye Wanwan continued, "But if you keep crying now, you won’t get any at all."
Chaochao didn’t speak, but her sobbing weakened and then gradually became completely quiet. If it weren’t for her red eyes and the tear streaks on her face, one might doubt that her previous loud wailing had been an illusion.
Zhouzhou was already a second-grader and was no longer the gullible little kid who believed everything Xu Kaiyang said in kindergarten.
Now, seeing his sister stop crying over a cheese stick, he genuinely believed that she didn’t really miss him; she just wanted to use the opportunity to cheat for a cheese stick!
There was no helping it, his sister’s teeth were going bad, so their parents didn’t allow her to eat so many sweets.
"Can Chaochao go in by herself now?" Ye Wanwan asked, taking out baby wipes from her tote bag and gently wiping Chaochao’s tear-stained face.
Chaochao sniffled and then nodded vigorously. She then turned to Zhouzhou beside her and said, "Brother, I will be brave!"
"Mhm, sister is really great!" Zhouzhou immediately praised her.
After all the fuss, Chaochao finally followed the teacher inside. However, Ye Wanwan found it hard to watch Chaochao look back three times with each step she took.
Though Chaochao’s earlier behavior seemed suspicious of cheese stick deceit, she was, after all, only a three-year-old child experiencing her first time away from a familiar environment without her parents nearby. It was natural for her to be scared and shy.
It was only after Chaochao was out of sight that Shen Yi said, "We’re running out of time; we must go."
"Why don’t you take Zhouzhou to school? I’m a bit worried about Chaochao and would like to wait here a bit longer," Ye Wanwan turned to look at Shen Yi.
Then, Ye Wanwan asked Zhouzhou for his opinion, "Zhouzhou, let Dad take you to school while Mom stays here to see how sister is doing, okay?"
"Okay!" Zhouzhou agreed without hesitation. "Mom, you stay here with sister. She’s still little; she must be scared."
Zhouzhou believed the same in his heart. His sister was small and certainly scared. If she chose the cheese stick, it was because going to school was inevitable. Since that was the case, why not get an extra cheese stick?
So Shen Yi left with Zhouzhou, and Ye Wanwan was still at the school gate, not having left. Unable to enter and see what was happening inside, she took out her phone to watch the classroom surveillance.
After arriving in the classroom, Chaochao had completely stopped crying. She sat at her seat, looking around and observing the other children with none of the panic she had shown outside.
Ye Wanwan watched the video from outside and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
The truth was, Chaochao’s quirky and clever personality had been evident from a young age; at just three years old, she already knew how to manipulate her family.
But as parents, they instinctively worried about their children, and even seeing them with their own eyes couldn’t completely ease their minds.
After confirming that all the children in her class had arrived, Chaochao’s homeroom teacher was also ready to go inside. However, as the closing time approached, Ye Wanwan was still at the school gate, unable to leave.