Chapter 329: An Interesting Movie
Outside Adele’s dorm:
“Ding-dong!” Tang Linlang pressed the doorbell only once and waited patiently. She would only press it a second time, or knock gently, if Adele happened not to hear. The girl’s shy and reserved personality was evident. At this moment, she was still wondering if she had chosen the right shade of lipstick, if it looked strange and inappropriate for her age.
Then, the familiar sound of footsteps, which Tang Linlang would never mistake for anyone else’s, came “da-da-da” from inside. Tang Linlang immediately took a deep breath, straightened her chest, and put her long, slender legs together, waiting for the door to open and her first glimpse of Adele.
“Linlang!” Adele’s actions were even more “Adele-like” than she imagined. Hmm… “Adele” has unknowingly become an adjective.
The moment the door opened, the girl immediately rushed towards Tang Linlang, who was wearing winter clothes but still looked beautiful and slender. Tang Linlang stumbled from Adele’s weight, but didn’t fall, instead embracing Adele’s delicate body. A sweet smile appeared on her lips. She was deeply moved. Perhaps, precisely because Adele was the kind of girl…who could give her all to you, Tang Linlang also chose to dedicate everything to Adele.
At the window on the second floor, First Snow and Xiao Ai poked their heads out, one on the left and one on the right, staring at the scene below. First Snow’s expression was one of habit, but Xiao Ai seemed a bit concerned. So First Snow pulled Xiao Ai closer and, as someone with experience, comforted her, “Sister Adele is just so charming, we all like her, so how can we stop others from liking her?”
She could tell at a glance that Xiao Ai’s feelings for Adele weren’t right. It wasn’t the kind of affection between mother and daughter. But they weren’t actually mother and daughter, it would be strange if there was such affection.
“…” Xiao Ai didn’t speak. No one knew what her silence meant. But she agreed with First Snow on one point. Adele was indeed too charming. And without her former naiveté, she was a blooming flower that never withered. It was better for the bees and butterflies attracted by her fragrance to each enjoy their own share of sweetness than to fight to the death and miss the girl’s blooming period. So it was better for the girl to keep her petals open.
So Xiao Ai rationally changed her train of thought and asked First Snow, “Then, Sister First Snow, what is that girl to Mama?” Xiao Ai’s communication was fine, but occasionally she would omit words or use inappropriate expressions. She probably wanted to ask, “What is that girl’s relationship with Mama?” But First Snow, having lived in the human world for many years, easily understood.
So First Snow explained to Xiao Ai based on her understanding, “She’s called Tang Linlang, she’s Sister Adele’s classmate, meow.”
“Do you know what ‘classmate’ means?”
“…What does it mean?” Xiao Ai blinked her big eyes.
“It means studying together in the classroom at school, meow!”
“What does ‘school’ mean? What does ‘classroom’ mean?”
“Meow!? School is…” First Snow started to painstakingly explain to Xiao Ai. But often, one sentence would contain several words Xiao Ai didn’t understand. Then First Snow had to explain those words one by one. So teaching without mind-reading is…this difficult. First Snow soon gave up, raising her cat tail in surrender. I’m not teaching anymore, meow! Why is it so easy for Sister Adele to teach Xiao Ai!
Meanwhile, Adele and Tang Linlang had moved indoors. Their conversation continued. This was their first time seeing each other since the holidays began, so they had endless things to say, countless things they wanted the other to know. But the most surprising thing for Tang Linlang was undoubtedly Xiao Ai’s existence. This was also one of the main reasons why Adele invited Tang Linlang to her dorm to enjoy a takeout feast.
Their meeting began with Adele saying, “I have a surprise for you.” But whether the “surprise” Adele mentioned was more surprising or more joyful for Tang Linlang remained to be seen. Adele herself was also nervous. But since everyone else had accepted Xiao Ai’s existence, Linlang shouldn’t be an exception.
Thinking this, the girl opened her dorm room door. Tang Linlang closed her eyes dramatically, but Adele immediately told her to open them with a smile. Then, the girl saw a scene she would never forget. Ignoring the cat-girl First Snow, the problem was, why were there…two Adeles, one big and one small, in front of her!? Had Adele learned some kind of cloning technique!? Like a forbidden blood magic that could create another self? If that were the case, being intimate with little Adele…with Tang Linlang’s honest personality, she might not be able to accept it. It wasn’t something she could do just by using the excuse “She’s also Adele.”
It had to be said that Tang Linlang had a rich imagination, even coming up with cloning techniques. But soon, Xiao Ai’s gaze made Tang Linlang quickly realize how unrealistic her thoughts were. It was a gaze distinctly different from Adele’s. They said the eyes were the windows to the soul, and Tang Linlang finally understood the meaning of this phrase at this moment. Xiao Ai’s eyes belonged to a completely different, independent soul, entirely different from Adele’s.
“Who…who is she?” Tang Linlang asked Adele for confirmation.
Unexpectedly, before Adele could answer, Xiao Ai responded to the girl’s question. She greeted her politely, “Hello, Sister Linlang, my name is…Xiao Ai.”
“I’m Mama’s daughter.”
“My daughter~” Adele added proudly. Unaware that Tang Linlang, like many before her, was struck by lightning. Daughter…Adele has a daughter… Tang Linlang felt a sense of crisis. Is this the legendary ‘bringing your daughter to a date’ strategy!? And the daughter looks exactly like a younger Adele! This is too much!
First Snow couldn’t stand it anymore and hurriedly explained. After her “this and that, like this and like that” explanation, Tang Linlang finally understood that Adele and Xiao Ai weren’t blood-related. Xiao Ai was a being Adele brought out from a secret realm in the vampire territory, and even Adele couldn’t confirm her identity at the moment. But because of her prematurely overflowing maternal instincts, and because Xiao Ai was indeed very well-behaved, she kept her by her side and treated her like a daughter.
Now, Adele was being completely open and honest with her, without any secrets. So Tang Linlang’s feelings were complicated, somewhere between surprise and a slight happiness.
First Snow puffed out her chest proudly, thinking that it was thanks to her that a shuraba didn’t happen. But Xiao Ai seemed to be trying to accept the women around Sister Adele, so perhaps a shuraba wouldn’t have happened in the first place? Well, anyway, I still worked hard!
Just then, the doorbell rang again. Adele’s eyes lit up.
“The takeout is here!” Delivery drivers weren’t allowed inside Cromwell Academy, but there were dedicated personnel to deliver takeout to the students’ dorms. This academy housed many vampire nobles, so they could afford this labor cost.
Adele received the takeout she ordered from the school staff. It was delivered on a small food cart, showing just how much takeout she had ordered. It was all food suitable for a happy gathering: fried chicken, pizza, fries, cola, barbecue skewers, and of course, the small yellow croaker fish and squid that First Snow always ordered. Coincidentally, the two game consoles and controllers Adele ordered yesterday were also delivered. This way, Adele, Linlang, First Snow, and Xiao Ai could play party games together. Adele, a homebody, was infecting the people around her with her lifestyle. But wasn’t Tang Linlang originally a homebody? Her family had declined, she had been poor since childhood, and because of her special identity, she didn’t have friends to hang out with, so it was natural for her to be a homebody.
Therefore, she was very much looking forward to this kind of gathering. Adele had unintentionally fulfilled her wish.
The girl quickly set out the takeout on the coffee table in the living room downstairs. Then she connected the game console to the TV screen. That’s right, there was a TV in Cromwell Academy’s dorms. It was just that few people watched TV these days, so it had been left unused by Adele. But now it finally had a purpose.
With her past life experience, Adele quickly connected the console and the TV. But the girl wasn’t in a hurry to start the party game. Instead, she disconnected the console and decided to watch a movie. It would be so relaxing to eat takeout and watch a movie together. Considering First Snow and Xiao Ai, Adele specifically chose an animated movie from this world. Definitely, definitely not because she wanted to watch it herself!
The movie was about a rabbit police officer and a fox con artist. It sounded so similar to…Zootopia! Perhaps there was some indescribable connection between the two worlds. Adele could explain this by simply thinking that this was a world within a book written by an author. But she didn’t seem to consider that there were many types of authors. Some wrote original stories, and some wrote fan fiction. So which kind was the author of this book? Original was easy to understand. If it was fan fiction, then was Adele actually a character from another work? This work could be a novel, an anime, or even a legend or a story.
Ahem, getting off track. Back to the movie. Actually, it was fundamentally different from the animated movie in Adele’s previous life. For example, the protagonists in this movie, the rabbit police officer and the fox con artist, were both female characters. They met because of a misunderstanding, resolved the misunderstanding through bonding, and finally had a happy ending, happily getting together~
Adele watched and ate with relish! And Xiao Ai also watched attentively. Movies were such interesting things. She felt like…she had learned a lot.
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