CH 38

The Salary of the Little Parrot (Initiated by the Kindergarten Principal...)

Mr. Kang snuck into the kitchen and took a jar of rice wine. He returned to his room, hugged the jar, and took a few sips. It was both sweet and fragrant.

But he knew he couldn't drink too much. The scene from the last time he got drunk was still vivid in his mind.

However, it didn't seem to matter. Even if another video was filmed, the child in the video was the real son of Yue Qin. What did it have to do with him?

Mr. Kang took another two sips of rice wine, let out a sigh, and thought to himself, yes, in reality, all of this had nothing to do with him.

All of this belonged to Yue Qin’s real son, while he was just Kang Yue.

But where did the real child go?

He had always avoided thinking about the other child. As if he didn't think about it, he wouldn’t have to face the truth.

He had never paid much attention to this small room before, but today he suddenly wanted to know what the original child of the young couple looked like.

He used to think that the child was probably a little fool. There was a small table in the room, and a cabinet underneath it.

Mr. Kang opened the cabinet and saw the child's doodles. They were probably drawn when he was in a special education center, where the teachers taught the children how to draw.

Little drawing showed only two people, clearly the parents, with a sun in the sky and a bird flying.

As Mr. Kang looked at it for a while, an overwhelming sense of happiness radiated from it.

At least, it could prove that the original baby was not a fool.

Just as he was about to put the drawing down, he noticed there was writing on the back of it.

"On March 9, 2019, the baby drew his first picture, and the teacher said it was really good. Your mom and I agree that it's a great drawing!"

"He didn't draw that well," Mr. Kang said while drawing in the classroom.

Little Parrot was jumping around beside him.

"Those two aren't anything special. I don't like them at all, and I don't want to be their son!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the once happy and bouncy Little Parrot suddenly bristle with anger, like an angry bird.

Mr. Kang was taken aback. He squinted his eyes, and said, "I was just joking."

And so the little parrot's feathers settled down again, and he continued to hop and skip around happily.

"I wasn't joking. I really don't like those two," he insisted.

All of a sudden, the little parrot's feathers on top of his head stood on end, and he darted over to Mr. Kang with a fierce intensity.

"I was just kidding," said Mr. Kang.

The feathers smoothed back down.

Mr. Kang was a little puzzled, but he didn't dwell on it.

During lunchtime, Teacher Liu felt compelled to approach Kang after hearing from Xia Sheng that he had not told his parents about the little parrot teacher, nor mentioned anything about his experiences in kindergarten.

Every time she asked him, he just said that they were all just a group of immature kids and that there was nothing to talk about.

When she asked him if he had met any interesting people, he replied, "Someone who can eat ten buns in one breath, is that interesting?"

When she asked if he had met any interesting teachers, he said he hadn't noticed.

When asked if he had encountered any interesting things, he took a sip of soup and said he didn’t remember.

Many children are different at home than they are at school, and Ms. Liu wanted to chat with him to find out more.

"I heard from your mother that you used to love birds. You would often sit on the balcony watching sparrows and pointing them out to your mother," Ms. Liu said.

As soon as Mr. Kang heard this, he knew this was something that Yue Qin's real son would do.

"Do you think the parrot teacher is fun?" She asked.

"If I say it's fun, will you give him a raise?" The child thought for a moment and asked.

Ms. Liu: "..." Why are you always focused on salary?

Whether Kangkang found it enjoyable or not, the other students at school found the parrot teacher to be incredibly fun.

Little Parrot Teacher has now become the most popular teacher in the entire kindergarten.

Even students from other classes flocked to see the parrot teacher, but there was one very serious child in Class 1 who stood in front of the parrot teacher and declared, "The parrot teacher needs to take a break now. You should go play with the other teachers instead."

As the scene played out, the principal happened to stroll by and inquired, "What's happening with this student?"

"Little Parrot is not suitable for so many children to crowd around," Ms. Liu replied.

Ms. Liu thought to herself, "Just be content for now. I'm already being polite by not mentioning in front of the children that you haven't paid us enough and that we won't work overtime."

The principal looked at the children and walked over, asking other teachers to take their students back to their classrooms.

Now, only the principal and Mr. Kang were left.

The principal squatted down and asked, "What's your name, little one?"

"Before asking for someone's name, you should introduce yourself first."

"Hello, I’m the principal. What's your name, little one?"

"Kangkang."

"Oh, you have the same name as Teacher Little Parrot?" the principal said. "Teacher Little Parrot also needs to talk to other children and can't just talk to you."

Upon hearing the question, Ms. Liu took a couple of quiet steps backward and gazed at the sky, then turned her eyes towards the fluffy clouds above. She was worried about what Kangkang might say, given his straightforward personality and tendency to ask unfiltered questions that could potentially offend others.

Mr. Kang nodded in agreement and said, "I understand. The principal is right. By the way, since you're the principal, that means you're the smartest person in our kindergarten, right? Can I ask you a few questions?"

The principal thought to himself that the kids these days are so well-behaved. It only took a few words to convince him. "Sure," he said.

Ms. Liu took another step back and watched helplessly as their principal fell into the trap.

"I really like Teacher Liu. Why can't she be with us every day? Does she not like us?"

"It's not that she doesn't like you, she just needs to rest sometimes."

Ms. Liu: "..." I got trapped too!

"Then why can't Teacher Parrot take a break too? Do you not consider animals to be teachers, Mr. Principal?"

The principal was momentarily stunned and turned to look at Ms. Liu, as if to say, "Do the children in your class always talk like this?"

Ms. Liu looked up at the sky and then back down at the ground, refusing to meet the principal's gaze.

The principal turned around and said, "Even Parrot Teacher needs to take a rest."

"Then, can I ask you one more question?" Kangkang asked.

The principal really wanted to say no, but he inexplicably wanted to know what the other question was.

"Go ahead," he replied.

"I saw a circus performance on TV, and my mother said we should refuse to watch circus shows. I don't quite understand why, because the animals in the circus are also working. My mother said they are not considered workers because they don't get a salary."

Ms. Liu lowered her head and held back the urge to laugh.

She thought to herself that if the principal hadn't intervened earlier, nothing would have happened. Why did he have to teach the child to share?

Thirty minutes later, Mr. Kang walked proudly into the classroom and approached Little Parrot, saying, "From now on, Parrot Teacher, you are also a paid employee."

"Although it's not much," he added.

Ms. Liu had already given up. This was a private kindergarten, and if she had half the ability of this child to demand a salary, she wouldn't be struggling to make ends meet every month.

Just now, she witnessed the principal go from saying -

"How can a parrot have a salary?"

to -

"Why can't a parrot have a salary? We can exchange it for food and lodging."

The principal was completely at the mercy of the conversation. Any sentence that didn't align with the other person's words would turn him into a heinous villain, persecuting the ideal world of children.

As a result, the principal was completely defenseless, with one sentence following another, until they arrived at Kangkang's goal -

Their kindergarten's parrot had become a real teacher receiving a salary!

It was magical realism, and who would believe it if it were told?