Chapter 53

Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW

You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/

Chapter 53: I Want To Play The Claw Machine

“Girl?” Mi Xiaoliu was confused.

“Oh, I must have mistaken you for someone else.” The woman put her hand to her forehead.

She had a tomboyish daughter at home who dressed like a boy, so when she saw this young man with slightly long hair and a delicate appearance, she instinctively called him “girl.”

If nothing else, this child was probably an ability user.

The ill-mannered child had thrown something at the defenseless child that’s an ability user to show off his strength. This kind of thing happened often in the cities she had lived in before. Even if you want to talk to the child’s parents, they wouldn’t necessarily think they were wrong.

“Master, you should say thank you at times like this.”

“Thank you.” Mi Xiaoliu did as advised.

“You’re welcome. Do you know where I can buy one of these?” The woman pulled a stuffed doll out of the bag she used to protect Mi Xiaoliu from the egg earlier.

It was a light yellow rabbit-eared cat, but half of it was stained with black ink, making it a rather pitiful sight. She thought the kids around here would know where to get one, as she, a woman in her late thirties, wasn’t familiar with these things.

Her daughter had run away from home for several days because of this doll, and despite searching all over the toy stores, she couldn’t find the same one. But she had seen one just now in a claw machine.

She didn’t know how to play the machine herself, and at her age, playing with such toys in public was a bit embarrassing.

“Now this really is a key item,” Sasha commented, exasperated.

“Little girl, let me give you some coins. Do you think you can help me grab the same doll from that machine? If you can’t, I won’t blame you,” the woman said, handing over a handful of coins.

In this age of digital payments, it was rare to see someone casually pull out so many coins.

She had once again referred to Mi Xiaoliu as a “girl,” which caused a few passersby to give him strange looks.

“Help Auntie out with this, and I’ll buy you an ice cream,” she added, her voice sounding a bit like a suspicious lady trying to coax a child. It felt almost more awkward than playing the claw machine itself.

Mi Xiaoliu reached out for the coins.

“Master, there’s no need to go through all this trouble. You can just use the task item… or the medicine the school doctor gave you to clean the doll. It should work, right?” Sasha said.

“I want to play the claw machine.”

“Master, really, you don’t need to bother—”

“I want to play the claw machine.”

“…”

Twenty minutes later, after Mi Xiaoliu failed to grab the doll even once, she obediently handed over the “task item.”

“Little miss, where did you buy this?” The woman’s eyes lit up when she saw the results.

It had managed to clean the stubborn stain without affecting the color of the doll. This was truly a miraculous cleaning product.

“Could’ve solved it from the start, yet you wasted the woman’s coins… Master, you’re getting worse,” Sasha grumbled.

“Sorry.” Mi Xiaoliu apologized, lowering her head and handing over the cleaning agent as compensation.

The woman paused, not fully understanding why the child was apologizing.

She had already said she wouldn’t blame Mi Xiaoliu if the doll couldn’t be grabbed, and in the end, it was solved using her cleaning agent. This child was so considerate…

Looking at Mi Xiaoliu apologizing politely, the woman couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. She didn’t accept the cleaning agent Mi Xiaoliu offered and instead bought her the promised ice cream, waving her goodbye.

Ultimately, she wasn’t going to envy someone else’s child. Every family had their own kids, and comparing them to others was meaningless.

Back home, the woman used the spare key to open the door to Yiwen’s room.

She saw Yiwen still soundly asleep on the bed and the white clothes on the desk, damp with sweat. She placed the cleaned stuffed doll beside Yiwen and then quietly retreated with the white clothes in hand.

Indeed, life in a non-ability household seemed much simpler.

—

Sitting at the keyboard, Mi Xiaoliu reworded the message several times, making sure the tone wouldn’t be unpleasant before deciding to send it. After all, the person on the other end of the chat was someone extremely important to her.

In these kinds of situations, what was most heartbreaking wasn’t a cold, monotonous response but the red exclamation mark that appeared before sending the message.

The principal stared blankly at the exclamation mark for a long while before realizing she had been blocked.

She sat there for quite some time, then remembered someone else was in her office.

“You’re Mi Xiaoliu, right?” She quickly adjusted her mood.

She knew this boy, the troublesome transfer student who caused headaches for all the school doctors except for Heli. She wasn’t sure what kind of trick Heli had used to tame him.

If things went as expected, the boy Heli mentioned who had been bullied was him. He certainly looked like an easy target, but he had a history of attacking school doctors.

Heli was the best at keeping him under control. If anything happened to Gloria…

“Give it to me.” The principal reached out her hand to Mi Xiaoliu, who was standing by the door.

Mi Xiaoliu took a step forward.

“Master, don’t go!” Sasha immediately stopped her.

“Why?” Mi Xiaoliu asked, confused.

Sasha fell silent, offering no reply.

Mi Xiaoliu bent down and placed the box on the ground as Sasha had instructed, then turned and walked out of the office without even saying goodbye to the principal, doing so without hesitation or delay.

The principal frowned, clenching her fist, her red-painted nails tightening.

What an ill-mannered brat. No wonder he’s from the Fallen City.

She got up from her desk and picked up the box that Heli had sent. Inside, she found cleaning agent ingredients and instructions.

This wasn’t what she wanted, and she was familiar with similar products. In her experience, no matter how well they were marketed, these products could only generate enough profit to sustain a small business.

Too many people nowadays didn’t care about stains on their clothes, they just tossed them in the washing machine. If it didn’t come out clean, they’d just buy a new one unless it was really expensive.

There were countless ads promoting similar products. If one in ten people believed the claims, that would be impressive.

“I’ve received the item. How is your progress?” She called Heli.

“There’s been some progress, but I’ve hit a dead end. I need some rare materials…”

“Oh? I heard some interesting rumors coming out of Fanzui City lately. I wonder if Miss Heli has heard about it.” The principal glanced out the window, where the wail of police sirens could be heard. “It’s said that some dead people are coming back to life. This is far more interesting to me than your research that’s barely making progress.”

“…You know, if I haven’t made progress on something, no one else will either,” Heli responded, recognizing the pressure the principal was trying to put on her.

“I’m just giving you good reference material. I heard you’ve been getting closer to that boy, Mi Xiaoliu. You’re not secretly changing his data, are you?”

“No, I’m just curious about his origins,” Heli replied.

“Are you interested in the Fallen City?” The principal asked, raising an eyebrow.

Helly was silent for a few seconds. “Every researcher is interested in that place.”

“Either way, I want to see results. You know my patience is wearing thin after all these years, and my bottom line is gradually getting lower. I can’t guarantee that one day I won’t become hysterical…”

“You know, I may need to research ‘the Star’ in order to make progress,” Heli said.

The principal fell silent.

“I’ll convince my husband,” she finally replied.

—

“Why?”

Mi Xiaoliu asked again as she walked home.

“She’s a terrifying woman,” Sasha didn’t want to elaborate.

“Oh.” And that was the end of the conversation.

Back at Heli’s house, the blonde woman was, unsurprisingly, here again for dinner.

Mi Xiaoliu stared at her intently, as if expecting something, causing the blonde woman to break out in goosebumps. She thought to herself, Could this little devil have developed some strange trait from being bullied?

But Mi Xiaoliu’s thoughts turned out to be a dead end. This time, the blonde woman didn’t seem interested in teasing her.

Saturday night was a time when students might stay up a few extra hours, but some good kids still went to bed at a reasonable time.

Like Mi Xiaoliu.

The sound of the door lock didn’t wake her. Even when Heli entered, Mi Xiaoliu remained fast asleep.

She slept peacefully, possibly because of the heat. After she fell asleep, her blanket was no longer covering her, and she had unknowingly rolled it up into a ball, using it as a pillow with one leg draped over it.

Heli gently covered her with the blanket and then pulled up a chair, quietly sitting by her side, staring at the peacefully sleeping girl.

“I’m Sorry…”