After locking the door, Fu Yuling didn’t immediately return to her room.
Instead, she cleaned up the traces on the floor and picked up the exploded ball. It was empty now, but recalling the earlier scene, she knew it had been made by He An and He Qiu together.
He An was responsible for making the ball, while He Qiu handled the medicinal powder inside.
These two children worked well together, but thinking about it made Fu Yuling smile less.
Even though everything earlier showcased their cleverness, Fu Yuling wished they were a bit more foolish. If something had gone wrong, the consequences were too frightening to imagine.
Her worries had never felt so intense like now. If she closed her eyes, she could picture their endings from the novel.
None of them were good, yet it seemed they were getting closer to the characters in the story in terms of both courage and calculations.
The wind outside was cold. She was wearing only a thin layer of clothing. As the wind blew, she stood under the starless night sky, not knowing how long she had been there.
It was not until she heard a noise behind her that she turned around. It turned out that He An was huddled close to He Xuan to keep warm. Upon noticing her gaze, He An stood up straight.
She didn’t know how long they had been standing behind her. Their faces were flushed from the cold and their bodies trembling slightly.
“We were wrong.”
He An was the first to cry, his tiny sobs tugging at her heart. The others, though silent, communicated their sorrow without words.
Seeing them like this, Fu Yuling felt the most heartache.
It was one thing for her to be cold, but the children couldn’t be allowed to suffer.
She walked towards the room first. As she passed them, she didn’t notice that He Qiu reached out to hold her hand but hesitated just before it was about to touch her, slowly pulling back with disappointment in his drooping eyelids.
Once inside, He Wen immediately went to get Fu Yuling’s coat and silently draped it over her before standing in front of her like the others.
Their posture was unchanged from when Fu Yuling had left.
“Didn’t I tell you to go to sleep first? Why are you still outside?”
She felt a bit awkward. Earlier, she had indeed been angry, so she was cold towards them.
Reflecting on this, she took off the coat He Wen had put on her and beckoned them over.
“Come here.”
Fu Yuling squatted down to hold their hands, which were icy cold, like blocks of ice. They were even wearing less clothing than she was.
She couldn’t help but complain, “I told you to sleep early. Why did you run outside to get cold? What would you do if you got sick?”
After tucking them into bed one by one and making sure they wouldn’t be cold, she finally turned off the light.
As they lay in bed, He Qiu, who was leaning against Fu Yuling, wrapped his arms around her and pleaded, “Please don’t be angry anymore.”
Fu Yuling kept her eyes closed, not wanting to talk. Her mind was still a bit chaotic.
All four of them snuggled closer, the blanket rising around them as they stared at her with their heads peeking out. This was the first thing Fu Yuling saw when she opened her eyes.
It felt like a game of whack-a-mole as she pressed them down one by one.
It seemed that this lifted her spirits, so they all cooperated, going down and popping back up, encouraging her to keep playing.
After a while, she felt much better.
“Next time, don’t do such dangerous things. If something happens to you, I would feel very guilty.”
As if she knew they might not fully understand, she changed her tone to be more serious.
“If I did something very dangerous, you might never see me again. Will you be sad?”
