Daddy Academy

Chapter 3273 A Letter from the Stars

Chapter 3273 A Letter from the Stars

The afternoon sun shone through the blinds of the Little Red Pony Academy reading room, casting dappled shadows on the long table. A dozen or so newly received letters lay spread out on the table, envelopes of varying sizes, some still adorned with cartoon stickers.

"It's here! The letter has arrived!"

Liuliu rushed into the reading room like a gust of wind, followed by an equally excited Robin. The two almost bumped into Xiao Mi, who was sorting through letters.

"Be careful." Xiaomi smiled helplessly. "The letters are all here. Sister Tan Jin'er just brought them over."

Robin often gets tricked by Liu Liu, but he still likes to follow her around and play with her. He goes looking for Liu Liu for no reason and is the one who complains the most.

Xiao Bai held a Braille picture book in her hand and said, "It was sent by the children from the special school. They wrote a letter to each of us."

Tan Jin'er walked in from the doorway, carrying a cardboard box in her hands, and said, "The first batch of replies has arrived. According to the Star Partner Pairing Plan, each of you should have at least one pen pal."

Liuliu searched impatiently: "Where are mine? Where are mine? I'm sure lots of people have written to me! Everyone likes me!"

“Many people like me too!” Robin said confidently. “Where’s my letter? My letter!”

She found her letter; there was a small dandelion sticker on the envelope.

She carefully tore open the envelope, pulled out the letter inside. It was ordinary lined paper, but the handwriting was very large.

"What does it say? Robin, read it to us quickly." Xi'er curiously leaned over.

Robin cleared his throat and began to read carefully:

"Dear Little White: @c…$&(@)"

Liu Liu laughed and asked, "What are you reciting?"

Robin laughed and said, "I don't know these words, so my aunt read them to me."

Xiao Bai took the envelope and read it aloud: "Hello! I'm Xiao Ya, the girl who touched the star book that day. Thank you for letting me touch Jupiter; it's bigger than I imagined. You told me elephants drink water with their trunks, and when I got home I asked my mom, and she said you were right. I also have a secret to tell you: although I can't see, I can hear everyone's footsteps. Your footsteps are light and quick, like a little rabbit's. Next time you come, I'll know it's you without you saying a word."

Your Star Companion: Xiaoya

After hearing the letter, Robin's face flushed with excitement: "She said she can recognize my footsteps! Like a little rabbit!"

"Wow, that's amazing!" Xi'er exclaimed. "Xiao Ya's letter is so beautiful."

At this moment, Liuliu finally found her letter, but there was only one. She was very disappointed, because she thought there would be many letters. After all, she was very popular and everyone liked her.

She opened the envelope and froze, because there were no words on the letter, only a leaf glued on...?

"What is this?" Liuliu turned the letter over and over, looking at it carefully. "Why is there no writing? It's just a leaf?"

Xiao Bai took the letter and looked at it. Suddenly, she understood something and said, "Liu Liu, is your pen pal... that little boy without hands?"

Liu Liu remembered; it was the knowledgeable little boy with no hands she met when she donated books.

"It's him! His name is Xiaozhi!" Liuliu remembered. "But what does this leaf mean?"

Chengcheng said softly, "Perhaps this is his letter."

Liuliu exclaimed in shock, "The leaf is his letter? What does that mean? I don't understand!"

Chengcheng took the leaf. It was a sycamore leaf, somewhat withered, but the veins were clearly visible. On the back of the leaf, near the petiole, there was a small, raised dot pattern, as if it had been made with a needle.

“It looks like Braille here,” Chengcheng said softly. She showed everyone the back of the leaf.

"It's Braille!" Xiaomi exclaimed. "Braille printed on leaves!"

Xiao Bai carefully touched the leaf, feeling the tiny bumps on its fingertips, and asked Dudu, "Dudu, can you recognize what these Braille words mean?"

Dudu carefully stroked the small bump, trying to decipher each word: "Thank...you...your...big...elephant."

Just these six words.

The reading room suddenly fell silent, and everyone looked at Liuliu.

Liuliu stared at the leaf, and for the first time, she didn't shout. She reached out her finger and gently touched the Braille dots on the leaf, then touched the dry edge of the leaf.

"How...how did he do that?" Liu Liu's voice was much lower than usual.

"They might have used their mouths to hold the needle and prick it out little by little," Chengcheng said. "Or they might have asked a teacher for help."

Liu Liu stopped talking. She thought it must have been Xiao Zhi who pricked her with the needle while holding it in his mouth.

She carefully placed the leaf back into the envelope, with a gentler touch than ever before.

“I’m going to write back to him,” Liu Liu said. “I’m going to tell him that I know mammoth tusks are taller than houses, and that I know I shouldn’t buy ivory products because they will kill elephants.”

For once, Xiaobai didn't tease Liuliu. Instead, he nodded seriously and said, "Liuliu, you must reply to your letter seriously and cherish Xiaozhi as your pen pal!"

At this point, everyone gradually found their letters.

Xi'er said with bright eyes, "Hiahiahia, my pen pal is Xiaoxin! He said he would tell me what happened to the little flower he made."

Xiao Bai asked, "What happened next? Did it bloom?"

Xi'er nodded with a smile, "The flowers are blooming! The flowers are so beautiful!"

Liu Liu laughed: "Can a flower you made actually bloom? Hahaha, you guys are so silly and naive!"

Xi'er didn't refute, but just laughed.

Chengcheng quietly walked to the table and picked up a letter. Her name was marked on the envelope with Braille dots, and next to it were the Chinese characters "Chengcheng, please receive" written by her teacher. Her fingers gently traced the raised dots.

At this point, Xiaobai said, "Everyone, find your own letter first, and then we can share them together."

She quickly found the envelope addressed to "Xiaobai" among the letters. It wasn't written in Braille, but in thick black marker. The handwriting was a little crooked but very careful. It was written to her by Xiaoxu.

Everyone gathered together, holding the envelopes they had received, to share and discuss, and to listen to the voices of the children from the special school.

Xiaomi said, "Let's all write back. This is what our Star Friends should do. They wrote to us first, so we should write back carefully too."

Robin asked, "Sister Xiaomi, what should we write?"

Xiaomi said, "You can share your life with them, the happy things that have happened to you recently."

Robin immediately replied, "I'm happy every day."

Xiaomi said, "Then write about the thing that impressed you the most."

For the rest of the time, the only sound in the reading room was the scratching of pens across paper.

In her reply to Xiao Xu, Xiao Bai described a newly planted pomegranate tree in Xiao Hong Ma Academy: "...The pomegranate blossoms are red, like little lanterns. When it bears fruit, I'll bring it to you to touch; the pomegranate skin is smooth, and the seeds inside are individual..."

In the letter, Xi'er drew a crooked little flower and wrote next to it, "Is this the little flower you made? I drew eyes and a smiley face on it so it can see you."

Chengcheng's reply was the most unique. Instead of writing, she used a needle to poke a simple dotted picture on cardboard, depicting her imagined scene of "dandelions dancing in the sunlight."

Dudu included a few seeds in her reply and wrote, "These are sunflower seeds. Plant them in the flowerpot on your windowsill. When they grow up, you'll be able to touch the sun because they always face the sun."

Xiaomi's reply was neat and tidy. She shared a book about the ocean that she had recently read and promised to bring an audiobook with her next time she went to school so they could "listen to the sea" together.

Robin chewed on his pen for a long time, then finally drew a long-eared rabbit and wrote next to it, "This is the sound of my footsteps, for you."

When it was Liuliu's turn, everyone thought she would write a long one. But she only wrote one sentence, in very large characters, filling the entire page:

"Dear Xiaozhi, hello: next time I'll take you to the zoo, and we'll see real elephants together."

After writing it, she thought for a moment, and then drew a big, bright sun in orange pen below the sentence.

When Tan Jin'er came in, she saw everyone engrossed in writing letters at the table, even the usually restless Liu Liu was quiet. She gently put down the pastries in her hand, not wanting to disturb the tranquility.

The sunlight outside the window gradually slanted westward, casting long shadows on everyone. The handwriting on those letters varied: some were neat, some were childish, and some even included pinyin and drawings.

As the last reply was put into the envelope, Xiaobai looked up at everyone and said, "We're going to keep writing, right?"

“Yes!” Xi’er was the first to respond.

"Keep writing," Chengcheng said softly.

Liu Liu held up her reply, which contained only one sentence: "Until my letters can fill a truck!"

Robin jumped up and said, "That would require writing so many, many words!"

"Don't be afraid," said Xiaobai. "We have so much to tell them."

Tan Jin'er walked over and collected all the replies: "I'll mail them out in a bit, but Star Buddies don't just write letters. Next week, we plan to invite a few children to visit Little Red Horse Academy."