What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 195: “Magical Girl” Liu Shiling

Shiling’s Mom came to pick her up from school. She looked at Liu Shiling flipping a coin with one hand, leisurely walking out of the school. Other kids who were waiting for their parents or had already been collected, called out to her on their own initiative:

“Goodbye, Liu Shiling!”

If it had been the old Liu Shiling, she would have replied with an enthusiastic “Goodbye, xxx!”.

But now, Little Fatty Girl just nodded at them, then waved her right hand that wasn’t holding the coin twice. She seemed very calm and mature, so natural, that even the kindergarten teachers and other parents felt it was normal. Could it be that they’ve gotten used to it?

After the incident in October when Shiling’s Mom came to pick up Liu Shiling and learned about the coin-snatching, telling on others, and making kids cry by threatening to call the police, she was quite worried that Liu Shiling, the “newcomer,” might be ostracized.

After all, in her understanding and childhood memories, kids didn’t seem to like friends who tattled to teachers all the time, right?

However, to her surprise, based on her casual chats with the teachers when she came to pick her up every day since, none of the other kids in the class ostracized her daughter. Instead, they gathered around her even more. Even Wang Ke, who had been scared to tears by her daughter, brought her delicious treats every day in hopes of winning her over and playing with her…

After much practice and exploration daily, Liu Shiling could now flip the one yuan coin single-handedly.

Her hands were much smaller than an adult’s, so in fact she utilized gravity to flip the coin once between her fingers, letting it fall directly from the gap between her index and middle finger to between her little finger and ring finger, then turning over her hand to let gravity flip the coin back.

Since Liu Shiling had become quite proficient at this, even though the coin didn’t flip fast, it was very smooth, and she was able to continuously “cycle” it on the back of her hand. Anyone seeing it for the first time would be rather surprised.

When Shiling’s Mom had picked her up before, she had been approached many times by other parents asking if she taught her how to do it and if there were any tricks to it.

All Shiling’s Mom could do was smile wryly. Where would she have learned it? Seeing her daughter playing with the coin-flipping, she too had practiced for a while and even searched for videos online, but no matter what she tried she couldn’t get the hang of it, and finally attributed it to her hands being too small. However, when her daughter, who had much smaller hands than she, managed to master a simplified version, she was left utterly speechless.

She never imagined that her daughter, who had been quite clumsy in the past, could master this technique with her chubby little fingers.

In addition to the coin, ever since accidentally running into her former neighbor Mr. Xiang on the street and receiving another piece of paper from him after some coaxing, the future “Magical Girl,” Liu Shiling, had a new toy origami.

However, unlike the coin, she did not continually play with the A4 paper that Xiang Kun had given her, marked with creases and a “six”. After folding some shapes out of the paper, she practiced with other sheets of paper.

When other kids folded paper, it was mainly to play with the finished product, but Liu Shiling was different. It seemed that she enjoyed the process of folding paper itself.

It’s as if the paper served as a model, and the rest of the paper was for practice, constantly refining how to fold the desired image better.

Frogs, paper cranes, turtles, jellyfish, giraffes, Shar-Pei dogs – she had various images, both difficult and easy. Once they were folded, if anyone in the class wanted them, she would give them away directly, as she didn’t play with them anyway.

Her favorite was a paper airplane. Using the same material, the planes she folded could fly higher, further, and more stable. With the same plane, she threw it better than everyone else, and she could even predict roughly where the plane would land. Wherever she planned to throw the plane, it would roughly land there.

Because of this, even in kindergarten, Liu Shiling held the title of “Origami King” among the kids. Even though she was still as aloof as ever, barely acknowledging people, the other kids all wanted to play with her and receive her origami gifts.

Even though the tuition for this kindergarten was not low and the children’s families were mostly well off, with various valuable toys at home, in kindergarten, it was still an honor to receive the “Origami King’s” origami paper.

Previously, a child’s parent accidentally threw away an origami paper that their child had received, and the child was said to have cried so much at home that they lost their voice. The parent’s offers of new toys, trips to amusement parks, or special snacks were ineffective. In the end, the parent had to drive to Liu Shiling’s house and ask for a replacement origami piece, finally calming the child down.

Seeing the nearly “King of the Children” treatment her daughter received at kindergarten, Shiling’s mom felt quite conflicted.

Because the daughter that everyone sees has always acted this way, it didn’t seem strange to the teachers, or the parents of other children, that Liu Shiling was like this.

But Shiling’s mom, who had seen her daughter grow up, clearly remembered that before moving to Star City, Little Fatty Girl, who had always been indecisive and dependent on others, was frequently ostracized and bullied and cried easily. Yet, she would quickly reconcile with others and happily play with them.

Seeing her daughter now, displaying a “don’t bother me, I’m busy” lofty demeanor and deftly playing with the coin, Shiling’s mother felt a strange sense in her heart.

Back at home, during dinner, seeing her daughter holding the spoon in one hand and flipping the coin in the other, Shiling’s Mom said, “Focus on eating when eating. Play after you finish.”

“Okay.” To her surprise, her daughter obediently agreed, then put away the coin. This left Shiling’s Mom speechless, as a series of words got stuck in her throat.

After a moment, when Liu Shiling finished eating and took out the coin to play again, Shiling’s mom said, “Shiling, since you’ve already learned Uncle Bald’s coin-flipping, can you stop playing with it? After dinner, Mommy will let you play with the iPad for an hour, okay?”

Liu Shiling shook her head: “No.”

Shiling’s mom suddenly felt like one of the kids in Liu Shiling’s kindergarten… “But you’ve been playing with this coin for too long.”

Liu Shiling looked at her mom somewhat puzzled. She quietly put away the coin and said, “Then I’ll go play with the origami.”

“Wait a moment…” Shiling’s mom decided to continue “struggling” a bit: “How about playing a game with mom? Didn’t you say you can do Uncle Bald’s coin guessing ‘magic’? Let’s play it. If you guess which hand your mom hides the coin in correctly, mom will allow you to play for a week. Otherwise, the coin will be kept by mom, okay?”

Liu Shiling thought for a moment, nodded her head, and handed the coin to her mother.

Shiling’s mom took the coin and presented her back, transferred the coin between her hands, and asked, “All right, guess which hand the coin is in?”

Without any hesitation, Liu Shiling said, “In your right hand.”

Shiling’s mom was stunned. She had instinctively wanted to shift the coin from her right hand to her left, but then remembered what happened to little Wang Ke from the kindergarten and hesitated. She ended up showing her right hand and said, “You guessed it right! But we play best of three. There’s still two to

Liu Shiling simply agreed with her expression, not making any objections.

Seeing the calmness of her daughter, Shiling’s mom felt that something was strange. So, she whispered, “Turn your back.”

The Little Fatty Girl sighed and turned as was told.

Then, Shiling’s mom hid her hands behind her back and passed the coin from one hand to the other, eventually keeping it in her right hand. With her body blocking the view and Liu Shiling’s back turned, she felt that there was no way her daughter could see her movements or pick up on any minor details.

“Done. Which hand now?” Without any hesitation, Liu Shiling immediately said, “Right hand.”

“I will give you another chance…”

“Right hand!” Little Fatty Girl was extremely firm.

“Okay, you have won but can we play two more sessions?” Shiling’s mom was a bit incredulous.

What she didn’t expect, though, was that Liu Shiling won through the next ten sessions, guessing correctly in each without any hesitation at all.

Her daughter’s calm and clear voice gave Shiling’s mom a slightly unnerving chill down her back, the hair on her skin standing on end.

When she wanted to initiate the eleventh round, Liu Shiling had had enough, extending her hand towards her and saying, “Mom, I’m a bit tired and don’t want to play anymore. Can you give me back the coin?”

Watching Liu Shiling collect the coin and start folding origami on the side, Shiling’s mom felt increasingly uneasy.

“Shiling, how do you know which hand mom is holding the coin?” Shiling’s mom cautiously asked, her understanding of the way her daughter’s kindergarten friends felt growing.

“I just know.” Liu Shiling was carefully folding a peculiar aeroplane using a sheet of paper that Xiang Kun had given her, doing it slowly and meticulously.

Just know? What kind of explanation was that? Shiling’s mom was inexplicably starting to irritate her.

After her daughter fell asleep at night, she carefully retrieved the one yuan coin from under her daughter’s pillow, and replaced it with another one yuan coin.

She then glanced at the A4 paper which was also under the pillow, thought for a moment, and decided against swapping it. After all, the paper wasn’t just marked with an incomprehensible “6,” but also filled with various folding creases, too difficult to “imitate”.

The next day, however, Shiling’s mom woke up to find a one yuan coin on her own dining table. She was stunned, quickly retrieved her purse where she kept Liu Shiling’s coin, only to discover that the coin was indeed missing!

Could the coin really “run” by itself!?

Shiling’s mom could only feel a chill creeping up from the sole of her foot.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Liu Shiling, who was ready for breakfast, saw her mom staring at a coin and said, “Mom, you lost again.”

“Huh?” Shiling’s mom, still in shock, looked at her daughter with a puzzled expression.

Then, she saw her daughter skillfully rolling a coin in her left hand, and with a slightly smug voice she said, “Mom, you secretly swapped my ‘magic coin’ last night, right?”

Shiling’s mom was startled, “How did you know? This coin is the one you left on the table?”

“Yes, the coin you swapped is from 2016; Uncle Bald’s ‘magic coin’ is from

Next time you should find one from 2006.” Liu Shiling earnestly stated.

Shiling’s mom looked down and indeed, the coin she was holding was from 2016. But she was still confused, “How did you know where I put that coin?”

“I just know.” Liu Shiling’s tone was still slightly smug. Shiling’s mom once again felt the chill creeping up from her feet..