[Zhongyingmei] How difficult is it to become a reliable adult

April and Dick sat across the desk from Ms. Jones, who was going through the paperwork for them.

After the incident with the Gleasons, Ms. Jones intensified her vetting of the adopters' profile.Besides, Dick wasn't going through the adoption process.

He brought over his and April's paternity certificates.

In the current situation, it would be more convenient and simple to go through the adoption process, but Dick didn't want April to return to the family as an "adopted daughter".She should not be wronged in this regard.

Ms. Jones asked repeatedly about his family and financial situation, and confirmed that he did not come to the orphanage because he regretted abandoning Aprily in the first place.

Dick had been introduced by Red Robin, so Ms. Jones had some confidence in him.

Red Robin discussed the situation last night with the steward and dean of the orphanage early this morning, and made some well-intentioned and ingenious changes.

He didn't tell them that the other party's goal was very clear, and he didn't name them as the clown behind the scenes.

In order not to let the orphanage be shrouded in the shadow of clowns, he changed the night patrol route and increased monitoring.

Red Robin is always giving silently.Every detail that has been perfected is just an understatement of "I will handle it" in his mouth.

Dick was grateful for all he had done, and he secretly decided to get Tim an unburdened vacation when everything was settled.The more important thing right now is to put Ai Puli under their protection as soon as possible.

He pulled himself together and continued to answer Ms. Jones' detailed and harsh cross-examination.

Aprily sat quietly by the side while the two adults communicated.Ms. Jones helped her ask for leave from West Side School and went back to the orphanage to complete the formalities.

She has a kind of dreamlike anxiety, and everything in front of her eyes may be just a little trick that life uses to play tricks on her.

The protagonist in the story always goes through hardships, and only at the end can he get a little happiness that is close to charity.Aprily is still a long way from the end.

After Ms. Jones confirmed all the documents that Dick brought, she finally showed a little relief, which was soon replaced by seriousness.

"Ella," she said to Aprily gently, "I have something to talk to this gentleman alone, can you go out for a while, Joseph will take you to pick some snacks."

She didn't call Dick Aprily's "father," and she didn't fully identify with Dick in her heart.

"Okay, Ms. Jones." Aprily jumped out of the chair, Dick gave her a soothing smile, she pursed her lips, and exited the dean's office.

Joseph was waiting outside the door.

He was really happy for April to find her family, and couldn't help but smile when he saw April, "You're going home soon, Ella!"

Aprili nodded cautiously, and Joseph shared his joy with her as he led her away.

"Mr. Timothy Drake, the young president of Wayne Group, contacted us this morning to plan to fund the second construction of the orphanage. His secretary will come to the orphanage later to discuss the details of the contract with us."

As he talked, he noticed that April was not as relaxed and cheerful as usual, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Aprily shook her head, but she couldn't hide her frown.

Joseph waited for a while, and heard the girl timidly and distressed, "Did I cause you any trouble?"

She stammered, as if a piece of dry and choked bread was stuffed in her throat, "In case, I mean in case..."

Ai Puli saw the paternity test. She didn't know when they prepared it, but all kinds of inconceivable things came to her mind belatedly.

She murmured for a long time, and finished the whole sentence, "What if they made a mistake, what if they sent me back again."

There was something else in Joseph's eyes, and he gently rubbed the top of April's hair, "I can't promise you anything, Ella, only this thing - you were never us Every child in the orphanage is a treasure given to us by God."

"Appley was adopted by a middle-class Gotham couple," Ms. Jones said.

She pushed up her glasses on the bridge of her nose to hide her displeased eyes.

"I can tell you the truth, Mr. Grayson. Aprily is definitely a lovely kid, maybe she has some deep thoughts for her age, but to the adults who adopted her, it also means good discipline, Don't worry."

A trace of bitterness and apprehension filled Dick's heart.

He finally touched a part of April's past.Those factors that contributed to her vigilant character, those of Aprile's childhood in which he was not present.

"She stayed in the orphanage for only two months before being adopted by the middle-class couple. But a month later, the couple drove her back and sent us a sum of money."

Dick felt a ball of cotton stuffed down his throat, dipped in water, and sank down heavily, "What could they be dissatisfied with?"

Ms. Jones shook her head, "In fact, as long as April is willing to please her, there are very few people who can dissatisfy her."

She took off her glasses and wiped them repeatedly with a glasses cloth, as if she wanted to use this action to calm herself down, "The couple had their own child."

Dick gasped for breath, and before he could speak, Ms. Jones continued, "It was Aprily who told them before their medical examination confirmed it."

The unmarried lady who dedicated everything to the orphanage stopped her movements unconsciously, "They told me about this after they sent Ai Puli back. I can't hide it from you."

Ms. Jones took a deep breath, "Even if you have to consider whether to take Aprily back..."

She continued, "She is a superpower, sir. She used to have no hidden consciousness in front of the couple. We don't know exactly what aspects her abilities involve, but most of them are related to the spiritual level and mysticism."

Ai Puli happily told the couple the good news, only to experience an abandonment.

Dick was speechless for a moment, feeling absurd and at the same time taking it for granted.

Ms. Jones sympathetically expressed the reality he didn't want to face, "Super power represents unconventional and abnormal, which is an unwelcome quality among ordinary people. It is dangerous and uncontrollable, even if super powers There is always a danger in hiding your willingness to live carefully.”

"The couple, who have only known Aprily for a month, are of course unwilling to take this risk for her."

Dick was dumbfounded, he clenched his fists on his knees, and after a long silence, he asked, "How did she get here?"

He asked, "Did someone send her here?"

Maybe it was April's mother who sent her to the orphanage, Dick thought, or someone else with good intentions.In short, that person is related to Ai Puli's past and is another key to solve the mystery.

But Ms. Jones denied all his conjectures. "She came here by herself. One morning, we found her outside the orphanage. She said she had nowhere to go back."

Dick found himself always feeling sorry for April.He wasn't upset that something bad had happened to Aprile, he was upset that she didn't have to go through it.

As long as Aprily is by his side.

"I won't let this happen again." He could only promise to the person in front of him.

Ms. Jones just nodded. "Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Grayson."

Joseph brought some snacks for April, and Sister Weiwei accompanied April to the dormitory to pack things.

She didn't have many things to pack, they were all small items uniformly distributed by the orphanage, and a few old clothes donated by well-wishers.

April stuffed them into her schoolbag and sorted out her textbooks and homework.

Tommy in the next bed was reluctant and envious, "Are you leaving, Ella, like Marina?"

"I'm leaving, Tommy." She hugged her friend. "Don't worry, I'll come back to see you sometime."

"Maybe I've already gone to my new home by then." Tommy pursed his lips, "Xia Zuo didn't know you were leaving, he would definitely cry."

Ai Puli piled all the snacks she just got in her pocket on the bed, "You can help me distribute them, my dad lives in Haven, it will be a bit late if we don't go back."

She thought for a while, "You can call me."

April frowned. She didn't know what Dick's phone number was.

"You can call me, it will have the same effect." The blonde girl walked into the dormitory.

The scent of cactus blossoms wafted from the tip of Aprily's nose, and she winked at Aprily, "The little stars in your braid are so pretty, April girl."

Ai Puli opened her eyes wide, and the girl found a pen and paper in Ai Puli's stationery, and wrote down a series of numbers.

She smiled and handed the notes to Sister Vivi and Tommy respectively, "I'm Stephanie, this child's aunt."

"Aunt" is a very unfamiliar word to April.

From this moment on, when Aprile thinks of the word, she thinks of Stephanie, of the scent of cactus blossoms.Stephanie did it, she's amazing.

She easily threw the heavy schoolbag on her back, and naturally took Aprile's hand, "We're going to eat something delicious tonight, you are the protagonist, you order."

She led Ai Puli out of the dormitory, and said solemnly, "If you don't have a good choice, I can provide you with a few options, as long as you don't say that I said it."

"You finally exposed your evil purpose." Tim's voice was faint.

He is sitting on a flower bed outside the dormitory of the orphanage, holding a tablet computer in his hand, revising the electronic contract on the screen.

Ai Puli just met him last night. Compared with more than ten hours ago, he is like a fresh zombie that just crawled out of the cemetery, exuding the dark breath from hell.

April suspects he'll vomit the next second and pass out on the steps.

But he didn't. Instead, he closed the protective case of the tablet and scolded Stephanie, "Who said that I would be a qualified secretary today?"

"You really believe it?" Stephanie pretended to be surprised, "It's just an excuse for the beauty, and it's specially used to deceive the poor boy who has lost his head."

She shook Ai Puli's hand affectionately, "You are just a tool on the way between me and Ai Puli."

"I knew it," Tim muttered resentfully, like a monster just crawling up from the bottom of the water, "only work is reserved for me, and I love work."

Stephanie ignored his whispers, which gradually became weird, and looked down at Ai Puli, "Do you want to eat Chinese food? There are so many of us, so we can try it. Damian will wait for us directly in the restaurant after school. "

Apple has a lot of things that I haven't tried.It doesn't matter, she will have many opportunities to try one by one in the future.

She squeezed Stephanie's hand, "I want to try."

Dick walked towards them with a stack of documents in his arms. He freed his hand to take out the car keys and opened the car door.Stephanie pulled Aprily into the backseat.

Leaning against the window, she looked at the orphanage where she had lived for a year through the car windows covered with solar film.

She regards this place as her own home, which is warmer than her mother's side.

She used to think that she would only have this one home forever.

Now, she is about to have a new home.

No one can guess what the future holds, but Aprile's dream has given her a little hint.

She remembered the beginning of the dream, she called Dick "Papa", she had beautiful pigtails, she was a child with a family to pick up and drop off.

Aprily waved gently to the orphanage from the car window.

Goodbye.