Chapter 96

At night, at Xiaohongma Xueyuan, Zhang Tan's home.

Dudu du~

The crickets in the living room started chirping again.

They have multiplied.

There used to be only one, now there are three voices.

One big, two small.

Zhang Tan was washing dishes in the kitchen, having just finished dinner.

Xiaobai was watching TV in the living room and called out to him.

"Coming~"

Zhang Tan wiped his hands, came to the living room, operated the computer, and asked Xiaobai, "Do you really want to watch it again?"

Xiaobai nodded.

"It's good."

"Alright, as long as you're happy."

So, Zhang Tan clicked to replay, and the third episode of "Little Actors" played for the second time that night.

"Boss Zhang, do you want me to help you wash the dishes?" Xiaobai asked.

"No need, I'm almost done. You can watch TV."

"Alright, I don't know why, but my paws always want to look at it? Hohoho."

Xiaobai immersed herself in the TV drama again, just for that less than three-second scene.

It's really hard for this little one.

Zhang Tan said he would fast-forward to the scene with her, pause it, and let her watch it thoroughly.

She disagreed.

She said it wasn't for watching herself.

Dudu du~~

Someone knocked on the door.

Xiaobai glanced at the kitchen; Boss Zhang didn't hear it, so she got off the chair and went to open the door.

It was a little kid.

Xiaomi.

"Xiaobai, Chengcheng is missing." Xiaomi asked anxiously, "Is Chengcheng at Boss Zhang's place?"

Xiaobai shook her head, stopped watching TV, and hurriedly went with Xiaomi to look for Chengcheng.

Chengcheng is a bit silly, like a wooden stick, how could she get lost?

Zhang Tan heard the commotion and quickly came out to look for Chengcheng downstairs.

The teachers downstairs were all searching, very anxious, and became even more anxious when they learned Chengcheng wasn't at Zhang Tan's place.

Zhang Tan went to find Old Li, checked the surveillance video, and looked for two hours before and after, but didn't see Chengcheng leave the school.

She was still inside.

Just no one knew which corner she was in.

Teacher Xiaoliu was almost in tears, and Xiaomi and Liuliu were already crying.

"Where did the little one go?"

Xiaobai muttered and ran to the second-floor dormitory alone.

Zhang Tan followed her and said, "We've already searched the dormitory."

Xiaobai looked around left and right, ignoring him, and continued to search carefully.

Zhang Tan asked again, "Xiaobai, you and Chengcheng like to play hide-and-seek. Think hard, where does Chengcheng like to hide?"

"Huh?" Xiaobai stood still, looking at Zhang Tan, racking her brain, and suddenly shouted, "I know!"

She ran to the clothing room, where the children's pajamas, blankets, and pillows were stored in several large storage boxes.

It was indeed a good place to hide, but the teachers had already searched there.

Xiaobai crawled to the corner of the room, came to a pile of small storage boxes, lifted the lid of one, and exclaimed, "Chengcheng!"

She then excitedly turned back to point at Zhang Tan, "Boss Zhang, Chengcheng is here."

"You little one, what are you doing in there~~"

Xiaobai patted Chengcheng, who was curled up in the storage box, half-asleep.

Zhang Tan picked her up, and the little one was still dazed but healthy and fine.

"Chengcheng, why did you fall asleep here?" Zhang Tan asked gently.

Chengcheng is a bit introverted, timid, and has few good friends, one of whom is Xiaobai.

"I'm thirsty," Chengcheng said softly.

Zhang Tan carried Chengcheng to the first floor, and the teachers on the first floor finally relaxed.

In the kindergarten, the biggest worry is that the children get sick or injured, and the biggest worry of all is that they get lost.

After giving Chengcheng some water, Teacher Xiaoliu whispered to her, and Xiaobai was there too.

After a while, Xiaobai and Teacher Xiaoliu came to find Zhang Tan.

Teacher Xiaoliu said, "We found out, Chengcheng is a bit sad."

"What happened? Did someone bully her?" Zhang Tan asked.

"No, it's something we might not have thought of. Last Friday, Xiaobai invited many children to your place to watch TV, but she forgot Chengcheng. Chengcheng felt she wasn't Xiaobai's good friend anymore and was very sad, so she hid herself."

Zhang Tan looked down at Xiaobai, who was also looking up at him.

"I forgot, Chengcheng was using the bathroom."

Chengcheng is a very sensitive little one.

Zhang Tan said to Xiaobai, "Next time you come to my place to play, you can invite Chengcheng."

Xiaobai asked, "Does Boss Zhang like Chengcheng?"

"Of course, she's so cute."

Xiaobai immediately ran outside and shouted, "Chengcheng, Boss Zhang likes you, come on."

Liu Liu led Chengcheng to the door.

Zhang Tan: (??_?)

Is this necessary? If you bring Chengcheng to visit, I won't refuse at all.

They are all customers of the school, my God.

He said to Teacher Xiaoliu, "Let them play here."

Teacher Xiaoliu left, and Xiaobai, Liu Liu, and Chengcheng stayed to play at Zhang Tan's place.

Fruits, bear drinks, and animated shows were all served.

The three children ate, drank, watched animated shows, and chatted, and it was a while before Xiaobai remembered that Boss Zhang was being ignored.

"Boss Zhang, Boss Zhang~~" she called out.

Zhang Tan put down his phone and asked, "What's up?"

Xiaobai: "You're so boring, let's chat."

Zhang Tan thought for a moment and realized that "chat" means "blow bubbles."

He became interested; what did the little one want to chat about?

"What do you want to chat about?"

Climbing trees wouldn't work, and dolls wouldn't work either. After some thought, Xiaobai said, "Let's chat about music."

Wow!

Zhang Tan was surprised.

Such a little one, chatting about music with him, could it work?

"What kind of music?"

"Talk about the music you like."

"What kind of music do you like?"

"I like blues music."

"..."

She knows about blues music? !!

Actually, it was just that the animation she was watching had a dog talking about blues music, and Xiaobai was using it right away.

Zhang Tan politely declined Xiaobai's offer because he noticed that Liu Liu didn't welcome him, thinking he was disturbing the children's chat.

Chengcheng didn't say anything, but Zhang Tan felt that, given her little醋坛子 (jealous nature), she might think he was monopolizing her Xiaobai and get upset.

It's possible.

Zhang Tan continued to play with his phone, reading the news and peeking at the class group chat.

He never expected the class monitor to suddenly bring up him in the conversation, and he tried to pretend he didn't see it, but

@him.

"Is Zhang Tan there? The employment survey form sent to your email at the beginning of the month is still missing from you. Please reply if you see this."

Employment survey form?

Zhang Tan really didn't know about this. He got up, went to the study, opened his laptop, logged into his email, and found no unread emails.

He hadn't received any employment survey form.

He returned to the living room, sat back on the single sofa, and counted down three seconds in his head before replying.

Replying too quickly would make it obvious he was peeking.

"I didn't receive the form, can you resend it?"

He also @ed the class monitor.

There were many messages in the group, and everyone was chatting.

Ding dong~

The class monitor quickly replied.

"Alright, no need to make it so complicated. Just reply to me, where are you working now and what is your job."

Zhang Tan hesitated, and the class monitor urged, "Hurry up, there's nothing confidential about it."

Someone made a snide comment.

"Zhang Tan, I heard you left the 'Stay by My Side' production team?"

"I heard you were fired for causing trouble while drunk, is that true, Zhang Tan?"

"Zhang Tan has many connections, no need to worry about him."

...

Zhang Tan replied uniformly: "You must have heard wrong. I'm in Pudong, working with a production team, it's going well. After more than two months since graduation, I've learned one thing: people should go out and explore, take the initiative to step out of their comfort zone, and not just believe what they hear. Ears and mouths are on our heads to remind us that everything we hear and say should be thought through first."

There was a silence of three or four seconds in the group, with no one speaking.

It was just the calm before the storm.

Soon, a flood of messages came in.

Zhang Tan felt as if forks, knives, and smelly socks were flying at him.

Suddenly, it seemed as if all the arrows in the sky paused, hanging in mid-air.

Because someone stood in the air and said, "Stop."

"I saw Zhang Tan in Pudong; he's in the production team next to mine."

Sulan said this in the group, shielding Zhang Tan behind her.