☆, Chapter 8: Bullying
That night, the scene of the cats paying homage reappeared at Hao Ren’s window. This time, however, it wasn’t cats, but a flock of owls. Hao Ren had thought that this Class II nationally protected animal was a rare sight, but she never expected a dense row of them to be standing on her windowsill that night.
Barn owls, eagle-owls, owlets, long-eared owls… all sorts of owls that one could only see in documentaries were gathered together, of different sizes and colors. When Hao Ren discovered them, a few were still holding their heads tilted, looking in the darkness as if they had two sets of eyes, one above the other, which was quite creepy.
Fortunately, having experienced the cat homage, Hao Ren wasn’t afraid this time. She calmly turned on the light and then opened the window to let them in.
These owls were much more well-behaved than the cats. After entering, they still stood in a line, bowed to Hao Ren, and after presenting their gifts, stood there respectfully. Each of them stared at Hao Ren with their large, round eyes without blinking. Although their expressions were solemn and emotionless, they looked even cuter than real cats.
As purely wild predators, the gifts they brought were even more gruesome than the cats’. Three thoroughly dead Dutch rats, each with an identical pet tag around its neck, were probably caught from the same home. Imagining the reaction of their owner after losing three beloved rats, Hao Ren couldn’t help but frown.
“Your Majesty, you don’t like our gifts?” Unlike the cats who dropped their gifts and left, the owls clearly cared about the Queen’s attitude towards their gifts.
“I’m satisfied! Of course, I’m satisfied!” The dead rats couldn’t be brought back to life. In order not to hurt their feelings, Hao Ren had to tell a harmless little lie.
“Ahem, ptooey—” Just as Hao Ren was agonizing over what tool to use to dispose of the three dead Dutch rats, the smallest owl suddenly coughed up a pellet.
Because owls swallow their food whole, the indigestible fur and bones of their prey are regurgitated as a pellet. The pellet was still covered in mucus from the stomach, and after being coughed up, it rolled a long way across the floor, leaving a long trail behind it.
“Oh! Your Majesty, I’m sorry!” After spitting it out, the owl quickly covered its eyes with its wings and lowered its head in shame.
Hao Ren didn’t react, but the owls next to it all cast contemptuous glances at it. The owl lowered its head even further, its expression and actions just like a child who had made a mistake.
“Bastard! How dare you offend Her Majesty!”
“You useless thing, we shouldn’t have brought you!”
“Speak! How will you compensate!”
…
The other owls began to denounce their disappointing companion. The poor little owl shrank into a ball in embarrassment under the denunciation of its peers.
“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Seeing the owl on the verge of dying from shame, Hao Ren quickly came to its rescue.
“Compensate! Compensate!” The other owls, however, were not so easily placated and continued to clamor menacingly.
“Alright, alright! Let it stay and compensate! You all can go back first!”
With the room in an uproar, Hao Ren had no choice but to shoo them all out. When she found them peeking from outside, she could only pull the curtains, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Realizing it was the only owl left in the room, the owl cowered timidly and asked Hao Ren with a tremble, “Your Majesty, are you going to eat me?”
Hao Ren burst out laughing. She had a reason for letting it stay, but it definitely wasn’t to eat it. If she were to eat one, she would have kept the largest one. Looking at its small size, there wasn’t much meat on it. Shake head, that thought is too gruesome!
“Didn’t your companions want you to compensate? I want you to do me a favor. Can you deliver a letter?”
“I can! I’m familiar with this area! Your Majesty the Queen, who do you want to send a letter to?” Knowing that Hao Ren didn’t want to eat it, the owl let out a long sigh of relief.
Hao Ren pointed to Hao Yi’s room upstairs. “To that handsome boy upstairs!”
“Too easy!” The owl excitedly flapped one of its wings.
When she saw the owls, a mischievous plan had formed in Hao Ren’s mind. Since Hao Yi longed for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry so much, she would send an owl to deliver a Hogwarts acceptance letter to him. She would see if she couldn’t torment him to death.
Since Daizi and Lucky could enter dreams, they could surely influence a person’s mind for a short period. Hao Ren was confident she could lead Hao Yi down the garden path. After being bullied by him for so many years, it was her turn to bully him for a change. As soon as she voiced the plan, she received the unanimous support of the small animals. After settling on the steps of the prank, Hao Ren prepared to tidy up and go to bed.
Using a tissue to throw the pellet the owl had coughed up into the trash can, Hao Ren’s gaze fell on the three Dutch rats.
The three Dutch rats looked quite fresh. Seeing the owl staring at them intently, as if it would be an insult if she didn’t eat them, Hao Ren had no choice but to sneak into the kitchen, prepare the three Dutch rats, roast them in the oven, and then enjoy them as a late-night snack with Daizi and Lucky. She had originally wanted to share some with the owl, but it refused on the grounds that it didn’t eat cooked food.
After mopping up the traces the owls had left on the floor, Hao Ren went to bed with Daizi and Lucky. Daizi, as usual, liked to curl up at her feet, while Lucky occupied her pillow. The owl was let out by Hao Ren, with an agreement to start the plan the next night.
The next morning, the girl, the dog, and the cat excitedly discussed their plan to prank someone.
Because Lucky had patted its chest and guaranteed that it would handle everything, Hao Ren didn’t even bother to find parchment paper. She just found a piece of kraft paper to make do. The envelope was even from the Hao Corporation, and there were no high-class, fancy things like wax seals or crests. All she had to do was turn on the computer, find what the acceptance letter looked like in the movie, let Lucky have a look, and then give it a Chinese version of the Hogwarts Eastern Branch acceptance letter that she had rewritten herself.
At the end, with a wicked sense of humor, she even pointed Hao Yi to an address to buy all his school supplies. There was an antique street in H City with quaint, old-fashioned architecture. If wizards really existed in this world, that place would surely become their favorite haunt. Hao Yi had been poisoned by a certain type of web novel for a period and had once bought a pile of inexplicable things from there. With malicious intent, Hao Ren planned to have Hao Yi run into the screen wall in front of a certain antique shop.
Hao Yi was only in his second year of high school and would be in his third in the second half of the year, so he wasn’t on summer vacation yet. Forget vacation, the poor guy didn’t even have Saturdays off. Fortunately, tomorrow was Sunday. If the acceptance letter was delivered tonight, with Hao Yi’s personality, he would definitely be eager to run into the wall the next day.
When the appointed time came, the owl appeared on the windowsill right on schedule. Hao Ren gave it the acceptance letter and told it to fly around outside for a bit before coming back. Lucky took the opportunity while Hao Yi was in the shower to sneak into his room. In its words, illusions were more effective when cast at close range.
According to Daizi, it could have done the job too, but compared to Lucky, it was too big and its target too obvious, making it easy for Hao Yi to spot.
Hao Ren didn’t see what Lucky did specifically, but the next morning, Hao Yi rushed out as if his eyebrows were on fire. Not long after, he returned with a bloody head.
Mr. and Mrs. Hao were shocked and quickly asked him what had happened. This time, the kid had learned his lesson and didn’t mention the acceptance letter, only saying that he had accidentally fallen while playing basketball. Mr. and Mrs. Hao were so worried they immediately dragged him to the hospital. When he returned, the poor guy’s head was wrapped up like a pig’s. That brat was really ruthless to himself; according to the doctor, he had a mild concussion.
That afternoon, the owner of the antique shop on the antique street came to the Hao residence and described in detail how their son had repeatedly run into his screen wall. After learning that Hao Yi would be in his third year of high school in the second half of the year, he earnestly advised Mr. and Mrs. Hao to keep a close eye on their son and not let a tragedy happen due to a moment of carelessness.
Remembering the shocked expressions on Mr. and Mrs. Hao’s faces at that time, Hao Ren hid in her room and laughed until her stomach hurt.
Unfortunately, just as she was laughing her head off, a pig-headed figure poked into her room at an inopportune moment. How rare, that guy Hao Yi actually didn’t kick her door this time.
“It was you! You did it, right?” That guy Hao Yi’s intuition was as sharp as ever; he had guessed who was behind it right away.
“What did I do?” Hao Ren tried her best to suppress her laughter and played dumb as she looked at the ridiculous pig-headed figure.
Hao Yi pointed at Hao Ren in the same way Conan points out a culprit and accused her resentfully, “You did it on purpose! You deliberately let me tell Mom and Dad about that, and then you sent me that acceptance letter!”
“Acceptance letter? What acceptance letter?” Hao Ren continued to play dumb.
“The Hogwarts Eastern Branch acceptance letter!” Hao Yi menacingly threw the blank kraft paper and the Hao Corporation envelope in front of Hao Ren.
Hao Ren picked up the envelope and paper and pretended to examine them for a long time, her expression blank. So I have the makings of a great actress, huh? A thumbs-up for myself!
“Hao Yi, do you really not need to see a psychiatrist?” She continued her award-winning performance, reaching out to touch her dear little brother’s forehead with a concerned look, her eyes especially sincere.
“Don’t treat me like an idiot! I know it was you, it was definitely you!” Before Hao Ren could withdraw her hand, her half-brother had already grabbed her by the shoulders. Not only did he grab her shoulders, but he even pushed her against the wall. If they weren’t siblings, this move could have been quite suggestive.
“Woof woof woof!” His movements were so sudden that even Daizi became nervous.
“So what if I did it on purpose?” The more frantic he got, the happier Hao Ren was. Anyway, even if he told someone, no one would believe him, so Hao Ren simply admitted it frankly.
“Why would you do this to me?” Hao Ren had been prepared for him to fly into a rage, but to her surprise, upon hearing her words, the brat actually showed a look of deep resentment.
“Why? Are you being reasonable? Is it only okay for you all to bully me, but not for me to bully you back once in a while?” Since he wasn’t going to get physical, Hao Ren, who had shrunk back slightly, straightened up.
Hearing this, the resentment on Hao Yi’s face quickly turned to gloom. He let go of her hand, gave her a deep look with an expression Hao Ren had never seen before, and then quickly left her room. Before leaving, he even pulled the door shut behind him.
“Did his eyes just now look like he was about to cry?” Her dear little brother had already shown such an expression, yet Hao Ren, as his older sister, found that she still didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt. “What a happy child. Crying over such a small grievance. If that’s the case, wouldn’t I have cried myself blind by now?”