As you grow up, you forget many things from your childhood. In her memory, Charles Page was a boy with no legs, incomplete, but that was all. There was no place for him in her life. If he hadn’t become a “devil,” and hadn’t once protected her with a blank expression, she might have gone her whole life without ever paying him any attention.

He was the devil in the eyes of the world, but he was Emma Bennett’s benefactor.

He secretly cherished her in his heart for a lifetime.

She realized she had to do something.

When Henry Brooks came bouncing and skipping over, Emma Bennett clumsily turned around and hugged Henry Brooks’s leg.

Henry Brooks started shouting, “Emma Bennett, let go! What are you doing?” The chubby boy pounded his chest and stomped his feet, trying to shake Emma Bennett off.

A four-year-old girl’s body had no strength, and the chubby boy was like a little bull, charging around in a panic. Emma Bennett was almost unable to hold onto him.

Emma Bennett blinked her eyes, and like a piece of sticky taffy, she half-lay on the ground, tightly hugging the chubby boy’s leg, refusing to let him go. No matter how strong a five-year-old chubby boy was, he couldn’t run around with a “little sticky taffy” clinging to him.

The kindergarten instantly became a scene of chaos.

The July summer was hot. Emma Bennett wore a pair of pea-green cloth shorts, just reaching her knees, and her exposed calves were almost rubbed red by the ground.

A child’s skin is delicate. Her apricot-shaped eyes were filled with stubborn innocence, and she was almost lying flat on the ground.

Because she still had a fever, Emma Bennett’s little voice was a bit hoarse: “You’re not allowed to leave!”

Henry Brooks couldn’t break free and was about to go crazy. In the end, he burst into tears with a loud “waa!”

Emma Bennett was stunned.

She looked up in confusion at the bawling chubby boy, then turned her head to look at Charles Page not far away. Why… why wasn’t he coming over to help?

What should she do now that she made little Henry Brooks cry?

Charles Page looked down at her, holding that blue handkerchief. She happened to look up, her pair of apricot eyes especially bright and innocent in the summer sunlight, gazing at him helplessly and in confusion.

Henry Brooks cried loudly, his voice shrill, like a plucked rooster, snot bubbles coming out as he sobbed.

Charles Page looked at her wet eyes, and at Henry Brooks, who was jumping and trapped by her.

He pressed his lips together, tossed the handkerchief to the ground, and without another glance at them, struggled to push his wheelchair to the door.

The handkerchief landed in front of Emma Bennett. She was still lying there, maintaining her grip on Henry Brooks, not knowing whether she should let go.

Henry Brooks cried even louder, and the younger children in the kindergarten started crying too. As soon as little Mr. Clark entered the room, she saw the scene and hurried over to pick up little Emma Bennett.

Charles Page had already reached the door.

Inside, little Mr. Clark’s voice could be heard comforting the chubby boy.

He looked at the doorway. It was already the second afternoon, and his mom and dad still hadn’t come.

Chaos reigned behind him.

Charles Page never looked back, not even once. Although he never spoke, he knew a lot. For example, the most popular kids in kindergarten were Henry Brooks and Grace Ford.

Because Henry Brooks was funny and led everyone in play, and Grace Ford was good-looking and always dressed beautifully and neatly.

Also, the little girl who had just looked at him with sparkling eyes was the youngest girl in the kindergarten, only sent here at the beginning of this month, and she lived in the same neighborhood as him.

She cried easily, was delicate, and often got sick.

They all called her Emma.

Chapter 3: Heart and Soul

Little Mr. Clark finally managed to calm Henry Brooks down. Turning around, she saw Emma Bennett looking at her and the chubby boy with big, dark eyes.

Little Mr. Clark squatted down to check Emma Bennett’s calf, which was red over a large area, even a bit scraped. The little girl didn’t cry or fuss, quiet and well-behaved. Clearly, when she first came to kindergarten this month, the youngest girl of this age was still a crybaby.

Seeing that Emma Bennett wasn’t crying, little Mr. Clark breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t expect the two little kids to explain what happened—she just hoped there wouldn’t be any more trouble.

As soon as little Mr. Clark left, Henry Brooks glared at Emma Bennett with his tear-reddened eyes. Then the chubby boy snorted and walked away.

In the afternoon, the children were folding paper. Charles Page stood at the door, never coming in. Little Mr. Clark tried to push his wheelchair, but he pressed his lips together and gripped the door crack tightly with his fingers. Afraid of hurting his fingers, little Mr. Clark had to give up.

Emma Bennett knew what he was looking at—his parents still hadn’t come to pick him up.

She vaguely remembered that in elementary school, Uncle Pei and Aunt Jiang Wenjuan had divorced, and Charles Page lived with his father. But she hadn’t paid attention to him back then, and had even forgotten which grade it was.

Emma Bennett was in a daze all afternoon.

She wasn’t really a child, so she couldn’t be interested in these games like a real child. Plus, she had a fever, and the high temperature made her groggy and listless.

If you really had to grow up with the memories and soul of an adult, it would actually be pretty miserable.

At dismissal, parents came one after another to pick up their children.

Henry Brooks’s dad was still the first to arrive. The chubby boy proudly stood up from his little stool, and when he passed by Emma Bennett, he shot her a sidelong glance. But he resented Charles Page even more. As he left, he shouted loudly at Charles Page, “Your dad isn’t coming to pick you up!”

Charles Page looked up, his pitch-black eyes quietly watching Henry Brooks. His pale fingers silently gripped the wheelchair tighter.

The chubby boy dashed off.

Emma Bennett was furious!

What a brat!