「That New Year's Eve night.」
The little girl sat quietly in the courtyard, holding a storybook and reading silently. Her eyes were timid, yet she strove to conceal the sorrow brought by her family's upheaval. Her perceptiveness reminded Xu Si of Pei Zhen in his youth.
Her long-cold heart suddenly softened a bit.
Xu Si glanced at the storybook's title.
— *The Little Princess*.
There was also a film adaptation with the same title, a black-and-white movie starring Shirley Temple released in 1939, which Xu Si had seen. She remembered the plot vividly, as if it were the back of her hand.
The little girl read with relish about the "kind magician" who conjured a table laden with sumptuous food for the hungry protagonist, and she subconsciously glanced at her own stomach.
