What metaphors are used in In the Kindergarten by Ha Jin?

When Shaona realizes that her peanuts are missing, she doesn't waste any time with childish wondering about their fate and immediately comes to the conclusion that "her teacher must have confiscated the peanuts."

When the students return to pick more purslanes that afternoon, all but Shaona are duped by their teacher's claim that the cook wasn't able to make them in time on the previous evening. Shaona alone is sulky, though Jin adds in a line that is telling, both literally and metaphorically, that "she never stopped searching."