NOVPUBBecause the wound hadn’t healed yet, Xia Xiaoxiao could only wash her body with a wet towel in recent days. Lying on Xu Qingfan’s back, she asked with some lack of confidence:
"Do I smell?"
Xu Qingfan sniffed hard and still detected the familiar jasmine fragrance of the past. Wanting to tease Xia Xiaoxiao a bit, he said, "Terrible. Only I would be willing to carry you!"
"Xu Qingfan!!!" Xia Xiaoxiao fiercely bit down on his shoulder.
"Are you a dog or something?" Xu Qingfan reached back and gave her buttocks a hard smack.
"Hmph!"
If Xu Qingfan had said "stinky" or "reeks to high heaven," the little girl wouldn’t have gotten angry, but "terrible" was really too much to bear, just like if a girl asks you how her figure is and you answer in Cantonese with "Your backside stinks, better scrub the washboard."
The power of dialect to wound is unparalleled.
Xia Xiaoxiao pouted in aggrievement and turned her head to the side.
"Alright, alright, I was just teasing. You don’t smell, our little Xiaoxiao is as fresh as can be," Xu Qingfan jostled her thigh, saying with a laugh.
"I’m not talking to a dog!"
"I’m not talking to a dog!" Xu Qingfan mimicked Xia Xiaoxiao’s tone.
Xia Xiaoxiao decisively kept silent, having learned her lesson from previous setbacks and knowing Xu Qingfan’s tricks all too well.
"Do you want rice noodle roll or xiaolongbao?" Xu Qingfan shook his head amusedly and asked her after they reached the entrance of their complex.
"I want Zhengguo wontons!" Xia Xiaoxiao sulked.
"Where am I supposed to get Zhengguo wontons for you? Just rice noodle rolls, take it or leave it," Xu Qingfan carried her across the street to the rice noodle roll shop and called out, "Boss, two-one-one!"
"Young student, is your leg still not healed?" the rice noodle roll shop owner asked with a smile as Xu Qingfan set Xia Xiaoxiao down on a chair.
"Yes," Xia Xiaoxiao faced the owner, and suddenly had the illusion that her little scheme was seen through, feeling as though needles were on her back, and her little face blushingly nodded.
"The doctor said walking could rip the wound open, so we’ll wait until it’s scabbed over," Xu Qingfan poured two glasses of soy milk for them and scooped up two bowls of complimentary white porridge, answering casually.
Once provided with an out by Xu Qingfan, the little girl quickly bounced back, sipping the soy milk and murmuring quietly, "It’s been so long since I had Zhengguo wontons."
Zhengguo is a county below Li Cheng District, famous for its large, meaty wontons. Each bite gives you the texture of fresh shrimp and the subtle flavor of white pepper, highly favored by the citizens of Li Cheng City.
Xu Qingfan had taken a few people there to eat once, and Xia Xiaoxiao had been reminiscing about it ever since.
"We’ll go after your wound heals, we can take the bus there on the weekend," said Xu Qingfan.
"And eat fried wontons too!"
Xu Qingfan chuckled, "You’re turning into a little foodie just like Lin Wanning."
Xia Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes speechlessly, uninterested in entertaining Xu Qingfan’s teasing, and changed the subject, "Is your second comic book coming out soon?"
"Yeah, we printed two million copies for the first batch, not sure if we can sell them all," Xu Qingfan whispered next to Xia Xiaoxiao.
"That many?" The little girl opened her mouth in surprise.
Xia Xiaoxiao mentally calculated how much money Xu Qingfan could make this time, [A KFC family bucket costs 59 yuan, that rascal makes one yuan per book, two million, fifty-nine, that’s over thirty thousand family buckets!]
"How long will it take to eat all this!" she blurted out without thinking.
"What did you say, Xiao Xiao?"
"Ah... nothing, why do they print so many? What if they don’t all sell?" Xia Xiaoxiao came to her senses and voiced her concern.
"It was the publisher’s suggestion, they said we have to beat those pirates in terms of timing. They even suggested we should print this many!" Xu Qingfan held up three fingers.
In order to distribute as widely as possible, Xu Qingfan and his team had promised to buy back unsold copies. By now, the two million comic books were probably being shipped to every corner of the land and sea.
Xia Xiaoxiao also thought of their trio’s song "Peeping," which had recently become a check-in place for Jay’s fans in the comments section, filled with every kind of unpleasant message.
She remembered the hacker Xu Qingfan had mentioned before and suddenly had the urge to learn about it.
Of course, Xu Qingfan had no idea what Xia Xiaoxiao was thinking, and he carried her onto the school bus after finishing the rice noodle rolls.
...
Back in class 16, the classroom was unusually lively today, with all the students discussing something loudly.
"Brother Qingfan, there’s a toy car modification competition!" Lin Wanning exclaimed excitedly upon seeing Xu Qingfan enter with Xia Xiaoxiao on his back.
"Toy cars?" Xu Qingfan placed Xia Xiaoxiao back in her seat and asked, puzzled.
"Look, Brother Qing Fan, look!" Lin Wanning handed him the registration form.
"Hong Kong Toy Car Elementary Cup Invites You to Battle," Xu Qingfan read the centered title on the paper, "There are competitions for this too, at a city level, no less."
He originally thought it was those remote-controlled toy cars, but it turned out to be exactly the type from the anime series ’Mini 4WD,’ requiring competitors to assemble their own toy cars within a set time at the event and race them for the fastest time to win.
"What do you think? Should we join, Brother Qingfan?" Lin Wanning looked at him with hope in her eyes.
"Let’s join then!" Xu Qingfan shrugged indifferently; Lin Wanning’s face was full of desire, and he naturally didn’t want to disappoint her.
Suddenly, he remembered a live-action TV series about toy car racing he had seen on the Hong Kong children’s channel in a previous life. He couldn’t remember the name but recalled he used to really enjoy it.
He remembered one scene where the protagonist’s toy car lacked a high-speed motor, and his grandfather took apart the motor from either an exhaust hood or a washing machine and installed it on the toy car, which later brought the protagonist victory in the competition.
"Do you want to join us, Xiao Xiao? We need five people to sign up!" Lin Wanning looked at her expectantly.
Xia Xiaoxiao also shrugged: "Whatever."
"Yay! Then we only need one more!" Lin Wanning happily wrote Xia Xiaoxiao’s name on the form.
"Me, me, me, I can be the last one!" Xiao Ruawen came running over and said after hearing Lin Wanning.
"We’ve got a full team!!!" Lin Wanning wrote Xiao Ruawen’s name on the registration form and then, excited, hurled herself into Xu Qingfan’s arms.
"Alright, alright, let’s first understand the competition rules properly, so we’re not completely in the dark when we get there," Xu Qingfan shook his head helplessly, straightening Lin Wanning’s body that was buried against him.
Xu Qingfan picked up the registration form and flipped to the information page, and the first line struck him like a bolt: ’Each participating member must pay a registration fee of one hundred yuan.’
The competition was organized by schools, and once registered, the officials would distribute a set of parts for assembling the toy car. Contestants needed to familiarize themselves with the assembly of the toy car and make appropriate DIY modifications in advance.
The competition was divided into three parts: DIY before the race, assembly on-site, and timed laps. The team with the highest total score would win.
[I hope it’s not that toy stores can’t sell their inventory, so they’re teaming up with the education bureau to make money off a competition.] Xu Qingfan internally snarked.
