NOVPUB"If you don’t want to come back, then never come back, not even for New Year’s! Mom and I can manage just fine by ourselves!"
Xu Qingfan, who had just returned from a boba shop run, hadn’t even stepped through Xia Xiaoxiao’s front door when he heard Lin Jing’s angry shouting inside.
After some inner conflict, Xu Qingfan continued with the step he had hesitated to take.
The autumn sun set particularly early, and although it was just past six o’clock, the outside was already lit up with countless lights. The living room light was off, leaving the inside dim and shadowy.
The TV was on but silent, its dim glow casting light on Xia Xiaoxiao’s face, making her look very lonely.
Lin Jing, with phone still in hand, made a motion as if she wanted to throw it just as her peripheral vision caught Xu Qingfan standing at the door.
"Xiao Fan, you’re here! Why don’t you come in and sit?" Lin Jing quickly adjusted her emotions, but her tone still sounded quite unnatural.
Xu Qingfan turned on the switch by the doorway, and the bright incandescent light quickly illuminated the room, "Auntie, have you eaten? I brought you some bubble tea!"
Acting as if nothing had happened, Xu Qingfan enthusiastically handed one of the sago bubble teas to Lin Jing.
The light, like a breath of life to the still room, watching Xu Qingfan’s smile somehow made Lin Jing feel less upset, "You and Xiao Xiao drink it; Auntie doesn’t really like bubble tea."
"Auntie, you drink it. I’ve already had some. Actually, both cups were originally for Xiao Xiao; she’s a big eater!" Xu Qingfan helped insert a straw and handed one of the cups to her.
"You’re the big eater!"
Xia Xiaoxiao, who had been silently sulking on the couch, suddenly got embarrassedly angry and threw a throw pillow at him.
"Auntie, look at her, always picking on me. Doesn’t she know how to behave like a lady!" Xu Qingfan deflected the flying pillow with his head and complained to Lin Jing.
"Pfft~" Lin Jing couldn’t help but laugh at Xu Qingfan’s antics, she admonished her daughter with a smile, "Xiao Fan’s just joking; why throw a pillow at him? Quickly apologize to Fanfan."
"Hmph, sorry!" Xia Xiaoxiao said begrudgingly.
"I’ll forgive you this time." Xu Qingfan smiled as he picked up the pillow from the floor and placed it back, then handed her the remaining cup of pudding bubble tea.
"Everyone’s a liar..." Xia Xiaoxiao took the bubble tea and intentionally sat a bit farther from Xu Qingfan.
"Go on, chat among yourselves; Auntie will go cook in the kitchen," cheerily watching the two’s light-hearted interactions, Lin Jing’s mood significantly brightened as she hummed a tune and walked into the kitchen.
Once her mother had entered the kitchen, Xia Xiaoxiao put down her bubble tea and flung herself onto Xu Qingfan.
"Liar, big liar, I’m gonna bite you!"
Xu Qingfan was tackled onto the couch, looking up at the little girl causing a ruckus atop him.
After pressing on him for a while, Xia Xiaoxiao felt her anger ebb away and was about to get up.
"Ah!"
Their painful cries echoed in the room simultaneously.
They looked at each other with masks of pain and said in unison, "Why are you yelling?"
Xu Qingfan held his newly assaulted groin, a clear explanation unnecessary.
Xia Xiaoxiao pointed to a bruise on her right knee, "You hurt me!"
He gave the little girl an annoyed look and squatted down to alleviate the pain.
"Are you okay?" Seeing Xu Qingfan looking quite pained, Xia Xiaoxiao asked with some concern.
"What do you think!"
"Sorry about that, I forgive you for being late too. Let’s just call it even!" she said with a pouted, aggrieved face.
Fortunately, Xia Xiaoxiao also had an injury on her knee and had not pressed down with full force just now. After a few minutes, Xu Qingfan felt less pain and sat back down on the sofa.
He hadn’t planned to let Xia Xiaoxiao off so easily, but thinking back to the phone call he heard just before entering the door, Xu Qingfan silently sighed in his mind.
"Be more careful next time, don’t press there, it really hurts!" he said, annoyed.
"Oh!"
When Xia Xiaoxiao was in kindergarten, her mother had taught her some basic biological knowledge, but not much. She knew only that boys were different from girls, and now realized just how fragile that area could be.
With these thoughts, Xia Xiaoxiao also remembered a time when she had pulled down her underwear in that position...
[Ahhh—I’m so embarrassed!!!] She subconsciously covered her face with both hands.
"What are you doing?" Seeing Xia Xiaoxiao acting weirdly, Xu Qingfan asked.
"None of your business! We agreed you’d be back by six, and now it’s almost seven!!" Xia Xiaoxiao, feeling her face burning up, turned her head to the side as she spoke.
"Aunt Zhang invited me for dinner, and oh, I brought you something." Xu Qingfan said, pulling a large crab out of his pocket. "This one cost over a hundred, it’s full of roe."
Nine females to ten males; October was the best time to eat male crabs. The crab in front of them weighed nearly 250 grams and was truly a premium specimen.
Even Xu Qingfan, who usually found eating crabs too troublesome, had indulged in two during dinner.
"How do I eat this?" Xia Xiaoxiao said excitedly, taking the crab from Xu Qingfan and looking clueless about where to start.
"Go get a spoon and some scissors, I’ll teach you." He was eager to show off his newly acquired Butcher’s crab dissection technique.
"Okay." Xia Xiaoxiao hurried into the kitchen with the crab, "Mom~ Xu Qingfan brought me a large crab!"
"That’s so nice of Fanfan, you two eat. Mom won’t have any." Lin Jing initially thought her daughter was coming to ask her to share and spoke right up.
"Mom, I need scissors and a spoon. Xu Qingfan already had some, let’s eat together!"
"Okay, my dear." Lin Jing rubbed her daughter’s head and handed her the washed spoon and scissors.
"Watch this, first break off the crab’s legs, because the legs cool down fastest, so you should eat them first. But now that it’s all cold, it doesn’t matter anymore." Xu Qingfan, having received the tools, broke off the crab’s eight legs with his bare hands.
"Then cut here, jab at the leg, and the meat will come right out," he flipped the crab’s shell onto the table, scraped off the meat and roe, and continued, "This part inside is the digestive tract and is not edible, but everything else is good to go!" He scraped all the edible parts onto the crab shell and handed it to Xia Xiaoxiao.
"Mmm!" The little girl took the spoon and crab shell gleefully and trotted back into the kitchen.
"Mom, you eat!"
Lin Jing took a spoonful and put it in her mouth. As the crab roe touched her mouth, her eyes lit up, "So this is how delicious crabs are, we should make them at home too!"
"Delicious!" Xia Xiaoxiao also exclaimed with joy after taking a spoonful.
Shortly after, Xia Xiaoxiao came out of the kitchen empty-handed, "Thank you," she said quietly, sitting back on the sofa.
"What did you say? I didn’t hear you clearly." Xu Qingfan was busy cleaning the crab legs on the table and only vaguely heard Xia Xiaoxiao speaking. n𝚘𝚟pub.𝚌o𝚖
"Never mind if you didn’t hear!"
"Get out of the way!"
"Silly~" Xia Xiaoxiao hummed a tune lightly, happily watching the busy person in front of her.
