NOVPUBI slept a really long time.
When Xu Qingfan opened his eyes again, the curtains were already drawn in the bedroom and it was brightly daylit.
Upon waking, the first thing he noticed was the strange sensation in his hand; his right arm, which Xia Xiaoxiao had been using as a pillow all night, had gone stiff from the pressure.
Xia Xiaoxiao was lying on her side, her back to him, still sleeping soundly at this moment.
Only after Qingfan woke up did he realize how intimate their sleeping positions were.
Because they shared a pillow, the two were almost in zero distance contact, his left arm somehow ended up around Xia Xiaoxiao’s belly, with his palm quite dishonestly slipped inside the girl’s pajama top, covering her belly button.
Qingfan carefully withdrew his hand and picked up the alarm clock from the bedside table to look at it, good lord, it was almost three in the afternoon.
As a child, it seemed that he could always sleep a lot, sleeping twelve to thirteen hours was common, but as he grew up, his biological clock naturally woke him after seven to eight hours.
He got up, dressed, and squatted by the bed to watch Xia Xiaoxiao sleep for a while.
Must say, her tranquil appearance was quite beautiful.
Qingfan took out a camera from the cabinet and took a few barefaced shots of Xia Xiaoxiao.
Because he forgot to turn off the flash, the continuous, dazzling light suddenly woke up the girl who had been sound asleep.
"What are you doing?" Xia Xiaoxiao opened her eyes a crack, asking languidly.
"Taking ugly photos of you!"
"Oh." Xia Xiaoxiao tucked her head under the covers, turned around, and continued to sleep.
"Get up, it’s three in the afternoon, if you’re not up by the time I finish brushing my teeth, I won’t wait for you to go eat." Qingfan patted Xia Xiaoxiao through the blanket.
"It’s that late?" Xia Xiaoxiao poked her head out from under the covers, took the alarm clock to see, and sure enough, it was two fifty-five.
After Qingfan went out to brush his teeth, Xia Xiaoxiao kicked off the covers with one foot, changed clothes, and then helped him fold the blanket neatly.
[Can’t believe I slept that long.] Xia Xiaoxiao was surprised by her own ability to sleep as she returned to her own home.
"How can I still feel so tired after sleeping so long." Xia Xiaoxiao yawned wearily, taking out her keys to open the door.
Last night, she lay down and kept thinking about her parents’ issues until she fell asleep around five o’clock; if it weren’t for Qingfan waking her up, she probably could’ve slept until dinner time.
The three o’clock sun was still very glaring, and after they both washed up, they went out and stood on the bustling street, idly standing still,
"Qingfan, what shall we eat?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked him, rubbing her stomach which was growling with hunger.
What to eat, that is the question.
During the New Year period, there are already few shops open, and given the time of three o’clock, which is neither early nor late, many restaurants choose to rest during this time, waiting to resume business around five o’clock in the evening.
"How about a McDonald’s coupon for the little kid?" Just as Qingfan was about to speak, a young woman wearing a pink McDonald’s uniform approached, pulling out two coupons from her bag and handing them to him.
"Oh, thank you." Qingfan said instinctively.
After the person left, he handed one of the coupons to Xia Xiaoxiao, "Let’s go to McDonald’s, what would you like to eat?"
The prices were just as he remembered from his childhood: 9.5 yuan for medium fries with a sundae, 12.5 yuan for spicy wings with New Orleans grilled wings, 14 yuan for a McSpicy Chicken Burger with small fries.
A small flyer, yet in Qingfan’s past childhood, it held a magical power, treasured and kept safe, taken out occasionally to gaze at, torn over which item on the menu to choose.
Tearing off the variously sized squares separated by dotted lines, he hid the little coupons in books, in drawers, never using them even once, but still excitedly rushing to get a new one whenever he spotted someone distributing KFC or McDonald’s coupons on the street.
"Qingfan, I want a Chicken McGrill burger, and also some New Orleans grilled chicken wings!" Xia Xiaoxiao said after she finished looking.
"You love New Orleans flavor so much, I’ll cook it for you at home next time."
"Yours won’t be as tasty as McDonald’s!"
"That’s not necessarily true, if I buy fresh chicken wings to make it, it’ll definitely be tastier than McDonald’s, how can their frozen chicken compare with mine."
As a Hong Konger, even a child knows the taste of real chicken, and chicken made from fresh ingredients is sure to be the best.
[Using freshly slaughtered, free-range chicken to make New Orleans grilled chicken would taste amazing!] Xia Xiaoxiao thought to herself.
"We’ll see when you make it!" She was craving it in her heart, but still argued defiantly.
"I don’t have an oven at home, I’ll show you next time we go back to the countryside!" Making New Orleans grilled chicken was just a matter of adding a packet of New Orleans seasoning during marination, similar to making baked chicken.
"When is ’next time’?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked.
"The next time is the next time, how would I know when." Qingfan replied nonchalantly, since his parents hadn’t returned home yet, how would he know when the next visit to Chuxi Village would be.
"Hmph~"
When they arrived at McDonald’s, despite being past peak meal times, the place was still quite crowded. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
After waiting in line for a few minutes, Qingfan held the tray and Xia Xiaoxiao held two Cokes, one following the other up to the second floor.
The two found a window-side seat and sat down, Qingfan skillfully squeezing an extra packet of ketchup onto his McSpicy Chicken Burger.
Xia Xiaoxiao picked up a fry and popped it into her mouth, then bent down to take a sip of Coke, "Qingfan, what shall we do after this?"
"Catch goldfish, play video games at Sunshine Park, or go home and play on the computer, you pick one."
