NOVPUB```
"Finally, the dreaded double-period math class is over!" Lin Wanning slouched over her desk, looking as if her brain had short-circuited.
Xu Qingfan reached out and flicked her antenna-like tuft of hair, which wobbled on top of her head. "Get up and let’s go, today is Friday and the cafeteria is serving fried pork cutlets!"
"Pork cutlets, pork cutlets, fried pork cutlets!" Lin Wanning’s eyes lit up, and she didn’t even bother to organize the stationery and books on her desk, slinging her backpack on as she prepared to leave.
The five-person squad walked side by side down the hallway, just as they had in first grade.
The only change in formation was that they used to stand in a "convex" shape with Xu Qingfan in the middle, but now the five of them walked in order of height, like the bars of cell phone signal strength.
"The swallows have left, but there’s a time when they come back; the willows have withered, but there’s a time when they spring anew; the peach blossoms... the peach blossoms..."
"The peach blossoms wither, but there’s a time when they bloom again. However, wise one, you tell me, why do our days never return once gone?" Seeing Lin Wanning stop mid-sentence, Xiao Ruawen continued the recitation.
"Wow~ Monitor, you can already recite it?" Lin Wanning exclaimed in surprise.
"Hehe~ My dad made me memorize this essay when I was very little!" 𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙥𝒖𝒃.𝒄𝒐𝒎
"That’s amazing, I can only recite the first two lines!" Zhu Ziqing’s "In a Hurry" had just been taught that morning, and the Chinese teacher required complete recitation, which posed a challenge for Lin Wanning, who wasn’t good at memorizing.
"Brother Fan is truly impressive; no matter what ancient poem it is, he can memorize it after reading it a few times!"
Xu Qingfan secretly took pride in himself; would he ever tell them he had memorized them in a past life!
When the group reached the second floor, Wu Lingyu was already waiting at the stairwell.
"Brother Fan!" The girl ran to join the little group as they came downstairs.
"How tall are you now, Yu? Are you taller than Brother Fan?" Xiao Ruawen asked, since classes one through ten had their physical exams during the third and fourth periods.
"Ah? I... I’m one fifty-one, should be about the same height as Brother Fan." Wu Lingyu discreetly moved a bit closer to Xu Qingfan, glancing sideways to compare their heights.
"Hehehe~ Brother Fan is just one fifty, Yu, you’re one centimeter taller than him!" Xiao Ruawen squeezed between the two, resting a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Oh... it’s nothing, really; the teacher said boys develop later." As a qualified elementary school, Experimental Primary had separated the boys and girls and given a comprehensive sex education to the sixth graders at the start of this semester.
The boys in the class looked at the cartoon illustrations in the sex education book as though they had found treasure, but Xu Qingfan was unimpressed; this old clunker of knowledge might just stall on the road!
Reliving his life, Xu Qingfan still felt his purity set him apart from his classmates.
This term, the Chinese teacher assigned an essay called "Campus Spring Colors," but homework essays never came from one’s own pen. As usual, the boys opened their browsers to search, and this search opened up a gateway to a new world, unearthing a variety of "Liu Bei Autobiographical Essays," which they then brought back to school to share with each other.
Xu Qingfan looked at a few essays with a critical eye, thinking they were complete rubbish, shaking his head at the long string of onomatopoeias.
Had it not been for the need to maintain his pure persona, he would have shared the exotic travelogues of his recently returned brother Tao and Brother Bin, who hadn’t done well in high school.
"Monitor, you keep saying that Brother Qing Fan is short; be careful, or he’ll..." Seeing Lin Wanning pause, everyone instinctively turned their gaze towards her, and she continued, "Be careful or Brother Qing Fan will jump up and hit you in the knee!"
"Pfft!"
"Hahaha~"
Xu Qingfan’s face darkened, while the rest burst into laughter.
It was his own fault, really; when he was taller than the others, he used to love to pat their heads. Despite their objections, he’d retort, "It’s because you’re not as tall as me."
Now that the tables had turned, being mocked was inevitable.
The group entered the cafeteria, giggling and laughing, and after securing a spot with their backpacks, they queued up to get their food.
"Shall we all go see Iron Man tomorrow?" Xiao Ruawen suggested while giving her unwanted vegetables to Xu Qingfan.
"Aren’t we visiting Qingfan’s countryside home tomorrow?" Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at her and remarked.
"Oh, right, yeah, then let’s go on Sunday; a lot of our classmates have seen it already!"
"Is Iron Man better than CJ7? CJ7 was the best movie I’ve seen this year!" Lin Wanning reminisced about the scene of several families packing a movie theater to watch a film during the Spring Festival earlier that year.
"They’re different types of movies; I don’t know. But I saw the trailer on the computer, and the transforming armor looked super cool!"
"The King of Kung Fu!" Zhang Yiyi also chimed in.
"Is that the one starring Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Liu Yifei?"
"Yep!" Zhang Yiyi nodded repeatedly, influenced by Xu Qingfan, she had become a fan of Zhao Ling’er in the TV series Immortal Sword Heroes, hence paying close attention to any movie or TV series featuring Liu Yifei.
"That one’s a flop, I’ve heard lots of people online bashing it." Xu Qingfan had seen the movie in his previous life and found it rather confusing.
"Brother Fan, what about Iron Man? Is Iron Man a flop?" Xiao Ruawen asked eagerly.
"Iron Man is okay, not great but not bad either."
"Yay! Then we’ll go to Brother Fan’s grandma’s on Saturday, and see the movie on Sunday!!" Xiao Ruawen planned out the weekend to the brim. "I’m definitely not going tomato picking this time!" she quickly added, recalling the unpleasant memories from last time.
"Why did you pick tomatoes?" Wu Lingyu blinked her innocent eyes, asking with perplexity.
"She stepped on a snake while picking tomatoes last time. If it weren’t for me, her grave would be overgrown with grass by now, and yet she dares to mock my height!" Xu Qingfan gloated as he stood up and gave Xiao Ruawen a head pat,
```
