NOVPUBAugust 8, the Yanjing Olympic Games, long awaited by the people of Huaxia, arrived as scheduled.
However, because Xu Qingfan didn’t like the crowded travel, he ultimately chose not to watch the opening ceremony at the venue.
At eight o’clock in the evening, Xu Qingfan, Xia Xiaoxiao, Lin Wanning, and Zhang Yiyi gathered at their secret base.
The coffee table in the living room was full of fruits and snacks, the air conditioner set to a comfortable twenty-four degrees, and they each had a blanket draped over them as they lazily nestled on the sofa.
On the TV, a little girl in a red dress was singing "Ode to the Motherland".
[The Five-star Red Flag flutters in the wind]
[How loud the victory song is]
[Singing about our beloved motherland]
[From now on, she strides towards prosperity and strength]
[...]
Xia Xiaoxiao watched for a while and then noticed something was off. She placed her cup back on the coffee table and pointed at the TV, "Her lip movements don’t match the lyrics at all, isn’t this supposed to be live?"
"Eh? Really, Brother Qing Fan, why is that?" Lin Wanning said after listening closely and indeed, many of the lip movements did not match the lyrics.
Everyone turned their gaze toward Xu Qingfan, even Little White lying on the wooden floor imitated them, turning his head towards him, his anthropomorphized head tilting to signal him to explain quickly.
"What’s so surprising about that? For such a large-scale live broadcast, to prevent accidents, of course, they are going to lip-sync. Record the song in advance, then just match the lip movements during the live performance!" Xu Qingfan explained.
"Ah?"
"But this is..."
Xia Xiaoxiao was about to say, even the Olympics engages in such deceit?
"It’s all the same, like the Spring Festival Gala and many stars’ concerts. They all lip-sync," Xu Qingfan said with a smile.
"Moreover, with so many people at the scene, it’s already quite amazing that she can perform without stage fright," he added.
"Alright then." The girls returned their focus to the TV.
Xu Qingfan, however, remembered more. This little girl became famous in less than twenty-four hours and professionals exposed her lip-syncing, leading to the netizens condemning her.
Being able to perform with emotion on such a massive stage without stage fright at the age of six or seven is already no easier feat than singing itself.
Unfortunately, people only remembered the lip-syncing and few realized that it was with this song that the real rise of Huaxia began.
However, when it came time to be practical, Xu Qingfan was very realistic. The commercial poster endorsement deal signed with Liu Xiang four years ago had expired last month, and Zhong Wenqing originally wanted to continue paying a high price to renew the contract, but he stopped her.
Xu Qingfan righteously said that after the Olympics, Liu Xiang’s value would definitely skyrocket, and we shouldn’t always think about taking advantage of others, let’s renew the contract after it’s over!
Although Zhong Wenqing felt something was odd, she still agreed with his opinion.
Xu Qingfan then gave Zhong Wenqing a list of athletes who would soar to fame this year, suggesting she should quickly seize the opportunity to sign them. He did not follow up on the matter after that.
The opening ceremony continued for an hour, and once the stage lights came back on, the three girls spontaneously patted their numb thighs and took turns going to the bathroom.
"Brother Fan, help me up, my legs are so numb!" Lin Wanning stood up and, not long after, because of her numb thighs, threw herself toward Xu Qingfan.
Xu Qingfan instinctively opened his arms, pulling the girl into his embrace, and made a fist with his palm to rub her thighs, "It’s your own fault for being so engrossed that you didn’t change your position.
"Ss~ Ah~" Enjoying Xu Qingfan’s massage service, Lin Wanning let out comfortable moans.
"The opening ceremony was really good to watch!" Hearing the sound of the toilet flushing, Lin Wanning stood straight again and cooed.
After the opening ceremony was the boring and lengthy athlete parade, and once the three women returned from the bathroom to the sofa, they lost patience after a short while.
"When will the Huaxia Team finally make their entrance?" Xia Xiaoxiao yawned and asked.
"No clue. I didn’t understand the order they’re using to make the entrances," Xu Qingfan said, shaking his head and pouring some more tea into Zhang Yiyi’s empty cup.
Zhang Yiyi gave him a sweet smile, and said to everyone, "Hide and seek, at home, everyone!"
"Yes, yes, let’s play hide and seek, hide and seek!" Lin Wanning, holding a Yuanlang Egg Roll she had eaten a third of, nodded frantically.
"I’m down for it," said Xia Xiaoxiao, glancing at the TV and then at the three of them.
"Let’s decide with rock-paper-scissors. Don’t run out of the yard, only hide inside the house. The one who loses goes first to seek!" Xu Qingfan motioned with his hand, ready to play rock-paper-scissors.
"Rock-paper...scissors!"
"Rock-paper-scissors!"
"Hehe~ Brother Qing Fan, you lost. You seek first!" During the second round, Xu Qingfan chose scissors, and the three girls seemed to have coordinated, all choosing rock.
"I’ll seek, but no hiding in dangerous places, counting down from thirty seconds!" He covered his eyes with his elbow, leaning on the door to count down, "Thirty, twenty-nine..."
"Wait a minute, hold on Brother Qing Fan!" Lin Wanning called out.
"What’s up?" Xu Qingfan turned around.
"Little White will follow us, take him out, Brother Qing Fan!" Lin Wanning said, pointing at the Shiba Inu lying on the floor.
"Ok."
"Woof~" Little White resisted vehemently but still couldn’t overcome everyone’s strength and ended up tied up in the yard.
"Counting down again, thirty, twenty-nine..."
The three shared a silent smile, with Lin Wanning gesturing towards the upstairs, Xia Xiaoxiao shaking her head, pointing to the nearby gym and silently mouthing "split up," before tiptoeing into the room.
Seeing this, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi silently held hands and went upstairs.
"Three, two, one!"
Xu Qingfan finished his countdown and turned his head around, the previously lively living room was now completely empty.
"Not even bothering to hide properly, didn’t even close the cabinet door properly!" Xu Qingfan noticed something was off, crouched down and pushed open the cabinet door, but it turned out to be empty.
Xia Xiaoxiao, hearing the noise, revealed a smug expression; she had purposely left the cabinet door open before she left.
Xu Qingfan, still not giving up, opened several nearby cabinets to no avail.
The newly purchased house was set up rather simply in order to move in as soon as possible.
The first floor consists of a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and an exercise room, while the second floor has three bedrooms, one of which, the master bedroom, also contains a bathroom.
Seeing no likely hiding spots on the first floor, Xu Qingfan only took one loop around before heading up the stairs to the second floor.
Little did he know, Xia Xiaoxiao, who was hiding behind the curtain, could hear his footsteps and was nervously quickening her heartbeat. Once she confirmed Xu Qingfan had left, she walked out of the living room triumphantly and patted the spot where Xu Qingfan had been counting down.
Apart from the master bedroom, the doors of the other two rooms on the second floor were wide open. He went straight to the master bedroom and opened the shut door.
As expected, the master bedroom was empty, however, the bathroom door was locked. Without asking, he knew the two must be hiding inside.
"Can’t you be a bit more creative? Hiding in the bathroom again?" Xu Qingfan chuckled to himself as he approached, only to find the door was actually locked by the two people inside.
"That’s not how you play, you’re not allowed to lock the door, come out now!" Xu Qingfan knocked on the bathroom door.
Before he could say anything more, he heard the smug laughter of three girls downstairs, and Xu Qingfan instantly knew he had been outsmarted by a diversionary tactic.
"Hahaha~ Brother Qingfan you are so silly!"
"We were hiding in the smallest bedroom all along. As soon as you entered another room, we ran downstairs!"
"Brother, keep seeking!"
The three girls laughed uncontrollably, feeling proud that they could play a prank on Xu Qingfan.
"Laughing so happily, I’ll catch you first later!" Xu Qingfan flicked Lin Wanning’s cowlick with his fingers and laid his head on the door again to start counting with his eyes closed.
"Hee hee~ Yiyi, let’s run!"
"..."
The game of hide and seek lasted for nearly an hour, but since there weren’t many places to hide in the house, it eventually lost its appeal.
The four of them sat back in front of the TV, with Lin Wanning wiping sweat with a tissue and saying, "Why hasn’t the Huaxia athletes’ delegation arrived yet? It’s almost ten!"
Having tea continuously, the three girls did not feel sleepy, but just sitting in front of the TV waiting for the Huaxia Team was way too boring.
"Xu Qingfan, I’m hungry!" Xia Xiaoxiao said, rubbing her stomach.
"What are you talking about, isn’t there snacks on the table!"
"I want something hot!"
"So demanding. What about you two, what do you want to eat?" Xu Qingfan gave Xia Xiaoxiao a playful glare and turned to ask the others.
"Anything’s good, we can order KFC home delivery!" Lin Wanning suggested after a moment’s thought.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
Seeing that all three girls seemed eager to eat, Xu Qingfan reluctantly took out his phone to order them takeaway.
"One family bucket, three strawberry sundaes, and one portion of Original Recipe chicken, that’s all thank you." After giving his address as well, Xu Qingfan could now wait for the KFC delivery person to arrive.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t twelve years old in his mind, thinking that if as a child he could have KFC whenever he wanted, or eat instant noodles anytime, he couldn’t imagine how high his happiness index would have been.
KFC’s home delivery service boasts of a half-hour delivery within three kilometers, charging a flat rate of nine yuan for delivery regardless of the distance.
Since their location was just over a kilometer away from KFC, the delivery person called him just over ten minutes after hanging up the phone.
Xu Qingfan took some money and went out, soon returning with the hot and spicy KFC.
The cola was the usual 1.25L bottle of Pepsi-Cola, which no one wanted to drink, so Xu Qingfan had no choice but to put it in the fridge to chill.
The three girls, wearing disposable gloves, couldn’t wait to grab the fried chicken and munch away. Now, watching TV with a meal made the otherwise dull parade of national delegations seem much more interesting.
As the time approached eleven, the KFC was long gone, and even the leftovers had been cleaned up by Little White.
The three girls sat shoulder to shoulder, looking drowsy, while Little White, having returned inside, had already fallen into a deep sleep.
A sudden "Chai Na" from the TV, cutting through the silence of the night like a shooting star, promptly widened the sleepy eyes of the three girls.
"It’s the Huaxia delegation, finally the Huaxia delegation!"
Yao Ming, carrying the Five-star Red Flag, led the way with the thousands of Olympians following behind him. The cheers at the venue were deafening, and those in front of the TV could hardly hear the commentator anymore.
"It would be great if we could also be volunteers at the venue!" Lin Wanning watched enviously as many kids even younger than her followed along with the delegation.
"There’s a chance. When Hong Kong hosts the Asian Games, we’ll go volunteer!" Xu Qingfan remembered the upcoming Asian Games in two years.
"Sounds good!"
After the Huaxia Team’s entrance, there was nothing much interesting left, so Xu Qingfan turned off the TV.
The three girls tidied up the garbage on the coffee table diligently, while Xu Qingfan took care of cleaning the tea-making equipment.
After calling their families to report they were safe, the four of them squeezed into the bathroom on the first floor to brush their teeth and wash up.
"Goodnight," said Xu Qingfan, the first to finish brushing his teeth. He patted the three girls on the shoulders and headed back to his room on the second floor.
"Goodnight, Brother Qingfan!"
"Goodnight!"
One of the bedrooms on the second floor was furnished in a boyish style, seemingly left for Zhang Chunxue or Zhang Yiyi on purpose.
It seemed that due to the good impression he had accumulated over the years, the parents were extremely comfortable with Xu Qingfan acting as a temporary guardian.
For example, during their last trip to Guilin, it was he who was responsible for leading and organizing the girls’ itinerary, all without any adults accompanying them.
As long as they didn’t take unofficial taxis or stay in small hotels, and didn’t go to places without streetlights and surveillance at night, there weren’t that many dangers.
And since they were all still young, the parents didn’t even think about early romance.
Xu Qingfan returned to his room, picked up the remote to set the air conditioner to sixteen degrees, strong, and high speed, then kicked off his slippers and comfortably snuggled into the air-conditioned blanket.
[I hope this carefree life could go on forever...]
Thinking this, he slowly closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.
