NOVPUBTime: 23:38. He and Lin Wanning were still on the phone.
"It’s pretty late already, let’s hang up and go to bed," Xu Qingfan yawned as he spoke.
"No, no~ It’s not even midnight yet, Brother Qing Fan, you have to stay up with me!" Lin Wanning cooed into the receiver.
"But my phone’s about to die and shut off, we’ve been talking for nearly two and a half hours," Xu Qingfan said helplessly, staring at the red battery icon on his screen.
"Can’t you just charge it while we’re talking? I’m always charging my phone while chatting with Brother Qing Fan."
"There are no power sockets in the countryside, and if I charge my phone, I’d have to leave the warm covers. It’s so cold. Wanning, would you really want me to freeze like a dog?"
"Umm~" Lin Wanning made a difficult face, puffing her cheeks in resignation, "Then can you tell Wanning a bedtime story, and then we’ll go to sleep?"
"Really?"
"For real!"
"Let me think..." Xu Qingfan wrapped himself in his quilt and got up from the bed; there was no other way, if they continued talking, his phone really would die.
"Sure, Brother Qing Fan, take your time!"
"Got it, listen up."
"Mhm!"
"Once upon a time, there was a fox and a rabbit."
"Little Rabbit!" Lin Wanning interrupted.
After plugging in the charger, Xu Qingfan also added, "Right, ’Little Rabbit’ and the fox were good friends."
"How could ’Little Rabbit’ possibly be friends with a fox, Brother Qing Fan? Don’t you know that foxes eat rabbits?" the girl immediately objected.
"No interrupting, or I’ll stop telling the story!"
"Uwu~ No more talking, no more. Brother Qing Fan, please continue," she said.
"One day, the rabbit and the fox went out to play together, but on the way, the little fox suddenly said to the little rabbit, ’Ah~ my mouth feels so chilly, I wish I had a piece of candy.’ After hearing this, the little white rabbit immediately lay down on the ground, forming a ’big character,’ and the little fox asked, ’What are you doing?’"
"I know, I know, it’s the White Rabbit Creamy Candy! Right, Brother Qing Fan?" Lin Wanning answered the little fox’s question with excitement over the phone.
"Wanning is so smart. Do you know what happened after that?" Xu Qingfan tried to hold back his laughter as he continued.
"Did the little fox pull up the little white rabbit and continue to play?"
"That’s not right," Xu Qingfan shook his head.
"Then it must be the little white rabbit playing a trick, pulling down the little fox when he tried to lift her up," Lin Wanning recalled a moment from a few months ago with Brother Qing Fan on campus.
"That’s not right either."
"Then what is it?" the girl asked, baffled.
"Haha... then.. haha... the little fox ate the little white rabbit. Starting from the top, chicken-flavored, extra crispy haha..." Xu Qingfan was not good at telling jokes, and he couldn’t help but laugh before finishing the story.
"What?" Lin Wanning opened her mouth in astonishment. After realizing it, she said angrily, "Brother Qing Fan, you’re playing with me!"
"Hehehe, the bedtime story is over. If you liked the story, please text to 88888 to subscribe," he teased.
"Hmph~ I didn’t like it, Brother Qing Fan is playing tricks, Brother Qing Fan is a bad brother!" Lin Wanning buried her head in the covers, shaking like a tambourine.
"But just now, Wanning was the one who said foxes eat rabbits," Xu Qingfan said with a laugh.
The girl wanted to argue back but could not think of any good excuses on the spot, as she wasn’t too sharp.
"That’s not okay, Wanning wants to hear a sweet bedtime story, not the flavor of chicken crisps! Humph~" Lin Wanning said, with her cheeks puffed out, looking huffy as if she had just swallowed two plums.
Even through the screen, Xu Qingfan could imagine the girl’s current look and couldn’t help but laugh out loud into the microphone.
"You’re still laughing, Brother Qingfan, you’re not allowed to laugh!"
As the two talked, the last twenty minutes also passed without them realizing it, and the arrival of midnight marked the official start of the new year.
Perhaps because he was so engrossed in his call with Lin Wanning, his legs had started to go numb, but he didn’t notice.
"Has Wanning fallen asleep yet? Why haven’t you turned off the light, you have to visit your aunt’s house tomorrow to wish her a happy New Year." Wen Wanqing asked, knocking on the door from outside the room.
"Mommy, I’m asleep, can you help me turn off the light?" Lin Wanning, hearing her mother’s voice, poked her head out of the blanket and called out.
Wen Wanqing smiled silently outside the door, and only after getting her daughter’s permission did she push open the door to help turn off the light, "Go to sleep early, stop playing with your phone."
"Got it, Mom, good night!"
"Brother Qingfan, my mom has left, let’s continue talking. It’s already five minutes past midnight, and I forgot to wish Brother Qingfan a Happy New Year at the turn of the year. I’ll do it now, Brother Qingfan, Happy New Year!" Once her mom had left, the girl drew her head back under the covers and continued speaking into the microphone.
Just the brief moment she stuck her head out was enough for a thin layer of mist to form on the screen of the warm phone, clinging uncomfortably to her face.
Lin Wanning quickly wiped it on her sleeve, afraid of missing Xu Qingfan’s voice. After wiping it, she promptly placed the phone back to her ear.
Luckily, she didn’t miss much, and it was at this moment that Xu Qingfan’s voice came through, "Ning also, Happy New Year. It’s late, shall we go to sleep?"
"Humph~ Brother Qingfan, the story you just told doesn’t count. Tell another one, or I won’t sleep!" The girl quickly got into character, speaking with Xia Xiaoxiao’s haughty tone.
"Let’s tell another one then. How about the story of the little bunny and the little fox?"
"No, not the little bunny. I want little Ningning and little Fanfan." The girl cooed into the microphone.
"Alright~, one day little Ningning told little Xiao Fan, ’Tonight, there will be a meteor shower across the sky. Let’s stay up and make wishes together.’"
Because the story’s protagonists were her and Brother Qingfan, Lin Wanning didn’t interrupt this time and listened patiently as Xu Qingfan continued.
[Little Xiao Fan said, "Yes, yes! But you always go to bed so early, you’ll probably fall asleep before the meteor shower even begins."
"If I fall asleep, just wake me up when the meteor shower happens!" little Ningning said nonchalantly.
As expected, when the night of the meteor shower arrived, no matter how loudly little Xiao Fan called, little Ningning showed no sign of waking up.
Helplessly, he closed his eyes and made a wish on his own.
The next day, little Ningning woke up first. She excitedly shook the still-sleeping little Xiao Fan awake, "I made a wish! Last night I dreamt of lots and lots of strawberry cakes and ice cream. What did you wish for?"
It turned out that although little Ningning had fallen asleep, she still dreamt of the meteor shower and made her wish.
Little Xiao Fan just smiled, pinched the cheek of the person in front of him and said, "My wish has already come true just now!"]
"Wow~ Brother Qingfan, your wish was to pinch my cheek, wasn’t it!" Lin Wanning clearly projected herself into the story, saying sweetly.
"Nope, that was little Xiao Fan’s wish, not mine," Xu Qingfan said, laughing along with the girl’s innocent and melodious laughter from the phone.
"Oh, right, right, that was little Xiao Fan’s wish, not Brother Qingfan’s, hehe." Reminded by him, the girl realized her mistake and said.
"Alright, the story is over, can we go to sleep now?" 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
"Yeah, Brother Qingfan, good night!" Lin Wanning was truly satisfied this time, and also truly felt sleepy.
"Good night."
That night, the girl dreamed of a sky full of meteor showers, as well as the person who was by her side, watching the shower with her.
As for what little Xiao Fan’s wish was, she soon became oblivious to it...
