NOVPUBWhen Xu Qingfan carried Xia Xiaoxiao back to Lianhua Courtyard, it was already close to midnight.
The reason for their late return was, of course, because of the girl on his back causing trouble. Midway through their trip, she suddenly claimed she was hungry. Although Xu Qingfan offered to cook noodles for her at home, the girl refused and insisted on eating stir-fried beef ho fun and carp porridge from the street stalls.
Deboned fresh carp meat, placed into a clay pot with white porridge to simmer, would release its full flavor. Its tastiness was comparable to seafood porridge, and most importantly, it was economical and filling.
The dramatic scenes often depicted in TV shows with flirtatious thugs didn’t happen. Not to mention the ongoing campus reform movement for the past two years, even in their previous life when Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao had lived in this city for more than twenty years, nothing similar had happened.
Xu Qingfan did hope that one day the campus reform movement could expand from their province to the whole country. However, neither he nor Zhang Chaoqun had the influence to make that happen, so they still had to work hard.
"Did you leave the lights on when you left?" Xu Qingfan looked up and saw the light on in Xia Xiaoxiao’s house, asking her.
"Huh?" The girl also looked up and indeed saw the light on in her living room.
She uncertainly said, "I remember turning it off... Could it be a burglar?"
If Lin Jing had returned home, her mom would definitely have called her as it was getting so late. Xia Xiaoxiao easily reached that conclusion.
"Which thief turns on the light while stealing? Maybe Auntie just got home. Don’t scare yourself." Xu Qingfan picked up a spare steel pipe from the first floor, carrying Xia Xiaoxiao upstairs.
Xia Xiaoxiao also took out her phone, ready to call the police at the first sign of any trouble.
"Hah~"
When they reached the third floor and saw that the person playing on their phone in the living room was indeed Lin Jing, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mom, why didn’t you call me when you got home?" Xia Xiaoxiao temporarily forgot to get off Xu Qingfan’s back and asked at the doorway.
"I was just about to call you. So it turns out it was Xiaofan who returned. I was wondering where you were so late at night." Lin Jing replied.
"Yes, Auntie, I came back in the evening. Happy New Year, Auntie!"
"Come in, let’s talk. I still haven’t given you your red envelope." Lin Jing said as she stood up and took the keys to open the outer iron gate.
Only when she saw her mom looking at her with a puzzled expression did Xia Xiaoxiao finally come to her senses and get off Xu Qingfan’s back.
"This Xia Xiaoxiao is such a fool, she fell at Gualv Square." Xu Qingfan explained to Lin Jing, as a way to explain why he was carrying Xia Xiaoxiao.
"You are the fool!" Xia Xiaoxiao switched her roses to her left hand and punched him on the shoulder.
Lin Jing glanced at the roses in her daughter’s hand and smiled slightly. What she thought to herself, only she knew.
"Why are you home so late? Where did you get hurt?" Lin Jing helped her daughter sit on the sofa.
"I think her knee is probably swollen. She said it stings when she walks. We couldn’t check it properly outside." Xu Qingfan, behaving just like he was at his own home, started looking for the medicine box while talking.
Xia Xiaoxiao sneaked a guilty glance at him, but did not say anything.
[He said it himself! I didn’t lie to mom!]
Xu Qingfan soon found the Red Flower Oil, iodine solution, and cotton swabs, and stood beside waiting for Xia Xiaoxiao to take off her thermal wear so he could treat her wound.
But after several seconds, the girl still had not moved. Just as he was about to urge her, she glared at him and said, "How am I supposed to do it with you standing here!"
"What’s the big deal if Xiaofan sees? You have a skirt covering it," Lin Jing said casually, not treating Xu Qingfan as an outsider at all.
"Exactly, what’s the matter with showing some thigh? Haven’t you worn shorts in summer?" Since Lin Jing didn’t treat him as an outsider, Xu Qingfan naturally felt even less like one.
Under Xia Xiaoxiao’s fierce glare, Xu Qingfan eventually turned around. After all, taking off the thermal wear required starting from the waistband, exposing everything underneath, even the underwear.
"It doesn’t look too serious. Maybe she hurt her bone. If it still hurts tomorrow, you’ll need to go to the hospital for a CT scan." Lin Jing cleaned the wound while advising.
When Xu Qingfan turned back around, Xia Xiaoxiao’s knees and everything above them were covered by her skirt. She had placed her removed skin-colored thermal stockings to the side.
"Maybe it won’t hurt tomorrow, I’m not sure." Xia Xiaoxiao tried not to meet Xu Qingfan’s gaze, her eyes darting around.
"Alright, if it still hurts tomorrow, we’ll go to the hospital. We’ll talk about visiting your grandfather’s place some other day." After applying Red Flower Oil on the bruise, Lin Jing clapped her hands and stood up.
"Thank you, Mom."
"Why thank me? I was not the one who carried you back." Lin Jing patted her daughter’s face, evidently in a good mood.
"He deserved it. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have fallen." The girl pouted and said arrogantly.
"With your personality, only Xiaofan can tolerate you." Lin Jing said, shaking her head in a mix of exasperation and amusement. She took out a thick red envelope from her bag and handed it to Xu Qingfan, "Here, Xiaofan, Happy New Year. This is your red envelope."
"Hehe~ Thank you, Auntie. To be honest, I can’t stand her either. If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re her mom, I would have left this Xia Xiaoxiao long ago!" Xu Qingfan said cheekily, accepting the envelope.
"Xu Qingfan, if you have the guts, say that again!" Xia Xiaoxiao clenched her fists, her angry and teeth-gritting expression like one perfect for an emoticon.
"Auntie, look at this. You’re so gentle and elegant, how did this Xia Xiaoxiao turn out so rough?" Seeing the girl about to hit him with a pillow, Xu Qingfan quickly dodged behind Lin Jing.
Lin Jing momentarily lost herself in thought, seeing glimpses of her younger self in her daughter.
She too had once been like Xia Xiaoxiao, but her role as a mother and teacher restrained her personality. More importantly, the person who once accepted her was no longer there. After wearing the mask for so long, she could no longer take it off.
"You two are incorrigible. I’m going to take a shower. You both should rest early too." Lin Jing sighed, patting Xu Qingfan’s shoulder, and turned to her room to find her pajamas.
In the living room, Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao continued to playfully bicker, with her confined to the sofa due to her injured knee while Xu Qingfan playfully touched her face and patted her shoulder.
"You can’t hit me, you can’t hit me~" Xu Qingfan teased, jumping around and ruffling her like he was petting a cat.
"Boring!" The girl rolled her eyes at him disdainfully and took out her phone.
"Oh, you know you’re boring then." Without her response, Xu Qingfan’s enjoyment of teasing her waned as he sat next to her for a rest.
"Stupid dog, go die!"" Xia Xiaoxiao played her trump card. As soon as Xu Qingfan sat down, she immediately grabbed a pillow and pressed it against his face.
"Ow, Xia Xiaoxiao, you play dirty!"
"Serves you right for being so dumb!"
As Lin Jing came out of her room, she saw them play-fighting on the sofa and couldn’t help but smile helplessly.
Once upon a time, she and Xiaoxiao’s dad were just like that, spending six years in primary school and three years in middle school in the same class with their mutual friend Yao Jiping.
Although they had grown up together, their childhood friendship ended in divorce.
A failed marriage made Lin Jing realize that marriage and love were different. Childhood sweethearts couldn’t withstand the mundane realities of daily life.
[I hope Xiaofan and Xiaoxiao will be happy, whether together or not… I hope they won’t end up like me...]
