NOVPUB"Gather up the cards; it’s time to wash up for dinner!" Mom’s voice floated in from the kitchen.
"Hurry up, we can still play one last round. If my mom says she’s preparing, it means she’ll take at least 20 minutes!" Xu Qingfan dealt the cards, signaling everyone to join in.
At someone else’s house, the little ones dare not be willful. Xia Xiaoxiao snatched the cards from Xu Qingfan’s hands and neatly collected the rest on the table before saying to everyone, "We should listen to Auntie. After dinner, we can play more. Ignore Xu Qingfan!"
"Hee hee, let’s listen to Xiaoxiao!"
"Ningning is also listening to Xiaoxiao. Teacher Guan says that kids who don’t listen to their parents are bad children. Brother Qingfan, you’re not allowed to be a bad child!" Lin Wanning stood with hands on hips, pointing at Xu Qingfan, and earnestly lectured him.
"Pfft~ Didn’t Teacher Guan also say that sometimes parents might not always be right? We, as children, should have our own opinions," Xu Qingfan chuckled, reaching out to pinch Lin Wanning’s little face.
Lin Wanning pondered and felt there was some sense in that, tilting her head in confusion, "Then should we listen to our parents or should we have our own opinions, huh?"
"Wanning, don’t listen to his nonsense. Teacher Guan said to obey our parents in life but to have our own opinions about studying. Let’s ignore him!" Xiao Ruawen pulled Lin Wanning away from Xu Qingfan, muttering softly under her breath.
Lin Wanning’s mouth hung open, nodding with a dawning realization, "Brother Qingfan, you’re trying to trick me again!"
"Xu Qingfan is the worst. Back in kindergarten, he even lied to me, saying the dog downstairs was sick and needed two yuan to buy medicine at the hospital!" Victim number one, Xia Xiaoxiao, came forward to recount her experience of being conned.
"Hey hey hey, that’s not fair! Did the dogs, Dahuang and the others, get better or not?" Xu Qingfan felt his face heat up as he faced the scrutinizing looks from the little ones.
"That’s because you dumped out their water! And you lied to me that they had some strange disease, but they were actually just thirsty!"
"Hahahaha!" Everyone in the room burst into laughter.
This incident happened just a few days after he had come back to life. For one thing, he didn’t have money, and for another, he wanted to play a trick on Xia Xiaoxiao, for how she bullied him in their past life!
But after trying a few times, he found it no fun to play mind games with a five-year-old girl. Xu Qingfan thought he could just take openly; indeed, the little girl’s pocket money ended up being swindled away by him, spending it on snacks.
"I did share Snow Lotus with them, and you had your share too. You seemed pretty happy eating it at the time!" Xu Qingfan sheepishly avoided Xia Xiaoxiao’s gaze, looking away unintentionally.
"Snow Lotus only costs fifty cents a pack, but you asked me for two bucks!"
"Tsk tsk, who knew Brother Fan was such a person!" Xiao Ruawen fanned the flames from the side.
"Brother Qingfan, if you need money next time, you can ask Ningning; don’t con Xiaoxiao again!" Lin Wanning took out her pink wallet from her backpack on the stool and handed it to him, speaking earnestly.
"Pfft~" Xu Aiguo, who came out just in time with dishes in hand, found the scene before him both touching and enviable.
Then he witnessed an even more astonishing scene, as he saw Zhang Yiyi also turn around to take out her wallet from her backpack and hand it to her son, "Yiyi, you give, too!"
Xu Qingfan glanced from the corner of his eye and saw his dad standing at the kitchen door, "What’s this giving and not giving? We are all good friends here; your money is my money, and my money is yours!"
"Kids, kids, all this talk about money; come to the kitchen to wash your hands and get your meals!" Xu Aiguo muttered discontentedly, feeling envious as he spoke.
[This isn’t Xu Zhimo at all; it’s clearly Duan Zhengchun, just missing one...]
The TV series "The Eight Trigrams of Heaven," featuring Fairy Sister as Wang Yuyan, happened to be a recent hit, and Xu Aiguo thought about Duan Zhengchun, the playboy character in it.
"Got it, Uncle!"
Sure enough, as Xu Qingfan anticipated, when they entered the kitchen, Yao Jiping was in the midst of stir-frying the second dish. She probably had just finished the first one and called them for dinner.
"Have the soup first, corn and spare ribs stew. Wash your hands and sit outside; it’s very hot, and Grandma will bring it out for you." Lai Man Yao pointed to the several bowls of soup simmering on the stove and instructed them.
"Mhm, thank you, Grandma!"
"Auntie, what are you cooking? It smells so good!" Lin Wanning stood on tiptoe to peer, but the pot was covered with a lid.
"Winter melon and perilla leaf braised duck meat. It’ll be ready soon. Go sit outside first."
"We’re having duck!"
"Yes, duck!"
"Ahem... let’s go outside and not disturb mom in her cooking!" Xu Qingfan quickly ushered Lin Wanning out.
If she kept asking and found out that the duck in the pot was the very one she had just been calling her brother, little Wanning’s mouth would probably start shedding tears of sadness.
At mealtime, the five kids sat at one table, and the five adults at another.
"Brother Fan, where shall we go to play this afternoon?" Xiao Ruawen asked Xu Qingfan while gobbling down her rice.
"This afternoon I’ll take you to pick lychees, longans, wampees, and sugarcane. You two didn’t even know the word puzzle from Children’s Day last time!" Xu Qingfan said, tapping Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi’s little heads with his hand.
"Is sugarcane delicious? What on earth is wampee?" Lin Wanning asked, looking up curiously after finishing the bok choy in her bowl.
"I know what wampee is, it’s yellow and sour!" Xiao Ruawen said, raising her hand to speak after swallowing her food.
"Yellow? Sour?"
"Yes!"
"Isn’t that a lemon?"
"No, no, it’s not that big. Wampees are only the size of longans!" Xu Qingfan explained.
"Hmm, then later Brother Qing Fan can pick some for us to eat!" Lin Wanning smiled sweetly and nodded obediently.
"Fanfan, you do know which trees are ours, right? Don’t go picking from the wrong ones by mistake," Grandmother had been listening in on the little ones’ conversation and she asked.
"Grandma, I remember. You walk up from Chuxi River, take the second path, and from the sixth lychee tree onwards, they’re all ours!" Xu Qingfan boasted confidently.
"Hehehe~ Fanfan has such a good memory, no wonder you always score full marks on your exams, not like your mother, who picked lychees from someone else’s tree as a child and got told off when they came knocking at our door!"
Yao Jiping: ...
"Mom~ just eat your food, why bring up my childhood!"
"Heheheha~ Hehehe, are you all here?" Lai Man Yao was about to speak when a voice suddenly came from outside, interrupting the conversation inside the house.
Yao Jiankun stood at the doorway, not sure when he had arrived, clutching a white plastic bag that made him look like a relative coming to give presents during the holidays.
"What are you doing here! You’re not welcome!!" Yao Shulun frowned in displeasure, refraining from using any foul language because Xiao Fan’s classmate was present.
"Tsk tsk tsk~ Shulun, not to criticize you, but we’ve known each other for so many years, why the anger? I’m giving up on the election this afternoon. You can be the village chief; nobody would object!" Scoundrel Kun gave a thumbs-up to Yao Shulun.
"What are you doing here!" Yao Shulun looked at Scoundrel Kun with suspicion, wondering how much truth was in his words.
"I’m just here to congratulate you in advance on becoming the village chief, man. Yao’s roast chicken, still hot!" He chuckled and placed the plastic bag on Xu Qingfan’s table, then very presumptuously patted Xu Qingfan on the head.
"Keep your hands off my grandson, and keep the roast chicken too. We can’t afford that luxury; you just take care of yourself," Grandfather slammed the table and stood up.
"Alright, alright, I’m going, I’m off. Enjoy your meal, have a nice family meal!" Scoundrel Kun left the roast chicken behind and scurried away.
"How absurd!" Yao Jiping muttered.
[Eat up, eat up, eat yourself to death, let’s see how you compete with me for village chief this afternoon!] Having walked a distance away, Yao Jiankun looked back and spat on the ground, cursing inwardly.
Xu Qingfan casually threw the lunch box to the ground and said to everyone, "Grandpa, just throw away this roast chicken. Who knows if he poisoned it, and since when is he so kind as to bring us roast chicken!"
"Right, let’s listen to Xiao Fan!"
The four little ones had no clue who that man was and were momentarily baffled, all turning to look at Xu Qingfan.
"Don’t worry about that guy, let’s continue eating and then go fruit picking!"
"Yay!!!"
The truth was indeed as Xu Qingfan had expected. Scoundrel Kun had added a powerful laxative to the roast chicken, aiming to ensure that Yao Shulun wouldn’t be able to attend the afternoon election and would give up competing with him.
Unfortunately, Scoundrel Kun, with his limited brain capacity, had not anticipated that Xu Qingfan and the others would simply throw away the roast chicken he bought; after all, people who had lived through that era would never waste food, let alone a fragrant roast chicken!
Indeed, who could resist the temptation of a delicious roast chicken!
