Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

After pushing Lin Wanning back to the living room, Xu Qingfan returned to the bathroom to clean up.

He folded up the chair and placed it in the corner, drained the water in the tub into the sewer, then leaned against the sink, pondering.

[Why did it happen so suddenly that Wanning and Yiyi both know about each other's existence? It's a good thing, but I'm not ready yet!]

In his imagination, the three of them would at least know each other's background by the time they finished high school exams or were just beginning college.

But it's only sophomore year now, and he couldn't possibly deal with the series of chain reactions that might follow.

[This isn't right, doesn't feel right; Yiyi seems like she had God's perspective tonight. It was just a half-hour delay, but Xiaoxiao didn't react, how did Yiyi notice so much?]

No matter how clever Xu Qingfan was, he couldn't possibly suspect that Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi were in cahoots, so he was destined to think in vain.

[Could it be that Wanning accidentally gave something away?]

Xu Qingfan shook his head, and ultimately could only reach this conclusion.

...

In the living room, Wu Lingyu and Zhang Yiyi had taken Lin Wanning somewhere unknown, and when Xu Qingfan returned, only Xia Xiaoxiao and Xiao Ruawen were engrossed in their homework.

He could understand Wanning and Yiyi not being there, but where had Lingyu gone?

Startled, the guy casually asked, "Where did those three go? Can't see them anywhere?"

Xia Xiaoxiao propped her chin with one hand, glanced up at him, then continued focusing on her problems.

Xiao Ruawen, tired of studying and eager to chat, replied since Xu Qingfan spoke up, "Lingyu and Yiyi took Wanning to change clothes, why? You want to join too, Fan Bro?"

"It's not like I haven't seen it before."

"What?"

"What did you say?"

Xu Qingfan murmured, and the two girls glared at him.

"When we were kids, I said when we were kids. Why so worked up?" the guy had to explain.

"Fan Bro, did you bathe with Wanning as a kid? How come I didn't know?" Xiao Ruawen asked, eyes wide with surprise.

Xia Xiaoxiao, who hadn't been paying attention, looked up again upon hearing this.

The foolish dog bathing with her as a kid, Xia Xiaoxiao remembered, as there were photos of their childhood water playtime at home, but with Lin Wanning…

Xu Qingfan was baffled; he met Lin Wanning when he was already nearly six, so how could they have bathed together? By "seen before," he meant snuggling under the covers, of course.

He regretted his casual remark, feeling exasperated!

Seeing the two girls still staring at him, he had to continue making things up, "Not bathing together, I just stayed over at Wanning's place when we were kids, and she couldn't get dressed by herself, and I had to help her."

"Oh~ Fan Bro, why didn't you say so earlier? I just mentioned the age you guys met, no way you bathed together!" Xiao Ruawen realized it all of a sudden.

With Xiao Ruawen speaking up, Xia Xiaoxiao went back to studying, but couldn't calm her mind.

Xu Qingfan gave her a look, thinking, [Who says grown-ups can't bathe together, I'll have you scrub my back one day!]

"So talkative, is your homework done?" he asked exasperated.

This seemed to trigger something in Xiao Ruawen, as she suddenly raised her hands and stretched, exclaiming, "Ahh~ Don't feel like studying anymore, Xiaoxiao, Fan Bro, I'm tired, give me half of your brains to use."

Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao exchanged a glance, both shrugging in sync.

He tousled Xiao Ruawen's hair with his dog paw, earnestly advising, "Without accumulating steps, one can't reach a thousand miles, study hard, little Ruawen."

"Hmph~ You're just bullying me because my brain isn't as good as yours." Xiao Ruawen knocked off his paw and tried to lay her head on the table, but her neck hit the table edge.

Xu Qingfan was tempted to lend a hand, but the little survival instinct he had left stopped him.

"Go play for a while, it's only sophomore year, if you work so hard now, come senior year you'll forget what you should, three years of hard work in high school, that's real suffering, but three years of carefree play, that's truly joyful."

The guy, "Sun Quan persuasion," said.

"Hmph, study!"

"Fan Bro, if you're not studying, go share a nest with Xiaobai, stop bothering us!"

Xiao Ruawen vented her aversion to studying, then perked up again.

Xu Qingfan picked up Zhang Yiyi's Chinese textbook, idly reciting a text from it to himself.

The guy actually wanted to secretly talk with Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi, the three of them, a good chat would do.

But at home it wasn't convenient, so he had to suppress this idea.

As for why not chat on the phone, his phone was constantly watched by Xia Xiaoxiao, Xia Xiaoxiao finished and Xiao Ruawen watched, Xiao Ruawen finished and Lin Wanning watched, Lin Wanning watched...

In short, there were no secrets.

He turned to Shi Tiesheng's "I and the Temple of Earth," to be honest, Xu Qingfan didn't remember studying this text in his past sophomore year, nor the writer Shi Tiesheng.

If it weren't for the advent of short videos, often joking about his interactions with Yu Hua, "Yu Hua's different, didn't treat me as disabled, nor as human," Xu Qingfan might not have known him then.

But he found "I and the Temple of Earth" to have excellent writing, and Teacher Shi Tiesheng's words "People always say they want to die, but actually long to be loved" were extremely compelling.

He suddenly discovered many of Teacher Tiesheng's top-level writing skills in "I and the Temple of Earth," like: Only when people encounter more troublesome problems do they feel how good life was before.

Or like: I haven't forgotten anything, but some things are just meant to be kept, not to be said, not that I want to say them, yet they cannot be forgotten.