Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts-Chapter 480 - 346. How can one heart be divided for five girls?
Three days went by in a flash.
There were no melodramatic incidents of lost exam admission tickets, nor any mental breakdowns—at least, not for the six of them.
As the final bell for the afternoon chemistry exam rang out, it seemed to officially mark the end of their three years in junior high.
"The examination is over, all students please stop writing..."
The afternoon sun was just right, shining on his face so you couldn't see his features.
Xu Qingfan stretched languidly, having turned in his paper twenty minutes earlier, and now stood at the most visible spot in the corridor waiting for the five girls to join up.
The announcement of the exam's end blared over the loudspeaker, and Xu Qingfan took a photo with the teaching building, sending it to their six-person group chat.
After about five or six minutes, students began to trickle out of the classrooms, many with faces flushed from post-excitement, and quite a few emotionally overwhelmed.
The first thing the five girls did upon exiting the examination hall was to check their phones. Seeing the selfie Xu Qingfan had posted to the group, all five smiled slightly, slung their backpacks over their shoulders, and trotted over to him.
"Brother Qing Fan, I'm here!"
With his back to everyone, Xu Qingfan stood out conspicuously in the crowd. Lin Wanning spotted him after rounding the corner of the stairs, and hesitated in place, hopping a little to make sure it was him.
Xu Qingfan also spotted Lin Wanning instantly—she hopped up and down in the crowd, waving at him. He made his way against the flow of people toward the girl.
Unconcerned with the gazes of others, Lin Wanning squeezed through a row of girls in front and ran toward her Brother Qing Fan.
"Hehe, I'm the first one!" Just like when she was a child, she wrapped her arms around Xu Qingfan's neck and hung onto him like a koala.
"A kiss as a reward," Xu Qingfan said, supporting her thighs with his hands and pecking her on the cheek with a tilt of his head.
"Whoa~" Both were considered celebrities in the middle school, and their intimate behavior immediately sparked a round of teasing cheers.
But they had graduated now, so who cared!
"I want one here too!" Lin Wanning, just getting a peck on the right cheek, now presented her left cheek to him.
"Okay~"
After leaving a matching kiss on the left cheek, Lin Wanning got down from Xu Qingfan's embrace, contented. Already the hallway had become impassable with onlookers who had stopped to gossip about them.
Lin Wanning's face was slightly flushed, and a small sense of pride swelled in her heart. She took hold of Xu Qingfan's hand and led him back to their classroom.
"Brother Fan, you actually finished early!" Xiao Ruawen rushed back to the classroom, exuberant, and greeted Xu Qingfan with a friendly gesture to his head.
"If the proctor had allowed it, I'd have wanted to turn it in after half an hour," he said with a Versailles shrug.
"Without checking, I'm sure I didn't score as high as you!" Xiao Ruawen poked his shoulder with her two index fingers.
Many of their classmates turned their gazes their way. For a long time to come, Xu Qingfan would probably be the gossip topic in their high school and even college dorms.
Xia Xiaoxiao, Zhang Yiyi, and Wu Lingyu soon returned to the classroom one after another. With the middle school exams over, the five girls had plenty to talk about, chattering non-stop.
There was no such thing as a graduation ceremony in junior high.
Once the homeroom teacher went up to the podium for the last time to deliver the post-exam notifications, junior high school was truly over.
Their textbooks had been cleared out weeks ago, and upon leaving, they only carried deflated backpacks, traveling light.
After taking one last group photo at the classroom door, they left without a second glance.
Elementary school belonged to a crowd of kids, junior high was for just the six of them. They didn't look back, knowing they'd meet again in high school.
Someone secretly took a photo of the six leaving, a blurry snapshot marking the onset of a glorious chapter.
...
As they had made arrangements with the adults beforehand, they wanted to indulge themselves at their secret base on the first evening after the middle school exams. None of their parents waited for them to triumphantly return at the school gate.
It's a shame the middle school graduation exam doesn't generate the same excitement as the college entrance exam, otherwise Xu Qingfan could have been the first to run out for interviews, and then order Good Taste Takeout in front of the camera with his phone, truly a marketing genius.
Back at the secret base, the once majestic Little White instantly transformed into a goofy Siberian Husky, welcoming them home with flailing teeth and claws.
"Mmm, yes, yes, understood, got it…..."
After calling their parents to report they were safe, the six of them started to rub their hands together in anticipation.
The first indulgence was to burn books; apart from notebooks and textbooks kept for memorial purposes, all other practice books, exam papers, and draft papers were to be burnt!
They used the iron barrel that was meant for burning joss paper during worship, and frankly, burning exam papers was quite efficient as well.
It took nearly half an hour for the six of them to burn over two hundred pounds of waste paper, and by the time Xu Qingfan jabbed at the fire with a poker, the sweet potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil had softened.
"Sweet potatoes are ready to eat, exchanging knowledge for food seems reasonable."
The five girls hesitated at first but quickly understood his meaning and burst into giggles.
The summer breeze bent the treetops, and the dappled shadows looked like ripples on the surface of a lake; the wind chimes tinkled on the eaves while the aroma of baked sweet potatoes wafted far and wide.
How to split five baked sweet potatoes among six people? The answer: Xu Qingfan took a bite from each one.
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But he had no answer yet on how to split his heart among five girls.
...
July 10th.
While idly lounging at home, he suddenly received a text message with his middle school exam results.
Although he didn't hold much expectation, the sight of words from the Hong Kong Education Bureau still made Xu Qingfan sit up and check his scores.
"Chinese 132, Math 149, English 148, Physics 100, Chemistry 99, Politics 88, Physical Education 60, total 776?" Even though he knew he had performed quite well, Xu Qingfan was still startled to see the total score of 776.
What did that mean? The best high school in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Teachers' College, could be entered with about 730 points, but he had 46 more than that. Not to mention, in his previous life he barely made it into Licheng Middle School with something over 680 points.
776 points was indeed a score competitive enough for claiming the title of top scholar in the middle school graduation exam, though he knew that title was of little use.
"Xia Xiaoxiao, what did you get on the exam?" Xu Qingfan's first thought was to show off to Xia Xiaoxiao.
Xia Xiaoxiao put down her phone, looked up at the boy coming out of his room, and said indifferently, "777 points."
"Uh... keep watching TV." His forward-moving leg froze in place, and after a moment, he retreated back into his room as if replaying a scene in reverse, then closed the door.
"Hmph~" A charming smile surfaced on the girl's face; she understood Xu Qingfan's little schemes all too well.
Her phone vibrated, and she glanced down to see a call from Xiao Ruawen.
"Can't get through to Little Brother Fan, haha, I got 707 points, haha, I get to study!"
"Brother Qingfan, I got 705 points and Yiyi got 740, we can go to school together!" Lin Wanning was extremely excited, speaking quickly without any pauses as if she was spouting a tongue twister.
When Xu Qingfan opened his QQ group on the computer, Wu Lingyu's score text message also arrived: 779 points!
"Xiaoxiao, Yu, and I all got over 770, Ruawen has 707, and last year for the high school division it was 685, so there shouldn't be a problem," he said.
"Yeah, yeah, Brother Fan, Yiyi and I are about to go see Aunt Zhang about class division!" The girl on the other end nodded incessantly, she couldn't wait to fast-forward to high school.
"Ah... hold on!" Xu Qingfan hadn't had the chance to tell the girls they'd be split up for high school, and now he felt a bit anxious.
"What's up, what's up, do you want to come and talk with Brother Fan too?" The girl's running slowed, and she asked through the phone.
"Yes, yes... Let's wait for me to come before we go see Aunt Zhang," he said.
"Hee hee, alright!"
...
