I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 116. Never to be apart.
"If you love me, spend time with me; if you love me, kiss me; if you love me, praise me; if you love me, hug me."

Ever since Yao Jinping placed two children's rocking toys in front of the convenience store, Xu Qingfan's mind has never been at peace.

"What's your father's name?"

"It's starting again!" Xu Qingfan looked at a parent who put their child into the rocking horse, a helpless expression on his face.

"Brother Fan, I don't know how to do this question." Wu Lingyu shyly showed him the test paper in her hand.

"Let me look at a patch of green grass. The grass grows at a steady rate every day. This patch of grass can feed 27 cows for 6 weeks or 23 cows for 9 weeks. So how many weeks can this patch of grass feed 21 cows?" Xu Qingfan looked constipated after reading the question, and hesitated as he looked at Wu Lingyu.

"Brother Fanfan, you don't know how either?" Wu Lingyu felt shy under his gaze and subconsciously glanced down at her feet.

"Ahem. Just a moment, it'll be ready soon!" Xu Qingfan mentally complained to the question setter, [Why isn't this going according to the normal formula? This problem should be solved using a system of three linear equations!]
"Okay, Brother Fan, take your time thinking about it." Wu Lingyu stood obediently to the side.

"Why don't you learn about systems of three linear equations?" He had thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a conventional method for solving them in elementary school, and said to Wu Lingyu with a little embarrassment.

"Is it the method of setting x and y?" Wu Lingyu asked.

The system of two linear equations in two variables was also mentioned in Brother Biao's class, but because many students don't understand what to set as x and y, and even less so how to set up the equations, not many people have mastered it.

"Mmm, pretty much, pretty much." Xu Qingfan looked at her.

"Then I'll think about it again myself." Wu Lingyu reached out to take back her test paper. Because of her habit of solving problems, she still preferred to use traditional methods.

"Then think about it more. I can only solve it using equations." Xu Qingfan didn't insist and returned the test paper to the other person.

He felt that the brain was a magical thing. Xu Qingfan was the same way when he was in elementary school. He could never learn how to solve a linear equation with two variables. But when he entered junior high school, it was like he suddenly understood it.

After all, not everyone is Xia Xiaoxiao, so Xu Qingfan didn't force knowledge that wasn't appropriate for her age group onto Wu Lingyu.

"Little friend, have a pack of Five Leaf God!" A middle-aged man walked into the store and handed Xu Qingfan a red 100-yuan bill.

"Soft red?" Xu Qingfan glanced at him and asked casually.

"Correct!"

Xu Qingfan reached out and took the money, then touched the texture of the tie; it had a matte finish. He then shone a laser pointer on the watermark, which was also present.

"Twenty-five, here's your change of seventy-five!"

Just as he was about to put the money into the drawer, the man suddenly said, "Never mind, I think I have some loose change. I'll give you some loose change."

Xu Qingfan just watched him quietly, and he watched Xu Qingfan back. When Xu Qingfan didn't return the money, the man got angry and said, "What do you think you're doing, you brat? Give me back the money, and I'll give you some change!"

Xu Qingfan smiled dismissively and returned the hundred-yuan note to him. Sure enough, after searching his wallet for a while, the middle-aged man said again, "Never mind, I only have a dozen or so yuan in loose change. I'll give you the hundred."

Without a doubt, this is a counterfeit bill.

Xu Qingfan pointed to the surveillance camera above his head: "Uncle, we have surveillance cameras here. If you really want to buy cigarettes, just give me that real bill. You'll lose face if the police come knocking on your door."

The middle-aged man looked up in the direction Xu Qingfan pointed and saw a surveillance camera pointing at him. He said something in Hakka dialect and walked away cursing.

That's how business is sometimes. You know the other party is giving you counterfeit money, but you can't fight them to the end because you can't gamble on whether they'll hold a grudge and retaliate after they're detained and fined.

Of course, the premise of "harmony brings wealth" is that your own interests are not harmed. If they are, you should stand up to the end, otherwise others will only think you are easy to bully and will bully you again next time.

"Phew~ Brother Fan, how did you know that bill was counterfeit?" Wu Lingyu, who had been standing to the side the whole time, was too scared to move. She only asked with a sigh of relief after the middle-aged man left.

"He looks shifty and doesn't seem like a good person at all. This is an old trick of scammers. They give you real money the first time to lower your guard, and then switch it with a counterfeit bill when you get it back. You should be careful when accepting money in the future," Xu Qingfan explained.

"Okay! Brother Fan, I understand." Wu Lingyu nodded three times.

[Brother Fan knows so much.] The little girl looked at him with admiration in her eyes, thinking to herself.

A short while later, Yao Jinping, who had gone home to cook, returned, carrying a thermal lunchbox, and called out to him, "Alright, you don't need to do this anymore, go home and eat!"

"Okay, goodbye Xiaoyu." Xu Qingfan waved and walked out the door, took out his earphones, plugged them in, and walked home with an air of indifference.

"Auntie, just now..." After he left, Wu Lingyu told Yao Jinping about how Xu Qingfan had just chased away the swindler.

"Oh! You mean that? Several shops around here have been scammed recently. I didn't expect this rascal to be so clever. He's definitely my son!" Yao Jinping nodded in satisfaction after hearing this. "Yu'er too. If you hadn't reminded him, he would have definitely been scammed!"

"Auntie, I didn't... I was too scared to speak." As Yao Jinping touched her head, Wu Lingyu lowered her head shyly.

"Our Yu'er is so well-behaved. She tells Auntie everything, unlike that brat who just leaves without a word." Yao Jinping changed her tune and praised, "It's a pity she's not Auntie's daughter."

Wu Lingyu thought to herself, "[If only I could be Fan-ge's sister.]"
But she couldn't bring herself to say it, so she could only keep her head down and let Yao Jinping stroke her.

Meanwhile, Yao Jinping was also thinking to herself: [I wonder if my brat will be able to live up to expectations and get married as soon as he graduates from university. Ideally, our first child would be twins, a boy and a girl. But then again, is Xiaoxiao better, or Yu'er better? If only I could have them both! Ugh, how could I have such thoughts?]
Yao Jinping silently slapped herself a few times in her heart.

"Auntie?" Seeing Yao Jinping's hand resting motionless on her head, Wu Lingyu weakly reminded her after a long while.

"Ah Yu'er, come here, Auntie will give you a big prawn to eat!" Yao's mother came back to her senses and smiled as she gave Wu Lingyu a large freshwater prawn from her lunchbox.

"No need, Auntie." Although she said no, she still opened her mouth wide when Yao Jinping held out the bright red shrimp.

"Is it delicious? Shrimp is nutritious, have another one!" The maternal love that Xu Qingfan had been missing for so long was suddenly poured out on Wu Lingyu.

"Auntie." Wu Lingyu chewed on the shrimp meat with her small mouth, and a second large shrimp was already handed to her.

"Hey~ Eat slowly, no rush!" Yao Jinping smiled, thinking to herself that Yu'er was the best; the brat was so mature for his age.

the other side.

Upon returning home, Xu Qingfan immediately went to the kitchen and opened the lid of the rice cooker.

"Steamed chicken with dried daylily and boiled prawns, not bad, these are all my favorite dishes!" Xu Qingfan nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the dishes kept warm in the rice cooker.

Since their family's financial situation improved, their meals have also improved.

He remembered that in his previous life, his family ate pork every meal. High-end ingredients like chicken, goose, and pork ribs were only eaten once in a long while, and the family's daily food expenses never exceeded three or four yuan.

A little over a dollar can buy a pound of pork hind leg meat to eat for a day, and another dollar can buy some vegetables and such, and another day is easily spent.

Unlike now, just a few large freshwater prawns with roe are worth more than twenty yuan.

Many people have been confused about prices by the meaningless 648 in games. Even twenty years later, in many places, you can still make three dishes and a soup for ten yuan.

He put his portion of food into his bowl, closed the rice cooker again, and then carried the stainless steel bowl out to Xia Xiaoxiao's house.

"have you eaten?"

"I ate." Xia Xiaoxiao glanced back at Xu Qingfan, then turned her gaze back to the test paper.

"Stop studying, watch some TV instead, lest you actually pass the exam!" Xu Qingfan leaned over to look and saw the little girl doing math olympiad problems, and teased her with a smile.

"Get lost!" Xia Xiaoxiao pushed his head away in disgust.

"How's the wound healing?" He squatted down and touched the scab on Xia Xiaoxiao's knee.

"Ouch~ Are you trying to kill me? Don't touch there!" Xia Xiaoxiao gasped in pain.

"Does it still hurt?"

"What do you think!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him, looking aggrieved.

"I'll give you a shrimp to eat; eating shrimp will help your wound heal faster!" Xu Qingfan pushed the bowl on the table, gesturing for the other person to take one.

"No hands!"

"You want me to peel it for you? You're dreaming."

"Hmph! Peel it or not, it's up to you." Xia Xiaoxiao arrogantly withdrew her gaze and resumed working on the test paper on the table.

But the pen in his right hand remained motionless; he seemed to be thinking, but his mind was already in turmoil.

Xu Qingfan shook his head with amusement and handed her a peeled shrimp: "Ah—open your mouth."

Xia Xiaoxiao wrinkled her nose at him arrogantly, her face saying she was only eating because she was saving his face. Just as the little girl was about to bite, Xu Qingfan suddenly withdrew his hand.

"Xu Qingfan!!!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him with her hands on her hips after missing her chance to speak.

He held the prawns up to Xia Xiaoxiao's face again, but this time the little girl refused to eat them no matter what, muttering to herself, "If you offer it to someone by shouting, even a passerby will not accept it; if you offer it to someone by kicking them, even a beggar will disdain it!" This was because the bonus questions in the Chinese exam required memorization, and some classical Chinese phrases that were only learned in junior high school were also required to be mastered in regular practice.

"Damn! If I hadn't taught you, you wouldn't understand what that sentence meant, and you even used it on me!"

Xia Xiaoxiao maintained her smug, "What can you do to me?" expression.

"Alright, alright, I won't tease you this time. I'm just praising you!" Xu Qingfan shrugged with a grin.

Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at Xu Qingfan, pretended to turn around in a slow motion, and then ate the shrimp meat in his hand with lightning speed.

"Hmph!" The little girl hummed softly as she chewed.

"There's still some roe left, don't waste it." Xu Qingfan handed her the remaining shrimp heads.

"No, it's so fishy and tastes awful!" Xia Xiaoxiao said indistinctly as she chewed on the shrimp meat.

"You don't know how to eat it. The roe is the most valuable part of the whole shrimp." He gave Xia Xiaoxiao a disdainful look and then slurped up the rest of the roe himself.

Xia Xiaoxiao's plan succeeded, so she stopped talking, humming Eason Chan's "Ten Years Prelude" and smiling happily.

Xu Qingfan ignored her and turned on the TV in the living room as if he were at home, looking for a program to watch while he ate.

As they were finishing their meal, Xia Xiaoxiao suddenly turned around and asked, "Are you going out this afternoon?"

"Oh? Right, I'm going to Yijia this afternoon. Didn't I tell you yesterday?" Xu Qingfan said, putting down the leftovers that had long since gone cold.

"Oh." Xia Xiaoxiao pouted and didn't say anything more.

Xu Qingfan could obviously guess that Xia Xiaoxiao wanted him to stay home and play games with her, but he wouldn't go back on his word after already promising it, especially since he'd get to see Aunt Zhang, hehehe.
Recalling the mature woman's fragrance emanating from her, Xu Qingfan unconsciously curled into a lewd smile.

Fortunately, Xia Xiaoxiao had already turned her head back and did not see Xu Qingfan's lewd act.

"Let's go~ Stay home and have some fun, I'll bring you milk tea!" Xu Qingfan turned off the TV, patted his bottom, and prepared to leave.

"What time are you coming back?"

"Before six o'clock, how about it?" Xu Qingfan looked at the clock on the wall and said uncertainly.

"Oh." Xia Xiaoxiao turned her head back.

"Huh?" Xu Qingfan looked at her back in confusion, but the little girl didn't seem inclined to speak further.

"That's weird," Xu Qingfan muttered to himself as he returned to his home.

[You didn't get back until six o'clock?] After Xu Qingfan left, Xia Xiaoxiao rested her face in her hands and stared blankly at the clock on the wall.

When Xu Qingfan arrived at Zhang Chunxue's house, the three of them were already waiting for him at the door.

"Hello, Auntie! This is Wan Ning Yi Yi." He greeted everyone one by one.

"You've grown taller." Zhang Chunxue smiled and gestured to show the distance between Xu Qingfan's head and her own body.

"Good afternoon, Brother Qingfan!"

Good afternoon, brother!

"Wipe your sweat first. You came by bike again?" Zhang Chunxue pushed the group into the house, sat down, and handed Xu Qingfan a wet wipe.

"Um, Auntie, how's our comic coming along?" Xu Qingfan asked eagerly.

"Sold out! Brother Qingfan, sold out!!" Lin Wanning couldn't contain himself and was the first to speak.

"Sold out?" Xu Qingfan opened his mouth in surprise, and only slowly closed it after seeing Zhang Chunxue nod affirmatively.

"Yes, it's sold out in most areas. We've already contacted the publisher for a second batch. Maybe we can really sell three million copies." Zhang Chunxue put her daughter on her lap and proudly told the others.

"If only we had printed three million copies back then," Xu Qingfan said in hindsight.

"Xiao Fan, you're being wise after the event. You're usually such a smart person," Zhang Chunxue said, playfully flicking his forehead. "If we had printed three million copies from the start, and more than a million of them hadn't sold, we would have essentially been working for the publisher. But if we only printed two million copies, even if we only sold a little over a million like the first book, we would still make a profit. Water overflows when it's full, and the moon wanes when it's full. The same principle applies to people. The worst thing is having the mentality of wanting everything." Zhang Chunxue advised earnestly.

"Auntie, I was wrong!" Xu Qingfan readily admitted his mistake. Although he knew many future trends, he was indeed a novice when it came to doing business.

"Auntie is right!!" Lin Wanning clapped and said after seeing Xu Qingfan admit his mistake.

"Mom, yes!"

"It's good that you admit your mistakes and correct them. Our Xiao Fan is a good boy." Zhang Chunxue reached out and pinched Xu Qingfan's little face. "By the way, I've looked into that Apple company you mentioned last time. It does have investment value. Since the change of CEO, the company's profit report has been increasing every year, but the stock price has not been reflected in it much."

"Auntie, have you bought it yet? And can you use the money from this purchase to buy this stock as well?" Xu Qingfan's eyes lit up.

“What should we buy? Ningning wants to buy something too!” Lin Wanning chimed in, joining in the fun.

"Tsk! I just finished lecturing you and here you are again. Let me tell you one more thing: don't put all your eggs in one basket. Just like the 9/11 attacks two years ago, you never know which will come first, tomorrow or an accident." Zhang Chunxue reached out and tapped Xu Qingfan on the head.

Xu Qingfan:
He really wanted to say: Auntie, I know! I know everything!

"Okay, then buying half is fine, I'll keep the rest in the bank in case of any unforeseen circumstances," Xu Qingfan said, looking aggrieved.

"That's more like it!" Zhang Chunxue felt that her education had been extremely successful, and she had a sense of satisfaction in educating her ignorant son.

"Auntie, Ningning and Yiyi, buy ducks for us too!" Lin Wanning didn't know what the two were talking about, but that didn't stop her from joining in the fun.

Since the Nasdaq crash in 2000, many concept stocks and junk stocks have been swept out of the market, and now is almost the best time to buy at the bottom.

The stock market here is small and volatile, with many unscrupulous investors. Zhang Chunxue has recently been considering selling all her domestic stocks and investing in NASDAQ.

"Okay~ Auntie will buy them all for you." Zhang Chunxue said with a smile.

"Yay!!!"

Even though they didn't know what they were going to buy, Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning were always happy as long as it was something the three of them did together.

When NASDAQ was mentioned, Xu Qingfan suddenly remembered that Zhang Chunxue would take Zhang Yiyi to the United States for medical treatment every winter vacation. Thinking of Wu Lingyu's father's illness, he asked, "Auntie, one of our classmates' fathers has uremia and needs a kidney transplant. Do you know how much such a surgery costs in the United States?"

"Uremia? This disease can't be delayed. Without a kidney transplant, it seems very few people live past ten years. I'll ask around for you tonight; they're already on break time there." Zhang Chunxue was surprised at first, then explained to Xu Qingfan seriously.

"Thank you, aunt!"

"Is he a classmate of yours? Medical treatment there is not cheap. Even after deducting the agency fee, I estimate it would cost more than 500,000 US dollars."

“He’s Xiaoyu’s father!” Lin Wanning said.

"Is that the little girl who came to play at our house last time? She's so pitiful." Zhang Chunxue sighed, remembering the faded cloth shoes the girl had worn when she last visited.

"Brother Qingfan, let's use the money we earn from painting to help Xiaoyu's father get medical treatment!" Lin Wanning said innocently.

He and Zhang Chunxue exchanged a glance, both reading helplessness in each other's eyes.

The adult world is too complicated, and it's difficult to explain the rights and wrongs to Lin Wanning, who is still a child. After all, we are taught from a young age that life is priceless.

But how many workers who die unexpectedly at work don't even receive 100,000 yuan in compensation?

"Did Ningning say something wrong?" Lin Wanning asked nervously when Xu Qingfan didn't respond.

“Ningning’s desire to do good is good, but she can’t just do good deeds without thinking.” Zhang Chunxue started her daughter-teaching mode again, quoting classics and telling Lin Wanning all sorts of stories, explaining the principle that great kindness can be as great as great enmity.

"I don't understand. Ningning will listen to Brother Qingfan. Whatever Brother Qingfan tells Ningning to do, Ningning will do!" Zhang Chunxue's long lectures kept coming, giving Lin Wanning a headache. The little girl shook her head vigorously and looked at Xu Qingfan.

"Haha~ Your brother Qingfan will sell you out then!" Zhang Chunxue was amused by Lin Wanning's cuteness and teased him.

"Brother Qingfan would never sell Ningning, Brother Qingfan is the best!" Lin Wanning looked at Xu Qingfan expectantly, as if she wanted to hear a definite answer from him.

"No, no, Ningning is so cute, we won't sell our Ningning." Xu Qingfan sighed and said with a smile.

"We can't sell it either!"

"We won't sell to anyone, let's all stay together and be happy."

"Everyone, together, forever!" Zhang Yiyi said, each word distinct.

Watching the interaction between the three of them, Zhang Chunxue smiled and then suddenly thought of her past self. All those vows of eternal love had ultimately led to their separation.
(End of this chapter)