I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 168. Youth
"That's all for this lesson. Copy the forty-eight phonetic symbols on the blackboard onto the first page of your English book, memorize them, and get out of class is over!" As the bell rang, Xu Qingfan threw the chalk back onto the podium, dusted off his hands, and addressed everyone.

He didn't care whether his classmates listened to him or not; he just thought phonetics was very important. Xu Qingfan didn't have an English teacher when he was in school in his previous life. His elementary school teacher said that the middle school teacher would teach it, but when he entered middle school, the middle school teacher said that they should have learned it in elementary school.

So much so that whenever he encounters a word he can't pronounce, he can only write the Chinese phonetic symbol next to it. For example, for the word "voluntarily," he can only write "turbo pull V" next to it.

Xu Qingfan took his English book and came down from the podium. Xia Xiaoxiao, Lin Wanning, and the other four girls immediately stood up and applauded to welcome him.

Seeing this, the classmates, though not all standing up, joined in the applause until Xu Qingfan returned to his seat in the eighth group, at which point the applause gradually subsided.

The five girls were all busy with their own things at their desks, choosing from the test papers they had missed last week, covering all sorts of subjects, but none of them were looking at English.

"Why isn't anyone listening to my lecture?" Xu Qingfan asked, amused.

Seeing Xu Qingfan return, Lin Wanning handed him her math test paper that she had just finished with a smile, "Brother Qingfan, please help me correct it!"

"Didn't you learn phonetics in third grade? Why are you still teaching it in middle school?" Xiao Ruanwen glanced at the contents of the blackboard and said.

"Exactly! Seventh grade English is so easy! I memorized all the words in it when I took the Cambridge Level 1 exam!" Lin Wanning chimed in after hearing this.

"The English we learn in kindergarten is harder than the seventh grade English," Xia Xiaoxiao said, pouting as she looked at her Chinese textbook with one hand on her cheek.

Xu Qingfan had attended junior high school before, and he knew that memorizing English words was a real ordeal back then. He simply didn't believe it could be that easy.

"Humility makes one progress, while pride makes one fall behind. Your kindergarten has gone too far!" Xu Qingfan raised his hand and patted Xia Xiaoxiao, lecturing her.

"That's right, if you don't believe me, look up the vocabulary list yourself!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him, and, not wanting to be outdone, slapped Xu Qingfan twice in return.

"It's a bit too simple," Wu Lingyu said, putting down her book and offering her rare comment.

"Super easy!"

Seeing that all five girls said the same thing, he turned to the last page of his English book with a puzzled look in his eyes, and the words that came into view stunned him.

Unlike the "abandon" section at the beginning of the postgraduate entrance exam in English, Unit 1 in seventh grade directly teaches words like "good," "thanks," and "hi." Even more outrageous is that "i" and "you" are considered English words.

"Um, maybe," he was about to say that perhaps only the first unit was easy and the later ones would get harder, when Xu Qingfan glanced down and saw that Unit 2 was directly about what, is, and this, and the hardest one was nothing more than a jacket.

Xu Qingfan silently despised his past self for not being able to memorize even these basic words!
"It seems pretty easy," he said, sticking out his tongue after flipping through all the words.

"It's simple!" Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at him smugly, and then smiled victoriously after seeing Xu Qingfan's discomfiture.

The six students were chatting idly when a girl from the seventh group, who was sitting next to them, suddenly turned around and said, "The teacher said that in the next Chinese class, we'll be randomly selecting four ancient poems to recite. If you can't recite them, you'll have to copy them ten times!"

The five girls were all taken aback. Why was such an important matter only being told now!

"Okay, thank you, classmate. My name is Xiao Ruanwen!" Xiao Ruanwen tucked her bangs behind her ear and smiled as she thanked her.

"No, no need. My name is Wu Siyu." After saying that, Wu Siyu turned around again, and after a moment she turned around again, as if she had mustered up her courage, and said, "Thank you, I don't need a haircut!"

Xu Qingfan smiled and gave her an OK sign. Wu Siyu met his eyes, but her gaze immediately darted away shyly.

Xia Xiaoxiao secretly stepped on Xu Qingfan's foot under the table, then casually flipped to page fourteen of her Chinese textbook and began reciting.

"It's okay, we need to start memorizing now, we'll talk again next class." Lin Wanning leaned against Xu Qingfan like a lioness asserting her dominance.

"Okay." Wu Siyu turned her head back.

As the little incident came to an end, the school bell rang, and the Chinese teacher followed her into the classroom.

The four ancient poems are Cao Cao's "Viewing the Sea", Li Bai's "Hearing of Wang Changling's Demotion to Longbiao, I Send This Poem from Afar", Wang Wan's "Passing by Beigu Mountain", and Ma Zhiyuan's "Autumn Thoughts".

All four pieces are timeless masterpieces. Xu Qingfan only needed to read the first sentence before the rest of the text automatically came to mind, and the pressure immediately fell on the five girls.

"Has Xu Qingfan arrived?" After the usual pre-class greetings, Wu Yanchun suddenly looked in the direction of Group 8 and asked.

"Teacher, I'm here." The teacher in front of them was the same teacher who taught them Chinese in their previous life. His teaching skills weren't great, but his professional ethics were quite good.

"Are the mushrooms in Kuncheng delicious?" After Wu Yanchun finished speaking, the class burst into laughter. Xia Xiaoxiao and the other four girls also laughed, their eyes fixed on Xu Qingfan, wanting to see how he would answer.

"It's delicious. I recommend that everyone take a trip to Yunnan between June and October if they have the chance, as wild mushrooms are only available during these months." Xu Qingfan replied without any stage fright, his eyes fixed on the Chinese teacher on the stage.

"That's true, if we don't go now, we'll have to wait until next year. But while eating mushrooms is fine, we can't neglect our studies. We learned four ancient poems last week. Why don't you memorize them? If you can memorize them, you can go eat mushrooms whenever you want in the future."

After a pause, Wu Yanchun changed the subject: "But if you can't memorize it, you should stay in class and attend lessons. Students should act like students. You can eat mushrooms during summer vacation!"

Although she vaguely heard the teachers in the office gossiping that these kids had powerful connections, Wu Yanchun was just trying to have a clear conscience while teaching. She felt so frustrated if she couldn't discipline students who were disobedient and lawless in her class!
For those who have passed the exam and entered the teaching staff, as long as they don't think about promotion and salary increases, and don't court disaster like Shan Fengtao, then Wu Yanchun is invincible within the system.

"Okay, teacher, you said it!" Xu Qingfan immediately agreed as soon as she finished speaking, and then began to recite the first ancient poem: "Viewing the sea, Cao Cao, facing the eastern Jieshi, how fortunate I am, I sing to express my aspirations!"

Xu Qingfan recited "Watching the Sea" without any hesitation, and then continued reciting without pausing: "The willow catkins have all fallen, the cuckoo cries, I send my sorrowful heart to the bright moon. The sea sun rises from the waning night, the river spring enters the old year. The setting sun sinks in the west, a heartbroken person is at the ends of the earth."

He recited the four ancient poems fluently, and after Xu Qingfan finished reading them, the class fell silent.

It wasn't until more than ten seconds later that Wu Yanchun nodded and said, "Very good. No wonder he dared to skip class for a week to eat mushrooms. He deserves to have gotten in with a perfect score on the entrance exam for junior high school. Classmates, shall we give Xu Qingfan a round of applause?"

The Chinese teacher led the applause, and the students in the class followed suit.

Needless to say, after this class, Xu Qingfan's legendary story at this school will have yet another chapter.

The morning classes ended quickly, and school ended at 11:40 a.m.

As soon as the school bell rang, the six students shouldered their backpacks, took their changes of school uniforms, and walked out of the school. It only took five minutes to walk from Class 7-6 back to their shared home, so they didn't have to ride bikes or take the bus like most day students.

"What else do we have for lunch, taro and pork ribs?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked as they walked down the street.

"Also, lettuce, baked fish head, and borscht!" Wu Lingyu, who had been helping Xu Qingfan prepare tomorrow's dishes in the kitchen last night, replied when Xia Xiaoxiao asked.

"I'm craving snail rice noodles!" Lin Wanning said, looking at the large Ajisen Ramen advertisement on the outer wall of Guagreen Square.

"Luo Xi Hun! Why doesn't anyone sell this in Licheng? It's so delicious!!" Xiao Ruanwen's eyes lit up as she recalled the deluxe version of snail rice noodles she had in Liuzhou last time.

"It's so delicious, why don't you drop out of school and open a shop? I guarantee you'll make a fortune!" Xu Qingfan joked with a smile.

"Get lost! If I don't study, my dad will beat me to death!" Xiao Ruanwen pushed Xu Qingfan, and everyone burst into laughter.

As they approached the courtyard, Xiaobai eagerly stood up, pulling on its leash, to greet their return.

After the six people took turns petting the dog's head, they changed their shoes at the door and went home.

After putting down their schoolbags, Xu Qingfan and Wu Lingyu went into the kitchen to prepare lunch, while the other four girls unpacked their school uniforms and prepared to put them in the washing machine.

"Rinse the school uniforms several times with tap water before putting them in the washing machine, they're very dirty," Xu Qingfan said, peeking out from near the kitchen.

"Know it!"

Xu Qingfan was supposed to wash the breakfast dishes, but Wu Lingyu turned on the tap and started washing them herself after entering the kitchen.

Seeing this, Xu Qingfan could only pat the girl's head and pick up the rice cooker to start cooking rice.

One cup of rice is about the size of a rooster's bowl, so the six of them only need five cups of rice.

Xu Qingfan reached in and rubbed the rice water until it no longer turned white. While cooking the rice, he also put the taro on top of the rice cooker and steamed it for a while.

Taro and pork ribs take different amounts of time to cook. When the pork ribs are just cooked, the taro is still hard, while when the taro is steamed until soft, the pork ribs become overcooked. Therefore, steaming the taro until it is 70% cooked is the best option.

The kitchen is fully equipped with a steamer, oven, casserole, and other appliances. Both valves on the stove are open; one stove is simmering borscht, and the other is holding a casserole for baking taro.

Borscht is very easy to make. First, peel and chop the tomatoes and put them in a pot. After they are cooked until they release their juices, add 2000 ml of water. Once the water boils, add the diced potatoes and cook until the potatoes are soft. Then add the marinated beef and heat for another 10 seconds before serving.

Since Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi are both picky eaters and don't eat carrots, and Xia Xiaoxiao is picky eater and doesn't eat onions, what he made was obviously a simplified version of borscht.

Work started simultaneously in three locations, and by the time the rice was cooked, all the dishes were also ready.

At 12:20, the six people sat around the dining table eating lunch.

Although lunch wasn't lavish, it was the first time the six of them had cooked at home after school, so everyone felt a sense of novelty and unknowingly ate half a bowl more rice than usual.

They had to go to school at 2 p.m., so after lunch the five girls immediately started cleaning up the table, washing the dishes and taking out the trash.

The school uniforms that had been thrown into the washing machine were now washed, and Xu Qingfan went to the second-floor balcony to hang them to dry.

The September sun in Licheng is extremely scorching. School uniforms hung out to dry will be completely dry in half a day, and if all goes well, they can be brought back up to collect them when school ends in the evening.

Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi were taking out the trash hand in hand when they saw Xu Qingfan watching them from the second floor. They waved to him.

"elder brother!"

"Brother Qingfan, please turn on the air conditioner in the room!" Lin Wanning shouted to him while holding the dog's leash in her left hand.

"Got it!" Xu Qingfan smiled and shouted loudly.

After hanging up the last piece of clothing and watching the two women walk away with their dog, Xu Qingfan returned to his room.

I helped them turn on the air conditioner in the master bedroom, then went back to my own room and turned on the air conditioner. It was almost one o'clock.

Xu Qingfan went downstairs to wash his face and feet. The three girls had also finished cleaning the kitchen. After Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi returned, they locked the living room door and went upstairs for a nap.

This will likely be one of countless peaceful afternoons after school over the next three years; such a life is worlds apart from my previous one.

The student dormitories at Licheng Middle School are ten-person rooms. The wooden beds, older than their parents, creak when you sleep on them. In the summer, two old-fashioned fans covered in dust hum. The seven or eight square meter balcony has two toilets and a shower room.

The time before and after lunch break is the peak time for roommates to go to the toilet. The dormitory with good ventilation can smell so bad that it makes people's eyes water. The toilet also gets clogged from time to time. Sometimes sewage backs up, and the smell is simply nauseating. Xu Qingfan lived and studied in such an environment for three years in his previous life.

Despite the appalling conditions, countless parents still scramble to get their children in, as if as long as they endure hardship, their children will surely rise above others.

However, the reality is that if you endure hardship, countless more hardships await you.

Anyway, Xu Qingfan, who has been reborn, can't eat any of it. Living with five beautiful girls like him now is probably a dream that countless teenagers in their chuunibyou phase yearn for but can never have.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected; Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai; Countless works of youth-themed literature yearn to present a vibrant and colorful youth to their readers, leaving young people yearning for it after reading.

But in reality, most ordinary people don't experience so many bizarre and fantastical events: ever-increasing academic burdens, acne-covered faces due to hormonal imbalances, constant nagging from parents and elders, nervousness that prevents them from speaking in the center of a crowd, and the regretful act of masturbating, always saying it's the last time.
The reason why Lu Mingfei's story is so captivating is perhaps because he reflects the lives of countless ordinary people.

So what about him? He could have relied on his memories from his past life to become a prodigy, a child prodigy unlike any other before or since, but he willingly stayed by the side of the five girls, witnessing their growth.

Is it also fulfilling a dream from a past life?

[At least I like these kinds of days, don't I?] Xu ​​Qingfan lay quietly on the bed, staring at the ceiling, giving himself the answer in his heart.

(End of this chapter)