I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 80. Mismatched Socks

When the three children arrived at the convenience store, Xu Aiguo's taxi was already parked at the door.

"I remember you, you're Xiao Fan's class monitor, right?" As soon as the three little ones entered, Yao Jinping pointed at Xiao Ruanwen, who was visiting the store for the first time, and said with a smile.

"Hello, Auntie, my name is Xiao Ruanwen!" Xiao Ruanwen smiled sweetly at Yao's mother.

"Has Xu Qingfan gotten into any trouble at school lately? If he's done anything bad again, tell Auntie!" Yao Jinping warmly greeted Xiao Ruanwen, holding her hand.

Xu Qingfan:
"Mom, that's enough. You should be grateful to have a son like me!" Xu Qingfan rolled his eyes speechlessly.

The customers still in the store couldn't help but laugh when they heard this.

"Hahahaha!"

"Boss lady, your son is hilarious!"

"You brat, you have no manners!" Xu Aiguo scolded with a smile.

If Xu Aiguo didn't surf the internet, he would definitely say something like, "I should have shot you onto the wall back then!"

Wu Lingyu was doing her homework in the fried food stall when she saw Xu Qingfan looking at her. The little girl looked away and nodded timidly at him.

"Oh! Lingyu, your family's fried food stall has moved here!" Xiao Ruanwen exclaimed when she saw the fried food stall in the corner and Wu Lingyu, who was open for business.

"Yes, do you want some fried skewers? My mom will be back soon," Wu Lingyu said weakly, looking down at the ground.

Just as she finished speaking, Li Meijuan pushed a large box of marinated pork chops into the store on a cart.

"Auntie, business is so good today! You've sold out another box?" Xu Qingfan joked with a smile.

The boxes Li Meijuan uses to marinate pork chops are extra-large transparent food storage containers. One box can hold over a hundred pork chops. At her usual price of five yuan per chop, if she sells them all, she'll make five hundred yuan!

"Yes! Business is good today because it's Children's Day. Do you want some pork chops? Auntie will fry them for you!" Li Meijuan was clearly in a good mood, and Xu Qingfan saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

When a person is full of hope for life, their eyes will truly shine.

It's a pity that this kind of light appears more often on people who don't have to go to school or work.

"No need, Auntie. We're going to a classmate's house to play later. Xiaoyu, do you want to come with us?" Xu Qingfan waved his hand with a smile.

"No need." Wu Lingyu shook her head, not daring to look him in the eye, and looked at her mother's stroller.

"Go ahead and have fun if you want, Mom can manage on her own." Li Meijuan affectionately touched her daughter's forehead.

"Mom, you really don't need to, I haven't finished my homework yet."

"Come on, why do homework during the holiday!"

"That's right, let's go together and play hopscotch again!" Xu Qingfan and Xiao Ruanwen invited in unison.

Wu Lingyu looked up at her mother, then at Xu Qingfan and the other two, but still shook her head and said, "No need, you guys go have fun."

Wu Lingyu actually wanted to go, but these past few days have been humid, and the socks she dried the day before yesterday were even wetter than when she washed them. Today, she had no choice but to wear a pair of mismatched socks out, with a hole in one of the big toes.

[When you go to someone's house, you have to take off your shoes. They'll definitely laugh at me if they see my socks.] A little girl's thoughts are best left unsaid.

Li Meijuan recalled what her teacher had told her: "Lingyu is under too much pressure. As her parents, you need to provide her with appropriate guidance."

"You go play with Xiaofan and the others, Mom doesn't need you here," she said with a smile, gently rubbing her daughter's cheek.

“Yes, let’s go together, don’t keep Uncle Xu waiting!” Xiao Ruanwen stepped forward, grabbed Wu Lingyu’s arm, and started to walk out.

Wu Lingyu was thus half-pushed and half-forced into getting into the taxi.

"Don't worry, they're all people you know. Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning, you played hopscotch together last time. Don't be nervous!" Xu Qingfan saw Wu Lingyu's uneasy expression in the rearview mirror and comforted her.

"Hmm." Wu Lingyu looked into the other person's eyes in the rearview mirror and nodded with an extremely unnatural expression.

[What should I do! They'll definitely laugh at me. I should have worn wet socks today!] As they got closer to their destination, Wu Lingyu became increasingly nervous and uneasy.

Uncle Xu

"how?"

"No, nothing." She had originally intended to use feeling unwell as an excuse to go home, but when the time came, she couldn't bring herself to say it.

The car eventually arrived at its destination, and Wu Lingyu's last chance to go home was gone.

"Call me when you get home. I'm off," Xu Aiguo said to the children as he rolled down the car window.

"Okay, Dad, you should hurry up and get to work. We'll go to the park on Children's Day; business should be good there!" Xu Qingfan waved goodbye.

"Haha~ You little rascal!" Xu Aiguo laughed and shook his head, then made a neat U-turn and drove away.

After watching Xu Aiguo walk away, the group walked hand in hand into the Bigui Garden residential complex. Looking at the imposing gate before her, Wu Lingyu's heart sank to the bottom: [Maybe after today they won't consider me a friend anymore, just like my roommates.]
With the same mindset as Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin, Wu Lingyu followed the others across the security gate.

"Auntie, open the door, we're here!" Xu Qingfan said into the microphone after ringing the doorbell.

"Come on up and sit down, Auntie has prepared juice and snacks for you."

The door on the first floor clicked open, and a few little ones pushed it open and went inside.

"Brother Qingfan!"

"Brother Qingfan!!"

The first "Brother Qingfan" came from the access control system, the second came from the stairwell, and then Lin Wanning appeared on the second-floor corridor, holding Zhang Yiyi's hand.

Why did you run down here?

"I missed you (p≧w≦q)!" Lin Wanning said, her face beaming with joy as she cupped her hands around her cheeks.

"Wow! Xiaoyu is here too!" After the initial surprise, Xiao Wanning noticed the extra Wu Lingyu.

"Hello." Wu Lingyu nodded, but her gaze remained fixed on her pair of canvas shoes.

The children chatted and exchanged pleasantries in the stairwell, taking quite a while before continuing their ascent.

Upon reaching the third floor, Zhang Chunxue was patiently waiting for them at the door.

"Hello Auntie!"

"Hey~ come in and sit down," Zhang Chunxue said warmly, patting everyone's heads. When she got to Wu Lingyu, who was standing at the back of the group, she was a little stunned. "Huh? Who is this little friend? Xiao Fan, won't you introduce her to Auntie?"

"Auntie, her name is Wu Lingyu. She's also from Experimental Primary School. Last semester, the three of us dominated the honor roll at Experimental Primary School!" Xu Qingfan grabbed Wu Lingyu's hand and waved it, explaining earnestly.

"Auntie remembers now, the grade head called your name at the last parent-teacher meeting!" Xu Qingfan's reminder brought it to her mind.

Zhang Chunxue took out a new pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet: "Come in and sit down, don't be nervous, just make yourself at home!"

The others had already changed their shoes and were waiting inside, except for Xu Qingfan and Wu Lingyu, who were still standing at the door.

Xu Qingfan pulled Wu Lingyu inside, taking off both shoes by stepping on his right foot with his left.

"Haha~ Brother Qingfan, why are you wearing mismatched socks!" Lin Wanning laughed, pointing at Xu Qingfan's socks, one black and one yellow.

"What do you know? This is fashion! Fashion magazines all dress like this, don't you think, Auntie?"

"Hehe~ Auntie doesn't care about fashion. I think you're just a big scatterbrain who wore the wrong socks!" Zhang Chunxue covered her mouth and chuckled.

The others also showed friendly smiles, but Wu Lingyu, who was still standing behind Xu Qingfan, looked surprised.

"Okay, okay, I'll confess. It's the humid season, you know. The socks I hung out to dry last Friday were still dripping wet when I took them down this morning! If I don't wear these, I won't have any socks to wear!" Xu Qingfan surrendered with both hands raised, and seeing them all laughing, he laughed along with them.

"Don't be shy, little girl, just make yourself at home!" Seeing that Wu Lingyu was still standing there like a wooden doll, Zhang Chunxue squatted down and helped her take off her shoes.

"Auntie, I can do it myself." Wu Lingyu mustered her courage, squatted down and took off her shoes, immediately exposing her two socks, one black and one yellow.

Fearing ridicule, she dared not look Xu Qingfan and the others in the eye, but the more she did so, the more she felt they were looking at her strangely.

Despite Xu Qingfan's company, Wu Lingyu subconsciously felt that she couldn't compare to him, after all, he was so outstanding.
Since her classmates found out that she knew Xu Qingfan, her former roommates who had ostracized her have now become her friends.

He is different.
"What a coincidence! Our socks make a perfect pair!" Xu Qingfan immediately understood Wu Lingyu's little scheme and came to her rescue.

"Oh right, right! It just so happens that Qingfan's black socks are for his left foot, and Xiaoyu's black socks are for her right foot!"

Wu Lingyu felt her face burning hot, like a sunset. She whispered, "My socks aren't dry yet."

“I wore mismatched socks last week too!” Xiao Ruanwen chimed in, raising her hand to help.

"That's how it is during the humid season. Ningning's underwear, which she changed into the day before yesterday, wasn't even dry yet, so she was just wearing it."

"Pfft, cough cough cough!" Xu Qingfan couldn't hold it in and started coughing violently.

[Is this something you can talk about?!] Xu Qingfan thought to himself while coughing.

"Brother Qingfan, what's wrong?"

"You always manage to choke on your words. Come sit down on the sofa."

Wu Lingyu looked at the people in the room with gratitude, and her previous tension and anxiety vanished.

[A good friend won't laugh at you for wearing mismatched socks!] she thought to herself.

(End of this chapter)