I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 122. Snowball Fight

"No? Xu Qingfan, what are you looking at?" In the library of Yanshi University, Guan Bianyue pointed at the probability theory book in Xu Qingfan's hand as if she had seen a ghost.

"Reviewing, teacher, please be quiet, I'm almost finished reading." Xu Qingfan glanced up at her, then continued turning the page nonchalantly.

"No... can you understand it?" Guan Bianyue hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Xu Qingfan extended his index finger to give her a shushing gesture, then continued reading with his head down.

Because tomorrow is the day of the official exam, Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu are both extremely nervous. They got up early in the morning and eagerly started doing practice questions.

The hotel was too small, so Guan Bianyue waved his hand and led the three of them to the study room at Yanshi University to study.

The winter vacation had been going on for more than ten days, and there weren't many students left at school. So the library lobby on the first floor was empty, with only the four of them sitting there.

Guan Bianyue picked up Xu Qingfan's notebook, which was lying to the side, and flipped through a couple of pages. It was filled with formulas and symbols. She nudged Xu Qingfan with her elbow and asked, "You really understand this?"

Although Guan Bianyue majored in accounting in college and now teaches elementary school math, her math grades are not good at all. The reason she became a math teacher is simply because the math teacher qualification certificate is easier to obtain compared to Chinese and English.

Fortunately, the accounting major studied self-compiled university mathematics rather than advanced mathematics; otherwise, she probably wouldn't have even been able to graduate.

"Teacher, you're so annoying." Xu Qingfan turned his head away in disgust.

"You brat~"

"Teacher Guan, I don't know how to do this problem." Xia Xiaoxiao frowned and circled an Olympiad math problem on the test paper for Guan Bianyue to see.

"Teacher, look at Xiaoming's problem. He starts from 1 and calculates the sum of natural numbers in order. When he gets to a certain number, the sum is 888. But he counted one of the numbers twice. What is that number?" Guan Bianyue thought that second-grade math problems were easy. But after reading the question, she knew she was doomed. She had encountered the ultimate challenge.

[This is an arithmetic sequence summation, right? What's the formula again? And how am I supposed to know which number he over-calculated?] Guan Bianyue felt a cold sweat break out on her back.

"Um, think about this again. This problem is actually very simple; just use that method."

[Oh no, are elementary school questions really this hard?!]
"Add the first and last numbers together and divide by two. Then sum the sums of the sums and subtract the first number to get the answer," Xu Qingfan explained from the side.

"Oh." Xia Xiaoxiao nodded, took back the test paper, and buried herself in the calculations on the draft paper.

Guanbian Yue: ? ? ?

Not long after, Zhong Wenqing arrived, and Guan Bianyue finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“We used to sit here together and study together.” Zhong Wenqing said with a sigh as he sat down and looked at the scene before him.

"Have you come back to visit since you graduated?" Guan Bianyue asked casually.

"I came twice, but seeing the younger students in the school made me feel empty, so I haven't come back since."

Xu Qingfan listened to their conversation and gently shook his head. People's joys and sorrows are not the same. When he was 25, he was still in the school laboratory, worrying about his second SCI paper that he couldn't publish for a long time.

He suddenly remembered that he had a side mission during his trip to Yanjing. Xu Qingfan took out the photo his grandmother had given him from his bag and showed it to the two of them: "Sister Qingqing, the woman in the photo is a student from the class of '88 at Yanjing Normal University. Do you have any way to get her contact information through the school?"

"Do you know what her major is?" Zhong Wenqing picked up the photo and examined it carefully before asking.

Xu Qingfan shook his head: "All I know is that she was in the class of '88, and her name is Chen Zipei."

"Knowing the name alone is useless. Back then, all the records were on paper and not recorded on computers."

"Oh, I see. Then forget it." Xu Qingfan wasn't very enthusiastic about this matter either, and wanted to back out as soon as he heard there was trouble involved.

"Does this person owe your family money? Why are you looking for him?" Zhong Wenqing asked curiously.

"Pretty much." Xu Qingfan thought about it and decided it wasn't a big deal, so he told the two of them the love story between the other woman and her uncle's older generation. "The following year, she was admitted to Yanshi University through the college entrance examination, and she ran away while pregnant."

"what?"

Zhong Wenqing and Guan Bianyue felt as if they had listened to a melodramatic TV series with over a hundred episodes in one go, and they hesitated to speak.

“My maternal grandparents wanted to see their grandchild before they died, so they asked me to come and find them,” Xu Qingfan continued.

"This"

Xu Qingfan recounted the story from the perspective of a middleman, and the two of them put themselves in the woman's shoes, thinking about how she would spend her whole life working in the countryside.

I shake my head just thinking about it.

But to kill one's beloved with the very first sword strike upon landing would be a bit too much like Chen Shimei (a notorious figure in Chinese folklore known for abandoning his wife).

It's hard to say.

"Oh, well... all the teachers have gone home for the Lunar New Year. I'll ask around for you when school starts after the holidays."

"Then you can ask around, Qingqing. If you can't find him, then forget it. He was born in 80, seventeen years older than me. How old is he now? If he really wanted to come back, he would have come back long ago," Xu Qingfan said with a shrug.

"You little rascal, if you hadn't told me, I would have thought you were seventeen!" Zhong Wenqing chuckled as he ruffled Xu Qingfan's hair.

After listening to Xu Qingfan's gossip, Wu Lingyu and Xia Xiaoxiao lost their interest in studying. Guan Bianyue clapped her hands and said, "Alright, let's balance work and rest and go for a walk outside."

"Okay!" Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu happily packed their review materials into their bags, slung their bags over their shoulders, and stood up.

There were few pedestrians on the campus of Yenching Normal University. Unlike the streets outside where the snow had been trampled and melted, the paths on campus were covered with a thin layer of white frost. Apart from the herringbone pines that resemble Christmas trees and still had their needle-like leaves, all the trees on both sides of the road were bare.

Last night's light snowfall turned the campus into a snowy wonderland this morning.

Xu Qingfan swept the snow hanging from the tree branches into his hands, clenched his fist, and punched Xia Xiaoxiao, shouting, "Take this!"

"Xu Qingfan!" A small snowball hit Xia Xiaoxiao's clothes. Feeling inexplicably attacked, she followed suit and picked up a snowball to throw at Xu Qingfan.

"Ah~" Wu Lingyu was watching the show with envy when, in the next second, Xu Qingfan's snowball hit her on the head. "Brother Fan, you!" The little girl looked at him with a mixture of surprise and grievance.

"Let's play together! Running around will keep you warm!" Xu Qingfan said as he dodged Xia Xiaoxiao's snowball attacks. "You can't hit me!"

Guan Bianyue and Zhong Wenqing exchanged a smile, and suddenly the scene of having a snowball fight with their roommates many years ago flashed before their eyes.

"Go have fun," Guan Bianyue said with a smile, giving Wu Lingyu a push.

"Okay!" Wu Lingyu turned around and glanced at Teacher Guan, then nodded.

The three of them played and joked all the way from the library to the sports field, leaving their footprints on the red track covered in snow.

"Xu Qingfan, you die!" Xia Xiaoxiao slammed the large snowball she had been collecting for several minutes into a ball and threw it at Xu Qingfan.

"I'll hit you!" Wu Lingyu said with a smile, throwing small snowballs at him.

"Ouch!" Xia Xiaoxiao's snowball hit Xu Qingfan squarely in the face, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground on his butt.

"Hahaha~ Serves you right!" Xia Xiaoxiao laughed triumphantly, pointing at Xu Qingfan's embarrassing state.

"Brother Fan, are you alright?" Xu Qingfan pretended to be in pain, and Wu Lingyu nervously stepped forward to help him up.

"Ouch, that hurts so much!"

"Ah~ Brother Fan, why are you like this!" Wu Lingyu shook off the snow that had fallen on her neck, feeling wronged. When she saw Xu Qingfan dodging Xia Xiaoxiao's snowballs again, the little girl burst out laughing.

"Xia Xiaoxiao, you just wait!" Xu Qingfan ignored several waves of attacks from the other party, squatted down and desperately expanded the snowball in his hand.

"I'm so scared!" Xia Xiaoxiao didn't care about anything else and continued to happily smash Xu Qingfan, the big bad guy.

Before long, Xia Xiaoxiao stopped laughing. Xu Qingfan ran towards her, holding a snowball with a radius of 20 centimeters in both hands.

"Xu Qingfan, what are you doing!" Xia Xiaoxiao took off running, glancing back at Xu Qingfan chasing after her every now and then. "Don't come any closer!"

"Weren't you so arrogant just now? Take this!" Xu Qingfan pretended to throw something.

"Ah~ no!" Xia Xiaoxiao jumped back and forth in fright, only to find that Xu Qingfan was just feigning an attack to deceive her.

"Xu Qingfan, are you a dog? I'm not playing anymore!"

The two ran laps on the playground, panting, their breaths instantly turning into clear white smoke.

"Not playing? You have to play even if the cabinet is moved!"

"what!!"

The sandpit next to the track was covered with snow. Xia Xiaoxiao stepped on it without paying attention, and the soft texture, unlike the ground, caused the little girl to fall face down and back up.

"Hahaha!" Xu Qingfan added insult to injury, throwing the large snowball in his hand at her head.

"Ah!!!" Xia Xiaoxiao screamed even louder.

Worried that things might go too far, Xu Qingfan quickly took two steps to help her up, asking, "Are you alright?"

"I already said I didn't want to play anymore, but you still kept chasing me. I'm not playing with you anymore, Xu Qingfan, I hate you!" Xia Xiaoxiao clenched her little pink fists and looked at him with teary eyes.

"Okay, it's my fault, don't cry. Are you alright?" Xu Qingfan stuck out his tongue, wiped his hands on his clothes, and stepped forward to lift Xia Xiaoxiao's bangs to check if she was hurt.

"Hahaha~ Xu Qingfan, you die!" As soon as Xu Qingfan got closer, Xia Xiaoxiao's expression changed in an instant, and she quickly stuffed the snow hidden in her two fists into Xu Qingfan's collar.

"Damn it! Xia Xiaoxiao, are you a dog?!"

As fate would have it, Xu Qingfan, after clearing the snow that had fallen in, looked at the little girl who had already run far away and was making faces at him, feeling both annoyed and amused.

"Brother Fan, watch out!" Wu Lingyu had somehow gotten behind him and, taking advantage of Xia Xiaoxiao's distraction, got her revenge for the arrow she had just fired.

"Xiaoyu, you, you guys!" Xu Qingfan turned around and looked at Wu Lingyu in disbelief.

Pointed at by Xu Qingfan, Wu Lingyu shyly shrank her head and giggled. The little girl's smile showed both the triumph of her prank and the embarrassment of being caught.

"Just wait for me!"

"Run!"

A new round of snow battles quickly broke out on the playground.
Thank you to me, the frivolous scholar, for the 100 Qidian coins.

Thank you godgun for the 500 Qidian coins.

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(End of this chapter)