I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 278. Xia Xiaoxiao, the Innocent One Who Gets Beaten Up
It was past 8 p.m. when Xu Qingfan accompanied Zhang Chunxue, who had finished a long day of work, back to Licheng.

"Then I'll go back now, Auntie. I'll come back another day to give you a massage." He unbuckled his seatbelt and playfully patted Aunt Zhang's shoulder.

"Hurry up and go back. I've received several phone calls along the way." Zhang Chunxue rolled her eyes at him, loosened her tied-up long hair, and rubbed her aching head.

"Would you like a head massage? I'll try to learn how to do it at home so I can massage you next time, Auntie."

Watching Xu Qingfan run up the stairs with a grin, she smiled faintly, turned the car around, and drove away from the Lotus Courtyard.

"Hmph!" A girl standing on the third-floor corridor secretly withdrew her gaze, rubbed her aching thighs, and went back into her home.

Xu Qingfan had originally agreed on the phone to come back for dinner before six o'clock, but Zhang Chunxue had something come up and was a little late, so the two of them had to have dinner in Gangcheng before coming back.

"Hmm?" He tilted his head in confusion as he arrived at Xia Xiaoxiao's door.

Because not only was his door locked, but the girl's was too; looking through the window, both families' living rooms were pitch black.

"Where have they all gone off to have fun?" He shrugged and took out his keys to open the door.

After turning on the lights, Xu Qingfan noticed that his younger brother wasn't waiting at the door to greet him as usual when he returned from hunting. Feeling something was amiss, Xu Qingfan called out loudly into the living room, "Little brother, little brother~"

Since no cat paid him any attention, he was probably sleeping soundly in some corner.

His mother took Aunt Lin to play mahjong, and his father was probably out fishing and chatting. Where did Xia Xiaoxiao go?

"He called like a death knell, and when I got home, there wasn't a soul in sight." He grumbled as he changed his shoes, closed the door, and began searching the house for his younger brother.

I first went to the altar where the Bodhisattva is enshrined, but there was no cat there. Then I went to the balcony, but still no cat there.

"Little brother~" he called the cat's name while searching, but after searching the kitchen again, he still couldn't find it.

Xu Qingfan guessed that Xia Xiaoxiao had taken the cat to the next room, so he gave up looking for it and prepared to go back to his room to lie down.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he turned on the light, Xu Qingfan saw his little brother lying on his pillow, yawning with his mouth wide open, and staring at him sleepily.

"Meow~"

"You big idiot! Damn it, who opened the door and let you in? It must be that Xia Xiaoxiao again!" Xu Qingfan walked over with disgust, picked it up, and then threw it on the ground.

This cat hasn't had a bath in ages, and it's even sleeping on his pillow!
Hidden under the covers, Xia Xiaoxiao clenched her fists secretly, wanting to see what other bad things this scoundrel was going to say about her.

Distracted by his younger brother, Xu Qingfan hadn't noticed that the spread-out blanket seemed to have a bulge. He patted the pillow with his hand, his mouth never stopping: "That Xia Xiaoxiao is so unreliable. I don't know what she's doing running out so late at night. Isn't she afraid of encountering any danger by herself outside?"

The younger brother couldn't stand his grumbling, so he shook his head and slipped out of the room as lightly as a swallow.

[You're the unreliable one! I don't know who it is that keeps breaking their word every time!!] Xia Xiaoxiao was furious, hiding under the covers, but now was not the time to show herself. She had to scare this stinking dog to death!
After removing the last cat hair, Xu Qingfan tossed the pillow back onto the bed.

He had to get up early in the morning to catch the high-speed train, and in the afternoon he tried to help Aunt Zhang process a huge amount of documents. By the time he got home in the evening, even someone as energetic as him couldn't help but feel tired.

Xu Qingfan didn't think he was anything special; on the contrary, he admired Zhang Chunxue for living the same life every day and still managing to handle it with ease.

"Auntie, auntie, the best in the world." He kept repeating it and found it quite catchy, so he couldn't help but laugh.

[I need to learn head massage techniques when I have time; I must provide my aunt with comprehensive and meticulous care!]
Xu Qingfan yawned, found the remote to turn on the air conditioner, and then lay flat on the bed.

After being away from home for so many days, what he missed most was his small, worn-out wooden bed in his room. It probably cost him less than two hundred yuan when he bought it, but it was more comfortable than any bed he had ever slept on.

"My own doghouse is still the most comfortable." Just as he was gazing at the ceiling with endless感慨 (feelings of deep emotion), the next second...

Xia Xiaoxiao suddenly threw off the covers and jumped up, yelling loudly in his ear, "Wow!"

"Holy crap!" Xu Qingfan was so frightened that he jumped off the bed in mid-air, defying classical mechanics, and slapped the inhuman creature across the face.

"Ah!" Accompanied by a loud slap, the girl's sharp scream echoed in the room.

"Holy crap~ Xia Xiaoxiao?" Even though he had turned off the lights in the room, Xu Qingfan still recognized the girl in front of him who looked like a female ghost immediately, given his two lifetimes of spending time with Xia Xiaoxiao.

Xia Xiaoxiao felt a burning pain on her face. She subconsciously raised her hand to cover her right cheek where she had just been hit. Looking at the stinky dog's face, which showed a mixture of surprise and a hint of a smile, the girl sobbed and sobbed until she burst into tears.

"Waaah! You dead Xu Qingfan! Waaah! I'm going to tell Auntie you hit me!"

"Holy crap, why did you hide in there and scare me?" This is a testament to the profoundness of Chinese culture. The three instances of "Holy crap" each have a completely different meaning.

He didn't even bother to put on his slippers before hurriedly getting up to turn on the room light.

Soon, the white light filled the room again. When Xu Qingfan looked up, he saw Xia Xiaoxiao kneeling on the bed with tears streaming down her face. She covered her right cheek, which had just been slapped, with both hands. She looked pitiful and her long black hair was draped behind her head. She looked just like a beautiful woman in ancient costume in a TV series.

Xu Qingfan quickly climbed onto the bed to check on her. "Let me see, don't cover it up." He reached out and gently pried open the girl's hand.

"Go away, waaaaah, I don't want to play with you anymore, waaaah!"

Xia Xiaoxiao spoke fiercely, but she didn't put much force into resisting. After Xu Qingfan was pushed back into his seat, he easily removed the girl's hand from her face.

"Hiss~" Looking at her half-swollen face, Xu Qingfan couldn't help but gasp. "You're like a pig, your face is all swollen like a pig's head."

"Waaaaah, you still dare to say that... Waaaaah, I'm never talking to you again!" Xia Xiaoxiao pushed him away and ran to the mirror to check the injuries on her face.

"Waaaah!" When she saw that her face was really swollen like a pig's head, the girl finally couldn't hold back anymore and burst into tears.

"Xu Qingfan, you're a stinky, bad, lapdog! Waaaaah! How can I face anyone like this!"

The room was filled with howling and wailing. It was the first time Xu Qingfan had ever seen Xia Xiaoxiao so out of control. Afraid that he would burst out laughing, he lowered his head and said, "I'll go get you some ice water to cool you down."

After the annoying kid disappeared from her sight, Xia Xiaoxiao's crying gradually subsided. She sniffled and looked in the mirror at her swollen face.

For some reason, Xia Xiaoxiao's first thought was that she looked awful, and Xu Qingfan had seen her like that.

The thought that her face was swollen from being hit by that stinky dog, and that she was still thinking about him, made the girl's crying, which had subsided, gradually grow louder again.

"Waaaah! You deadbeat liar! You domestic abuser! Waaaah! You're so awful!"

Xu Qingfan quickly returned with the iced water. Hearing Xia Xiaoxiao still cursing him, he shook his head and said, "Stop cursing, stop cursing. How was I supposed to know someone was hiding inside? You suddenly came back to life like a zombie, and it was so dark, I definitely would have slapped you." "Lin Wanning was hiding in your bed and you didn't hit her, but you hit me!" Thinking about it from this perspective, Xia Xiaoxiao felt even more aggrieved.

Xu Qingfan was speechless. He thought to himself that Lin Wanning wouldn't suddenly come back to life like this to scare him, but worried about provoking the girl's rebellious emotions, he could only say gently, "Okay, okay, it's all my fault. Let's put an ice pack on your face first, and the swelling will go down quickly."

"I don't need your fake kindness!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him with a murderous look and snatched the towel from his hand.

"I'm sorry, but luckily I felt this person was you, so I held back when I was about to get my hands on him, otherwise I might have ended up in the hospital." Xu Qingfan had no choice but to go along with her, and only took over the towel again after the girl's attitude wasn't so bad.

He gently lifted Xia Xiaoxiao's bangs and carefully applied an ice pack to the red and swollen area.

"You recognized me and you still hit me, Xu Qingfan, you're a domestic abuser... Waaah!" The girl's tears were about to spill over again as she bit her lower lip and sobbed.

"That's because of inertia. I'm not an alien, how could I possibly violate Newton's First Law?"

Xia Xiaoxiao knew he was right, but she was still angry. Why was she beaten for getting into bed, but Lin Wanning was treated leniently for doing the same? Double standards! Differential treatment!
"I don't care, you're a domestic abuser! I'm going to tell your aunt that you hit her!"

[I'm not Xia Xiaoxiao's husband, so how did I become a domestic abuser?]
However, Xu Qingfan didn't want to correct the girl's mistake at this moment. If his mother found out about this, given Yao Jinping's affection for Xia Xiaoxiao, he might really get a few slaps from her.

"I'm sorry, but it's not entirely my fault. Who told you to suddenly scare me like that?" He tried to reason with the other person.

But the hot-tempered girl refused to listen and threw out the question that angered her the most: "You don't hit Lin Wanning when she crawls into your bed, but you hit me when I crawl into your bed? So you like Lin Wanning, and I deserve to be hit!"

Xia Xiaoxiao was feeling complicated when she said this; she felt wronged, angry, and jealous.

"What?" Xu Qingfan tried to argue that Lin Wanning hadn't been in his bed for a long time, but Xia Xiaoxiao's next sentence sealed his fate.

"You still want to deny it? The day we went to Disneyland, Lin Wanning went to your room to sleep. You dare to say no!" the girl shouted.

Faced with her defiant gaze, Xu Qingfan gave in, "I've already hit her."

"Huh?" This answer clearly surprised Xia Xiaoxiao. She was stunned for a while before asking, "Why did you hit her?"

Xu Qingfan blushed as he recalled what happened that morning; this was something he couldn't talk about!

"I just slapped her palm," he said guiltily, avoiding Xia Xiaoxiao's gaze, and recounted what happened that day: "Wan Ning said that not covering yourself with a blanket doesn't count as crawling into bed, so I really didn't cover myself with a blanket that night, which is why I caught a cold and had a fever the next day."

"Uh..." Xia Xiaoxiao was speechless for a moment. She really didn't know how to evaluate such a bold way of thinking.

"What about before? You didn't hit her when she crawled into bed!" If you can't think of a point to refute, then bring up the past. This trick always works when girls argue with their boyfriends.

“We were both young before, weren’t we? You slept with me when you were little too.” Xu Qingfan was also an expert in this area, and his trick of subverting logic silenced the girl.

Seeing that Xia Xiaoxiao had nothing to say, he continued, "Don't say anything for now, let me help you apply an ice pack."

"Hmph!" The girl glared at him fiercely, but did not refuse.

The room finally regained a moment of peace. The scene of the boy gently rubbing the girl's face with a towel was like that of a bickering couple in a romance drama, if only that stinky dog ​​didn't laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" Xia Xiaoxiao thought Xu Qingfan was laughing at her face being swollen like a pig's head. She was embarrassed and ashamed, but also had the urge to beat the boy in front of her to death.

"It reminded me of the 'Restore My Beauty' punch and 'Disfigured Face' kick from Stephen Chow's movies," Xu Qingfan said honestly, afraid she would overthink it.

"Pfft~" Xia Xiaoxiao instantly pictured it after hearing him say that, but when she thought about how she was the one whose face was swollen from being slapped, she immediately turned fierce and said, "Don't laugh, don't think about it!"

"Oh, cough cough"

"dare you laugh!"

"I didn't, you're mistaken!"

"You have it!"

"Ouch~ Be gentle!!"

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

After spending almost half an hour applying ice to the girl's face, Xia Xiaoxiao's face finally visibly reduced in swelling by more than half.

Xu Qingfan then applied a swelling-reducing ointment to her face, and by the time everything was done, it was nearly 10 p.m.

His mother and Aunt Lin could be back at any moment, and Xu Qingfan was worried that Xia Xiaoxiao would complain, so he chuckled and poked her arm, "Don't tell my mom and aunt about tonight, okay?"

"Hmph!" Xia Xiaoxiao turned her head to the other side. "I'll tell you, I'll tell you, and I'll let Auntie beat you up!"

"Give me a chance, I want to be a good person." After wringing out the towel and hanging it on the basin, he ran up behind the girl and massaged her shoulders.

"If you want to be a good person, go be one for Lin Wanning, I don't need it!" Xia Xiaoxiao was clearly still angry about this stinky dog's preferential treatment, and said arrogantly.

"Then tell me what you want, and I'll agree to anything you ask, okay?" With time running out, Xu Qingfan was already prepared to sign an unequal treaty.

"If Lin Wanning ever sneaks into your bed again, you...you absolutely cannot let her sneak into your bed!" Xia Xiaoxiao originally wanted to say that she would hit her like she did tonight, but that would be too vicious, and this bad dog would definitely not agree to it.

"That's it?" Xu Qingfan hadn't expected this. Afraid the girl would change her mind, he immediately nodded in agreement, "I promise I'll never let Lin Wanning into my bed again, unless..."

"There's no unless!" Xia Xiaoxiao said fiercely.

"Okay, okay, no unless it gets better." He was speechless to himself. If he married Lin Wanning in the future, would he not be able to get into bed with her?

"Hmph, pinky promise!" Xia Xiaoxiao held up her little finger to signal him to hurry up.

"Okay~, pinky promise, I, Xu Qingfan, promise not to let Lin Wanning get into my bed, for a hundred years, no exceptions!"

"We made a pinky promise. I promise I'll lock the door before I go to sleep from now on. If Wan Ning tries to sneak into my bed again, I'll crawl under the bed to sleep. Is that okay?" Xu Qingfan simply gave up and shrugged.

"Hmph~ You talk a good game, but who knows what will happen in the end!" Xia Xiaoxiao tossed her long hair, got up and left the room.

Bonus chapter for monthly pass subscribers: (13/13)

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