I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 54. Holiday Homework and Miracles

Despite the ongoing virus outbreak, the school has not issued any notice of postponement of the start of the semester.

On February 17th, the Experimental Primary School started the second semester on time.

The streets were deserted in the morning, and a light drizzle was falling from the sky. Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao sat at the rice noodle roll shop at the entrance waiting for a car. The cold wind blew in, making him shiver.

"It's so cold~" Xu Qingfan pressed his palms under his buttocks, his voice distorted because his teeth were chattering.

"Haha, it's been like this all week. There's nothing we can do about the rain. It won't be cold when the sun comes out," the rice noodle roll shop owner explained as he sat there drinking tea.

"The car is here." Xia Xiaoxiao sniffed and said to Xu Qingfan as she slung her schoolbag over her shoulder.

"The boss's gone, may your business prosper!" Xu Qingfan opened his umbrella and, with Xia Xiaoxiao's help, boarded the school bus.

The school bus displays the current temperature. Xu Qingfan glanced at it and exclaimed, "No wonder it's so cold! It's only 3°C today!"

Friends from the north, accustomed to temperatures of minus tens of degrees Celsius, might scoff at the 3°C in the port city. But you should know that the outside temperature felt by the human body is not only related to absolute temperature, but also to humidity!

The higher the humidity in the air, the lower the perceived temperature. If a gust of wind blows at this time, you will have a deeper understanding of the idiom "bitterly cold wind".

It is often said that art originates from reality. Xu Qingfan believes that Ma Di must have had a profound understanding before he could write lyrics that are so close to life, such as "You are in the bright sunshine of the South where snow is falling heavily, while I am in the cold night of the North where it is spring all year round".

"I told you not to fetch water, here you go." Xia Xiaoxiao handed her water bottle to Xu Qingfan.

It contained freshly boiled hot water, which the little girl held to warm her hands while waiting for the bus.

"Let's use it together." Xu Qingfan grinned at her, reaching out to grab the area not covered by Xia Xiaoxiao's hand.

The bus still smelled of disinfectant; opening the windows was too cold, but keeping them closed was uncomfortable. Xu Qingfan held his breath and breathed through his mouth the whole way, and finally the school bus arrived at school.

Xu Qingfan could have slept in today, but a pen, a night, and a lamp did not create a miracle for him.

He still had more than half of his happy winter vacation to finish writing, so he could only continue writing when he came back this morning.

The funniest thing was that around 10 p.m. last night, Xu Qingfan, who was writing furiously in his room, was called to the living room by his mother to answer the phone.

Xu Qingfan was puzzled. Who would call him so late? Yao Jinping said it was Lin Wanning who called him.

After he answered the phone and said, "This is Xu Qingfan," Lin Wanning on the other end started sobbing upon hearing his voice, then burst into tears, "Waaaaah~ Brother Qingfan, Wanning can't finish her homework! Waaaaah!"

Xu Qingfan laughed rather unkindly: "It's okay, I haven't finished writing either. I've only written 32 pages. Where are you?" he asked.

"Huh?" Lin Wanning was clearly stunned for a while. "Let me check... I... I wrote up to page 38. Huh?" The crying on the other end of the phone stopped abruptly.

"Don't worry, we'll go back and copy the small pages together tomorrow. We can copy one page per minute, and we'll definitely finish before nine o'clock!" Knowing that someone would accompany him, Xu Qingfan suddenly didn't want to work hard anymore. He was at the age when he was growing, why stay up late? Why stay up late!

"Okay! Then Ningning won't write anymore. I'll go back to school tomorrow and write with Brother Qingfan!" Lin Wanning replied, her tears turning into a smile, her voice choked with emotion.

"See you tomorrow!"

Goodnight, Brother Qingfan!

When they returned to the classroom, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi were already sitting in their seats.

Both of them were writing furiously at their seats. Lin Wanning heard the noise and looked up. When she saw Xu Qingfan, her face lit up with joy: "Good morning, Brother Qingfan! Good morning, Xiaoxiao!" "Good morning!" Xu Qingfan placed his cold palm on Lin Wanning's face. The little girl, who had been hunched over due to the cold, straightened up immediately.

"Brother Qingfan, your hands are so cold. Do you also have kidney deficiency?" Lin Wanning asked, turning her head away from Xu Qingfan's hand.

The word "also" seems to reveal a lot. Uncle Lin, you don't want your kidney deficiency to be exposed, do you?
"I'm a bit anemic, so my hands get cold in winter," Xu Qingfan explained.

"Then you should eat more red dates, Mom says red dates are good for replenishing blood!"

"Okay, let me check your winter break homework!" Xu Qingfan turned to Xia Xiaoxiao and said.

Xia Xiaoxiao pouted and didn't say anything. She took out her Happy Winter Vacation from her schoolbag and handed it to Xu Qingfan.

"Quickly copy, quickly copy!" Xu Qingfan moved his seat to the left so that Zhang Yiyi could sit over as well. Xia Xiaoxiao's winter vacation homework was placed in the middle, and the three of them sat in a row to copy it.

"Just fill it up, the teacher won't check. Yi Yi, don't write so beautifully!" After Xu Qingfan finished copying one page, the two little ones had only copied a third of it. This speed was not good; they might not finish copying by noon.

After Xu Qingfan's guidance, Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning started to change their handwriting to cursive. Following Xu Qingfan's advice, when they encountered a long passage of text, they simply wrote the characters larger and only copied the first sentence of the answer. The trio's homework copying speed increased several times over.

With the 9 o'clock deadline for submitting homework fast approaching, Lin Wanning was starting to get anxious as there were still more than 30 blank pages left in Happy Winter Vacation. "What should we do, Brother Qingfan? There's still so much to do, and it's almost 9 o'clock!"

"Looks like I have no choice but to use my ultimate move," Xu Qingfan sighed.

"What ultimate move!" Lin Wanning looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Use glue to stick the two pages together!" Xu Qingfan said, then took out solid glue and applied it to the unwritten paper, then used his fingers to stick the two pieces of paper together tightly.

"This works too?" Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi were both shocked.

"Hurry up and glue it on, the teacher won't check it carefully, trust your group leader!"

Lin Wanning and Zhang Yi exchanged a glance, then nodded solemnly as if they had made up their minds.

The thirty-plus pages of homework quickly dwindled to a dozen or so, and the remaining portion consisted almost entirely of multiple-choice and calculation problems. The three of them spent another seven or eight minutes, and the ninety-plus-page Happy Winter Vacation assignment was easily completed!
"I'm not happy at all!" Lin Wanning slumped onto the table, utterly dejected, after copying the last question.

Xu Qingfan collected all the homework from the four group members and placed it on the podium. He had finally managed to get through the damn winter break.

"Why didn't you do your winter break homework?" After relaxing, Xu Qingfan finally had time to ask Zhang Yiyi the question he had wanted to ask for a long time.

He always thought Zhang Yiyi was the kind of well-behaved girl in the traditional sense, and shouldn't fail to complete her homework on time.

Zhang Yiyi glanced at Xu Qingfan somewhat embarrassedly and wrote on the paper: "I went abroad with my mother during winter vacation and left my homework at home."

"Fine!" A very strong reason.

"Why hasn't the group leader done his homework either?" Zhang Yiyi asked rhetorically.

In Zhang Yiyi's mind, Xu Qingfan had always been a model student and a good child, so she found it hard to believe that he would actually copy homework.

"Just as the West cannot lose Jerusalem, winter break homework must be left until the last day!" After finishing his homework, Xu Qingfan got up and touched Zhang Yiyi's head. "No, my legs are a little numb!"
[As expected of the team leader!] The little girl looked at Xu Qingfan with eyes full of admiration.

(End of this chapter)