Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

Chapter 239 - 170. Skip class_2

Xu Qingfan once again stretched out his arm, and this time he finally grabbed the outer wall and easily swung himself up to sit on it.

"Yay!!!" Seeing Xu Qingfan smoothly coming down from the ladder and climbing over the wall to escape, the five girls on the other side cheered excitedly.

"Don’t get too excited, I’ll go find another ladder, you guys wait here for a bit!" Xu Qingfan patted the dust off his hands and looked around, it didn’t take long for him to find what he was looking for—a wooden climbing ladder.

The climbing ladder wasn’t there earlier in the morning, presumably left temporarily by a worker who had used it to fix the electrical lines, which conveniently aided their truancy.

Xu Qingfan carried the climbing ladder back to where the ladder was, tried it to make sure it wasn’t broken, and then called to the girls on the other side, "Catch the ladder, you guys!"

After saying that, he lifted the climbing ladder over his head, and once a third of it reached the other side, he stood on a pre-prepared step ladder and tilted downward to pass the climbing ladder across.

"Damn~ Brother Fan, where did you find this ladder?" Xiao Ruawen was surprised when she saw the over-four-meters-long bamboo ladder.

"We’ll talk when you get up, hold tight!" Xu Qingfan held the ladder steady on his side, and soon the five girls climbed up the bamboo ladder to the top of the wall, landing safely on the platform provided by the ladder.

Xu Qingfan then climbed up and dragged the bamboo ladder back over, declaring their jailbreak a success.

After returning both ladders to their original places, Xia Xiaoxiao looked back at the high wall they had just scaled, and she suddenly remembered a line from a movie she had seen when she was little: Some birds are not meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright.

Xia Xiaoxiao felt it was particularly fitting in this context.

"We’re free!" Lin Wanning, like an unbridled pheasant, grabbed Zhang Yiyi’s hand and led the way, sprinting ahead.

"I’m coming too!" Seeing this, Xiao Ruawen also wanted to run freely like Lin Wanning, so she grabbed Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu’s hands and followed closely behind, dashing out.

Xu Qingfan chuckled and shook his head, catching up and saying, "Wait for me, I haven’t gotten on yet!"

"Hahaha..." The morning sun and the shadows of the trees split the girls’ silhouettes apart, and the air was filled with the scent of youth.

What is youth?

Youth is just like this!

The six of them returned home and Little White at the door looked confused for a good while, never understanding how its owners came back at this hour, and from a different direction no less.

But the fact that it overslept and didn’t guard the house properly definitely couldn’t be exposed, so after a moment, it immediately put on a happy dog face, wagging its tail excitedly and pouncing on Lin Wanning.

"Hee hee~ Little White!" Lin Wanning joyfully petted the dog’s head and then, without looking back, pulled out her keys to unlock the door.

When the door opened, the little brother cat was already at the door welcoming them. Xu Qingfan picked up the cat in an embrace, a life complete with both cat and dog, just so comfortable.

"Should we change clothes?" Wu Lingyu looked down at her school emblem, feeling that skipping school in uniform was a bit too brazen. She worried about being caught and scolded, then being dragged back to school.

"What are you afraid of, we want to walk around in our school uniforms. If we’re asked, just say we came out to buy something for the teacher!" Xu Qingfan let go of the impatient cat and said.

"Exactly, that’s the feeling we’re going for. The top six of our grade skipping school to come out, just think about it, it’s thrilling!" With adolescence came a bit of rebelliousness in Xiao Ruawen.

"Besides, changing clothes would mean fussing over which skirt to wear. Let’s go! We’re off to Gualv Square to see a movie, and after that, it’ll be just in time for lunch!" Lin Wanning put down her backpack and happily ushered Wu Lingyu out the door.

"To watch a movie, watch the movie!"

"What movies are there this month? I really want to see Miyazaki’s ’Ponyo on the Cliff.’ I wonder when it will be released in China." Xia Xiaoxiao pushed Xu Qingfan and asked.

"That’s probably going to be the New Year or Spring Festival film release schedule."

"Let’s go, once we get to the cinema, we’ll find out everything we need to know!" said Xiao Ruawen after changing her shoes.

The six of them appeared at Gualv Square, wearing their summer school uniforms and chatting and laughing, attracting curious glances from passersby along the way.

Xiao Ruawen, who had only been rebellious for a short while, became a bit embarrassed and approached the group to whisper, "Do you guys feel something strange, like... like... like all these people around us seem like NPCs in a game, and only the six of us are the players!"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh!" The four girls nodded their heads in agreement upon hearing this. Seeing Xu Qingfan without a reaction, Xiao Ruawen asked again, "Brother Fan, don’t you feel that way?"

"I do feel it." Xu Qingfan smiled and nodded.

He recalled the sensation of disorientation he had felt in his past life in his mid-twenties whenever he bumped into high school students wearing uniforms.

After all, the school uniforms billowing in the youthful wind cloaked the grandest secrets of their adolescence.

The six of them bought milk tea, snacks, and popcorn before heading to the movie theater on the sixth floor.

Since there were no major holidays in November, there weren’t any notable movies either; they ultimately picked "Painted Skin," which had been released during the National Day holiday and had a pretty good reputation online.

The tickets were still priced at thirty yuan each. After purchasing tickets for the next available showing, the group soon settled into the theater.

Perhaps because they had chosen an inconvenient time, 9 o’clock on a weekday morning, the theater remained occupied only by the six of them until the movie started.

This allowed them to discuss the plot as freely as if they were in their own living room.

"Hisss—I won’t dare to sleep alone tonight!"

"That was so scary!"

When the movie showed the vixen spirit shedding her human skin to reveal a maggot-infested skull beneath, the five girls involuntarily gasped in horror.

"What’s there to be afraid of!" Xia Xiaoxiao said, trying to keep her composure, then sneakily glanced at Xu Qingfan with a guilty conscience.

"I won’t dare to sleep alone tonight either. Can I sleep with you all?" Xu Qingfan joked.

"Hahaha, Brother Fan, keep dreaming!"

"Brother Qing Fan, I’ll keep you company if you’re too scared!"

"Ruan Wen, how can you be like that? Can’t you stick with the group!" Xiao Ruawen rebuked, annoyed.

"Then Yiyi can join me in keeping Brother Qing Fan company too!" Lin Wanning suggested seriously after a moment of thought, "If one more person joins, Brother Qing Fan’s bed will be too small, and we’ll have to sleep on mats!"

"Hahaha..."

The two-hour movie quickly ended, and by the story’s conclusion, the girls’ eyes were red with emotion. They felt pity for the fox demon who had given up her thousand years of cultivation to spit out the Spirit Pill and save everyone, only to vanish into ash.

However, what Xu Qingfan saw were just two foolish lovers and a contemptible man.

"Why can’t the three of them just get along and stop hurting each other?" Lin Wanning couldn’t help but comment after the movie.

"Mm-hmm!" Zhang Yiyi nodded vehemently, clearly agreeing with the sentiment.

"Haha, am I the only one who thinks that Lizard Spirit was pitiable? Using Brother Fan’s words, it’s like a lovesick fool who ends up with nothing after all that effort!"

"It’s clear that the general was the disgusting one, always doubting his wife in the beginning, and only when she’s gone does he believe her. They’re all just making excuses for themselves!" Xia Xiaoxiao’s perspective differed from the others.

"But in the end, he also died for love..." Wu Lingyu said in a meek voice.

"That’s after he cheated. If he hadn’t cheated, none of this would have happened!"

As the five girls showed signs of starting an argument over the movie, Xu Qingfan quickly interjected, "Let’s go, we still have to buy groceries and cook!"

"We ran out of Coke at home, and we’re out of chips and shrimp sticks too. We need to stock up!" Lin Wanning quickly raised her hand when she saw the opportunity.

"The peanut oil is almost gone too," Wu Lingyu added.

"Let’s go!"

Departing the theater near eleven o’clock, they made their way to the adjacent CR Vanguard.

Pushing a small cart, they tossed in any items that caught their fancy. Shopping at the supermarket was a relaxing and enjoyable affair.

Carrying bags of big and small items back home, they sorted everything out meticulously.

The school bell rang just as they were finishing up, signifying the start of their four-day mini-vacation. The six shared a knowing smile; their holiday had officially begun.