Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

Chapter 272 - 187. Winter vacation is approaching_2

As the nightmare of countless elementary and middle school students, sometimes, because of a harsh comment written by the homeroom teacher, you’d have to spend a disastrous winter (or summer) vacation.

When they arrived at the office, there was already a long line at the door, with students from their class as well as other classes, all there to get their middle school student evaluation booklets.

They hadn’t been in line for long when they quickly reached the door. Seeing that it was Xu Qingfan and his friends, the homeroom teacher’s face immediately beamed with a smile, warmly inviting them in.

"Qingfan is ranked first in the grade this time, except for a deduction of three points in Chinese, he scored full marks in all other subjects. Xiaoxiao and Lingyu are tied for second place, just three points behind Qingfan." The homeroom teacher had intentionally put their student booklets aside so that they could be handed to them as soon as they arrived.

"Teacher, what about me? What’s my rank?" Wanning eagerly asked as she took her student booklet, flipping through it non-stop.

The homeroom teacher smiled without speaking, waiting until Wanning saw her own scores, she jumped up excitedly on the spot, "Yay! I’m ranked sixth!!"

"I’m fifth," Xiao Ruawen spread out her student booklet to show Wanning.

"What about Yiyi, is Yiyi fourth?"

"Yep!" Zhang Yiyi flipped through her student booklet to show her.

"It’s rare to see students like you continuously dominating the top six ranks in the grade."

"Haha~ Yeah, I remember when Wanning started school, she wasn’t even ranked within the top hundred in the grade, you’ve been pushing each other forward."

"Keep it up."

Many teachers in the office taught their class and gave kindly smiles to them.

"Thank you, teachers. We’ll head out now so as not to disturb your work," Xu Qingfan said with a smile, pushing an elated Wanning as they left.

Back in the classroom, they excitedly exchanged their student booklets and looked them over.

"This student is smart and quick-witted, willing to help others, has a plan for studying, has goals..." Xu Qingfan read the homeroom teacher’s comments for Wanning and said speechlessly, "How come they all use the same template!"

"Hahaha, Brother Fan, mine’s the same as well!"

"Brother Qing Fan, why can you also score full marks in politics? I only got 88 points!" Their politics exam was open-book, and Wanning felt she had copied all the necessary paragraphs, yet she still lost twelve points.

"It’s because all you know is to copy from the book. You need to integrate your own words into it. Anyone can copy, but you definitely won’t get full marks if you just copy," Xu Qingfan patted the girl’s head.

"Okay~"

One had to admit, there really was a difference in learning aptitude between people.

The midterm exams might have been easy because the school was considerate of their adjustment to the new environment.

But as the final exams made questions such as multiple-choice questions 11,12, fill-in-the-blank questions 15,16, and the last two big questions harder, it became much more difficult for Wanning, Yiyi, and Xiao Ruawen, who had never participated in math competitions in elementary school, to get full marks again.

Fortunately, Licheng Middle School had only three freaks like Xu Qingfan. Despite the three girls falling dramatically behind Qingfan and the others in terms of performance, their grade rankings still didn’t drop out of the top six.

"The following students whose names were called, please come to the stage to receive your awards, the first place..."

Although the order had changed, it was still the six of them going up to the stage to receive their awards. As they returned to their seats with the certificates in hand, Xu Qingfan could clearly feel the envious glances from numerous classmates.

Should I say it or not, but this feeling of showing off without effort, it’s really quite satisfying.

He had originally planned to coast through middle school given his knowledge from his previous life, easily aiming for a key high school in the district.

But well, to leave more pleasant memories during their adolescence, he’d better study hard!

[After all, I have to be a role model for them!] Xu Qingfan suddenly felt a sense of grandeur.

After enduring the hackneyed reminders to be safe over the winter break, not to play in reservoirs, internet cafes, karaoke bars, and to be careful with fireworks, their winter vacation officially began.

On the way back, the girls, who initially had nothing in their hands, were now each holding at least five or six certificates.

There were certificates for being in the top ten of the grade, the top ten of the class, being first in a single subject in the year (or class), and for being outstanding students.

In your student days, as long as you were holding certificates, you were the brightest star in the whole street.

In rural areas, it was a matter of pride for a family to have a living room wall covered in certificates.

Wanning treasured these hard-earned certificates because, during elementary school, she had only ever received a progress award once. After entering middle school, she finally experienced the glory of standing on the stage to accept awards like Brother Fan.

They first returned to their secret base, and when they encountered neighbors in the street who saw the many awards in their hands, they came up to congratulate them, "What smart boys and girls, so many awards!"

"Look how bright those brothers and sisters are, you should hit the books and not just flip through them!" Of course, there were also parents who took the opportunity to lecture their own children.

The kids looked at the awards in their hands with immense envy and, in a fit of anger, decided to steal his mom’s money to top up his Q-coin account as soon as he got home, [It’s almost New Year, the little penguin needs new clothes too!]

"Hahaha....." They locked the door as soon as they got home and then collapsed on the sofa and the tatami, bursting into loud laughter.

The laughter went on for a long time, and Xiao Ruawen, gasping for air, asked, "Cough cough... when are we going to eat and do KTV?"

"Let’s talk about it at twelve, it’s only just past ten now. Let’s stay at home for a while. By the way, Ruan Wen, when are you going to your dad’s place?" Xu Qingfan and Lin Wanning leaned on each other, heads tilted, and after bumping into each other, he asked.

"Not so soon, I have to wait until the cleaning is done on the twenty-eighth of the year, probably around the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking if we should also have our New Year’s Eve dinner here ahead of time and do some cleaning, put up couplets, stuff like that." Xu Qingfan said, bumping Lin Wanning’s head again.

"Yes, yes, when!" Lin Wanning replied excitedly, mimicking Xu Qingfan by bumping his head.

The five girls all looked at Xu Qingfan, waiting for his answer.

"Let’s make it the twenty-seventh. From now on, the twenty-seventh will be our New Year’s Eve!" He looked at everyone.

"Yeah!!! Everyone agreed unanimously, and the five girls voiced their approval together.

"So what are we doing now? Sitting here until twelve?" Xiao Ruawen asked.

"Ponyo, the movie!" Miyazaki’s "Ponyo on the Cliff" had just been released in China recently, and Zhang Yiyi had bought the official Chinese-subtitled DVD as soon as possible, waiting for a time when everyone was present to watch it together.

"This is good, this is good!" Xiao Ruawen nodded vigorously.

"Sure." Xia Xiaoxiao also nodded in agreement.

"I’ll make tea." Wu Lingyu stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Yu, wait for me, I’ll get the chips!" Lin Wanning got up from next to Xu Qingfan, slipped on her slippers, and followed.

"Don’t take too much, we still have to eat later!"

"I know~" Hearing Xu Qingfan’s nagging, the girl silently smiled.

After Xia Xiaoxiao drew the curtains in the living room, she turned to see that the seats on either side of Xu Qingfan were empty and hesitated for a long time.

Seeing that Lin Wanning and Wu Lingyu were about to come out of the kitchen, the girl bit her lower lip lightly and took a step to sit beside him.

Xu Qingfan was slightly surprised. He didn’t understand what was going on with Xia Xiaoxiao and why she had come to sit so close to him.

"What are you looking at!" Seeing Xu Qingfan turn his head to look at her, Xia Xiaoxiao reverted to her usual self, irritably lifting her hand to straighten him out.

But after doing this, the girl’s heart raced inexplicably.

A bright smile spread across Xu Qingfan’s face; although he didn’t know what was up with Xia Xiaoxiao, he was still happy to see her returning to her lively self.

"Watching the dog, of course!" He said.

"The dog is watching who?"

"The dog is watching you!" Xu Qingfan accidentally fell into Xia Xiaoxiao’s verbal trap in his haste.

"Hmph~ Good to know!" Xia Xiaoxiao was immensely pleased.

"Silly dog." Xu Qingfan shook his head in resignation, thinking to himself [It’s good to have her back.]

Lin Wanning came out of the kitchen with her hands full of snacks and, noticing that her original seat had been taken by Xia Xiaoxiao, pouted imperceptibly.

"Has the movie started?" She quickly placed the snacks on the coffee table and then took the seat on the other side of Xu Qingfan, usurping Wu Lingyu’s original spot.

Wu Lingyu, seeing her own seat taken, didn’t mind at all. After pouring tea into everyone’s cups, she cheerfully found a spot and sat down.

"Starting right now!" Zhang Yiyi put the disc in the player, and the TV immediately began playing the familiar opening.