"Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao, come to my office after class! Class dismissed!"
As the bell rang, Guan Biyue very rarely ended class early without dragging on. After she left, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi both looked at Xu Qingfan.
"Brother Qing Fan, what does Teacher Guan want with you and Xiao Xiao?" Lin Wanning asked curiously.
Xu Qingfan shrugged, tilted his head, and said uncertainly, "I guess it’s about the math competition we are going to attend in Yanjing during the winter break. Let’s go!" He stood up, turned around, and patted Xia Xiaoxiao on the shoulder.
"Wait for me to finish this problem."
When they arrived at the office, just as Xu Qingfan had predicted, Guan Biyue pulled out two plane tickets and parent consent forms from a drawer, and handed them to each of them.
"Keep the tickets safe. Bring the signed consent form from your parents back to me. Do well in the exam; you are your teacher’s pride!" After they both took them, Guan Biyue rubbed their heads and spoke.
The plane tickets and accommodations were arranged by the Education Bureau because booking early offered a more favorable price, so the officials had booked and sent them early.
"I’ll try my best," Xu Qingfan shrugged and said dismissively.
He had practiced with previous years’ exam papers, and some of the problems were clearly not meant for elementary students—hundreds of combinations and permutations, the shortest flight path of insects. If it weren’t for his knowledge of probability theory and the distance formula, he couldn’t have thought of the answers.
The most disgusting part was, these were all fill-in-the-blank questions, undoubtedly set up as backdoors for certain groups.
Participating in a primary school maths competition, Xu Qingfan even had to borrow books to review Advanced Mathematics and Probability Theory again—where was the logic in that?
After all, Xu Qingfan couldn’t imagine how Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu could figure out the answers just using elementary school math operations.
"What ’try your best’? You must give it your all!" Guan Biyue tapped his head lightly and said, "Go on then, teacher awaits your triumphant return."
"Yes, goodbye, Teacher."
The tickets were kept in envelopes, and they didn’t open them but looked at the parent consent form as they walked back to the classroom.
"The exam is on January 10th; when do we get our holiday break?" Xu Qingfan asked Xia Xiaoxiao, looking at the date mentioned.
"I think it’s on the 8th," Xia Xiaoxiao said, recalling the holiday timings from previous years uncertainly.
Back in the classroom, after Xu Qingfan put the tickets back in his bag, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi eagerly came over to look at the paper in his hand.
"Whine~ Ningning also wants to go to Yanjing, climb the Great Wall, visit the Forbidden City, and eat roast duck!" Lin Wanning said with her little finger, listing the fun things about Yanjing.
Xu Qingfan pushed her forehead with his index finger and said irritably, "It’s freezing below zero degrees in Yanjing in January; you’ll be turned into an icicle."
"I still want to go~ To cheer for Brother Qing Fan in his exam, right Yiyi!" Lin Wanning said, leaning against him and acting coy.
Zhang Yiyi blinked, watching them. She would have to go with her mother to the Beautiful Country for treatment during the winter break, not knowing what to say in that moment.
"Let’s talk about it during the summer break. It’s too cold in the winter; plus, there’s the Spring Festival travel rush. Let’s all go together during the summer holidays!" Xu Qingfan said helplessly as he ruffled her hair.
"Okay~ then you have to bring gifts back for Ningning!" Lin Wanning dragged out her voice, then after thinking a bit, she added, "And for Yiyi too!"
"Deal deal deal, all my little money will go towards buying gifts for you. I’ll get Ningning a candy apple as big as a fist," he said.
"Hee hee hee~ Brother Qing Fan is the best!"
Xu Qingfan smiled faintly and turned the page of the notice.
The location of the exam written there, Yanjing Normal University, startled him.
[Isn’t that bad woman Chen Zipei’s school?] Xu Qingfan thought.
But remembering that he hadn’t heard from her for over twenty years in his previous life, Xu Qingfan quickly came to terms with it. One must always think positively; maybe she had died of a terminal illness?
This life, he was still unaware of this matter, and he reminded himself not to give it away by accident.
After putting away the notice, he patted the two on their heads: "Come on, information technology class next; let’s hurry to get a good spot."
"Ningning will have three moons in just two more hours hanging!"
He recalled a time when he, too, had gone through a similar phase, giving his QQ account password to many people to level up faster, only for his QQ to be inevitably hacked.
After a few incidents of being hacked, Xu Qingfan grew tired of it. After WeChat came out, he no longer cared about how many little suns or stars followed on his account.
After starting up the computer, Lin Wanning quickly downloaded the QQ client on the web page.
Logging into her account, she habitually opened Xu Qingfan’s golden-haired male avatar, ID: Past with the Wind.
"Brother Qing Fan, why does your QQ have only three stars, do you want Ningning to help you hang it up?"
"Can’t be bothered to waste electricity hanging it up at home, log in for me," Xu Qingfan said, as there was nothing secretive on his QQ. He openly typed his account password on Lin Wanning’s keyboard.
The QQ level system had just been introduced in September, and he remembered it took a whole month of continuous use to earn one moon. Now, it was just past December, and the little girl’s account already had three moons, showing she had hardly missed a day.
After Lin Wanning logged in, she conscientiously set Xu Qingfan’s QQ status to invisible, "Yiyi, let’s play Cops and Robbers!"
The school computers used Kingsoft antivirus, which included Kingsoft Typing. Several games like Frog Crossing, Airplane, and Cops and Robbers were popular among the students.