The storm of the divorce quickly passed, and life returned to its peaceful rhythm. Just after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, only a little over ten days remained until school started again.
"Ningning is done!" Lin Wanning capped her pen and raised her hands high in triumph.
"Here~ A reward for you, a strawberry." Xu Qingfan reached for the largest strawberry on the plate and offered it to Lin Wanning’s mouth.
"Heehee~" the little girl bit into it with one bite, leaving a small piece of the strawberry in his hand, "Brother Qing Fan, you eat!"
"Picky eater, I don’t want your leftovers, give it to Little White." Xu Qingfan tapped her forehead lightly and placed the leftover piece on a napkin.
"Brother, eat!" Zhang Yiyi propped her chin with one hand, grinning as she watched the interaction between the two, while also offering her half-eaten strawberry to him.
"You two, tidy up your things; let’s go out and have fun." Xu Qingfan stood up and tapped each of their heads gently.
"Okay!" Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi’s eyes lit up, they quickly put their winter holiday homework back into their school bags and eagerly ran upstairs.
"Brother Qing Fan, wait for us, Ningning and Yiyi need to change clothes!" Lin Wanning’s voice echoed from upstairs.
"Got it, I’ll wait for you in the yard!" Xu Qingfan gathered the uneaten strawberry tops together and walked to the garden to put them in Little White’s bowl.
"Come out, it’s time for dessert after your meal!" He knocked on the wooden doghouse as a reminder to the little dog.
"Woof woof!" Little White, hearing the noise coming from the bowl, sprinted out like a rocket.
Perhaps because it smelled the scent of its young owners, the dog sniffed and began to eat quickly.
You shouldn’t touch a dog while it’s eating because you never know if it might guard its food. After lightly kicking Little White’s butt, Xu Qingfan squatted down to check on the four-leaf clover he had given the two little ones the other day.
The place that originally grew mugwort was dug out to make a small square, and a transparent hemispherical plastic shell covered it, protecting the precious, unique conjoined four-leaf clover.
Because of the arrival of spring, many small Clover plants had grown around the four-leaf clover, only four or five centimeters tall, surrounding the nearly thirty-centimeter-tall four-leaf clover like stars around the moon.
Xu Qingfan gently poked the leaves of the four-leaf clover with his fingertip and then stood up again. Little White finished eating the strawberries and ran around the yard in disarray, looking like it wanted to play with him, but couldn’t come over because it was tied up.
Outside the house, the sun shone brightly, warming his entire body as the sunlight hit his black down jacket.
Xu Qingfan sat in the yard’s rocking chair, basking in the free sunbath with his eyes half-closed.
After looking at the sun for a while, his eyes became irritated by the bright light, "I remember in my childhood, I could gaze at the sun, discerning the fine details and noticing tiny objects to appreciate their textures, hence often finding amusement beyond the material world," he mumbled quietly, recalling an essay from his middle school days in his past life.
Even though so many years had passed since middle school in his previous life, Xu Qingfan always felt that Shen Fu was boasting; aside from blind people, who could gaze directly at the sun!
It didn’t take long for Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi to walk out of the house hand in hand, both dressed in dazzling long skirts with jackets over their upper bodies, shining brightly as the sunlight hit the sequins on their skirts.
"Tsk~ you two are dressed up so fancy; it makes me look like a carriage driver beside a princess," Xu Qingfan commented after admiring them for a while.
"Heehee~ Brother Qing Fan is not a carriage driver, Brother Qing Fan is a little prince!" Lin Wanning smeared some cream from her hand onto his face.
"What’s this?" Xu Qingfan, feeling the chilly sensation on his face, asked in confusion.
"Sunscreen, duh, Ningning is helping you apply it!" Lin Wanning stretched out both palms and smoothed the cream over his face.
Xu Qingfan closed his eyes and let Lin Wanning’s palms glide over his face; he was generally too lazy to do it himself, only bothering to apply cream when his skin was about to crack.
"All done, Brother Qing Fan!" Lin Wanning retracted her hands with a beaming smile, signaling Xu Qingfan to open his eyes.
"Brother, here!" Zhang Yiyi pulled out a stick of lip balm from her coat, adjusted it to the right length, and approached to apply it to Xu Qingfan’s lips.
"Are you two turning me into a doll?" Xu Qingfan pursed his lips, tasting the strawberry-flavored lip balm—it was quite fragrant.
"Heehee~" Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning hooked their arms through his, one on each side, and cheerfully stepped out of the door.
"You two~" Xu Qingfan broke into a smile and was pushed out of Bijui Garden by them.
In Li City, there were not many places to have fun: bumper cars and merry-go-rounds in the park, various arcade machines at Sunshine Park. In his past life, Xu Qingfan’s childhood was spent watching others play these games.
Reborn once, he played to his heart’s content, as you really need money in your pocket to avoid regrets about your childhood.
Bumper cars cost five yuan for ten minutes, and the three of them paid for a half-hour outright, chasing each other around the spacious square with abandon.
"Slow down, Brother Qing Fan, you’re hurting Ningning!"
"Heehee~ Bump you, bump you!"
"Yiyi, quick, bump him!"
"Ah, I was wrong, Brother Qing Fan, don’t bump into me anymore!" Lin Wanning vividly showed what it meant to be unskilled yet eager to play as she got cornered and continuously bumped by Xu Qingfan’s bumper car.
Half an hour later, Lin Wanning climbed out of the bumper car, rubbing her sore bottom, looking at Xu Qingfan with a woeful expression: "Brother Qing Fan is a big meanie!"
"Heh heh heh~" Xu Qingfan laughed uncontrollably, "Unskilled but eager to play!" He offered his arm for her to cling to.
"Heehee." Lin Wanning showed her teeth with a reluctant smile.