"Hey, Brother Fan, have some more!"
"Brother Qing Fan, you have to finish it!"
"But... if I finish it, what will Little White eat?" Xu Qingfan struggled to say as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"Little White will eat dog food!"
Of course, the talk of finishing the meal was just a joke. It didn’t take long for Little White to have its share of leftovers, and even some of the lighter dishes like shrimp heads and fish got into the little brother’s bowl.
While the two little animals were scarfing down their food, the five young girls busily cleared the table, washed the dishes, and took out the trash. Only Xu Qingfan comfortably sat on the sofa, sipping tea and watching TV.
For a moment, an impractical thought inexplicably crossed his mind: "If only the future could be ."
After tidying up, the five of them returned to the living room, where Zhang Yiyi found a blindfold in the room and put it over Xu Qingfan’s eyes. His ears were also plugged with earplugs, so he couldn’t hear a sound.
"Guys, what are you up to?" But no one replied; perhaps they did, but he didn’t hear them.
Before long, someone from behind removed the earplugs, and the intro to the Birthday Song started playing in the room.
[Happy birthday to you~]
[Happy birthday to you~]
He took off the blindfold, and somehow the five girls had gathered in front of the coffee table where a huge 10-inch cake was placed, decorated with the cute words ’Happy Birthday Xu Qingfan,’ and even his cartoon likeness drawn in jam with twelve lit candles stuck into it.
The TV showed a video compilation of their morning shopping and cake-making adventures, while the girls clapped their hands and sang the birthday song.
In that instant, Xu Qingfan truly felt moved.
"Thank you, guys," he said.
"Happy 12th birthday to our classmate Xu Qingfan!!!"
Crisp voices and healing smiles encircled him, and with their laughter ringing in his ears, Xu Qingfan closed his eyes and prayed: "Meeting you all was the best of luck; may our friendship last forever."
Three seconds later, he opened his eyes and blew out all the candles.
Amidst everyone’s applause and cheers, he picked up the plastic knife to cut the cake and divided it among them.
The six people sat side by side on stools, watching the video footage on the TV.
"Someone actually forgot their own birthday, who could it be? I won’t tell!"
The five girls in front of the camera synchronously placed their index fingers over their mouths. The next second, the screen went black.
Then a message appeared on the TV:
This video is a a memorial,
to our primary school days,
a time of carefree happiness.
The intro to the song "Ningxia" began playing, with images that only appeared in blurry memories now projected on the screen.
Starting from Sunshine Kindergarten, there was Lin Wanning holding Xu Qingfan’s hand, not letting him go home and cry. There was Xia Xiaoxiao with her trademarked glaring, getting angry at him...
With each photo, Xu Qingfan could recall a piece of the past.
They all watched quietly as past images flashed before them on the TV: Xu Qingfan reading an apology letter on stage in the first grade, their hilarious book signing event in the cafeteria in the second grade, Qingfan carrying a fallen Xia Xiaoxiao on the track at sports day...
It was like sitting in Doraemon’s time machine, as countless memories flooded into their minds, up to the recent trip in Guilin, with the photo of the five girls sneakily flashing peace signs behind Xu Qingfan.
At the end of the video.
After watching, the five girls’ eyes were red, and Xu Qingfan was equally moved.
After a moment, Lin Wanning bent down to pull out their carefully prepared birthday gift from the coffee table drawer.
"Brother Qing Fan, happy birthday. We made this together!"
"Happy birthday, Brother Fan!"
"Happy birthday, brother!"
Xu Qingfan reached out to take the yellow-covered scrapbook, with ’Time Album’ written in black marker on the cover, adorned with a sticker photo of the six of them.
"No wonder you guys were always cutting yellow paper the past few weeks!" Xu Qingfan suddenly realized, so the girls had long conspired to give him a surprise.
He placed the album on his lap, flipping through it page by page. The first page was a photo of the girls secretly standing behind him during their trip to Guilin, miming the words ’Happy Birthday Xu Qingfan’ with scissors hands.
Then time rewound bit by bit, ultimately returning to the beginning, where the six of them first met...
"Hehe~ Brother Qing Fan, do you like it?"
"How much do you love it?"
"Can you love it even more?"
"Then it’s very, very, very much!"