Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

When Xu Qingfan came out of the kitchen, only a stir-fried green vegetable dish and the marinated fried ribs were left undone. Yao Jiping and Lin Jing quickly finished the remaining dishes and tidied up the stove area.

Before the meal, each person had a bowl of pig's trotter vinegar, with a piece of pig's trotter and an egg, sipping it gently, warming them from their bodies to their stomachs.

"Do you think it tastes good?" Xu Qingfan still felt it wasn't as good as his mom's cooking and curiously asked everyone else.

"Delicious!"

"Pretty good."

"Brother Qingfan, it's tasty!"

The five girls didn't mind it. Maybe it was because they'd been drinking Xu Qingfan's pig's trotter vinegar since they were young, almost as much as at home.

Xu Qingfan stopped pondering this mysterious issue and went on to eat rice and dishes after finishing a bowl of pig's trotter ginger stew.

"Wanning loves duck, Yiyi loves fish, Xiaoxiao loves shrimp, Lingyu loves chicken, and Ruan Wen loves sweet and sour ribs." Yao Jiping remembered each of their preferences and served the girls their favorite dishes.

"Thank you, Auntie!"

Xu Qingfan side-eyed his mom's meticulous behavior. He thought that if this ever backfired, apart from him, his mom would probably be the happiest.

[Forget it, don't overthink. Maybe mom just genuinely likes girls.]

As he pondered, he subconsciously smacked his lips, leading to an expected critique from Yao Jiping.

"Just eat your meal, no need for smacking sounds."

Xu Qingfan awkwardly raised his hand, then resumed eating in silence.

"Brother Qingfan might be, err, caught up in his thoughts. He doesn't usually eat like this," Lin Wanning tried to explain for him, smiling.

"Got it, Auntie knows. Wanning, eat more vegetables." Yao Jiping smiled and placed another serving of vegetables in her bowl.

"Mm, thank you, Auntie!"

...

"With so many people here today, should we have a makeup birthday celebration for Xiaoxiao?" Lin Jing suddenly suggested during the meal.

Xia Xiaoxiao's birthday was celebrated at school a few days ago. Since Lin Wanning hurt her foot, they simply had a meal and cake at home.

But if anything unforgettable happened, there actually was one.

They had lunch at the school cafeteria. Xu Qingfan stood up next to Xia Xiaoxiao, pulled her up, and shouted to everyone:

"Today is the birthday of my most important person, Xia Xiaoxiao. Would everyone join me in singing the Happy Birthday song for her?"

"Happy birthday to you..."

After Xu Qingfan led the song, a chorus of hundreds sang the Happy Birthday song in the cafeteria.

After the four-line chorus ended, he and Xia Xiaoxiao received a lot of applause.

Xu Qingfan wasn't sure if Xia Xiaoxiao was touched, but at that time, she was indeed too embarrassed to move; it was too socially awkward!

"No need, someone already celebrated for me!" Xia Xiaoxiao remembered that minute under Xu Qingfan's control and rolled her eyes at him.

Lin Jing knew who the "someone" was without Xia Xiaoxiao saying it. Lin Jing wiped her mouth and smiled, "So it's already been celebrated, I thought you guys didn't celebrate at school and planned to make it up on Saturday."

"Hahaha, Auntie, let me tell you, Brother Fan here is quite impressive... at noon in the cafeteria, he stood Xiaoxiao up in front of everyone and got them to sing the birthday song together!"

Xiao Ruawen almost let slip a curse in front of Auntie.

"Ha?"

The three adults imagined the scene and could only say that these young ones really know how to have fun.

"No wonder Xiaoxiao doesn't want another birthday, there was already such a grand celebration," Lin Jing laughed, covering her mouth.

"Oh please, I was mortified..." Xia Xiaoxiao murmured, her head lowered.

Honestly, she actually liked the surprise from that silly dog.

"Hey, if you'd said you didn't like it, I would've saved the idea for my group members... ouch, cough cough." Xu Qingfan hadn't finished speaking when Xia Xiaoxiao's hand was already on his waist.

Everyone knew what had just happened, but since Xia Xiaoxiao was thin-skinned, no one teased them further.

...

After lunch.

The three adults, perhaps fearing the group would feel uneasy at home, soon found various excuses to slip away.

The six of them sat closely on the sofa watching TV. The little brother walked past each of them, eventually settling on Xiao Ruawen's lap for a nap.

Xiao Ruawen flicked the cat ears, and the little brother would shake his head in response, flick, shake, flick, shake—extremely stress-relieving.

"Doing nothing this afternoon, what should we do?" Xu Qingfan, uninterested in The Legend of Zhen Huan, put down his phone and asked the group.

"What to do?" Xiao Ruawen asked back.

"Did you mean going out, Brother Qingfan?" Lin Wanning also asked.

"Where can you go and have fun?" Xu Qingfan was right next to her, pinched her cheek and asked back. "How about we play Mahjong? I'll team up with Wanning, and Xiaoxiao teams up with Ruan Wen."

"Sure, I'm game for Mahjong!" Xiao Ruawen's eyes sparkled immediately.

Those who haven't played Mahjong might not get it. This combination of arranging tiles, drawing cards, and luck in a card game is truly addictive.

But Xiao Ruawen happened to be someone who wasn't great at it yet loved playing.

"I'll team up with Yiyi, and Ruan Wen can play with Xiaoxiao," Wu Lingyu said, exchanging a glance with Zhang Yiyi.

Xu Qingfan didn't mind who teamed with whom. He picked up Lin Wanning by the waist and said, "Then that's settled. I'll set up the table and you guys get snacks from the kitchen!"

"Hee hee~"

...

The mahjong rules in Hong Kong are relatively simple, without "chi" or "pao". You can only win by self-draw.

There are no patterns like "pure suit" or "royal flush", and no scoring. Even a basic hand can win. After winning, you randomly draw scoring sticks, and however many you hit is what you get.

There's also a joker rule, where after everyone gets their tiles, the next tile is flipped, and the tile after that is the "wild card".

For example, if a dot tile is flipped, then the next dot tile is the joker.

Lin Wanning was eager to play, so Xu Qingfan let her go first in the first round.

"Get rich." She broke the bamboo tile at the start, something Wanning understood.

"Hey, Wanning, you..."

"Pung!"

Xu Qingfan hadn't finished his reminder before Xiao Ruawen declared a "Pung" loudly.

"Cough cough, Ruan Wen, the 'get rich' tile is the wild card, how could you do a pung?" Wu Lingyu pointed to the flipped red dragon tile.

"East, south, west, north, center, get rich... ah, damn!" Xiao Ruawen counted on her fingers, realizing the next one after the red dragon is truly "get rich".

"Hey hey, what are you doing? Once you 'pung', you can't regret it, don't you know!" Seeing Xiao Ruawen wanting to cheat, Xu Qingfan pointed at her and said.

"Hmph~ Pung is pung, I'll win without any wild cards, and get eight scoring sticks!" Xiao Ruawen angrily played an east tile.

They agreed that winning without wild cards meant drawing eight scoring sticks, while with it would be six.

Lin Wanning was initially upset about mistakenly playing a wild card, but seeing Ruawen's worse situation, she wasn't upset anymore.

"Qingfan Bro, should I play this one?" Soon, it was Lin Wanning's turn to play. She pointed at a sparrow tile, and after Xu Qingfan nodded, she played it, "Little bird."

"Let's decide, what's the punishment for losing?" Xu Qingfan acted as a robot helper, helping the less mobile Lin Wanning with her tiles.

"What punishment? If we win, Bro Fan gives us massages, if we lose, Bro Fan also gives us massages." Xiao Ruawen bickered with him.

Honestly, giving massages to five young women wasn't much of a punishment for Xu Qingfan.

"Right, I've just learned some SPA techniques from videos recently, the kind where you take off your clothes. Want to give it a try?" He gave Xiao Ruawen a sidelong glance and said.

"Dirty Brother Fan, dream on," Xiao Ruawen instinctively covered her chest with both hands, "What video can teach SPA? Eighty percent chance Brother Fan's been watching those unhealthy videos!"

Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at him after hearing this, thinking she should check his browser history tonight.

"Don't talk when you don't understand. I learned it to give you guys massages at the hot springs. Next week, I'll help Wanning and Xiaoyu, but not you." Xu Qingfan glared at her.

Xiao Ruawen made a face at him, just as it was her turn to draw a tile.

"Haha, I won again!"

"Brother Fan, do you yield?"

She pushed aside her mahjong tiles, showing she indeed won without any wild cards.

"Stop looking, no wild cards or wins!" Xiao Ruawen triumphantly put her hands on her hips, acting haughty.

"Quit yelling, 3-7 west white tiles, draw scoring sticks." Xu Qingfan rolled his eyes at her.

"Eight hits, eight hits!"

"Damn~ not a single hit, low points!"

Xiao Ruawen's victory was short-lived, her smile only shifted elsewhere.

"Hahahaha!"

"Serves you right for wanting to pop champagne midway."

...

After one round, Wu Lingyu and Zhang Yiyi won two hands, Xia Xiaoxiao and Xiao Ruawen each won one, but Lin Wanning kept losing chips.

"Qingfan Bro, you play. I'm too bad at this, boo hoo~" Seeing that half the chips from the drawer were gone, Lin Wanning said.

"Watch me go on a rampage." Xu Qingfan ruffled the girl's hair and had her sit in his spot.

"Watch you get locked up!" Xiao Ruawen stretched her arms, planning to distract Xu Qingfan from the sidelines.

Their mahjong table had a red cloth covering below, which they draped over the table after playing to keep dust off, very convenient.

Xu Qingfan glanced at Xiao Ruawen, suddenly recalling a novel plot he once read, where the male protagonist gambled with three female leads, while all four secretly played tricks under the table.

Just as he was having such thoughts, he suddenly realized someone was brushing his calf with their foot.

[Wait, who is that?]

Xu Qingfan was instantly startled. He was thinking about it, but not daring enough to act, after all!

"C'mon, Brother Fan, play your tile!" Xiao Ruawen urged.

"Brother, give me a pung." Zhang Yiyi smiled at him lightly.

"Oh oh... nine bamboos." Xu Qingfan snapped out of it and played a nine bamboo.

"Pung, eight bamboos." Xia Xiaoxiao laid down two nine bamboos and played an eight bamboo.

In a flash, it was Xu Qingfan's turn to pick a tile again, another nine bamboo.

"Still nine bamboos." He quietly played another nine bamboo, and while everyone was distracted, he suddenly pressed hard with his leg against the one teasing him.

"Cough cough cough!"

"Ruan Wen, what's wrong?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked, puzzled.

"Nothing... maybe someone misses me." Xiao Ruawen waved her hand awkwardly, keeping her head down, not daring to look at Xu Qingfan.

[Ruan Wen?] Xu Qingfan was completely surprised, feeling a bit secretly pleased.

...