Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

Sunday. That week they had arranged to team-build at Zhang Yiyi's place, so Xu Qingfan rode out early on his bike after breakfast. Accompanying Xiao Xiao on Saturday and Wanning on the weekend seemed quite reasonable. Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning both lived in Bijui Garden, and the two kids went to and from school together every day, their friendship growing stronger by the day. After cycling for a little over ten minutes, Xu Qingfan smoothly arrived at the entrance of the residential area. Security generally didn't fuss over kids coming in and out, so after waiting for a while, he followed a motorcycle and bypassed the access control. When he arrived at Lin Wanning's house, the two kids were already waiting at the door. "Brother Qing Fan, why did you ride a bike here? Wanning doesn't know how to ride a bike!" Lin Wanning ran up with Zhang Yiyi's hand in hers, eyeing the bike he had ridden up and down. "Couldn't be bothered to wait for the bus. Where's Chen Qiuyue? Weren't we all meeting up together?" Xu Qingfan raised his hand, and little Wanning nuzzled up like a kitten to be petted by him. "Qiuyue had something come up at home and couldn't make it." "Is that so? Good morning, Yiyi." He then shifted to pat Zhang Yiyi's head. Zhang Yiyi gave him a sweet smile, saying not so confidently, "Good morning." This was Xu Qingfan's requirement: when it was just the three of them, Zhang Yiyi had to speak up and could no longer just write what she wanted to say in a notebook. Xu Qingfan and Lin Wanning were her best friends, and the little girl hesitated only slightly before agreeing. Speaking up and communicating frequently is the best cure for aphasia; hearing aid technology is advancing rapidly, and Xu Qingfan looked forward to the day when Zhang Yiyi could communicate with them normally. This was actually the same principle as teaching and educating. Some children might be naturally slower than others, unable to learn a Chinese character that others could grasp in a glance, no matter how hard they tried. At such times, what these children needed most was encouragement, not criticism or even ridicule. Regrettably, in his previous life, Xu Qingfan had not encountered such a good teacher. He remembered that, when he was in primary school, what he feared most during Chinese class was being called on to answer a question—the old witch of a teacher had no idea how she had become one, and whenever a student couldn't answer her question she would move their seat to the very back and, after class, make them clean the girls' toilets. The female students were sent to clean the boys' toilets. For the primary school students of that time, there was no greater humiliation between classmates than to be pushed into the girls' restroom. Facing the teacher's criticism and insults, his classmates' ridicule and mockery, Xu Qingfan became increasingly insecure and for a long time was averse to attending Chinese classes. Having lived again, Xu Qingfan's greatest realization was "do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself." He did not insist on Zhang Yiyi speaking up in school under the guise of what was best for her. Instead, he chose a more gentle approach, spending more time talking to her in private. Once she developed self-confidence, he believed it wouldn't be long before Zhang Yiyi dared to speak up in public settings. "Brother Fan, why don't you teach us to ride a bike!" Once the bike was pushed into the courtyard, Lin Wanning suddenly suggested. "Sure, go in and say hello to your mom and dad first." It had been over two months since his last visit, and not much had changed in Lin Wanning's home; only Wanning's mom was clicking away at the computer in the living room. "Reset." Wen Wanqing's mom reset the calculator and looked up in surprise at the entering Xu Qingfan, "Fanfan is here! Come here and let sister give you a hug!" "Hello sister." Xu Qingfan gave a bashful smile and shamelessly threw himself into Wanning's mom's embrace. "Your name is Wen Wanqing, sister?" He struggled to poke his head out, just in time to catch sight of the signature under the person responsible on the invoice. "Yeah, that's right. You guys go play; sister is still busy with work." Wen Wanqing put Xu Qingfan down from her lap and said with a smile. Xu Qingfan was on a mission this time. He grabbed the mouse that was on the table, "Sister, can your computer access the internet? I want to show you an article!" "What are we looking at? I want to see too!" Lin Wanning, pulling Zhang Yiyi along, also crowded in close. Without waiting for Wen Wanqing's mom to reply, Xu Qingfan had already opened the browser and clicked on Old Waves at the most conspicuous place on the navigation website. To Xu Qingfan's surprise, the article "5-Year-Old Daughter Becoming Increasingly Withdrawn, Parents Regret After Learning the Truth" had somehow been featured on the forum's homepage by the admin. Xu Qingfan clicked into it, and the browser took over a minute to load the page. "What's this?" The article's headline immediately captured Wen Wanqing's attention as her own daughter was also in that age group. No one spoke further. Xu Qingfan slowly scrolled through the page, and all four people in the room stared intently at the words on the screen. The article was written using a spring and autumn stylus technique common to later generations, with a first-person perspective that easily stirred the emotions of the readers. After finishing the entire article, the room fell silent for a long while. After a long silence, Wen Wanqing's mom took Zhang Yiyi into her lap, "It won't ever be like that again..." Wen Wanqing didn't know what else to say and could only press her face against the other's, gently caressing her. Zhang Yiyi shook her head, "Not scared!" she said. "Brother Fan will help Yiyi teach those baddies a lesson!" Lin Wanning nodded firmly. Wen Wanqing turned her head towards Xu Qingfan, "You really always bring surprises. How did you think to do all this? And this article is also very well written. I never expected our Fanfan to be such a prodigy." Xu Qingfan scratched his head and gave a series of nonsensical explanations, "I definitely didn't write this article. I just told the people at the website about it, and they found someone to ghostwrite it. How could I possibly write so many words!" The hottest things in society around the millennial year were child prodigies and health products. Xu Qingfan did not want to be labeled as a prodigy, paraded around the country like a commodity on a national tour. Wen Wanqing took it as the truth and patted Xu Qingfan's head, "Haha, I thought... Never mind, sister believes that it won't be long before our Fanfan reaches that level too!" "Yeah!" He opened his email, copied the article saved there onto the desktop, "Sister, could you please print out this article for me? I want to take it back and distribute it to my classmates to raise awareness about the harm of bullying in school!" The article saved on the computer did not censor the names of those little CSs; instead, it thoughtfully listed the classes they were attending. Worried Wen Wanqing might disagree, he had embellished it with a lofty justification. "No problem, leave it to me!" Wen Wanqing promised with a pat on her chest. "Thank you, sister. I need three hundred copies, okay?" "No problem!" Xu Qingfan exchanged a knowing smile with Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi. The Lin family's clothing factory had printing equipment, where printing costs amounted to nothing but a bit of ink and paper. But now in 2002, if you went to a print shop on the street to print out 300 sheets all at once, if the shop owner doesn't charge you 250 yuan, you'd say he was merciful.