Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts-Chapter 374 - 272. Zhang Yiyi’s Wish

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"Cough cough cough... Yiyi, what did you say... What did Wanning tell you?" Xu Qingfan began to visibly tense up, his speech getting muddled, no longer maintaining the composure he usually had.

Zhang Yiyi squinted her eyes slyly, her smile blossoming like a lotus flower at the beginning of its bloom, radiating the greatest joy of this world.

"Wanning told me everything!" The girl took a step back, placing her hands behind her back and leaning forward slightly as she watched him.

Seeing her brother’s panicky demeanor, her smile grew even wider.

Realizing he was being teased by the girl before him, Xu Qingfan feigned anger in an attempt to cover up his guilt, lifting his hand as if to smack her, "Playing riddles with me, are you? Believe it or not, I’ll spank you!"

The girl wasn’t scared at all; she knew this brother of hers was just putting on an act, and that getting spanked wouldn’t hurt anyway. She held her head high, exuding an unyielding air.

The laughter Zhang Yiyi was trying so hard to stifle made her stance seem not at all deserving of a thrashing; instead, she was incredibly cute and reminded him of an emoji he had used before.

"Seems like you’re asking for a spank." Xu Qingfan walked over to her and gently patted her bottom.

Zhang Yiyi wasn’t upset, she leaned back against the wall and said to him, "It’s about what Brother said, that we can’t date until we’re seventeen or eighteen."

"Oh, you mean that? Yes, what about it?" Xu Qingfan almost let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.

He had thought that Lin Wanning might really dare to say anything, that if such a thing got out, it would be incredibly embarrassing, but it seemed Wanning was still discreet.

Zhang Yiyi knew if she kept laughing, she’d give herself away, and she didn’t want to betray her good friend, so she changed the subject, "Will Brother consider dating after turning seventeen?"

The question was quite crucial. If Xu Qingfan had no intention of dating in high school, then all the preparations she and Wanning had made would be for naught.

"Ah?" Xu Qingfan hadn’t expected the girl to ask such a question, and in truth he hadn’t an answer for it himself.

"I’ll definitely start dating after turning seventeen, but whether it’s at seventeen, eighteen, or even twenty-seven, twenty-eight, I can’t be sure," he said ambiguously.

Zhang Yiyi wasn’t pleased with his answer and pressed on, "Then what if there’s a girl in high school who Brother likes, and she confesses to you? Would you be with her?"

It was rare for her to say so many words at once.

"Um..." Faces danced across his mind: Lin Wanning, Wu Lingyu, Xiao Ruawen, and of course, Zhang Yiyi, who was right in front of him.

There should have been Xia Xiaoxiao too, but the thought was quickly suppressed as soon as it surfaced.

In terms of affection, he genuinely liked all four girls—whether it was their personality or looks—but the issue he had pondered before remained: would dating one of them affect the friendship among everyone?

After all, his past life’s experience was the perfect example. He and Xia Xiaoxiao had drifted apart, probably because she saw him only as a brother.

Love was like a confusing ledger. Xu Qingfan was scared that, as in his previous life, he might inadvertently step on a landmine without knowing when.

"These things are hard to say. Sometimes the atmosphere is right, the feelings are there, dopamine levels rise, and naturally, you become a couple," Xu Qingfan said, still evading a direct answer.

"Oh..." Zhang Yiyi felt a bit disheartened. She had wanted to ask if one of the five girls admitted her feelings for Brother, would he reciprocate? She was asking for a friend.

But Brother Qing Fan wasn’t foolish. To ask in such a manner would make that ’friend’ seem an awful lot like herself.

The girl slowly moved closer, standing shoulder to shoulder with Xu Qingfan.

"I like Brother," she confessed quietly, hugging his arm.

"I like Yiyi too," Xu Qingfan patted the back of her hand in response.

Neither of them spoke for a while, and it was only after a significant pause did Zhang Yiyi say, "It’s different."

"Hm?" Because of the length of silence, Xu Qingfan didn’t grasp the meaning behind her words.

Zhang Yiyi just shook her head with no intention to explain.

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She longed to declare to him face-to-face, "I super like Brother, like the most most most," but her pride as a girl wouldn’t allow it.

What’s more, Zhang Yiyi was afraid that Xu Qingfan would tell her, "My feelings for Yiyi are just those of a brother for his sister!"

Childhood experiences had left her with indelible wounds, but in reality, she had let go of the past years’ traumas, owing to the safety provided by her brother and the joyful company of her best friend Wanning. She had moved on from the painful experiences in kindergarten and being abandoned by her father.

With the two of them in her life, Zhang Yiyi no longer needed to feign meekness to avoid being bullied or force a smile to win the adults’ favor, as she did when she was young.

Similarly, because she had them, like any other girl of her age, she could occasionally reveal her quirky side without needing silence as her camouflage.

But if one day both Brother and Wanning abandoned her, Yiyi would fall into an even deeper abyss.

I could endure the darkness if I’d never seen the sun.

[We promised to always stay together!]

...

Some time later, the sun once again hid behind the clouds, and the two resumed their journey, holding hands.

They didn’t know how far they’d gone; when they looked back, they could no longer see the path they had come by.

Apart from the occasional car speeding past, the entire coastline was empty save for him and Zhang Yiyi.

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