The game arcade in the greenhouse shopping street was still as crowded and lively as ever.
Perhaps to compete with the booming internet cafes, many of the machines here had been replaced with new ones, and a few new game cabinets had even been added.
The most eye-catching were the realistic shooting games and racing games—something that hadn’t been here before.
Besides that, the claw machines at the entrance had increased in number, seemingly to attract young women passing by.
Further inside, the dance machines hadn’t been replaced, but the screens in front of them had been upgraded to higher definition.
This way, even standing two or three meters away, you wouldn’t see those huge pixel blocks anymore.
“Want me to play the dance machine with you?”
“Huh? Xiaojing actually said that first?”
“Hey, what kind of image do you have of me in your heart?”
“—A block of wood?”
“No matter what, I do have emotional intelligence, you know.”
Anjing rolled her eyes dramatically and crossed her arms.
“But I’ll only play for a bit before going to play fighting games with them. It’s rare I come here, so if I don’t play a couple rounds of King of Fighters, that’d be such a waste.”
“Then why don’t you play to your heart’s content first, then come back?”
“No, I’m afraid once I start, I won’t be able to stop.”
Anjing scratched her head awkwardly.
“You come first, you come first.”
“Then I’ll play the dance machine with you first. It’s been a while since I last played.”
“The dance machines are still the same, but the screen’s a lot clearer now.”
Anjing sighed a bit.
“Times are changing, equipment’s upgrading.”
“Yeah, but have your skills regressed?”
Anjing immediately remembered the last time she messed up on the dance machine and cleared her throat, lowering her head.
“If I forget, I’ll just relearn it. As long as you have enough coins…”
The old owner from last time was gone, replaced by a young guy who looked like a part-timer—he was flipping through an MP4’s downloaded e-books and would just collect the money and hand out game tokens without even looking up most of the time.
“This is the busiest arcade in this small city.”
Yang Lingfei fanned himself to clear the smoky haze lingering inside.
Usually, young people wouldn’t smoke in arcades, especially middle schoolers.
If parents caught them playing games and smoking, that would be a huge problem.
The ones who smoked were usually middle-aged men, playing either slot machines—which could technically be used for gambling—or stripping mahjong or poker.
Although no character would actually undress completely in those games, who knows what they were hoping for.
“I heard that arcade over on New Street shut down.”
“Serves them right, their prices were ridiculous. Only idiots would play there.”
Sun Wei sneered.
“One yuan per token, who thinks of that?”
“Sure, the machines are a bit better, but so what? If you want better graphics, why not just go to an internet cafe? One yuan fifty for an hour.”
Fang Qiang nodded in agreement.
“But arcades are definitely getting fewer and fewer. Soon it’ll be all internet cafes.”
Zhou Chao slapped a ten-yuan bill on the table.
“Hey, man! Change this into tokens!”
The cashier glanced at the bill and skillfully pulled out a small box containing ten tokens, placing it on the counter.
Of course, not every machine here required tokens.
The slot machines tucked away in the corner were played by inserting actual cash, and the older men would leave as soon as they were done without so much as a glance at the counter.
“Games on computer have better graphics, but the impact feeling on game machines is unbeatable. It feels so good to hit those buttons.”
Fang Qiang rubbed his neck, looking a little wistful.
“Sigh, once I have money, I’ll definitely clear out a room for a game room.”
“What for?”
“To set up a game room! Buy a few machines, put them in there, just thinking about it makes me excited!”
“By the time you have money, these machines will be obsolete anyway.”
Anjing gave him a sidelong glance.
“Is that necessary?”
“That’s the dream, don’t you get it? Anjing, do you have a dream?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s your dream?”
“I want to protect the world.”
Sun Wei shouted out from the side.
“Pfft.”
Yang Lingfei couldn’t help but laugh.
Anjing’s neck flushed red as she opened her eyes wide.
“What’s wrong with that dream? Isn’t it good enough?”
“Too childish.”
“Only childish people have dreams just to fulfill their desires!”
“But it’s really hard to do.”
Anjing looked at Yang Lingfei and shook her head gently.
“It’s not about doing something grand. At the very least, start with the things around you. Like—protecting the beautiful things near you.”
“Beautiful things, like pretty girls?”
Sun Wei derailed the topic again.
“You’re so creepy. Did you hit on someone?”
“Come on, like you don’t like pretty girls. Look, the prettiest girl in school was yours to begin with!”
“Just because something looks beautiful on the outside doesn’t mean it’s beautiful inside.”
Zhou Chao shot a sideways glance at Sun Wei.
“Zhou~ Chao~ what do you mean?”
Zhu Ying asked with a smile.
“Ahem, let’s go play the dance machine, come on…”
Anjing cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject.
“Anjing, aren’t you playing with us today?”
“You guys go ahead! I’ll join later!”
“How much later?”
“The next time we play, it’ll be ten years from now—”
Sun Wei closed his eyes dramatically, but his voice sounded like a plastic bottle being crushed by a car wheel.
“Idiot.”
Anjing finally decided not to be polite to him.
“Girls can’t say bad words!”
“Wanna see me punch you?”
“Heh, you think you can beat me?”
“A-Qiang, help!”
“Got it!”
“Take my family-annihilating kick!”
“Whoa!”
Sun Wei hurriedly closed his legs.
“If you really do that, you’ll owe me more than money!”
“Enough of you guys, let’s play.”
Zhou Chao sighed helplessly.
“Didn’t we say we’d play Three Kingdoms on the way here?”
“Right, watch me clear it with one token today!”
Anjing was about to tease him but was pulled to the dance machine by Zhu Ying, who grabbed her arm.
All the third-year middle schoolers in the small city had their physical exam today.
Since there weren’t many middle schools, they all finished before the afternoon rain started.
That was partly why the greenhouse shopping street was so lively now.
After all, many kids—even in their final year—still loved to play.
Especially in a small city, most people didn’t seem to feel strong pressure to get into a top high school.
Maybe it was because most parents thought starting work early was fine, or because many families had some sort of business—so even if their kids didn’t get into high school, they could return home and open a shop.
Since everyone in the small city was local, life pressure was relatively light compared to big cities, and parents had much lower expectations for their children.
“Speaking of which, there seem to be more and more after-school tutoring classes recently.”
“Hm?”
“I mean those cram schools, outside of regular school.”
Anjing mumbled as she stood with Zhu Ying in front of the song selection screen.
“I heard they’re pretty expensive.”
“Yeah, there’s a new one around here. The English teacher is a foreigner!”
“Foreign teacher?”
“A black guy. I saw him once. Really black.”
“Wow, I’ve never met a real black person.”
“Maybe next time we’ll see him. But he’s really dark—though his teeth are pretty white.”
Zhu Ying chuckled and selected a song filled with emotional twists.
“This one. What do you think?”
“Qili Fragrance…”
“Even if you’re not a Jay Chou fan, you know this one. It’s one of his famous songs!”
“Yeah, I can sing it—but if I have to dance, I’m not so sure.”
“Just follow the lights.”
“I’ll try my best.”
“Let’s aim for the highest score in doubles!”
“No way!!”
“Starting~”
Anjing felt her hands and feet were a little out of sync.
But luckily, there weren’t any little punk girls watching today, only a few students admiring the pretty girls.
The arcade was noisy, filled with shouting and cheering.
Standing inside, you couldn’t hear the rain outside at all.
The song’s MV played on the screen, and the sound from two speakers over a meter tall made Anjing’s ears tingle.
“Outside the window—the sparrow chatters on the electric pole, you say this line has a very summery feel…”
Anjing’s eyes fixed on the arrows on the dance machine floor.
Whenever a light lit up, she quickly stepped on it.
At first, it was manageable with one arrow, but soon two lit up simultaneously and then alternated so fast it felt like lights were flashing everywhere.
She gripped the railing tightly, feeling like her feet were about to get tangled.
Even amid the tension, her thoughts drifted as she listened to the lyrics, wandering all over the place.
For example, calculating when summer would arrive, wondering when the city would start to get hot this year, thinking about when she’d turned on the fan last year, and how annoying it was to clean the fan after summer was over…
“Rain falls all night—my love overflows just like the rain…”
“Tap tap tap tap tap!!”
Anjing’s feet moved swiftly, several consecutive perfect steps boosting her confidence.
She felt like a Russian soldier performing tap dance.
She laughed to herself absentmindedly, excitement beaming on her face as fine sweat formed on her forehead.
“I’ll keep writing, putting ‘I’ll love you forever’ into the poem’s ending—you are the only one I want to understand…”
The singing faded away like morning mist.
Anjing lowered her head, panting hard, until the sudden sound of electronic fireworks made her look up startled.
“Pfft, Xiaojing, what were you dancing just now?”
“Cough, not very good…”
“Looks just like whack-a-mole.”
“Ha, ha ha…”
“But not bad! It looked ugly but we got all the points!”
“Really?”
“Look! Number one in doubles!”
“Whoa—!?”
“Maybe the scores were reset earlier, so it was easy to hit first place, but at least we made it now!”
“Ha… this song is faster than I thought.”
“Want to try an even faster one?”
“No, no, no, I can’t…”