She seems a bit too thin…
Walking along the street, the girl secretly touched her own waist, feeling an inexplicable surge of self-consciousness and worry.
Little did she know that if other girls knew what she was thinking, they would probably strangle her. Most girls were trying every possible way to make their waists thinner, yet Lin Xinyuan spent her days wondering how to get fatter—she truly was an oddity.
“Sister? Watch out!”
Just as her mind was wandering, she felt a sudden tug on her arm. Her spirit snapped back to reality, and she looked up with a start, coming to an abrupt halt.
She hurriedly stepped back a few paces, staring at the large ornamental flowerpot in front of her with a lingering sense of fear.
Thanks to the warning, she had braked in time; otherwise, she would have definitely crashed into it. A fall like that would have likely been quite painful.
Lin Xinyuan looked at Tang Yayun beside her, her expression sheepish: “Sorry… I wasn’t paying attention. Thanks, Xiaoyun.”
The girl looked at her with confusion and worry: “Sister, why have you been dazing off so much lately?” Tang Chengmin, standing on the other side, looked at her with similar concern.
Lin Xinyuan’s face tightened, and the tips of her ears burned. She spoke vaguely: “I-Is that so? I was actually just… thinking about some things…”
She couldn’t exactly say she was thinking about a man… or that she was being so “depraved” as to contemplate how to please that guy…
That would be too much like a stalker… or a “fujoshi.”
Seeing that Lin Xinyuan didn’t want to elaborate, the two siblings stole a glance at each other and stopped prying.
The journey continued without incident, and they soon reached the fifth floor of the shopping mall via the elevator.
The entire fifth floor was designated as a leisure and entertainment area. Besides the common children’s playgrounds, there were also cafes and milk tea shops where people could drink and chat.
There was even an arcade.
Their main goal was the arcade; after all, they couldn’t exactly reclaim their childhood innocence in the kids’ playground.
“Beautiful lady, give us twenty tokens each to start with!”
Tang Chengmin seemed to have been here several times before, so he was quite familiar with the routine.
The arcade wasn’t very crowded yet. He leaned back against the front desk counter, propping his arms behind him, and greeted the young female clerk. He even took the opportunity to chat her up, making the girl unable to suppress a giggle.
When the clerk asked who the two girls sitting not far away were, Tang Chengmin couldn’t help but brag. He said proudly: “Oh, you mean them? That’s my sister and my cousin. Pretty, right? They take after me~”
As he boasted, Tang Chengmin narcissistically ruffled his bangs as if by accident, a gentle smile playing on his lips as he looked deeply into the clerk’s eyes: “Actually… looks aren’t that important. What matters is personality and a heart that belongs to freedom…”
Normally, such cliché lines would make a person so greasy they could fry a bucket of fish, but in the eyes of most, “beauty is justice.” If you’re handsome, you’re right. The girl at the counter was currently a victim of this logic.
“Handsome, you are so right!”
Her eyes were full of stars as she nodded in agreement, her delicate face turning slightly red.
But Tang Chengmin’s speech wasn’t over. He continued with an intoxicated, pained expression: “Oh~ the soul is the source of all beauty! Two people, one table, two pairs of chopsticks, two dishes and a soup—what’s in the bowl is the flavor of the mundane world…”
Pain… so much pain!
Tang Chengmin cried out internally, seemingly lost in his own world: “Therefore, only I… Ow ow ow, it hurts!”
Before he could finish his last sentence, he felt a sharp pain in his ear as it was yanked by a soft little hand.
“You scumbag! Picking up girls here again? I was wondering why buying tokens was taking you so long!”
Tang Yayun looked furious, but she was secretly delighted. She felt a sense of vindication as she pulled a bit harder, making Tang Chengmin wail in misery.
“My dear sister, I was wrong, okay! Let go, let go!”
“Hmph~”
This dramatic scene was captured by Lin Xinyuan not far away. She instinctively covered her lips with her hand and let out a light laugh.
The girl smiled radiantly; it seemed as if the surrounding air had stilled—hazy and dreamlike, a beauty that didn’t seem to belong to the mortal world.
This scene caught the eyes of some passersby, whose stares turned fixed and eyes widened.
Only then did Lin Xinyuan suddenly realize how intense the gazes around her were. She felt that her behavior was perhaps a bit too “feminine.”
Awkwardly, she lowered her hand and her gaze, stood up from the leisure sofa, and walked quickly toward the bickering siblings.
As expected… these clothes are still too eye-catching…
All along the way, she could clearly feel that the number of people looking at her had increased significantly, especially those whose eyes lingered on her face and legs…
Thinking this, Lin Xinyuan felt a surge of nausea and instinctively quickened her pace.
I should have known better than to listen to Xiaoyun. I should have changed right after taking the photos…
But just as she was about to leave, a bold boy couldn’t help but come up to talk to her, blocking her path: “Hey, beautiful! My name is Wang Aida. Can I have the honor of getting to know you?”
Wang Aida was somewhat confident in his looks; he was arguably a bit handsome and considered a figure in his class.
The moment he saw Lin Xinyuan, he was deeply attracted by this girl with her pure style and soft temperament. Even though the girl tried her best to lower her presence, her looks and aura were exceptionally striking.
Without exaggeration, she was several levels more beautiful than whatever “school beauty” their high school supposedly had—and this was while she appeared to be wearing no makeup.
Suddenly being blocked, Lin Xinyuan froze, followed by a wave of fear. Quickly, a bad memory began to replay in her mind.
Terror appeared on her face as if she had seen a plague. She hurriedly dodged to the side: “S-Sorry, I don’t want to get to know you…”
Wang Aida scratched his head in confusion. Watching the girl’s back as she fled like a startled rabbit, he began to doubt himself, muttering in his local dialect: “What’s going on? Am I really that scary?”
He watched the departing silhouette with confusion and regret, ultimately sighing that they lacked fate, never getting the chance to find an answer.
Lin Xinyuan was practically running in a panic, just to get away from the boy who had approached her. She looked back uneasily, and only after seeing that he wasn’t following did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Her breathing was slightly erratic—a physiological response to fear.
Memories played like a slideshow in her mind: in the images, she was terrified, without a shred of strength to resist, helplessly watching a disgusting hand reach for her.
Until a familiar large hand suddenly appeared, blocking the attack aimed at her. The image froze—
Smelly blondie…
Lin Xinyuan shifted her gaze and immediately saw that familiar face. He seemed to have noticed her gaze as well, turning his head to look at her with a gentle expression…
“Alright, alright, let’s go…”
“Okay!” The girl said, then covered her mouth to giggle, giving the helpless Tang Chengmin a teasing look and a wink: “Hehehe~”
“Tsk…”
Tang Chengmin rubbed his stinging ear, grimacing, and said goodbye to the reluctant girl at the counter.
Great, this brat ruined it…
However, as soon as Tang Chengmin turned around, he saw his little cousin standing there with her head lowered. He was a bit confused: “Xiaoyuan, what’s with you?”
Then he noticed the girl’s slightly rapid breathing, and his gaze instantly sharpened: “Did someone bully you? Who?”
As he spoke, he looked at the people nearby with an unfriendly glare.
Although his face took after his father’s—gentle and refined—he had been in plenty of fights during primary and middle school. When it came to brawling, he wasn’t afraid of anyone. If someone thought he was a pushover because of his face, they were in for a rude awakening.
“Yeah, Sister Xiaoyuan, are you okay? That guy dared to bully you!”
Lin Xinyuan’s mind had finally settled. Hearing this, she felt a bit embarrassed. After all, the person hadn’t actually done anything to her; she couldn’t exactly say she had been scared by the past.
She murmured, shaking her small head: “It’s nothing…”
“Really, Xiaoyuan?”
The siblings scrutinized Lin Xinyuan again. Seeing nothing wrong, they decided they must have been overthinking it.
“As long as Sister is fine. Shall we go play then?” Once Tang Yayun’s mind was at ease, she became lively again, not forgetting to tease Tang Chengmin: “Fortunately it’s still early, otherwise I’d be very unhappy if a certain scumbag wasted too much time picking up girls.”
Black lines appeared on Tang Chengmin’s forehead, and the corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly.
This girl really knows how to hold a grudge…
Holding their respective game tokens, the three began looking for machines in the arcade.
None of them noticed that after they left, a tall, upright figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
It was an exceptionally handsome young man. His appearance immediately drew the attention of many people, especially girls.
But he didn’t care. His gaze was fixed straight ahead, staring at the back of the fragile girl in the JK uniform.
The corners of his mouth tilted up slightly. His burning gaze lingered on the girl’s slender, straight legs beneath her skirt. He pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, a strange light flashing through his eyes for a fleeting second.
Coming to the counter, he gave a polite smile that was strikingly dazzling: “Hello, I’d like thirty yuan worth of tokens.”