“Argh! You dare to fight back? I’ll string you up, fly, you!”
“Damn, Ah Qiang, when did you learn those combos? So fierce.”
“I’m on fire today, understand?!”
“Zhou Chao, you’re no good, let our Wei Ge take over!”
“An Jing, it’s your birthday today, play a bit more. My tokens are yours…”
Yang Lingfei turned around, about to comfort An Jing, who had used all his tokens without winning a single round against Fang Qiang, but found no one behind him.
“Yeah, An Jing…”
Fang Qiang, having just comboed Zhou Chao’s character to death, also turned his head to look behind him.
“Huh, where’s An Jing?”
“Over there, with Zhu Ying. Let them play, we’ll play ours.”
Zhou Chao said smartly.
“Come on, come on, I still have tokens, let’s go!”
“What’s the fun in playing like this?”
Sun Wei fanned the flames from the side.
“You two should bet. The loser has to give the other person an extra token.”
“Alright, come on, I’m serious this time!”
“Heh, okay, you’re serious, huh? I’ll make a big bet. If you win, I’ll give you two extra tokens!”
“Damn, so arrogant, Zhou Chao, get him!” “Watch me!”
***
(2)
Just a few minutes ago, An Jing had used up all her game tokens.
She started by playing Dynasty Warriors, dying repeatedly and inserting tokens to revive.
Then she played a few rounds of King of Fighters, not winning a single match, and in the blink of an eye, she had spent all the tokens she had just bought.
So she could only stand behind, watching blankly, annoyed at how bad she was today, and regretting that she should have saved one token for the slot machine, in case she won ten times her money back.
She did have some pocket money saved up from daily life, but the problem was, she was going to play all day today, and she couldn’t possibly spend all her money here, then she wouldn’t have money for lunch.
Huh?
Although she could shamelessly ask others to treat her…
“An Jing.”
Zhu Ying’s voice floated gently into her ears.
“Shall we go play something else?”
“I don’t have any tokens left…”
“Let’s play the dancing game, I’ll treat you.”
“Ah… I don’t know how to play that…”
An Jing looked at Zhu Ying’s fluttering big eyes, subconsciously cleared her throat.
“Are you really treating me?”
“Anyway, I have so many game tokens.”
“Let’s go!”
Zhu Ying smiled, her long eyelashes subtly trembling with her body.
She took quick steps towards the dancing game, her well-proportioned legs clad in white slouch socks.
There were two dancing game machines in total, each allowing two people to play together.
Using a joystick and a confirm button, players could select songs on the large, grainy screen.
Then, the five squares on the floor would light up according to the rhythm, and players had to accurately step on the square that had just lit up each time.
It sounded simple, but if the speed was even slightly fast, one would immediately become flustered.
An Jing never played this for a reason; after all, the dancing game machine was elevated, like a stage.
If one played badly on it, it was easy to be laughed at.
“To insert tokens… it’s here, right?”
Zhu Ying walked up and studied it for a while, holding a game token between two slightly plump fingers, and asked softly, pointing to the coin slot.
“Yes, that’s right… Oh, this one costs two tokens per play, whether one person or two people play, it’s two.”
“Just put it in?”
“Yeah, just slide it in.”
An Jing nodded, not daring to look at the surrounding crowd—because she already felt the gazes being cast her way.
The arcade was still noisy, but for some reason, the quiet conversations of some people with their companions could still clearly reach her ears.
“Hey, look, look, these two are cute…”
“They’re still middle schoolers, right?”
“Too short.”
“What do you know? Short is good, you can just hug them!”
“Eww—men should like big chests!”
“You have no taste!”
Most of the onlookers were those who had run out of tokens but were unwilling to go home yet.
People who loved playing games seemed to also enjoy watching others play.
Of course, it was even better if they could also watch pretty girls while doing so.
“And then?”
Zhu Ying’s voice pulled An Jing’s distracted thoughts back.
She turned her head and found Zhu Ying looking earnestly at the screen, her slightly baby-fat cheek as soft as mochi.
“Uh, just choose a song, I haven’t played before, so I’m not sure, but it seems there’s a time limit.”
An Jing said, looking at the upper left corner of the screen.
“There should only be three minutes to choose, right?”
“Can I choose Jay Chou’s song?”
“Anything’s fine, I don’t care.”
“Let’s choose this one!”
She moved the joystick to select Jay Chou’s “Rice Fragrance” and then tentatively pressed the red button.
“Da.”
A crisp sound came from the dancing game machine, and a ten-second countdown began on the screen.
Zhu Ying quickly straightened up, her expression focused on the screen.
An Jing, on the other hand, looked down at her feet somewhat nervously, guessing which square would light up first.
The melody of the music began, accompanied by a crisp chirping of insects.
Coupled with the stuffiness of the arcade, it felt as if autumn had just arrived.
An Jing’s palms were sweating from nervousness, so much so that she didn’t even react when the lyrics began.
That square had already lit up, and she stepped on it a full two seconds late.
Of course, she didn’t step correctly, and several other squares also lit up.
From the very first step, she was wrong, and the more she hurried, the more mistakes she made.
Laughter seemed to come from nearby, making An Jing wish she could find a hole to crawl into.
She felt that she must have made a huge fool of herself today.
(If you have too many complaints about this world…)
An Jing felt her legs were no longer obeying her, simply moving on their own.
Her arms also subconsciously lifted horizontally, seemingly trying to maintain balance.
(If you fall, you won’t dare to move forward…)
That’s what the lyrics sang, and she herself tripped over her own feet, losing balance and falling backward.
However, the expected pain didn’t come.
Instead, she felt herself bumping into something soft.
The slightly drooping hair gently brushed An Jing’s cheek, and the song from the dancing game continued to play.
(…Cherish everything, even if you don’t possess it…)
***
An Jing’s entire body stiffened.
She found herself in Zhu Ying’s arms.
The scent from Zhu Ying enveloped her, sweet like osmanthus-scented mochi, fresh out of the oven and still warm.
“Are you okay?”
Zhu Ying asked softly, a slight curve to her lips.
Falling on the dancing machine, being saved by a girl, and then being unable to get out of her embrace…
An Jing felt her “reputation” was utterly ruined.
If her friends found out, they’d probably bring it up every day as a joke.
(Don’t cry, let the fireflies lead you away…)
Amidst the continuing song, An Jing finally collected herself, quickly stood up from the floor, and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Ah… that, I accidentally just now…”
“Mm, I saw.”
Zhu Ying blinked playfully.
“Did I catch you well?”
“Cough! Thanks, otherwise my head would’ve hit the ground…”
An Jing awkwardly scratched her head, making her already unruly short hair even more disheveled.
She opened her mouth, wanting to explain something, but no words came out.
“It’s good that you’re okay.”
“It looks like it’s almost over…”
“Mm, let’s do it again!”
“Huh…?”
“Again.”
“Again? I might…”
“It’s okay, let’s do it again.”
“Okay, okay…”
When the song ended, Zhu Ying put two more game tokens into the slot.
It was still the same song, “Rice Fragrance.”
***
(3)
The two played on the dancing machine five times in total, all of them dancing to “Rice Fragrance.”
An Jing, who was clumsy at first, eventually managed to keep up with the rhythm.
Since she had already lost all face at the beginning, she felt less pressure when playing later.
Even if she made a mistake, she would just chuckle and continue.
Although her dancing wasn’t great, after five rounds, she was drenched in sweat.
Zhu Ying’s face was also covered in sparkling beads of sweat, but there was no smell of sweat from her; instead, the previous sweet scent had become even more intense.
“These two finally finished dancing.”
“Yeah, they danced so badly, it was painful to watch.”
“I could dance better than them with my eyes closed.”
“Yeah.”
“Phew! I finally got the hang of it on the last try!”
She chuckled excitedly, as if she hadn’t heard the taunts from the two mini-gangster girls nearby.
“Ah, you actually danced pretty well already.”
“Just follow the rhythm. Even though it’s last year’s song, if it’s Jay Chou, I’m very familiar with it!”
“Amazing…”
“I’m a bit tired of playing. Let’s use the rest of the tokens for something else, shall we?”
“Uh… sure. Was the dancing game fun?”
“It was quite fun.”
“As long as you had fun…”
An Jing sighed, feeling that her awkwardness had been completely remembered.
Although she wasn’t thinking of pursuing Zhu Ying or anything, she still didn’t want to leave a comical, clownish impression in front of the campus belle…
“Let’s go!”
Zhu Ying took two steps forward, turned sideways, and called out to her, “Let’s go play that claw machine!”
“That one’s really hard to catch.”
An Jing followed behind her.
“Which machine do you want to try?”
“The ones in that machine seem to be bigger?”
“The big ones might be harder to catch…”
An Jing’s gaze fell on the claw machine.
All the plush dogs inside were half a meter tall, with identical designs, only differing in their facial expressions.
“Let’s just try. If we catch one, it can be my birthday present.”
“Huh? Yours?”
An Jing walked closer, looking at Zhu Ying’s blurry reflection in the glass, wondering if she had misheard.
“Yes, today is my birthday too.”
“Ah? Huh—?!”
She looked at Zhu Ying in disbelief.
“Your birthday? Then why aren’t you out with other girls? Shouldn’t a birthday be happier?”
“I’m very happy today too.”
She lightly winked her right eye.
“Sometimes I want to experience a different kind of birthday, you know?”
Ah… but wouldn’t it be happier with friends?
We’re all boys here after all…
“That’s why I said it’s to experience something different!”
Zhu Yung definitely enjoyed that lmao. Had to do it two more times after seeing the clumsy An Jing.
Zhu Ying* not Zhu Yung… I hate auto correct…