Lu Xixiao's abrupt call of "Zhou Wan" not only stunned her, but also froze Gu Meng and Jiang Fan beside her.
Under their dazed expressions, Zhou Wan softly thanked him, picked up the fallen school badge, and quickly pulled Gu Meng away.
"Holy shit." Jiang Fan turned to look at Lu Xixiao, "You know her?"
"Just know her name."
"You didn't tell me earlier!" Jiang Fan was stunned for a moment, then felt something was off and asked quietly, "A Xiao, don't tell me you like my goddess?!"
Lu Xixiao glanced sideways at him.
Jiang Fan's heart sank, thinking it couldn't be - she wasn't even A Xiao's type.
But he still patted his chest: "Don't worry, if you like her I definitely won't compete with you. I'll yield her to you."
"Do I need you to yield?" Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow.
"..."
Alright, he really didn't need to.
Jiang Fan looked at Zhou Wan who had already walked far away, her slender legs dazzlingly white, still finding it unbelievable: "Do you really like her?"
"Don't like her." Lu Xixiao said.
On the other side, Gu Meng also never expected that a good girl like Zhou Wan would know Lu Xixiao - she had never seen any interaction between them before.
"Wanwan, Wanwan, what's going on between you and Lu Xixiao?"
Zhou Wan reattached her school badge: "What do you mean?"
"How does he know your name!"
Zhou Wan paused, then told the truth: "He took Xu Yixuan to the arcade before, we ran into each other once."
"I see." Gu Meng nodded, "You scared me, I thought you actually knew each other."
Zhou Wan lowered her head and smiled: "Where would I get to know him."
...
With the sports meet over came mountains of homework.
As school neared dismissal, the classroom was filled with lamentations. Zhou Wan and Jiang Yan had two extra competition papers because of the Physics Competition.
After school, Zhou Wan stayed to do homework for a while, leaving only when it was almost time for her shift at the arcade.
Her backpack was heavy, weighing down her shoulders.
It started raining again, and this time Zhou Wan learned her lesson - she didn't forget to bring an umbrella.
She opened her umbrella, deliberately avoiding puddles while looking down - she was wearing white shoes today, which would be hard to clean if they got dirty.
But sometimes luck was just that bad. A motorcycle sped along the roadside, splashing water that sprayed all over Zhou Wan.
She gasped in surprise, too late to step back as her uniform was soaked through, with a few droplets even splashing onto her face.
The sound of boys' triumphant laughter from their prank reached her ears.
Zhou Wan looked up and saw three motorcycles stopped ahead, led by a boy with dyed yellow hair, the other two whistling at her recklessly.
"Little sister, where are you going." Huang Mao grinned with a cigarette in his mouth, "Let me give you a ride."
Zhou Wan tightened her grip on the umbrella handle, stepping back while watching them warily: "No need, I'm almost there."
"Your clothes are all wet, won't you catch cold in the wind?" Huang Mao played innocent, "Don't catch a cold, it's getting cold soon."
"Really, no need." Zhou Wan put her hand in her pocket, "My, my dad is coming to pick me up soon."
Zhou Wan's heart pounded like thunder. She had seen too many social news stories like this and understood what would happen to her if they took her away.
She put her phone to her ear, forcing composure: "Hello, Dad, are you almost here..."Before she could finish her sentence, the three of them burst into laughter, nearly out of breath. Huang Mao’s face turned bright red from laughing, and he even choked a few times. "Little girl, are you even 15? How come you don’t even know how to make a phone call?"
Huang Mao stepped out of the car and walked straight toward Zhou Wan.
Zhou Wan backed away, but he grabbed her wrist firmly.
His hand was rough and forceful, immediately leaving a red mark around her wrist. Startled by the sudden movement, Zhou Wan let out a sharp cry.
"Don’t push your luck," Huang Mao lowered his voice, leaning close to her face. His breath, reeking of cigarettes, hit Zhou Wan directly. "Be obedient, and I won’t treat you badly."
"Let me go," Zhou Wan struggled desperately, her voice trembling uncontrollably with sobs. "Please, I can give you money. Just let me go first."
The girl’s vulnerable state only made him bolder.
Huang Mao raised his hand and brushed it against her cheek. "Tsk, so smooth."
Zhou Wan felt her blood run cold, her limbs turning icy. A wave of nausea churned in her stomach. She tried to fend him off with her umbrella, but Huang Mao snatched it away and tossed it aside.
The wind flipped the umbrella inside out, and one of its ribs snapped, exposing a sharp, broken end.
Trembling all over, her voice shaking, she seemed utterly defenseless, as if anyone could take advantage of her.
No one knew what Zhou Wan was thinking at that moment.
Staring at the broken, sharp umbrella rib, she thought, if he really dared to do anything to her, she would use it to gouge out his eyes.
She refused to be humiliated, refused to be defiled.
But there were two other men behind him.
She knew she couldn’t escape, nor could she overpower them.
What should she do?
Just then, a voice sounded from behind—
"Ma Shao."
The wind rustled through the leaves, and in the empty street amid the falling foliage, Zhou Wan heard a voice.
This time, she didn’t need to turn around to recognize who it was.
Lu Xixiao.
The young man wasn’t holding an umbrella. Instead, he had pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, loose and casual.
He carried the scent of tobacco as well, but it was pleasant, mixed with a faint woody fragrance. The tobacco note was sharp and spicy, yet subtle.
Zhou Wan’s wrist was enveloped by a slightly cool touch as he pulled her behind him.
She caught a glimpse of Lu Xixiao’s profile.
Sharp and defined, his bone structure was so superior that he looked flawless from any angle. His expression was calm yet detached.
Zhou Wan never expected anyone to come to her rescue.
Since childhood, no one had ever saved her. She had endured everything alone.
She never imagined that the one to save her would be Lu Xixiao.
The son of Guo Xiangling’s new husband.
"What’s going on?" Lu Xixiao asked calmly.
As soon as Ma Shao saw him, he immediately released Zhou Wan and broke into a grin, his tone entirely familiar. "What’s this? A Xiao, is this your girl?"
Such crude wording made Zhou Wan frown.
Lu Xixiao didn’t respond, neither confirming nor denying.
"Alright then," Ma Shao nodded to himself. "Should’ve said she was your girl earlier. I wouldn’t dare steal a brother’s woman."
Then, Ma Shao bent down, leaning close to Zhou Wan without a hint of apology, and said, "Little girl, my apologies. Sorry about that."
Zhou Wan turned her face away. Lu Xixiao spoke again, his voice low and firm. "Ma Shao."
Ma Shao chuckled, tossed out a "Let’s hang out sometime," and climbed back onto his motorcycle before riding off.
Zhou Wan lowered her gaze, her eyelashes trembling slightly.
She looked at Lu Xixiao, trying to steady the tremor in her voice. "Thank you."
Lu Xixiao glanced at her but said nothing. He simply turned and walked ahead.
She picked up her umbrella—it was broken beyond repair.The sky was still drizzling, as it always did during the transition between summer and autumn in Pingchuan City. The relentless rain made it feel as though everything around was being soaked to the point of mold, the entire city submerged in the downpour.
Fortunately, the rain wasn’t heavy.
Zhou Wan sighed, holding her broken umbrella as she walked in the rain behind Lu Xixiao.
The two walked one after the other, the one in front also without an umbrella, his hood pulled up.
Zhou Wan studied Lu Xixiao with some curiosity. She wasn’t deliberately following him, but they were heading in the same direction.
Could it be that he was worried the troublemaker from earlier would come back to bother her and wanted to see her home?
But within a second, Zhou Wan dismissed the thought.
She tugged at the corner of her mouth self-deprecatingly. Someone as dazzling as Lu Xixiao—why would he waste time on her?
Just as she was lost in thought, Lu Xixiao, who had stopped at some point, turned around. “Where’s your umbrella?” he asked.
Zhou Wan looked up and met his eyes.
His eyes were narrow and long—the kind that should have been full of charm, yet they resembled unfathomable marshes, swallowing any trace of emotion and leaving only indifference and nonchalance.
Zhou Wan replied, “It’s broken.”
Lu Xixiao lowered his gaze, glancing at the umbrella in her hand.
“Oh.”
He continued walking until he reached the bus stop. “Wait here.”
Zhou Wan was taken aback. “What’s wrong?”
Lu Xixiao didn’t answer, probably too lazy to explain.
She watched as he took out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and before long, a taxi pulled up in front of the bus stop.
Lu Xixiao stepped back into the rain, his long legs carrying him to the passenger seat. He rolled down the window. “Still planning to walk in the rain?”
Zhou Wan froze for a moment, then flustered, thanked him and opened the rear door.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Lu Xixiao pulled out a cigarette as he replied, “The arcade up ahead.”
Zhou Wan’s dark eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she thanked him again.
Lu Xixiao chuckled, turning from the front seat. “Is that the only thing your mouth knows how to say?”
“…”
He didn’t wait for her response, lowering his head to light the cigarette, then rolling down the window to exhale a puff of smoke.
His eyes half-closed, his overly tall frame seemed cramped in the narrow taxi seat, exuding a bone-deep weariness and restlessness.
Because of what had happened earlier, the morning-shift guy had already left by the time Zhou Wan arrived. Fortunately, due to the gloomy weather, the arcade wasn’t crowded.
She went to the back room to change into dry clothes.
For some reason, Lu Xixiao seemed to have the leisure to play games today.
He was playing a racing game, sitting alone in that section, lazily leaning against the back of the chair, his profile cold and sharp.
The game was actually quite difficult—the steering wheel was overly sensitive, often causing crashes or even sending the car flying into the air. But Lu Xixiao handled it effortlessly, his long, slender hands gripping the wheel as he easily secured first place.
A long strip of Arcade Tickets hissed out from the machine.
After watching for a while, Zhou Wan took out her test papers from her backpack and started working on them.
Outside, the rain grew heavier.
It pounded noisily against the metal shed across the street, the sound grating and sharp.
Most people in the arcade had left, leaving only Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao. It was quiet, save for the sounds of his game and the scratch of her pen against the paper.
He scooped up a stack of Arcade Tickets from the floor and walked over to ask, “What are these for?”
“Arcade Tickets,” Zhou Wan said. “You can exchange them for prizes at the back.”
Behind her, the glass cabinet was filled with all kinds of prizes.Zhou Wan estimated his tickets: "There should be over two thousand here. You can exchange them for a keychain, or if you prefer, I can save the points to your card so you can accumulate them for better prizes later."
Considering Lu Xixiao might not come back to play games here again, Zhou Wan asked, "Do you want to redeem them now?"
He raised an eyebrow casually. "Sure."
Zhou Wan opened the glass cabinet. There were pink and blue keychains. She turned her head and asked, "Do you want the blue one?"
"Mm."
She took it out. "Here."
Lu Xixiao took it, hooking the keychain with his index finger.
It was a blue fluffy ball keychain.
He stuffed it into his pocket carelessly, then glanced at Zhou Wan. She had already sat back down to continue her homework—a physics test paper, with crowded yet neatly written problem-solving steps on the scratch paper.
Lu Xixiao suddenly remembered what they said during the day about "always ranking second in the grade" and smirked lightly.
Noticing he hadn’t left yet, Zhou Wan looked up in confusion.
Her gaze happened to meet his.
She blinked.
Lu Xixiao: "Hey."
"Hmm?"
"How do you play that one?" He pointed at one of the machines.
"Oh, the rules for that one are a bit complicated. Let me go over and explain it to you."
The two walked over to the arcade machine. Zhou Wan patiently explained the game rules and tips to earn more arcade tickets.
Lu Xixiao stretched his long legs, hooked a chair from nearby, and placed it behind Zhou Wan. "Sit down and talk."
After Zhou Wan sat, he also took a seat beside her.
They were sitting quite close, close enough to catch the scent on him.
Zhou Wan pressed her lips together, silently clenched an empty fist, and continued, "If you time it right and drop the ball into this position, you’ll get a lottery chance. If you’re lucky, you can get a lot of tickets at once."
Lu Xixiao kept his hands in his pockets, leaning to the side, and lifted his chin. "You try once."
"Huh?"
He never repeated the same sentence.
Zhou Wan hesitated for three seconds, then placed her hand on the button.
Lu Xixiao glanced down. Her hand was very small, slender and delicate, with neatly trimmed and clean nails.
She stared intently at the spinning disk inside. The red light reflected on her face, making her eyes sparkle brightly.
Then, with a "smack," she pressed the button.
A ball dropped from above, rolled around, didn’t fall into any slot, and naturally, no tickets came out.
"..."
Although she had been watching the shop for a long time, she really had no talent for games.
Lu Xixiao didn’t spare her any face and laughed outright. "With that stance of yours, I thought you were pretty good."
"..."
Zhou Wan withdrew her hand. "You try it yourself."
Lu Xixiao leaned forward, pressed the button without much hesitation, and the ball directly fell into the most difficult slot. The machine started beeping and flashing, playing music.
He had a lottery chance.
The screen spun, and soon, another thick stack of arcade tickets came out.
Zhou Wan felt genuinely insulted.
"That’s it?" he asked.
"...Mm."
He casually played a few more rounds, spitting out quite a few more tickets.
It was at this moment that his phone suddenly rang.
It was placed on the arcade machine. Zhou Wan didn’t mean to look, but she still saw the caller ID—no name saved, just a number.
But she was all too familiar with this string of numbers.
Guo Xiangling.
Lu Xixiao played one more round before looking at his phone. He scoffed and hung up directly.
Zhou Wan understood why he had been so irritable all day.
After another five minutes, Guo Xiangling called again.
Zhou Wan, sitting beside him, asked softly, "Aren’t you going to answer?"Lu Xixiao answered with action, directly dragging Guo Xiangling into the blacklist. With a "clatter," he tossed his phone onto the nearby table.
It was laughable—Guo Xiangling had hung up on Zhou Wan countless times for being "inconvenient," and now she was reaping what she had sown with Lu Xixiao.
The familial affection she had tried to beg for was utterly worthless in Lu Xixiao's eyes.
Zhou Wan guessed that Lu Xixiao probably didn’t want to go home, which was why he was killing time at her place.
He stayed until closing time before getting up.
The stack of Arcade Tickets in his hand was almost too many to hold.
"Do you want to redeem them?" Zhou Wan asked.
"What’s the highest prize here?"
"That one."
Zhou Wan pointed to the other side—inside a gleaming glass cabinet was a very beautiful bicycle.
"Has anyone ever redeemed it?"
"No, the Points required are too high. You’d probably have to spend several thousand yuan to earn enough Points."
Lu Xixiao tapped his cigarette on the table: "Which one do you like the most?"
He asked so casually that Zhou Wan answered just as casually: "The bicycle. That way, on rainy days, I wouldn’t have to get as soaked."
Zhou Wan scanned the tickets—they already had over twenty thousand Points—and asked again, "Do you want to redeem them?"
He smiled carelessly: "Let’s save them for now."
OpenNovel