Lu Xixiao’s sudden call of “Zhou Wan” startled not only her but also Gu Meng and Jiang Fan beside her.

While the two were still stunned, Zhou Wan softly said thanks, picked up the fallen school badge, and quickly walked away, pulling Gu Meng along.

“Holy shit,” Jiang Fan turned to Lu Xixiao, “You know her?”

“Just know her name.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier!” Jiang Fan was stunned, then felt something was off and asked in a low voice, “Xiao, don’t tell me you like my goddess?!”

Lu Xixiao gave him a sidelong glance.

Jiang Fan’s heart skipped a beat, thinking this couldn’t be right—she wasn’t Xiao’s type at all.

But he still patted his chest: “Don’t worry, if you like her, I definitely won’t compete with you. She’s all yours.”

“Like I need you to give up for me?” Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow.

“…”

True, he didn’t need that.

Jiang Fan looked toward Zhou Wan’s retreating figure, her slender legs dazzlingly white, still finding it unbelievable: “You like her?”

“No,” Lu Xixiao said.

On the other side, Gu Meng couldn’t believe that a good girl like Zhou Wan would know Lu Xixiao—she’d never seen them interact before.

“Wan-wan, what’s going on between you and Lu Xixiao?”

Zhou Wan reattached her school badge: “What?”

“How does he know your name?!”

Zhou Wan paused, then told the truth: “We ran into each other once before when he took Xu Yizuan to the arcade.”

“Oh, I see.” Gu Meng nodded, “You scared me, I thought you two knew each other.”

Zhou Wan lowered her head and smiled: “Where would I ever get to know someone like him?”

…

After the sports meet ended, mountains of homework followed.

Near the end of classes, the classroom was filled with groans, while Zhou Wan and Jiang Yan had two extra competition papers due to the physics competition.

After school, Zhou Wan stayed to do some homework, only leaving when it was almost time for her shift change at the arcade.

Her backpack was heavy, weighing down her shoulders.

It started raining again, but this time Zhou Wan had learned her lesson and hadn’t forgotten her umbrella.

She opened her umbrella, lowering her head to deliberately avoid puddles—she was wearing white shoes today, which would be hard to clean if they got dirty.

But sometimes luck just isn’t on your side. A motorcycle sped past along the roadside, splashing water that completely drenched Zhou Wan.

She cried out in surprise, unable to back away in time. Her uniform was soaked through, with some droplets even hitting her face.

The sound of boys’ mischievous laughter rang in her ears.

Zhou Wan looked up to see three motorcycles stopped ahead, the lead rider with dyed yellow hair, while the other two whistled at her lewdly.

“Little sister, where you headed?” Yellow Hair said with a cigarette between his teeth, “Let big brother give you a ride.”

Zhou Wan gripped her umbrella handle tightly, stepping back while watching them warily: “No need, I’m almost there.”

“Your clothes are all wet—won’t you catch a cold in the wind?” Yellow Hair said hypocritically, “It’s getting cold out.”

“Really, no thank you,” Zhou Wan put her hand in her pocket, “My-my father is coming to pick me up soon.”

Zhou Wan’s heart was pounding. She’d seen too many news stories like this and knew what would happen if they took her away.

She put her phone to her ear, trying to stay calm: “Hello, Dad, are you almost here…”

Before she could finish, the three burst into laughter, Yellow Hair laughing so hard his face turned red and he choked a few times, “Little sister, are you even 15? Don’t you know how to make a phone call?”

Yellow Hair got off his bike and walked straight toward Zhou Wan.

Zhou Wan backed away, but he grabbed her wrist directly.

His hands were rough and forceful, immediately leaving a red mark around her wrist. Zhou Wan was startled by the sudden movement and screamed.

“Don’t be ungrateful,” Yellow Hair lowered his voice, leaning into her face, his cigarette-laden breath hitting Zhou Wan’s face, “Be good, and big brother will treat you well, won’t I?”

“Let go of me,” Zhou Wan struggled hard, her voice breaking uncontrollably, “Please, I can give you money, just- let go of me.” The young girl’s state only made them more unrestrained.

Yellow Hair raised his hand to stroke her face: “Tch, so smooth.”

Zhou Wan’s blood ran cold, her limbs frozen, her stomach churning with nausea. She tried to block him with the umbrella, but Yellow Hair simply knocked it aside.

The wind turned the umbrella inside out, breaking one of the ribs and exposing its sharp end.

The young girl trembled all over, her voice shaking, appearing as if she could be bullied at will.

No one knew what Zhou Wan was thinking at that moment.

Looking at the broken, sharp umbrella rib, she thought that if he dared to do anything to her, she would stab his eyes out with it.

She wouldn’t be humiliated, wouldn’t be defiled.

But there were still two men behind him.

She definitely couldn’t escape, couldn’t fight them all.

What could she do?

At that moment, a voice suddenly rang out from behind—

“Ma Shao.”

Through the wind rustling the trees, on the empty street scattered with fallen leaves, 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 carrying an umbrella, just wearing his hoodie with the hood up, loose and casual.

He also smelled of tobacco, but it was pleasant, mixed with a very faint woody scent, the tobacco retaining only its final traces of sharpness and spice.

Zhou Wan’s wrist was wrapped in a slightly cool touch as she was pulled behind him.

She saw Lu Xixiao’s profile.

Lean and sharp, his superior bone structure leaving him without a bad angle from any view, his expression calm and indifferent.

Zhou Wan never expected anyone would save her.

From childhood until now, no one had ever saved her—she had faced everything alone.

She especially never expected her savior would be Lu Xixiao.

The son of Guo Xiangling’s future husband.

“What are you doing?” Lu Xixiao asked flatly.

Upon seeing him, Ma Shao immediately released Zhou Wan, then smiled, speaking in a completely familiar tone: “What? Xiao, is she your girl?”

Such crude words made Zhou Wan frown.

Lu Xixiao didn’t speak, neither confirming nor denying.

“Alright then.” Ma Shao nodded to himself, “Should’ve said she was your girl earlier. I wouldn’t go after a brother’s woman.”

Then, Ma Shao bent down, leaning close to Zhou Wan, saying without any trace of apology: “Little sister, sorry about that.”

Zhou Wan turned her face away, and Lu Xixiao spoke again, his voice deep: “Ma Shao.”

Ma Shao smiled, tossing out a “let’s hang out sometime” before getting back on his motorcycle and leaving.

Zhou Wan’s eyelashes trembled as she kept her eyes lowered.

She looked at Lu Xixiao, controlling the tremor in her voice: “Thank you.”

Lu Xixiao glanced at her without saying anything, then simply walked forward.

She picked up her umbrella, but it was broken and unusable now.

A light rain was still falling steadily—it was like this every year in Pingchuan City during the transition from summer to autumn, with so much rain it felt like everything was being soaked through to mold, the entire city submerged in rain.

At least the rain wasn’t heavy.

Zhou Wan sighed, carrying the broken umbrella and following behind Lu Xixiao in the rain.

They walked one in front of the other, neither with an umbrella, him wearing his hood.

Zhou Wan looked at Lu Xixiao curiously. She wasn’t deliberately following him, but they were heading in the same direction.

Could it be that he was worried those thugs might come back to trouble her and wanted to escort her home?

In less than a second, Zhou Wan dismissed this thought.

She pulled her lips into a self-mocking smile—how could someone as dazzling as Lu Xixiao spend time on her?

Just as she was thinking this, Lu Xixiao stopped and turned back: “Where’s your umbrella?” he asked.

Zhou Wan looked up, meeting his eyes.

His eyes were narrow and long, the type that should have been passionate, yet they were like an unfathomable pool, swallowing all emotion, appearing unmoved and indifferent.

Zhou Wan: “Broken.”

Lu Xixiao lowered his gaze, glancing at the umbrella in her hand. “Oh.”

He continued walking until he stopped at a bus stop. “Wait here.”

Zhou Wan was startled: “What’s wrong?”

Lu Xixiao didn’t answer, probably too lazy to explain.

Zhou Wan watched him take out his phone, his fingers tapping the screen a few times. Shortly after, a taxi stopped in front of the bus stop.

Lu Xixiao’s long legs stepped back into the rain curtain as he got into the front passenger seat, then rolled down the window: “Still want to stand in the rain?”

Zhou Wan was startled, thanking him somewhat frantically as she opened the back door.

“Where to?” the driver asked.

Lu Xixiao pulled out a cigarette while answering: “The arcade up ahead.”

Zhou Wan’s dark eyelashes trembled slightly as she thanked him again.

Lu Xixiao laughed, turning around from the front seat: “Is that the only thing your mouth knows how to say?”

“…”

He didn’t wait for Zhou Wan’s response, lowering his head to light his cigarette and rolling down the window to exhale.

He half-closed his eyes, his excessively long frame somewhat awkwardly cramped in the not-so-spacious taxi seat, exhaustion and irritation seeping from his very bones.

*

Because of the earlier incident, Zhou Wan arrived after the morning shift brother had already left, but thankfully due to the rainy weather, the arcade wasn’t very crowded.

She went to the back room to change into clean clothes.

For some reason, Lu Xixiao seemed to have time to play games today.

He was playing a racing game, sitting alone in that area, lazily leaning against the chair back, his profile cold and sharp.

The game was quite difficult to play, as the steering wheel was overly sensitive, often causing crashes or even sending cars flying into the air, but Lu Xixiao had no such problems. His long, elegant hands held the steering wheel, easily securing first place.

The ticket dispenser below spat out a long string of prize tickets.

Zhou Wan watched for a while before taking out her test papers from her backpack and starting to work on problems.

Outside, the rain grew heavier.

It pattered loudly against the tin awning across the street, the noise harsh.

Many people had left the arcade, leaving just Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao. It was very quiet, with only the sound of his gaming and Zhou Wan’s pencil scratching against paper.

He picked up the stack of tickets from the ground and came over to ask: “What are these for?”

“Prize tickets,” Zhou Wan said. “You can exchange them for prizes in the back.”

Behind her was a glass cabinet filled with various prizes.

Zhou Wan estimated his tickets: “You probably have over two thousand here, enough for a keychain. If you don’t want to exchange them now, I can save them on a card for you to accumulate more and get better prizes later.”

Thinking Lu Xixiao might not come back to play games here, Zhou Wan asked again, “Would you like to exchange them now?”

He raised an eyebrow, saying casually: “Sure.”

Zhou Wan opened the glass cabinet, which had pink and blue keychains, and turned to ask: “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 casually stuffed it in his pocket, then looked at Zhou Wan, who had already sat back down to continue her homework—physics problems, with solution steps written densely but neatly on scratch paper.

Lu Xixiao suddenly remembered what they’d said earlier that day about her being “always second in the grade,” and pulled his lips into a slight smile.

Zhou Wan saw he hadn’t left and looked up puzzled.

Their gazes met directly.

She blinked.

Lu Xixiao: “Hey.”

“Mm?”

“How do you play that?” he pointed at one of the machines.

“Oh, that one’s rules are a bit complicated. I’ll go over and explain it to you.”

They went to the game machine, and Zhou Wan patiently explained the rules and tricks for getting more tickets.

Lu Xixiao stretched out his long leg and pulled a chair behind Zhou Wan: “Sit while you explain.”

After Zhou Wan sat down, he also sat beside her.

They were sitting quite close, close enough that she could smell his scent. Zhou Wan pressed her lips together, silently clenching her fist once, then continued: “If you time it right and get the ball in this position, you get a chance to spin for prizes. With good luck, you can get lots of tickets at once.”

Lu Xixiao sat with his hands in his pockets, leaning to one side, lifting his chin: “You try once.”

“Huh?”

He wouldn’t repeat himself.

Zhou Wan hesitated for three seconds, then put her hand on the button.

Lu Xixiao lowered his gaze to look—her hand was very small, yet long and delicate, with neatly trimmed clean nails.

She stared intently at the spinning wheel inside, the red light reflecting on her face making her eyes appear extremely bright.

Then, with a “pat,” she pressed the button.

A ball fell from above and rolled around, but didn’t fall into any slots, naturally resulting in zero tickets.

“…”

Though she had watched the store for a long time, she had no talent for games.

Lu Xixiao showed her no mercy, laughing outright: “Seeing your stance, I thought you’d be pretty good.”

“…”

Zhou Wan withdrew her hand: “You try then.”

Lu Xixiao leaned forward, barely hesitating before pressing the button. The ball fell directly into the most difficult slot, and the game machine started flashing and playing music with beeps and chirps.

He got a chance to spin for prizes.

The screen spun, and then another thick stack of tickets came out.

Zhou Wan felt somewhat insulted.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“…Mm.”

He played a few more rounds casually, producing many more tickets.

Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

It was sitting on the game machine, and though Zhou Wan didn’t mean to look, she still saw the incoming number—no contact name, just digits.

But she knew this number all too well.

Guo Xiangling.

Lu Xixiao played one more round before looking at his phone. He scoffed and hung up directly.

Zhou Wan understood now why he’d been irritable all day.

Five minutes later, Guo Xiangling called again.

Zhou Wan sat beside him and asked softly: “Aren’t you going to answer?”

Lu Xixiao answered with actions, directly blocking Guo Xiangling’s number, then tossing his phone onto the table next to him with a “clatter.”

It was almost laughable—Guo Xiangling had countless times hung up on Zhou Wan’s calls because it was “inconvenient,” and now she was getting a taste of her own medicine from Lu Xixiao.

The familial affection she had tried to gain through begging was worthless in Lu Xixiao’s eyes.

Zhou Wan guessed that Lu Xixiao probably didn’t want to go home, which was why he was spending time here.

He played until closing time before standing up.

His hands were almost unable to hold all the tickets.

“Do you want to exchange them?” Zhou Wan asked.

“What’s your highest prize?”

“That one.”

Zhou Wan pointed to another area, where a beautiful bicycle gleamed in a glass cabinet.

“Has anyone ever redeemed it?”

“No, the points required are too high. You’d probably need to spend several thousand yuan to get enough points.”

Lu Xixiao tapped his cigarette on the table: “Which one do you like best?”

He asked so casually that Zhou Wan answered just as casually: “The bicycle, so I wouldn’t have to get so wet when it rains again.”

Zhou Wan entered all the tickets into the system, now totaling over twenty thousand points, and asked once more, “Do you want to exchange them?”

He smiled carelessly: “Keep them for now.”