After a few rounds, they moved to another machine to continue.

The arcade became much livelier.

During this time, Zhou Wan glanced at Lu Xixiao.

He wasn't playing; he was leaning lazily to one side, looking down at his phone.

He was very sensitive to the gazes around him. He looked up at Zhou Wan, raised his eyebrows openly, and silently threw a question at her.

Zhou Wan shook her head gently and looked down to work on her practice questions.

After a long time, the number of people in the arcade gradually dwindled.

Jiang Fan walked to Zhou Wan's desk. "Little classmate."

"Huh?"

Jiang Fan leaned over to see what she was writing. "As expected of a top student. Are the test papers in your Class 1 different from ours?"

Zhou Wan said mildly, "They're the same. This is a competition paper."

"A competition—" Jiang Fan clicked his tongue. "Chemistry?"

"..."

Zhou Wan suspected he had a vision problem. "Physics."

Lu Xixiao walked over, placed a stack of prize tickets on the desk, and mocked, "As if you even know what our class's papers look like."

"..."

Jiang Fan was displeased. "You don't know either."

Lu Xixiao scoffed lightly. "I can at least tell it's a physics paper."

"..."

Zhou Wan took the initiative to smooth things over, picking up the heavy stack of prize tickets. "I'll enter these into the system first."

Jiang Fan asked, "What are these for?"

Zhou Wan: "They can be exchanged for prizes."

Jiang Fan looked at the prize wall behind her. "So how many points are in there?"

Zhou Wan estimated the stack in her hands. "There are about twenty thousand here, and with what's stored on the card, it's about sixty thousand in total."

"That many?" Jiang Fan was surprised. "What prizes can that get?"

"Anything in this row." Zhou Wan gestured with her hand, and remembering how they were on the basketball court before, she added, "That basketball, too."

"That's a nice prize," a boy next to them said. "And it's a limited edition. I remember it costs several hundred yuan."

Zhou Wan glanced at Lu Xixiao and asked, "Do you want to redeem it?"

"No need," Lu Xixiao said.

"Don't be stingy, Brother Xiao."

"Winning a limited-edition basketball just by playing games, isn't that awesome?"

Jiang Fan asked strangely, "These points are useless if you don't redeem them. What are you saving them for?"

Lu Xixiao glanced at him.

Jiang Fan asked curiously, "What do you want to get?"

He lifted his chin, indicating the bicycle.

Jiang Fan was even more puzzled. "You're someone who thinks race tracks are too slow. What do you want a bicycle for?"

Lu Xixiao couldn't be bothered to answer. Jiang Fan asked Zhou Wan again, "Little classmate, do you know?"

Zhou Wan paused.

She remembered Lu Xixiao asking her which one she wanted most.

Her lips parted, but before she could say anything, Lu Xixiao said lazily, "Stop talking to this idiot."

Instantly, the group's jeers nearly blew the roof off.

"Damn, Brother Xiao!"

"Hahahaha, holy crap, you can do that?"

"I'm just wondering if Brother Jiang will ever dare to call her 'little classmate' again!"

...

Zhou Wan didn't know how to react for a moment and remained silent.

Lu Xixiao raised his hand, his cool knuckles gently brushing against her cheek. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised in a half-smile, looking as roguish as one could possibly be.

"Did you hear me?" he asked lazily.

Zhou Wan's long, dark lashes trembled rapidly. Following his lead, she said, "I heard you."

The room erupted in laughter.

And amidst this laughter, the crowd's opinion of Zhou Wan subtly changed.

She was not only different from the previous girls in personality and appearance, but she also seemed to be a bit different in Lu Xixiao's eyes. In the past, Lu Xixiao never cared who those girls talked to.

But one look at Zhou Wan and they understood.

The young girl was pure and clean, all her thoughts revealed in her trembling eyelashes and cautious breathing. Her features were delicate and small, without a single flaw.

Like a piece of exquisite porcelain, making people want to protect her instinctively.

It was at this moment that a few more people suddenly entered.

They didn't look like good people.

"Lu Xixiao," the leader called out.

The group turned at the sound, all of them frowning. An unspeakable tension spread through the air. Jiang Fan frowned and spat, muttering impatiently, "Why is it them again?"

Clearly, they were not friends.

When Zhou Wan used to hear others talk about Lu Xixiao, she would always hear that he had been in another fight.

He was too flamboyant and arrogant, capable of attracting people as much as he attracted hatred.

And now, he just stood there, unshakable and invulnerable, looking down at them expressionlessly, his gaze filled with arrogant contempt.

After a moment, he smiled. "Take it outside?"

Lu Xixiao put his hands in his pockets and walked out of the arcade amidst the whispered discussions of the others.

Zhou Wan watched them leave, unable to stop her brows from furrowing.

Will they fight?

I wonder if he'll get hurt...

Zhou Wan recalled hearing Jiang Fan mention that person's name on his phone last time, Luo He.

That must have been the man who just called out to Lu Xixiao. He looked a bit older than Lu Xixiao, with none of the air of a student left on him, only the thuggish demeanor of someone from the streets, his eyes full of gloom and violence.

An inexplicable panic arose in Zhou Wan's heart, making it impossible for her to even focus on her practice paper.

Zhou Wan tightened her fists, took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled, trying to slow her heartbeat.

In the last hour and a half before her shift ended, Zhou Wan only managed to complete two major problems.

She rubbed her eyes, feeling a headache coming on. She pressed her cold hands to her forehead to clear her head.

After turning off all the game machines, Zhou Wan left the arcade with her backpack on.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The late-night autumn wind pierced through her thin clothes.

Zhou Wan shivered, wrapped her jacket tighter, and walked out with her head down.