Lu Xixiao's abrupt "Zhou Wan" not only stunned her, but also Gu Meng and Jiang Fan beside her.

Amidst their dazed expressions, Zhou Wan thanked him in a low voice, picked up the school ID that had fallen on the ground, and quickly pulled Gu Meng away.

"Damn," Jiang Fan turned his head to look at Lu Xixiao. "You know her?"

"Just know her name."

"Then why didn't you tell me just now!" Jiang Fan was stunned for a moment, then felt something was off and asked in a low voice, "Ah Xiao, don't tell me you like my goddess, do you?!"

Lu Xixiao shot him a sideways glance.

Jiang Fan's heart skipped a beat. 'No way,' he thought, 'this isn't Ah 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 let you have her."

"Do I need you to let me?" Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow.

...

Fine, he really didn't need it.

Jiang Fan looked at Zhou Wan, who had already walked far away. That section of her slender legs was dazzlingly white. He still found it incredible. "You really like her?"

"I don't," Lu Xixiao said.

On the other side, Gu Meng also didn't expect that a good girl like Zhou Wan would actually know Lu Xixiao. She had never seen the two interact before.

"Wanwan, Wanwan, what's the situation with you and Lu Xixiao?"

Zhou Wan pinned her school ID back on. "What?"

"How does he know your name!"

Zhou Wan paused and told the truth, "Before, he took Xu Yixuan to the arcade, and we ran into each other once."

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

Zhou Wan lowered her head and smiled. "Where else would I get to know him."

...

The School Sports Meet ended, and what followed was a mountain of homework.

As school was about to end, the classroom was filled with wails of despair. Because of the physics competition, Zhou Wan had an extra two competition papers.

After school, Zhou Wan did her homework at school for a while, only leaving when it was almost time for her shift change at the arcade.

Her schoolbag was heavy, pressing down on her shoulders.

It started to rain again. This time, Zhou Wan had learned her lesson and hadn't forgotten to bring an umbrella.

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

But sometimes, luck is just that bad. A motorcycle sped past along the side of the road, and with a swoosh, a splash of water splattered all over Zhou Wan.

She let out a cry of surprise. Before she could retreat, a large patch of her school uniform was soaked, and a few drops of water had even hit her face.

The triumphant laughter of boys succeeding in a prank rang in her ears.

Zhou Wan looked up and saw three motorcycles stopped ahead. The boy in the lead had dyed yellow hair, and the other two were nonchalantly whistling at her.

"Little sister, where are you going?" Yellow Hair said with a cigarette in his mouth and a smile. "Let your big bro give you a ride."

Zhou Wan tightened her grip on the umbrella handle, took a step back, and stared at them warily. "No, thank you, I'm almost there."

"Your clothes are all wet, isn't it cold in the wind?" Yellow Hair said, feigning concern. "Don't catch a cold, the temperature is dropping."

"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 was pounding like thunder. She had seen too many news stories of this kind and understood what would happen to her if they took her away.

She took out her phone and put it to her ear, forcing herself to sound calm. "Hello, Dad, are you almost here..."

Before she could finish, the three of them were laughing so hard they could barely breathe. Yellow Hair's face was red from laughing, and he even choked a few times. "Little sister, are you even 15? How come you don't even know how to make a phone call?"

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

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

His hand was very rough, and he used a lot of force, immediately leaving a red mark around her wrist. Frightened by the sudden action, Zhou Wan let out a scream.

"Don't push your luck." Yellow Hair lowered his voice, leaning close to her face, his cigarette-scented breath hitting Zhou Wan's face directly. "Be good, your big bro won't treat you badly, right?"

"Let me go." Zhou Wan struggled hard, her voice uncontrollably choked with sobs. "I'm begging you, I can give you money, just... let me go first."

The girl's appearance only made them more brazen.

Yellow Hair raised a hand and scraped her cheek. "Tsk, so smooth."

The blood in Zhou Wan's body seemed to flow backward. Her limbs were ice-cold, and she felt nauseous. She tried to fend him off with the umbrella, but Yellow Hair snatched it away and threw it aside.

The wind flipped the umbrella's ribs inside out. One of the ribs snapped, exposing a sharp tip.

The girl trembled all over, her voice quivering, as if she could be bullied and manipulated at will.

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

She looked at the sharp, broken umbrella rib and thought, 'If he really dares to do anything to me, I'll use this rib to blind him.'

She didn't want to be humiliated, didn't want to be defiled.

But there were still two other men behind him.

She definitely couldn't escape, nor could she fight them off.

What should I do?

At the same time, a voice suddenly sounded from behind her—

"Ma Shao."

The wind rustled the leaves. Amidst the empty street and falling leaves, Zhou Wan heard a voice.

This time, she didn't turn around, but she recognized whose voice it was.

Lu Xixiao.

The boy wasn't holding an umbrella. He had just pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, which hung loosely.

He also smelled of tobacco, but it was pleasant, mixed with a very faint woody scent. The tobacco had only the faintest hint of sharpness and spice left.

A cool touch enveloped Zhou Wan's wrist, and he pulled her behind him.

She saw Lu Xixiao's side profile.

Lean and sharp. His superior bone structure meant he had no bad angles, and his expression was calm and indifferent.

Zhou Wan had never expected anyone to save her.

Growing up, no one had ever come to save her. She had endured everything alone.

She especially didn't expect that the person who came to save her would be Lu Xixiao.

The son of Guo Xiangling's marriage partner.

"What are you doing?" Lu Xixiao said coolly.

Ma Shao immediately let go of Zhou Wan upon seeing him, then started to laugh. His tone was completely familiar. "What's up? Ah Xiao, is this your girl?"

Such vulgar words made Zhou Wan frown.

Lu Xixiao didn't speak, remaining noncommittal.

"Alright." Ma Shao nodded to himself. "You should have said she was your girl earlier. I wouldn't go so far as to steal a brother's woman."

Then, Ma Shao bent over, leaned close to Zhou Wan, and said without a hint of apology, "Little sister, my apologies. Sorry about that."

Zhou Wan turned her face away. Lu Xixiao spoke again, his voice deep, "Ma Shao."

Ma Shao smiled, tossed out a "Let's hang out when you're free," and got back on his motorcycle and left.

Zhou Wan's eyelashes trembled as she looked down.

She looked at Lu Xixiao, suppressing the tremor in her voice. "Thank you."

Lu Xixiao glanced at her, said nothing, and walked straight ahead.

She picked up the umbrella. It was already broken and could no longer be used.

A light drizzle was still falling from the sky. It was like this every year in Pingchuan City during the transition from summer to autumn. There was so much rain that it felt like the surroundings were about to grow moldy from the soaking, the entire city submerged in rain.

Fortunately, the rain wasn't heavy.

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

The two walked one after the other, the one in front also without an umbrella, wearing a hood.

Zhou Wan looked at Lu Xixiao, a little puzzled. She wasn't deliberately following him, but they were both heading in the same direction.

Could he be worried that the delinquent from before would come back to bother her and wanted to walk her back?

But within a second, Zhou Wan dismissed this thought.

She tugged at the corner of her mouth in self-deprecation. A dazzling person like Lu Xixiao, how could he spend time on her?

Just as she was thinking this, Lu Xixiao stopped at some point and turned around. "Where's your umbrella?" he asked.

Zhou Wan looked up and saw his eyes.

His eyes were long and narrow, the kind that should have been passionate, but instead, they were like a bottomless pool, swallowing all emotion, appearing indifferent and nonchalant.

Zhou Wan: "It's broken."

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

"Oh."

He continued walking forward until he was standing under a bus stop sign. "Wait a moment."

Zhou Wan was taken aback. "What is it?"

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

Zhou Wan watched him take out his phone. His fingertips tapped the screen a few times, and a short while later, a taxi pulled up in front of the bus stop sign.

Lu Xixiao's long legs stepped back into the rain, and he got into the passenger seat. Then he rolled down the window. "Still want to stand in the rain?"

Zhou Wan was stunned for a moment, then thanked him in a bit of a fluster and opened the back door.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

Lu Xixiao replied as he took out a cigarette, "The arcade up ahead."

Zhou Wan's dark lashes trembled, and she thanked him again.

Lu Xixiao let out a laugh, 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 reply. He lowered his head to light a cigarette, rolled down the window, and exhaled a puff of smoke.

He half-closed his eyes, his excessively long body crammed uncomfortably into the not-so-spacious taxi seat, exuding a bone-deep weariness and irritation.

Because of what just happened, the guy from the morning shift had already left by the time Zhou Wan arrived. Fortunately, on a gloomy, rainy day, there weren't many people in the arcade.

She went into the back room to change into clean clothes and came out.

For some reason, Lu Xixiao was in the mood to play games today.

He was playing a racing game. He sat alone in that section, leaning lazily against the back of the chair, his side profile cool and sharp.

This game was actually very difficult to play because the steering wheel was overly sensitive, often causing players to crash or even fly into the sky. But Lu Xixiao didn't. His long, slender hands gripped the steering wheel, and he easily took first place.

The prize tickets underneath spewed out in a long, hissing stream.

Zhou Wan watched for a while, then took out her papers from her schoolbag and started doing problems.

The rain outside was getting heavier.

It pattered loudly against the metal shed across the way, the noise grating.

Many people in the arcade had left. Only Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao remained. It was very quiet, with only the sounds of him playing games and the scratching of Zhou Wan's pen on her paper.

He picked up a stack of prize tickets from the floor and walked over to ask, "What are these for?"

"Prize tickets," Zhou Wan said. "You can exchange them for the prizes back there."

The glass cabinet behind her was filled with all sorts of prizes.

Zhou Wan visually estimated his tickets. "There should be over two thousand here. You can exchange it for a keychain. If you don't want to exchange them now, I can also save them to a card for you, and you can accumulate more later to exchange for better prizes."

Considering that Lu Xixiao might not come here to play again, Zhou Wan asked, "Do you want me to exchange them for you now?"

He raised an eyebrow and said casually, "Sure."

Zhou Wan opened the glass cabinet. There were two types of keychains, pink and blue. She turned her head and asked, "Do you want the blue one?"

"Yeah."

She took it out. "Here."

Lu Xixiao took it, hooking the keychain with his index finger.

It was a keychain with a blue plush ball.

He casually stuffed it into his pocket and looked at Zhou Wan again. She had already sat back down and resumed her homework. A physics paper. The steps to the solution were written crowdedly yet neatly on the scratch paper.

Lu Xixiao suddenly recalled what they had said during the day about her "always getting second place in the year level," and his lips twitched into a slight smile.

Seeing that he hadn't left yet, Zhou Wan raised her head again in confusion.

Her gaze met his.

She blinked.

Lu Xixiao: "Hey."

"Hm?"

"How do you play that one?" he asked, pointing to one of the machines.

"Oh, the rules for that one are a bit complicated. I'll come over and explain it to you."

The two of them went to the game machine, and Zhou Wan patiently explained the rules of the game and the tricks to get more prize tickets.

Lu Xixiao stretched out his long leg, hooked a chair from the side, and pulled it behind Zhou Wan. "Sit and talk."

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

The two of them were sitting a little close, and she could still smell his scent.

Zhou Wan pressed her lips together, silently clenched her empty fist, and continued, "If you time it right and land the ball in this spot, you'll get a chance to draw a prize. If you're lucky, you can get a lot of prize tickets at once."

With his hands in his pockets, Lu Xixiao leaned to one side and lifted his chin. "You try it once."

"Huh?"

He wouldn't repeat the same sentence twice.

Zhou Wan hesitated for three seconds before placing her hand on the button.

Lu Xixiao lowered his eyes for a look. Her hand was very small, yet long and slender, her nails neatly and cleanly trimmed.

She stared intently at the spinning wheel inside, the red light reflecting on her face, making her eyes shine brightly.

Then, with a thwack, she pressed the button.

A ball dropped from the top, rolled around, and didn't fall into a single slot. Naturally, not a single ticket came out.

...

Although she had been watching the shop for a long time, she really had no talent for games.

Lu Xixiao didn't give her any face at all, laughing out loud. "Seeing your posture, I thought you were pretty good."

...

Zhou Wan let go. "You do it yourself."

Lu Xixiao leaned forward. Without much hesitation, he pressed the button, and the ball fell directly into the most difficult slot. The game machine started flashing and playing music.

He had a chance to draw a prize.

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

Zhou Wan felt that she had been insulted.

"That's it?" he asked.

"...Yeah."

He casually played a few more rounds, spitting out quite a few more prize tickets.

It was at this moment that his phone suddenly rang.

It was placed on the game machine. Zhou Wan didn't mean to, but she still saw the caller's number—there was no name saved, only the number.

But she was all too familiar with this string of numbers.

Guo Xiangling.

Lu Xixiao played another round before looking at his phone. He sneered and hung up directly.

Zhou Wan understood why he was so irritable today.

Another five minutes passed, and Guo Xiangling called again.

Zhou Wan sat beside him. She asked softly, "Aren't you going to answer?"

Lu Xixiao answered with his actions, directly dragging Guo Xiangling into his blacklist. With a clatter, he threw his phone onto the table beside them.

It was laughable. Guo Xiangling had hung up on Zhou Wan countless times because it was "inconvenient," and now she was reaping what she sowed with Lu Xixiao.

The affection she had once 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 wasting time here with her.

He played until closing time before getting up.

He could barely hold the prize tickets in his hand.

"Do you want to exchange them?" Zhou Wan asked.

"What's the best prize you have here?"

"That one."

Zhou Wan pointed to the other side. Inside a sparkling silver glass cabinet was a very beautiful bicycle.

"Has anyone ever exchanged for it?"

"No, the points required are too high. You'd probably have to spend several thousand yuan to get enough points."

Lu Xixiao tapped his cigarette on the table. "Which one do you like the most?"

He asked so casually that Zhou Wan also answered just as casually, "The bicycle. That way, I can get caught in the rain less when it rains again."

Zhou Wan entered all the tickets. There were already over twenty thousand points. She asked again, "Do you need to exchange them?"

He smiled nonchalantly. "Just save them for now."