A Date with Xia Mi (3)

A string of letters put together into a noun, a story reported by a TV station, and a crowd of young people blindly following trends—that was enough to send a doll costing less than ten dollars soaring to an outrageous price.

Li Lin had originally been reluctant to buy such expensive plush toys. He always felt like a sucker whenever he handed over the money.

But this was club activity time, and every bill would be paid out of the funds allocated by the Student Union.

That was a million dollars—a million! Henry Adams had managed to climb the social ladder with nothing but a million-pound check he could not spend. The Martial Arts Club had a genuine seven-figure sum sitting in its account, and Li Lin only planned to use it to make a girl happy on their date.

Yet Xia Mi seemed happy the whole time. Even when Li Lin slipped her a bestselling copy of "GTA4" while they were browsing a bookstore, she accepted it with a beaming smile.

After dinner, the two took a cab straight to Navy Pier. The 200-foot Centennial Ferris Wheel stood at that Chicago landmark, and if they moved quickly enough, they could still make it to the Museum of Ice Cream, which stayed open until ten on weekends.

"Oh wow, my little bag is completely full. We can save some money from here on out."

Xia Mi was still complaining on the way that Li Lin had bought too many things.

His first impression of her had been that she was the beloved little-princess type, the sort of girl who had grown up sheltered in her parents' or older brother's palms. No one expected her to fight for power or lead on the battlefield. Instead, they lavished her with wealth, privilege, and indulgent affection.

In return, she only needed to be as beautiful, clever, lively, adorable, and well-mannered as she was now—becoming the family's brightest and most noble splendor, something outsiders could only admire from afar.

But after stepping into Xia Mi's life, Li Lin suddenly realized that she was actually a princess in distress. She had a dim-witted brother, no money to her name, and a home stripped bare.

Xia Mi had never said so outright, but Li Lin could tell that she hated this kind of life.

She hated having to care for an older brother who could never make up his mind. She hated facing an unfamiliar city and an ever-changing society alone. More than anything, she hated worrying about mundane necessities like food, fuel, and bills.

If the monarchy could be restored, she would definitely cast aside all honor and return to some inner chamber, lazily living as a mistress waited on by maids.

The only thing Li Lin could compare such a delicate, clingy creature to was a Ragdoll cat.

Ragdoll cats were affectionate and playful, but if one wandered into the wild, she would suppress her nature and struggle to learn how to do all the things she had once hated.

Now, she stood in front of Li Lin and gave him a soft "meow." The pitiful look in her eyes made his heart feel as though it had been wrung tight.

Li Lin raised a hand and flicked Xia Mi on the forehead. "You seem to be hiding something from me. You won't let me check the club's bank account."

Xia Mi mischievously stuck out her tongue. "You'll find out tomorrow. For now, let's keep enjoying our date~"

"My guess is that you spent money recklessly."

"Hehe, it wasn't reckless spending. Every cent went where it was needed."

Li Lin decided to believe Xia Mi for now. In his view, she had been poor for so long that even if she had a million dollars in her hands, she might not know how to spend it.

Just then, the taxi arrived. He took Xia Mi's hand and led her toward the enormous Ferris wheel.

Beneath the night sky, the Centennial Ferris Wheel turned slowly. White lights illuminated its outline ring by ring, like a massive clock hanging in the darkness, endlessly counting down toward happiness and romance.

It carried little cabins into the sky, then brought them back down to the ground. Every cabin held passengers taking photos or laughing at the highest point. Some even breathed against the glass windows and drew hearts with their fingers, only for them to vanish moments later.

Xia Mi looked up at the Ferris wheel cabins, blinked, and suddenly said, "This is so childish."

Li Lin returned from the line and stuffed a cotton candy into her hand. "Then we won't ride it?"

He had heard Xia Mi explain plenty about the significance of the three great date spots—the aquarium, the Ferris wheel, and the movie theater—and he felt a strangely subtle sense of embarrassment.

"We're already here. How can we not ride it?" Xia Mi raised the cotton candy to block Li Lin's eyes. "You really have no sense of duty at all. You're the chosen dragon slayer, so you can't retreat at the last minute!"

"But you were the one who said it was childish."

"A girl's opinions are fluid." Xia Mi realized that Li Lin had not even considered taking a bite of the cotton candy, and silently cursed him for being so hopeless. She lowered her arm and began devouring it herself, then said through a mouthful of sugar, "You need to learn to adapt to how fickle girls can be."

With the attitude of a humble student, Li Lin walked beside Xia Mi and listened to her endless chatter.

It was not until they entered the cabin that Xia Mi's little love lesson finally came to an end.

Xia Mi kept circling around the windows, constantly changing positions. Her little face pressed close to the glass as she watched Navy Pier gradually shrink into a toy model below. Chicago's skyline stood along the lakeshore, skyscraper after skyscraper, lights shining from their windows like countless tiny dragon scales.

She suddenly clasped her hands behind her back and turned to look at Li Lin, who was seated and sorting through photos.

"Hey, this is a Ferris wheel, you know. We still have more than ten minutes before we get back down. Is there anything you especially want to say to me?"

"You're hinting for me to confess first, right? But you'd definitely reject me," Li Lin said with certainty.

Although Xia Mi had suggested the date and kept stirring up all sorts of little ambiguities between them, she clearly was not mentally prepared to define their relationship.

Xia Mi was a difficult girl to understand, but whenever she truly wanted something, she would never desperately hide what she was thinking.

Li Lin could feel that Xia Mi's instinctive desire to get close to him came from a complicated mix of emotions. There was definitely affection, along with some helpless expectation... It was just that she had not yet decided whether she wanted to seriously try loving someone.

"Hmph, you actually guessed it."

Seeing that Li Lin would not take the bait, Xia Mi laughed it off and shifted her gaze to Chicago's nightscape beyond the window.

"It's so beautiful. Too bad that all beautiful things begin falling after they reach their highest point."

Xia Mi spoke softly.

She chewed over the inexplicable gloom and disappointment squeezing up from the depths of her heart. That terrifying sense of emptiness made her tremble.

Only then did she finally realize what the human emotion called "liking" was.

Xia Mi could not say when this feeling had begun. Maybe it was years ago, when Li Lin had taken Old Xia and driven off those little thugs. Maybe it was when he silently draped his coat over her after a fight. Liking was like a subway passing beneath a city: even when it was still far away, the ground beneath your feet began to tremble first.