Chapter Sixty: Losing composure
The five of them ambled out of the bar into the sunlight. Then they caught a bus at the stop around the corner that would take them straight downtown. Swaying along, the bus carried them to the city center amid the silhouettes cast through its windows.
Su Can had assumed Tang Wu would have little interest in arcade games, but once the five of them plunged into one of Rongcheng's earliest arcades, he realized he seemed to have been wrong. Tang Wu stood on a pair of skis, jumping and swerving before the big screen. Beside her, Lin Luoran refused to be outdone, quietly pitting her reflexes against Tang Wu's. Lips pressed together, the two girls competed in silence. Their performance at the skiing game drew a crowd for a while, occasionally setting off a thunderous cheer.
That left the three boys-Wang Weiwei, Lin Zouwen, and Su Can-watching them admiringly from below until they ran out of tokens. As a first-time player, Tang Wu ultimately lost by a hundred points to Lin Luoran, who was quite an expert at it. Lin Luoran looked thoroughly excited. Apparently, getting the better of Tang Wu at this made her very happy.
Fine beads of sweat dotted Tang Wu's forehead. When Su Can praised her for being "quite talented," she smiled. "It just happened to come naturally."
The arcade, a stroll through the streets, and then McDonald's-it was not until evening that everyone headed home, still wanting more.
They got off the bus and arrived at the villa district of Rongcheng Garden. The intersection, the people hurrying home from work, the tide of bicycles at the traffic lights, the ceaseless traffic, the bridge spanning the Qingshui River, the residential buildings along its banks-some low and distinctive, others clustered in towering