Flirting

"Game Boy? I stopped playing that years ago. Still the same few games, right? Contra and Super Mario were my two best games. As for Star Ocean, The Legend of Zelda, and The King of Fighters, I remember them a little, but they weren't really to my taste... What I'm looking forward to now are PC games, like Westwood's Red Alert and Blizzard's Warcraft... Softstar's Chinese Paladin should have a DOS version by now, right? But I imagine you haven't played any of those yet. If you know Dune, though, I could discuss it with you a little..." Qin An's gaze swept casually over Qin Xiaotian's Game Boy, as though he had spotted a primitive man holding a stone axe in the age of firearms. There was no disdain, only simple pity...

Qin Xiaotian felt a little inferior under Qin An's gaze. More importantly, he had heard of those computer games Qin An mentioned, but they seemed to have only just come out, and he hadn't had a chance to play them yet. The only one he had played was Dune, but he wasn't particularly good at that old game either. Naturally, he wasn't going to expose his own shortcomings...

Qin Xiaotian still held up the Game Boy, trying hard to make his gaze disdainful and mocking as he looked at Qin An. "This lousy place of yours doesn't even have a computer. Where would you play those games? I bet you've only heard of the Game Boy, too, and now you're standing here bragging. I happen to have Super Mario and Contra here. Why don't you play them for me? Do you even know the controls?"

Qin An beckoned, signaling for Qin Xiaotian to hand him the Game Boy. An Shui stood to one side, smiling as she watched the two children compete, having already forgotten that little moment of embarrassment earlier...

First came Contra. Qin An expertly brought up thirty lives, then cleared the game using only two, leaving Qin Xiaotian gaping...

Then came Super Mario. Qin Xiaotian could get five lives at most, and would die over and over on the fifth level until he finally got a GAME OVER. Qin An, however, cleared the entire game with more than ten lives left. Qin Xiaotian even noticed that, for a while, Qin An was practically making big jumps with his eyes closed, right up until the end of the stage. That level of mastery was simply beyond Qin Xiaotian's reach...

"Good thing you don't have Tetris here, or I'd give you an inferiority complex so bad you'd die... You can't beat me at these skill-based games. You'd better wait for Pokémon or stick to RPGs. Otherwise, if you keep obsessing over Contra and Super Mario to improve your skills, you'll spend your whole life in the shadow of my scores today... And these weren't even my best..." Qin An casually tossed the Game Boy back to Qin Xiaotian...

The mainland's underdeveloped economy meant that the vast majority of Qin An's generation could never have access to as many forms of entertainment as Qin Xiaotian. In fact, everything Qin An knew about these games came from the Subor learning computer. Although parents had originally intended for children whose families couldn't afford computers to learn basic computer skills and improve their studies, most Subor learning computers ended up becoming Subor game consoles. Qin An still remembered how he and Sun Pao had often fought over the controllers. When playing Super Mario, they competed to see who could clear it faster, while in Contra, they loved holding the screen in place to get the other player killed. But the result was always that whoever lost their lives would borrow the other person's, and then both would quickly get a "GAME OVER..."

"Well? Pretty amazing, aren't I?" Qin An winked at An Shui...

"Mm... mm... You're amazing..." An Shui patted Qin An's head, her eyes and brows full of laughter...

"An Shui, when you do that, it really feels like you're treating me as your little brother..." Qin An caught the hand patting his head and held it in his palm. An Shui's hand wasn't large, about the same size as his own. He slid his five fingers between hers and held her hand tightly...

Holding An Shui's hand, Qin An left Qin Xiaotian behind, still trying hard to get a better score than his, and walked toward the old house...

Unlike the pounding of his heart when he held Ye Zhulan's hand, Qin An felt utterly calm holding An Shui's, as though it were the purest closeness, linked tightly through their hands and fingertips. "An Shui"-he had been calling her that, his older sister, for twenty years. How could that not gather those intense feelings in his heart, impossible to forget...

"I don't want you to be my little brother. Just think, an older sister's first kiss taken by her little brother, and a little brother's first kiss forced on his older sister-how could that be all right? Why don't you be my little boyfriend instead?" Although Qin An behaved somewhat differently from ordinary boys, An Shui still only regarded him as a thirteen-year-old, which let her joke easily and without restraint, teasing a little boy who ought to have been innocent and shy...

"But I already have someone I like. Maybe we'll still end up being relatives someday... And now you want to be my little girlfriend. How does that work?" Qin An's gaze wandered uncertainly, as though he really were giving the question serious thought...

His expression sent An Shui into endless laughter. She was extremely particular about her appearance, habitually maintaining a ladylike bearing in every frown and smile, but now she shook with laughter. She pulled her hand from Qin An's and covered her mouth before she could stop the laughter she found so unseemly...

Once she stopped laughing, Qin An took her hand again...

Perhaps sensing that attachment, An Shui narrowed her eyes as she studied Qin An. This little boy really did seem somewhat fond of her. It wasn't the kind of affection between a man and a woman. It felt warm, winding gently around her heart, and just thinking about it made the corners of her mouth lift...

"All right... I'll be your little girlfriend, and you can still like other little girls and find another little girlfriend. At worst, I'll sneak around..." An Shui let him hold her hand, watching the swaying shadows of the trees slant down. Having a little brother like this might be quite nice...

"Unfortunately, men are always greedy... Once you're my girlfriend, you might start getting petulant and find yourself getting jealous. Having to deal with two girlfriends would be a bit of a headache, wouldn't it?" Qin An scratched his head and solemnly furrowed his brows, explaining the issue to An Shui in all seriousness...

"Such a little schemer! You certainly know a lot... All right, I'll be both your girlfriend and your big sister An Shui. I won't get petulant or jealous..." An Shui couldn't help marveling a little. Everyone said the mainland was relatively conservative, but judging by Qin An, he was no more innocent than children in Taiwan or the United States. He even seemed more mature...

Compared with Qin An, Qin Xiaotian was an oddity so simple that he completely ignored little girls, caring only about game consoles and food...

"An Shui... You're so good to me. No matter how many girlfriends I find, I'll make sure they all call you big sister. I promise that in secret, I'll spoil you the most, love you the most, and cherish you the most. When we're alone, you can be as petulant and lose your temper as much as you like..." Qin An said with a grin. His heart felt as though it had tasted honey. So many thoughts he had once never dared imagine or act on, which he could only suppress in his subconscious, had actually come out so naturally. Especially after that kiss, Qin An had even felt the satisfaction of a long-cherished wish fulfilled. It seemed he really had harbored such thoughts about An Shui all along...