The summer noon sun blazed like fiercely burning flames, scorching the earth.
All of Lingzhou City seemed trapped inside an enormous steamer, its streets deserted.
Occasionally, a stray cat would appear, darting past as it hurried to find a shady spot to hide!
At the mall entrance, a girl in a white dress looked out at the blazing sun, her willow-leaf brows involuntarily creasing.
"The sun is so vicious. If we go back now, it'll burn a layer of skin right off us!"
The boy beside him had bright eyes, white teeth, and handsome features. He, too, felt waves of heat washing over his face. He turned to the girl and said!
"Classmate Chu Ruoxi, let's wait until it's cooler before we head back!"
Chu Ruoxi nodded and said, "Looks like that's our only choice!"
The two of them then retreated into the mall.
"Jiang Fan, you can call me Chu Ruoxi or Ruoxi. Adding 'Classmate' makes us sound like strangers. We did sit next to each other in class, after all!"
Jiang Fan thought about it. That was true. But calling her Ruoxi seemed far too intimate, and he certainly couldn't bring himself to say it. After deliberating for quite a while, he finally spoke!
"I'll stick with Classmate Chu Ruoxi. I can't bring myself to call you anything else!"
Chu Ruoxi looked speechless. "Fine! Suit yourself!"
They were in a mall with a bit of everything. The first floor sold gold jewelry and cosmetics!
The second floor sold clothes.
The third floor had a food court, karaoke, a movie theater, an arcade, and all sorts of other entertainment!
The mall was very close to Jiang Fan's home. They had originally planned to head back after a meal, but they had underestimated the blazing summer sun!
Chu Ruoxi thought about it. Since they had nothing to do now anyway, they might as well spend the afternoon having fun here!
"Jiang Fan, let's go have some fun on the third floor!"
"Okay!"
Jiang Fan agreed. His mother, Li Guiqin, had given him 1,000 yuan today. Their meal had cost 68 yuan, leaving him with 932 yuan.
His father had also sent him a message on WeChat, telling him he had to spend all 1,000 yuan of his dating funds today, or he wasn't allowed to come home!
If he wasn't coming home tonight, he should remember to find a decent hotel!
Reading that message from his father, Jiang Jingguo, gave Jiang Fan a headache.
His relationship with Classmate Chu Ruoxi was innocent, nothing like what his father imagined!
Yet for some reason, a small part of Jiang Fan still looked forward to something like that happening!
But with his current personality, even if something like that happened, he probably wouldn't dare do anything out of line!
Chu Ruoxi and Jiang Fan took the elevator to the mall's third floor together!
An arcade stood directly across from the elevator. As soon as they stepped out, a wave of sound struck their eardrums!
Chu Ruoxi ran inside excitedly. She hadn't come here to play in ages.
The last time she had visited an arcade seemed to have been when she was nine. Hearing the familiar music instantly made her feel as though she had returned to her childhood!
She turned back and called to Jiang Fan!
"Jiang Fan, come on! Let's play in here!"
"Okay, I'll go buy tokens!"
"I'm making you spend money on me today. Hehe..."
Chu Ruoxi didn't stand on ceremony. Both her family and Jiang Fan's were reasonably well-off, so there was no need to draw such a clear line between them!
"It's fine. My mom gave me funds!" Jiang Fan said with complete seriousness!
"Funds? What funds?" Chu Ruoxi asked curiously!
"Um... I'll go buy tokens!"
Jiang Fan walked straight away. He couldn't exactly tell her they were dating funds! He might scare the girl right off!
He might have been a complete noob at romance, but he wasn't an idiot!
Jiang Fan exchanged 200 yuan for game tokens and carried two boxes of them over to Chu Ruoxi.
"Classmate Chu Ruoxi, I've got the tokens. What do you want to play?"
"Wow! So many? This is great!"
Chu Ruoxi was as excited as a little white rabbit hopping about!
"Jiang Fan, let's play this shooting game! It was my favorite when I was little!"
Jiang Fan dropped tokens into the machine.
The machine's screen then showed that the game was loading...
It was a two-player shooting game. Chu Ruoxi handed Jiang Fan a game submachine gun and explained how to use it, then added!
"Just follow my lead. Wherever I shoot, you shoot too!"
"Okay, Classmate Chu Ruoxi!"
The game began!
Chu Ruoxi excitedly sprayed bullets at the monsters charging toward them, regardless of whether she hit them.
Jiang Fan followed what Chu Ruoxi had just told him and aimed for the monsters' heads. That was their weak point, where a single shot could kill them!
He fired just one bullet at a time, and every bullet struck a monster right in the head!
"Wow! Jiang Fan, look! I hit so many monsters!"
Chu Ruoxi showed off to Jiang Fan happily, completely unaware that Jiang Fan had hit them all!
Jiang Fan didn't point it out. He quite liked seeing Chu Ruoxi happy!
After a few rounds, Chu Ruoxi grew tired of the game and went over to a basketball machine!
"Jiang Fan, let's play this. I'm a sharpshooter!"
Jiang Fan inserted the tokens. The basketball game began, and Chu Ruoxi picked up a basketball and sank it cleanly!
She said to Jiang Fan proudly.
"Hehe... Pretty good, aren't I?"
"Yeah, you're good!"
Chu Ruoxi then sank several more shots in a row. To be honest, her shooting accuracy was quite good, but once she reached the second stage!
The hoop moved back and forth, and she started missing. She puffed out her little lips in annoyance.
"Classmate Chu Ruoxi, let me help you shoot!"
Chu Ruoxi handed Jiang Fan the basketball she was holding. With a gentle toss, he sent it straight through without touching the rim!
"Wow! Jiang Fan, you're amazing! You can even swish it with the hoop moving!"
Jiang Fan was a little at a loss at Chu Ruoxi's praise, then said!
"The hoop moves at 0.3 meters per second, its range of movement is one meter, and the ball takes 0.5 seconds to reach it. Based on the parabola...
"So, when the hoop reaches the end of its range and changes direction, you need to release the ball, aiming right at the center!"
Chu Ruoxi stared at Jiang Fan in surprise. Hearing that whole theory of his, no one would ever have guessed he had scored only 300 on the college entrance exam!
"Give it a try!" Jiang Fan said!
Chu Ruoxi took the basketball and followed his instructions. The moment the hoop changed direction, she released it. The basketball traced a graceful arc through the air before dropping neatly into the hoop!
"Yay! It went in!"
Chu Ruoxi was as happy as a child!
"I want to shoot another one!"
Chu Ruoxi picked up a basketball, waited for the right moment, and shot again. It went in again!
She picked up another ball and shot, sinking several in a row. When she had played basketball as a child, she had always failed at the stage where the hoop moved!
She hadn't expected that following Jiang Fan's method today would take her straight to the third stage.
Beside herself with excitement, she threw her arms around Jiang Fan to celebrate.
Startled by Chu Ruoxi's sudden action, Jiang Fan went rigid and stood completely motionless!