"It's just a regular bag."
The woman offered a simple explanation, without responding to his joke.
"I'm just waiting for my husband, not here to buy goods."
The word "sir" was pronounced lightly, yet it was like a soft knife, silently drawing a line between them.
Of course, Draco noticed it too.
But he had already said it.
The joke has already been made, so we have to smooth things over.
So he flipped the coin from his right hand to his left, continuing the joke from before, trying to ease the tense atmosphere:
"I mean, if you're particularly lucky tonight and win a ton of coins," Draco pointed, "Wouldn't this bag be perfect for holding all the winnings?"
The woman frowned slightly upon hearing this.
The gesture was small, but it clearly expressed her desire not to dwell on this pointless topic.
She avoided Draco's gaze and turned her attention back to the flashing lights on the slot machine screen in front of her.
At the same time, he restrained himself and shifted slightly away from Draco, politely but clearly creating a small distance between them.
"I won't gamble forever, and I can't win that much anyway."
Perhaps he felt that what he had just said wasn't clear enough.
If this person knew what was good for them, they would have left long ago.
But he didn't leave; he remained standing there.
Then she needs to make her point more clearly.
So she added another sentence,
"If you have nothing else, sir, I'll wait for my husband."
Draco was so perceptive,
He naturally understood that she didn't want to talk any more.
He didn't feel embarrassed or angry.
It was just a casual conversation on a whim.
and,
She has a husband, so it's perfectly reasonable for her not to want to talk to strange men. If he keeps pestering her, then he's just being unreasonable.
"Okay," Draco replied.
After saying that, he stopped looking at her and walked to the empty slot machine next to the woman, sitting down calmly as if the conversation had never happened.
Then he started fiddling with the machine in front of him.
The problem is, Draco has never touched anything like this before.
He only knows how to play Hermione...
If Laodeng knew he was sitting in front of the slot machine figuring out how to insert coins, he'd probably smash his cane in two in anger.
But who cares, anyway, Laodeng isn't here.
Draco stared at the panel with a look of utter curiosity.
The slot machine's control panel has about a dozen colorful buttons, some labeled "SPIN," some "BET MAX," and others marked with plus and minus signs. Next to it is a small screen displaying a variety of game rules and odds tables.
I looked at it for a while, but I still didn't understand.
So he began to operate tentatively.
Press this button every now and then to listen to the sound the machine makes, then touch that lever every now and then.
He didn't look like a gambler; he looked more like an elderly person seeing a mobile phone for the first time, fiddling with it here and there.
Finally Draco gave up on figuring out the complicated rules, tossed in a coin, and randomly pressed "SPIN".
As the image on the screen began to rotate and then stopped on cherries, oranges, and watermelons, he patted the machine...
The slot machine remained unresponsive...
"..." Draco stared blankly at the "TRY AGAIN" message on the screen, remaining silent for two seconds.
Okay.
He tossed in another coin.
The woman tensed up slightly as Draco suddenly sat down, so close to her.
Then, she subconsciously moved half an inch to the side, the chair leg sliding silently a short distance on the ground, creating a few more centimeters of space between herself and Draco's chair.
It may not seem to have much significance, but women feel much more relaxed.
At the same time, she glanced warily at Draco, confirming that he was simply sitting there studying the machine.
Then a rapid assessment was conducted.
This person's advances might have been just out of boredom, and now it seems they were simply curious about the machine; there was probably no malice involved.
However, the sight of a strange man so close still made her feel uneasy, a feeling stemming from instinct and a sense of unease about her personal space being invaded.
In the end, the woman didn't leave.
Although she felt uncomfortable, she didn't intend to give up the slot machine just because of a strange man sitting next to her.
The slot machine just made them money.
Her husband was still gambling at the table, so she had to help him out a bit, even though the odds of winning on the slot machines weren't high.
After hesitating for a moment,
She decided to ignore the person next to her, tapped her fingers twice on the edge of the table as if to encourage herself, then looked away and returned her gaze to the slot machine screen in front of her.
She moved very slowly.
It was a kind of cautious solemnity.
Then, he picked up a token from the small tray in front of him, pinched it between his fingertips, as if weighing its weight, or performing some kind of silent prayer ritual.
Then he gently inserted the coin into the slot.
The coin jingled as it fell into the machine. She pressed the button, gripped the lever, and gently pulled it all the way down.
The patterns on the screen began to slowly rotate, scrolling down one frame at a time between fruits, numbers, the number seven, and the bar.
The woman stared intently at the spinning pattern...
I kept praying in my heart...
The woman stared at the spinning patterns, a look of tension appearing in her eyes, but not the tension of a gambler.
She wasn't gambling for herself.
She was praying for her husband.
Every coin dropped in, every time the lever is pulled, is like a silent prayer.
This series of simple procedures was clearly observed by Draco, who was studying the machine nearby.
I wasn't looking at her at first.
Draco was looking at his slot machine panel with a headache, as a bunch of options that he didn't quite understand popped up on the screen.
He pressed a few buttons randomly, and the machine buzzed twice.
And then nothing happened.
Let's see how women do it.
That's when I saw her complete the whole process.
The woman noticed that he was watching.
However, she didn't turn her head or glance to the side.
But Yu Guang told her,
The man next to her just turned his head slightly in her direction; the movement was quick, but he was definitely watching what she was doing.
Pretend you didn't notice.
They neither initiated conversation nor deliberately avoided it.
She had already dodged it; she had moved half an inch. Moving any further would be impolite and would make her seem like she was making a mountain out of a molehill.
It quietly guards its own little corner, not bothering anyone, and simply grows quietly on its own.
Draco didn't say anything more.
With a click, the woman's slot machine stopped.
"Click, click, click..." The rotation speed gradually slowed down, and the first column slowly came to a stop, revealing a bright red cherry.
The second column also slowed down, and there was a bright green watermelon.
The third column finally focuses on the orange.
Cherries, watermelons, oranges.
There's no continuous payout line, but the first column is cherries.