"Come on. Since training doesn't start until tomorrow, let's have all the fun we can today."
Getting back to her feet, Airi pulled Chang Yuan up just as he had lain down.
"Come on, I just got comfortable. At least let me sleep for a while first?"
"You can sleep anytime, but you won't always have time to play."
"Fine. I happen to know a bit about Shenzhou, so I'll show you around."
Left with no choice, Chang Yuan could only take Airi out to have some fun.
First, they let Hua's father know.
Then the two set out together.
When visiting Shenzhou, the main attraction was naturally its wide variety of food.
And as everyone knew, Shenzhou's best food could be found at roadside stalls.
So, unsurprisingly, Chang Yuan took Airi straight to eat at a roadside stall.
"Mmm, delicious. But it's still not as good as what I make."
After finishing a plate of fried noodles, Airi gave her sincere assessment.
"Of course. Your cooking is so good, Airi. How could it be easily surpassed?"
Having tasted it himself, Chang Yuan was more qualified than anyone to say that.
"Mm-hm~? So being able to eat food I made is your good fortune~?."
"Alright, we're done eating. It's already dusk, and dusk is when Shenzhou becomes the liveliest."
"So what are we playing next?"
"Mm-hm, just follow me."
Chang Yuan led Airi to the night market, where countless stalls had already been set up.
They stopped at a very common balloon-shooting stall.
"Boss, twenty shots."
After paying, Chang Yuan took the toy gun and loaded it with rubber pellets.
"Airi, watch carefully. The prize you get in this game depends on how many balloons you shoot."
Of course, these guns were often tampered with. Either the sights were off, or the power had been weakened, meaning it might take several shots just to pop one balloon.
So, unsurprisingly, after firing all twenty shots, Chang Yuan had only popped ten balloons.
Still, ten balloons earned him a small prize: a pink dumpling charm.
"Pfft, hahaha! Chang Yuan, you're so bad at this. You only popped ten from this close?"
"...Then you try."
After paying for Airi, Chang Yuan loaded the pellets and handed the gun to her.
With the gun in hand, Airi was brimming with confidence.
After watching Chang Yuan shoot just now, she had already learned how to do it. She believed she would definitely perform better than him.
However, imagination was beautiful, while reality was cruel.
Out of twenty shots, Airi only popped five balloons, doing even worse than Chang Yuan.
"Oh my, Airi, you're amazing. You actually popped five balloons."
At those words, the smile on Airi's face immediately vanished.
Still, even though she had only popped five, she received a consolation prize.
It was a keychain, though a relatively delicate one: a small round globe.
The markings on the globe were extremely blurry, of course, since it was only a tiny keychain.
"Mm, I'm done with this. Let's play something else."
Airi had figured it out. It was not that she and Chang Yuan were bad at aiming; there was something wrong with the gun.
But she did not argue with the owner. Chang Yuan had definitely noticed the issue too, and since he had not confronted the owner, he must have had his reasons.
"Here, Airi, let's trade. It's a little inappropriate for a grown man like me to carry around something pink."
Holding the pink dumpling charm out to Airi, Chang Yuan spoke.
"Mm-hm~? Then let's trade."
Handing her keychain to Chang Yuan, Airi took the pink dumpling charm and began kneading it in her hands.
With the pink dumpling charm in her possession, Airi's mood improved considerably.
"Come on, I spotted something else fun. This time, there's no trick to it. It's all skill."
This time, Chang Yuan brought Airi to a sandbag-tossing stall.
"Whatever you knock down is yours. But the sandbags are nearly empty, so they might not be strong enough to knock anything down."
After exchanging money for two baskets of sandbags, Chang Yuan weighed one in his hand and explained the rules to Airi.
Then he immediately threw one. It hit the target, but because the sandbag was so light, the target only shifted back slightly instead of falling.
"Hehe, then watch me. If one isn't enough, I'll use two."
Holding two sandbags, Airi aimed at the target Chang Yuan had just attacked and threw them.
Puff!
A stuffed toy fell down.
"Hehe, I really am amazing after all~?."
Having successfully knocked down a stuffed toy with two sandbags, Airi cheered happily.
"Then let's start clearing the shelves. No need to go easy on the boss."
Rubbing his nose, Chang Yuan grabbed his basket of sandbags and began firing away wildly.
Airi quickly followed suit.
In the end, they won fourteen stuffed toys between them.
"Oh dear, you two are practically taking all my toys. How about this? I'll give you this box of accessories if you leave these toys with me. What do you say?"
The owner took out a small wooden box and opened it.
Inside was a pair of bracelets. Clearly, they were still the kind of cheap trinkets sold at roadside stalls.
One was blue and the other pink, obviously meant as a gift for couples.
Seeing this, Chang Yuan roughly understood what was going on.
The owner probably thought the two of them were sheltered kids who had never been beaten down by society, or perhaps hot-blooded young people, and wanted to fool him and Airi.
"I—"
"Sure, let's trade."
Before Chang Yuan could say anything, Airi immediately agreed.
Chang Yuan, who had just opened his mouth, instantly did not know what to say.
Forget it. As long as Airi was happy.
In the end, Chang Yuan could not be bothered to argue. It had not cost them much money anyway.
"Hehe, I'll wear the pink one, and the blue one is for you."
Putting the pink plastic bracelet on her right wrist, Airi handed the blue bracelet to Chang Yuan.
Chang Yuan could only take the bracelet and put it on his left wrist.
Now, the bracelets looked exactly like a matching couple's set.
"Come on, come on, let's keep playing. This is really fun~?."
"Yes, yes. Then let's keep playing."
It was around ten at night.
Chang Yuan and Airi left together.
However, this time, quite a few tails followed behind them.
"Chang Yuan, are those people behind us following us?"
Having traveled outside for years, Airi's senses had grown much sharper.
So she immediately noticed those people tailing them.
"Yeah. They probably saw how good-looking we are and want to kidnap us."
"Mm-hm~? No, no, no. I'm the good-looking one. You're not good-looking, Chang Yuan. At most, you're handsome."
"That's not the point. The point is that we should start running."
This time, Chang Yuan took Airi's hand of his own accord and immediately ran toward the martial arts hall.
Before you continue