Chapter 76

"Come on." Li Pu, who lacked confidence, encouraged the girl and stepped aside.

The game room rarely had girls playing, let alone such a tiny, exquisitely cute mixed-race little girl who was even more delicate than the dolls in picture books. Even the four-eyed boy, who had been staring at the game screen with a blank expression, couldn't help but take a few more glances.

"Little Four-Eyes, don't be too harsh on such a little girl, or you'll make her cry," a mischievous high school player joked.

"Uh-huh." The four-eyed boy, who was undefeated in the arcade, pushed his black-rimmed glasses without comment.

The girl chose the same all-female British team as the four-eyed boy. However, under the fierce attacks of the four-eyed boy's "Nestea," the first two characters fell to the ground with a "Wow!" One of the karate girls even had her outer clothing torn off, revealing her bra.

The girl's final character was a blonde lady dressed as a man. But the four-eyed boy deliberately held back, letting two of his characters lose, and finally used his own final character, also a lady dressed as a man, to finish off the girl's last character with a combo when she was down to half health.

However, the girl's final counterattack surprised him a bit—his third character wasn't prepared to continue letting her win, but she managed to chip away at his health with well-timed crouching punches and aerial kicks.

"I'm starting to get the hang of it," the girl said, inserting another coin and challenging again. She still chose the British team.

This time, the girl's first character took out more than half of the opponent's first character's health, and her second character took out the opponent's first character and then chipped away at the four-eyed boy's second character's health until it was nearly half gone before dying. Her final character, after taking out the opponent's second character, was left with two-thirds of her health and narrowly lost to the four-eyed boy's final character.

"Too bad!" The girl looked a bit disappointed. She had been secretly watching the four-eyed boy's moves and constantly calculating the timing of the skills and button presses. However, since she had just started playing today, her skill level still wasn't quite there.

She was about to give up her spot when a boy who had been watching behind her suddenly inserted his last coin and pushed her back into the seat.

The girl blinked her big eyes and turned to Li Pu, puzzled, "Aren't you playing?"

"I don't have much chance of winning, you should keep trying!" Li Pu could see that the girl's moves were clearly better than his.

The girl nodded, actually wanting to win as well.

This time, she took down all three of the four-eyed boy's characters when her third character was down to a quarter of her health. She ended his winning streak. The four-eyed boy, clearly不服气 (unwilling to admit defeat), took out more coins and kept challenging, but he kept losing.

As her actual playtime increased, the girl's skill level clearly improved rapidly. She mastered the timing for crouching punches, aerial intercepts, and light punch and light kick evasions very precisely.

After just a short period of actual play, the young girl had memorized the strengths and weaknesses of her characters' moves and used them flexibly.

By the tenth coin, the four-eyed boy was even beaten one-on-three!

"Wow, you're amazing! Have you played before?" Li Pu was almost in disbelief—his life goal had been so simply achieved by the girl.

"I haven't played before, but the system isn't complicated," the little girl tilted her head, her eyes like clear amethysts in the sunlight, "You just need to do the right thing at the right time."

Though it sounded simple, making the right move at the right time required precise judgment and quick reflexes, not to mention the ability to learn the four-eyed boy's techniques from just a few observations and then surpass him, which was not something an ordinary child could do.

"You can play the first and second characters, I'll just play the last one," the girl noticed that the boy who had given her the last coin had been watching with great interest, so she let him play two-thirds of the game.

However, Li Pu, who was still at a beginner level, dragged down the "top player" of the game room, who chose his best three-character team from "The King of Fighters '94." The top player used his first character to take out one-fifth of the health of Li Pu's first two characters, who were not good at playing the British team, and then with all his might, he took out the girl's last character with a slight health advantage.

Their pocket money and game coins were all used up. According to the boy's usual habits, even without game coins, he could happily spend the afternoon just watching others play.

But this time, he wasn't alone, so he didn't stay long and took the girl away.

"It's only three o'clock, let's go see a movie!" Li Pu had another idea.

"Movie? Can we afford the tickets?" The girl was hesitant, her voice soft. They had no money left.

Li Pu confidently patted his chest, "Don't worry, I know how to get in. I hope it's a good kung fu movie!"

In any case, according to the vague memories from TV and movies, taking a girl to the movies was generally a good idea.

The town's public cinema was about a kilometer away on the roadside, an old cultural palace-style building that seemed to have little popularity. It had two large iron gates on the sides and a cement staircase covered with square tiles on the front. After climbing the stairs to the second floor, there was a series of old movie posters at the ticket booth, many of which were from last year and had never been replaced. The scorching summer day, with the constant noise of cicadas in the distance, made the cinema and the yawning ticket seller seem lethargic and lazy.

The movie showing today was a dubbed film. The boy looked up at the blackboard with the title written in chalk and read, "A Thousand... A Thousand... What kind of love?"

"It's 'A Thousand Years of Love,'" the girl, standing next to him, added.

Though it wasn't an action movie, which disappointed Li Pu a bit, at his age, any movie was fine.

He looked around furtively, making sure no one was nearby, and then beckoned to the girl, "Follow me."

The girl followed him to the far left of the second floor of the cinema. Outside a row of cement railings, a large iron gate was fixed to a cement wall. Below the second-floor railing and the cement wall, there was a square cement platform about half a meter wide.

The platform was lower than the iron gate and the second-floor railing. Standing on it, the highest point was about two meters from the ground. Inside was a rectangular open square, piled with debris. On the right side were two doors leading to the movie hall, and on the left side was a toilet for the audience.

—Just jump down, and you're inside the cinema.

The boy, agile like a wild monkey, flipped over the railing and carefully landed on the square platform.

"Come on over," Li Pu held out his hand to the girl.

"But... it's so high," the girl tiptoed and looked down, her face wrinkled with hesitation.

"Don't worry, I'll catch you," Li Pu nodded.

The little girl took a deep breath, feeling a mix of fear and excitement.

Unlike reading stories from books, this was the thrill of a first real adventure.

Encouraged by the boy, she also flipped over. Her movements were quite agile, not much more difficult than the boy, who was a repeat offender.

"Hehe, I made it too..." The girl held onto the railing with one hand and held the boy's hand with the other.

The two of them were squeezed on the half-meter-wide cement platform in mid-air, having to stand close together. Perhaps because they were sneaking into the cinema in broad daylight and were in mid-air, the well-behaved girl's heart was pounding.

"Next, we need to go down. Watch how I do it," Li Pu, after making sure the girl was steady, let go of her hand, turned around, and squatted with his back to the outside.

Then, the boy's feet left the platform, and he dropped down, using his hands to grab the edge of the platform, hanging like a koala.

"Do what I did, and you'll be closer to the ground. Even if you jump, your feet won't hurt much."

The boy, hanging on the platform, looked up at the girl and instructed her. From this angle, he could vaguely see the pure white underwear under her dress. But the eight-year-old boy was not distracted by such a view! "I'm going down now," he declared and let go, landing gracefully.

Li Pu's landing was very skilled. He stepped back a few steps and said to the girl, "Do the same."

The girl also squatted with her back to the outside. After a moment of mental preparation, she slowly lifted her feet off the platform. Her delicate hands, now dirty from the dust, grabbed the edge of the platform.

Perhaps because she was too nervous, she wasn't ready, and her hands slipped, causing her to fall backward.

The boy below was startled and quickly moved to catch her. Though not very high, the girl's slight weight still knocked him to the ground.

"Ouch!" The boy couldn't help but cry out as his head hit the ground with a thud.

The girl, who had fallen into Li Pu's arms, was unharmed. She quickly climbed off the human cushion and asked anxiously, "Are you okay?"

Li Pu, holding the back of his head, wriggled on the ground for a moment before getting up and grinned, "I'm fine, my head is hard. Everyone who knows me says I'm super tough."

Tears welled up in the little girl's eyes, and she wrinkled her nose, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault..."

"Hey, you're bleeding!" The girl suddenly widened her eyes and stared at the boy's elbow.

Li Pu looked and saw it wasn't serious, probably just a scrape from the fall.

For a boy as wild as a monkey, such a minor injury was nothing.

"A little scratch, lick it and it won't hurt," Li Pu made a silly face, lifted his injured elbow, and stuck out his tongue to lick it.

Despite his best efforts to stretch his neck and tongue, he couldn't reach his elbow and had to give up, "This move is too hard..."

Seeing the boy's strange behavior, the girl, who still had tears in her eyes, giggled and volunteered, "Let me help you lick it."