For many guys, going shopping is a painful thing.

Because most of them know this deep down: when they go out shopping with a girl beside them, they're probably not buying anything for themselves. It's all about the girl walking around, browsing, looking, and buying.

If it were just walking, that'd be fine. You could treat it like exercise.

The key problem was that you also had to keep giving constructive opinions.

Like whether these clothes looked good, whether that lipstick shade suited her. You couldn't just be a robot who carried all the shopping bags, wandered around, and played on your phone.

But Yan Ningning was actually pretty okay. Their financial situations were about the same.

Lu Huai might even be a little better off. After all, he had some extra income from manuscript fees now. He just hadn't had the nerve to tell Yan Ningning yet.

So Yan Ningning, whose allowance wasn't exactly generous either, couldn't go on a shopping spree for clothes or lipstick. Instead, she was very interested in checking out the snack stalls lining the streets around Chuzhou's famous Xingtai Plaza.

And Lu Huai, who had always kept the haircut money in mind, would scan and pay the moment Yan Ningning decided she wanted some snack.

Even the middle-aged skewer stall owner looked at them with a grin and said,

"Miss, your boyfriend's really self-aware, huh."

Then came one red-faced explanation, and one lowered head with a red face.

They looked no different from the couples weaving through the streets this weekend. But somehow, there still wasn't much intimacy between them.

Sometimes, when they passed through a crowded patch of people, their shoulders would be forced together in the pushing and shoving. Then they'd jerk apart like they'd been shocked. A second later, the crowd would press them close again.

Nothing unexpected happened. Maybe there was no reason to feel happy over such tiny, uncontrollable moments either... but Lu Huai found that he didn't hate shopping that much anymore.

He still couldn't exactly walk through the streets with his head held high. But at least he probably didn't look like a walking corpse anymore.

"See? Walking around outside really isn't that big a deal. Right?"

Holding milk tea in her hands, Yan Ningning sat with Lu Huai on a bench at the edge of the plaza, a little away from the densest part of the crowd.

It was already close to evening. The sky at the horizon was filled with orange-red clouds, bright as peeled tangerines.

Half the sunset glow seemed lit on fire, sinking heavily over the busy streets below.

Lu Huai was too embarrassed to admit it. After all... acting like your own problems were only natural was the kind of thing people hated.

"It's just a little hot..."

A clumsy attempt to change the subject. No technique, all emotion.

The girl holding the milk tea had a slim figure tucked beneath a cute floral dress. She looked like something straight out of a poster.

She was the kind of girl who seemed to live somewhere between fantasy and reality. Having a childhood friend like that was probably a good thing. At least then, he wouldn't be left helplessly disappointed by ordinary girls.

Only... it wasn't really "having," either.

Looking at her profile, he felt like he could imagine a hundred years into the future. But in the end, imagination was still just imagination.

"Actually, when I came to your house that night, I wanted to talk to you about the blackboard newspaper."

Still looking across the plaza at the glass windows of the tall building opposite them, the girl brought up another topic.

A topic Lu Huai had almost instinctively tried to forget.

"What about the blackboard newspaper...?"

Lu Huai didn't know what she was going to say.

He only instinctively felt that, in other people's eyes, it should've been something very, very small. Something that probably wouldn't even survive a week in memory.

"You did a really good job."

Yan Ningning bit lightly on her straw as she smiled. The dimples on her cheeks were so lovely they were almost breathtaking.

It made Lu Huai guiltily look away.

"No... actually, I dragged it out for a long time..."

Lu Huai decided to be honest after all. He couldn't just accept praise with a clear conscience because he'd done something that only seemed difficult. That would be like an elementary school kid getting applause from the whole class just for reciting the multiplication table.

"But you still did it. That's already really good. And you didn't really cause trouble for anyone, right? Maybe it's just a small thing to other people, but it's already very good."

The girl spoke softly and lightly, her voice gentle like a heroine from an anime.

Lu Huai suddenly didn't know how to react. His gaze moved from his feet to the horizon, but just couldn't make it to her.

"Thank you..."

He thanked her sincerely, because he knew this was comfort on the level of soothing an overgrown baby. And he... honestly wasn't that different.

"I took a picture of the blackboard newspaper."

"Hm...?"

The atmosphere had been warm under the sunset, wrapped in soft colors and a faint fragrance.

In an instant, Lu Huai's stress response almost kicked in.

He looked up in shock and saw Yan Ningning still smiling. Only now, the smile wasn't as sweet. She looked more like a little fox.

"You... why'd you take a picture of that...?"

Still smiling, Yan Ningning held her milk tea and said gently, "To send it to Auntie and Uncle. They were really happy when they saw it. They didn't tell you?"

"...I'm not a little kid who has to show off to his parents just because he got a perfect score anymore!"

Lu Huai argued with a red face.

Then the girl covered her pink lips in exaggerated surprise. Obviously fake surprise. Then she said,

"Ah? Really? Oops, too bad. I already sent it. So what should we do now?"

"You... did that on purpose..."

The boy stated the obvious fact in front of him.

"Yep, yep. Oops, you saw right through me. You're not gonna hit me, are you?"

Then the sly little fox put on a pitiful look again.

Lu Huai really had no way to get angry at this girl. Besides... it wasn't worth getting angry over.

So the boy could only shake his head and stand up.

"Let's go home..."

"Oh? You even know how to act cool now."

"I do not..."

"Weren't you acting all imposing just now?"

"When did I do any of that... are you coming or not? I'm leaving."

"Coming, coming. We came out together, so of course we're going back together. This lady gave up her precious rest time to come out with you for a haircut, okay? Have some conscience, Lu Huai."

"The first part was for the haircut, sure... but after that, wasn't I just buying you food the whole time..."

"So you weren't willing?"

"No..."

"Then that means you were very willing?"

"You're so annoying..."

"Hehehe..."

The cheerful girl tossed away her empty milk tea cup and caught up to the boy's unhurried steps.

The long evening sun dragged their shadows across the ground. Shadows that were never meant to last long.

But having existed at all was still better than never existing.

By the time he got home, Lu Huai was a little tired, but his mood was unexpectedly light. He was drenched in sweat.

He opened the door.

And saw a figure on the sofa.

Su Xiangrong was lying there, her chest rising and falling as she rested on the couch in exhaustion.

The shirt she'd used as an outer layer had been tossed casually to the side. The woman was only wearing a tank top now, and the rise and fall of her chest made it hard to look away. Yes, very worthy of study.

But... after one glance, Lu Huai guiltily looked away at once and tried to slip straight into the bathroom.

"Lu... Huai~"

Then a voice appeared, eerie as a demon calling his name.

Lu Huai froze on the spot, like he'd been hit with a paralysis spell.

He turned around helplessly and saw Su Xiangrong on the sofa, her head tilted back from the edge of it, exposing a neck both graceful and long as she looked at him with a wronged, pitiful expression.

Because of that unusual posture, the young woman's curves were on full display. It looked like one of those poses in a glamour shoot made specifically to tempt the world.

"What is it..."

Lu Huai simply couldn't bear to look directly at a scene like this.

"I'm so tired. I had a performance this afternoon. It exhausted me to death. Come on, let big sis hug you. I need comfort from a younger little brother~"

And as expected, she said something outrageous.

Lu Huai hurried toward the bathroom.

"Don't run! If you keep running, I'll pounce on you, okay!"

With no other choice, Lu Huai said in a small voice,

"I haven't showered yet..."

"So if you shower, you'll let me hug you?"

"N-no..."

"Hehe, then go wash up. Big sis will wait patiently for you~"

"Don't be like this..."

Lu Huai resisted weakly.

But Su Xiangrong, who seemed to get more excited the more she talked and had even kicked her legs up on the sofa, refused to let him go.

"Go wash up already, young man. Face tomorrow bravely. Face the new world bravely. An eagle must not cling to the horizon!"

Stop rhyming...

Lu Huai fled into the bathroom as if escaping for his life.

After his shower, he came out and glanced outside warily. But Su Xiangrong had already dozed off on the sofa.

She really did look tired.

He had no idea whether she'd eaten dinner, and he didn't want to wake her. Girls seemed to have really bad waking tempers...

After thinking it over, he ordered takeout anyway. Then he brought over a thin blanket and carefully draped it over her shapely body.

The beautiful view was hidden now.

But Su Xiangrong, sleeping deeply and seeming to have no guard up at all, had a quiet beauty to her. It was just like his first impression when they'd met.

Her hair lay messily across her face, and her long eyelashes trembled slightly in the breeze from the electric fan.

Being able to look at her like this, without having to endure eye contact, felt strangely liberating. As if he could be a little bolder in the way he observed her.

The boy had no indecent thoughts.

He just sincerely felt that if Su Xiangrong didn't say such weird things all the time, then maybe... they could get along more harmoniously.

Of course, harmonious was only harmonious.

Like she'd said, an eagle must not cling to the horizon.

And he probably... was something more like the gutter.

Lu Huai gently set the takeout on the table, then lightly tugged the blanket over Su Xiangrong to cover her a little more securely.

After that, he tiptoed back to his room.

And after the boy entered his room,

the quiet beauty on the sofa slowly opened her lovely eyes. She stared at the ceiling in silence for a long time. Then she turned onto her side and looked at the takeout on the coffee table, her gaze calm, carrying an indescribable depth.

Weekend time was pleasant and short.

Happiness always vanished in a flash, while gloom stayed by one's side.

And so the weekend ended in that plain, lukewarm way. When he got on the bus, the boy who, as always, looked for his own comfort zone suddenly remembered the nightmare he'd had on Friday night.

He hadn't had the same nightmare these past two days, and he hadn't logged into the game either. There also didn't seem to be any messages in the group from that female knight condemning him.

So sure enough, something that weird couldn't possibly happen in real life...

Lu Huai let out a sigh of relief. What worried him more, actually, was whether that nightmare had been born just to reveal some strange hidden fetish of his.

Of course, that was a stupid thought.

Sitting in the back row, the boy looked at the usual stream of hurried pedestrians outside the bus window and thought calmly:

Stop fantasizing that your youth is somehow special...

Of course, the current Lu Huai had no way of knowing that the bizarre and fantastical things he thought didn't exist had already quietly arrived.

A nightmare might not be just a dream.