Ye Yubai blinked, rubbed his hands together, and flashed a sleazy grin.

“So, what exactly is this?”

Gan Lan clutched her shoulder, gritting her teeth.

That’s one downside to wearing a women’s tank top.

But she didn’t have a choice.

You had to run and exercise at school, after all.

Even an airport-runway-flat chest needs a little restraint. Otherwise, if things are bouncing around, even a blind person would notice something was off.

“It’s a tank top!”

Gan Lan replied with righteous indignation.

“I’m wearing a tank top. So what? It’s still hot out, and this absorbs sweat.”

Ye Yubai’s smile froze.

“Huh? Boys wear tank tops too…? And one like this…?”

If he was going to wear one, shouldn’t it at least be the same kind old men wore—a plain white undershirt?

Straps that thin were just weird, weren’t they?

Gan Lan gritted her teeth and argued, “Why can’t boys wear tank tops? You’re being prejudiced!”

Ye Yubai chuckled. “Well, it’s not that…”

And then…

He didn’t give it another thought.

The Ye Yubai of today was an innocent young man.

Seeing how clueless he looked, Gan Lan felt a little guilty.

Ye Yubai followed her around every day. What if she turned him into a total doofus?

“Sigh. No point overthinking it. The important thing is to buy lottery tickets and make some money.”

……

They climbed over the school wall, and less than two hundred meters later, they reached the lottery shop.

Gan Lan bought every ticket she could find that involved those two numbers.

Ye Yubai stood watching the whole time with his arms crossed.

Every so often, he’d go, “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

“I don’t think those two numbers you picked are lucky. Why don’t you let me pick one for you?”

As he spoke, he pulled thirty yuan from his pocket and slapped it down on the glass counter.

“Boss, give me the most expensive lottery ticket you’ve got!”

The shop owner came over with a stack of scratch cards.

He smiled at Ye Yubai and started trying to talk him into one.

“Young man, I recommend this one. The odds are lower, but if you win, you get two hundred thousand yuan!”

Ye Yubai stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.

Gan Lan said flatly, “You’re basically guaranteed not to win with that one. I wouldn’t buy it.”

Ye Yubai nodded. “That’s what I thought too.”

The lottery shop owner’s smile froze on his face.

“What do you youngsters know? Hmph.”

Seeing how much Gan Lan had spent on lottery tickets, he’d thought the two of them were a couple of easy marks.

Turns out they were nothing of the sort.

Gan Lan shook her head, sighed, and sat down on a plastic bench in the waiting area outside.

There were still half an hour to go before the winning numbers were drawn.

She was still a little nervous.

If she’d picked the wrong numbers, she’d have wasted more than a thousand yuan, and the next few months would be even harder.

Ye Yubai was still browsing at the counter.

“Boss, how much is this one?” He pointed at a stack of gleaming gold scratch cards beneath the counter.

The owner glanced over.

Then he gave another cold snort.

Those cards looked fancy and expensive, but they were actually the cheapest ones in the shop.

“Two yuan each. Want some?”

“I’ll take these.”

“Sure. How many?”

“Didn’t I give you thirty yuan? I’ll take fifteen.”

“Here you go.”

“Heh.”

Ye Yubai flexed his fingers, and his knuckles cracked in a series of sharp pops.

He took the fifteen scratch cards, sat down beside Gan Lan, and poked her shoulder.

“Come on, let’s scratch this one first and get in the mood.”

Gan Lan waved him off. “Not interested. Scratch them yourself.”

Ye Yubai gave an unconvinced snort. “There’s no guarantee your thousand-yuan-plus pile of tickets will win more than my scratch card!”

Gan Lan glanced at him and smiled. “Then want to make a bet?”

Ye Yubai had already started scratching away at the prize area with a key.

“Sure. What are we betting?”

What should they bet?

Gan Lan thought it over, her vision growing a little hazy.

In her previous life, the two of them had often made bets too.

But they’d only bet things like, “You do the dishes today,” or, “Bring me breakfast tomorrow.” It was childish make-believe, completely pointless.

Suddenly, Gan Lan wanted to make a much bigger bet.

“Ye Yubai, if my prize is bigger than yours, you have to dress like a girl and be my girlfriend for a day. But if your prize is bigger than mine, I’ll dress like a girl and be your girlfriend for a day.”

Ye Yubai’s hand stopped mid-scratch.

He jerked his head up and stared at his childhood friend in shock.

“Oh my god, you’re betting that much?”

Gan Lan raised an eyebrow. “There’s no way I’ll lose.”

She was very confident.

Ye Yubai laughed out loud. “Then you’re definitely dressing like a girl!”

Gan Lan: “……”

Was dressing like a girl really the point?

He really was such a doofus.

Still, that was fine. Dopey Ye Yubai had his own charms.

If Ye Yubai were the scheming, tsundere seme he’d been in her previous life, she wouldn’t dare make this bet with him.

……

Half an hour later.

The school gates opened, and teachers and students began trickling out.

Ye Yubai had scratched fourteen cards already, and the trash can beside him was stuffed full.

No surprises there—not one of the fourteen cards had won.

He held the last card in his hand, but still wouldn’t scratch it.

Gan Lan propped her chin on her hand and watched him with a smile. “Well? Getting nervous?”

Ye Yubai clenched his fist and darted his eyes away. “I… I’m not nervous!”

Gan Lan said, “Then go ahead and scratch it.”

Ye Yubai said, “W-wait… just wait until your ticket’s been revealed first.”

He was chickening out.

He really was chickening out.

With his build, he’d be painful to look at in women’s clothes.

How could he avoid the fate of having to dress like a girl?

A trace of despair slowly welled up inside Ye Yubai.

Still, he clung to a little hope.

“Gan Lan’s ticket probably won’t win either. What am I getting nervous about? Hmph! At worst, we’ll tie.”

But…

Before long, even that last bit of hope faded.

The lottery shop’s LCD screen began scrolling through the winning numbers.

The numbers flashed by one after another. Gan Lan kept her eyes fixed on them, silently mouthing each one.

“15! It’s number 15!” Gan Lan’s eyes lit up. “And 20 too! This one won! Boss, this one’s a winner!”

She hurried to the counter and carefully unfolded the ticket in her hands.

The lottery shop owner put on his reading glasses and checked each number closely.

Both of them were pretty nervous.

When Ye Yubai heard someone shout that they’d won, he hurried over to take a look too.

“What won? Let me see!”

He took the ticket from Gan Lan and checked it carefully.

“15, 20…” He read the numbers out, and his eyes lit up too. “Damn, it really did win!”

The onlookers gathered around the two of them, eager to see what was going on.

“They won! They really won!”

“Incredible! This is the first big win my shop’s ever had!”

“Well done, kid! You got third prize—twenty thousand yuan!”

Surrounded by the crowd, Gan Lan and Ye Yubai looked at each other.

Ye Yubai suddenly wrapped an arm around her waist, lifted her up, and spun her around once.

“Let me soak up some of your luck! I hope my fifteenth card wins something too!”