Gan Lan was still standing there in a daze after he’d spun her around in his arms.

Ye Yubai had already let go and turned to scratch off the ticket at the counter.

The curious onlookers crowded around him, watching as he struggled to scratch off the prize area.

A cold breeze brushed through Gan Lan’s hair.

Looking utterly bewildered, she stared at the tall, slender figure deep in the crowd.

That figure was all she could see.

The scent of his clothes still lingered in her arms.

For a moment, Gan Lan felt that he was both far away and close.

So far she couldn’t reach him, yet so close he was right in her heart.

“Mm…”

Her heart suddenly began to race.

She hadn’t even been this nervous when they announced the winning numbers. So why was she suddenly this flustered?!

Gan Lan vigorously ruffled her hair.

She let out a breath.

“I must be going crazy.”

She couldn’t believe she’d actually felt her heart stir for Ye Yubai, even if only for a few seconds.

“Ah, I’m such a creep! I actually had impure thoughts about this seventeen-year-old!”

……

Ye Yubai stared at the lottery ticket in his hand.

His eyes settled on the last prize box, still hidden beneath the silver-gray coating.

All the numbers before it matched. Only the last one remained, and its result was still up in the air.

Even the adults around him were holding their breath for him.

If that last number matched, he’d win second prize—one hundred thousand yuan!

But if it was wrong, he’d get nothing but a “Thanks for playing.”

“Hey, hurry up and scratch it already. What are you waiting for?”

“You don’t know a thing. Quit rushing him and let him take his time.”

“This is killing me. It’s been several minutes!”

Ye Yubai swallowed with difficulty, then turned to look at Gan Lan, crouching at the edge of the crowd.

He pushed through the onlookers and headed toward her.

Then he crouched down beside her.

He handed Gan Lan the ticket, now wrinkled and crumpled.

“Here. You can reveal the result for me.”

“This…”

Gan Lan hesitated, then took it.

Under Ye Yubai’s hopeful, nervous gaze, she let out a soft breath.

“You won’t blame me if it’s not a winner, will you?”

Ye Yubai shook his head solemnly.

“All right, I’m revealing it.”

Gan Lan began scratching at the prize area.

Her slender fingers rubbed back and forth over the prize area.

Slowly, the last number came into view.

She flicked the dust off it with her fingertip.

Ye Yubai’s gaze gradually shifted from the ticket to her fingertips.

Then it moved from her fingertips to the half of her arm that showed, pale and smooth as a young lotus root.

Higher up, he could just make out her lips, pressed together ever so slightly.

Looking at them, Ye Yubai inexplicably thought of cotton candy coated in strawberry jam.

The color was so similar.

So was the temptation.

Soon, those cotton-candy-colored lips softly uttered a few words: “It’s a 9.”

Gan Lan lifted her head and turned to look at him.

“What was the number for that prize again?”

Ye Yubai grinned foolishly, not hearing a word Gan Lan said.

Gan Lan waved a hand in front of him. “You spacing out?”

Ye Yubai said, “Ah, well…”

Of course, he couldn’t let Gan Lan know what embarrassing thoughts had just crossed his mind.

Gan Lan sighed helplessly and shoved the ticket into his hand.

“I’m going to collect my twenty thousand yuan. See you.”

She was about to leave when he caught her by the wrist.

He gave a slight tug, pulling her back down into a crouch.

Gan Lan frowned at him. “What are you doing?”

Ye Yubai quickly pulled his hand back, glanced around, and pretended to admire the scenery.

This was bad.

He’d almost acted on those embarrassing thoughts in his head.

Gan Lan: “???”

Ye Yubai rubbed the back of his head. “I-I think I won. I remember the last number being a 9.”

He had to change the subject first.

Gan Lan: “……”

No way.

Had he really won?

Gan Lan quickly snatched the ticket back and pushed through the crowd to check with the cashier.

“Boss! Did this really win?”

The shopkeeper was stunned too.

No way.

Nobody had won anything at his little shop in three or five years!

What was going on today? Two winners at once?

“That can’t be right. Let me see.”

The shopkeeper was even more nervous than Gan Lan.

He checked the two tickets again and again, almost as if he needed a magnifying glass.

In the end, he confirmed they really had won—and both of them, at that!

The onlookers exchanged baffled looks.

Twenty thousand for one, one hundred thousand for the other. What were the odds?

This lottery shop had struck it lucky today.

“Hey, boss! Hurry up and give me a few lottery tickets too!”

“Me too! Come on, give me a whole stack.”

“I want ten, boss! Hurry up and print them for me—the sparkly gold ones!”

……

After a struggle, they finally squeezed out of the crowd in the lottery shop.

Gan Lan now had a shopping bag for electronics in her hand.

She kept the bag’s contents close and hurried over to Ye Yubai with her head down.

“Come on, come on.” She tugged at Ye Yubai’s sleeve, urging him to hurry.

The place was about to get even more crowded and noisy.

There might even be reporters passing by who’d want to interview the two of them.

That would make things a real hassle.

Ye Yubai didn’t know what was going on, but he obediently followed Gan Lan.

As they passed the school gate, Ye Yubai suddenly cried, “Oh!”

He startled Gan Lan.

“What’s with you? You scared me half to death.”

Ye Yubai grinned. “We won, so doesn’t that mean we’re rich now?”

We…

Gan Lan clicked her tongue, clearly not too happy with that wording.

“Here. Your money’s in here.”

She handed him the shopping bag she’d been holding against her chest.

Ye Yubai took it.

He opened it for a look, quickly shut it again, and handed it back to Gan Lan.

He wasn’t good at looking after valuables, and this was the first time in his life he’d ever seen so much money.

If he looked at it much longer, he’d probably panic.

Gan Lan found his cautious little act pretty amusing.

Still, she had to keep a straight face and not let herself laugh too obviously.

Ye Yubai added, “I won one hundred thousand, and you only won twenty thousand. Doesn’t that mean I won our bet?”

Gan Lan: “……”

She’d completely forgotten about that.

Could she take that bet back? She hadn’t meant to set herself up!

Ye Yubai glanced at her and said quietly, “You’re not going to back out, are you?”

Gan Lan: “I…”

A man’s word is his bond.

But she wasn’t a man, or some great hero. There was no reason she had to keep her word.

Ye Yubai said, “If you welch on the bet, I’ll never lend you my homework to copy again.”

Gan Lan replied without changing expression, “Oh? Then I just won’t lend you mine to copy either.”

Ye Yubai: “……”

He’d actually lost over something like this.

Gan Lan could get by without copying his homework, but he couldn’t get by without copying hers.

After all, just looking at reading comprehension and classical poetry analysis in Chinese class gave him a headache.

They walked in silence through the stream of students leaving school, side by side as they entered the campus.

When they were almost at the bike racks,

a sudden idea struck Ye Yubai.

“Ahem, Gan Lan.”

He spoke with a smug little smile.

“You’ve been short on money lately, haven’t you? As long as you don’t welch on our bet…”