Chapter 261 - 224: Being Hit On Is Perfectly Normal

"Young men, my daughter is about your age. You’re hitting on the wrong person..."

"Huh?!!!"

"Come on, beautiful, that’s taking the joke too far. We just want your contact info. If you want to say no, you don’t have to come up with such a crazy excuse...!!!"

Lin Li was heading toward the new arcade, located diagonally across from the music fountain. As he passed by the fountain, he saw a slender woman surrounded by five young men in their mid-twenties.

"Eh?!!!"

Ordinarily, Lin Li wouldn’t have gotten involved in something like this, but when he saw the face of the slender woman, he stopped in his tracks, a surprised expression on his face.

"I’m not kidding," the slender woman said, a helpless look on her face. "If you want to hit on someone, go find some other young girls..."

"Come on, beautiful! Just give us your contact info. We can chat later, and if we don’t hit it off, you can just block us then..." the young men pestered her.

Just as the slender woman was about to put on a stern face and scold the young men pestering her, a voice came from her side.

"Ms. Zheng? Ms. Zheng Qiuyi...?!!!"

Zheng Qiuyi heard someone call her name and turned to look. When she saw it was her daughter’s friend, she exclaimed in surprise, "Lin Li?!!"

"What a coincidence! I didn’t expect to run into you here, Ms. Zheng..." Lin Li walked up to Zheng Qiuyi, then turned to look at the young men harassing her. "Ms. Zheng, who are these guys?"

Zheng Qiuyi didn’t say anything, just looked at the young men who had been asking for her contact information.

"..." The young men pestering Zheng Qiuyi for her contact info all showed stunned expressions when they heard Lin Li call her "Ms. Zheng."

Then, they recalled what Zheng Qiuyi had said earlier. What they had dismissed as a joke was now confirmed.

The young men looked embarrassed and quickly left.

"Kids these days!" Zheng Qiuyi sighed as she watched the young men who had been pestering her for her number scurry away.

Considering Su Yue’s mother looked more like her older sister, Lin Li wasn’t surprised that she would get pestered for her number like this.

"Ms. Zheng, are you here by yourself?" Lin Li asked curiously.

Zheng Qiuyi shook her head. "Xiaoyue is with me! She went to the milk tea shop to buy some. I’m waiting for her here..."

"Oh." Lin Li nodded, then fell silent, unsure of what to say next.

"Are you here on a date with your girlfriend?" Zheng Qiuyi blinked, asking what seemed to be a casual question, but she was actually probing for information about Lin Li.

"Ms. Zheng, I don’t have a girlfriend..."

"Is that so! Why don’t I set you up with someone? What kind of girl do you like? You can tell me."

"Uh... about that..." Lin Li hadn’t expected Su Yue’s mother to try and play matchmaker for him. For a moment, he didn’t know how to respond.

"Mom..."

"Huh? Lin Li!!!"

Just when Lin Li didn’t know how to respond to Zheng Qiuyi, his savior finally appeared.

Su Yue, carrying two cups of milk tea, walked over from a distance. She was very surprised when she saw Lin Li with her mother.

"There you are. Just buying milk tea? What took you so long?" Zheng Qiuyi asked, looking at her daughter.

"The computer at the milk tea shop was acting up. It took the cashier a while to fix it, so that’s why it took so long," Su Yue explained.

"Phew..." Su Yue’s arrival interrupted Zheng Qiuyi’s questioning. Lin Li couldn’t help but let out a small sigh of relief, feeling much more at ease.

Su Yue handed one of the milk teas she was carrying to her mother, then looked at Lin Li. "Lin Li, are you out shopping too?"

Lin Li wasn’t very interested in shopping; right now, he just wanted to hurry to the new arcade and play some games.

"No, there’s a new arcade nearby that’s having a grand opening promotion, with special deals.

I was planning to go check it out while the deals are on," Lin Li told Su Yue frankly, not hiding anything.

"That new arcade you’re talking about... my mom and I passed by it while we were shopping earlier. I glanced inside, and it was pretty crowded..."

"Looks like a lot of people had the same idea as me, wanting to check out the arcade during the promotion... Well, in that case, you and Ms. Zheng can get back to your shopping. I’m going to head to the arcade now."

"Okay."

"Ms. Zheng, I’ll be going then..." As he left, Lin Li said goodbye to Zheng Qiuyi, who was watching him with a wide smile, and then quickly walked away.

For some reason, Lin Li’s keen Perception picked up on something strange in the way Su Yue’s mother looked at him. Her gaze held a meaning he couldn’t quite understand.

It wasn’t that Su Yue’s mother had any ill will toward him; in fact, it was quite the opposite. Her gaze was filled with goodwill.

But this goodwill was different from the goodwill he felt from other people.

This particular brand of goodwill made him feel immense pressure, the kind that made him feel like he didn’t know what to do with his hands and feet.

After Lin Li was a good distance away, Zheng Qiuyi said to her daughter, "That young man is quite sincere. I like him..."

"Sincere?" Su Yue was a little happy inside to hear her mother say she liked Lin Li, but she didn’t let it show on her face.

Then, she looked at her mother, a little confused, and asked, "Mom, you’ve only met Lin Li twice in total. Are you making such a quick judgment?"

"What’s wrong? Is he not sincere? Is he the type to say one thing and do another?" Zheng Qiuyi chuckled and asked in return.

"That’s not it..." Su Yue shook her head, while silently complaining about the distant Lin Li in her thoughts. ’That guy’s a block of wood. He couldn’t say one thing and do another even if he tried.’

"Let’s go home. We’ve been shopping for so long today, I’m a bit tired," Zheng Qiuyi said to her daughter, taking a straw from the bag and taking a sip of her milk tea.

Su Yue nodded. Then she and her mother walked to the side of the street to hail a cab home.

...

After saying goodbye to Su Yue and Zheng Qiuyi, Lin Li arrived in front of the new arcade. Seeing the crowd of people jostling inside, he couldn’t help but exclaim, "So many people!"

Seeing so many people in the arcade, Lin Li had the thought to leave. But a second later, he figured that since he was already here, he might as well go in and play a few games before leaving.

"Welcome." As Lin Li walked into the arcade, two young women in uniform standing by the entrance greeted him with a smile.

Although the two employees had smiles plastered on their faces, Lin Li could sense that their smiles were a bit unnatural, as if they were forcing them. Moreover, the exhaustion etched between their brows was plain to see.

’This is actually pretty normal. It only takes a moment’s thought to figure out why.’

’After all, the place just opened, and with the special promotion, a ton of customers are coming in to play.’

’The arcade owner must have demanded that the greeters constantly welcome customers with a friendly smile.’

’There’s nothing wrong with that requirement, but the long hours must be unbearable.’

’Smiling and welcoming customers for ten-odd hours, from day to night... most people really can’t keep that up.’

"Hello, excuse me," Lin Li asked the employee on the left side of the entrance before heading in. "Is the current exchange for Game Coins really 70% off the original price?"

...