Chapter 169 Dawn Grass
When Xia Liang completed his patrol and returned to the secret base, it was almost dark.
She put away her heart gem at the door with a little tiredness, changed into indoor shoes, walked into the living room, and saw Lin Xiaolu lying on the sofa playing with her mobile phone.
"You're not watching the TV?"
He walked straight to the sofa and sat down next to Lin Xiaolu. Xia Liang glanced at the scene in the living room and pointed to the TV not far away that was still playing animation: "Then I will change to something I like to watch?"
"Yeah." Lin Xiaolu stared at the screen and responded without raising her head.
Xia Liang was surprised by her cold response, because if she had expressed her intention to snatch the TV to Lin Xiaolu in the past, Lin Xiaolu would definitely strongly oppose it.
When the two of them watch TV together, they always argue about what programs to watch. Xia Liang likes to watch idol dramas, variety shows and news, while Lin Xiaolu only likes to watch animation and popular science programs. In order to compete for the ownership of the TV, the two of them have been fighting for a long time.
However, no matter how rare it is, opportunities to gain something for nothing are rare. Since Lin Xiaolu didn't mind, Xia Liang naturally didn't hesitate. He picked up the remote control and changed the channel to the local TV station, and watched the evening news.
A few minutes passed like this. Although Xia Liang was watching the news, she was still subconsciously curious about what Lin Xiaolu was doing. She hadn't planned to ask, but her curiosity grew stronger and stronger. In the end, she couldn't help it and propped herself up and put her head next to Lin Xiaolu's phone:
"What are you doing?"
Lin Xiaolu glanced at her sideways, then turned her attention back to the phone screen: "Game."
"Game? What game?"
Her words immediately aroused Xia Liang's interest: "Did you suddenly get it? Why did you start playing games?"
"A game about magical girls." Lin Xiaolu said without even raising her head.
"Is it fun?"
"have no idea."
"I wonder why you are still so engrossed in playing?"
"…You're so annoying."
Lin Xiaolu finally looked at Xia Liang and tilted the screen in her hand: "Here, this is the game."
"Let me take a look at this interface. Turn-based battles? And these characters... a card-drawing game?"
Xia Liang looked at Lin Xiaolu as if she were a stranger: "Why did you start playing with this kind of thing?"
“Just playing.”
Lin Xiaolu turned the phone screen back and continued to tap it with her thumb: "I'm free anyway, so I'm just playing around."
"Did you draw anything good?"
"…Just playing around." Lin Xiaolu's face showed a calmness that seemed to show she had seen through everything.
"Is that so?"
Although it sounded like Lin Xiaolu was answering a question that was not related to the question, Xia Liang had already understood what the other party meant from this sentence: that is, she didn't get anything good.
It is indeed not a happy thing if you can't get good things in the card drawing game, so Xia Liang didn't say anything more, but she didn't leave either. Instead, she continued to squat beside Lin Xiaolu and watch.
One of them played while the other watched. After a while, Xia Liang finally realized something and pointed at the screen: "Why are you looking for someone else to borrow this character called Shucao? I don't think she's that strong."
In the game "Magical Girls Power Rangers", when a new player encounters a level that he cannot pass, he can apply to borrow "assistant characters" from other players to help him pass the level.
During the game, Lin Xiaolu had to borrow a character codenamed "Shucao" no matter how difficult the current level was, which made Xia Liang quite puzzled.
"What's wrong with it? Haven't you been passing the levels smoothly?" Lin Xiaolu tilted her head with some dissatisfaction.
"But she's not a damage dealing character at all, she's obviously a support... Do you like this character very much?"
"Not really."
"Then why don't you borrow different supporting characters from other players?"
"How I want to play is my own business, right?"
“Eh——”
Xia Liang continued to watch from the sidelines after a long pause to express his doubt. After a while, he came to his senses and pointed at the magical girl named "Akebono" on the screen and said, "This pink color scheme and the codename 'Akebono', could this character..."
"You think too much."
Maybe Xia Liang hit the nail on the head, Lin Xiaolu's expression started to become a little complicated: "It's just a mobile game."
"But, Dawn grass is another name for cherry blossom, right?" Xia Liang continued to ask.
"...I don't know about this kind of thing." Lin Xiaolu said in a muffled voice.
She rejected it very straightforwardly, so Xia Liang didn't say anything more. The silence between the two continued for a while, until Lin Xiaolu finished the game level at hand.
Without saying a word, she clicked on the next level, searched the "Request Help" interface, found the character named Akebono, and clicked on it.
[Number of assists remaining today: 0]
A prompt like this popped up in the game.
This made Lin Xiaolu's hands freeze instantly.
She stared at the screen in silence. After a while, she suddenly returned to the main menu interface of the game. Without pausing for long, she clicked on the card drawing option.
Under Xia Liang's gaze, she used all the rewards for completing the game level to draw cards. She repeated this over and over again, and various characters were constantly drawn from the card pool.
However, until all the rewards were used up, among the characters drawn, there did not seem to be the "Dawn Grass" that Lin Xiaolu had been paying attention to.
Lin Xiaolu was silent again. She held the phone with a little force, as if she was enduring something. Finally, she sat up suddenly and threw the phone aside: "It's boring, I won't play anymore! Watch TV!"
She snatched the remote control from Xia Liang's hand, and before Xia Liang could react, she pressed the remote control and switched back to the channel playing animations.
"What? I haven't finished reading the news yet. Turn back!" Xia Liang protested.
"You weren't watching anyway." Lin Xiaolu said confidently.
"It was obviously you who didn't look at it first!"
"Now I want to see it!"
"You don't play games anymore?" Xia Liang raised his eyebrows.
"I don't want to play anymore!" Lin Xiaolu said firmly.
"Isn't there still a role you want that you haven't gotten yet?"
"It's just virtual data. If it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist!" Lin Xiaolu stared at the TV and raised her chin slightly.
"But, I clearly saw on the card pool interface that it said [12 draws left to summon a designated magical girl]."
Xia Liang picked up Lin Xiaolu's phone from the sofa cushion beside her and pointed at a line of small words on the screen: "Look."
Lin Xiaolu's originally determined expression suddenly wavered. She wanted to pretend to be focused on the TV, but her constant glances to the side completely betrayed her. After realizing this, she finally gave up her disguise, silently stretched out her hand, and took the phone from Xia Liang in a self-destructive manner.
She looked up at the screen and found that there was indeed a line of words on the screen as Xia Liang said. She clicked on the list behind the line of words and soon found the "Shucao" she had been thinking about. Her eyes suddenly shone with light again.
"There are 12 more draws, 12 more draws..."
She began to think hard: "But how can I get these 12 draws?"
She had basically obtained all the rewards for completing the early game levels. The difficulty of the subsequent levels became increasingly higher, and she would definitely not be able to get any of them without the help of a "support character".
For a card-drawing game, if you want to obtain resources for drawing cards outside of the reward part, there seems to be only one way.
"Wouldn't it be fine if you just recharge the money?" Xia Liang tilted his head.
"No, I know I can charge money, but spending money on something like this seems..."
Lin Xiaolu struggled a little and said, "Doesn't this seem like a waste of time?"
"Indeed, I often see news reports about the harm of being addicted to games."
Xia Liang nodded again: "So? How about we stop playing?"
“This…that…”
Lin Xiaolu stared at the card drawing interface in the game and hesitated for a long time, unable to make up her mind. Her rationality told her that she should not spend money on it, but her emotions kept urging her to click.
There was a fierce ideological struggle going on in her mind. Her eyes became increasingly empty as she stared at the screen. A thin layer of cold sweat seeped out of her forehead. She pursed her lips, and a vortex gradually appeared in her dark eyes.
So, three minutes later.
Lin Xiaolu selects the payment option on the store interface.
After some careful calculations, she found that as long as she chose the 68 yuan option, she could meet her need for 12 draws, so for the first time in her life, Lin Xiaolu chose to pay in the game.
She first repeatedly confirmed the option buttons on the mobile phone screen, read the payment instructions, and made sure that her current recharge could indeed meet the "first time discount" regulations. Then she finally nodded, stretched out her hand, and pressed her finger on the fingerprint button.
Then, she suddenly heard a scream from the TV.
Subconsciously, she looked up to see what happened in the animation, but she found that the protagonist on TV just broke an object. Lin Xiaolu was disappointed and lowered her head again, and saw the words "Payment Completed" pop up on the screen.
It was the first time in her life that she spent money in a game. This behavior made Lin Xiaolu feel a little guilty, but besides the guilt, she also felt a little excited. With this complicated feeling, she returned to the card drawing interface, wanting to make up the remaining 12 draws to exchange for the character she wanted. But when her finger pressed the card drawing button, she suddenly found that the number of card draws seemed to be a little wrong.
If she remembered correctly, the resources she purchased with her own money should be worth about 15 draws, but why, now she has 150 draws? Looking at the numbers displayed on the phone screen, Lin Xiaolu was a little stunned for a moment.
"What's wrong?"
Xia Liang noticed that Lin Xiaolu looked a little strange, so she came closer. When she saw the number on the screen, she couldn't help but cover her mouth: "How much did you recharge?"
"It should be 68 yuan...right?"
Lin Xiaolu said uncertainly, and returned to the store interface in the game, looking at the previous recharge options, but found that the "first discount" sign on the 68 yuan option was still clear. On the contrary, the "first discount" sign was no longer on the 648 yuan option. The abrupt and empty button seemed to indicate something.
Looking at the screen of her mobile phone, Lin Xiaolu fell into a long silence again.
It seemed like she clicked the wrong button.
"Where did you get so much money?"
Xia Liang couldn't help but ask: "Does your father give you pocket money?"
“No…how should I put it…”
Lin Xiaolu gradually came back to her senses from her daze and said, "If I remember correctly, this seems to be something that Delphinium gave me a few days ago."
"What do you do?"
"She asked me to buy supplementary teaching materials... She said she didn't have time to buy them, so she gave me the name of the book and asked me to buy it myself and she would pay for it."
Lin Xiaolu's voice became smaller and smaller: "I haven't had time to buy it these days."
“Buy teaching aids?”
Xia Liang was a little confused: "Why haven't I heard of this?"
"You were joking, weren't you? But Delphinium should have transferred this part of the money to you."
Lin Xiaolu was a little surprised: "Didn't you notice that there was an extra sum of money in your personal account?"
"The extra money in my personal account..."
Xia Liang tapped her lower lip, her face thoughtful. After a while, as if she suddenly remembered something, she clapped her hands together and said, "Ah, why do I feel like I've spent a lot of money recently, but my balance hasn't decreased at all!"
"You spent it, too?"
"perhaps?"
Xia Liang laughed dryly: "I just went to get my hair done a few days ago. Now that I think about it, I must have used up the money that the young senior gave me, right?"
The more she spoke, the more unsure she felt. In the end, she and Lin Xiaolu fell silent.
For a moment, the only sound in the living room was the animation on TV.
However, when the two of them didn't know what to do, they heard the sound of a door closing in the hallway not far away. They hurriedly ran behind the wall of the living room and secretly looked into the hallway, only to see Cuique walking in with Bai Jingxuan.
Cuiqiao walked in front, followed by Bai Jingxuan. The two of them talked about something all the way to the living room. Cuiqiao looked inside and saw Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang sitting upright on the sofa, seemingly watching TV seriously.
This scene seemed fine, but Kuei-Chrysanthemum always felt that something was wrong: usually these two people were either lying or leaning against each other, looking completely lazy, why did they suddenly become so well-behaved today? "I'm back."
Without giving it much thought, she waved to the girls in the living room, "How was the patrol today?"
"There's nothing!"
As Kuizi started to speak, the ponytail behind Lin Xiaolu's head jumped suddenly, and she stammered: "Everything, everything is normal, there are no injured beasts, and no dangerous incidents!"
"That's fine. And you don't have to shout so loudly."
Cuiqiao nodded expressionlessly and turned her gaze to Xia Liang: "What about Xiaojin? Is there any situation?"
"Ah, no, no." Xia Liang also looked away with a guilty look, "Let me report to you, the last time a beast appeared in the Sunset District was last week. It has been very peaceful this week."
“Why use honorifics?”
The strange behavior of the two made Delphinium more and more confused, but she couldn't think of what could have happened, so she didn't ask any more questions: "Okay, thank you for your hard work, then I will go to the kitchen to prepare dinner, you guys continue to rest."
The two girls in the living room could only respond with a dull “yes”. Bai Jingxuan shouted “I’ll help” and ran to the kitchen with Cuique.
After Cuique left, the two people in the living room looked at each other, as if they had something to say, but no one spoke first. When Lin Xiaolu finally decided to say something after thinking for a long time, Cuique suddenly came out of the kitchen again.
——"Oh, by the way, tonight is a tutorial day, you should remember, right?"
As she put the sleeves on her hands, she reminded them, "I should have asked you to prepare the supplementary textbooks last time. If you have time, you can preview them first."
"The second-year final exams are coming up soon. Your grades have not been very stable recently, so I have drawn some ranges for you. Please follow these ranges for now."
"It's okay if you don't want to preview, but I might ask a few more questions to make sure you understand... Hmm? What's wrong? Why do you look so bad? Are you too tired? And why did you stand up suddenly? Why are you so close?"
——"I'm sorry! Delphinium!"
"I'm sorry! Young senior!"
Cuiqiao hadn't thought much about it at first, but before she finished speaking, she saw Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang suddenly stand up from the sofa and trot in front of her. Then they lowered their heads at the same time and said the above words in unison.
Seeing her daughter admitting her mistake in front of her, Kuei-Ching was unable to react for a moment. She blinked, and after a long while, she spoke in a daze: "...Huh?"
(End of this chapter)
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