After being reborn, I raised my childhood sweetheart.

Chapter 60 Betrayed by the Young Master! (Please read on, please vote with monthly tickets)
Xu Yuan was also surprised that Xia Ke would suddenly bring up the bet from last time at this moment.

I have to say this girl is quite clever. Does she think I enjoy being called "Dad"?
Okay, since you've already called me dad, what else is there to say?
"Then it's settled."

Xu Yuan tapped Xia Ke's forehead, "I'll only take you this time, and this is the last time."

"okay!"

Xia Ke nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and swayed back and forth on Xu Yuan's arm, "Daddy is the best! I love Daddy the most."

"Hey, hey, hey, you might as well call me young master..."

In Xu Yuan's heart, Xia Ke is still a child. Although he has indeed raised Xia Ke as a daughter all these years, it is not necessarily a good thing if it really turns into family affection.

However, it's not bad to occasionally see this tomboy acting cute like Yueyao.

Xia Ke's curiosity about the arcade largely stemmed from that red hanging cloth.

In the county town, arcades like to use red drapes to show their uniqueness. The drapes isolate the world inside, but the lively sounds and noises from the machines are very attractive to children.

If I don't take Xia Ke inside today, she'll go in on her own sooner or later. Rather than letting her go in alone and secretly go astray, it's better to take her with me and teach her a lesson along the way.

Besides, experiencing all sorts of exciting first-time experiences with your childhood sweetheart is also one of the important joys of daily life as childhood sweethearts.

That way, no matter what she does in the future, she will never forget the things she experienced together.

This is somewhat similar to the old father's method of keeping away unwanted attention from young men—nowadays, many fathers take their daughters to play all sorts of fun activities and eat all sorts of delicious food, raising them to be well-off, so that unwanted attention from young men won't attract them.

So, Xu Yuan and Xia Ke stood at the entrance of the arcade. Although Xia Ke seemed quite bold and reckless, she was usually kept in check by Lin Yueyao. When it came to actually doing something, she seemed a bit timid and kept looking around as if afraid of seeing someone she knew.

"Alright, are you mentally prepared?"

Xu Yuan said with a smile, "If you don't go this time, you're never allowed to mention this again."

"Hmph, fine, I'll go in then, who's afraid of who!"

Xia Ke is at the age of rebellion and is most easily tricked by goading. As she spoke, she lifted the red cloth covering the arcade and pulled Xu Yuan inside.

The moment Xia Ke lifted the hanging cloth, she felt as if she had entered another colorful world. Rows of arcade machines were filled with various exciting fighting game scenes. Almost all the people sitting inside, operating the joysticks and shouting were boys, but their ages varied.

There were elementary school students as young as seven or eight sitting in front of arcade machines, banging on buttons and shouting, as well as middle school students in their teens and twenties wearing glasses and looking very polite. Of course, there were also young people in their twenties with flamboyant, frizzy hair who were considered non-mainstream.

Xia Ke stared intently at everything in the arcade, her eyes filled with excitement and anticipation for the new experiences.

However, when a few young people with flamboyant and unconventional fashion styles walked over, chatting and laughing, Xia Ke would subconsciously avoid eye contact and stay close to Xu Yuan.

"Alright, you've seen it all. If you're scared, go back."

"I'm not scared at all! I still want to play the game!"

Xia Ke pulled two coins out of her pocket. "I'll treat you to a game today, young master!"

Although she invited Xu Yuan to play games, when they got to the boss, Xia Ke pushed Xu Yuan forward to buy the game currency. This cowardly yet eager-to-play attitude made Xu Yuan chuckle.

He shouted at his boss, who was watching TV:
"Boss, give me two yuan's worth of coins."

The front desk owner didn't look up, but silently opened a drawer, took out eight game coins from a large box filled with game coins, and handed them to Xu Yuan. Xu Yuan then gave Xia Ke four game coins.

Xia Ke took the game tokens, her ears turning bright red. Suddenly, she stood on tiptoe and whispered to Xu Yuan.

"Is that boss a gangster?"

Xia Ke whispered to Xu Yuan, "I saw a tattoo on his arm." "He might be in cahoots with you."

Xu Yuan teased her on purpose, "You used to really like sticking those bubble gum stickers on your arms."

"Mine can be wiped off, it's different!"

Xia Ke hurriedly distanced herself from the thugs.

"Alright, what do you want to play?"

Xia Ke took the game tokens and walked up to a game machine with swords, magic, and dragons. "Let's play this one. I saw this game on the interactive on-demand channel on TV!"

The area used to have a telephone-based game-on-demand service. By simply making a call and following the instructions, you could play arcade games online or watch cartoons and variety shows. In those days, kids who didn't have computers at home and were too scared to go to arcades relied on this to satisfy their cravings, all thanks to the support of the rich guy.

Back then, these interactive on-demand services were huge drains on phone bills. But almost every household had a landline. If a kid in the family did this, they would definitely get a good beating from their parents the moment the phone bill came up.

The game Xia Ke chose was "Dragon Warrior," a standard D&D Western fantasy game where you control one of five characters: a warrior, a mage, a priest, an archer, or a dwarf, to participate in an adventure in a fantasy world similar to "The Lord of the Rings."

This game had a very advanced weapon and equipment appearance change system at the time. Every time you defeated a BOSS, your weapons and armor would be upgraded and your damage, attack range, or special effects would be increased. It was very awesome for kids at the time.

Xu Yuan and Xia Ke then sat down on the bench together, each putting in a game coin. While Xia Ke was figuring out how to access the character selection screen, Xu Yuan pressed the button in the middle.

"What's going on, young master? You seem quite skilled at this."

Xia Ke stared at Xu Yuan with a scrutinizing gaze, and Xu Yuan smiled and said, "Is it strange that I've done this before?"

"Fine, so you're coming to the arcade by yourself and not letting me play, huh!"

Xu Yuan urged her, "Hurry up and choose someone, or it will be over."

"Ahhh, I want to play with this Big Horned Bull Warrior!"

Xu Yuan discovered that Xia Ke had always liked to "play the protagonist". When she played house, she liked to play the role of the Lightbringer. Later, her favorite racing car was the Cyclone Rush. When playing games, she would choose the character in the middle. She must think that the character in the middle must be the strongest and most powerful.

Xu Yuan chose the role of a mage. After entering the game, Xia Ke looked at their health bars and teased with a smile, "Your character has too little health. I started with 48 health points, and you only have 32. You'd better hide behind me."

"Just don't die too quickly."

"Alright, let's begin!"

Xia Ke was clearly a little nervous as it was her first time operating a joystick and playing an arcade game. She started by randomly pressing buttons. Xu Yuan taught her how to operate the game while fighting monsters. Gradually, Xia Ke got into the swing of things and began to control the warrior, hacking and slashing at monsters.

"Dead! Ah, but I still have one life, I can be resurrected."

"Ugh, I'm dead again!"

"Here's your coin."

"Don't die! I'm coming right up."

"Don't worry, it's okay."

As Xia Ke inserted coins to re-enter the game, she watched Xu Yuan's smooth and skillful gameplay. Seeing him outmaneuver the first boss, the boarman, Xia Ke suddenly felt a sense of betrayal.

"Young Master, did you secretly come here behind my back?"

　It's late, but I'll still update right on time at 12 o'clock.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)