I'm in high school, is my dating system working correctly?

"Where to?"

Inside the elevator, Zhou Qianyun asked casually.

She was still wearing that light blue dress, but her hair was tied back in a high ponytail. To carry her phone and tissues, she carried a small bag with a Chuansha Daji pendant. To the dismay of some foodies, her shoes had been changed to white sneakers.

If I remember correctly, Lu Yu gave me that pendant for my birthday this year. I read online that girls like these kinds of things, and now it seems that's true.

"I don't know, how about we go to McDonald's for a Happy Meal? They seem to have some new toys."

Lu Yu's ears started ringing.

The building was too high, and the elevator was too fast, creating a pressure difference that made his ears feel stuffy.

Because of this drawback, he decided not to buy a house here in the future.

"...That new toy is a cat bed. If you have a cat, you can eat it."

Zhou Qianyun gently elbowed Lu Yu.

Ding--

The elevator goes to the first floor.

Zhou Qianyun glanced at it with her phone.

"The shopping mall next door is having an anniversary sale these days, want to check it out?"

"Granted."

"Guna!"

In September, the sycamore trees were lush and leafy, and in the afternoon sunlight, Zhou Qianyun's calves under her skirt were so white they were almost dazzling.

The two walked one after the other on the road, only walking side by side when waiting for the red light to cross the street.

Why are you standing so far away?

Zhou Qianyun raised an eyebrow when she caught sight of Lu Yu, who was at least two body lengths away from her.

"Your outfit is quite expensive; I'm afraid I might accidentally damage it and not be able to afford to pay for it."

Lu Yu scrolled through the reviews on his phone, listing the stores in the mall without even looking up, replying randomly to read their posts.

"It's not expensive, just a few hundred yuan... Hey, come here."

As soon as Zhou Qianyun finished speaking, she sighed softly as if she had thought of something, and reached out her fair and slender arm to pull Lu Yu to her side, about half a person's distance away.

"Quite clingy?"

"There's a guy next to me when I go out, to prevent strangers from hitting on me."

"I didn't expect someone as ordinary as you to be so confident."

Lu Yu also had many experiences of being approached by strange women—things like "How about swimming and fitness?"

"When I meet people, I tell them that this is my mentally challenged younger brother, and I brought him out to get some fresh air today."

"Sigh, did you eat up the cute Zhou Qianyun who used to cling to my clothes and call me Brother Ayu every day?"

"Get out!"

She turned her face away, her neck slightly flushed.

Green light.

The two walked side by side across the street and into the mall. The air conditioning was so strong that it even made them feel a little chilly.

The sound of a child crying could be heard; the shopping mall, which was having a Sunday event, was a paradise for mischievous kids.

There's a transparent piano in the lobby on the first floor of the mall, and a few unruly kids are sitting next to it playing it randomly. The noisy noise is painful to the ears, and we desperately need a music content creator to come and take over the right to use it.

"I regret it, it's so noisy."

Despite saying that, Zhou Qianyun continued walking inside.

Thanks to Feng Jiahe, neither Lao Lu nor Xiao Lu are often dragged to go shopping for clothes. The old lady herself sells clothes in a shopping mall and knows the ins and outs. Her family either gets their clothes from small wholesale markets or buys them online.

Fourth floor.

"Holy crap, anime!"

As soon as Lu Yu stepped onto the elevator, two girls dressed in ancient-style clothing from the game, with thick layers of makeup on their faces, walked past him.

"Making a fuss over nothing."

Zhou Qianyun muttered disdainfully.

This floor is a "2D" zone opened during the trendy toy craze. In addition to anime merchandise stores, Lolita dress stores, model toy stores, escape room stores, there are also many trendy item stores that specifically target young people to make money.

There were quite a few cosplayers at the shops here today because the mall was having an anniversary sale.

Zhou Qianyun wasn't a fan of anime; she was simply browsing the trendy toy store.

However, these days, the purity of the anime/manga culture is also declining. I play King of Glory and Identity V, watch Demon Slayer and Spy Family, and listen to Space Mambo and Blue Lotus every day. How is that not good anime/manga culture?

Yes, yes, actually I don't know much about anime and manga either.

"So ugly, even worse than a face covered in sulfuric acid."

Looking at the Ultraman toys displayed in the shop window, Lu Yu spoke frankly.

"You don't know anything."

Zhou Qianyun glanced at the uniquely aesthetically pleasing blind boxes and lingered in front of the glass display cases of Garlic Bird and Vegetable Dog.

"This stray dog ​​looks a lot like you."

Lu Yu's lips twitched, and he pressed the plush talking toy hanging next to him. The toy immediately emitted an electronic sound: "Garlic bird, garlic bird, it's not easy~".

"It's fun."

How childish!

Zhou Qianyun snorted and saw Lu Yu pick up another talking toy, press it, and the sound "Ah yes yes yes" rang out.

"..."

The girl was silent for a moment, her gaze wandering over the toys. She reached out and pinched one of them, and a deep voice came from behind her: "If I hear that again, I'll go deaf myself!"

"Quite up-to-date."

Lu Yu was a little surprised, but quickly found an ugly-cute dragon and pressed it: "The dragon is a symbol of emperors."

It made both of them laugh.

A collection of all the lame internet memes.

Don't stop, this is the taste I love.

The two tried out the sounds of the toys.

"Believe it or not, I might just throw two punches out of nowhere!"

"Do you know you were generated by AI?"

"I need my license plate checked, and you need to polish my shoes."

"You startled me, so I unleashed my ninjutsu."

I like you, and you like me.

The overused and clichéd audio colliding, which was meant to explain the abstract dream of the contemporary internet, came to an abrupt end.

"?"

Lu Yu looked at the somewhat abstract sound-making toy in his hand, and squeezed it again as if to confirm it.

I like you, and you like me.

Dude, you still use such an old joke?

He turned to look at Zhou Qianyun, only to find that the girl had already turned her face away.

"There's nothing to see here, let's go."

Her light blue skirt swayed, and her fair legs took a step.

Lu Yu poked the abstract toy one last time before walking out of the trendy toy store.

The two then strolled around the storefront of a writing boutique, which was also known as a trendy little trash store.

Zhou Qianyun glanced at the tape with cute patterns and the leather-covered notebook, then picked up a glass pen that could write in vibrant colors and started writing on the test paper.

"...No, why did you write my name?"

Lu Yu, who was watching, couldn't stand it any longer.

"How embarrassing would it be if someone saw my name on it?"

Zhou Qianyun pointed to the names of the other colors on it.

Hmm, how come there's someone named Li Huowang? Is it really true?

"So writing my name isn't shameful?"

"It's not me who's embarrassed."

"Indeed, a woman's heart is the most poisonous!"

Lu Yu muttered to himself, then casually picked up a pen and began to write.

Surprisingly, this pen is quite easy to write with. He decided to write down the brand and then buy a box from PDD.

With swift, flowing strokes, he wrote down Zhou Qianyun's name.

"W-What are you doing!"

Zhou Qianyun's expression froze, and her voice sounded a little flustered.

"It is impolite not to reciprocate."

Lu Yu put the pen back.

"Besides, you write my name so ugly, but I write yours so beautifully, you should thank me."

After saying that, he immediately slipped out of the store as if he were fleeing.

Zhou Qianyun, who remained where she was, gritted her teeth. Just as she was about to erase the name on the paper, she suddenly stopped, stared at the two names for a moment, squeezed the pen, and put it back in its place.

"Don't run away!"

They chased after them.

"How about we go to this one?"

After escaping the boutique, Lu Yu pointed to the pottery shop across the street.

It's the kind of shop where someone teaches you how to play with mud and eventually fire it into objects; they specifically target naive and gullible college student couples and parents with children.

"To avoid wasting money, let's each make one for the other, and keep it no matter how ugly it is, okay?"

Taking into account the requirements of the system task, Lu Yu made a suggestion.

It is common knowledge that people do not feel troubled or tired when they are doing bad things.

Zhou Qianyun remained noncommittal, silently following Lu Yu's steps, and unconsciously glanced back at the pieces of paper on the shelf used for testing pens.

On the paper covered in drawings, her name and his name were side by side.

In the middle, there is graffiti by an unknown person.

For some reason, it looks like a heart.

*

New author, new book! Thank you all for your recommendations and monthly tickets!

Tomorrow marks the start of a new month. Thank you all for your support!