Daydreaming about Me

Chapter 39

The night market park was noisy. A large black, cheap speaker near the carousel was playing cheerful children’s songs, its sound quality poor, surrounded by girls’ laughter and children’s clamor.

Shen Juan had already pulled her aside. Even though they stood still, they were still somewhat in the way. Next to them was a balloon-popping stall, currently occupied by a couple, with the continuous popping sounds of bursting balloons.

Despite the chilly autumn night, it felt unusually warm. Lin Yu could feel herself heating up bit by bit.

Shen Juan looked natural, showing no signs of discomfort, bending down and quietly waiting.

Lin Yu took a small step back to create some distance, holding the little devil headband with her fingers, cleared her throat, and said in a somewhat shaky voice, “You… lower your head a bit more.”

Shen Juan obediently lowered his head.

She raised her arms and placed the headband on his head. His dark hair slipped through her fingers, surprisingly soft to the touch.

Leaning back slightly, she noticed the headband was a bit crooked. She adjusted it, her fingers brushing his cool ear. Shen Juan tensed for a second, but Lin Yu had already lowered her hands.

He lifted his head.

His long, dark eyes, straight nose, and thin lips, combined with his lean jawline, gave him a mix of youthful and sharp features. The side of his face was bathed in the blue neon light from nearby, reminiscent of a Game of Thrones poster.

“Little devil,” Lin Yu suddenly said.

“Hmm?” Shen Juan looked up.

“Have you seen Game of Thrones? There’s a character, Tyrion Lannister,” Lin Yu raised her hand, holding it vertically in front of her nose, “He has a poster with half his face in blue, just like you just now. And his nickname is also ‘the little devil.’”

Shen Juan raised an eyebrow: “My nickname isn’t Little Devil.”

He had very fair skin, and was wearing a headband with glowing red devil horns. Lin Yujing didn’t know why, but this clearly cute accessory looked a bit sinister on him.

She spoke honestly: “You look quite devilish right now.”

Shen Juan looked at her, suddenly curled his lips: “Do you know what devils usually like?”

Lin Yujing cooperated: “What?”

“Maiden sacrifices,” Shen Juan looked at her meaningfully, then suddenly leaned closer to her ear and whispered, “Are you willing to offer your body and soul to me?”

The warm breath tingled her ear, and Lin Yujing felt half of her body go numb, leaving her slightly dazed.

A loud “bang” from the next booth signaled another balloon bursting.

She snapped back to reality, took a step back discreetly, and praised: “Shen classmate, you get into character really fast.”

Shen Juan straightened up.

The girl who had just burst a balloon cheered, turned around, hugged the boy next to her, and asked coyly, “Am I awesome?”

The boy applauded, very supportive: “Awesome! So strong it’s scary.”

The girl was delighted, and the two hugged each other, kissing passionately, then left with a small keychain.

Lin Yujing stretched her neck to take a peek. She had thought the prizes at these small game booths would be ugly, but to her surprise, the keychain was quite pretty, a small skateboard decoration with intricate carvings, and it could also be used as a bottle opener.

“That keychain looks pretty nice.” Lin Yujing whispered to Shen Juan.

Shen Juan said: “There are too many such games here, if the prizes aren’t good, no one will come.”

Lin Yujing nodded: “Fierce industry competition.” She said, walking over. After taking a few steps, she looked back to see Shen Juan hadn’t moved, so she pulled him by the hem of his clothes to the booth and looked at the prizes displayed.

There were various small keychains, eye masks, mugs, and plush toys of all sizes.

On the innermost shelf was a very large brown teddy bear, about half a person’s height, wearing a green sweater with a red letter “L” sewn on it.

It looked like the treasure of the store.

The owner was replacing the balloons, and greeted them warmly: “Wanna play, young lady? Ten yuan for twenty shots.”

Lin Yujing had a clear goal, pointing at the bear: “How do I win that?”

“You need to hit a whole row in a row,” the owner said, “that’s very difficult, but if you hit five in a row, you can exchange for a keychain, ten in a row for a pair of couple mugs.”

Lin Yujing had never played such games before; her only visit to an amusement park was during a school spring outing in middle school. But even if she hadn’t eaten pork, she’d seen a pig run; she knew how to play.

This booth was slightly different from what she had seen before; the backdrop had rows of colorful balloons, arranged in a square, twenty horizontally and twenty vertically. Like a matching game, hitting a certain number of balloons in a row could win small prizes.

Lin Yujing wasn’t good at this in games, but real life was a bit different.

She paid ten yuan, watched the owner tie the balloons, then raised her hand to bite the elastic band on her wrist, tying her hair into a high ponytail, looking sharp and full of confidence.

Shen Juan raised an eyebrow, standing by and watching.

Lin Yujing picked up the gun, very light, loaded with yellow plastic bullets.

She first aimed at a blue balloon in the center and fired.

With a “bang,” the yellow balloon below the blue one burst.

Lin Yujing smiled, her eyes curving, confidently flicking her hair, looking very proud. Shen Juan lowered his head, laughing silently.

Lin Yujing felt she had found the knack. This gun couldn’t be accurate; the things in the game she couldn’t figure out, what Li Lin always told her about trajectories, now seemed clearer.

Lin Yujing raised the gun, squinting, aiming.

The bullet should deviate downwards to the left… With a “bang,” the balloon didn’t burst.

Huh?

Huh huh?

Why??

“Alright, it’s no problem. It must be an angle issue. Just adjust it a bit higher,” Lin Yujing comforted herself while carefully calculating the angle. After ten shots, she realized that the bullets weren’t actually deviating to the lower left. Otherwise, why weren’t the balloons bursting when she was sure she hit them?

Could these things be flying around randomly like they had legs?

Feeling her intelligence and judgment were being insulted, she stared at the balloon board for a while before turning her head.

Shen Juan was leaning against a nearby tree, head down, shoulders shaking. Lin Yujing looked at him expressionlessly: “Shen Juan, our friendship is over.”

Shen Juan lifted his head, licked his lips with a smile, walked over, took the gun from her hand, shook it, and tossed it aside. He picked up a small plastic toy gun and asked her, “Want that bear?”

Lin Yujing nodded, drawing a line in the air with her finger: “I want to hit the whole row.”

Shen Juan turned his head and looked at the small booth owner sitting nearby with his legs crossed: “Boss, throw them.”

The owner didn’t understand: “What?”

“I won’t shoot at the ones you’ve tied. You hold the balloons and throw them into the air randomly. I’ll shoot,” Shen Juan said patiently, pointing at the teddy bear in the green sweater. “Still twenty shots in a row, all hits, and we get that.”

Usually, some balloons in a row are specially reinforced so you can’t burst them with a toy gun no matter what.

The booth owner, cigarette in mouth, looked at him like he was crazy, having never heard such a request before: “I throw, you shoot? But the balloons will be moving. Moving, you know?”

Shen Juan casually replied, “Yeah.”

Lin Yujing seemed to see twelve large characters on his face: “Step aside, I’m about to show off.”

Lin Yujing rolled her eyes.

The booth owner hesitated, suspicious that Shen Juan had discovered something, but also doubting he could hit moving balloons: “What do you do for a living?”

“Just an ordinary high school student,” Shen Juan said calmly.

“Alright,” the booth owner took a deep drag of his cigarette, stubbed it out on the ground, stood up, and dragged over a bag of balloons. “I’ll throw them randomly. If you hit all twenty, I’ll give you that treasure for free and won’t even charge you the ten yuan.”

It really was a treasure of the shop.

Shen Juan held the black plastic toy gun in one hand, tapping the barrel on the table, his fingers tightening around the grip.

Lin Yujing recalled his small movements when holding a pen or a coil machine.

She felt inexplicably nervous, staring intently at the balloon in the booth owner’s hand. The booth owner, eager to show off, held a balloon in one hand: “I’m throwing it now?” “Should I throw it now?”

“Just like this?”

“Directly?”

“…”

Are you going to throw it or not!

Before Lin Yujing’s inner rant could explode, the booth owner tossed a green balloon into the air, and it floated down following the wind. Lin Yujing held her breath subconsciously.

With a “bang,” the balloon burst mid-air. Lin Yujing slapped the table edge.

The booth owner, still in disbelief, confirmed on the ground that the balloon was indeed burst, then slowly and reluctantly threw another one.

This time, it was very low, about to hit the ground, when Shen Juan shot again.

Another “bang.”

Unbeknownst to him, a crowd had gathered, watching. A boy applauded: “Wow, this guy is awesome.”

Another boy said, “This guy even has horns on his head.”

“What’s this? Cute contrast?”

“Buffed up.”

“Ah, this guy looks so cool from the back. I’m going around to see his face.” “Look!” a girl grumbled softly, “Other people’s boyfriends wear it! Why won’t you?” The boy replied, “If I wear this, I won’t look cool.”

The girl incredulously said, “What makes you think you look cool without it?”

Lin Yujing almost burst out laughing.

She turned to look at Shen Juan. The young man stood straight, slightly turned, head down, the toy gun barrel resting on the table. He seemed completely unaware of the voices behind him, lips pressed together in a focused manner.

The booth owner, now motivated, showed athletic prowess like a top national acrobat, tossing balloons from all angles, even throwing two at once. Balloons of various colors burst one after another, littering the ground.

In the end, the booth owner resigned himself, mechanically throwing the last two balloons, then reluctantly went to get the shop’s treasure. He turned back, looking betrayed: “Aren’t you just an ordinary high school student?”

“Just lucky,” Shen Juan said modestly, putting down the toy gun.

Lin Yujing won a round where she hit five balloons in a row, allowing her to exchange for a keychain. She spent a long time choosing among the keychains and finally picked one with a plush Peter Rabbit charm. Initially, she wanted the blue whale because it matched her name better, but after some hesitation, she chose the pink rabbit, which suited her girlish temperament and felt of higher quality.

Holding the teddy bear with the letter “L” sewn on its sweater, and the rabbit keychain in hand, Lin Yujing felt she had a fruitful night.

Still curious, she turned to Shen Juan and asked, “How did you do it? I feel like the gun is completely inaccurate, the bullets fly everywhere.”

Struggling with the bear, Shen Juan took her yogurt and stuffed it into her backpack, “Actually, it’s not the gun, it’s the balloons.”

Lin Yujing looked puzzled, “The balloons?”

“Yeah, for those you need to hit a whole row to win, they won’t let you hit all in a row. Some of the balloons are specially reinforced, very thick, so you can’t pop them.”

Lin Yujing had no idea it was this sophisticated. She nodded, “So, even if you tried, you couldn’t hit a whole row.”

“Yeah, couldn’t hit a whole row,” Shen Juan yawned with his hands in his pockets, “so this was the only way.”

Lin Yujing thought he was just showing off, but realized he wasn’t.

They wandered around, noticing that the carousel was full of children and the Ferris wheel was occupied by couples. Neither seemed like her kind of fun, so they bought some takoyaki and walked towards the exit.

By now, the crowd had thinned out, as it was late and most people with kids had left. Only couples and groups of girls remained.

At the entrance, Shen Juan removed his headband and rubbed his ears. The plastic headband was cheap and painful. Lin Yujing, still wearing hers, seemed unfazed, holding the bear with her face mostly covered. Shen Juan took the bear from her.

With her arms suddenly empty, she looked up at him, her eyes like she was confronting a rival.

Shen Juan initially just wanted to help her carry it but couldn’t resist teasing her when he saw her expression.

“This is mine,” Shen Juan said.

Lin Yujing looked blank: “Huh?” After a moment, she said, “Didn’t you say it was for me…”

“When did I say that?” Shen Juan replied.

Lin Yujing, realizing he was joking, looked at him expressionlessly, “Shen classmate, are you going back on your word now?”

“Why should I give you what I won,” Shen Juan tilted his head, smiling lazily, and asked softly, “Who are you to me, hmm?”

Lin Yujing stared at him for three seconds, then looked down, saying nothing.

Shen Juan, thinking she was upset, raised his hand to pat her head, but then saw her reach into her sweater pocket, rummaging until she pulled out her pink rabbit keychain.

With her head down, she carefully removed her keys from it, then handed the keychain to him, her eyes shining in the dark, “I can give you this.”

Shen Juan looked at it without speaking.

The rabbit’s workmanship couldn’t compare to the store’s treasure teddy bear. It was a small, plush toy keychain, a cream-colored Peter Rabbit with a crooked pink and white dress, and its features were rough, with uneven eyes, one of which was sewn a bit crooked.

Still, its soft pink color was very girlish.

Lin Yujing looked at her rabbit, then at his bear, realizing the disparity and said slowly, “If you don’t want it—”

Jiang Han arrived at the studio as usual at ten on Saturday morning. He first went to his regular shop at the alley entrance to buy two large glutinous rice balls, then took out his key to open the studio door.

The black iron door was ajar, not locked.

Jiang Han thought Shen Juan might have forgotten to lock it the night before, as he usually wasn’t up by this time.

He pushed the door open and was startled to see someone on the sofa, jumping back: “Oh my god.”

Shen Juan was reading a book, a bag of breakfast milk in his mouth. He looked up at Jiang Han.

Jiang Han, still shaken, said, “You’re up early today?”

“Yeah.” Shen Juan continued reading.

Jiang Han, sensing Shen Juan was in a good mood, said, “I thought you were still asleep,” placing one of the rice balls on the coffee table in front of him. “I got you breakfast, black glutinous rice with tiger skin egg. I even asked for a large one, but since you’re up early, you probably already ate.”

Putting down the rice ball, he noticed a pink rabbit nearby: “Hey, did some girl leave this here? Better not lose it.” He paused, recognizing the keys attached to it, “Wait, Shen, doesn’t this key look like the studio key?”

Shen Juan confirmed, “Yeah.”

Jiang Han picked up the rabbit, examining it closely: “Is this Wang Yiyang’s? What’s with him? Brain fried? Using a pink rabbit now? Hahaha, this sissy idiot, hahahaha, this is killing me.”

Shen Juan looked up.

Jiang Han, still playing with the rabbit’s ears: “They’re pretty soft.”

Shen Juan closed his book, stared at him: “Put it down, or I’ll make sure you leave here horizontally.”

“What’s the big deal, Shen, I was just looking. Wang Yiyang isn’t here anyway,” Jiang Han laughed, “This sissy has good taste.”

Shen Juan, expressionless, said, “It’s mine.”

“…”

Jiang Han felt like he just ruined everything with his laughter, GG. Author’s note:

Jiang Han: Ruined everything with laughter.

Let’s give a round of applause for Jiang Han’s final scene! Clap clap clap clap

Some readers don’t understand “ruined everything with laughter,” so here’s a rough scenario: “Hahahahahahahahahaha, I’m dead.”

—That’s what it means.