With My Ability To Swap, I Will Never End Up In A Love Triangle Mess - Chapter 145

“Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu!”

Lin Xueling walked over to An Xiaoyu and called her name several times. But who would have guessed, An Xiaoyu seemed like a sleepwalker, lost in her own thoughts, and didn’t respond at all.

It wasn’t until Lin Xueling patted her shoulder that she snapped back to reality.

“Ah? Sis Xiaoxue… is something wrong?”

“Silly girl, look where you’ve wandered off to! If it weren’t for my socks… ahem, if I hadn’t noticed, you might have gotten lost!”

As she spoke, Lin Xueling unconsciously tugged at her ‘bare leg’ fleece-lined tights again. She really couldn’t figure it out—what kind of strength did these tights have to actually pull her legs along?

Could it be that the tights have become sentient?

But there’s a rule that nothing is allowed to become sentient after the founding of the nation!

“I-I’m sorry… I was spacing out just now, I didn’t notice…”

An Xiaoyu lowered her head awkwardly, crossing her hands in front of her.

She was afraid her ‘Xiaoxue Jiejie’ would get angry with her.

Luo Xinyu followed behind Lin Xueling, watching this usually proud and tsundere girl acting in such a childish manner in front of Lin Xueling. She found it quite amusing.

“Oh, we’re not blaming you… Hey, there’s a claw machine store over there, want to go grab some plushies?”

Sensing An Xiaoyu’s unease, Lin Xueling quickly changed the subject.

She was just feeling a bit stuffy earlier because of the tights and what Luo Xinyu had said, so her tone might have been a little sharp. She didn’t mean to scold the other girl.

“Mhm!”

Hearing ‘claw machine,’ An Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up and she lifted her head.

This time, her gaze met Luo Xinyu’s, and she immediately realized that her ‘Xiaxi Ge’ had witnessed her entire display just now…

“I… Xiaxi Ge! I definitely wasn’t feeling down because of what Xiaoxue said! I was just looking down thinking about something! Don’t get the wrong idea!”

Watching her flustered attempt to explain, Luo Xinyu couldn’t help but chuckle.

What was this, a voluntary confession?

“Hmm… So, were you thinking about how many plushies you wanted to grab?” she teased.

“That’s not it!”

“Then what? Want me to praise you a few more times? Hmm?”

The thought of how the other girl had become so distracted just from being called a ‘good kid’ made Luo Xinyu find it all very amusing. No wonder Xiaxi usually enjoyed messing around with Xia Yue and An Xiaoyu—it was actually pretty fun.

Her gaze swept over Lin Xueling’s fleece-lined tights again. Watching them seemingly tighten under her gaze, she felt another wave of amusement.

“Alright, alright, Xiaxi, stop teasing her. Come on, let’s go play the claw machines.”

Lin Xueling took a step, positioning herself between An Xiaoyu and Luo Xinyu. She grabbed An Xiaoyu’s hand and led her towards the store.

From an outsider’s perspective, it looked like the official girlfriend was protecting her boyfriend, and the two of them were leaving the ‘other woman’ behind.

Luo Xinyu shook her head gently, not minding at all, and followed the two of them to line up and buy tokens.

Lin Xueling was initially going to pay for a hundred tokens each, but who knew Luo Xinyu would wave her hand, step forward, scan the code, and purchase a thousand tokens.

For claw machines, what fun is three hundred tokens for three people? Three tokens per play means only a hundred tries. Might as well buy more at once and have a proper time. It’s not like she was short on money.

“Hmph~”

Lin Xueling glanced at her, tilted her head slightly to the side, then picked up a box of game tokens with her left hand, held An Xiaoyu’s hand with her right, and started looking for a target.

She was actually quite happy inside.

Because there’s a saying: When a man starts spending money on a woman, it means he has special intentions towards her.

(Of course, relatives and family members are an exception!)

Now, ‘Xiaxi’ had spent several hundred in one go just so they could have fun. It really was a joyful feeling.

Although… she was still pretty annoyed about what he said earlier about her only ranking third in his heart~

Luo Xinyu, of course, knew what the other girl was thinking, so she didn’t pay it any mind. She just picked up the remaining game tokens and also started picking a target.

She had never played this kind of claw machine game before.

As a young lady from a wealthy family—unlike other rich girls who seek diverse life experiences—she hardly ever went out, let alone went shopping or played around like this.

It was only after moving into Xiaxi’s house that Xiaxi would sometimes find time to take her out for a walk on the street to buy snacks and such.

But even that was enough to satisfy her.

Because Xiaxi didn’t disdain her legs, didn’t find her troublesome, and treated her completely like a normal person. That was what she liked most about him.

“Hey, Xiao Yu, how about that one~”

Lin Xueling, acting like she was shopping with a close girlfriend, hooked her arm through An Xiaoyu’s and pointed at a particular claw machine.

“It’s adorable!”

An Xiaoyu looked in the direction she pointed.

It was a large group of pink starfish with expressions, though for some reason, most of their expressions looked kind of silly and vacant.

“Let’s try for this one then.”

“Mhm.”

With that, the two of them walked over to the machine.

Clank, clank, clank.

Three game tokens dropped in.

Lin Xueling pulled the joystick, aimed at the target, and forcefully slapped the big red button, as if she thought using more strength would make the claw’s grip stronger.

Unfortunately, the claw didn’t grab any tighter just because Lin Xueling slapped the button hard.

It slowly descended, opened, then hooked onto the pink starfish’s green shorts, lifting it gently.

Just as it seemed about to move over the exit chute, it suddenly loosened, letting the pink starfish go.

This was the clever part of the claw machine.

It always released its grip just as it neared the exit, creating that feeling of ‘so close,’ making people unable to resist wanting to ‘try their luck one more time.’

After all… it was so close. What if the next try wins it?

“Ah, too bad~”

Lin Xueling sighed.

“You give it a try, Xiao Yu. Maybe you’ll have better luck than me.”

She pushed An Xiaoyu, who had been watching with keen interest, in front of the machine.

An Xiaoyu had never played this kind of thing before.

Before her entrance exams, her mind was filled only with studying. She had no time to experience these things.

And after the exams, An Hu treated her like a money-making machine. Her days were mostly spent dealing with cold lines of code and online games.

For these physical arcade games, she had only seen them online.

“I can’t do it…”

She didn’t dare to try.

Having never played before, she was afraid of being bad at it and getting laughed at by her ‘Xiaoxue Jiejie.’

“Relax, it’s really simple. Here, I’ll teach you.”

Lin Xueling understood how she felt.

The first time she played, she was also afraid of being laughed at.

But if you just look around the store, you’d see that basically everyone was the same. None of those fancy techniques like ‘hook swinging’ you see online existed here. It was all based on pure pity-timer mechanics.

“Then, I’ll trouble you!”

This silly girl, An Xiaoyu, only dropped her tsundere act in front of Lin Xueling. Who knows why~