She was used to fans asking for an autograph from outside, so she always carried a notepad and a ballpen with her.

Seeing Zhou Lei's expectant face made Lin Guiying guilty for tricking him. He knew her as Lin Hanying, the new transfer student, but what he didn't know was that she was standing before him!

Lin Hanying and Lin Guiying were the same!

Nevertheless, Zhou Lei watched as his idol took out a notepad from a pocket inside the brown coat, grabbed a pen from a similar place, and signed the paper.

He had his hands held out this whole time, antic.i.p.ating the paper to be placed. His eyes shone, making Lin Guiying slightly fl.u.s.tered.

She had seen a lot of this kind, but not once did she get as fl.u.s.tered as she was right now!

That was because of two factors. One is the fact that Zhou Lei's face was perfect to a fault. The second was that he considered her disguise a friend, and she did too.

She tore the paper from the pad, folded it, and put it on Zhou Lei's hand, before departing quickly.

"Thanks!" Zhou Lei waved the celebrity goodbye as she left.

When he couldn't see her anymore, Zhou Lei looked at the piece of paper on his hand. He quickly put the paper in one of his pockets with a blank expression before biting his lips as he tried to restrain from showing a smile again.

"Oh my G.o.d! That was so nervewracking! Ah, d.a.m.n!" He covered his face with both hands. Behind them was a red face full of embarra.s.sment.

'She... was so beautiful!'

.....

After getting to the arcade, other than practicing the song and already getting more than half of the total points, for the two past hours, nothing of note had happened.

Zhou Lei wiped the sweat off his forehead. He looked distressed at the sight in front of him.

"With this rate of progress, I won't be able to get a perfect score in the next 3 days!"

In the first two days, he got amazing progress by getting halfway there. However, after that, his progression slowed to a halt. He could only get one or two points every new session, and that was a really slow rate.

He stepped off the machine and tried to think of solutions to his current problem. The other problems could wait, but this one had a deadline of only 3 days left!

"Hmm... would upgrading my Dancing skill improve my skill on DDR?" Zhou Lei remembered the book that he got from the lottery. "Well, I can only try. I've nothing to lose anyway."

He opened his inventory, took out the book, and consumed it immediately. Otherwise, if he didn't do it right away, in this crowded place, it was only a matter of time until he b.u.mped into someone else, with them consuming the book instead of him.

Zhou Lei a.s.sumed that this was a bug, but System wasn't saying anything about it, so maybe it was a feature?

Soon after, he felt an ache in his head. Zhou Lei withstood it the best that he could. No one could see his face anyway since he was wearing a facemask and a hoodie.

However, if someone did see his face, they would tap Zhou Lei on the shoulder, and say, "Are you constipated?"

At that, Zhou Lei would respond with "Your sister is constipated! Your whole family is constipated!"

Zhou Lei felt the ache subsiding slowly. He let out a sigh of relief. 'That hurt way more than I remember it!'

Suddenly, he felt that instead of his head, his whole body was now aching, even worse than before.

"...! f.u.c.k!" Zhou Lei fell over, sweating profusely inside his jacket. He lied on the floor pitifully, his two hands clenching his stomach while his legs curled up in an infant position.

'What the h.e.l.l is this?!' He couldn't recall this happening the first two times he consumed a book! Why was this happening now?

"Mister, are you okay?" Someone suddenly tapped Zhou Lei's shoulder.

As it ached on that part as well, Zhou Lei screamed, "Ack-! Ouch, f.u.c.k!"

The woman took off her hand and watched in concern as Zhou Lei writhed in pain. She felt helpless as her eyes couldn't take themselves off the man lying on the floor.

Eventually, the ache dissipated and Zhou Lei felt better. He tried to stand up.

The woman looked that Zhou Lei's face was less pale than it was before. She reached out her hand.

Seeing the hand in front of him, Zhou Lei grabbed it and stood up. His feet still felt fragile.

"Uh, mister, are you OK?" The woman had a look of concern on her face.

Zhou Lei nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you."

"Eh, what are you thanking me for? I didn't do anything." The woman shook her head and smiled awkwardly.

"Thanks for your concern." Zhou Lei clarified his statement as he walked away.

The woman shrugged the matter off and went back to what she was doing before.

"Now... where is that Lin Guiying? She usually hangs out here..." Shao Lingxin looked around the arcade.

.....

Zhou Lei felt an ache again. However, this tine it was an ache to dance! He wanted to test his new skills at the Dance Dance Revolution machine!

As he slowly approached said machine, he could hear someone else using it. Zhou Lei walked up to it to see who it was.

"Oh... Lin Hanying!" Zhou Lei's face lit up as he saw who was using the machine.

Lin Guiying's body froze up for a second when she heard Zhou Lei's voice. This made her make mistakes.

"Oh, Zhou Lei..." At this point, Lin Guiying wore her disguise, just in case. And lo and behold, she did the right thing.

It was also because when Lin Guiying successfully bought the new merchandise and started to head home, she pa.s.sed by the arcade. She thought of using it... only one time.

As she approached the machine, she thought of her earlier encounter with Zhou Lei.

"Hmm, will he still be here?"

Part of her wanted Zhou Lei to be gone already, so she could use the machine and leave just as easily. But a larger part of her wanted her only friend to still be training.

Lin Guiying felt disappointed when n.o.body was on the machine. She stepped on it and inserted a token.

In the middle of her session, that was when she heard Zhou Lei call her by her fake name.

She felt joy for seeing him again and irritation for disturbing her in the middle of her playthrough.

Soon after, the last arrow reached the top. Lin Guiying got an almost perfect score, her only mistake being the one when Zhou Lei called her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Erm... playing DDR. What else?" Lin Guiying answered it matter-of-factly.

"Oh..." Zhou Lei looked at her with a teasing smile. "So I should tell the teacher that you skipped school to play here?"

"Uhh, please don't." Lin Guiying placed her hands together in a praying position.

"Hmm, I'll think about it." Zhou Lei's smirk widened.

'Urk- Why is he so hot?' Lin Guiying couldn't help but think.

Zhou Lei patted her shoulder repeatedly. "Don't worry, I'm just kidding!"

He turned around, before speaking again. "...or am I?"

"Stop." Lin Guiying was fed up with this antic.

And this is how their daily banter went.

"I have something to tell you." Zhou Lei turned serious.

"Hmm? What is it?" Lin Guiying was always entertained by this friend of hers' stories.

"You won't believe who I met on the way here!" Zhou Lei had an excited expression on his face.

"Who? Who? Tell me." Lin Guiying put her arm around Zhou Lei. They huddled up.

"Actually, it's... Lin Guiying!" Zhou Lei whispered into her ear.

"..." Lin Guiying was speechless.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy. I can see your "I don't believe you" face. But, I really met my idol earlier!" Zhou Lei a.s.sured his friend Lin Hanying that it was the truth.

"Eh, umm..." Lin Guiying felt awkward.

"At first, I thought it was you, but then she removed her facemask!" Zhou Lei recalled earnestly.

"Uhh..." Lin Guiying didn't have any more responses! She couldn't form any!

"But that's just because she looks really similar to you. If she didn't remove her facemask, I would've really thought that it was you!"

'That's because it is me!' Lin Guiying turned her head away.

"In the end, I got her autograph. Look, see?" Zhou Lei took the piece of paper out of his pocket and showed his friend. "I'm going to treasure this my whole life!"

Lin Guiying looked at Zhou Lei's joyful face and couldn't help but feel guilty.

However, this secret ident.i.ty of hers must never be known by anyone, not even her friends.

This was the reason why she always transfered schools. Someone would always either expose her or guess her ident.i.ty.

In any case, she would like to stay in a school, especially now that she's made a friend.

"Do you believe me now?"

Zhou Lei's smug face cleared all of the thoughts inside Lin Guiying's head. She felt kind of irritated and relieved. "Yes, I believe you."