"This anime character looks a little familiar... and I feel like I've heard the name somewhere before."

"You've never seen the anime with Sora? Or played the game?"

"Nope," Chen Yuan said, shaking his head. "But the outfit is definitely pretty."

"Well, you have to find a chance to watch it, then. Sora is the dream of countless men..."

As he said this, a strange, subtle smile appeared on Wei Zhen's face, and he winked at Chen Yuan.

But Chen Yuan didn't get what he meant.

He turned his head and took another look at the girl playing games with a customer. Dressed in a white dress, she sat there quietly, only her back visible. Although her silhouette was so simple and pure, in his eyes, it was like a blazing fire, impossible to ignore.

Chen Yuan was suddenly very interested in this anime and quietly made a mental note of the name Wei Zhen had mentioned.

The two played games together, drank ice-cold sodas, and navigated Mario through sewer pipes, immersing themselves in the cheerful atmosphere filled with laughter.

...

"Your time is up. Please take care."

Suddenly, a clear and beautiful voice reached Chen Yuan's ears just as he was taking a short break after clearing a level.

He instinctively turned to look.

He saw the girl in the white dress stand up, bow slightly, and politely bid the customer farewell.

The shy, bespectacled boy stood up reluctantly. "That was really fun, but good times always fly by so fast. School is starting in a few days, so I won't be able to come see you anymore."

"It's alright. You can wait until the next school break."

The girl's voice was flat, betraying no emotion, but he imagined there must be a faint smile on her lips.

Because the boy's expression turned a bit dazed, and his pockmarked face quickly flushed red, looking just like a bumpy apple.

'Seems he really couldn't resist the girl's charm.'

"Okay then, I'll be back tomorrow."

"I'm not working tomorrow, but you can come the day after."

"Okay! I'll definitely be here!"

The boy nodded excitedly and headed for the escalator to the first floor, looking back every few steps.

The girl in the white dress picked up a nearby trash can, grabbed a cloth with her right hand, and began clearing the bottles and cans from the table. The remaining fruit scraps were swept away cleanly and efficiently.

Chen Yuan propped his chin on his hand, watching her movements.

When she turned around, her fair, clean face came into view.

Chen Yuan's eyes widened in an instant. He froze for a moment, then yanked hard on Wei Zhen's sleeve.

"What's wrong...? Hey, I was looking at my achievements!"

"Isn't that...???"

Wei Zhen followed his gaze. He understood at a glance and showed no surprise at all.

"Yep, that's our classmate, Li Bing. Forgot to tell you, she works part-time here too."

"You introduced her?"

"...You had to guess it so accurately, huh? Don't you dare tell the boss! If he found out, he'd beat the crap out of me!"

"Are you crazy? You know Yafeng likes Li Bing, yet you let her get a part-time job at a maid cafe? If Yafeng finds out, how do you think he's going to feel?"

Chen Yuan couldn't understand Wei Zhen's reasoning at all. To put it nicely, this was a legitimate "anime-style companion" cafe. To put it bluntly, weren't they just "profiting from looks"? No wonder the part-time pay was so high—it was earned by selling one's appearance.

"I didn't want to at first, either! But Li Bing herself insisted on coming..."

"What exactly happened?"

"Uhh... well, it's a complicated story."

Wei Zhen pulled Chen Yuan closer and whispered, "You don't know about Li Bing's family situation. It was big news in our little county. Her mom is just a regular factory worker, uneducated, and works really hard... Her old man is still in prison."

To be honest, Chen Yuan had always had a good impression of Li Bing. The most common sight of her he saw in class was this frail-looking girl hunched over her desk, studying, or hugging a few books on her way to the library.

In the cafeteria, he'd often see her carrying a tray with a single, meatless dish, finding a quiet corner to eat alone.

But a person's character is shaped by their family environment, and the root of it all was Li Bing's father. Her dad was one of those idle, low-class youths you find in small counties. Back in the day, the crackdowns on crime weren't as strict, and people like him in the county were generally known as "petty hoodlums."

As a hoodlum, Mr. Li was a textbook case. He was involved in plenty of petty crimes, got picked up by the police a few times, but was usually just detained for a few days before being let go.

Li Bing's mother was also tricked into marrying him by his sweet talk while she was a migrant worker.

Logically, after getting married, he should have settled down and taken care of his family.

But Mr. Li remained a good-for-nothing slacker. Once, he was caught during a burglary. The homeowner gathered a few cousins and beat him to a bloody pulp before handing him over to the police.

After being sentenced, he spent a year and a half in prison.

When he got out, Li Bing was about a year old.

His elderly parents pleaded with Mr. Li to turn over a new leaf—whether it was working at a construction site or in a factory, just earn some money and live a good life with his wife and child. Perhaps after being disciplined by the state, he had some kind of awakening, because this time he really did settle down and get a job.

But the good days didn't last long.

His old, good-for-nothing friends kept pestering him. When Li Bing was in elementary school, Mr. Li was called out for drinks by his buddies. Back then, fights were common at the late-night barbecue stalls in the north. One of his idiot friends started a conflict with someone, and Mr. Li, drunk and wanting to save face for his friend, decided to help.

And in that brawl, someone died.

Although it wasn't clear if he was the one who did it, the police arrested everyone involved except for him—he had changed his name and fled to another city to evade capture. Learning that he had fled out of guilt, all his so-called friends unanimously pointed the finger, claiming that on that day, only Li Bing's father had been carrying a switchblade.

He hid like that for nearly ten years. The scoundrels who had been sentenced back then were gradually finishing their prison terms.

He thought he had gotten away with it and came back, disgraced and dejected, intending to live a quiet life. But then he was arrested in the hallway of his building by plainclothes police officers disguised as repairmen.

After so many years on the run, his crime was considered even more severe.

Li Bing had never enjoyed much fatherly love to begin with, and that brief period of companionship only made her understand an even crueler truth.

So she learned to be mature at a very young age.

But you can't wrap fire in paper. One can only imagine how much bullying Li Bing, who was already not an outgoing child, must have endured in her youth. After she grew up, the news of her father's arrest spread through half the county—it was even in the newspapers. The bullying and scorn from others must have been like a vast ocean.

The only thing she could do—the *only* thing—was study hard and work part-time to support her education.

She couldn't change her origins, so she could only chase the future she dreamed of.

After hearing Wei Zhen's story, Chen Yuan was left speechless.

He looked at Li Bing, who wore only a touch of makeup. The girl was truly beautiful—fair-skinned, with a natural "white moonlight" aura about her, a classic example of delicate and refined features. After putting on this beautiful outfit, she looked like a pampered princess.

A world apart from the girl who usually wore sneakers and old shirts.