i was my mistake

There was no one in the elevator, and the two reached the first floor very smoothly.

The rain was still falling, and the street looked a little deserted.

In two days' time it will be New Year's Eve, and many people who came to the provincial capital to work are rushing home by car and train for the last few days.

Ye Chen opened the umbrella and stood in the rain, Wan Qing came from the apartment without haste, stood under the umbrella, and glanced around leisurely.

There are many shops on the street that have already pulled down the shutters, and some carefully pasted a piece of paper on the door, writing the time of returning.

Some also posted Spring Festival couplets, which added a little Spring Festival atmosphere to this street, which was much deserted than usual.

"Which way to go?"

"Here, I seem to have seen it a few times before."

"you sure?"

"It's a big deal, let's go around again, anyway, there must be a game hall."

"Maybe it's closed..."

"Then take a stroll." Wan Qing leisurely put her hands in her pockets and walked forward at a splayed pace.

Compared with the pedestrians who were rushing towards the station, they looked like two people who were going against the trend of the times.

A well-dressed young woman is dragging a pink and white suitcase, holding an umbrella in one hand, and taking small but high-frequency steps; several middle-aged men returning home together, each carrying several red and blue A lined woven bag, with a cigarette in her mouth, talking and laughing, striding forward; a woman in a calico padded jacket led her child, urging her to move forward while carrying big and small bags, and the child was still walking. He was carrying a big bag that didn't match his figure very hard, shaking it.

Is it really important to go home for the New Year?

For someone who hasn't been back to his hometown since his parents passed away, this is a bit incomprehensible.

It may seem like a waste of effort, money, and time.

But this sense of belonging may be really important to countless ordinary people.

No matter how tired I am, I always want to go home all year round.

Even if it is just the wind of the hometown, it is different from other places.

——Wanderers who leave their hometown can always clearly distinguish the difference between there and other places.

"It's getting colder."

"Well, after all, there are many people who want to go back—we will go back in previous years." Ye Chen nodded lightly, "However, it takes several buses to get to my hometown, and I am exhausted."

Wan Qing blinked her emerald green eyes—she really couldn't remember the feeling of taking several buses back to her hometown.

That memory was too far away, like a wind that couldn't be caught at all.

The two of them walked slowly in the rain with their umbrellas in hand. Sure enough, they saw that the game room facing the street was closed, and there was no date written on the rolling gate. Maybe they left in a hurry, or maybe they didn't expect it.

Of course, it is also possible that it will not open next year.

This is the case every year. After a group of shops closed the shutters, the original shop disappeared silently in time. When it opened again, it was another brand new shop.

"Bang--crack--!" A child threw a firecracker in the alley in the rain, causing the adults to roar angrily, and from nowhere, there were scattered fireworks, "Swoo-crack-crack La--"

It's still raining today.

Wan Qing raised her head subconsciously, but she didn't see the fireworks either.

Thinking about it, the weather is probably impossible to see.

——Perhaps the sky is darker, so we can get a general idea.

Living in a big city for too long, I always feel that those New Year's fireworks have nothing to do with me. Even if they sound nearby, they feel as if they are far away.

The two walked for a while, and saw a light sign that was still on.

It says "Game Hall on the second floor" and draws an arrow pointing upwards.

Wan Qing walked ahead on the rusty iron stairs, walked around the half-dead potted plants, and walked to the second floor.

There is a platform on the second floor, covered with a rain cloth, and there are some claw machines and slot machines. Looking towards the main entrance, there are some other game machines that play animations to attract people to play.

It is indeed much bigger than the game room, but compared with those large game rooms with beautiful decoration, bright and clean windows, and many people playing, it is much worse-somewhat rudimentary.

It's somewhere in between.

Wan Qing was suddenly moved by the feeling that she had just arrived in S City that winter, and it took her a long time to find an Internet cafe with a cheap price and a decent environment.

A middle-aged man smoking cheap cigarettes was sitting at the door, and beside him was a color TV about seven or eight inches in size, and he was watching it with gusto.

That thing didn't match the cheap cigarettes in his hand at all.

——It is a portable TV that uses analog signals and can use batteries for battery life. Wan Qing saw it a few times on second-hand trading websites before. Even in that era, it was not cheap, and this thing was not produced in China. , all are imported goods - basically from Japan.

Such a set in this era would cost at least tens of thousands of dollars.

This was Wan Qing's conservative estimate.

"Uncle, do you still open the door?" Seeing that she was in a daze, Ye Chen stepped forward and asked proactively, with an overly friendly smile on his face.

"Huh? It's on, playing games?" The uncle sat up straight and looked away from the TV. "The two little girls are coming to the game hall during Chinese New Year. It's really rare."

"Cough, come out to pass the time."

"Kill the time, relax and relax." Wan Qing said flatly.

"Okay, you can play it if you want, game currency - I'll give you a little cheaper for the Chinese New Year, anyway, no one plays it, ten yuan for one yuan."

"We bought ten yuan."

"Okay." The boss walked into the counter, took out a whole board of game coins, and put them on the table, "There are one hundred here, just right, you can play whatever you want, if you don't enjoy yourself, I can give you a few more later .”

"That's enough, thank you." Ye Chen knew very well that he usually couldn't buy that many. Recently, the price of coins in the game room has increased, and he can only buy five for one dollar, let alone here.

No matter how bad it is, there are a lot of game consoles here. There are all kinds of them. Although there are no racing games, there are also motorcycle racing games-they can also shake from side to side, so you can experience the thrill of racing. of.

Wan Qing readily took out a ten-yuan bill, while Ye Chen stared at the blue-gray bill with two farmers' faces printed on it, until Wan Qing's voice sounded:

"Why are you staring blankly, I'm playing games with game coins."

"oh oh!"

……

92. Only one move

It's not that there are no people in the huge game hall, but it's too big and there are too few people. At first glance, it looks like it's not open for business.

You can still see a few here and there, but they all come alone, sitting in the corner and playing the game of breaking through the level.

But even though there are constantly beating buttons and the sound of game battles, it still makes people feel a little deserted.

"playing what?"

"Look." Wan Qing was not in a hurry, she held a few coins in her hand, tossed them gently up and down, then stood still in front of a dancing machine, "Try this?"

"Uh... this is for girls to play."

"Whatever it is, I haven't played it before, try it."

"Fine……"

The dance machine is for two people to play. It is divided into two halves, and one side needs two coins. The song can be chosen by oneself. Generally, the longest song will be chosen, so that it will not suffer when playing - after all, it is a song once.

However, there were too many coins today, so Wan Qing used the joystick to choose one at random.

The melody was surprisingly familiar.

The rhythm is also extremely fast.

The grid on the dancing machine began to flicker, making the two of them flustered, and their bodies were not coordinated at all, as if they were not their own.

"Ah this... eh? Huh?"

"...It turned out to be a song about scallions." Wan Qing finally recognized the tune, "No wonder it's so fast..."

"I can't keep up!"

"You can't, look... hiss!!"

Wan Qing sprained her ankle.

Ye Chen looked at her a little funny: "Are you okay?"

"Forget about dancing." She rolled her eyes, and stood on the dancing machine for a while, assuming that she spent two coins to listen to the song, and then walked in another direction.

Not all the lights in the game hall were turned on, only the middle circle was turned on, and the lights on both sides were a little dim.

Sometimes when I pass by someone who is playing a game, I realize that there is still someone sitting here.

"Breakthrough?"

"Then play ten coins? It's fine if you can't get through."

"Okay."

Wan Qing sat down and threw in a game coin.

The price of the level-breaker game is basically very cheap, and you can start playing with one coin.

A real master can pass the level with one life and play for an entire afternoon, which can be said to be quite enjoyable, but most people will only spend all their coins on this game.

Conscientious level-breaking games are only a few touches before you die, and there will be blood recovery items. The disgusting ones are just one touch and you will die, and you have to insert coins when you die once. There are no life recovery items...

I haven't played for a long time, and I'm still a little rusty, so I died twice at once.

"Be careful..." Ye Chen felt helpless.

"I'm just warming up."

"Five coins per person, you used two."

"Don't quarrel, don't quarrel... It affects me, do you understand, let your Zhuge Liang move forward."

"what?"

"Blocking my view."

"..."

After all, the two still failed to clear the level. Wan Qing ran out of coins earlier, and Ye Chen obviously couldn't stand it in the next few levels-not as proficient as the previous ones.

The ten coins were quickly spent, and the two looked at each other and decided to play other game consoles.

There seem to be many types of game consoles, but in fact there are only a few of them. What looks interesting is the game console that can simulate shooting with a toy gun. When the trigger is pulled, there will be a more realistic vibration.

"Left, left, left!"

"Hey, hey, up on the right!"

"I hit the one in front and you hit the one behind!"

Wan Qing shook her ponytail behind her and shouted loudly, looking even more excited than Ye Chen.

Her voice in the quiet game hall added a bit of lively feeling.

"Fucking dead again!"

"Continue?"

"Forget it, the one who plays motorcycles!"

"Okay!"

The motorcycle can be shaken from side to side, and the handle can be turned to accelerate. Of course, this thing has no brakes. If you want to slow down, you can only let go of the handle to let it slow down.

If you hit the edge, your blood will be deducted, and you will have to add coins after the deduction is over.

That's right, most games on consoles are cheated like this, and the difficulty is therefore designed to be very high.

Games like Black Soul can be said to be the simplest category in the arcade era.

"Should we buy a motorcycle in the future?" Ye Chen patted the motorcycle seat with some excitement, and easily straddled it.

Wan Qing climbed up with some difficulty, and put the game currency into it: "What are you thinking about?"

"Why, no, I think riding a motorcycle is so cool."

"Well, handsome is handsome, and he dies quickly."

"...A battle?"