173 The Gift 7 (1/2)

Xiu Ling led Lin Kang to an arcade. She said excitedly before she walked into the store, ”I've always wanted to visit a place like this when I was a child but mum was too poor to bring me.”

Looking at the childish and pure joy that lit up his wife's face, Lin Kang felt overwhelmed by emotions. He wished he could be thrown back in time to Xiu Ling's childhood so he would be able to help her fulfill the dreams that failed to realize when she was young. Knowing that was impossible, he settled with the second best, which was to make her dreams come true in the present.

With that purpose in mind, Lin Kang followed Xiu Ling to enter the arcade. Honestly, Lin Kang could not remember the last time he visited a place like this, he was normally too busy with work to permit himself such entertainment.

Therefore, his impression of the place was still stuck in the time of his youth where arcades were seedy places for high schoolers to play truancy and you couldn't see too far ahead of you due to the thick haze of cigarette smoke and dim lighting.

However, after the governmental intervention, things had cleaned up aplenty. In fact, arcades could be considered to be one of the few places which had not been left behind by the flow of passing time.

Surprising Lin Kang, the arcade that they visited that day was clean and modern. As small as the place was, it was well-furbished and nice. The walls were painted white and there was even air-conditioning. Various assortments of arcade machines lined the walls. There were the old arcade games from his childhood and some newer ones that he had not seen before.

Machines that were meant for more than one players like air hockey and fighting games dominated the centre of the store.

Lin Kang looked around the place and failed to spot the manager. He then realized the place was fully automated. There was a machine to exchange game tokens so technically everything was self-service.

Lin Kang was impressed by how advanced things were.

Since it was a weekday afternoon, there was no one else in the arcade, they were left all alone. Lin Kang stopped beside his wife and asked, ”What would you like to play first?”

Xiu Ling looked around the place and her eyes lit up with interest. Lin Kang had not seen his wife this excited before and he felt like kicking himself for not bringing her here for their date from the very beginning. He remembered this detail about his wife, hoping to put it to good use in the future.

Even though Xiu Ling wanted to play all the games eventually, the first thing that caught her interest was the crane machine. With a token or two, you would be able to operate the crane inside the machine to hook the item that you want. The prizes offered were normally either stuffed dolls or model cars to cater to both genders.

”How about that?” Xiu Ling pointed at the row of crane machines.

”Sure.” Lin Kang walked over to the exchange machine to trade for game tokens while Xiu Ling went to pick out the machine that she liked.