It had been a long time since Qiu Li played with others, so after joining the soccer game, he was stiff and awkward. On top of that, he kept trying to pass the ball to Yan Xiao, which only made him seem even clumsier.

They hadn’t been playing long before Bai Xiaozhou and the others grew unhappy.

They didn’t like Qiu Li to begin with—if it weren’t for the fact that Yan Xiao was young, pretty, and sweet, and they didn’t want to upset her, they wouldn’t have let Qiu Li play at all.

Now, seeing how awkward and unskilled he was, they couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Why are you so dumb!” Bai Xiaozhou snapped, stepping on the ball with an annoyed face. “You can’t even kick a ball! Are you a pig or what?”

“Hahaha! Qiu Li’s a dumb pig!”

“A dumb pig!”

“Dumb, dumb, dumb!”

…

A chorus of little voices echoed Bai Xiaozhou, the self-proclaimed leader of the group.

Yan Xiao hadn’t expected things to go in this direction. She looked at Qiu Li, whose little face was tense and pale, and felt a pang of guilt. Honestly, Qiu Li was better at soccer than she was—her legs were short, and she couldn’t run fast. Bai Xiaozhou and the others were clearly just picking on him.

“You can be the goal,” she said after thinking for a moment, pointing to a nearby post. “Just stand over there!”

Qiu Li clearly didn’t want to keep playing with them—his face was white with anger. If they kept going, he’d probably take it out on her later.

But she didn’t want to miss this rare opportunity either. If he stood farther away from the others, just on the sidelines, maybe that would be a good compromise.

Her suggestion delighted Bai Xiaozhou and the others. Bai Xiaozhou laughed gleefully, “Yeah, yeah, perfect! You’re so useless, just stand there and be the goal. That’s probably all you’re good for!”

Qiu Li had played the “goal” or the “target” plenty of times before. Since no one ever wanted to play with him, he used to get excited when someone called him over for something like that. But later, he realized they were just using it as a way to mock, tease, and bully him. They never actually wanted to include him.

He still remembered clearly how much it hurt when soccer balls and homemade darts hit him, and how hard everyone laughed at his misery.

But this time…

He looked at the little girl in front of him, blinking her big eyes and watching him expectantly. Without hesitation, he nodded. “Okay.”

Yan Xiao: “…” Why did something feel… off?

Before she could figure it out, Qiu Li turned and quickly walked toward the spot she’d pointed to.

Yan Xiao grinned.

He walked so fast—he must be fed up with them. This round definitely earned her a bunch of points!

As Qiu Li walked to the designated spot, his expression had softened noticeably.

He could tell—Yan Xiao wasn’t trying to mess with him. She genuinely wanted to play with him.

When he reached the designated spot and turned around, he saw Yan Xiao still watching him, smiling like a sunflower in full bloom.

He blinked, and the tight line of his lips softened into the faintest trace of joy—
She really was different from the others.

[Beep—]

[Congratulations! The value has appeared!]

Just as Yan Xiao stood there deep in thought, the long-awaited data finally popped up from the system.

Her eyes widened in delight.

– Really? How much???

[2 points.]

Yan Xiao’s smile faltered a little, disappointment creeping in.

– Only 2? That’s it?

System: [Every little bit adds up!]

Yan Xiao thought about it—true, if it were that easy to farm points, then her life probably wasn’t worth very much.

– So what’s the max? 100 points?

[It’s 999 points.]

Yan Xiao: “……………………” That high?!

System: [Not really! You earned 2 points in just one week. At this rate, you’ll max out in only 499.5 weeks—less than 10 years. That’s super fast.]

After hearing the system’s calculation, Yan Xiao thought—well, it did make sense.

Less than ten years to earn back a whole life? That really wasn’t bad.

And besides, technically it hadn’t even been a full week. She and Qiu Li had only spent about three days together. If she adjusted for that, then five years might be enough…

Five years!

Yan Xiao perked up instantly.

If she kept working hard, her efficiency would definitely improve!

System: [Keep it up.]

Yan Xiao clenched her little fists, heartened by the mechanical cheer of “keep it up.” She didn’t stop to consider whether constantly farming this level of “dislike” would eventually lead to resistance.

She ran after the ball like an overjoyed little colt just let out of the pen, kicking and chasing with wild enthusiasm.

From the edge of the lawn, Qiu Li quietly watched her, standing tall. Seeing how happy she was, he unconsciously straightened his back and stood even more seriously in his role as the goal.

Seeing Qiu Li standing so stiff and upright like a proper goalpost, Bai Xiaozhou suddenly got playful. He aimed carefully, took a running start, and kicked the ball straight at Qiu Li’s chest.

Bai Xiaozhou was eight—his kick packed a punch. Qiu Li, who had been focused entirely on Yan Xiao and wasn’t paying attention, got hit squarely and was knocked to the ground.

“Yeah!” Bai Xiaozhou cheered, “Goal!”

The other kids followed suit, shouting, “Goal! Goal!”

Still caught up in her excitement, Yan Xiao froze when the sudden change in the situation hit her.

Wait—did he really just get knocked over?

While Yan Xiao stood there stunned, Bai Xiaozhou had already led a pack of noisy kids over to Qiu Li, circling around him and shouting, “Goal! Goal!”

Since Qiu Li had been standing at the edge of the lawn and hadn’t been braced for the hit, he’d fallen awkwardly, scraping his hand on the brick edging. It stung.

Even though he’d heard mocking and jeering plenty of times before, it still felt awful.

He frowned, his little face turning cold.

Just as he was about to glare at Bai Xiaozhou—

“What happened? Why’d you fall down?”

That sweet, childish voice cut through the noise. The moment Qiu Li looked up and saw the little girl calling out to him, his scowl disappeared almost instantly.

Bai Xiaozhou and the others, fast and rowdy, had already swarmed around him. Yan Xiao couldn’t even get through, so she had to call from the outside of the group.

Qiu Li didn’t react much, and when the other boys saw that, they quickly lost interest. Tossing out a few last insults—“Idiot,” “Pig,” “Dumbass”—they scattered and ran off.

With the troublemakers gone, Qiu Li’s face relaxed a little. Seeing Yan Xiao staring at him, clearly worried, he was just about to ask if she’d had fun—when she suddenly frowned, pointed at his scraped hand, and said with a pout:

“You’re so dumb!”

That was the one thing he hated being called the most.

Qiu Li: “…”

Yan Xiao added, “The ball was coming. Why didn’t you dodge it?”

She didn’t like hearing people call him that either.

Qiu Li: “………………”

Was she… worried about him?

Qiu Li blinked. His dark eyes suddenly seemed to shimmer like stars. That unfamiliar, gentle warmth inside him left him a little at a loss. He pressed his lips together and said softly, “I didn’t see it coming.”

Yan Xiao replied, “Go find a servant and get that cleaned and disinfected.”

She hated being told what to do—so she didn’t like telling others either.

“It’s fine,” Qiu Li said, brushing the dirt off his hand. “It’ll heal in a few days.”

Yan Xiao gave him a doubtful look. So stubborn?

Just because he hated being told what to do, he’d ignore a bleeding hand? It was already scraped!

But Qiu Li really didn’t care. He’d scraped his knees worse before—more painful, too. No one had helped him then. No disinfectant, no ointment, and it still scabbed and healed just fine.

Yan Xiao eyed his tight little face. Was he upset again?

“You’re not playing anymore?” Qiu Li looked up at her. The flustered look from earlier had vanished—he’d buried it. His eyes were even sparkling with a bit of excitement, though he was too shy to show it outright, and his expression remained stiff.

But to Yan Xiao, it sounded more like:

Go kick your ball. Get out of my face. You’re annoying me to death.

Thinking of the kind of family the Qiu’s were from—probably had more first-aid kits than she had shoes, not to mention live-in doctors—she didn’t push it. No need to get on his nerves.

She nodded. “On it.”

Just as she was about to leave, Yan Xiao dug into her bag and pulled out a band-aid, holding it out with a straight face.

“Here. For you.”

When she saw him frown at the band-aid—a pink one with little cartoon lambs—like it offended his soul, she felt a surge of satisfaction. Ha! Knew you’d hate it.

She shoved the band-aid into his hand and took off running.

As she ran, she asked the system:

—What’s the value now? Did it go up?

System: [No… oh, wait, it did. You’re at 3 points now.]

Staring at the band-aid in his hand, Qiu Li genuinely felt like… his scraped hand didn’t hurt anymore.

His eyes curved just slightly, the faintest smile tugging at the corners.

The band-aid was adorable.

Just like her.

=^_^=

Author has something to say:

Little Qiu Li: Just… happy (^▽^)
Xiao Xiao: It showed! It showed! So happy I’m spinning in circles!
System: I never said whether the value was positive or negative… eh, whatever. Keep it up.