Forced Me to Regress, Huh?

Hearing this, Cheng Zhu looked at his sister.

He wasn’t surprised that Cheng You liked Lin Lu.

The voice actress was lively and full of energy, with a versatile voice that could mimic many cartoon characters.

Moreover, she had been the one who suggested going to the arcade and bringing Little Youzi along.

It was no surprise that she had captured the little girl’s heart so quickly.

Children’s affections were straightforward and full of enthusiasm, and they were not shy about expressing them.

Unlike adults, who often beat around the bush, spoke in riddles, or pretended not to be clueless even when they already knew the answer.

“You like Big Sister Little Lu, huh?” Cheng Zhu asked.

“Yeah!”

“Then what about Big Sister Ningning? Don’t you like her too?”

“I like her too, but I like Big Sister Little Lu more!”

“Oh, I see.” Cheng Zhu smiled and patted her head before entering the private room to tell everyone it was time to go.

The arcade they were going to wasn’t far from Cheng Zhu’s family’s restaurant.

As a major city, Hangzhou had numerous commercial districts and shopping malls with arcades.

Before setting off, Shen Minglang said, “I think I’ve been to this arcade before, but I’m not sure if I have a membership card.”

This scumbag often brought girls to arcades to play claw machines and video games. It was a pretty good spot for dates.

Young Master Shen was always generous and usually got membership cards since they were more cost-effective for buying tokens.

It didn’t matter if he couldn’t use up all the tokens on the card in a day.

Next time, he’d bring a different girl to play. He would use them up eventually.

In his past life, Cheng Zhu had often gone to arcades but rarely got membership cards. He was afraid girls would ask him who he had come with if they saw he already had one.

He could only blame himself for running an e-commerce business in Wucheng in his past life, while Little Youzi lived in Hangzhou. Otherwise, he could have just said the card was for taking his little sister out.

On the way, Lin Lu, sitting in Shen Qingning’s passenger seat, looked quite excited.

“It’s been so long since I went to an arcade. I’m going to win ten plushies today!” She enthusiastically set a goal for herself.

“Childish. What’s so fun about arcades? They’re just places for children and young couples,” Shen Qingning said indifferently while driving.

Meanwhile, Cheng Zhu sat in Jiang Wanzhou’s Mercedes-Benz G-Class with Little Youzi, thinking about the commercial value of arcades.

In the early days, opening an arcade had been a lucrative business venture, but over time, it became increasingly unviable.

After all, arcades in the past were more or less tied to gambling.

He looked at Jiang Wanzhou and suddenly remembered. “Didn’t your family use to run an arcade?”

“Yes, but that was many years ago. One of my dad’s friends opened it, and our family invested some money. But later, due to some issues, things didn’t end well,” Jiang Wanzhou recalled.

Hearing this, Little Youzi let out a soft “Wow~”

“What’s up? Do you think owning an arcade is amazing?” Cheng Zhu asked.

Little Youzi nodded eagerly.

“Alright. When I make some money in the future, I’ll open one just for you to play in,” Cheng said with a smile.

“Yeah, right. Opening an arcade isn’t that easy nowadays,” Jiang Wanzhou said.

“Oh? As expected of my childhood friend, you didn’t doubt I’d become rich in the future. Clearly, you think opening an arcade will be a breeze for me, right?” Cheng Zhu teased.

“Go to hell!”

“Hey, watch your language. There’s a child here. Little Youzi, let’s ignore him.” Cheng Zhu covered his sister’s ears.

That said, large arcades were indeed high-risk ventures these days.

In Cheng Zhu’s memory, small arcades had briefly become popular later on.

This type of shop was usually opened near colleges, occupying just one or two shop spaces, at most three. Inside, there were only claw machines, rows and rows of claw machines!

Such shops hardly needed any decoration. The rows of colorful claw machines alone were flashy enough to grab attention.

Some well-run ones could quickly recoup their costs.

But most didn’t last long. After making a quick profit, the owners would transfer the lease and sell the machines secondhand.

The reason this model works at first is that it creates a brief craze among girls, but once the trend dies down, customer flow plummets, and there’s little potential for continued business.

It’s fine for making some quick cash as a short-term venture.

And if a rich second-generation kid is behind it, he can even use the shop to meet a ton of female college students, Cheng Zhu thought.

When they reached the arcade, Shen Minglang went to the front desk and gave his phone number. To his surprise, he really had a membership card here, with over 300 tokens still on it. But he couldn’t remember which girl he had come with last time.

He withdrew all the tokens and handed 50 to each person, including Little Youzi.

“Everyone, have fun. Let me know if you run out, and I’ll recharge.” Boss Shen waved his hand grandly.

Cheng Zhu glanced around at everyone and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

“Little Youzi, take these tokens and go find Big Sister Little Lu. Ask her to help you catch some plushies. You heard her earlier in the restaurant. She said she’s a plushie catching expert.” This scumbag patted his sister gently.

“Huh?” Little Youzi looked up at her brother in confusion, but she still couldn’t resist the temptation of the words ‘plushie catching expert’.

She was too short to play claw machines on her own, so she needed an adult to help her.

Summoning her courage, she ran over to Lin Lu and Shen Qingning.

From a distance, Cheng Zhu watched the two women crouch down and listen to Little Youzi in the noisy arcade.

People passing by couldn’t help but glance their way. The two girls were incredibly beautiful, and the little girl was extraordinarily cute, making them a picturesque scene in the bustling arcade.

They were so beautiful that they didn’t seem like they were here to play. They looked more like they were here to shoot a promotional video.

Finally, Lin Lu took Little Youzi’s hand and set off to catch plushies full of fighting spirit.

With his plan successfully underway, Cheng Zhu trailed leisurely behind them.

Today, Cheng You wore blue denim overalls, while Lin Lu sported tight blue denim shorts that accentuated her long, shapely legs. The snug fit of the shorts highlighted her perfectly round, perky butt.

When she was trying to catch plushies, her upper body leaned forward slightly, and her face almost touched the glass of the claw machine. This caused her hips to tilt upward slightly, creating a beautiful, shapely curve.

Cheng Zhu watched from the side and saw her eyes were extremely focused, as though she wasn’t just catching a toy but locked in a fierce battle with the machine!

But the result? Once, twice, three times, every attempt failed.

The claw of the machine was too loose, and it didn’t even manage to grab a plushie before letting it slip away.

This made Lin Lu feel quite embarrassed.

After all, Little Youzi had been watching eagerly from the side, her big eyes twinkling with stars, filled with anticipation.

And now, all attempts had failed!

“Ahem! This machine’s claw must be faulty. Come on, let’s go catch that lamb instead!” Lin Lu switched to her voice actress mode and mimicked the character Shaun from Shaun the Sheep.

As soon as she got up, Cheng Zhu immediately took over the claw machine she had just used.

He teased playfully, “Hmm, you seemed pretty nervous. The buttons are all sticky. Were you sweating from being too anxious?”

Lin Lu glanced at her palm and said, “Nonsense! Don’t use this one. It’s a scam!”

“Really?” Cheng Zhu replied lightly.

As a frequent arcade goer, he knew very well that the staff could adjust the settings of claw machines.

He had tried before, persisting on a machine, grabbing and grabbing. Eventually, the loose claw tightened up like an eagle’s talon, securing a toy tightly.

There’s a chance! he thought.

Catching toys did require some skill. Many experts shared their techniques online, attracting boys eager to impress girls to learn and practice.

But in practice, it wasn’t that easy.

Fuck, you’re even using math and physics to catch toys? What the hell? It’s too hard!

Teachers couldn’t teach me this stuff, and now you expect me to learn from your posts? Ridiculous!

Cheng Zhu’s personal approach was simple—just follow others.

If the previous player had just caught a toy, he would refuse to play on that machine because the claw would likely loosen up afterwards.

If the previous player had tried several times and still couldn’t catch anything, hehe, sorry, but this toy’s probably mine.

This method wasn’t anything amazing, but it was certainly more effective than just randomly grabbing and hoping for the best.

Moreover, the arcade staff could be helpful in this regard. You could ask the employee in charge of the area to reposition the toys in the machine in more convenient positions to grab.

This was part of their job. They were responsible for tidying up claw machines and arranging the toys in ways that made them seem easier to catch, tricking customers into spending more game tokens.

If a bunch of toys were piled on top of each other, only a fool would try to catch it from this machine.

So if you occasionally asked the staff to do it, some wouldn’t refuse.

Seeing that Cheng Zhu was determined to try his luck with the scam machine, Lin Lu didn’t bother with him.

“Forget about this idiot. I’ll catch a lamb for you!”

Unexpectedly, while she was focused on catching the lamb, Cheng Zhu swaggered over arrogantly and began to implement the second step of his plan.

And in his hand was the piglet that Lin Lu had struggled so hard to catch but couldn’t!

Her mouth slightly parted, her face filled with surprise.

Just as she was about to say something, Cheng Zhu spoke. “Little Youzi, Big Sister Little Lu tried really hard to catch this piglet. She really wanted it, but she was too useless and couldn’t catch it. How about we give it to this silly sister, okay?”