“Alright, let’s have another go!”
Gao Wen gritted her teeth, then purchased another dozen hoops!
This time the gang was more cautious. Nobody threw casually as they worked hard to find the right technique.
Having gathered such a crowd in a short time, the surrounding audience grew larger too. Most of them were parents with kids, entertaining themselves by watching the university students’ attempts at throwing hoops.
“Let me do it.” Little Gen stepped forward slowly after taking a deep breath.
At that moment, everyone’s attention was focused on him, which caused him to start breathing raggedly.
“Watch carefully. It’s time to witness a miracle!” The hoop left Little Gen’s hand.
The hoop bounced a few times on the floor, then rolled a few wobbly circles, finally landing on a toy box.
However, it only touched a corner of it so it was not counted.
“Sigh, just a step away. What a pity,” Little Gen sighed regrettably.
Following that, everyone took their turns at it. They were all ambitious, looking down at the trash placed in the front. That caused them to hit nothing at all.
“Damn It!”
They muttered a curse under their breath, then turned around to leave without looking back.
“What’s that? Leaving without even scoring anything? That’s too embarrassing. Boys need to put in the effort for the girls. Don’t let the girls look down on you,” The stall owner shouted from way back.
Seeing that he was being ignored, the stall owner caused a scene. “That little kid just scored a racing car. Could it be that you can’t compare to a kid? There’re so many eyes watching!”
“F*cking idiot!”
“Ignore him. He’s just goading us.”
“Of course I know he’s goading us, but it still feels bad. Just look at that face!”
“I can’t bear with this either. We shouldn’t have even started in the first place. What a waste of money!”
The gang’s originally good mood was tarnished by the experience, which led to their darkening moods.
Ye Lingchen frowned a little. It started as entertainment where everyone just looked for some fun, but now they not only lost their money, they were insulted as well. That owner was going over the line.
At first, he did not want to act, but that owner was just too much of a jerk.
For him to throw the hoops was equivalent to letting him take a free pick of the items. He had no interest in such an activity, hence he left Little Gen and the rest to try it themselves. It was, after all, a form of entertainment for them.
However…it would seem that this stall owner just loved to overstep boundaries!
“Let me try.” Ye Lingchen’s words caught the gang by surprise, causing all of them to give him a weird look.
“We’re students of Capital University after all. We can’t just have them look down on us,” Ye Lingchen said smiling with a confident glow in his eyes. Even without much words, he sounded rather convincing.
The stall owner shook his head in disappointment as he stared at the gang’s silhouettes leaving.
It was rare for him to come across such a flock of sheep, yet he was hardly able to shave much wool off them. ‘What a waste!’
Nonetheless, he was stunned in the next instant, raising his head curiously just to see Ye Lingchen and the gang turning back. His face instantly turned into a charming and gentle smile.
“How was it? You finally thought things through? Ready to continue?” He then took out the hoops, waiting for Ye Lingchen to pay.
“Give me 20,” Ye Lingchen said calmly.
“Alright,” The stall owner answered happily as his heart was in a celebratory mood. This money came too easily. He must have been blessed by fortune that day.
Ye Lingchen did not start immediately. Instead, he gave a profound look at the stall owner, then asked, “Erm…will you cry?”
“Cry?” The stall owner was caught off guard, slightly confused.
After which he pouted, claiming confidently, “I’m not trying to brag, but other than the moment of my birth, I’ve never cried. A real man has no tears!”
“Very well.” Ye Lingchen started to test out the weight of the hoops in his hands.
It was just as he imagined. These hoops were made with special materials. They were elastic and would bounce off when coming in contact with another object. Furthermore, the hoops were quite small, only a little larger than the items at the back. It was difficult to score with them.
“Ye’zi, do your best! Get him!” Xiang cheered nervously.
The others looked at Ye Lingchen as well.
“Sigh, university students are easily provoked. I’m afraid they’re just wasting money again.” The crowd shook their heads in disagreement.
“That’s right. If you flip the words, it spells trap[1]. It’s fine to just play for fun, but one should not get too serious on it.”
“University students are not working. They don’t know the value of money. All that hard-earned money from the parents is wasted just like that.”
The crowd around them started to turn noisy.
Ye Lingchen picked up one hoop. He then smiled, and seemingly gave a random throw.
Clang!
The hoop accurately hooked onto the neck of the crystal swan right at the back.
“F*ck!”
“F*ck!”
“F*ck!”
Countless curses broke out among the crowd. They seemed to have difficulty finding other words.
Even the stall owner muttered the same word as his eyes almost popped out of its sockets.
The students were stunned, the stall owner was stunned, even the crowd around them was stunned.
‘Was…was that for real?’
Everyone unwittingly rubbed their eyes.
“That’s amazing, Ye’zi!” Little Gen’s face was flushed red, roaring loudly and jumping around excitedly.
“Hahaha, we’ve scored! This is unbelievable!” Potato ginned so hard that his lips almost reached the base of his ears. He immediately started shaking his body, breaking into a dance.
“Quick, get the swan over here. It should be worth quite a lot.”
The students immediately felt a sense of relief wash over them and hastily reacted, “He really scored? Is that luck? Amazing!”
“I think he’s an expert. A true expert!”
With that many people watching, the stall owner had no ways to wiggle himself out of this. He could only reluctantly pass the swan over.
“Continue to refill the prizes,” Ye Lingchen said calmly. He then threw another hoop.
Clang!
The hoop landed firmly, perfectly covering the golden pig!
“Pig! Another pig! Wahahaha, coincidentally this is the year of the pig. Good one Ye’zi!”
“Unbelievable! Absolutely amazing!”
“Ye’zi, you’ve hidden your skills quite well. Teach him a lesson! Let’s see if he dares to be so insolent anymore!”
“Owner, continue filling up the prizes. Weren’t you laughing heartily earlier? Why stop? Continue laughing.”
To attract customers, this particular stall owner placed all the good attractive prizes at the back. From a logical perspective, it should be almost impossible to score those.
That was just unrealistic!
With merely two throws, Ye Lingchen had managed to affect the owner badly enough that his face was twitching, at a loss for words.
A little girl ran to Ye Lingchen’s side and tugged at his pants, asking in a sweet voice, “Big brother you’re amazing. Can you help me get that big bear plushie?”
“Of course.” Ye Lingchen smiled, then threw another hoop that landed directly on the bear plushie’s hat!
“Waa, thank you, big brother!” The little girl’s face was red with excitement. Her parents came forward too with an awkward smile on their faces, expressing their gratitude towards Ye Lingchen.
“Big brother, can you help me get that four-wheeled race car?”
“Big brother, I want that toy gun…”
“Big brother…”
…
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[1] 套圈 (Tao Quan/Hoops) and 圈套 (Quan Tao/Trap) uses the same Chinese characters with just a slightly different arrangement of the two.