Chapter 38

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was a rare day off, and Chen Xu initially thought about going out for a walk. He walked to the window. A gust of cold wind breezed in, sending shivers all across his body and immediately dispelling his idea.

“It’s winter already.”

In the blink of an eye, it was already December. This year, the cold had come unusually late. It only felt like winter a little over a month before the Lunar New Year.

Thinking about the Lunar New Year, he frowned unconsciously.

Two years ago, something had happened to his family, and they ran into a hundred-thousand-dollar debt, all of which they had borrowed from their relatives. Although his relatives never urged his family to pay their debts, it didn’t feel good to owe money.

After working, he would send a thousand dollars out of his salary home every month to help pay off the debt. Although the amount was little, he still insisted on doing so.

He was afraid that if he became sluggish, as time went on, perhaps the debt would never get paid off in full.

For the past two years, going to his relatives’ houses had become the most uncomfortable thing for him during the Lunar New Year.

His relatives had never mentioned anything about his family paying back their money, but Chen Xu still felt uncomfortable whenever he was facing them.

Now, his biggest wish was to quickly pay off the debt. Otherwise, he would always be unable to lift his head in front of his relatives.

Where could he find the money?

He focused on thinking about the biggest problem in his life.

After getting a salary raise, he could take out 2000 dollars every month to pay off the debt. But it was still too little. It was still only around 20 plus grand each year. If his family depended on him alone, the time when they would become debt-free would be a long way off.

It would be too slow.

Therefore, he still had to figure out a way to earn more money.

For some people, earning money was as easy as eating and drinking. Some relied on their family background and their abundant resources, some relied on their brains, while some relied on their boldness and fine luck.

But for most people, it was very, very difficult. For instance, someone like him that came from a poor family wasn’t blessed with extraordinary intelligence nor talents, and even more so, he was timid and afraid of being conned. He could only earn money through dumb ways and accumulate money with hard work and time.

Most ordinary people in the country were the same way.

However, Chen Xu was luckier than most people. With the virtual dream gear at hand, he had many more options in life.

Chen Xu sat on the computer chair, held a bouncy ball in his hand, and threw it over the balcony. The ball hit the bottom bar of the stainless-steel burglar mesh squarely, bounced back, and landed right in his hand.

Then, he threw it out again. This time, the bouncy ball hit the second bar from the bottom of the burglar mesh.

On the third time, he hit the third bar from the bottom.

This bouncy ball was his new toy. Playing with it in this way was especially relaxing.

Last week, during lunch break, when he was playing with his bouncy ball in the office, he was spotted by Dai Zixin, who then bugged him and insisted on shooting short videos of him throwing his bouncy ball.

He was helplessly pestered and could only agree to her.

The thing that played a key role was the lunch that Dai Zixin had treated him to.

Since then, Dai Zixin had been pestering him every day to shoot a short video. Every time she took a video, she would treat him to a meal.

For the sake of the free lunch, he naturally agreed to her joyfully. After all, shooting a short video wouldn’t take him much time.

After playing with the bouncy ball for a while, thinking that today was a rare day off, he thought that he should play a match. In his phone, there was a game app called “Werewolves’ of Miller’s Hollow”.

This was a kind of board game whose company later developed a corresponding application that allowed its players to play online. He would usually play a match when he was free.

However, he had been working overtime recently and had no time nor energy for it. After all, a match would take at least ten minutes. Sometimes, it wouldn’t end even after an hour.

Just as he picked up his phone, his WeChat buzzed.

The message was from Dai Zixin, “Chen Xu, come to XXX, quickly! This is an emergency!”

“???” Chen Xu replied with a few question marks, asking her about what had happened.

Promptly, Dai Zixin sent him a voice message, “I was live streaming, and all of a sudden, many people started leaving replies about me being a phony, and that those videos are all fake. I’m so pissed! Please come here quickly and help me redeem my name.”

Chen Xu replied, “I’ll pass. This is a rare day off. I want to rest at home.”

Another voice message came, pleading with him, “Please just help me. I worked so hard to gather so many fans. If you don’t come, my fans will all be gone.”

Chen Xu didn’t budge, “The weather is so cold now. Isn’t it too inhumane of you to ask me to go outside?”

“I’ll reimburse your round-trip ticket. Lunch and dinner as well.”

Chen Xu sent another message, “I haven’t had supper in a very long time.”

“Including afternoon tea and supper.” From this voice message, one could tell how desperate she was.

Chen Xu had his spirits raised as he said, “Send me your location.”

…

After half an hour, Chen Xu arrived at the destination. It was on a street not far from the company.

Dai Zixin went live streaming outdoors in such cold weather. She was a capricious person indeed.

“Over here.” Dai Zixin was waiting for him in front of a shop. Upon seeing him, she waved her hands agitatedly, “You finally came, boohoo—”

Chen Xu ignored her melodramatic expression. Having known her for two weeks, he was already familiar with her personality.

She was very cheerful, she liked to be funny, and perhaps she could best be described as “childish”.

Once, she had wanted to mimic some short videos of people pranking their superiors, and she went on to tease Liu Kun. In the end, Liu Kun gave her a solemn look, and she got so terrified that she dropped her phone on the ground right on the spot and cracked her screen.

Towards her dauntlessness in seeking death itself, Chen Xu could only express his admiration.

Fortunately, Liu Kun had only been joking with her, and he even tried to comfort her. But of course, he reminded her, in the end, to not shoot the videos during office hours.

Seeing that she had nothing in her hands, he asked, “Aren’t you live streaming?”

“I am, inside. I came out just to greet you alright.” Dai Zixin grabbed his hands and pulled him into the shop.

It was a specialty bar. Chen Xu hadn’t been to this kind of place before. He felt that it was refreshing and kept on looking around. He could tell that the shop owner had been very attentive in decorating the shop. He thought that it was classy and comfortable from the moment he went in.

“Quick, the pro is here. Scram.”

Next to the counter, a mobile phone was mounted on a tripod, and several girls were talking in front of the phone. Following a loud whoop, Dai Zixin squeezed in, dragging Chen Xu along.

The few girls looked at Chen Xu curiously and asked, “Is this the master in your videos?”

“Yup, this is him.”

As Dai Zixin talked, she glanced at her mobile phone. Seeing that the number of viewers had dropped substantially, she looked at Chen Xu with pleading eyes, “It’s all up to you now.”

Chen Xu nodded to the girls and promised to let Dai Zixin shoot a short video. His request had been to not reveal his face, and even if she did, it had to be pixelated.

However, since it was a live stream now, it was a little unrealistic for him to not show his face.

Seeing that she was so sincere, showing his face wasn’t be that big of a deal.

However, how should he prove that those videos were real? Live streaming wasn’t like pre-shooting. Many effects could not be included.

He looked at Dai Zixin’s face that was longing for help. He couldn’t help but shake his head on the inside. It seemed that he couldn’t count on her to come up with an idea.

As his eyes swept across the restaurant, he saw a dartboard hanging on the left wall. An idea popped into his mind.