Chapter 40: It Is All Games and Tricks

According to Chen Xu’s observations, the diameter of the dartboard was around 50 centimeters. The area he would have to hit was less than one percent of that size, probably a little smaller than a bottle cap.

He aimed and threw the dart in his hand.

Dai Zixin held the phone as her heart thumped right up to her throat. Seeing the dart with its red tail tightly stuck in the triple-zone of the number 20, she shrieked excitedly, “He got it! He hit the target!”

After squealing a few times, she remembered that she was live streaming. She pointed the camera towards herself and said, “Did you guys see that? He shot the dart right on target.”

“The camera is too shaky, and I can’t see shit.”

“This doesn’t count!”

“Yeah, we didn’t see a single thing. Who knows if you guys placed the dart by hand when we weren’t paying attention? Do it again.”

All at once, there was this tsunami of replies saying, “Shoot again…”

Dai Zixin argued back with her logic, “He is the one who hit the target, I saw it with my own eyes.”

Chen Xu went over and told her, “Forget it. So be it. Go stabilize the rack.”

After he said that, he caught a glimpse of someone’s reply on the screen that said, “Bouncy man is an honest person…” The corners of his eyes twitched. Why were there still people mentioning that unfortunate nickname?

“Today, I will prove to you the truth.” His heart was enraged as he thought about getting rid of this nickname as soon as possible.

“But he really did hit it…” Dai Zixin kept on muttering as she placed her phone back on the rack and adjusted the shooting angle.

“Here I go.” Chen Xu once again picked up a dart and hurled it at the dartboard.

From a distance of three meters, hitting a bottle cap-sized target was no big deal for him. If it were a bouncy ball, he wouldn’t even have to aim—

“Ugh, why did I think of that god-forsaken bouncy ball again?” he wondered.

The dart firmly stuck in the position where the previous dart had landed.

“He hit it again!” Dai Zixin jumped in excitement. She went in front of the camera and said, “See that? Can’t deny it anymore, right?”

Immediately, someone else donated, “Number 2 in the triple area.”

Chen Xu took a dart, aimed, and threw it all in a single breath.

“He hit it!” Dai Zixin cheered.

After that, several more people donated, and Chen Xu landed every request without any wasted darts.

After a while, Dai Zixin realized that no one was donating anymore. Instead, her screen was full of exclamation marks.

“What’s going on?” She thought something was wrong.

“People living in cities surely are cunning.”

“Hello, is this 110? We have con artists here fooling people into donating. They are utterly devoid of a sense of conscience.”

“Bouncy man’s dart throwing is so-so, but his acting skills, on the other hand, I have to commend him for that.”

“And the streamer as well. Their collaboration is too friggin professional.”

“That question of skepticism, in particular, is really profound. Miss streamer, you have wasted your talent here live streaming. You would be better off being an actress.”

…

The replies in the chat room were all ridiculing them.

Dai Zixin was bewildered seeing these replies. Were they implying that she was acting the same as Chen Xu?

Had that ever happened?

At that moment, Chen Xu came over, and after reading the replies for a while, his mouth fell wide open, “It seems that all of you aren’t very impressed with my dart throwing. Alright then, let’s make things a little more difficult.”

“Sit tight everybody, bouncy man’s gonna do some bouncy acting again.”

“Waiting for bouncy man to perform his new tricks.”

“Well, it is true that your dart throwing isn’t all that impressive. You better work on your acting skills.”

Having glanced at the replies, Chen Xu felt powerless to speak up for himself. He felt that he couldn’t ever get into the streaming industry because he would get so angry with the viewers.

He went to ask for something from the shop employee he’d spoken with before, “Do you have blindfolds here? Or any clean cloth?”

The girl said, “Yep, I’ll go get it for you.”

After a while, she came with a black blindfold that had a pair of cartoon eyes on it, “This is my personal blindfold.”

“Thank you.”

Chen Xu took the blindfold and tested it out by placing it over his eyes. He walked in front of the phone, positioned the blindfold in front of the camera, and said, “This is a completely opaque blindfold. You can have a look.”

After a few seconds, he took the blindfold away and said, “I’m going to blindfold my eyes with this. I’ll still be standing at that position with you guys telling me my target. If I hit the target, you people should donate to the channel, and if I don’t—”

Having said that, he glanced at Dai Zixin next to him and said, “I will publish Dai Zixin’s WeChat account and make sure that everyone here who have donated can add her as a friend. How’s that?”

“Hello?”

Dai Zixin, wanting to escape the situation, said, “But what if you can’t hit your target, and then my WeChat gets exposed?”

Chen Xu shrugged his shoulders, “Well you said it yourself just now, this is your live stream.”

Dai Zixin was rendered speechless.

“Hell yeah, I like this idea.”

“What an interesting way to ask for donations; I will allow it.”

“Is this even a thing?”

The chatroom was barraged with another wave of ridicules. Evidently, nobody believed that Chen Xu could hit the target whilst blindfolded. They thought that he was just using this as a pretense to bait donations for the streamer’s WeChat.

Anyway, Dai Zixin was a certified belle. Nobody would be losing out.

After a viewer pointed this out, others also reacted, and another wave of replies flooded the chatroom.

Chen Xu went to the position where he had thrown the darts previously and said, “I’m only gonna do three shots. Chances are limited. Tell me your requested positions quickly.”

Dai Zixin quickly reported the targets suggested by the first three people who donated, “Number 19 in the triple area, number 1 in the triple area, and a 25.”

Chen Xu quickly found the first two positions, but where was 25?

Before he could ask, the waitress next to him already answered his question, “The green ring just outside the red center.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Chen Xu engraved these three positions in his mind, put on the blindfold, and picked up the first dart.

At that moment, the activity attracted many of the shop’s customers, especially when they saw Chen Xu putting on the blindfold. These customers couldn’t contain their curiosity and came over to watch.

Chen Xu held the dart with three fingers and aimed based on memory. Throughout the entire process, the people around him were all infected by the atmosphere and became tense. Nobody made a single sound.

“First to go. Number 19 in the triple area.” Immediately after Chen Xu reported the position, he threw the dart in his hand.

“Wow,” the customers watching exclaimed in unison.

“He got it!” Dai Zixin’s voice was a little shaky as her heart surged with excitement.

Then, Chen Xu picked up another dart. Promptly, the people around him became quiet once again.

“Number 1 in the triple area,” he reported the position and did his thing again.

“Wow—”

The exclamation he harvested this time was much louder than the one before.

Not only those customers, but even the girls who had been there the whole time were startled.

Dai Zixin held her hand over her mouth as her pupils enlarged to their maximum diameter.

It didn’t end there. Chen Xu once again picked up another dart and yelled, “A 25.” Before his voice even faded, the dart in his hand warped into a bolt of lightning and hit firmly on the green ring area around the red center.

Clap clap clap…

Everyone around him applauded for his wonderful performance.

On the phone, the chatroom had unknowingly become empty. There was not even a single reply.

After a few seconds, oodles of replies poured in all at once with numbers exceeding that of any time before.