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It was rare to have a day off, and Chen Xu was thinking about going out for a stroll. As he walked to the window, a cold breeze blew in, making him shiver, and he immediately dismissed the idea.
"It's already winter."
In the blink of an eye, it was already December. This year, the cold air arrived particularly late. New Year's was more than a month away, and it finally felt like winter.
Thinking about New Year's, his brows furrowed involuntarily.
Two years ago, something happened in his family, leaving them in debt by hundreds of thousands, all borrowed from relatives. Although they never urged for repayment, owing money to others was an unpleasant feeling.
After starting work, he would send home one thousand yuan from his monthly salary to pay off the debt. Although this amount was small, he persisted.
He was afraid that if he slacked off, maybe he would never be able to repay that debt.
Over the past two years, visiting relatives during New Year's had become the most distressing thing for him.
Those relatives never mentioned the money, but Chen Xu still felt uncomfortable facing them.
His biggest wish now was to pay off the debt quickly. Otherwise, he would always feel like he couldn't hold his head high in front of his relatives.
Where could he find money?
He focused on considering this biggest challenge in his life.
After a raise, he could put aside two thousand each month for the debt, but it was still too little—just over twenty thousand a year. Relying solely on him, who knew when it would be paid off?
Way too slow.
So, he still needed to find a way to make money.
For some people, making money was as simple as eating and drinking. Some relied on family background and abundant resources; others relied on intellect and ability, or boldness and luck.
But for most people, it was as difficult as climbing a mountain. Like him, with no family money, no outstanding intellect or talents, and a timid nature, afraid of being cheated, he only had the clumsy way of hard work and accumulating over time.
Probably most ordinary people in this country survived this way.
However, Chen Xu was luckier than most people. With that virtual dream device, he had many more options in life.
Chen Xu sat on the computer chair, holding a bouncy ball in his hand, and threw it out of the balcony. The ball accurately hit the bottom horizontal bar of the stainless-steel security screen, bounced back, and fell into his hand.
Then, he threw it again. This time, the bouncy ball hit the second horizontal bar of the security screen.
The third time, it hit the third horizontal bar.
This bouncy ball was his new toy, and playing like this was really stress-relieving.
Last week, during lunch break, while he was playing with the bouncy ball in the company, Zixin saw it and made a fuss, insisting on filming short videos of him throwing the bouncy ball.
He was pestered so much that he had to agree.
The critical factor was the lunch Zixin treated him to.
Since then, Zixin would pester him every day to film a short video. With each video, she would treat him to a meal.
Considering the free lunch, he happily agreed. Anyway, filming a short video didn't take much time.
He played with the bouncy ball for a while, then thought that with a day off, he might as well play a game. On his phone, there was only one game app, and that was Werewolf.
It's a board game, and later, a company developed a corresponding app for playing online. He would play a round when he had free time.
However, he had been working overtime recently and lacked the time and energy. After all, one game takes at least dozens of minutes, and sometimes it could last over an hour without ending.
Just as he picked up his phone, WeChat rang.
The message was from Zixin, "Chen Xu, hurry to XXX, it's an emergency."
"???" Chen Xu replied with a few question marks, asking what was going on.
Soon, Zixin sent a voice message, "I'm live streaming, and suddenly, many comments are calling me a fraud, saying the videos are fake. I'm furious. Hurry over to clear my name."
Chen Xu replied, "No way, I finally have a day off. I need to rest at home."
Another voice message arrived, pleading, "Please help me out. I worked so hard to gather these followers, and if you don't come, they'll all unfollow me."
Chen Xu remained unmoved, "Isn't it inhumane to go out in such cold weather?"
"I'll reimburse your round-trip ticket, and lunch and dinner are on me."
Chen Xu sent another message, "I haven't had a supper in ages."
"How about afternoon tea and supper?" In this voice message, she sounded as if she was gritting her teeth.
Chen Xu's spirits lifted, and he said, "Send me the location."
......
Half an hour later, Chen Xu arrived at the destination, on a street not far from the company.
In such cold weather, Zixin had actually gone outside to live stream, how reckless.
"Over here." Zixin was waiting in front of a store, waving excitedly when she saw him, "You finally made it, boohoo—"
Chen Xu ignored her exaggerated expression. After a fortnight of interaction, he was familiar with her character.
She was cheerful and liked to joke around; perhaps "quirky" was a more accurate description.
Once, she imitated some prank videos targeting superiors and went to tease Liu Kun. As a result, Liu Kun's face turned stern, scaring her so much that her phone fell to the ground, and the screen cracked.
For such daredevil spirit, Chen Xu could only say he admired her.
Fortunately, Liu Kun was just joking with her and even comforted her a bit. Of course, he ultimately gave her a piece of his mind, telling her not to film such things during work hours.
Seeing her empty-handed, Chen Xu asked, "Aren't you live streaming?"
"It's being filmed inside. I came out to greet you," Zixin said, pulling his hand into the store.
Inside was a themed restaurant-bar, and Chen Xu hadn't been to such a place before, finding it novel and looking around. It was clear the owner put a lot of effort into the decoration, and it felt quite tasteful and comfortable upon entering.
"Make way, the expert has arrived."
By the counter, a phone was mounted on a tripod, and several girls were chatting excitedly in front of it. At Zixin's shout, she pulled Chen Xu over.
The girls looked at Chen Xu curiously, asking, "Is this the expert from your videos?"
"That's right, this is the man himself."
As Zixin said this, she glanced at the phone, seeing that the number of viewers had dropped considerably. She looked at Chen Xu with pleading eyes, "Now, it's all up to you."
Chen Xu nodded in acknowledgment to the girls. He had agreed to let Zixin film short videos with the condition that he wouldn't show his face, and if he did, it had to be pixelated.
However, it was a live stream now, and not showing his face was a bit unrealistic.
Seeing how sincerely she pleaded, it didn't matter if he showed his face a little.
But how to prove those videos were real? Live streaming wasn't like pre-shooting; many effects couldn't be captured live.
Seeing Zixin's pleading face, he couldn't help but shake his head. It seemed he couldn't rely on her for ideas.
His gaze swept the dining area and noticed a dartboard hanging on the left wall, and he had an idea.
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