"Don't be rude, kid!" The stall owner threatened Cheng Nuo fiercely after his soft tactics had failed. "Mind you, the entire Giant Rock Peak belongs to our Wang Village!"
"Oh? You want to fight?" Cheng Nuo said. With a snap of his finger, a group of people stepped out from behind him. They were the rest of the students from the class outings group.
In fact, Qingqing had noticed that something was wrong a few minutes ago. Hence, she had secretly gathered everyone when Cheng Nuo was keeping the stall owner busy.
The 12 of them stood in a line behind Cheng Nuo, sending off a vibe that they were not to be messed with.
The stall owner was taken aback by this situation.
Retreat was not an option because people were watching him. He would certainly lose his face if he were defeated by this bunch of kids. Moreover, he was sure that other people of Wang Village would speak ill of him behind his back if he failed to handle it properly.
Therefore, he had to be brave!
Nevertheless, it was unrealistic to fight seven young men at the same time.
While the people of Wang Village appeared united on the surface, each of them had their own vested interests. Hence, although he could try to suppress his opponents by the name of Wang Village, it was difficult to summon other members for help.
He had to think of a perfect plan.
At this moment, he caught a glimpse of a vacant stall not far away, which gave him a brainwave.
The man changed his attitude and said, "Young man, violence is such a poor way to solve the issue. How about negotiating with me?" He had noticed that Cheng Nuo was the group leader.
Cheng Nuo was not afraid at all with so many people backing him. He asked, "What negotiation?"
"Do you like games?" the man asked, pointing at a bamboo ring toss a few feet away. "We can play ring toss. Each person has ten rings. The one with the highest number of successful tosses is the winner. How about that? If I win, my only condition is that you pack away your stall."
"What if we win?" Xiaoxiao asked, blinking her huge, round eyes.
The man hesitated for a while and said firmly, "If you win, I'll buy all of the remaining snacks at ten times the market price. Deal?"
"Deal!" Xiaoxiao replied cleanly.
Cheng Nuo was speechless.
The man secretly felt pleased.
There were eight packs of snacks left. He would have to pay more than 200 Yuan if he lost according to the deal.
However, he was certain that he would not lose. That was why he was willing to make such a deal that seemed disadvantageous to himself. "Hahaha, little brats, get ready to pack up and leave soon!" He laughed in his heart.
"Who's my opponent?" the man asked as he glanced around the group. His tone was full of confidence.
"Him!" Xiaoxiao said without any hesitation as she pointed at Cheng Nuo.
Cheng Nuo was speechless.
"Alright. Sure!" Cheng Nuo said. He didn't really have a choice.
"Good luck, Cheng Nuo! With your claw machine skills, I'm sure you are an expert at ring toss too!" Xiaoxiao encouraged Cheng Nuo with her fists clenched tightly. "Think about it, ten times the market price! Go get it! I'll give you 50 Yuan worth of snacks if you can win."
"I…" Cheng Nuo opened his mouth but didn't know how to explain himself.
He had never played ring toss before. How was that similar to the claw machine?! "Eh?" Suddenly, Cheng Nuo froze for a second. Then he grinned immediately.
To the ordinary people, ring toss and the claw machine were two different games. But it might not be the same case for Cheng Nuo!
"Okay. Let's start," the man said as he nodded at Cheng Nuo. Then he led the group to the ring toss stall.
As suggested by its name, bamboo ring toss used bamboo rings.
The stall owner would arrange objects like toys, accessories, vases, or ornaments into arrays with the same distance between each item. Although none of them was expensive, it covered a wide range of varieties. Hence, many passers-by would be attracted to this kind of stall.
Usually, 1 Yuan could buy you five to ten bamboo rings, though the price might be higher at tourist attractions. After you paid the money, the stall owner would give you the bamboo rings.
You would be allowed to keep the item if your ring successfully hooped around it. This might seem like an easy game.
"A piece of cake! How's it possible to miss the items?"
Many people had thus unwittingly fallen into the trap of the stall owners with their unfounded confidence and their desire to gain petty advantages.
The bamboo rings were light and elastic. There was a reason why many stall owners had chosen them to be the rings.
Their light weight made them susceptible to external forces, like the wind. Research has shown that the thrower has lower control over his strength if the object being thrown is lighter. Furthermore, the high elasticity of the bamboo rings allowed the ring to bounce off even if the item had been hooped by luck when the ring had just landed. Hence, besides technical difficulties, there was a huge element of luck in such games.
The pair walked towards the stall. The stall owner was a middle-aged man with a green straw hat. Many people were crowding around his stall.
At that moment, a couple was playing, and more than ten people were watching from the side.
After a long moment of measurement, the girl finally tossed the ring out very carefully.
The bamboo ring flew unsteadily through the air and seemed to be falling towards a delicate sun-bonnet. It appeared that the throw was very likely to be successful if nothing went wrong.
Joy emerged on the girl's face. However, just when she was about to boast about that to her boyfriend, the smile on her face froze in the next instant.
There was suddenly a gentle breeze from the mountains. Due to the light weight of the bamboo ring, it was immediately pushed to the side by the wind and landed on the ground.
"I'm sorry, beautiful lady. You didn't get it," the stall owner said with a shrug.
"Lady, gentleman, would you like to give it another try? You may get it in the next try!" the stall owner asked smilingly.
The girl looked interested, but the boy rejected at once. He seemed to have understood the "trap".
The stall owner didn't really mind. He shook his head with a smile and continued to cry out to the other tourists.
"Ring toss, ring toss! 1 Yuan for one ring! Keep the item if you can hoop it! Ring toss!"
As expected, it was much more expensive than in other places. 1 Yuan could only get you one ring.
The man walked forward as if no one was around and said to the stall owner, "Chen, give me and this young brother ten rings each."