Emergency SOS

On his rare day off, Chen Xu had originally considered going out for a stroll. But when he walked to the window, a blast of cold wind swept in and made him shiver. He immediately abandoned the idea.

"It's winter already."

It was December before he knew it. This year's cold air had arrived especially late. With just over a month left until Chinese New Year, it was only now beginning to feel like winter.

Thinking of Chinese New Year, he unconsciously frowned.

Two years ago, something had happened to his family, leaving them hundreds of thousands in debt, all borrowed from relatives. Although they had never urged repayment, owing other people money was never a good feeling.

After starting work, he had set aside a thousand yuan from his salary every month and mailed it home to repay the debt. The amount was small, but he had kept at it.

He was afraid that if he ever slackened off, given enough time, the debt might never be repaid.

For the past two years, visiting relatives to offer New Year's greetings during Chinese New Year had become the thing he dreaded most.

Those relatives had never brought up repayment, but Chen Xu still felt uncomfortable all over whenever he faced them.

His greatest wish now was to pay off the debt as soon as possible. Otherwise, he would never be able to hold his head up in front of his relatives.

Where was he supposed to get the money?

He began seriously considering the greatest problem of his life.

After his raise, he could put aside two thousand yuan every month to repay the debt, but that was still far too little. It only came to a little over twenty thousand a year. Relying on himself alone, how long would it take to pay it all back?

Way, way, way too slow.

So he still had to find a way to make money.

For some people, making money was as easy as eating and drinking. Some relied on their family background and vast resources. Some relied on their brains and abilities, while others relied on boldness and good luck.

But for most people, it was harder than climbing to the heavens. People like him, for example: no money at home, no exceptional intelligence or talent, timid too, afraid of being scammed. The only option was the stupid method—working hard and accumulating time.

Most ordinary people in this country probably lived like that.

Still, Chen Xu was luckier than most. With that Virtual Dream Device, his life had gained many more choices.

Chen Xu sat in his computer chair, holding a bouncy ball in his hand. He threw it toward the balcony. The ball accurately struck the lowest horizontal bar of the stainless-steel security grille, bounced back, and landed in his hand.

Then he threw it again. This time, the bouncy ball struck the second horizontal bar of the security grille.

On the third throw, it hit the third horizontal bar.

This bouncy ball was his new toy. Playing with it like this was incredibly stress-relieving.

Last week, while he was playing with the bouncy ball at the office during lunch break, Dai Zixin saw him. She made a huge fuss and insisted on pestering him to film short videos of him throwing it.

Unable to withstand her pestering, he had no choice but to agree.

The lunch Dai Zixin treated him to had played the key role.

Ever since then, Dai Zixin had pestered him every day to film a short video. For every video they filmed, she would treat him to a meal.

For the sake of lunch, he naturally agreed gladly. Filming a short video did not take much time anyway.

After playing with the bouncy ball for a while, he thought that since he rarely had a day off, he might as well play a game. There was only one game on his phone: Werewolf.

It was a tabletop game, and later a company developed a corresponding app so people could play it online. Whenever he had free time, he would play a round.

Recently, however, he had been working overtime all the time and had neither the time nor energy. A single game took at least dozens of minutes, and sometimes it could not be finished even after more than an hour.

He had just picked up his phone when WeChat chimed.

The message was from Dai Zixin. "Chen Xu, hurry to XXX. Emergency SOS."

"???" Chen Xu replied with several question marks, asking what was going on.

Very quickly, Dai Zixin sent him a voice message. "I'm livestreaming, and suddenly a bunch of comments started saying I'm a liar, that those videos are fake. I'm so mad. Hurry over and help clear my name."

Chen Xu replied, "No. I finally have a day off. I need to rest properly at home."

Another voice message came, pleading, "Just help me out. I worked so hard to build up this many followers. If you don't come, all my followers will disappear."

Chen Xu remained unmoved. "It's so cold outside. Making me go out is a little inhumane, isn't it?"

"I'll reimburse your round-trip fare, and lunch and dinner are on me."

Chen Xu sent another message. "I haven't had a late-night snack in a long time."

"I'll add afternoon tea and a late-night snack." From the voice message, he could hear how gritted her teeth were.

Chen Xu perked up. "Send me the location."

Half an hour later, Chen Xu arrived at his destination, on a street not far from the company.

In weather this cold, Dai Zixin had actually come outdoors to livestream. She really was willful.

"Over here." Dai Zixin was waiting in front of a shop. When she saw him, she waved excitedly. "You finally came, boohoo—"

Chen Xu ignored her exaggerated expression. After spending the past half month with her, he had already become familiar with her personality.

She was cheerful and liked fooling around. Or perhaps calling her an airhead would be more accurate.

Once, after imitating some short prank videos about messing with bosses, she had gone to tease Liu Kun. Liu Kun had merely put on a stern face, and she had been so scared that she dropped her phone on the spot, cracking the screen.

Chen Xu could only say that he admired that kind of death-seeking spirit.

Fortunately, Liu Kun had only been joking with her and even comforted her a little. Of course, he could not avoid giving her a warning in the end, telling her not to film such things during work hours.

Seeing that her hands were empty, Chen Xu asked, "Weren't you livestreaming?"

"They're filming inside. Didn't I come out to welcome you?" Dai Zixin pulled him into the shop by the hand.

Inside was a specialty restaurant-bar. Chen Xu had never been to a place like this before and found it rather novel, looking around at everything. It was obvious the owner had put a lot of thought into the decor. It felt tasteful, and the moment he entered, he felt comfortable.

"Hurry, the expert is here. Make way."

Beside the counter, a phone was mounted on a tripod, and several girls were chattering in front of it. With a shout, Dai Zixin dragged Chen Xu over and squeezed into the group.

The girls all looked curiously at Chen Xu and asked, "This is the expert from your videos?"

"That's right. He's the real deal."

As Dai Zixin spoke, she glanced at the phone. Seeing that the viewer count had dropped considerably, she looked at Chen Xu with pleading eyes. "Now it all depends on you."

Chen Xu nodded to the girls. When he had agreed to let Dai Zixin film short videos, his condition had been that his face would not be shown. Even if it was, it had to be blurred.

But this was a livestream now, so staying off-camera was a little unrealistic.

Considering how sincere she had been, showing his face briefly was no big deal.

But how was he supposed to prove those videos were real? A livestream was unlike filming in advance; many effects could not be captured.

He looked at Dai Zixin's helpless face and could not help shaking his head inwardly. It seemed he could not count on her for ideas.

His gaze swept across the restaurant and landed on a dartboard hanging on the wall to the left. An idea came to him.