A Friend in Need

It was rare to have a day off, and Chen Xu was originally thinking about whether to go out for a stroll. He walked to the window, and a gust of cold wind blew in, making him shiver, immediately dispelling the idea.

"It's already winter."

In the blink of an eye, it was already December. The cold air this year came particularly late. There was only a little over a month left before the New Year, and it finally felt like winter.

Thinking of the New Year, his brow furrowed involuntarily.

Two years ago, something happened to his family, and they owed hundreds of thousands, all borrowed from relatives. Although they never urged him, the feeling of owing money to others was not pleasant.

After starting work, he would take out a thousand yuan from his salary every month and send it home to repay the debt. Although the amount was small, he persisted.

He was afraid that if he slackened off, over time, perhaps this debt would never be repaid.

In the past two years, visiting relatives during the New Year had become the most uncomfortable thing for him.

Those relatives never mentioned the matter of asking his family to repay the money, but Chen Xu still felt uncomfortable when facing them.

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

Where can I get money?

He focused on considering this biggest problem in his life.

After the salary increase, he could take out two thousand yuan each month to repay the debt, but it was still too little. It was only more than twenty thousand a year. Relying on him alone, when would he ever finish repaying it?

Too, too slow.

So, he still had to find a way to get money.

Earning money, for some people, was as simple as eating and drinking. Some relied on their background, backed by a lot of resources. Some relied on their brains and abilities, and some relied on boldness and good luck.

But for most people, it was as difficult as climbing to the sky. For example, someone like him, whose family had no money, and who had no outstanding brains or talents, and was timid, afraid of being deceived. He could only use stupid methods, hard work plus the accumulation of time.

Most ordinary people in this country should have come through like this, right?

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

Chen Xu sat in his 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 net, and bounced back, landing in his hand.

Then, he threw it out again. This time, the bouncy ball hit the second horizontal bar of the security net.

The third time, he hit the third horizontal bar.

This bouncy ball was his new toy. Playing like this was really stress-relieving.

Last week, during lunch break, when he was playing with the bouncy ball in the company, Dai Zixin saw him and shouted, insisting on pestering him to film a short video of him throwing the bouncy ball.

He was so pestered that he had no choice but to agree.

The key factor was the lunch that Dai Zixin treated him to.

From then on, Dai Zixin would pester him to film a short video every day. For every video she filmed, she would treat him to a meal.

For the sake of lunch, he naturally agreed happily. Anyway, filming a short video didn't take much time.

He played with the bouncy ball for a while, thinking that since he had a rare day off, he should play a game. There was only one game app on his phone, and that was Werewolf.

This was a kind of board game. Later, a company developed a corresponding APP, which could be played online. He would play a game whenever he was free.

However, he had been working overtime a lot recently, and didn't have the time or energy. After all, starting a game would take at least several tens of minutes, and sometimes it wouldn't end for more than an hour.

He had just picked up his phone when WeChat rang.

The message was sent by Dai Zixin, "Chen Xu, come to XXX quickly, emergency rescue."

"???" Chen Xu replied with a few question marks, asking her what was going on.

Soon, Dai Zixin sent a voice message, "I'm live streaming, and suddenly a lot of barrages are saying that I'm a liar, that those videos are fake, it's making me so angry. Come over quickly and help me clear my name."

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

Another voice message, begging, "Just help me. I finally saved up so many fans, if you don't come, my fans will all be gone."

Chen Xu was unmoved, "The weather is so cold, going out, isn't that too inhumane?"

"I'll reimburse your round-trip ticket, and I'll cover lunch and dinner."

Chen Xu sent another message, "It's been a long time since I had supper."

"Plus afternoon tea and midnight snacks." From her tone, you could tell how much she was gritting her teeth.

Chen Xu perked up and said, "Send me the location."

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

Dai Zixin was actually live-streaming outdoors in such cold weather; she was really willful.

"Over here!" Dai Zixin was waiting in front of a store. When she saw him, she waved excitedly, "You've finally arrived, waaaah—"

Chen Xu ignored her exaggerated expression. After spending half a month with her, he was already familiar with her personality.

She was very cheerful and liked to be funny, or perhaps "eccentric" was a more accurate description.

Once, she imitated some short videos of people making fun of their bosses and went to tease Liu Kun. As a result, Liu Kun put on a stern face, scaring her so much that she dropped her phone on the spot, cracking the screen.

Chen Xu could only express his admiration for this kind of death-seeking spirit.

Fortunately, Liu Kun was just joking with her and even comforted her a little. Of course, in the end, he couldn't help but give her a warning, telling her not to film these things during work hours.

Chen Xu saw that her hands were empty and asked, "Aren't you live-streaming?"

"I'm filming inside. Wasn't I coming out to greet you?" Dai Zixin took his hand and led him into the store.

It was a unique restaurant and bar. Chen Xu had never been to a place like this before and found it quite novel, looking around. It was obvious that the owner had put a lot of thought into the decoration. It felt quite tasteful and comfortable as soon as you walked in.

"Quick, the expert is here, everyone make way!"

Next to the counter, a phone was mounted on a tripod, and several girls were chattering in front of the phone. Dai Zixin shouted loudly, pulling Chen Xu through the crowd.

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

"That's right, this is him in person."

As Dai Zixin spoke, she glanced at the phone and saw that the number of viewers had dropped a lot. She looked at Chen Xu with pleading eyes, "Now, it's all up to you."

Chen Xu nodded to the girls. He had agreed to let Dai Zixin film short videos, but his requirement was that he wouldn't show his face, or if he did, it would have to be pixelated.

However, now it was a live stream, so not showing his face was a bit unrealistic.

Seeing how sincere she was, it wouldn't hurt to show his face.

But how could he prove that those videos were real now? Live streams weren't like pre-recorded videos; many effects couldn't be filmed.

He looked at Dai Zixin, who had a helpless expression, and couldn't help but shake his head. It seemed he couldn't count on her for ideas.

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