Smack, smack, smack, smack...
There were seven or eight onlookers in the hotel lobby. When they leaned in for a closer look, they all broke into enthusiastic applause. Especially the young man who had offered to lend Chen Xu a knife—he clapped with particular vigor, his eyes practically glowing.
Chen Xu was quite pleased with the effect. He believed the viewers in the livestream room had been stunned as well.
He had spent several nights practicing to get his card throwing to the point where he could hit whatever he aimed at. Playing cards were thin and soft; only when spinning at high speed could they slice through a radish.
Making a card spin was not difficult. The hard part was keeping it accurate. If the force or angle was off by even the slightest bit, it could fly who knew where.
And thin playing cards were extremely susceptible to airflow, so there could not be any wind. He could only practice indoors.
For the past several days, he had practiced every night after getting home from work. He had worn out more than a dozen decks of cards and cut his hands several times before reaching his current level.
Within five meters, his hit rate had already exceeded ninety percent.
He walked over, quite satisfied by Dai Zixin's shocked expression. The livestream viewers were probably reacting the same way.
Let's see how you can keep badmouthing me now.
On the surface, he still put on a calm and unruffled act. "See that? That's how you cut it. Every section has to be the same length. If you want to do that, the secret is—"
"Measure it with a ruler."
At that moment, whether in the livestream room or on-site, nobody was listening to his earnest nonsense. All their attention was fixed on the radish with four playing cards embedded in it.
Even the hotel staff on duty in the lobby came over curiously.
One after another, they pulled out their phones and started taking pictures of the radish.
Chen Xu continued, "If you think I did a good job cutting this radish, send me some gifts."
Meanwhile, Dai Zixin watched gifts continuously flood the livestream room, delight appearing on her face as she gave Chen Xu a thumbs-up. Then she remembered the things he had made up about her earlier, and her face immediately fell again.
From her reaction, Chen Xu knew they must have raked in quite a few gifts this round. He was rather pleased with himself; his hard practice over the past few nights had not gone to waste.
After a while, Dai Zixin looked at the livestream comments, and the expression on her face became a little hard to maintain. She hesitated, glanced at him, then finally said, "They... want to see you perform again."
Chen Xu looked a little troubled. "Well..."
Watching his terrible acting, Dai Zixin almost laughed. She cleared her throat and said, "They're quite sincere. Go ahead and perform another one."
Chen Xu understood instantly. "Since Zixin has asked, then let's keep going." As he spoke, he picked up another radish...
After the livestream ended, the two went to Chen Xu's room to split the loot.
"This time, we received over three thousand in gifts."
Dai Zixin took out a notebook and flipped it open. "Including the thousand-plus in gifts I received during my own livestreams over the previous few nights, it comes to around five thousand altogether. Thirty percent is fifteen hundred, so that's seven hundred and fifty each."
When Chen Xu heard that, his expression turned serious as he looked at her. "Having known you for so long, there's something I've always wanted to tell you."
Dai Zixin's face flushed, and she felt inexplicably shy. "You, you shouldn't..."
"You're such a good person," Chen Xu said sincerely.
Dai Zixin's face froze. Blood rushed to her head, but when she saw his earnest expression, all the air seemed to leave her.
All of a sudden, she felt exhausted. She suspected that if she kept getting along with him like this, her mentality would collapse sooner or later.
After a while, she remembered something important and spoke again. "This money might have to wait until after payday before I can give it to you. I bought a lens yesterday, so I'm broke."
"That's fine. Just keep track of it for now."
Chen Xu waved a hand, unconcerned. She was still trustworthy.
He asked about something else. "Oh, right. I heard that if you join an agency, the split is much higher. Up to fifty percent. Is that true?"
Over the past few days, he had looked into the livestreaming industry a little and gained some understanding of it.
Dai Zixin frowned. "I don't like agencies."
Chen Xu nodded. Now that he knew her attitude, he did not try to persuade her further.
After all, the livestream was mainly her thing. At most, he was her partner. It was fine for him to offer suggestions, but he still needed to show basic respect for her decisions.
Dai Zixin glanced at him and explained, "After joining an agency, there are a lot of benefits. You get more exposure, a higher revenue split, and they help operate the stream. But that also means streamers lose a lot of freedom. I don't like that."
She played with her phone as she said, "I stream because I'm interested in it. Seeing my followers increase makes me happy, and I want to stream whatever content I feel like. If I joined an agency and they had to manage everything, it would lose its flavor. There wouldn't be any fun left."
Young and willful indeed.
Chen Xu thought to himself. He could tell her family was probably well-off. Her worries about money likely went no further than not being able to afford the latest phone model.
But why did he feel a little envious?
Having the means to be so willful was really nice.
He stood up and ended the topic. "Let's go. It's about time."
Dai Zixin checked the time. It was only a few minutes until eight, and they would be gathering soon. She jumped up. "Oh no, I still need to go back to my room and get my swimsuit."
Chen Xu picked up the bag containing his swimsuit and opened the door, only to see a woman standing outside, about to knock. She startled him. "Secretary Guo? What are you doing here?"
She was Luo Xiyun's secretary, surnamed Guo. Chen Xu interacted with her fairly often.
"I need to talk to you about something." Secretary Guo spoke, but her eyes looked past him.
Dai Zixin stood behind him. Secretary Guo's gaze made her feel a little uncomfortable, so she said, "You two talk. I'm going back to my room." With that, she slipped away.
Chen Xu noticed Secretary Guo's suggestive expression too, but he did not care much. He and Dai Zixin had been rather close lately, and rumors about them had long been circulating around the company. He could not even be bothered to clarify them.
"Why don't you come in and talk?" he invited.
"No need. Wouldn't want anyone to misunderstand." Secretary Guo smiled meaningfully before getting to the point. "Here's the thing. President Luo hopes this Team Building event will help colleagues open up to one another, so they can work together more smoothly. When we soak in the Hot Spring later, we need someone to liven up the atmosphere and steer the conversation. So I came to find you."
You found the wrong person, didn't you?
Chen Xu was rather stunned. He kept a low profile at the company and rarely said much. Why had Secretary Guo come looking for him? He had never put any points into the talent of livening up the atmosphere.
When he tactfully said he was not good at it, Secretary Guo smiled. "Didn't you do quite well during the basketball game this afternoon? Don't worry, I'll cooperate with you then." With that, she left, not giving Chen Xu any chance to refuse.
Damn it, wasn't this forcing a duck onto a perch?
P.S. I was just a little short of making the rankings. Please send recommendation votes!
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