48 Hours a Day

Zhang Heng and Hayase Asuka came across a ring-toss game booth when they visited the night market.

Hayase Asuka held the stinky tofu in one hand, stopped, and watched on with enthusiasm. The owner immediately took the opportunity to promote his game, but his effort was in vain. That was because Hayase Asuka, a Japanese exchange student, could not understand Chinese.

And there was already a couple playing in front of the booth.

The two seemed to want to win the Mi Band. Judging from its packaging, it should be a second-generation Mi Band with a market price of around 120 yuan. If they could win the grand prize, it was no less but a significant profit.

But this kind of game was like the discount bundle sold in a penguin game. The customers would always feel that they had profited from the game if they won something. As for the boss, he would still benefit from whoever visited his booth.

Mini-games like this often came off as innocent and straightforward, but they were far more complicated than one could imagine.

For instance, the booth owner would usually put the most valuable prize the furthest and the unworthy ones closer to the customers. It was an attempt to tempt the players into aiming for the valuable prizes that were a lot further to reach. Furthermore, the valuable prizes were generally larger and more challenging to get a ring on them. The ring was designed to be very light in weight, making it was hard for the players to control their throw. It was made out of a material with great elasticity as well, usually bouncing off the surface it hit.

The couple spent 20 yuan on buying ten rings. Unfortunately, none managed to put the ten rings on the grand prize. Their rings managed to graze the packaging a few times, but the owner wasn’t worried at all. In fact, he still wore a smile, as if encouraging the couple to keep playing until they bagged the grand prize. When the young couple threw their last ring, the boss saw their frustrated looks. He then waved his hand at them and kindly gave them two consolation prizes—two One Piece keychains. Eiichiro Oda would probably be wondering just when did he authorize a random game booth to sell his One Piece merchandise. When the boss asked them to try again, the couple rejected his offer. So, the boss smiled and watched the dejected pair walk away from his booth. He then stuffed the 20 yuan hustle that came by so easily into his pocket.

Zhang Heng then asked Hayase Asuka in Japanese, “What do you want?” “The little rabbit is adorable, but the foreign student dormitory does not allow us to keep any pet there.” The latter looked at the rabbit in the cage and moaned with disappointment, “but this game looks entertaining. How much does it cost to play?”

Zhang Heng translated the amount of money needed to play this game to Hayase Asuka, and she quickly took twenty yuan out from her wallet.

“Oh, she’s not from around here!” The boss overheard the two conversings in Japanese. He took the money from them, once again wearing his ear-to-ear smile, “I will send you two extra rings.”

Zhang Heng then passed the rings to Hayase Asuka.

After receiving the plastic rings from Zhang Heng, she looked at the prizes on the ground. The first thing she laid her eyes on was the rabbit cage. She wished she would get to keep the little rabbit in her room. Thus, realizing it would be a somewhat impossible endeavor, she fixed her eyes on the Kingston 64GB flash drive. No matter the woman’s nationality and age, they were always good at choosing what they desired. This was probably one of a woman’s hidden talents.

Although there were various prizes on offer, most were useless objects produced by some small factories, save for the Mi Band used as a gimmick to attract customers. The second prize would be the flash drive.

The market price of the flash drive was about 70 yuan.

Hayase Asuka watched the pair of couples playing earlier, and she knew that tossing a ring on the Mi Band, the prize furthest away from her, was no small challenge. So she took the initiative to lower the difficulty for herself.

She took a look for a long time to aim before throwing out her first ring. Even before she threw the ring out, Zhang Heng knew that she would be winning no prizes today. He caught her bending forward when she tossed the ring, meaning that there was a 100% chance that it would bounce off its target.

The moment the owner saw her throwing technique, he could instantly tell the girl was an amateur who knew nothing about the game. The smile on his face only served to grow. And, of course, he did not forget to console her. “It’s okay! It’s okay! You’ll get the next one.”

Zhang Heng interrupted Hayase Asuka before she could throw the second ring. He then corrected her posture. Hayase Asuka immediately realized that she had made a mistake, sticking out her tongue as a thanks gesture.

Although she corrected her posture, the fact that the plastic rings were too light and difficult to control was not something easy to overcome. Perhaps she wasn’t used to throwing this way, that the second plastic ring landed even further from her target.

Asuka Hayase looked at Zhang Heng again, attempting to seek an answer from Master Zhang. But this time, Zhang Heng could only shrug his shoulders helplessly. This was not rocket science. As long as one got the posture right, the rest would have to be left to skill and fate.

In the end, Hayase Asuka tossed ten rings by herself. But unfortunately, the result almost matched the previous couples that played this game. She eventually gave up on her target and chose a worthless soft toy in front of her. However, she was probably disappointed in herself and failed to land the ring on the easy target too.

Seeing that there were only two rings left with her, a little frustration began to set in.

Zhang Heng suddenly chimed in, “Would you like me to give it a go?”

Hayase Asuka nodded and passed the rings to Zhang Heng.

Holding the rings in his hand, Zhang Heng estimated their weight. He had lived in the West some time ago and was now an expert at using the lasso. He could land his lasso at a bull that was running among the herd. A mini-game like this should come as a breeze.

Zhang Heng threw the first ring in his hand without any preparation. Instead of waiting for the first plastic ring to land on the target, Zhang Heng threw the second ring.

In the end, one of the rings landed on the USB flash drive, and the other ring landed on the Mi Band. These two items were the most valuable prizes at the booth.

The boss counted his money happily at the side, even going as far as to prepare a keychain as the consolation. He did not expect to lose both of his most valuable prizes in a blink of an eye. His face changed immediately. The two rings landed on the prizes accurately, and the boss could not come up with an excuse to disqualify them. It was then that the owner knew that he’d encountered a maestro tonight.

If the ring on one prize, it could be pure luck. However, if he managed to land the rings on two prizes, that was pure skill.

So, the owner could only conclude that the young man in front of him must be a master.

It was not easy to make a living. Zhang Heng heard that some people went as far as buying their own claw machine to practice catching the dolls at home. That said, some people would practice tossing rings at home just to win the prize that they wanted.

Game booths that ran on such a concept was a profitable venture when it had many customers. However, the booth’s owner would occasionally encounter an expert. Most of these were willing to admit defeat. Nonetheless, Zhang Heng showed mercy to the owner. He only decided to help his girlfriend after failing to land a single ring on anything after ten attempts. The owner of the ring stall shook his head and sighed. He then walked over, handed over the prizes to Hayase Asuka, and congratulated the reluctantly grinning girl.

However, the boss could not bear to be the only one to make a loss tonight. So, he decided to drag other booth owners down with him. After that, he gave Zhang Heng an idea, “Hey young man, listen to me, there is one more game stall like mine 30 meters ahead. He has better prizes there, more valuable than my Mi Band. You should pay it a visit!”