章節 51: Ch.50: Violin with breakdancing?!

At a busy food street downtown, many small vendors hollered at the pedestrians coming and going to buy their kebabs or other wares and it painted a lively picture. It seems that no matter which city or town a person goes to, the food streets were always the place for large crowd gatherings.

According to Huo Lin'er, there was a separate square dedicated to performers in the middle of the street and she had seen dragon and lion dances, yo-yo performances, and so on. During holidays, one even has to apply for a permit to use the venue. There were even fights that broke out to compete for the right to use the venue.

That serious? Wen Jiexi thought to herself.

Since it was a workday, especially on a Monday, they didn't encounter such troublesome matters. As it was the first day of the workweek, the flow of people was a lot less than usual but there was still a crowd going through the area and they were lucky no one was competing with them for the sport.

The four people in animal costumes immediately caught the crowd's eyes as they stood in the middle of the square. Among them, a woman in a deer costume stood up and began to play the violin that started out slow before becoming more and more impassioned.

Passersbys who originally stopped to gawk at the four dressed in ridiculous costumes realized that it was just some violin playing in the end. Those who understood music would stop to enjoy the playing, but most of them walked by with a look of disinterest. Just as the crowd was about to walk away entirely, the girl in the sheep costume suddenly did a backflip at the sound of a high note and immediately regained everyone's attention.

Violin with….breakdancing?! Now that was an intriguing combination.

The girl was extremely agile and flipped forwards and backward many times. She then stepped onto one of the other girls' hands and flipped into the air, spinning many times before landing steadily. Then, the most exciting part happened next. They watched as the girl balanced her body with one hand on the ground and then spun her entire lower body into the air. Her hands moved quickly and she moved at a fast speed before doing another reverse spin into the air. It was almost hard to see her movements clearly as her feet danced like a whirlwind in the air.

"Woohoo!"

"Damn, is this even possible!"

"How did she do that!"

Everyone who watched, whether they were standing in shock or passing by, couldn't help but exclaim at what they were seeing. Was this something a regular human can do? No! Though…maybe some breakdancing masters can do that, but it was impossible for those experts to come here! What day was it today? How were they able to see such a cool performance and why violin with breakdancing? If there was one thing they could complain about it was that the music didn't fit the dancing.

With a light push of her hand, Wen Jiexi uprighted and stood steadily. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw more and more people gather around them.

A few seconds ago, she had exchanged for an elementary breakdancing skill book while she was in the toilet. With the basics of the art now deeply rooted in her mind and then coupled with her strong physical strength, her movements looked cooler and amazing than what a basic breakdancer could do.

With her body constantly spinning, flipping, and moving, Wen Jiexi danced as closely as possible to the rhythm of the violin and could barely keep up with Chu Heling's movements. When an hour passed, Wen Jiexi stopped dancing when she received the signal to stop from Wen Ting's clapping hands.

"Haaahhh…." Wen Jiexi felt her muscles trembling from the exertion. This type of high-difficulty performance wore out her muscles and made her feel a little tired for the first time in a while as her forehead was covered in sweat.

The onlookers who were watching began to boo since the performance stopped. Wen Jiexi was taken aback when she looked up. The circle around them was crowded beyond belief and she couldn't even see the end of it from her angle. Watching the crowd's reactions, Wen Ting immediately stepped forward and yelled loudly,

"Sorry, everyone, but our performers need rest! We will come back later! Thank you for watching! If you like our performance and don't mind spending some of your money, please donate a little to us! Just think of it as a way of showing your support! Thank you, everyone, thank you!" Wen Ting performed a 90 degrees bow and then had Huo Lin'er ran around the circle holding out a box.

"It seems that the response from the crowd is pretty good." Wen Jiexi leaned against the wall next to Chu Heling and rubbed her throat. She felt so thirsty that her phone was burning.

"Thank you for your hard work, your performance was amazing." Chu Heling gave her an admiring glance.

"No, no, Sister Heling's performance was the one that was amazing!" Wen Jiexi waved her hands hurriedly.

Suddenly, she felt that a lot of people in the crowd were whispering and pointing at her and Chu Heling while looking down at their phones from time to time. Pulling Chu Heling with her, she yelled at Wen Ting:

"Wen Ting, we need to leave now!"

"Huh?" Wen Ting froze in confusion, and then her face changed when she swept her gaze around their surroundings.

"Lin-er, let's go! Let's eat some food first!"

"Oh, coming!"

"Thank you, everyone! Please look forward to our next performance!" After Wen TIng finished, she dragged Huo Lin'er behind her and ran after Wen Jiexi.

"Ah! That is Chu Heling!"

"The sweet and gentle older sister Chu!"

"And that's the Little Sheep!"

"…."

Shocked shouts of recognition came from behind them as all four of their identities were soon revealed. Chu Heling was naturally the most famous and while Wen Jiexi was unclear of how famous Huo Lin'er was, she heard that Wen Ting was slowly getting more famous as she had just received offers for two different advertisements.

The four of them turned left and right, running for their lives before finally getting rid of the crowd chasing after them as they hid in the corner.

"Ha….I'm going to die of exhaustion…." Wen Ting gasped for breath. Similarly, Chu Heling and Huo Lin'er were also tired speechless and their faces were as pale as snow.

"This won't do, we have to eat something first." Wen Jiexi saw that the two pale girls were obviously hungry and exhausted from the strenuous exercise. The body cannot take such abuse for too long and needs food to reimburse its energy.

"Why don't I go out to buy some food first while you guys wait here?" Wen Ting understood the situation with just a look and proposed a plan.

"Ok, you can do that first. Oh, but the way, see if you can buy some pens and paper. Also, be careful. A video of our performance is probably being circulated on the Internet as we speak. People will recognize us just by looking at our clothes."

"Don't worry, I am not so famous that I'll cause a riot or anything! I got this, no problem!" Wen Ting said with a thumbs up and then ran out the alley after she pulled a few banknotes from the box.

"In the meantime, the two of you should walk around slowly. Don't stop or sit, it's bad for your body if you do that. Work hard on moving slowly, but don't force yourself." Wen Jixi gently advised the two leaning against the walls.

"Ok…."

"Understood…."

After making sure the two of them did what they were told, Wen Jiexi walked over to the box and slowly began to count their profits. 20 minutes later, Wen Jiexi exclaimed in surprise,

"We made nearly 4,000 yuan (573 dollars)!"

To earn around 4000 yuan in just one hour is amazing, even if they split i t between the four of them. This is not a small income and could even be considered someone's daily salary. For Wen Jiexi, it was a return on her investment in the skill book. Furthermore, it really does feel good to earn your own money! Although the money won't be enough to last them an entire week, this was only one hour's work after all. As long as they continued to work hard, they could possibly all get around 10,000 yuan after diving up all the money.

"That much? Maybe....I should become a street performer when I leave the industry?" Chu Heling joked.

"Hahahaha, how can it be that easy. We probably got beginner's luck or something. If we did this long term, we would probably have to include some new tricks every now and then or else we would see a gradual decline in income." Wen Jiexi said helplessly. If she was being honest, she really wanted to just get Chu Heling to sign an autograph and then sell that….but she was afraid that would end up badly and decided against doing that in the end.

"I'm back!" Wen Ting ran over out of breath, exhaustion evident on her face as she put down the grocery bag.

"I underestimated the number of people that would be there. The moment I went out I was surrounded! Almost scared me to death! I told them that we were filming a variety show and then apologized for a long time before they let me go to the supermarket. I bought some juice and bread, so let's eat that first. We can find something better for lunch later, but this should help pad our stomach a little. Oh, I also bought a bag to hold our money." Wen Ting said then give everyone some bread and a juice box. She took out a small notebook and pen that could be carried around your neck, and then a small purse that can be slung over your shoulder.

"Here, put the money in here, that way it'll be safer. This bag was picked especially by me and it's cheap yet full of space! Jiexi will keep the money because it'll be dangerous for us three weak girls to hold that much money.

"Pfft…hey, you little…." Wen Jiexi laughed and scolded her a little but seeing how the two people didn't have any objections, she carefully put the money in the bag and then slung it over her shoulder.

Aver devouring the bread and juice, Wen Ting let out a content sigh.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen a single camera. Could it be because they're that good at hiding?" Wen Ting poked her head around the corner and looked left and right but didn't see any cameras around.

"They're probably using a special technique to do so. Based on their previous episodes, they probably have some special technique they can use." Wen Jiexi shrugged.

"Let's take a look at our itinerary Before we eat lunch, we should perform one more time in the square and then run around looking for our guest stars afterward."

"First, we should plan out our routes. The money we earned this morning is far from enough for us four to use this week. We might be able to endure it if we save a little, but I think the crew has many various methods in place to make us spend our money." Chu Heling added calmly.

"Ah! That reminds me, I picked up a map earlier from the store!" Wen Ting said with a smile and then took out a small stack of paper that she spread out into a map. The map was a map of this specific block and so was not as densely packed as other maps. There were only important stores marked on this map. Since this food street was a place where many people visited, it was specially made to only show the tourist attractions and separate stores. Although the map was easy to read, Wen Ting still scratched her head in confusion,

"However, I'm not sure where we are."

"Our current position is roughly around here." Huo Lin'er drew an X over an alley near the food street and then drew several more circles.

"These are the places we might need to search in based on our current clues."

"It looks like they are all in this one area." Chu Heling took the pen from Huo Lin'er and drew a route starting from the nearest road. This route was to ensure they visited all these places in the shortest amount of time possible.

"We can perform along this route. I believe management should not be strict around here so there should be no need for permits. As long as we don't hinder traffic or other pedestrians, I think we can perform anywhere along here. If we separate into two groups, two people will perform while the other two visit these areas. This way we can achieve maximum efficiency.'

"Huh? Two people at a time? I thought we only needed one person to run around?" Wen Ting said in surprise.

"I believe if we find the right place, the production crew will probably have someone there waiting for us. They wouldn't give us these clues easily and so they will probably make us go through challenges and checkpoints in order to receive the next set of clues. It would be better if we have two people helping each other complete the challenges. The performing group will help attract everyone's attention so that the group clearing the challenge will not be mobbed by fans when they finish." Wen Jiexi explained and then pointed at the food street,

"We have to return to this food street because of the character for 'food' on one of our phone charms. However, there are so many shops here that I don't know which one to go to."

"Lin'er, can you mark the shops for us? Start with the most famous one you know." Chu Heling said.

"Ok, I got it." Huo Lin'er nodded and then picked up the pen before staring seriously at the map.

"What about the performances? We can't make Sister Heling play the violin for too long or let Jiexi dance the entire time." Wen Ting tilted her head and asked. They were probably going to be searching all day and letting Jiexi dance the entire time will probably exhaust the poor girl to death.

"This….we can sing…perform some funny skits…like a comedy sketch." Huo Lin'er suggested.

"I'm tone-deaf, so singing is out. Although, I have done skits before. Why don't I make some money by drawing? I can buy a box of pencils and then some paper. Drawing doesn't require a lot of materials and it's really easy to do rough sketches! Pencils and paper are all I need!" Wen Ting suggested with a smile. It was time for the art department to shine!

"Other than breakdancing….I can juggle a little. Although I haven't properly learned it, I believe I can still catch a ball…yeah, probably." Wen Jiexi laughed dryly.

"Then let's arrange it like this. First, Wen Ting and Lin'er can do their comedic sketch. You too should discuss the contents of that first. Make a short play that anyone could understand. Jiexi and I will continue with what we were doing before. Jiexi, once you decide what you want to do, go buy some simple props if necessary. As for drawing…I think that's fine, but what is it that you want to draw?" Chu Heling asked as she took down notes.

"Probably portraits. If I want to attract people's attention, I can draw a portrait of the three of you. In fact, I think drawings of Sister Heling and your signature will definitely sell really well!" Wen Ting rubbed her chin and smiled mischievously.

"This….." Chu Heling looked down at the animal costume on her body. She would usually agree to someone drawing a portrait of her but this animal costume is just….

"Don't worry, Sister Heling, I only need you to pose for me! Plus, animal costumes are good! It'll make a valuable collection!"

After some more persuading by Wen Ting, Chu Heling finally nodded in agreement.

"Alright, this is our program schedule for today!" Wen Jiexi pointed at the timetable they had drawn. Each performance was only 30 minutes at a time to prevent exhaustion and they were divided into two groups: Wen Jiexi and Chu Heling then Wen Ting and Huo Lin'er.

"So when do you want to buy props?"

"We have a limited amount of time so we can only buy props during our breaks or when we go searching for clues." Chu Heling said with a shake of her head.

"Ok, then let's write down what we need and cross out the ones we bought so we can prevent any repeat buys." Wen Jiexi nodded and wrote everything down.

Ten minutes later, Wen Jiexi looked up to see Wen Ting and Huo'er return from the store. The makeup they had on made one want to laugh uncontrollably. Wen Ting wore one of those toy sunglasses with a fake nose and mustache while Huo Lin'er had painted her face so white that it contrasted greatly with the painted red lips as well. Add on the two animal costumes on top, the two looked completely out of place and incredibly ridiculous. Omg, so comedy sketches require one to sacrifice their own face?

"Let's go!" Wen Ting pulled Huo Lin'er with her like she was going onto the battlefield and ran out of the alley with the box.

Wen Jiexi could hear the laughter of pedestrians start immediately and the sound of lots of footsteps that seemed to be joining in on the fun.

Wen Jiexi peeked out and saw that the amount of people was sparse now. She turned to Chu Heling and said,

"Let's go!"

"En, first turn right and then walk straight forward before turning left to reach the first store." Chu Heling said while looking at the map.

"Got it!" The two jogged quickly to their destination.

Huo Lin'er had marked five shops for them that had to do with food. They were beef balls, stinky tofu, beef noodles, spicy hot pot, and Mapo tofu. Wen Jiexi and Chu Heling went to the first two shops and although there were a lot of people looking at them, there didn't seem to be anything that had to do with the production crew there.

Then they arrived at the final destination which was the spicy hot pot restaurant. Compared to the other places, this place was almost cleared of people and as soon s they entered there were a lot of people smiling at them.

"I think we've finally found the right place." Chu Heling said while looking at the map.

"Do you have a token?" A man came forward and asked.

Token? Wen Jiexi blinked and then took out the phone. It can't be this, right?

As soon as she took out the phone, everyone began cheering.

"Woooo! The one who's supposed to clear the checkpoint is here!"

"We've been waiting for so long!"

"Come on it!"

The two were pushed into the store and sat in their assigned seats. The man who came up to them first clapped his hands and said,

"Alright, let me explain how this challenge will work! It's really simple…just eat!"

"Eat…hot pot?" Wen Jiexi said hesitantly.

"That's correct! If you're going to come to a spicy hot pot restaurant, of course, you have to eat hot pot!" The man said with a smile and then took out a box with three slips in it.

"This will determine how spicy your food will be! Come, give it a try!:

Looking at the man's mischievous expression, Wen Jiexi and Chu Heling glanced at each other. Finally, Wen Jiexi carefully drew a slip and opened it. The word on it was 'medium'.

"Alright! The soup base will be medium spicy! Get the pots out!" The man yelled and the waiter immediately brought forth two pots to put in front of each of them. After turning on the fire, he retreated to the side.

The aroma of the two pots was fragrant and smelled delicious…but Wen Jiexi only had anxiety in her heart. She had a bad premonition!

"Now that we have the spicy level covered, let's move on to the next part!" The man clapped his hands twice and immediately countless people came out holding trays.

"These are the ingredients you must cook and eat. The time limit is one hour. If you finished eating it all, you will be rewarded. Of course, you can always ask for help, but they must be people wearing animal costumes!"

Wen Jiexi's face turned green as she looked at all the ingredients on those trays. They are all ingredients that were normal to order when eating hot pot but the amount….even a foodie like Wen Jiexi couldn't eat it all! Two cabbages that were the size of her head, a large handful of vegetables, and more. The main focus was the meat. The tray looked to be about one meter long and weighed about 50 grams. There were at least fifty slices of meat on that one tray! And there were three whole trays of that. There was even a seafood platter that had to be carried out by two people. It was in the structure of a boat and it held a large lobster, four crabs, fifteen mantis shrimps, and a small iron plate filled with cuttlefish. Finally, there was a beautiful fruit platter and even a box full of ice cream. Usually, she would be very happy to eat all that but it would be difficult to eat them all in only one hour….this….

Wen Jiexi looked at the pile of food and then at Chu Heling with a hesitant expression.

"It's fine, start eating. We can ask Wen Ting and Lin'er to help us out when they come back. The four of us should be able to eat all of this. Even if we don't finish, we can at least save money on our lunch. If we can't get our clues, well then we can just guess later. We have three opportunities to unlock it anyways." Chu Heling whispered in Wen Jiexi's ear.

Wen Jiexi's eyes brightened at Chu Heling's words. She was right, they could still guess the passcode on the phone if all else fails! Mauve they will get lucky and they also get a free lunch! Sister Heling is so smart! Worthy of being an older sister!

"We accept the challenge!" Wen Jiexi said.

"Aye! A good backbone you have there! Then let's…"The man took out a timer and ordered the people to set the ingredients on the table. Their table could not fit it all and so the waiters set the food down onto the three tables next to them.

"Then the time starts…now!"

This, this, this….just where should she start?!

Let's start with the meat first! The meat plates have the most slices anyways! Wen Jiexi raised the plate in front of her and under everyone's stunned gaze, she threw half of the meat slices directly into her own pot and gave the plate to Chu Heling.

"Thanks…" Chu Heling seemed to make up her mind as she dumped a dozen slices into her own pot while muttering words under her breath,

"This isn't my fault….it's not like I want to eat it….this is for the show….don't blame me if I get fat! Go complain to the crew, not me!" She threw the hot pot ingredients all into her pot like she was venting out her anger.

Pfft…never expected Sister Heling to have such a cute side to her. Wen Jiexi almost laughed out loud when she heard Chu Heling's broken words. She grabbed a bunch of ingredients to throw into her own pot and instantly the boiling soup was filled up with food. She no longer cared how long she needed to cook the meat and vegetables to achieve the most delicious flair. The big pot was so full that she couldn't even tell what was being cooked or not. As long as the pot was boiling and the food was cooked, she will eat it! Who has time to worry about anything else! They were under a time limit!