Chapter 721 — It's Coming Right Up

Shen Yushu tossed several sandbags in a row, all of them misses—but her very last one landed on the biggest Gray Wolf plush, the one on the back row!

"Oh yeah! Hit it! I won the big prize..." Shen Yushu cheered, but her cheer died halfway when she saw, to her astonishment, that the Gray Wolf plush merely wobbled a couple of times. It did not fall; it settled back firmly on the shelf.

"What a shame, little lady—you were just a hair away from the grand prize! This Gray Wolf plush is genuine, you know, not one of those knockoffs!" The boss looked at Shen Yushu with a face full of regret. "You're too weak. Put some muscle into it next time!"

"Impossible! I put plenty of muscle into it—I could punch out a shark, so how can I not knock over one plush?" A thought struck Shen Yushu—what Tang Zhi had said earlier—and her eyes narrowed at the boss. "Hey, you didn't rig this thing, did you?"

"How could you say such a thing? Little lady, don't go throwing accusations around. I've done business here for years, and I've never cheated a soul. Why, just last month someone won the grand prize! Ask any of the regulars here—last month the plush on that shelf was a SpongeBob, and this month I swapped it for the Gray Wolf!" the boss said hastily.

The people around them heard the boss out and nodded, confirming it—last month the prize there really hadn't been the Gray Wolf but a SpongeBob plush. And if it hadn't been won by someone, why would it have been replaced with a Gray Wolf?

"Then I'll try again!" Unconvinced, Shen Yushu spent another ten yuan on ten sandbags and started throwing...

"There's definitely something wrong with it..." Tang Zhi whispered to Wei Zhao.

"Mm, I noticed too. But it's rare that they're willing to play—cooped up at home, they hardly ever get a moment this happy," Wei Zhao said.

Shen Yushu threw four or five sandbags. She did hit a "Fish-Man" doll, but it was too small to be worth anything. On her sixth sandbag, her luck blazed again and she hit the Gray Wolf plush—yet just as before, the Gray Wolf wobbled twice and stood firm.

The boss hadn't expected Shen Yushu to be so lucky as to hit the Gray Wolf plush again, and for a moment he was at a loss. To say she hadn't used enough force once was one thing—but not enough force a second time too? That was stretching it a bit.

But the boss was, after all, an old hand at swindling, and he could lie without batting an eye: "Still not enough force, I'm afraid. Looks like you've given it everything you've got, but the distance is simply too great. My advice is to aim for one of those slightly smaller medium-sized dolls up front."

Shen Yushu ground her teeth in frustration! She turned to Wei Zhao. "Arrow-Brand Bro, come help little Shu—I want that Gray Wolf plush!"

"Ha, I'll give it a try, then." Wei Zhao suspected the Gray Wolf plush was rigged too, so he didn't decline.

The boss was only too glad to have someone else throw—Shen Yushu's luck was far too good, hitting it twice in a row. If a third throw failed to knock it down, that really would start raising questions! So he hurried to say, "Yes, yes, let the young man have a go—he's got more strength!"

"Ha, you don't have just the one plush, do you? If I knock it down, what about everyone else?" What Wei Zhao had in mind was that one plush wouldn't be enough to go around—at the very least Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Tang Zhi should each get one.

"I run an honest shop here—how could I keep only one in reserve? There are more. Throw all you like!" the boss thought to himself, Knock it down first, then we'll talk. I've seen plenty of your type—who isn't brimming with confidence? And in the end, don't they all walk away empty-handed?

"All right, then." Wei Zhao casually picked up a sandbag, took no aim at all, and without even looking, hurled it.

Seeing Wei Zhao's manner, the boss couldn't help but sneer inwardly. Showing off, are we? Putting on airs? If that hits, I'll eat my hat...

"Thwack!"

The sandbag struck the Gray Wolf plush dead-on, knocking it clean off the shelf and onto the ground.

"Gah?" The boss stared at the scene before him in disbelief. Had a ghost really done it? How could it have been hit? And not just hit, but knocked down? He had smeared a layer of foam glue on the shelf himself, positioned to stick fast to the plastic bag at the bottom of the Gray Wolf plush. Even if it was knocked down, no one would ever notice—because the foam glue had been stuck to the shelf first.

Only, no one had ever knocked it down before! Had the foam glue lost its grip over time? Or had the plush been loosened by Shen Yushu's two earlier hits? Was that why Wei Zhao had struck it clean?

The boss's heart bled, but there was nothing he could do! In front of so many people, he couldn't very well go back on his word, could he? Yet to draw customers, he had used only genuine plush toys, several hundred yuan apiece—to give one away just like that, he truly couldn't swallow it!

Every so often in the past, the boss would bring in a shill and have him pretend to knock down the grand prize. In truth, it was always a relative of his own dressed up for the part—an assortment of aunts and in-laws taking turns posing as players to carry the big prize away, when in fact it only went right back to his own home!

After enough time had passed, once people had forgotten about that plush toy, he would swap in a new plastic bag and set it out again, making everyone think he had restocked with new goods — and no one would suspect a thing!

But today he had slipped up! Ugh, if he had known, he would have made a show of checking it over and reinforced that foam padding while he was at it.

"Congratulations, young man — you're the first player this month to hit the jackpot!" Though it pained the boss, so many people were watching; if he went back on his word, how could he keep doing business in the future? Better to hand the plush toy to Wei Zhao with good grace — it would double as advertising for his stall: "Anyone else want to play? Who knows, the next big winner might be you! Step right up, don't delay!"

"Ha, you won't have to wait long." Wei Zhao took the Gray Wolf plush and handed it to Shen Yushu.

"Oh, oh, oh, Brother Arrow is amazing!" Shen Yushu took the Gray Wolf plush with delight.

Gu Mengyao and Tang Zhi were rather envious, but they could hardly say anything.

It was Shen Yushu who, after her joy subsided, said, "Brother Arrow, you can't play favorites! You have to win one for your number-one wife and your girlfriend too!"

"..." Wei Zhao had intended to keep playing anyway, but Shen Yushu's words put him in a spot — if he kept playing, wouldn't that amount to admitting Gu Mengyao was his number-one wife? Tang Zhi being his girlfriend, that was fine enough.

"Xiaoshu, don't talk nonsense!" Gu Mengyao gave Shen Yushu a kick and said to Wei Zhao, "Just win one for Tang Zhi. I don't need one."

"Ha, there are two sandbags left — just enough for two more jackpots, one for each of you." Wei Zhao smiled.