Stop Chasing the School Belle, My Shy Deskmate is Sweet and Soft - Chapter 48

Fang Yu looked at Xia Tian with utter disbelief.

“100th place? Are you joking?!”

“Come on, Little Tian, you can fool me, but don’t fool yourself. Why are you even playing this game with me? If you really scored 100th in the grade, I’ll eat my bike!”

“What kind of weird habit is eating bicycles?” Xia Tian rolled his eyes.

Seeing Fang Yu’s doubt, Xia Tian pulled out his answer sheets from his bag and tossed them to him.

“What the hell?!”

“What the hell, what the hell!”

Fang Yu’s eyes practically popped out of his head, as his whole worldview began to collapse.

“You… no way, bro, you actually got a perfect score in English? Weren’t you always getting like, 20 or 30 points in English? You… you’re unbelievable!”

Fang Yu stared at the bright red “150” on the answer sheet, feeling a sharp pang in his heart.

As if that wasn’t enough, the next blow came when he saw the math answer sheet with “149” marked on it.

And the reason for the one-point deduction? Xia Tian had forgotten to write the word solution before the final answer!

Which meant, for all intents and purposes, his math score was practically perfect.

The realization made Fang Yu’s face scrunch up in frustration.

He had worked hard for an entire month just to push his ranking up by twenty places.

But Xia Tian? He’d gone from the bottom 50 to the top 100 in just a few days of casual studying.

Where was the justice in that? Where were the laws of nature?

Was all his hard work meaningless if talent could just sweep it all away?

“Little Tian… how the hell did you do this?”

“I used my hands, of course… Anyway, so when are you going to eat your bike?” Xia Tian asked, eyeing Fang Yu’s bike thoughtfully, as if he were debating which part Fang Yu should start with.

—

After going home to change out of their school uniforms, Xia Tian and Fang Yu headed to the nightlife district—specifically, to the street lined with bars. They brought along the small chalkboard they had used last time to sell fruit platters.

“Are we selling fruit platters again this time? I checked out a few other parks around here last week, and it looks like a lot of people have been copying our fruit platter idea. So, if we do the same thing again, we probably won’t make much money, right?”

“You’re right. Repeating the same trick won’t work, and we’d probably lose money. That’s why we’re not selling fruit platters this time—we’re going with something different.”

As Xia Tian spoke, he started writing rapidly on the chalkboard with a piece of chalk.

[Beer Challenge:
Finish in 3 seconds, win 100 yuan.
Finish in 4 seconds, win 50 yuan.
15 yuan per attempt. Limit two attempts per person.
If you succeed in both attempts, win 666 yuan.]

After finishing, Xia Tian dusted off his hands and tossed the chalk aside. “We’re ditching the fruit platters. This time, we’re selling beer.”

Fang Yu stared at the chalkboard for a moment, then quickly caught on.

“We’re setting up on Bar Street because everyone here thinks they’re hotshots when it comes to drinking, right?”

“Exactly. We could set up anywhere, but people outside of a bar district might not be in the mood to drink. Here, most of the people are headed to the bars, so they’re already planning to drink. Consider it targeting our audience.”

Xia Tian’s face remained calm as he surveyed the street.

Originally, he had planned to wait until May to make his second round of money after earning his first profit.

But after hearing about Ye Ningyu’s experience at her previous school from Wang Qingshan, he had changed his mind.

“Alright, the crowd usually starts picking up around 7 PM. Let’s go buy some beer first. With bulk purchasing, we should be able to get around 210 bottles for 600 yuan.”

“Got it! I’ll go get everything ready now!” Fang Yu replied enthusiastically.

Without even asking Xia Tian for money, Fang Yu took out the funds they had earned last time and headed off to find a wholesaler to buy the beer.

Xia Tian sat quietly by the street, watching the people pass by, lost in thought.

At this point, if he wanted to learn more about what had happened in Ye Ningyu’s family, he had two options.

The first was to get it directly from her.

The second was to pry it out of Wang Qingshan.

But after last night’s conversation, Xia Tian knew that Wang Qingshan wouldn’t say another word about it.

Whatever was left to uncover about Ye Ningyu, Xia Tian would have to coax out from her over time.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

“Just how much more are you hiding from me…?” Xia Tian murmured to himself as he waited for Fang Yu to return with the beer.

—

Half an hour later, Fang Yu came running back, drenched in sweat, followed by a middle-aged man on a tricycle loaded with crates of beer.

“Brother, you can keep the cart for now. Once you’re done for the night, just return it. If you run out of beer, just come by the shop and let me know, and I’ll bring more!”

“Thanks, big brother!”

“No problem!”

After the man left, Fang Yu excitedly told Xia Tian, “Little Tian, I found this shop that just opened recently. The owner was so hyped when I told him how much beer we needed that he insisted on delivering it himself.”

“He also said we can return any leftover beer at the end of the night. What a stand-up guy!”

Xia Tian nodded in approval and immediately set up their stall across from a bar, placing the chalkboard on the side of the road.

As they worked, a young couple nearby was also setting up a stand to sell fruit platters—obviously copying Xia Tian’s previous business.

“Little Tian, you’re a genius! Just like you predicted, everywhere we’ve been, people are copying our fruit platter idea!”

“Of course. It’s an easy way to make quick money—better than working long shifts in a factory. But they don’t have the dice-rolling skills we did, so they’ll make way less than we did.”

Xia Tian wasn’t surprised and remained calm.

Fang Yu, however, pointed at the chalkboard curiously. “Why limit each person to two attempts? Wouldn’t that mean we’ll make less money?”

“True, we won’t make as much. But think about it—this challenge involves drinking a lot of beer, and they have to drink it quickly. If someone keeps trying over and over, they might end up with alcohol poisoning or some other health problem. If that happens, we’ll be held responsible.”

“By limiting the number of attempts, we’re minimizing the risk. Otherwise, whatever profits we make could end up being spent on compensation.”

Xia Tian was well aware of the risks involved in this type of business.

He’d seen a similar scheme in his previous life.

A group of college students had set up a similar beer-drinking challenge on the roadside. However, they hadn’t thought about the potential consequences.

One customer, desperate to win the prize money, drank so much he ended up with severe gastric bleeding.

In the end, the students didn’t make any money—they had to pay a huge sum in damages.

Fang Yu, enlightened by Xia Tian’s explanation, gave him a thumbs-up. “Little Tian, I’m more and more impressed with you. You seem so much more mature than people our age.”

“Next time, keep these obvious comments to yourself. You’re going to make me proud,” Xia Tian teased.

“…”

Xia Tian laughed, watching Fang Yu’s reaction.

For the next hour, no one approached their stall to try the challenge.

Fang Yu started getting anxious. “It’s been an hour, and still no takers! Do you think the challenge looks too hard? Maybe we should adjust it.”

“Patience, my friend. You can’t rush things like this. The first prize is 100 yuan—that’s more than a day’s wages for a lot of workers. No one’s going to resist the temptation.”

Xia Tian grinned and continued, “Besides, haven’t you heard the saying? ‘With great rewards come brave men.’”

Just as he finished speaking, a group of young men on their way to the bar noticed their stall.

After a bit of whispered discussion among themselves, they headed over to the stall.

Xia Tian’s grin widened.

“See? Here come the brave men, ready for the challenge!”