380: The Artist Falls For Simple Tricks

The Artist Falls For Simple Tricks

That evening, the capital held a festival to celebrate the accomplishments of the military. It was a noisy festival, flooded with citizens venturing from place to place. It seemed that everyone needed a way to put what happened behind them. Although Xiang won, it was not a win without costs. No war would ever be. Rebels and soldiers were both humans alike, and to humans, the hands of death were inevitably unescapable. 

Like the rest, Yujia too enjoyed the festival. Dressed in a pale shade of maroon, her robes blended well with the decor of the festival's colorful lanterns. She kept her appearance simple to ensure comfort— surely, she would walk a lot this evening— and considering that it was a warm evening for the usual winter temperatures, a thinner cloak draped around her shoulders. It seemed like even the weather was pleased with this win, since snow had melted from the path for an ease of walking, leaving the barest bits of frost lining the eaves of roofs. 

When she met up with Zixu, he held a pale yellow lantern in his hands.

"Already?" Yujia asked, gesturing at the lantern.

"There was a child selling them," Zixu explained, "and I couldn't say no. Besides, we now have a lantern to carry around." 

Yujia patted a pouch of ingots strung to her side. "There's so many things to buy. I can already imagine how much we'll be spending at this rate."

"Well, isn't it all for fun?" Zixu swayed the lantern. "If you're worried about your savings, I'll buy what you want for you."

With a raise of her brow, Yujia replied, "I don't want to make your wallet hurt."

"It's just some common goods. I don't think we would be able to spend all our life savings today, even if we wanted to."

Yujia nodded, finding reason in his words.

…

Little did Yujia know, she would in fact be spending all of Zixu's life savings.

The two of them had not expected this, but as they made their way through the festival, they walked closer and closer to a trap. At first, everything seemed well, with cheap but fun items being sold by all sorts of vendors for that night, like trinkets, treats, and other crafted goods. They watched numerous performances too, such as fire-breathing acrobats, sparing some coins and ingots as a donation for their skills. 

It was all fun and games…

… that was, until Yujia discovered the existence of festival games. Or, to be more accurate, rigged festival games. 

The first game seemed deceptively simple. If an individual managed to toss three arrows into the closest vase, that would win one prize. If the individual managed to toss three arrows into a further vase, that would lead to an even bigger prize. This went on, with each vase further and higher on risen platforms, until an individual could attempt the furthest vase. Tossing three arrows into that one would lead to the biggest prizes of the game: an individual could pick from a precious painted fan, a set of agate jewelry, or a finely embroidered cloak with high quality furs, sure to be good for the colder winter days.

Yujia, of course, eyed the painted fan. A renowned painter had done the painting, and she knew that any works under his name were precious. He died a few decades ago, and his remaining works were sparsely found. Even Lingxin's collection only contained two of his paintings. She thought Zixu would like it as a gift, so she wanted to win it for him.

But Yujia should've known when the two of them discovered this game halfway through the festival, yet no one had won any of the biggest prizes. She should've known that tossing an arrow into a vase three times was far too easy of a task to earn a prize worth probably countless ingots. She should've noticed the sulking crowd of people lingering around the booth, clearly victims of the same scam.

Despite every one of these warning signs, the two of them walked right into the booth's trap, blissfully unaware. Or rather, blissfully in denial.

Thirty minutes consisting of the two of them tossing the arrows passed. Thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes was also more than enough time to burn up a substantial stack of their wealth.

The two of them had wracked up tens of the smallest prizes for making it into the nearest vases, yet all of those were useless items, from kites to candies, worth a few copper coins at most. The furthest vase, on the other hand, was so difficult to toss into that neither Yujia nor Zixu had managed to make a single arrow in that vase.

"Unbelievable," Zixu muttered under his breath, sighing at the sight of the arrow he just tossed bouncing off the outer edge of the vase. 

The booth owner, on the other hand, clapped his hands excitedly, encouraging, "Sir, that was an excellent shot! If it was just a little closer, you would've made it. I'm sure if you buy another round—"

Yujia saw Zixu reaching into his satchel for another handful of coins, but she immediately stepped in front of him. It seemed that the thirty minutes was enough time to wipe the charm of the game from her perception. "Let's not play this game anymore. It's a scam," she told Zixu quietly, grabbing his hand.

Zixu faltered for a moment, his eyebrows knitted as if he didn't understand why she was stopping him. "Trust me," he said.

Did Zixu really believe that he could make it into the last vase? Yujia was surprised at his sudden gullible personality when it came to these games. It was so unlike his usual self. With the amount of ingots they had spent, they've probably gone past the costs of buying the biggest prize anyways. Surely, Zixu, who was such an observant person, was logical enough to realize that? 

"It's a scam," she repeated, her voice firm, but this time, it wasn't Zixu who heard her.

The booth owner, observing from the sidelines, gasped out of disbelief. "A scam? Miss, that's quite an outrageous accusation you're making. Where is the proof of the scam? We're just here to give everyone a good time!"

A good time, sure, if it was on the booth's side, seeing how many ingots he made. 

"How do you explain how we never made it into the last vase then?" Yujia raised her brow. 

"Oh, we can't control that. Maybe you're just a bad thrower," the owner suggested smugly. 

Yujia, offended on Zixu's behalf, was about to snap back, but that was when both of them heard a clink— the sound of something hitting a vase. It wasn't a sound mellow enough to be an arrow hitting the inside of the vase, however. The brief sound was higher in pitch. A glint of copper, previously not there, seemed to shine from above the vase.

Both Yujia and the owner turned, staring at the person who caused the sound: Zixu.

Zixu, who Yujia was no longer grabbing the arm of, bent over and plucked an arrow out of the nearest vase. 

The owner exclaimed, "Sir, you haven't paid yet! You can't throw that— even if you make it— we won't give you a prize!" 

Silently ignoring the flustered owner beside him, Zixu narrowed his eyes, carefully aligning the arrow in his hand. In a calculated sweep of his arm, he tossed the arrow forward, different to how he threw all the other ones before. This time, instead of a high arch, he threw the arrow through a more flattened, horizontal angle. 

The arrow's pointed tip skimmed over the surface of the vase in a flash. It didn't land inside, but that didn't matter.

Zixu, Yujia, the owner, and everyone else paying attention to this game saw the same thing: a glint of copper flying through the air. With the stick thrown, it seemed to hit this copper glint, making it sail off the surface it sat on.

The moment the copper flipped over, it was apparent what it was. Zixu hit a copper coin off the top of the vase.

The coin fell to the raised platform the top vase sat on, its existence plain in sight.

Yujia immediately realized what Zixu meant when he said "trust me" now. She turned to him, eyes wide.

"It is unbelievable," Zixu said, drawing a deep breath, "that your game would be such an easily provable scam. I had my suspicions, but I didn't think it would work so easily."

The owner's face had paled. He held his hands up, eyes darting back and forth, as if he was trying to figure out an excuse.

"Take a look at this," Zixu gestured his head at the crowd watching him. 

He pulled a coin from his satchel again, then leaned forward. With a flick of his wrist, the copper coin flew forward, landing on top of the vase with a clink. 

A coin shouldn't have been able to do that. If the last vase was hollow with an open top, just like the ones in front of it, the coin should've fallen into it. The booth must've custom-made such a vase, building the platforms so that only the furthest one had its top hidden from view. With the perspective at which any game participants stood at, if they couldn't toss an arrow into this impossible vase, it only looked like a mistake of accuracy—not because of the fact that not a single arrow could make it into the vase in the first place. 

Zixu, continuing on with his demonstration, calmly reached forward for yet another arrow to knock the coin off with. That was when the booth owner threw himself in front of Zixu, barking, "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave!"

"For what reason?" Yujia stepped forward. "You have taken too much of our money. Now that we've proved your game as a scam, you want us to just leave like that? What fairness is there?"

In the crowd, someone from behind her shouted out, "I've lost too much money in this game too! Give us a refund!"

Somebody else then yelled, "Scamming the money of good civilians— do you want us to destroy your booth or what?"

The owner, his cheeks now flushed in a state of absolute panic, exclaimed, "I'll give a refund to everyone! Just please don't destroy anything— please— " His eyes flashed to Zixu in a begging gaze. 

Zixu merely shook his head, his hand over his satchel of coins. "I do not particularly care for a refund."

"Then what do you want?" the owner pleaded in a shout. 

With a gesture of his head towards the prize area, Zixu pointed at one of the top prizes that the two of them never managed to win, the one that Yujia had been looking at. "That painted fan," he stated. 

Seeing that this was what Zixu wanted, Yujia beamed. It seemed like her understanding of his tastes were not wrong. Of course he would pick the painted fan as his prize. Even if she wasn't the one to win it for him, she was still happy to see him get it.

On the other hand, the owner was anything but pleased. He gritted his teeth, his hesitance apparent. The fan must've been a relic that took him quite a bit to get his hands on, from his unwilling look. 

Zixu tilted his head. "So? Will it be the fan or not?"

With another long pause, the owner turned around. He stormed to the display by the side, taking the fan down and thrusting it in Zixu's direction. 

Giving a nod, Zixu took it. He then turned to Yujia, remarking, "Let's go."

Not paying much heed to the crowd that now swarmed the booth, the two of them left discreetly, blending with the rest of the festival participants. When they were a decent bit away, Zixu came to a pause in his steps and tipped the fan in her direction.  1

"For you," he said, grinning.

"Me?" Yujia stopped, blinking. This wasn't right. Didn't he win the fan for… himself?

"You were looking at it, were you not?"

Hearing this, Yujia immediately understood why he chose the fan. "Well, I had," she laughed, "because I wanted to win it for you!"

Zixu's face fell swiftly at her words. He held the fan out in front of himself again. He stared at it for quite a bit, then gave a deep sigh.

"So I ended up buying myself my own gift."

Yujia brushed her finger over the shape of an orange tree branch that was painted from one corner of the fan to the other. Ripe fruits hung on one end of the branch; a little bird perched on the other end. "Don't tell me you're not interested in this painter's works. The fan looks decent quality to me." 

"I do like it," Zixu explained. "I just wish I could've won you something with all that scheming effort to get this prize from that scammer." His lips were flattened in a thin line, appearing as let down as Yujia's dog, Roubao, when she refused to feed him her dinner scraps.

Yujia tried to hold back a smile at this mental image of hers. Instead, she patted Zixu's shoulder. "I have a solution."

"A solution?"

She pointed ahead at another festival game ahead of them, then looked back at Zixu. The two of them exchanged a look of mutual understanding. 

"But this time," Yujia insisted adamantly, "I'm winning the gift for you."

"You can try," Zixu raised his brows in a challenge. 

Grabbing her satchel of coins tightly, Yujia headed in the direction of the booth. 

If only the two of them knew that this game, too, was a scam as well…

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