“Haha…”
At what should have been a perfectly good final dart throw, a burst of inexplicable, stifled laughter rang out from the stands. Some of the contestants were also led to snicker.
Xiang Lanxuan, who was holding back her laughter, also raised a hand to touch her nose.
Yu Qing looked around speechlessly, not knowing what these people were laughing at, or what was so funny.
Wu Tian on the stage also wore a slight smile, and gestured for him to return to the contestants’ ranks.
Under everyone’s gaze, Yu Qing had no choice but to obey, and obediently blended back into the group.
Wu Tian walked to the backdrop wall with the hanging plates. As per the old rules, to avoid too much obstruction from moving back and forth, he called names from the bottommost last plate forward. “Shi Dao, come up to collect your number plate.”
A man leaped onto the stage and walked to the backdrop wall.
Wu Tian pinched the dart and removed the number plate. Everyone immediately saw that the imprint on the wall was a reversed “seven”. When the plate was flipped over to face the crowd, there was no mistake, it matched. It was indeed “seven”.
Wu Tian announced publicly, “Shi Dao, number seven plate.”
At the same time, he removed the dart, gave the plate to the man, and stuck the dart back onto the reversed “seven” on the wall.
The man named Shi Dao flew off the stage with his number plate. As for the dart left on the wall, whether he could take it away in this round’s competition depended on whether he qualified. Only those who could take it back qualified to participate in the next round’s draw.
Some people could go all the way to the end with a single dart, while others only had one chance to touch a dart.
Wu Tian then carefully looked at the name on the dart on the second to last plate. A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. Almost before he could announce it, everyone already knew who it was. Some people had already started snickering again, but Wu Tian still read it aloud, “Zhang Zhichen, come up to collect your number plate.”
The corner of Yu Qing’s mouth twitched. He had just returned to the ranks but flashed out again, landing on the stage with a flying step, and walked to the backdrop wall with an expressionless face.
The entire venue watched closely, all wanting to know what number this person, who had previously drawn consecutive blank plates, would draw this time.
Wu Tian’s gaze met his briefly, and with a smile he reached out to remove the second to last plate from the wall. He too was curious what number Yu Qing would draw, but while observing the plate removing rules, he could not help but secretly turn his head to get a sneak peek.
He wanted to see first what number was imprinted in reverse on the wall.
Looking at the behaviour of these people, Yu Qing secretly snorted through his nose. But it did not matter. Whatever. However, he quickly noticed that Wu Tian’s expression seemed somewhat off.
Indeed it was off. Wu Tian, who was tilting his head to peek, had his smile freeze on his face, gradually reaching a point where he could not smile anymore. His eyes widened slightly, with a feeling of his pupils suddenly contracting.
What was going on? Yu Qing stared at him intently, clearly detecting the other’s abnormality, and wondered inwardly, surely he had not drawn another blank plate?
At this moment, the entire venue fell silent waiting for the result.
Wu Tian’s movements only paused slightly, not daring to pause too long, but his Adam’s apple was bobbing, as if he was repeatedly and with difficulty swallowing something. When he raised his eyes to look at Yu Qing, his gaze was incredibly complicated, leaving Yu Qing utterly baffled.
His hands seemed to be bearing a heavy weight as he slowly moved away the removed plate, revealing the imprint left on the backdrop wall.
Yu Qing initially glanced casually at the imprint, but then his gaze could no longer move away. His face changed instantly, even feeling somewhat dazed. It took great effort to shift his gaze to the plate in Wu Tian’s hands, wanting to see the result after the plate was flipped over, to confirm.
Otherwise, he thought he had seen wrong.
After the imprint on the wall behind this plate was completely exposed to everyone’s view, the entire venue rose to its feet.
Everyone, Wan Liqiu and others on the main stage, everyone on and off the stage, including Xiang Lanxuan in the stands, stood up one after another.
Each one stared with wide eyes, looking carefully, as if they all thought they had seen wrong.
Many people even used their dharma eyes, lest they had fallen for an illusion.
Before Wu Tian flipped over the plate in his hand, he first scanned the crowd’s reaction. That feeling seemed to reveal extreme helplessness, and also seemed as if he did not dare to look at the flipped over condition of the plate in his hand. He seemed to want to see the result from everyone’s reaction.
The plate was flipped over. Yu Qing, who was closest, saw it first. The astonishment on his face was hard to dispel, and he could not help but step outward, stretching his head out, looking back, insisting on staring fixedly at the properly displayed plate surface to examine it again carefully.
“Damn! What the hell?”
Someone shouted strangely from the stands.
This cry broke the calm, and also seemed to ignite the scene. Immediately afterwards, an uproar erupted in all directions.
“He can hit this too?”
“What kind of luck must this be?”
“This guy’s luck is against heaven, right?”
A mess of shouting, strange cries, exclamations, and repeated astonishments filled the ears without cease, continuously causing commotion.
Wu Tian, holding the plate, immediately understood. He probably had not seen wrong. Only now did he dare to lower his head to look at the plate in his hand. Seeing the smooth blank number plate, he could not help but let out an inward wail, feeling that the plate was somewhat hot to handle.
Then he slowly raised his head to look at Yu Qing, who was equally incredulous and had lost his composure. It was obvious the other party was not pretending. It was obvious he had been frightened by his own luck.
Yu Qing slowly retracted his extended leg, slowly stood properly, and slowly turned his head to look at the plates on the wall covered with darts. He really could not believe it, and could not help but suspect whether all the plates were blank number plates.
Then he thought this idea of his was rather silly. A non blank plate had already appeared earlier.
That is to say, he had really drawn another blank plate? He had really hit three in a row?
Good luck was a good thing, but it was so good that he was somewhat unwilling to accept this reality. He was somewhat eager to see if there was anything wrong with the other plates.
Nan Zhu and Bai Lixin in the stands were both dumbfounded, or rather, shocked.
Nan Zhu’s first thought was that this old fifteenth fellow had cheated again, but immediately knew he was overthinking. This seemed impossible to cheat.
The two slowly turned their heads and looked at each other. Nan Zhu swallowed his saliva. “This luck is indeed somewhat strange.”
He knew Yu Qing’s first time was also by luck, though the second time was not, but it was already terrifying. Especially under these circumstances where he had been forced into having no choice.
Bai Lixin nodded in agreement. All emotions finally transformed into a single exclamation. “What tremendous fortune!”
Among the shocked Guijian Villa people, Chan Shaoyun’s mouth remained in an “O” shape for a long time. After being dumbfounded for quite a while, she clenched both fists tightly and said resentfully, “Did this dog thief cheat?”
Yong Zexue at her side sighed upon hearing this, shook her head somewhat in awe, then turned her head to stare at her daughter. “Stop saying such things. If you say such things again, you can shut up. How could this be cheating? Unless everyone conspired beforehand to cheat and clear the way for him. Do you think that is possible? Could your brother and the others do such a thing? In this kind of probability choice, he is the only one who had no choice. What he got was the result after everyone else had chosen. If you say he cheated again, you are slapping Kunling Mountain’s face. Understand?”
An accompanying Guijian Villa disciple sighed. “Miss, this is indeed good luck, so good that it is hard to criticise.”
Chan Shaoyun, filled with indignation, pointed at the stands and said, “With such good luck of his, and fewer and fewer people drawing lots, what if he draws a blank plate again in the fourth round?”
Though it was an emotional remark, after the disciple and Yong Zexue exchanged glances, they could not help but smile bitterly. If that really happened, with this obvious luck before their eyes, others really could not easily say it was cheating or anything.
The disciple sighed. “At the Chaoyang Assembly draw, having someone draw so often that people worry he will draw a blank plate, since the assembly’s inception, this is probably the first.”
Yong Zexue also shook her head in emotion, reached out to pull her daughter, suppressing her daughter’s discomposed appearance, and pulled her to sit down together.
Xiang Lanxuan in her black cloak, though her face was half covered by a veil, one could still see the petrified expression of shock on her face. She was basically petrified there, with only her gaze flickering uncertainly. The expression in her eyes was truly shocked beyond compare.
After quite a while, a mutter came from behind the veil. “How is this possible…”
The participants below the stands were collectively dumbfounded. They were standing relatively close and could see the process more clearly.
After gradually coming back to their senses, they looked at each other in turn.
Xiao Changdao asked Wu Ronggui beside him, “What do you call this kind of luck?”
Wu Ronggui forced out his signature faint smile with difficulty, not knowing how to describe it for a moment. Too many shocked comments had already come from the stands. He felt he was a person of taste and did not want to repeat others’ words.
Mu Aotie, motionless, silently stared at the stage. He too had initially suspected whether old fifteenth had cheated.
Some others, including Chan Shaoting, besides staring speechlessly, could only stare speechlessly. They had already been surprised to the point of being beyond dispute.
Wu Tian, holding the plate, at this point somewhat did not know whether he should announce the plate revealing result to everyone according to the rules.
The Kunling Mountain supervisors who had stood up dumbfounded for a while suddenly, led by Wan Liqiu, strode toward the backdrop wall in large steps, including Qin Fujun and Sun Lianxing. They all wanted to verify up close whether there was any problem.
Even at this point, Sun Lianxing had not forgotten to urgently maintain the rules, hurriedly shouting for everyone not to panic, not to block some outside lines of sight.
The reasoning was simple. It was also a rule of this drawing method. They did not want obstacles blocking any part of the drawing process, guarding against anyone tampering with the draw results.
Thus some lower status personnel were blocked back again, only allowed to watch from further away.
Even Wan Liqiu and Qin Fujun were forced to go under the hanging plates, bending over and crouching to get through. They first verified the imprint stamped on the wall by the plate, then squatted there to ask for the plate in Wu Tian’s hands to examine.
All the Kunling Mountain disciples on site were clearly unsettled.
The discussions in the stands never stopped either.
Everyone could see that everyone found this result hard to believe. It seemed even the parties on site were the same.
Wan Liqiu was not satisfied even after seeing the scene himself, afraid he had been mistaken. He waved again to call over skilled personnel to bend over and check again.
As a result, the revealing of this second plate’s result became exceptionally lengthy.
However, everyone’s patience in waiting this time seemed quite sufficient, displaying great tolerance.
After each supervisor checked, each shook their head indicating no problem, and each bent over and crouched to retreat.
That plate made a round and landed in Qin Fujun’s hands again. She was the one who asked to examine it once more, because even now she still did not believe it. She did not believe Yu Qing could have such good luck.
Seeing her look and look again, seeming to have doubts, Wan Liqiu asked with what seemed like hope, “Is there a problem?”
Qin Fujun knew her master had misunderstood her behaviour. Though she too wished there was a problem, reality was sometimes indeed very concrete. She also found it hard to deny, otherwise she would have to bear the corresponding consequences. She could only shake her head unwillingly. “Did not discover any problems.”
After speaking, she, who was half kneeling, raised her head again to look at Yu Qing standing nearby, still full of disbelief.
She did not understand. How could a person have such good luck? What great good deeds must one have done for heaven to bestow such luck, to have such good fortune?
At least in her personal view, how could this shameless, lecherous little moustache possibly have such good luck? No matter how you looked at it, it was impossible.
Seeing her staring at him like this, Yu Qing himself felt uncomfortable all over because of the present matter, and shrugged his shoulders.
He spread his hands with an innocent look, sighing and saying, “Really cannot blame me. I said normal drawing would not hit this, but you insisted on doing it this way, insisted on forcing me to hit another round. This mess, I am actually very embarrassed too, alright?”