I Start with a Mysterious Island

Chapter 347 - 267: The Agreement and the Hustle

"My appetite has always been about this size. I was just so hungry before that I ate a ton, which gave you the mistaken impression that I’d started eating a lot more."

"Oh, is that so! Well, if you couldn’t eat anymore, you shouldn’t have forced yourself! It must feel awful to be so stuffed..." Su Yue said.

"Well, if I left anything, we’d have to get it packed up. I would have if there was a lot left over.

But there wasn’t much, and getting it packed would have been a hassle, so I just finished it all," Lin Li explained with a smile.

"Stuffing yourself just to save a little trouble... You’re really something else," Su Yue retorted, rolling her eyes at Lin Li.

"Alright, let’s drop it. Didn’t you say you were tired after being out all day? Let’s hurry back to the hotel and rest," Lin Li said, starting to walk toward the parking lot.

But just as he took a step forward, Su Yue, who was standing beside him, reached out and grabbed his shirt.

"What’s up?" His shirt held fast, Lin Li turned his head and looked at Su Yue in confusion.

"You’re so stuffed, it’ll be uncomfortable for you to drive. Let’s go for a walk in that park over there to walk it off before we head back," Su Yue said, pointing to a lively-looking park in the distance.

"It’s fine, I can manage. Besides, the drive from here back to the hotel is only about twenty-something minutes. It’s not that long."

"Come on, stop arguing. We’re not in a hurry to get back to the hotel anyway. Let’s just walk around the park for half an hour and then go back." After saying this, Su Yue took the lead and started walking toward the lively park. Seeing this, Lin Li had no choice but to follow.

...

The sun had long since set, and the glow of the streetlights illuminated the pedestrians coming and going on the road.

The park was bustling, as many people had come out to enjoy the cool evening air.

Some small vendors had even set up stalls here—some sold small trinkets, some sold cotton candy, and others ran ring toss games...

"Wow, Lin Li, this park is so much livelier than the one near our place," Su Yue said, watching the people milling about in the park.

"It’s probably because they allow stalls in this park. If the park near our place allowed them too, it would probably be just as lively."

Lin Li watched the crowds gathered around the stalls in the distance and, after a moment’s thought, figured out why the park was so busy.

Hearing Lin Li’s explanation, Su Yue nodded, thinking that must be it.

"I haven’t played ring toss in ages! Let’s go try it!" Su Yue patted Lin Li’s arm and pointed to a small, newly set-up ring toss stall not far to her right.

"Sure!"

The two of them then walked over to the ring toss stall, where the owner was still arranging the prizes on the ground.

The stall was run by a middle-aged man around fifty years old. Noticing someone had come to his stall, he turned his head to look.

When he saw it was a young couple, a man and a woman, his experience told him this sale was practically guaranteed.

Before the middle-aged stall owner could even speak, an eager Su Yue asked, "Boss, how much for the plastic rings?"

"Ten yuan for five."

"Okay, give me fifty yuan’s worth."

"You got it. Cash or mobile payment?"

"Mobile payment."

Su Yue took out her phone, scanned the QR code the man held out, and paid. Then, she took the twenty-five plastic rings he handed her.

"Boss, these plastic rings seem a little small!" Su Yue said, looking at the rings in her hand. They felt quite a bit smaller than the ones she had used in ring toss games before.

"Miss, I’ve got a larger size, but they’re a bit more expensive—fifteen yuan for five. Do you want them? If you do, just add another twenty-five yuan, and I’ll swap all of these out for the bigger ones."

A cunning glint flashed in the middle-aged man’s eyes. As he spoke, he pulled out a handful of larger plastic rings from his cloth bag.

"Uh... okay, then! I’ll add another twenty-five yuan. Please switch them for the larger size." Su Yue glanced at the bigger rings in his hand and thought about it. To increase her chances of winning, she decided to pay the extra twenty-five yuan.

But just as she was about to pull out her phone to scan the code and pay the extra twenty-five yuan, Lin Li, who had been standing quietly to the side, raised a hand to stop her.

"What’s wrong?" Su Yue looked at Lin Li in confusion, her phone ready to pay.

"Don’t add the money. We’ll just play with the small rings..." Lin Li had been watching the stall owner’s expression. Noticing the smug smile that had inadvertently appeared on his face, he thought for a moment and put two and two together.

This stall owner saw that they were from out of town. When Su Yue paid without first asking to see the size of the rings, he had deliberately given her the small ones.

If Lin Li’s guess was correct, the money Su Yue had just paid should have gotten them the large rings he was now holding.

Su Yue, not yet realizing she was being tricked, said, "But these rings are a little small! If we switch to the bigger ones, it’ll be easier to land them on the prizes."

"The small ones are more challenging, which makes it fun. We don’t need to switch. Let’s just use these." As Lin Li spoke to Su Yue, he gave her a quick wink.

"Huh?!!!" Seeing Lin Li give her a look, Su Yue didn’t immediately understand what was going on, but she stopped insisting on paying more to switch to the larger rings.

"Fine, we’ll do it your way. Let’s try playing with the small rings first..." Su Yue said, handing ten of the rings to Lin Li.

The middle-aged stall owner, seeing the extra money he was about to make slip away, couldn’t help but feel disappointed. His mouth twitched subconsciously, and he shot Lin Li a slightly resentful glare.

’Heh...’ Lin Li noticed the man’s glare and sneered internally. ’Trying to scam us? You’ll get what’s coming to you...’

A few minutes later, the stall owner finished arranging all his prizes. He then said to Lin Li and Su Yue, "All the prizes are set out. You can start whenever you’re ready."

Su Yue, who had been waiting eagerly, nodded. She stood behind the red line the man had drawn on the ground and started to play the ring toss game.

Su Yue first scanned the large pile of prizes he had laid out, then decided to aim for the closest ones first.

WHOOSH.

With a flick of her arm, a plastic ring flew from Su Yue’s hand, sailed right past the prize she was aiming for, and landed on the empty ground.

"Aww, I missed..." She wasn’t too disappointed by her first miss. After all, the plastic rings she had were small, and she knew it wouldn’t be easy to win a prize.

WHOOSH.

WHOOSH.

WHOOSH...

Su Yue then tossed the rest of her plastic rings one after another. In the end, she only managed to land one on a bottle of mineral water worth two yuan, and even that was a complete fluke.

Her fifteen plastic rings had cost her thirty yuan, but all she got was something worth two yuan. It was a huge loss.

The middle-aged stall owner collected all fifteen of the plastic rings Su Yue had thrown and said with a beaming smile,

"Miss, practice makes perfect. It’s not easy to win a prize when you’re just starting out. If you buy a few more rings to practice, you’ll get the hang of it and start winning those prizes easily."

This was the usual spiel the middle-aged man used. In the past, whenever he said this to young women, they would almost always be persuaded to open their wallets and buy another set of plastic rings to keep playing.

...