Chapter 212 X-Ray Vision, Blind Box Frenzy

Thursday was the day for the senior high school's collective autumn outing, designed to stagger the crowds so that not everyone would descend on the amusement park at once.

This was another thing Si High had copied from them.

After school, Chen Yuan and Xia Xinyu took the bus home together. After dropping off their schoolbags, they headed to Sunshine Supermarket to buy snacks and drinks for the outing.

Inside the supermarket, they grabbed a shopping cart.

"Reporting in, what's the snack budget?" Xia Xinyu asked before they started.

"Spend as much as you want, Xinyu," Chen Yuan said, giving an okay sign to indicate there were no limits.

Zheng Qi's dad had already deposited a mountain of gold coins into his account. Chen Yuan was now wealthy beyond compare.

He could even afford to fatten Xinyu up into a little chubby.

Of course, with Xinyu's constitution, it would be hard enough to get her even as slightly plump as Zhou Fu.

"Then how about a hundred and fifty? That's enough for three lottery draws," Xia Xinyu said hesitantly.

"Sounds good. After all, we're having a proper meal in the afternoon, so we don't need to buy too much." Chen Yuan even thought a hundred and fifty was a bit extravagant.

"Okay, let's go look at the drinks first."

And so, the two of them headed into the supermarket.

Chen Yuan paused slightly at the fruit wine shelf.

"Bringing alcohol on an outing? Isn't that a bit much?" Xia Xinyu knew Chen Yuan wasn't a heavy drinker, so she was puzzled by his behavior.

Chen Yuan wasn't a heavy drinker.

But Tang Jian and Liu Yan, those guys, were talking about doing something exciting: putting alcohol in iced black tea and drinking it in front of Old Mo.

So, the plan was to get some small, alcoholic drinks and enjoy the thrill of the forbidden.

"Never mind, let's go look at the drinks."

With Xinyu keeping a close eye on him, Chen Yuan was in a different situation and couldn't bring alcohol. So he decided to buy something else to share with everyone later.

And so, they went to the drinks section.

"Damn, this plebian drink's gotten more expensive." Chen Yuan's mood was a bit complicated when he saw the price of Master Kong Iced Black Tea had gone up.

The small bottles were up by fifty cents, the large ones by a yuan.

The internet made you popular this year, so you're putting on airs now?

Four yuan for a large bottle of iced black tea? It's practically Guojiao 1573!

Five yuan for a large bottle of iced black tea? Pure horse piss!

"How about oolong tea? It's refreshing and thirst-quenching." Xia Xinyu picked up two bottles and said, "Suntory's got a promotion, two bottles for a yuan off."

Yu-zi, be careful about product placement; you haven't been paid yet.

"Sounds good, and let's grab two cans of Coke."

Chen Yuan loved drinking that sperm-killing sugary water, since he didn't have any needs in that area yet.

Next, they went to the bulk snacks section.

"Zhou Fu's going to bring a lot of small cakes. How about we buy something else?" Chen Yuan said.

"But wouldn't it be… well, actually, maybe it's okay to eat hers."

After thinking about it, Xia Xinyu decided there was no need to be so distant. After all, she was Chen Yuan's good friend, and her family ran a cake business. So, she agreed with Chen Yuan's suggestion and asked with interest, "Are Zhou Fu's cakes really good?"

"The absolute best." Chen Yuan promoted them, saying, "Do you know why she's called Zhou Fu?"

"Is it related to profiteroles?" Xia Xinyu asked curiously.

"Exactly, you get it."

"Then what's your name related to?" Xia Xinyu realized they hadn't talked about their names yet, so she asked curiously.

Of course, it was related to a certain open-world mobile game.

"The fortune teller said I was short on water in my destiny… don't ask why I'm not called Chen Miao!"

Xia Xinyu was just about to ask why he wasn't called Chen Miao when he cut her off. So, she joked, "Doesn't seem like you're that short, though."

"What about Xinyu?"

Chen Yuan was grateful to his father-in-law and mother-in-law for choosing that name. It must have had some influence on the shaping of Xinyu's great personality.

Just like Chen Yuan's name led him to download a certain app on his phone.

"Me ah…" As Xia Xinyu spoke, her expression gradually turned regretful. "I don't think I've ever asked them why I'm called Xinyu."

"But the name really suits your personality."

"You think I'm timid, and only dare to say things in my heart, right?"

"You? Timid?" Chen Yuan laughed and threw a box of potato chips into the basket, joking, "Speaking your mind is your *nin* way."

"I don't really get it, but why Xinyu…" Xia Xinyu began to examine herself, wondering why she had that name.

Xinyu, words from the depths of the heart.

If she could see them again, even if only in a dream, she would ask them.

Next, they walked to the seafood section.

A large Boston lobster, like a giant monster, opened its huge claws and sank to the bottom of the glass tank, its long whiskers gently swaying…

And Chen Yuan felt a strange sense of awe for it, even wanting to bow to it.

Looking at it, he said with emotion, "The Boston lobster deserves to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

"That would be too wasteful."

Xia Xinyu showed no respect at all and corrected him, "It should be enshrined in a steamer."

Yu-zi, how dare you talk to your Lobster Bro like that!

Where would you be without it?

If it had been a hairy crab that day, or even a mantis shrimp, my rent would have dropped by at least two hundred!

"All this together should barely be a hundred, but there's nothing else I really want to buy."

Although Xia Xinyu had raised the budget, when it came to actually buying things, she found that there wasn't really anything she wanted to eat.

After all, the buffet that night was quite expensive, and they would definitely eat their fill then.

So, the two of them paid and left the supermarket checkout.

104 yuan, enough for exactly two lottery draws.

As they were leaving the supermarket, Chen Yuan suddenly noticed Xia Xinyu's gaze lingering briefly on a blind box machine.

[I seem to be out of hand cream, and the weather's been cold lately…]

[But if I get hand cream from a blind box, that would be a waste, wouldn't it?]

"I haven't played this new blind box machine before, let's give it a try?" Chen Yuan suggested.

"Eh?"

Xia Xinyu seemed to be exposed, then waved her hand and explained, "I've seen people play it, and they always get not-so-good skincare products. It's the same price to just buy them… but I wouldn't usually buy these kinds of things, and it's fifty yuan a try."

Xia Xinyu really wanted to play a little.

But the stakes were too high, and she didn't dare.

What if she got something useless? That would be a real waste.

Xinyu did have some skincare products, but they were all basic things for her face and hands. After all, she hadn't started wearing makeup yet, and there were no occasions for her to wear it.

"It's okay, let's try once."

Chen Yuan, holding the groceries in one hand, grabbed Xia Xinyu's hand with the other and led her to the blind box machine.

Honestly, although Chen Yuan had X-ray vision, the awkward thing was, he didn't know which of these things here was actually expensive.

It was quite a headache.

However, the video scrolling on the screen said there was a 5% chance of winning a YSL lipstick.

And a 2% chance of winning SK-II.

What the hell? Why does that sound like a gun from *CrossFire*…

But 2%, that's one in fifty. You'd have to try fifty times to win once, which is 2500 yuan, just to get one of those prizes, and there's no guaranteed payout.

How expensive could a bottle of skincare product be?

"Can you really win the jackpot? Seems like a scam, those things cost over a thousand to buy."

"…" A woman passing by said casually, shocking Chen Yuan.

That's enough to get Yu-zi three castration surgeries made of wood!

Are you trying to buy Yu-zi's life, at that price?

Damn—

Astonishing.

"Never mind, I'm not very lucky." Xia Xinyu stepped back to let others play first, then whispered to Chen Yuan, "But we can watch other people play. It's pretty fun."

The feeling of the unknown fascinates normal people.

Even just watching, Xia Xinyu found it entertaining.

And Chen Yuan, turned on his X-ray vision and performed a collective scan on the 30 blind boxes displayed in front of him.

Most of them were from obscure brands that he'd never even seen advertised.

However, on the whole shelf, Chen Yuan found a YSL lipstick inside a blind box in the bottom right corner.

Hidden so deep?

Where's the SK-II?

Chen Yuan continued to scan, piercing through this layer, and then found it was still behind the YSL, but with two blind boxes in between. So, on the bottom right shelf, it was the fourth one from the inside.

How sneaky, thinking most people wouldn't squat down to press the button, so they set it up like that!

He would have to press that button four times in a row to win that deepest blind box, which is two hundred yuan.

Xinyu definitely wouldn't agree to that; it would be too wasteful.

But if the first three don't come out, he won't be able to get the fourth.

By the time everyone's taken all the blind boxes on the surface, who knows when it will get to the one inside…

*Clang*, a blind box fell out.

It was a pen.

He didn't know what kind of pen.

Anyway, that's what Chen Yuan saw.

After the girl took the blind box, she opened it with great anticipation. But when she saw it was just a Florasis eyebrow pencil, she sighed, "How unlucky, it's just an eyebrow pencil."

"Did you break even?" the boy next to her asked.

"Yeah, this pencil costs 79, on the Douyin broadcast."

"That expensive?"

"What's so expensive about it? Besides, I only spent fifty yuan to get it."