House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 80 - Overturned In A Gutter?

“…Likea fresh cloud rising from the Jede Mountain.”

“Thoughthe was a grass belly good at nothing. In fact, he is very outstanding.”

“Asbeautiful as flowers, and as lovely as willows.”

“Thecorners of the eyebrows are delicate, and the voice and smile are full oftenderness.”

“Infront of my eyes is a stranger, but I feel that we are old friends.”

Although therewere a lot of foods in the temple fair, there were also a lot of games and performances.Along the way, Yang Yi took his daughter to enjoy the performances of many experiencedartists, aerobatics, monkey shows and small-scale plays. A Yue Opera performedby a travelling troupe in the open air attracted a lot of old people to watch.

(PS:Mentioning Yue Opera, you may not have any concept about it. The one at thebeginning of the chapter is the famous excerpt “Sister Lin falling fromthe Sky” from the Yue Opera A Dream of Red Mansions, which many people mayhave heard of. Of course, in this world, “A Dream of Red Mansions”does not exist, so Xiao Han deleted the beginning “Sister Lin fell fromthe sky”.) (TN: Author's note)

Yang Yi, wholistened to Yue Opera for the first time, watched it with interest for a whileuntil Xixi became a little impatient. After all, it is very difficult forchildren to get in touch with traditional opera without special talent or the influenceof their grandparents.

However,there were still many things to do at the temple fair. Instead of spending toomuch time in the same place, it was better to walk around more and see more newthings.

They ate alot of things along the way, such as beef offal, fried dough twist, steamedpudding and so on. There were all kinds of foods that seemed to have come fromall over the world. Xixi’s belly has been bulging, but she still haven't hadenough.

“Papa,I want that!” Xixi seemed to see something. She wriggled her little buttexcitedly and raised her hand and cried.

Fearing thatthe Xixi would fall, Yang Yi hurriedly raised his hand, and held her little buttto support her. Then he smiled and said, “Do you still want to eat? Thinkabout how much you ate in the evening? You'll get a stomachache later!”

However,Xixi moved her little feet unwillingly and said, “It’s not food, Papa.Look, that big baby bear is cute. I want the big baby bear!”

Only thendid Yang Yi looked in the direction where Xixi was pointing. It turned out thatit was not a food stall, but a balloon stand set up by several young people inthe village. The customers could use money to exchange for small darts, fivefor ten yuan and twelve for twenty yuan. (TN: Balloon stand: game stand wherethe aim is to hit/pop the balloon with a small dart.)

And theattractive stuffed toys on the side were their prizes!

However, whatXixi said was not right. The baby bear she likes very much was not a big babybear… The black and white color, and the black patches around its eyes thatseemed like eyeshadow… Could Yang Yi not know what it is? This is a giant pandastuffed toy!

Seeing YangYi coming over, especially seeing the shining eyes of Xixi, a young man knewthere was a chance and hurriedly came up and said, “…If you have fivedarts and popped three balloons, you can win one of our third prize, and if youcan pop four balloons, you can win one of our second prize.”

“Whatkind of result is required to get that giant panda? Have all five darts hit?”Yang Yi asked with a smile.

Yang Yi wasnot interested in those small prizes, and Xixi was only interested in the giantpanda stuffed toy.

The littlegirl now saw her father talking to someone else, so she dared not shout loudly.She leaned to her father’s ear and whispered, “Yes, I want the big baby bear.”

“Thisis our special prize!” The young man stood tall and proudly said, “You'llhave to pay 20 yuan to participate in the ultimate challenge! For thischallenge, you will be given 12 darts. As long as you hit ten balloons, you canget our giant panda stuffed toy!”

Obviously,this requirement was a little high!

A steadystream of people has brought a lot of customers and small gifts have also beengiven away, but the obviously expensive giant panda stuffed toy still couldn'tbe won.

“Here, 20yuan!” Yang Yi held Xixi down, smiled, and paid for it.

“Allright!” The young man took it and gave Yang Yi the darts.

Seeingsomeone playing the ultimate challenge, several customers who were throwingdarts stopped one after another, and many tourists who were watching gatheredaround them in high spirits.

Seeing somany people, Xixi was actually a little nervous, so she grabbed her father’s pants,but raised her chest proudly, clenched her small fist, and said in a low voice,“Come on, Papa!”

Theonlookers were amused by Xixi’s lovely little appearance.

“What abeautiful child!”

“Socute!”

“When shegrows up, she will definitely be a great beauty.”

“Comeon, uncle!”

“Comeon!”

Everyone wastalking at the same time. Although it would not affect Yang Yi, he nodded casuallyto everyone, then smiled and touched Xixi’s small head.

If this had beenbefore, Yang Yi would have ignored other people's words! But now, he wasaffected by the environment, or it may be because he has become a father thathis personality has gradually become easygoing.

Yang Yi wasa master of cold weapons in his previous life. He could play with guns, but hisfavorite weapon were knives and all kinds of hidden weapons. How hard could itbe for him to use this little darts?

Yang Yi heldthe dart between his fingers, raised his hand and fling it, relaxed andunrestrained…

“Pfff!”

That was notthe sound of a balloon popping! The dart got stuck on the foam board beside theballoon!

Yang Yi’sexpression suddenly froze, and his relaxed and unrestrained movement seemed tohave become a joke…

“Impossible!How could I miss?” Yang Yi frowned. He thought that his technique andstrength were very moderate, which was no different from that of him in hisprevious life when he shot his target.

Yang Yididn’t believe it and tried again.

“Pfff.”

The crowd ofonlookers broke out with a sigh of regret: “ah…”

“That’snot how you throw a dart, right?” Some people couldn't help but want tocomment. In their opinion, throwing darts was to hold and aim for a long time beforethrowing them out. Unlike Yang Yi, who doesn’t seem to aim, and would fling hishands from his waist and throws them out. How could he hit the target?

But thistime, Yang Yi ignored them. He frowned and looked at the ten darts left in hishand.

So, that'sit!

When Yang Yitried the second one just, the moment it flew out, he felt the problem with hishand!

The bosstampered with the tail. So when the darts flew out and encountered airresistance, with such a tail, it would be difficult to keep it in a relativelystraight line (although it is a parabola, but if the speed is fast, it lookslike a straight line), so the more accurate the aim, the more likely it is tomiss!

After findingout the problem, Yang Yi then went on to throw the remaining ten darts. Yang Yihit eight and missed two. This was because although Yang Yi has grasped how tooperate this kind of darts, a few of those, that have been tampered, will havedifferent rotational angle.

“Congratulationsto this gentleman on winning the first prize!” When the young man saw somany people around, he raised his voice, ready to take the first prize, andthen took the opportunity to call on everyone to challenge.

“No,I’ll do it again. Please collect the darts I used just now. I’ll still use themfor the challenge!” Yang Yi refused the first prize and handed over 20yuan again.

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TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: .

TN: About the title: It mean to make a careless error or a slip up or blunder.