My Demon Friends-Chapter 480 - 467 Little Goldfish

Xiao Hua took off her top hat onstage, bowing in thanks.

The little demon, who seemed to be called Doudou, stood on the table just used for the card magic performance. Even though no one could see him, he copied Xiao Hua by bowing to the audience below and then took a long breath.

The applause from the audience lingered.

Seeing this, Brother Nan showed a satisfied smile. It seems the average quality of the new members in my club this year is very high, she thought, then couldn’t help but say to Zhou Li, "Xiao Hua getting first place should be in the bag, right?"

"Should be," Zhou Li replied.

Zhou Li saw the teachers and leaders in the first row applauding continuously. "But Xiao Hua herself performed really well," he added.

"No cheating?" Brother Nan blinked.

"...Magic is cheating in itself." Zhou Li thought for a moment, choosing to side with his little junior sister. "Compared to the others, Xiao Hua’s performance today was actually closer to the literal meaning of the word ’magic’."

"Still cheating, though."

"You’re right."

Zhou Li didn’t dare argue with Brother Nan too much for fear of getting punched.

But on second thought, maybe she was right.

Magic itself is an art that creates marvels and brings audiences surprising experiences; it’s also a highly intelligent performance art. Magicians need to apply sophisticated techniques in sleight of hand, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, performance studies, and more to achieve an effect that seems real. This process itself is very much worthy of awe. Therefore, even though everyone knows it’s fake, and might still be amazed after learning the secrets behind it, part of this amazement belongs to the performer’s and creator’s design, while the other part stems from the effect of the performance itself.

Xiao Hua had ultimately used a clever trick, or perhaps it should be called an exploit.

And since it’s called an exploit, it might as well be called cheating.

It only achieved the same performance effect and the same level of spectacle, but the design and substance within the process were completely mismatched.

And the reason it had such a profound effect was largely because the public still didn’t know about the existence of demons, Heavenly Masters, and Spiritual Power in this world. So, people would still be surprised and still utter exclamations—

How did they do that?!

That’s impossible!

So magical!

But what if, one day, people knew? What if they knew there were indeed some people in this world who possessed ’magic,’ and its veil of mystery was lifted? Would magic as a performance art still hold such charm? Would people still try to figure out how performers managed to achieve such incredible feats?

It’s hard to say.

Perhaps there would be one less art form in the world, or maybe magic performances would become even more spectacular.

Let’s hope for the latter.

By this time, Xiao Hua had already left the stage. The host started a new round of the prize draw, projecting a QR code onto the screen. This round’s prize was ten Milk Tea Vouchers.

"Quick, scan the code!"

Brother Nan began to egg Zhou Li on, taking out her phone.

Zhou Li obviously wasn’t interested. Coming to freeload at another college’s welcome party is already enough, he thought. If I accidentally snatch a prize draw spot from them, I’d feel terrible.

However, his gaze shifted—

Why does the phone in Brother Nan’s hand look so familiar? he wondered, noticing she was muttering to herself.

Zhou Li listened closely. She was saying, "This is Zhou Li’s, it’s none of my business... Don’t use my luck..."

"None of my business, none of my business..."

"..." Zhou Li felt a headache coming on. "How do you know my phone’s password?"

"Caught a glimpse."

"..."

"Don’t be so shocked, little bro!" Brother Nan had already successfully scanned the code using Zhou Li’s phone. She put it down, started tapping for the prize draw, and turned to Zhou Li to explain, "Every time you enter your password, you do it so flamboyantly, never bothering to hide it from your Big Bro. It’s hard for me not to catch a glimpse! Besides, your password is just your birthday. After I saw it, how could I forget?"

"..."

"Relax! Your Big Bro isn’t interested in the contents of your phone!"

TSK. Brother Nan tossed the phone back to Zhou Li. "I reckon there isn’t anything in your phone that would interest me... Someone like you probably hasn’t even watched porn."

Zhou Li silently shifted his gaze.

Brother Nan: ???

Brother Nan: "Hmm?"

Zhou Li pretended not to see or hear, glancing up at the large screen for a moment, then down at his own phone’s screen.

But Brother Nan wouldn’t let him off the hook. She forcibly turned his face towards her by pinching his chin. Tilting her head, she scrutinized him and said, "What’s with this sudden guilt? Is there something on your phone that I’d find interesting?"

"Nothing!" Zhou Li, not one to be pushed around, replied assertively. "I’m just feeling guilty for not having watched... *that*."

"Really? I’m not so sure about that..."

"Why don’t you believe me?"

"Even though your Old Li here is a bit rough around the edges, I’ve got a keen eye."

"There are so many people around, don’t talk about those... things."

Zhou Li, embarrassed, averted his gaze once more. His reaction looked just like before and was perfectly reasonable, as he was a thin-skinned person.

Brother Nan thought for a moment. Although she was still frowning, she couldn’t find any holes in his explanation.

"Okay! Scanning is over!"

"We’ll start the prize draw now! Please look at the big screen!"

"Everyone, count down with me..."

"Five, four..."

"Stop!"

"Congratulations to ’Zhou Li’ for winning this prize: ten Milk Tea Vouchers!" The female host smiled slightly. "Will ’Zhou Li’ please come to the stage to claim your prize? It will be presented by Xie Minqing, the student who just brought us that incredible magic performance!"

Zhou Li froze for a moment, feeling a bit awkward.

Brother Nan also froze for a moment, then murmured quietly, "Don’t tell me it still used up my luck?"

Xiao Hua, standing by the side of the stage, also looked startled. She glanced down at the audience in a fluster.