I Become The Richest Man With A monthly Salary of Twenty Thousand Yuan-Chapter 699 - 486: Have a Death Wish?

Having personally experienced the magic of the "French Kiss" trick, she grew even more curious about what kind of process led to such a beautiful result. She also increasingly regretted not moving faster before, thinking she might have caught the entire performance.

Seeing her face full of longing, Xia Liang laughed. "The charm of magic lies in its unexpected results. The process is just the setup to present that result. You really have to see it with your own eyes to appreciate it. Even if I told you the entire process step-by-step right now, you wouldn’t feel any of the fun."

He Jing nodded thoughtfully, then said with a hint of disappointment, "But I didn’t get to see it. Can you perform it again? I’m dying to watch."

She clasped her hands, her face a mask of pleading. She looked so pitiful that most men would find her impossible to refuse. Xia Liang, however, could only offer his regrets. He explained that the System Inventory was out of petals, so he could only spread his hands and say, "As much as I’d like to, I really can’t. Magic tricks require preparation, and I’m not set up to do it again right now."

Xia Liang might have had Spiritual Energy, but that didn’t make him a Mage capable of conjuring things from thin air. The petals he had prepared earlier were all gone, so naturally, he couldn’t repeat the performance.

Seeing He Jing’s disappointed face and her pouting lips, Xia Liang continued, "To be honest, I only just developed this trick. I intentionally designed it to have a beautiful effect so it would get a good reception from the audience."

The waiter brought over their order. After a brief pause, Xia Liang continued, "Given the current environment for magic, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to perform in a way that people want to see. Truthfully, I’m not satisfied with the flower shower effect. There’s still a lot of room for improvement. So you don’t need to feel regretful. I promise that when I improve it, you can be one of the first in the audience."

At his words, He Jing’s mood rocketed from the depths of despair to sheer bliss. Bubbling with excitement, she clapped her hands and said, "Really? You said that, so don’t you dare go back on your word, or I’ll never let you hear the end of it!"

As she spoke, she even playfully waved her little fist, her expression making it clear: *If you dare trick me, you’re dead.*

Xia Liang watched her with a faint smile and nodded. As He Jing poured him a beer, she said, "I still can’t believe it. I’ve been wracking my brain, but I just can’t figure it out. How did the card *I* was biting end up in your mouth, while *my* card ended up in yours? How on earth did you do that?"

"That... I can’t tell you."

Of course, Xia Liang couldn’t reveal the truth. As a Magician, he was bound by a code to never disclose the secrets behind a trick. It was a matter of basic professional ethics.

"Stingy," He Jing pouted adorably.

Xia Liang rolled his eyes. "It’s not that I’m being stingy. The wonder of magic lies in how it subverts people’s common sense. All magic tricks are illusions. It’s only because people don’t know the secret that they’re amazed and find it magical. If you explain how it’s done, all the appeal vanishes."

After a moment’s thought, Xia Liang added, "How about this? I’ll perform a small trick for you as an example."

"Okay, okay! I want to see!" He Jing nodded eagerly. Xia Liang’s insistence on keeping his secrets didn’t bother her in the slightest; she was already captivated by his magic. The prospect of seeing another trick immediately reignited her excitement.

Xia Liang picked up a pair of chopsticks. "See these? They’re just a very ordinary pair of chopsticks. Nothing special at all."

The chopsticks belonged to the lobster restaurant and were indistinguishable from any other pair of sterilized chopsticks. Xia Liang cleared a space in front of him, pushing the dishes to the side. He then set one chopstick down vertically and laid the other across it horizontally, with the tip of the horizontal one pointing slightly upward toward his left.

He waved his hand over them a few times and said, "Watch closely. I’m going to move this chopstick with my mind."

Under He Jing’s intense gaze, Xia Liang cupped his hands around either end of the horizontal chopstick. As he made a sweeping, clockwise motion, the chopstick actually began to pivot along with his hands. It rotated from the seven o’clock position all the way to the twelve o’clock position, stopping just short of being parallel with the vertical one.

"Whoa, it really moved!" He Jing exclaimed, quickly snatching the chopsticks to inspect them. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him. "There are no hidden devices at all! It really moved on its own. You must have some kind of supernatural ability, right? How else could you do something so amazing?"

Xia Liang coughed. "I just told you, all magic is an illusion; there’s no such thing as supernatural powers. The truth is, I misled you. A Magician only shows you what he wants you to see. My repeated emphasis and my hand gestures were all to draw your attention. I wanted you to stare at the chopsticks and my hands so you would ignore everything else. Now, I’ll do it one more time. Don’t just watch my hands. Pay attention to me—my whole person—and you’ll uncover the secret of the moving chopstick."

After his explanation, Xia Liang performed the trick again. It was a simple little illusion he had learned a while back. The hand motions were merely a feint. The chopstick moved because he was silently blowing on it the entire time. It stopped moving simply because he ran out of breath.

"Oh... so you were just blowing on it." Once she understood the truth, He Jing rolled her eyes. The idea of moving a chopstick with one’s mind had seemed so magical and cool. Knowing the real method was so disappointing it was almost tragic; it was just too lame.

Xia Liang nodded. "That’s why I said knowing the secret makes it less interesting. It’s also why a Magician should never perform the same trick for the same audience in the same place more than once. The more an audience sees a trick, the less wonder they feel, and the higher the chance of it being exposed."