Chapter 638: Spring Festival Gala Magic Revealed, Happy New Year! |
Soon, New Year's Eve arrived.
The room was warm and cozy, while the occasional bursts of sporadic firecracker sounds outside couldn't drown out the crisp clatter of mahjong tiles colliding—shuffling and melding mixed with people's cheerful chatter, punctuated by the sound of onlookers cracking melon seeds and children's noisy shouts. In contrast, the TV program playing behind everyone had become nothing more than background music for this small world.
The festive atmosphere in the room grew even stronger.
This was also how many people celebrated the New Year nowadays.
Watching the Spring Festival Gala was clearly no longer their only choice. Compared to those boring TV programs, they preferred gathering together to play cards or mahjong, enjoying the leisurely time of chatting and relaxing with others.
However, there were still a few young girls who chose to sit on the sofa and watch tonight's program.
Of course, the boring programs weren't their ultimate goal.
"Has the schedule come out yet? What time is Brother Xiao's show?"
One of the girls was still scrolling through the program schedule on her phone.
"Ah, my sister is in the opening act! Quickly switch to the other channel—I want to watch her show!"
The TV channels jumped back and forth between several popular satellite stations, and they even had livestream rooms from different places open on their phones just in case they missed something.
Fortunately, just over forty minutes after the gala officially began, the long-awaited magic show finally appeared.
In the shot, the young man in a red suit exuded a unique charm. Though he seemed a bit shy when facing the camera, his voice remained steady, just like every other time he had faced the lens. He greeted the audience watching in front of their TVs: "Hello everyone, I'm Actor Xiao He. Here, I wish you all a Happy New Year, great success in the future, and may all your endeavors come true."
Then he handed the microphone to the person beside him. Another young man awkwardly greeted everyone: "Hello everyone, I'm Xie Jingshi. I'm very happy to be sitting here in such a special capacity to watch the magic show. I also wish all the viewers in front of the TV everything goes well and the best of luck!"
Then came Chen You, and finally, the show's central figure, Ge Fu, stood up. He raised his hand to adjust his glasses, facing the camera with a slight smile that was both mysterious and composed. He gave a small bow to everyone, his voice carrying a hint of magnetism: "I am magician Ge Fu. This is my first time stepping onto the Beijing TV Spring Festival Gala stage. I'm very happy to see everyone here—"
...
That night's magic show unsurprisingly climbed onto the hot search lists of various platforms, and even the legitimate Central TV magic show didn't receive such treatment.
And if nothing unexpected happened, it would also become one of the most memorable performances of the year for viewers.
Compared to magic that relied on obscure tricks, Ge Fu's magic was more visually spectacular and impactful. His ability to drive emotions through speech was also strong, making people irresistibly follow his train of thought. Even if some could immediately guess the principles behind parts of his magic, they still found it refreshing.
Especially the several card switches and shuffles, and the final watch swap—many people were led by the nose all the way until the end, only then realizing something was off. But even after carefully recalling everything, they still couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong or how Ge Fu had managed to do it.
Even if they said Xie Jingshi was a plant, with such an incredible technique, could Xie Jingshi really pull it off?
Or rather, among the guests participating in the show, was there anyone who could match Ge Fu's hand speed to flawlessly execute this magic performance?
Netizens who usually looked forward to seeing magicians slip up felt slightly disappointed, unable to find any amusing blunders in the magic performances across the channels. But some immediately started researching the secrets behind this magic, trying to uncover the hidden tricks. Soon, Xiao He's movements were caught by netizens using frame-by-frame analysis.
Almost that very night, before the midnight bell had even rung, analysis videos from various major channels hit the hot search.
And right behind them was Xiao He's personal trending topic.
[Xiao He, you're the plant, aren't you?]
[Xiao He Magic Show]
[Xiao He Magic Revealed]
Beneath these trending topics were screenshots of Xiao He's individual shots.
They accurately revealed every small move Xiao He made, magnifying the subtle details that viewers hadn't noticed the first time—
In the frame, Ge Fu smoothly shuffled the cards. At the dead angle blocked by his arm, a playing card flew at incredible speed from the angle of his wrist flick, landing in the corner, where it was nimbly caught between the fingers of Xiao He, who was sitting beside him, and then vanished into the palm of his hand.
Even when this sequence was magnified and played in slow motion, it still appeared very blurry. Even in front of such a high-definition camera, their "handover" was terrifyingly smooth, catching everyone completely off guard. Only the fleeting flash of the white playing card surface barely allowed people to analyze what had happened.
There was another scene where Xiao He took Xie Jingshi's watch. At the time, Xie Jingshi needed to draw a card, but suddenly Xiao He wanted to check the cards to see if there was anything suspicious in Ge Fu's deck. As a result, the moment Xiao He turned and raised his hand to brush past Xie Jingshi's arm, Xie Jingshi's watch completely disappeared.
That scene was almost bizarre. If they hadn't been staring at the watch the whole time, they really wouldn't have noticed the difference before and after. In the blink of an eye, the watch silently vanished completely, as if it had been digitally erased, leaving no trace whatsoever.
As for the other small tricks, since the footage shown at the time was limited and mostly focused on Ge Fu, with Xiao He's actions being extremely concealed, even with frame-by-frame reconstruction, the analyzing netizens couldn't find any direct conclusive evidence. So netizens still didn't know how the two of them had pulled it off.
If it weren't for stealing that watch, netizens probably wouldn't have suspected him at all.
Even so, after watching this analysis video, netizens still felt a chill run down their spines.
[OK, I get it now—this magic show was actually meant to teach us to quit gambling and beware of pickpockets.]
[This story teaches us: never play cards with Xiao He in the future.]
[Hey hey, so Xiao He, you little rascal, you were hiding in the back quietly pulling sneaky moves, weren't you? If it weren't for the frame-by-frame guy, I would have been fooled by you.]
[Is that normal human hand speed? And Xiao He, when did you get into this line of work? Could this be the price of being a programmer?]
[LOL, on the surface, the scene looked like one magician and three audience members, but it was actually two magicians leading two monkeys (Sorry, Brother Xie and Teacher Chen You! I definitely don't mean you two!)]
[Wow! I'll never dare to play cards with those two again. That routine of theirs is comparable to movie thieves! How is this not free advertising for 'Phantom Thief 2'?]
[I used to think everything in movies was fake, until I saw this show.]
[Everything else is fine, but Xiao He really stunned me. Isn't he an actor? How does he have this skill too?]
[Wahaha! Is there a script? Someone write a related gambling god script! Or a magician one! It would be so satisfying to watch—I want to see Xiao He play that!]
[Yeah, I remember I can go watch 'Phantom Thief 2' tomorrow. Hehe, seeing the White-haired Hacker won't be bad either! He's at least on the Master Thief Ranking! Having the skill to steal things should be pretty normal, right? @Zhuang Hongyi, remember? Don't forget to include it in the third installment.]
[Wow! The second movie hasn't even been released yet, and you're already dreaming about the third!]