My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Audrey's smile froze for a moment, then she smiled even more broadly, clearly the boy had guessed right.

"Fire retardant must be very expensive, boss lady. You've really gone to a lot of trouble."

Xia Zuo saw Audrey's expression and knew that his deduction was correct.

"It's all worth spoiling you. How is your brain structured? Why are you so smart? No wonder you can remember the accounts so clearly."

Audrey cupped the boy's face, kissed him on the forehead, and said as if confiding in him:

“That guy, Vans… Hmph. I gave him the formula and promised to cover half the cost of the fire retardant. But he used that money to buy addictive painkillers. Snake and the others have known Vans was addicted for a long time, but they've tolerated him having an addict around because of the Fire Breather's status in the circus.”

Audrey seemed to have thought of something.

She gazed into the boy's eyes and said seriously:

“Xia Zuo, you have to promise me that you will never use painkillers unless absolutely necessary. And you must not use them before breathing fire. Vans is actually using painkillers to tough out the side effects of the fire-breathing agent. Sooner or later he will swallow the fire-breathing agent and kill himself.”

Xia Zuo laughed heartily, "Of course. I don't need that stuff at all. Look at my recovery ability, even painkillers don't work as fast as I recover."

Audrey was amused by the boy's tone. "Hehehe, you're right, you were born to be a fire-breather."

She paused for a few seconds, her red lips tightened, and she said resolutely:

“I’ve made up my mind. As soon as the Piek City show is over, I’ll fire Vans. You’ll take his place. The circus’s income will decrease, but it’s better than something going wrong at any time. I don’t want to deal with that bastard’s aftermath.”

After saying these words, Audrey's eyes seemed a little dazed.

She paused briefly, then murmured:

“I used my own points to exchange for formulas and fire retardants for Vans, and I never withheld his payment, Xia Zuo. Haven’t I done more than enough?”

"Yes, boss."

Xia Zuo nodded emphatically, "I even think you're being too lenient with him. There's no need to sacrifice so much for someone who's addicted. Vans is an adult and should be responsible for his actions."

Meeting Audrey's gradually clearing gaze, he said in a deep voice, "With me in the circus, things will get better soon."

Under the moonlight, the two discussed the performance arrangements for tomorrow and then returned to the performance venue to continue rehearsals.

the next day.

Audrey's Circus has officially opened.

The news that the fortress commander had invited the residents to watch a performance had spread throughout the city's taverns last night.

By this morning, almost every household knew that they could watch the performance for free.

With bandits rampaging through the city, the residents were filled with fear and had not had such a good deal of getting something for free for a long time.

Before 8 a.m., the fountain square was already packed with a huge crowd.

The fortress commander was generous, but clearly underestimated the public's enthusiasm for free things.

Before the show started at 9 a.m., a guard responsible for delivering the order came from the fortress and handed a letter and a money bag to the circus boss.

After reading the letter, Audrey glanced at the amount of money in her purse, then turned to the members and laughed loudly:

"The commander has allocated another sum for tickets! Gentlemen, pull back the curtains of the pointed tents a third of the way. We're adding extra seats today!"

Xia Zuo mentally gave a thumbs up. Great! Although they didn't have the experience of generating ticket revenue, the audience doubled on their first appearance today!

Audrey delegated the tasks of warming up the audience and announcing the program names to Chazo, greatly relieving the clown sister of her burden.

Xia Zuo needs to get the audience excited while the other members are setting up the performance area, so as to prevent the atmosphere from cooling down during the waiting time.

Although it wasn't a formal performance, he still put in 100% of his effort.

Knowing that he was short, Xia Zuo wore shoes with height-increasing effects.

To make himself stand out more in the eyes of the audience, he even changed into a brightly colored clown costume.

About ten minutes later, the five rows of seats were full of people, adults and children whispering to each other, and the scene was very noisy.

Xia Zuo poked his head out from behind the curtain backstage.

The fluffy green wig and the big smiley face painted with red paint immediately caught the children's attention.

"Beep beep beep"

Xia Zuo whistled and swaggered into the center of the field with an exaggerated gait.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

Xia Zuo drew people's attention to himself.

The audience watched with amusement as the clown spread his legs wide apart.

"Friends of Piek Fortress. Before the circus performance officially begins, let us praise the generous and benevolent commander of the fortress!"

Xia Zuo raised his arms high, his face, painted with greasepaint, was serious.

"Praise the Commander"

The audience also raised their arms and shouted in unison.

"Thank you to him for treating everyone to a free performance."

A shout came from the audience, followed by good-natured laughter from others. "Haha, we hope there will be more performances like this!"

Amidst the sea of ​​laughter, Xia Zuo suddenly let his lips droop, and with a mournful expression, drew two streaks of tears under his eyes.

"Waaaaah, everyone, did you know? The generous fortress commander has put me out of work!"

A brief silence fell over the audience, who seemed to be wondering why the Joker had said that.

"I used to be a ticket seller, collecting money with one hand and handing tickets to everyone with the other."

Xia Zuo smiled, his lips curving upwards again, and pulled out an excessively bulky money bag from behind him, which was stuffed with coin-shaped objects.

He swayed smugly, "Generous commander, you gave me all the money! It makes me sad, I haven't even sold any tickets yet and you've already finished all the work."

"shush"

The audience unanimously expressed their "disdain" for the clown's smug demeanor.

Xia Zuo tossed the bulky money bag backstage and looked at the boss behind the curtain.

The other party made several hand gestures: the strongmen need 30 seconds to prepare.

Xia Zuo blinked his left eye, replying with his gaze, "Received."

He pulled a torch from behind his back and moved to a position about 3 meters away from the audience:

"Hey everyone. As you can see, I'm an ambitious ticket seller. I don't want to be left without work by generous big customers again, so I've taught myself some skills. Let's see how well I've learned them."

Xia Zuo lit the torch with a match and took a mouthful of fire-breathing agent.

"puff"

With a "whoosh," a small flame appeared before us, steadily emitting light.

Xia Zuo held up one finger, asking the audience to help him time it.

"1"

"2"

The children stared at the firelight and helped the clown count in their childish voices.

"4"

"5"

Several adults also joined in.

"13"

"14"

"My God, he can vomit for so long."

A gasp rippled through the audience, as if a switch had been flipped, and everyone joined in the timer:

“15，16，17，18！19！20！21！”

Xia Zuo closed his mouth, and the small flame disappeared.

He stood with his hands on his hips, leaning back with an expression that suggested he was waiting for praise. "Guys, how was my performance?"

"Clap clap clap!"

"Hmph, clown, you're really something!"

The children's shrill voices were particularly noticeable amidst the applause.

"Very good, one more please!"

"One more!"

"Thank you all for your kind words."

Xia Zuo bowed to express his gratitude, his head lowered to his knees, and took the opportunity to look at the curtain behind him.

Audrey, half-hidden behind the curtain, looked on with admiration and gestured with her right hand as if to indicate that everything was ready.

Xia Zuo jumped up and cheered:

"Whoa! The first performance is the Big Exploding Ball by Hercules Popeye and the Clown Siblings!"

Clown Sister took the stage first, accompanied by Snake's cheerful drumbeats.

She captivated the audience with her high-pitched screams and sexy dance moves that swayed to the music.

Xia Zuo quickly walked behind the curtain.

"Little guy, you did a great job."

Audrey half-embraced Shazo's shoulder, gently squeezed his shoulder, and said softly:

"Take a break, we'll need you to warm up the atmosphere later."

Xia Zuo glanced at Fan Ersi, who was engrossed in mixing the flamethrower. Next to Fan Ersi's suitcase were two empty bottles of the potion.

This bald man, who relies on painkillers to force himself to perform a difficult fire-breathing act, has completely put himself in a vicious cycle.

The addiction required money, which came from performance fees. Once paid, the money was used to buy drugs. The drugs intensified the craving, so the person resorted to performing dangerous acts while still taking drugs, hoping to earn even more money to buy more drugs.

If it weren't for the fact that practicing breathing techniques could greatly improve physical fitness, this drug addict would have collapsed long ago.