"So, you approached me and asked me to help you plan this event, all of this was premeditated?"
"Your event?" The person in charge looked at the sea under the moonlight. It was so far away that he could only see a line, but he could imagine that the sea under the moonlight must be very vast, just like his heart at this moment.
"Thank you for sponsoring my event, sir. I am very grateful."
"What's the meaning?"
"Want to go a little bigger?" the person in charge in the shadows asked with a smile.
"Calm down, murder is illegal, hey, you..."
The call had already ended, and the organizer sensed something was wrong. He called the captain of the cruise ship, but when the call connected, it was still that same person's voice.
"Do you have any further questions, sir?"
With a 'clatter,' the organizer's phone fell to the ground: "...Call the police! Call the police now!"
The night passed, and all was calm. Ren Yifei stood by the window and took a deep breath: "Ah, another beautiful day."
He turned and waved to the little fly on the live stream: "Good morning, have you washed up? Have you eaten? Are you ready for school or work? Hurry up and get out of bed!"
The viewers in the live stream, reluctant to get up, rubbed their eyes and greeted him on the screen: "Good morning, Xiaoming, I can still drag it out for five more minutes." A truly dedicated worker can precisely control his time in bed down to the second.
Downstairs, everything was the same as usual. He sat down at the long table in his usual spot, rested his chin on his hands, and began chatting with the audience about how he would spend the 100 million.
The competition isn't even over yet, and you're already thinking about spending the prize money?
Most people would have been criticized, but Ren Yifei had a thick skin and a "take it or leave it" attitude, which made the audience accept this characterization and even offer suggestions on how to best use this huge sum of money.
A little while later, the other two contestants came down and sat opposite Ren Yifei, one above the other, and greeted him.
"Don't believe it, anchor! These two have already plotted together last night to fight against you alone!" A viewer who had slipped away to scout out the enemy's situation shouted through a loudspeaker.
Other bewildered viewers looked on with confusion: "How can these things be used in a coordinated effort? They're not even in one place."
They found out very quickly.
"Let me introduce you. This is Jin Yufei, a friend I met here." Contestant Jian Lang introduced Jin Yufei to the audience in a generous manner, and Jin Yufei, who was usually quiet and a bit cool, also showed a rare smile.
Fans of the two screamed, and it seemed that a CP (couple) fandom had suddenly emerged.
"You two hit it off immediately yesterday and became sworn brothers?" Ren Yifei looked up in surprise. "Dreaming back to the entertainment industry."
What the hell is this "dream back to the entertainment industry"? What the hell is this "instant connection"? They've known each other for over ten days already. If they were going to feel like old friends, they would have done so long ago.
Viewers who caught Ren Yifei's sarcasm laughed heartily: "Save your breath, the entertainment industry is tired of this kind of thing."
However, the two contestants did not stop interacting because of Ren Yifei's sarcasm, nor did their fan base increase due to the gimmick. Viewers in Ren Yifei's livestream chat were simultaneously cursing him as "despicable" and filled with anxiety, unable to even enjoy their breakfast in peace.
Ren Yifei himself was enjoying his breakfast peacefully, happily telling the audience which breakfast dish was the most delicious that day.
"How could our Xiaoming be so unlucky? He's already left the entertainment industry, and he still gets hurt by these kinds of tactics? No way! He can tolerate it, but I can't. Does he think we're a bunch of people who don't follow celebrities and don't know how to create hype?"
Viewers started imagining their favorite streamer as a strong but pitiful person who suffered injustice but didn't say anything.
"This is outrageous!"
So Ren Yifei's fans, who were being targeted by two contestants working together, finally stopped being passive. Over the course of breakfast, several well-edited videos were uploaded to video websites and some forums.
They started recommending this player to others: Want to experience the feeling of winning without lifting a finger? Pick him! Pick him! Just pick him!
"What's going on here?" The official representative looked at the online debate. "A bunch of netizens who don't know the situation are just making a fuss."
If possible, the authorities would like to shut down these live streams. However, with hundreds of hostages—no, including staff members who are unaware of the situation, there must be thousands of hostages—currently on that foreign island far from the country, the authorities cannot act rashly.
If this matter comes to light, not to mention the impact on the government's credibility, there's no guarantee that the planners won't take the risk of harming the thousands of citizens overseas.
Now they are starting to plan their entry into the island, but everything must be done secretly, without alerting the enemy.
"What do you think would make the other side give up his revenge plan?" The official sighed heavily.
After learning the whole story, they knew that this person was seeking revenge, and now that two people were probably dead, the chances of him giving up were very low.
But even if it's lower, we still have to give it a try.
"Unless these four people were arrested and tried back then, but now it's hard to find evidence, and it would be difficult to convict them even if they went to court," the assistant said.
"Actually, when they were arrested, all four of them were minors and the sentences weren't severe, but the other party was probably still not satisfied."
From the perspective of the children, it's not impossible to understand this person's feelings. However, national stability requires the weapon of law. Seeking revenge without resorting to legal channels is a violation of national security.
Sometimes, it's like that; you can't have both personal relationships and adherence to rules.
Constrained at every turn, the authorities currently have no better solution and can only wait for the right opportunity and act accordingly.
The person in charge of the activities on the island was well aware of this. The helicopter had already landed there, and he would take the plane and leave when the time was right.
By then, the mercenaries he hired will leave as quickly as possible.
From the very beginning, he had no intention of killing anyone other than those four.
The event organizer looked up at the wall. Now there were only three people on the live stream screen. 'He Zhaoming' had his hands handcuffed with metal handcuffs and a paper bag over his head. He was sitting calmly in the car.
"Hmm?" Suddenly he noticed something. He zoomed in on a certain spot and saw that He Zhaoming's handcuffs were unusual. They were only loosely cuffed and could be broken at any time.
This was certainly not because the staff went easy on them; rather, someone had secretly hidden a wire or something else and quietly removed the handcuffs.
Looking at the other two contestants, their handcuffs were tightly fastened; it's unclear whether they were just carefree or lacked the skill.
"Even without my intervention, they are still no match for He Zhaoming." Ninety-nine points and one hundred points seem to have a small difference, but the latter got one hundred points simply because the test paper was only worth one hundred points.
Wearing handcuffs and with their heads covered, the contestants were led to their respective "examination rooms." Ren Yifei saw a cement floor beneath his feet, and there was a faint smell of flour in the air, as well as the smell of machine oil after the machinery had been running. The complex smells conveyed to him the message: a flour processing plant.
He was then taken somewhere where staff made him sit in a chair, and then they used a very strong plastic rope to tie him up, and they did so very professionally.
Then something was strapped to his body, right around his chest. Looking through the gap in the paper bag, it looked like a... bomb?
When the staff came to remove his handcuffs, the man was taken aback. This was normal, as he had already removed his handcuffs on the way.
The viewers in the live stream were also taken aback, then asked in confusion, "Weren't they handcuffed tight?"
So the staff member re-examined his hand and took a wire from between his fingers.
Ren Yifei: "...It's just a piece of wire, it can't be that serious."
"As for it, it's just that it's on you," the staff member said seriously, and then checked again to see if he had anything else on his hands.
The audience finally understood, and burst into cheerful laughter; the deeper the fandom, the more likely they are to turn against the idol.
"How am I supposed to solve the case if you tie me up like this?" Ren Yifei asked.
"This time, we don't need the contestants to solve the case." The staff member glanced at the time.
Ren Yifei had already guessed what they were going to do, but he was still not giving up and asked, "What do you need me to do?"
"You need to get out of here safely before the bomb explodes." After saying that, the staff member pressed the button on the bomb. "Don't move it, this thing will explode if it senses a vibration."
Tick-tock, tick-tock, a familiar sound, a familiar smell.
"Hey, you forgot to take off my hood."
"No, it's yours." The staff member's voice came from afar, along with the sound of a heavy metal door closing, followed by silence.
In contrast, the live stream room has become a sea of joy, where people are happy to see the streamer fail, and they are all haters.
Ren Yifei closed his eyes and groped in the darkness to find the rope's structure. He was right; it was a very professional binding method. The more he struggled, the tighter it became, but it would be very difficult to untie it without struggling.
To untie the rope, you first need to know how it was tied and how to loosen it to achieve the goal of untying it.
He took a deep breath and continued to grope for the rope's structure in the dark, mentally reconstructing the binding pattern. This process was especially difficult because his hands were bound.
Time passed second by second, and even the audience could see how difficult this task was. For the first time, they saw sweat on Ren Yifei's neck.
"Hey, host, say something, you're making me nervous."
After what seemed like an eternity, perhaps five or ten minutes, Ren Yifei finally spoke: "You must all be very curious about how magicians escape dangerous situations in those large-scale escape magic tricks, right?"
"Let's put the rest aside for now. Shall we take a look at the part about untying the rope with the backhand?"
His voice was relaxed, which immediately reassured the viewers in the live stream, who clamored to watch.
"Could you move the live-streaming fly behind me and position it so it's aimed at my hands?"
The live-streaming fly was controlled to fly to the back and aimed at his hands, which were tightly bound, with even some marks on his wrists. Under these circumstances, how was he supposed to untie the ropes?
"Have you ever played with the nine-linked rings? Although it looks incredible, as long as you understand the structure of the nine-linked rings, and add a little patience and caution, you can basically solve it. The reason I didn't speak before was to understand the structure of the rope and build a model in my mind."
As he spoke, he raised his hand so that the live-streaming fly could get a clearer view of the entire structure.
"Now, let's start untying the first knot of the nine-linked rings." As he spoke, he bent his fingers and carefully adjusted the tension of one section of the rope. It was actually quite tight, but he was making that section even tighter, squeezing a little bit into the next section.
Things didn't always go smoothly; several times he picked the wrong rope and had to stop to adjust. The audience saw him tilting his head back, taking deep breaths, and beads of sweat dripping down his neck.
The audience held their breath, afraid that their voices would disturb him.
Finally, as the ropes tightened, the section binding his wrists seemed to loosen a little. Ren Yifei held his breath, clenched his fists, and slowly revealed the joint of his thumb.
"Phew—" He breathed a sigh of relief, took his entire thumb out, and things became much easier after that.
"The method is quite simple, it just requires training and you must stay calm. If it's a magician who does escape shows, they can be even faster."
Although the audience had been watching intently and listening to Ren Yifei's explanation, they still gasped in amazement when they actually saw one of his hands successfully freed.
"Wow, this streamer is amazing! How can he know everything? It's like he could survive even if he were thrown into the deepest mountains and forests."
The first thing Ren Yifei did after freeing his hands was to tear off the paper bag from his head. The sudden bright light made him squint.
Once his eyes had fully adjusted, he looked around carefully: "Wow!"
All around were piles of flour, without any bags.
"A dust explosion!"