Trembling At A High Altitude

Considering he had saved her life, and that they might soon lose theirs, Anna hesitated for a moment. She somewhat lacked the heart to alert Li Teng, thinking that if she ignored him, he might just withdraw his hand out of boredom.

Ideals are beautiful, reality is skeletal.

Her silence was taken by Li Teng as consent; the next moment, he made a bolder move, pushing straight for her psychological bottom line.

Men are indeed animals.

"I'm going to the restroom."

Anna gave an excuse and stood up, striding away quickly.

"What did you just do? Were you up to no good behind my back?" Li Teng glanced at his left hand, then slapped it with his right.

It's so suffocating being stuck on this pillar!

When Anna returned from the restroom, she didn't sit next to Li Teng on the double sofa anymore. Instead, she sat on the sofa opposite him and smiled sweetly at him.

Go ahead, try and touch me now! Out of reach, aren't I?

Li Teng smirked... Why bother? There might be no life left in two hours, so why not let oneself have some joy?

Just at that moment, the eight actors participating in Hell Mode arrived.

"Everyone's here. Alright, let's get moving. Follow me," the director said without any fuss, leading everyone out of the VIP lounge, through the long jet bridge, and onto an airplane.

"Could this be another plane crash?" Anna frowned.

"That's really unoriginal," Li Teng was also somewhat nervous. If there was another plane crash, last time's strategy of sitting at the tail might not work anymore, right?

Last night, he tossed and turned, contemplating all sorts of possibilities for today's Hell Mode, mainly focusing on armed helicopter air battles or hot air balloons. But unexpectedly, they were going to board a plane for Hell Mode this time!

However, after boarding the plane, the two noticed that things were a bit different than last time.

From the outside, the plane looked like a large commercial airliner, but inside, it wasn't set up like one. It was designed like a hotel with a bar, sofa seating, coffee tables, and even some rooms on the side.

It felt a bit like those private large planes only the rich would have.

"Please make yourselves comfortable here. When it's time to start filming, I'll notify you. Oh, and the drinks, beverages and food here are all free of charge. If you need anything, please help yourselves at the bar," the director briefly instructed everyone before heading into a room on the side and closing the door behind him.

Upon hearing that all the drinks and food were free, Li Teng instantly rushed to the bar first.

"Now, I bet even if I offered to let him touch me, he wouldn't be interested," Anna couldn't help but comment as she watched Li Teng's retreating figure.

In no time at all, Li Teng returned with two large trays of food and drinks, found a table to set them down on, and cheerfully invited Anna to join him.

"Didn't we have breakfast before leaving? Why take so much..." Anna remembered that Li Teng had swindled several bags of food from Bunny Girl, he should have been full this morning.

"Eat when you can, can't die a Hungry Ghost," Li Teng poured two glasses of red wine, handed one to Anna, gulped down his own and then bit into a piece of roasted meat heartily.

These days atop the pillar, the thing Li Teng desired most every day was to have water to drink and a full meal to eat.

Only those who have been starved can understand his current actions. Whenever possible, he'd stuff his stomach full to feel a slight sense of security for the times he had to return to the pillar.

Anna sat down and slowly savored the red wine in her glass.

It was quite a fine wine, definitely made from real grapes, then aged in barrels for a long time, resulting in an incredibly smooth taste.

"Today's script might involve a terrorist event on the plane," Anna's thoughts were fixated on the upcoming shoot of Hell Mode.

"Oh? Elaborate," Li Teng said concisely so as not to let talking interrupt his enjoyment of the roasted meat.

"For instance, there's something off about this roasted meat—it's zombie flesh, and it's not fully cooked. After the actors eat it, they'll turn into zombies and trigger an outbreak on the plane," Anna said while eyeing the large bite of roasted meat Li Teng had taken.

Li Teng quickly examined his piece of roasted meat, indeed, it wasn't well-cooked on the inside, still oozing blood!

"Damn it! Does that mean I've already eaten the zombie virus?" Li Teng's eyes widened.

"Whose fault is it that you rush towards food the moment you see it? Look at the others; none of them are as greedy as you," Anna rolled her eyes. Seeing Li Teng so interested in the barbecue and completely disinterested in her made her feel inexplicably jealous.

"Forget it, since I've already eaten the virus, if I'm infected, then I'm infected; it doesn't matter anymore." Li Teng thought about it for a moment, picked up the barbecue, and continued to eat voraciously.

Anna didn't know what to say anymore.

A little while later, Anna got up and walked around, trying to see if she could find any clues about the plot.

The other actors were sitting in various parts of the lounge, some burying their heads in drinks, others looking around. Nobody took the initiative to speak to other actors. It was clear that no one was in high spirits.

It was like prisoners on death row; nobody is in a good mood at times like these.

The actors' movements were limited to the bar lounge only, with security personnel guarding the passages to other areas, not allowing passage.

Having no choice, Anna walked back, watching Li Teng, who was eating and drinking heartily, with some concern.

She had been joking with Li Teng earlier, but it couldn't be real, could it?

This unscrupulous Film and Television City is capable of anything.

Just then, the plane taxied down the runway, preparing to take off.

There were no flight attendants coming to ask everyone to sit down, fasten their seatbelts, or remind them to tidy up any possible spills on the dining tables.

The security personnel in the aisles also stood in place, not anchoring themselves to the seats or the walls.

Everything was permeated with a kind of strangeness.

The airplane accelerated down the runway, slightly bumpy, but overall it was very stable; not a drop spilled from Li Teng's glass of wine.

The airplane quickly climbed into the sky and became even steadier.

But Anna's heart was suspended in the air.

Once the airplane reached high altitudes, it became a closed small world, isolated from the outside and unable to receive rescue. Any anomaly in the plane could lead to dire consequences.

In the real world, there are many movies of this theme.

Hijackings, air disasters, zombie outbreaks, ghostly occurrences, mysteries, emerging infectious diseases, alien invasions…

The list is endless.

Overall, it's a theme that many directors find interesting, and as long as the story isn't too poorly designed, the box office returns are usually not too bad.

People sit in theaters, eating popcorn, watching on the big screen as a bunch of unlucky people board a plane destined for disaster, watching them panic, fear, and scream inside the plane, which feels particularly exciting and funny.

It satisfies peoples' fear of disasters without having to truly experience them.

Unfortunately, now Anna and Li Teng were different; they not only had to experience this unknown disaster, but they also had to struggle to survive in the midst of it. Once this kind of thing actually happened to them, it was no longer as stimulating or amusing.

"The airplane is at three thousand meters, now climbing towards the ten thousand meter target."

"Expected to reach the target altitude in twenty minutes."

"Please prepare accordingly."

The captain's voice came through the plane.

Shortly after the captain's announcement, the director came out of the room.

"Alright, everyone please stop what you're doing; today's performance is about to officially begin," the director announced to the people.