Trembling At A High Altitude

"So, riding on an iceberg, got it?" Li Teng pointed, trying to clue Yao Xue in.

"You..." Yao Xue's face turned even redder.

Having no choice, she could only take off her top.

"Let's guess another riddle, a woman riding on a power line, this time it represents a plant," Li Teng continued.

Yao Xue was about to say something, but in the next moment, she suddenly disappeared.

Li Teng's wrist also started vibrating.

Li Teng looked at his watch, where a message popped up.

"Due to repeated harassment towards the companion, the APP has decided to temporarily retract the companion."

"What did I do?" Li Teng looked at the message, infuriated.

Yao Xue's avatar turned grey.

Having no choice, Li Teng could only switch to Anna and Liu Yin for company.

However, their avatars turned grey too.

Then, a progress bar for a new virtual companion materialized.

"I didn't create a new companion!" Li Teng was puzzled.

To create a new companion, he would have to work together with his memory to create one, but now, without that process, the APP was making decisions on its own?

Who could it be?

Daisy or Elsa?

He wasn't familiar with either of them, making it even harder to proceed.

Maybe that's what the APP intended?

The creation process was quite lengthy.

With no other option, Li Teng resorted to reading online novels.

Half an hour later, the progress bar finally reached the end.

"Gifting you a new companion, not to be retracted until you return to the Film and Television City for shooting, nor can you push her off the pillar, or she will split into two. The more violations, the more of her will appear."

Several prompts popped up on the wristwatch screen.

"What the heck? Am I so heartless to push a companion off a pillar? Am I that kind of person?" Li Teng was confused about what the APP was really up to.

The next moment Li Teng found out.

"Mommy! Spare me! Whose brilliant idea was this?"

Li Teng screamed in dismay upon seeing the companion in front of him.

"What's going on? Am I that frightening? I've always had a crush on you! Who knew we'd end up on the same pillar! Hahaha... we're really meant to be," Luo Bijiao said cheerfully to Li Teng.

"Just let me die!"

Li Teng rushed to the edge of the pillar, hesitating about jumping off.

But Luo Bijiao forcibly pulled him back.

Anger rising within him, Li Teng considered recharging to peak state to push this woman off the pillar.

Then he suddenly remembered... The APP had warned that if he dared push her off, she would become two!

How is one supposed to live like this?

Trying to uninstall the Virtual Companion APP, he found there was no option to do so.

For the first time, Li Teng felt he finally had something in common with Huang Xun.

...

Ten days later.

With white hair and beard, barely alive, Li Teng lay at the top of the pillar.

To avoid being harassed in turns by the eight Luo Bijiaos, he had switched to an older skin.

It was no use; the Luo Bijiaos even started calling him a handsome old man.

Li Teng's eyes were now empty sockets, containing nothing.

To avoid seeing those horrifying faces, after enduring for eight days, he couldn't stand it anymore and gouged out his own eyes, pocketing them.

If it causes an infection, so be it if he dies.

"Living like this might as well be death."

He didn't even want to call for emergency aid anymore.

He had completely had enough of this dark, sunless life.

But just then, a rumbling noise sounded from the sky.

The helicopter from Film and Television City that was to pick him up for shooting had finally arrived.

At this moment, all eight Luo Bijiaos disappeared, and the Virtual Companion APP also returned to normal.

...

Li Teng, whose body and mind had been doubly devastated, was sent directly to the hospital for free treatment after returning to Film and Television City.

After the treatment, when he left the hospital and regained his sight, Li Teng realized that this was not the hospital he had been to before, but one he had never visited.

Full of confusion, Li Teng followed the signs on the street outside the hospital to the set.

The set was not a coffee shop.

Instead, it was the tea house where he had participated in the advancement performance!

The fat man in a Floral Shirt who had previously told him in the tea house that Liu Shiyuan was a pervert now appeared in front of the tea house's main entrance.

Worried that he might have made a mistake, Li Teng went to a terminal on the street to do some checking.

He discovered that his original crew had disappeared, and the crew of the fat male director had become his new crew.

"Is this a punishment?", Li Teng was not willing to accept this arrangement.

Liu Shiyuan was nice to him; though a bit twisted, he had given him a chance to become stronger.

Liu also helped him find many additional acting opportunities.

Perhaps because Liu Shiyuan took too good care of him, Film and Television City forcibly ejected him from Liu's crew and placed him into a new crew he knew nothing about.

He missed the old crew deeply.

Not just Liu Shiyuan, but also his companions, Liu Yin, Gao Fei, Elsa, and even… Huang Xun.

But now they had changed his crew without a word.

Standing in front of the terminal, it took Li Teng a long time to pull himself out of his despondent state.

Things should be viewed on the bright side.

Forcing him to change crews was better than leaving him hanging at the top of the pillar indefinitely.

If he had been forgotten at the top of the pillar, he might have eventually had no choice but to jump off.

"Hello, director. I am the new actor, Li Teng. Is the script being explained upstairs?", Li Teng asked the fat man at the entrance of the tea house with a forced smile.

He was also testing the new director's disposition.

Directors who are overly arrogant are difficult to work with, unless they are intellectual girls like Yao Xue, who could be charmed with appearance and poetry. But conventional methods are seldom effective with middle-aged, greasy men like this director.

Therefore, an initial conversation to understand the other party's character was important, as it would help Li Teng decide what survival tactics to adopt in the new crew.

"Yes, the scene is about to start soon. It's on the third floor; go ahead.", the fat director nodded, seemingly not recognizing Li Teng.

"Alright, thank you.", Li Teng ascended the staircase.

From the tone of the fat director's response just now, he seemed not to be the arrogant type.

Hopefully, Li Teng was not mistaken.

Li Teng reached the third floor, the starting point of his past advancement performance.

Five men and two women were already sitting at a table, drinking tea.

A middle-aged man in his thirties sitting near the door frowned upon seeing Li Teng.

Li Teng also found this middle-aged man somewhat familiar.

Could it be... one of the actors who had been with him during the advancement competition?

He recalled that one of the actors indeed belonged to the Floral Shirt fat director's team.

However, Li Teng's attention was quickly drawn to one of the women among the five men and two women.

There was an empty seat right next to her.

"Great! You're here too?", Li Teng happily ran over and sat down.

"Do I know you?", the woman looked at Li Teng with a puzzled and cautious expression.