Trembling At A High Altitude

"Despicable deals men make! Humph, I can't be bothered with what play he's acting in! What's it to me? I'm leaving!" Liu Hui seemed to have seen through everything, turned, and left the teahouse downstairs.

Li Teng signaled to Yuan Qiang and followed Liu Hui down the stairs.

Both of them stood on the sidewalk, neither speaking.

"Don't you have something to say?" Eventually, Liu Hui could not hold back.

"At a time like this, I should say take good care of yourself, don't miss me, and all that, but considering you'll be back with your father, you're sure to be well cared for, so... It's pointless to say those pretentiously sentimental things. Just wish you all the happiness in the days to come," Li Teng said after thinking a few words.

"That's it?" Liu Hui was infuriated by Li Teng's perfunctory attitude.

"The willows of the West City tease the tenderness of spring, stirring the sorrows of departure, tears hard to control. Fondly remembered are the passions we shared, once as a boat tethered to wait for return. Green fields, red bridges, those days gone by, people gone, waters flow in loneliness. Youth waits for no one, sorrows lingering on..." Li Teng looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, his demeanor that of a melancholy little Prince.

"Can you speak normally?" Liu Hui, not understanding a word, glared murderously. Is he making fun of my lack of culture?

"Ahem..." Li Teng touched his forehead. Reciting poetry as his ultimate skill did, after all, sometimes lead to stumbling.

"I really don't want to let you go, but I don't know how to express this feeling. I can imagine just how painful it will be when we part, how much I'll miss and agonize over you, but..." Halfway through, Li Teng couldn't help but recall the recent days spent rock climbing and hammering wedges with Liu Hui, and realizing that there would be no place for hammering wedges after she left, he could only rely on his own hard-working hands, he felt close to tears.

"It's okay, I'll find a way to contact you. Everything will get better," Liu Hui said, moved by the sight of the tough man's eyes reddening, realizing he was truly touched. She reached out and embraced Li Teng.

Li Teng glanced around, not finding an appropriate place to hammer wedges, and had to let it go.

Liu Hui was even more touched. It seemed the tough guy truly had deep feelings for her, not even entertaining any improper thoughts at such a moment. It was indeed rare! Knowing that in "Snowfield Hunter," if she'd ever dared to make the first move on him, even just reaching out for a hug, the result would always have been him crushing her to smithereens.

After a while, a black SUV pulled up.

The driver, dressed in black, got out of the car and opened the rear door for Liu Hui with an inviting gesture.

It was her father's people who had come to pick her up.

Liu Hui stood on her tiptoes, hugged Li Teng's head, and then...

...burst into tears and got into the car.

While she was getting into the car, Li Teng hurriedly dabbed some saliva near his eyes.

"Don't cry, we'll see each other again soon. Everything will be alright." Liu Hui opened the window and saw Li Teng approaching, tears in his eyes; she reached out and wiped the tears away.

"Don't worry about me, go in peace," Li Teng also comforted Liu Hui.

The two said their long goodbyes, and then the driver started the car. Liu Hui leaned out of the window to wave goodbye and then disappeared around the street corner.

"Romance is hard to act out. Seems like all that CEO lovey-dovey stuff really isn't for me," Li Teng mused profoundly.

After Liu Hui had left, Li Teng went to the terminal on the street.

After hesitating for a moment, he spent all his 120 points on lowering the height of the Pillar.

He lowered it to 740 meters.

He could now get 1.1 liters of drinking water per day, plus two packets of instant noodles.

With the added special relief, it looked like dying from thirst or hunger was no longer a concern.

Not long after he exchanged the Pillar's height, a bus stopped by the curb to take Li Teng to the airport.

There was an extra performance the day after tomorrow, but today he still had to return to the Pillar, and stay there all day tomorrow.

Off I go!

...

"They even have seasoning, this is pure bliss."

After adding the seasoning to the instant noodle bowl, Li Teng carefully lay down by the edge of the Pillar, poured three cups of boiling water from a cup into the noodle bowl, covered it, and quietly waited to enjoy the deliciousness.

A few minutes later, the noodles were ready.

Li Teng could hardly wait to pick up a strand of noodles and stuff it into his mouth.

It was so delicious that he couldn't help but reminisce about the good old days in college.

When he got back to Film and Television City, he resolved to work even harder at taking on more roles, in order to earn more points as quickly as possible.

Once he lowered the stone pillar to three hundred meters, he would get a small six-square-meter house, which would improve the quality of his life significantly.

Three hundred meters, it's not that difficult, right? It's just four hundred forty points.

"Snowfield Hunter" alone had scored him a hundred and twenty points; it was thrilling.

But not every film's points were so easy to come by.

Thinking back on his recent experience with "Snowfield Hunter," a sudden thought crossed Li Teng's mind.

Should he deliberately offend the director and then, let the director intentionally create a script targeting him?

After successfully turning the tables, he would be able to gain a lot of points.

It felt too risky to proceed like that.

Forget it, it's better to play it safe and try to maintain a good relationship with the director.

...

The next day.

Although the weather was quite hot today, Li Teng, now with water to drink and noodles to eat, didn't find it as difficult to bear.

And it seemed that the mysterious patrons had lost interest in tormenting him on the stone pillar; after his return, everything remained calm and there were no more of those messy incidents.

The second day passed peacefully.

On the morning of the third day, a helicopter came to pick Li Teng up and take him back to Film and Television City.

"Deserted Island Mysteries" was also shot inside a Time Bubble.

Yuan Qiang was not in the tea house, but he arranged for a public shuttle bus to pick up and drop off Li Teng.

It looked like Yuan Qiang really wasn't doing as well as Liu Shiyuan, since he didn't have his own private car.

Entering the Time Bubble building, Li Teng followed the signs indicating the floor and room number and made his way to the script briefing room as if it were second nature.

As soon as Li Teng walked into the briefing room, an exclamation from two women resounded inside.

It was Elsa and Liu Yin.

For a moment, Li Teng wondered if he had entered the wrong room.

Was this a coincidence?

Could it be this coincidental?

The two women welcomed Li Teng into the room and then had him sit between them.

It was clear that this reunion excited them, their eyes slightly red with emotion.

"You're here too? Came for the extra performance?" Li Teng asked Liu Yin and Elsa.

"No, after the original crew disbanded, we were notified and assigned to this crew as regular members."

"Today is our first day with this crew. Aren't you stationed here?"

Elsa and Liu Yin hurried to answer Li Teng's question.

"No, I'm with another crew, this is an extra performance I took on. The others? They didn't come with you?" Li Teng had thought it was only him who got kicked out, but it turned out the entire crew was disbanded. It seemed that Liu Shiyuan must have made a serious mistake; Li Teng wondered whether he would be sent to the stone pillar for punishment.