Trembling At A High Altitude

That was to tie the rope around himself, then leap from the pillar, and let those people pull the rope slowly to bring him into the balloon basket, where he could be saved.

Li Teng felt that this method was more reliable, much more so than tying the rope to the bed leg.

Of course, there was some risk, he must quickly secure himself to the rope while the wind direction remained unchanged. Otherwise, should the wind shift before he was fully secured, him being only half-tied could very likely result in him being yanked towards the pillar and falling to his death.

But what if it worked?

If it succeeded, he would be completely free from the damned pillar and wouldn't have to participate in a show that turned people into wax figures.

It was worth the gamble!

Just as Li Teng was about to secure the rope around himself, the wind direction by the pillar suddenly changed again, a strange strong gust blew, pushing the hot air balloon towards the direction of the pillar.

The balloon approached quickly this time, and Li Teng watched as the basket headed straight for the pillar, making him incredibly frightened; in the narrow space at the top of the pillar, he had absolutely nowhere to hide.

This wasn't a rescue; this was a crash!

The balloon pilot also realized the danger, hurriedly increased the fire to raise the balloon's altitude quickly, attempting to avoid the basket hitting the pillar. Whether it was due to the wind or a mistake in his maneuver, the basket below the balloon suddenly swayed and tilted severely, and eventually, it still crashed into the pillar.

Li Teng had barely crawled under the bed in time, lying on the other side of the pillar's top, barely dodging this perilous collision.

However, the basket itself wasn't so lucky.

After colliding with the top of the pillar, the basket tilted, and two people who failed to hold on were thrown out; they screamed as they plummeted thousands of meters down.

After the two people were ejected, the weight inside the balloon became unbalanced, and the pilot had already been increasing the fire power, at that moment the balloon quickly ascended far away from the pillar under the sudden increase of buoyancy and wind force.

However, due to the impact, the hose connecting the baloon's burner and fuel tank inside the basket suddenly broke, high-pressure gas from the tank spewed out, met the flames above the engine, and exploded, turning the basket instantly into a sea of flames!

Several people in the basket screamed loudly, some with their bodies on fire jumped out, while a few others kept screaming as the hot air balloon flew higher and higher.

Li Teng, who had crawled out from under the bed, watched with wide eyes as the balloon emitted black smoke and ascended to even higher altitudes, then the balloon ruptured, and the burning basket plummeted rapidly to the ground.

"Why did this happen?"

"They just wanted to save me!"

"Damn!"

Li Teng was in immense pain.

These people had come close to save him, and he had never imagined such a tragedy would occur!

They not only failed to rescue him but also all perished!

He had caused their deaths!

Deep down, Li Teng felt this tragedy was not an accident.

It was like the last plane crash.

It was as if a Mysterious Power was controlling it all from behind the scenes.

This Mysterious Power didn't want Li Teng to be rescued.

It seemed that anyone attempting to approach the pillar met with only one fate.

That was death.

Although the people in the hot air balloon couldn't save Li Teng, they did give him something very precious.

That was a bottle of mineral water.

While desperately avoiding the basket a moment before, Li Teng, despite extreme tension, managed to hold onto the bottle of mineral water tightly, preventing it from falling during the collision.

This was a life-saving bottle of mineral water.

If the helicopter still didn't arrive today or tomorrow, and if the weather continued to be hot, this bottle of mineral water might be his only hope of surviving until the next performance.

The value of this bottle of mineral water far exceeded the simple 600ml it contained.

With many more waterless days atop the pillar in Li Teng's future, even after the water was gone, the bottle could help him collect drinking water during rain or snow, allowing him to endure longer between performances, significantly increasing his chances of surviving in this cruel entertainment world.

Under extreme conditions, it could even allow him to collect his own bodily fluids to recycle for use.

Li Teng was unwilling to resort to that unless it was absolutely necessary.

The psychological barrier was truly difficult to overcome.

Of course, if it came to that, he would have no other choice.

Still shaken, Li Teng carefully sat down by the broken bed.

He opened the precious bottle of mineral water.

Then, he took a small sip and quickly capped the bottle again.

The feeling of drinking water was truly wonderful.

He really wanted to drink the whole bottle in one go.

But Li Teng managed to resist.

He would take another sip before sleep, saving the rest for tomorrow.

A tomorrow that would prove even harder.

To prevent the mineral water bottle from accidentally falling, Li Teng stuffed it into a torn blanket, then rolled up the blanket and wedged it between the bed rails so that normal shaking couldn't dislodge it.

...

Night.

Li Teng was awakened by an extremely bright light.

And a thunderous sound.

He had no idea what time it was.

Since it had been dark when he went to sleep and waking up during the night, he had no way of knowing the approximate time.

But it couldn't be too late; he felt he had not been asleep for long.

The intense light came from a black helicopter.

Seeing the massive silhouette of the black helicopter in the night, Li Teng was ecstatic.

Was it here to take him to the Film and Television City?

He even began to doubt whether all this was a dream.

Why had they come in the dead of night?

Were they shooting a night scene?

Once completely awake and sure this was not a dream, Li Teng quickly climbed up the rope ladder dropped by the helicopter and was pulled up to the edge of the cabin.

Li Teng struggled into the cabin and quickly rushed to the box placed there, opened it, took out a beverage, turned around and prepared to throw the drink back onto the top of the stone column.

Unfortunately, the cabin door closed swiftly, completely denying him the opportunity to do so.

It seemed impossible now to have an extra empty water bottle on top of the stone column as he had planned.

The distance between the helicopter and the Film and Television City seemed rather long.

After eating the bread and cookies from the box and drinking the beverage, Li Teng lay down and soon fell into a deep sleep.

...

The helicopter landed in the same place as last time.

Still next to that beach, on the helipad.

It seemed that each actor might have their own specific, fixed landing spot after arriving at the Film and Television City.

Of course, this was just Li Teng's guess; two instances weren't enough to draw precise conclusions.

Differing from last time, the helicopter brought Li Teng during the deep night.

After getting off the helicopter, Li Teng ran straight towards the Film and Television City.

Once on the street, despite being very hungry, Li Teng did not rush into a restaurant but first ran to a terminal on the street side.

He opened his account to check for any new tasks that might pop up.

If there were any, he could earn 10 points!

That was comparable to a performance.

Unfortunately, there were none.

After waiting near the terminal for a good while, Li Teng finally headed to the restaurant.

The time on the restaurant wall was 10:30 PM.

The countdown was only half an hour; it looked like Li Teng had to get to the set by 11 PM.

Filming at night.

What kind of film would it be?

Li Teng had a bad feeling about it.