Trembling At A High Altitude

"Shut the hell up! Who wants to hear where the knife came from? I want to hear him talk!" Feng Dahai exploded with rage as soon as he heard Huang Xun interrupt.

"Who are you cursing? Just because you tell me to shut up, I should shut up? Who the hell are you? Don't just try to show off; let me explain something to you. You always call others useless teammates, but have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror to see that you are actually the dumbest one of all?"

"I've never seen anyone as foolish and arrogant as you; it's been quite an eye-opener. You've already screwed yourself over, and you still have the face to blabber here? I really admire you; not only are you stupid, but you're also shameless. You weren't killed by Li Teng! You died from stupidity!" Huang Xun knew Feng Dahai's downfall was inevitable and didn't feel the need to spare his feelings anymore.

"Damn it! The thing I regret the most right now is not killing you when I had the chance! Why did I even think about winning this confrontation? Why did I bother with that damn reward! I should have killed you right from the start! You're the real pig here!" Feng Dahai roared furiously.

"Silence!"

The director spoke up.

A bodyguard approached Feng Dahai, who quickly gestured that he would stop yelling, and the bodyguard then walked back to the director's side.

"Did you figure out where his knife came from?" Pretty Boy Du Qing, seeing that Li Teng wasn't going to explain just yet, reluctantly turned to ask Huang Xun.

"When the director mentioned searching us earlier, it occurred to me that we did get searched by the military police when we were captured from the press office, so it's impossible that he had the scalpel on him then. But remember, because of Anna's initial confession, the script was interrupted once, we were treated, and even taken to a rest room."

"The director had us wait in the rest room—to resume performing after Feng Dahai was revived."

"During that time, Li Teng wasn't tied up at all, and he even took the opportunity to slip out of the rest room."

"I secretly watched him, and after he left the rest room, he went into the execution room to speak to the director about something. If I guess correctly, that's probably when he took a scalpel from Feng Dahai's toolbox, right under the director's nose," Huang Xun disclosed his speculation.

"It had to be then; there's no way he stole the knife at any other time," Pretty Boy Du Qing nodded in agreement.

Stealing a knife from under the director's nose was a move only Li Teng could have thought of and dared to execute.

And it went unnoticed by the director!

Or... was the director covering for him?

"Weren't we all supposed to stay in the rest room when shooting was paused? He sneaks off to the execution room, steals a knife, and hides it on his person, even while the director was present! Does no one oversee such matters? He took a significant action that interfered with the script outside of the scripted time; doesn't that violate the filming rules? Director, do you dare say you weren't covering for him? Can I protest?" Feng Dahai grew agitated after hearing Huang Xun.

"Protests are pointless; he came out looking for food. I didn't notice him stealing the knife. After our conversation, I immediately sent him back to the rest room," the director responded.

"I demand the footage from that time be released! I believe the director shouldn't be allowed to cover for any particular actor, right?" Feng Dahai persisted in his protest.

After consulting with staff for a moment, the director agreed to play the video footage of Li Teng leaving the rest room and discussing with her in the execution room to prove his innocence.

The staff brought in video projection equipment, found the clip, and projected it on a screen that had been set up on the wall.

...

"Director, I'm hungry. Is there any free lunch provided on set?"

Li Teng stepped out of the rest room and approached the director.

"There's for a fee, but nothing free; what would you like? I'll have the staff bring it over to you," the director replied.

"Not free? Never mind, then. Are there any free snacks or something?" As Li Teng asked, he rummaged around the execution room, not sparing even the bags on the floor, and even rifled through Feng Dahai's toolbox for execution tools!

"No," the director answered Li Teng.

"The crew is too stingy, right? They want the horse to run, but they don't want it to eat grass. Can you not reflect this to the higher-ups? Even if they don't provide packed meals, shouldn't they at least offer some free snacks and drinks during the shooting breaks?" Li Teng was very dissatisfied, turning around and protesting to the director with his hands spread open.

It was already too late; he had hidden the scalpel up his sleeve by then.

With his empty hands, the director didn't think in that direction at all; she just thought he came out to scavenge for food, little knowing that he was stealing a knife!

When everyone watched the video, they could feel Li Teng's godlike acting skills, making him look like a Hungry Ghost scavenging for free food.

Afterward, the director sent Li Teng back to the resting room. The director's attention was all on Li Teng looking for food. From her perspective, she indeed did not notice the scene of Li Teng hiding the knife. Since she didn't notice, she of course did not stop it, so naturally, it was not her responsibility.

"It's rigging! This is freaking rigging! So disgusting! My death is too wrongful! I can't believe such a thing is allowed to happen; I can't believe no one is addressing this!" Feng Dahai was beside himself with grief, and then he glanced at Du Qing and Huang Xun, hoping to get their support.

"You were just stupid to death! The gun was already pointed at his forehead, and I told you to kill him quickly. If you had pulled the trigger then, the worst-case scenario would have just been losing this performance. You didn't listen, wanted to do things your way, ended up waving the gun around and threatening Anna, which gave him a chance to counterattack. I kindly advised you, but you never listened and even hit me; really, you're bringing this upon yourself!" Huang Xun had a look of exasperation.

"Damn it! He had a knife, but he also needed time to cut the ropes! And he couldn't make large movements! If it hadn't been for your freaking longwindedness analyzing the situation, he wouldn't have had enough time to cut the ropes! All the blame for this lies with you, you pigheaded teammate, and you have the cheek to blame me!" Feng Dahai, remembering the scene where he was relentlessly mocked by Huang Xun in the Valley of the Lacking Immortal, flew into a rage once again.

"Blame me? If you hadn't gone crazy there and whipped me, drawing everyone's attention to me, he wouldn't have been able to cut the ropes so calmly. You're the real pig here, calling others pigheaded teammates; I'm amazed by your thick skin. Moreover, my analysis was meant to help you, but you were always impatient with me and even hit me! Someone like you not losing is simply unjust." Huang Xun immediately retorted.

"Quiet!"

The director spoke up again, otherwise, these two would have kept arguing endlessly.

What was meant to be a confrontational performance seemed to have turned into a confrontation between these two pigheaded teammates in the end.

"Director, I want to see the replay, and see how he cut the ropes," Feng Dahai deflated, made one final request to the director, now just wanting to understand his death.

The director agreed to Feng Dahai's request, instructing the staff to project the earlier filming footage onto a screen.

Just as Feng Dahai and Huang Xun had argued, while Huang Xun blabbered analytically and Feng Dahai burst in anger at Huang Xun drawing most of the onlookers' attention, Li Teng slowly pulled out the scalpel from his sleeve and gradually cut the ropes on his wrists, then his back, legs, and lastly, behind his neck.

He wasn't unobserved.

Anna, dangling opposite Li Teng, noticed it.

Li Teng made eye contact with Anna, and she understood immediately.

What they didn't expect, however, was that after being persuaded by Huang Xun, Feng Dahai refrained from whipping or branding Li Teng and instead directly took a gun from the military police to eliminate Li Teng!

This disrupted Li Teng's plan.

In extreme urgency, Anna continuously provoked Feng Dahai with her words, finally causing him to lose his temper and turn around to intimidate and beat her.

They fell right into their trap.

At that moment, Huang Xun was indeed frantically reminding Feng Dahai, but Feng Dahai, believing that Anna and Li Teng were securely tied, didn't take Huang Xun's shouts seriously.

He had numerous opportunities to kill Li Teng, regardless of the performance's outcome, at least ensuring his own survival and obtaining the 100 points reward as well as the compensation for the performance, but he squandered these chances time and again.

When he finally decided to turn back and kill Li Teng, Li Teng had already preceded him by moving stealthily behind him and swiftly sliced his neck.

This wasn't a premeditated counterattack.

It was a confrontation with almost no chance of success, but Li Teng never gave up. He kept looking for opportunities, and during the process, he got the cooperation from Anna, Huang Xun, and even the involuntary or accidental assistance from Feng Dahai himself, seizing all these fleeting opportunities to complete the nearly impossible counterkill!