Trembling At A High Altitude

From a distance, Li Teng could smell the aroma of food.

To him now, this was the most wonderful scent in the world.

If God placed a woman and a big bag of bread in front of Li Teng and asked him to choose, he wouldn't hesitate to pick the bread.

Of course, there would definitely be some dark-minded individuals who, unlike Li Teng, would choose the woman instead of the bread.

Li Teng was surely not one of those dark-minded types.

Even if he were starving, he would maintain the very least of human decency.

Even though he constantly walked in darkness, he never let the darkness erode him.

The restaurant was bustling at the moment.

Everyone but Feng Dahai was here.

Although the restaurant offered a wide variety of foods, most people opted for the cheaper selections.

The wealthy ones, like Elsa, Gao Fei, Daisy, and Anna, usually kept their spending between five to ten credits.

The less fortunate, like Huang Xun, who lost today's performance duel, only had a few steamed buns and a small dish of pickled radish in front of him.

Pretty Boy Du Qing and Huang Xun were sitting together. Du Qing had a net loss of twenty credits from this performance, but it seemed he had enough savings to order a six-credit bowl of rice topped with pork.

Huang Xun, holding his bun, kept flattering Du Qing and eventually scrounged a small piece of pork from him, which made his face blossom into a thrilled smile.

Li Teng hadn't been able to save any credits and had been severely ripped off by the Black-hearted Doctor, placing him among the extremely poor.

If only he could mooch some free meals.

Anna had earned 60 credits this round, a true tycoon!

Li Teng took a seat opposite Anna.

"What's up? Aren't you going to order some food?" Anna saw that Li Teng didn't order any food and was staring straight at her two-meat, two-vegetable meal set, sensing something was off.

"All my credits got swindled by the Black-hearted Doctor, you wouldn't believe what I've been through these past few days…" Li Teng recounted his miserable experiences, from being severely injured by a vulture to arriving at Film and Television City and being dissected alive by a doctor, and also shared how he had owed the Black-hearted Hospital a lot of credits to fix the drainage pipe damaged by the vulture.

There was no exaggeration at all, except for changing the part about paying half of his earnings to repay the debt to paying ninety percent.

The restaurant fell silent, everyone was eating while listening to Li Teng's story.

This story was shockingly sorrowful, saddening those who heard it and bringing tears to listeners' eyes—it was just that tragic.

Although they had also been trapped atop a pillar for days, none of them had faced tragedies as bleak as Li Teng's! A thousand-meter-high pillar and there were vultures that damaged his drainage pipe?

It was inconceivably bizarre.

Dragged back to the hospital as a corpse by Film and Television City, then dissected alive by a doctor? Swindled of his credits?

That must be a lie, right? Such things simply couldn't happen.

Even Pretty Boy Du Qing told Huang Xun that Li Teng was lying. The experienced actors he had met in the guild, who had participated in a dozen or even a hundred performances, had never encountered such bizarre incidents in such a short span.

"So, after all that trouble, I only got 3 credits. How can I afford any food?" Li Teng sighed.

"I don't believe you for a second! You crafty old man, you're plenty devious." Anna vividly remembered that the reason why she'd been so disadvantaged in this competitive performance was because she bought a roast chicken for Li Teng out of sympathy.

And Li Teng, if you're going to mooch off the wealthy, you can't just target me alone, right?

So, no matter how pitifully Li Teng acted, she remained completely unmoved.

"We're all going to hell soon, this meal might be our last, why keep so many credits? We might as well enjoy it together." Li Teng kept trying to persuade Anna.

"No need, thank you." Anna politely rejected Li Teng.

When Li Teng sneakily snatched a piece of corn from her plate while she wasn't looking, Anna decisively stood up and moved to another table far away with her tray.

"Hahahaha…" Seeing that Li Teng was even worse off than himself, Huang Xun couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Li Teng glared at Huang Xun and after nibbling off the few remaining kernels on the small piece of corn, he looked around.

Gao Fei was sitting alone at a nearby table with only a steamed bun, two buns, and a bowl of porridge in front of him. Li Teng felt embarrassed to go over and mooch.

As for Elsa and Daisy, Li Teng wasn't very familiar with them.

He definitely couldn't mooch for free, so he decided to spend two credits to buy six buns.

"Donna, little brother, this is for you."

Just as Li Teng was about to stand up and buy the buns, Daisy, who had just finished her meal, came over and placed a bag of roasted chicken in front of him.

"How can this be?" Li Teng hurriedly demurred; he didn't want to take advantage of the young girl.

"It's okay, eat it while it's hot," Daisy quickly ran out of the dining hall.

"Ahem... this..." Li Teng watched Daisy's retreating figure, unsure of what to say.

"She's investing in you! Look after her more during the performances," Elsa said to him as she was also leaving the dining hall.

"Ah..." Li Teng felt somewhat troubled by this.

In the same theater troupe, not everyone had as bad a relationship with him as Huang Xun had. Where possible, he would do his best to help. But in some scenes, when he could only struggle to save his own life, he really couldn't help them.

At those times, he would, of course, prioritize his own life.

Should he accept Daisy's favor or not?

The roasted chicken smelled so good; he decided to eat it.

In the future, if it didn't endanger his own safety, when there was a chance to repay the favor, he would repay this favor to her.

After all, his credits were so low now that he needed to save where he could.

Joining the Hell Theater Troupe, he wasn't even sure if he could make it out alive!

Debts are cleared at death.

"I'm telling you, Elsa, without Li Teng, you'd definitely be betrayed and killed in this scene, and you'd go straight to hell. I think you owe him a big favor, you should buy him a roasted chicken," Gao Fei told Elsa after hearing her comments.

"That's not how it should be said. He did it for himself, if he had given me up, our camp would have lost, and he would undoubtedly die. How can you say I owe him a favor?" Elsa disagreed with Gao Fei's view.

"Anyway, I think he went to hell for you," Gao Fei was somewhat dissatisfied with Elsa's selfishness.

"He saved your life in the first scene and you've only ever given him a few buns to say thanks. Do you have the face to argue with me?" Gao Fei caught Elsa off guard with his remark.

"Don't even remind me, in the first scene I was almost killed by Guo Zhipeng's car because I picked up your bank card for you. I initially didn't want to bring this up with you," Gao Fei took the opportunity to recount past grievances with Elsa.

"Forget it, I don't want to argue with you," Elsa went to the automated food dispenser, bought a few buns, and placed them in front of Li Teng.

There were meat buns, vegetable buns, red bean buns, sugar buns, and sesame buns—one of each type, offering a rich variety.

"This is..." Li Teng looked up at Elsa.

"Thank you. I'm not the kind of person who spouts brotherly love verbally but betrays a brother before even being tortured," Elsa put the buns down and then turned to leave the dining hall.

"I..." Gao Fei was suddenly at a loss for words.

"Brother, I don't see you that way, don't overthink it," Li Teng consoled Gao Fei.

"Thank you, brother. I really feel a bit sorry for today," Gao Fei also stood up and went to the automated food dispenser and bought Li Teng one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and an apple.

"Damn! This scammer! His deception is too clever! Absolutely irresistible to everyone! He scammed so much food in just a little while!" Huang Xun was incredibly envious and resentful.

"Why are these people so stupid? Can't they see he's a scammer? Can't they see he's faking misery on purpose? No wonder scammers thrive in this world, it's because of these fools' existence!" Huang Xun was very disgruntled. He had also gone out to mooch but ended up getting nothing and was shooed away like a stray dog.

In the end, by using all his eloquence, various flatteries, and pleasantries, he only managed to mooch a small piece of pork from Du Qing's bowl, but Li Teng, with a glib and untruthful sentimental story, ended up with a table full of food!

How can there be such a huge disparity between people?