By the time the two of them reached the end, most of the others were waiting for them. Wen Ting immediately came over to them and then whispered cheerfully,
"Did you see it? Did you see it? Super cool, right? I never expected the production crew to give us such a big surprise."
"It sure was surprising, must've taken a lot of work." Wen Jiexi agreed. It was not easy to make such a large piece of artwork in a park, even if it was for the sake of the show. And for them to be able to see if from so high up must mean that the drawing had to be unimaginably large.
"Here are your tickets." A member of the crew gave Wen Jiexi and Su Chenyu two copies each of all three rewards.
"Thank you."
"Thanks."
"There's two copies…what should I do with them?" Wen Jiexi looked at the tickets in her hands awkwardly. Should she use both copies for herself or give one to Li Lingmeng? Li Lingmeng had helped her multiple times, and she was eternally grateful for all her friends had done for her. Maybe she can give these tickets to her friend and who knows, maybe Li Lingmeng will take her future boyfriend or girlfriend with her.
"Don't worry, these will be useful later. You can give them to me for now. I'll keep them safe." Su Chenyu said.
"Alright." Wen Jiexi nodded.
"Ah….finally made it!" Shi Junmao wailed behind them and he plopped onto the solid ground with a body full of cold sweat. Uncle Mu Du was not much better as his legs trembled uncontrollably and he looked like he had seen a ghost.
"Was it that scary?" Lan Yuyan asked and scratched his head.
Shi Junmao spat at Lan Yuyan in annoyance. When they had crossed the bridge, Uncle Mu Du said they could hold hands together but he never expected the old uncle would hold his head so tightly. The strength he used almost broke his hand. If Uncle Mu Du was as strong as Wen Jiexi, his hand might be permanently disabled by now. His face full of cold sweat was not from fear but from pain.
"Did you guys see the drawing?" Lan Yuyan rubbed his nose and chuckled evilly at Shi Junmao's sad expression.
"Yeah, I saw it, but I got dragged away before I could get a closer look." Shi Junmao said with a regretful expression.
"Hahahaha, sorry about that! Little Mao-zi, I didn't mean to do it." Mu Du, who now felt slightly better, patted Shi Junmao's back with a smile.
"Anyhow, it will be included in the show's recording so I can see it then. Based on everyone's reaction, it should be a very pretty drawing. Hah, I'm kinda looking forward to it." Shi Junamo waved his hands and said.
"Aiya~ It seems this game was very successful." Old Zhan suddenly appeared beside them but everyone had already gotten used to his spontaneous appearances….
"Old Zhan, how did you get here?" Wen Ting pointed at the glass bridge. Previously, Old Zhan was standing on the opposite side and they definitely did not see him cross the bridge.
"Aiya~ This bridge is too high up, you can't torture an old man like me~"
Everyone: ….Didn't you say you crossed it many times already?
"Haven't you already crossed the glass bridge many times? And even jumped on it?" Wen Ting asked.
"That's right, I did. I grabbed the railing and then jumped on the edge a few times. Ehm, it was absolutely, positively solid workmanship!" Old Zhan said shamelessly.
Everyone: Damn it, we got scammed by Old Zhan again! We should really tie him up and have him hang from the bridge for one night to see how we feel. Unfortunately, that would be illegal….
Seeing Old Zhan act so shamelessly, Mu Du's legs no longer shivered and he pounced at Old Zhan's neck as he tried choking the old man,
"You old bastard!" He swiped a few punches at Old Zhan's stomach. It looked rather painful but didn't actually have any strength behind it. Mu Du was still sensible, he couldn't beat up the person in front of the camera or he'll be hated by the public.
"Whaaa! Brother Mu Du is so enthusiastic! Really make this young brother's heart flutter! Brother Mu Du, since you've made my heart flutter, you must take responsibility~" Old Zhan went with the flow and blinked shyly as he held his hands over his heart.
"Beat it! Beat it! Beat it!" Mu Du let go as if he was being scalded by hot water and rubbed his arms full of goosebumps in disgust.
"I think you two are a good match! Since both of you are old uncles~" Lan Yuyan said with an evil grin.
Mu Du and Old Zhan's eyes widened: "Who matches well with who?!!|
The two glanced at each other: "Don't copy me!"
"Pfft–"
"Hahahaha!"
Seeing the crowd laugh at them, Old Zhan didn't back off and began to act dramatically once again. He pinched his fingers together and then shook a pink handkerchief from who knows where in front of the camera.
"How hateful~ I've actually always admired Mu Du~ But in the end, it was Mu DU who abandoned me and now I have to face this world by my lonesome! Oooooh, how cruel you are Brother Mu Du~" He said while acting like a bitter wife and holding his handkerchief up to wipe his non-existent tears.
"Fu*k….stay away from me." Mu Du looked away with a sullen expression, his face blue and red as he looked like he was about to vomit in anger.
In fact, everyone shuddered when they heard Old Zhan's coquettish voice. For an old uncle to speak like that….it was just unacceptable.
And so, the thrilling super high rise glass bridge challenge ended in this way. One didn't know whether they should laugh or sigh in amazement at how interesting the contestants were this time.
The next day, they were taken to a place that appeared to be an entrance to some kind of passage. On both sides of the tunnel were walls decorated with dense amounts of leaves that they could not see the other side.
"What is this?" Lan Yuyan asked with a yawn.
"Well, this is a maze. It's about the size of ten football fields and there are only one entrance and exit in this entire maze. Good luck to you all, I hope you can make it out alive. Oh, right, all of you will be given a backpack." As he said that, Old Zhan waved for the crew to give each player a blue backpack.
"Each backpack contains water and food so make sure to keep it safe."
"So, if we aren't able to come out by the end of the day, will we starve to death inside there?" Shi Junmao looked into his backpack. There were only three bottles of water, a few breadsticks, two small bags of candies, two bags of jerky, a bag of spicy strings, and a box of hard biscuits. Scratching his head, Shi Junmao figured this would only last a day at most.
"If you can't get out, don't worry, we have a helicopter on standby to rescue you. However, if we do have to dispatch the helicopter, there will be a punishment. As for what the punishment is, please refer to events yesterday." Old Zhan said with a twisted smile.
Everyone: How can we play happily with a threat like that looming over our heads!
"Oh, of course, it's not just about finding the way out. There will be many obstacles inside the maze that you must overcome. Good luck. I believe in you." Old Zhan waved his hand with a grin. However, no matter how you looked at it, his expression was not kind at all.
"But…the food in here…." Wen Jiexi had the same amount of food as Shi Junmao, and she was also a bit hesitant. This is not enough for her to eat….won't she starve to death in this maze?
"There is a special treasure chest somewhere in the maze. Inside the chest are some utensils and food. I hope you can find it!" Old Zhan said and then continued with a serious expression,
"Remember, you can not destroy anything! The program will not be responsible for repaying any damages to the property this time! Do you know how much we had to pay for the last venue we rented out?"
Old Zhan clutched his chest with a sad expression. He was heartbroken when the actors didn't help pay for the damages last time and the program almost went bankrupt to clean up after them. Fortunately, the company reimbursed them, or else he would've cried himself to death.
"Ah…we should go in…."
"Yeah, it's getting late. It's better if we start early and end early…"
"How is it late? It's only ten."
"Aiya~ No need to fret about the small details~"
After getting ignored again, Old Zhan watched despondently as the ten people carried their backpacks into the maze.
"Oh man, I can't get any sense of direction here. Which path should we take next?" Wen Ting scratched her head and looked at the crosswords in front of her. There were three passages they could take but she didn't know which one to choose from. She looked at the people beside her.
"Shall we split up?"
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Not really, we have to find our way out somehow."
Everyone had different opinions and argued when suddenly a loud cry sounded out. They turned around to find that Lan Yuyan was dangling upside down in the air with a rope tied around his right foot. It seemed he had accidentally stepped into a trap.
"Damn it, there are even traps like these?" Shi Junmao said dumbfoundedly.
"This is a trap used for hunting animals. To think he's actually using it on humans…fu*k that bastard really is treating us like animals." Mu Du walked over and studied the rope around Lan Yuyan's ankle.
"Maybe he just really wants to see us dance the hula…." Chu Heling voiced out what everyone was thinking.
Everyone: That hateful Old Zhan! That hateful production crew!"
"Hey….can you guys let me down first? My head's starting to feel woozy." Lan Yuyan said weakly as Yan Haocheng tried to untie him. He rolled his eyes at the crowd in front of him. Do you know how uncomfortable it feels to be held upside down?
"The question is, how exactly are we supposed to get you down…." Mu Du smiled bitterly. In his current position, Lan Yuyan was high above the ground and it would be rather hard to reach up and untie him.
"Let me give it a try." Wen Jiexi volunteered.
"Be careful." Su Chenyu whispered.
"En." Wen Jiexi nodded and looked up at Lan Yuyan.
"You guys keep him still and get ready to catch him when he falls."
"Alright."
"Got it!"
One of the other men stood on the other side of Lan Yuyan, supporting his back while the last one helped Yan Haocheng protect Lan Yuyan's head when he fell.
"I need a footstool or something…." Wen Jiexi looked in her backpack but there was no suitable equipment inside. She didn't have anything she could step on and jump off of.
"I got it! I got it!" Wen Ting shouted and then handed her bag to Huo Lin'er.
"Lin'er, hold on this to me."
"Ok."
"Will this do?" Wen Ting said and then stood in front with her palms folded together, her waist slightly bent as she squatted with her feet spread out firmly on the ground.
"Yeah, sorry to trouble you." Wen Jiexi nodded and then gestured at Lan Yuyan,
"Bear with it."
After saying so, she backed up and then ran towards Wen Ting, stepping onto Wen Ting's palm as hse flung herself hard into the air. She grabbed the rope above Lan Yuyan's feet and climbed up the rope before shouting at the people below,
"I'm going to snap the rope now!" After saying so, the rope broke in two and Lan Yuyan fell straight into the arms of the other three men.
"Hah..ahhhhh! Ouch! I feel so dizzy." Lan Yuyan wiggled his numb feet and his body swayed a little. His cheeks were still red and it seemed his brain was still confused after hanging upside down for a while. He probably needed a little rest to get his balance back.
"Be careful, don't move around too much." Yan Haocheng said with a slight frown. He sat Lan Yuyan on the ground, opened a bottle of water for him to drink.
"Jiexi, no matter what you do, you're so awesome!" Wen Ting patted the dust off her hands and shook them weakly before giving Wen Jiexi a thumbs up.
"No, I couldn't have done that without everyone's held." Wen Jiexi scratched her head and said. If she was the only one here, she would not have dared to do such a risky maneuver.
"I think it's better if we stick together so we can help each other out of situations like that." Mu Du rubbed his nose and concluded.
"I agree. There must be more than one trap so we need to stay vigilant." Chu Heling agreed.
"I agree too! Let's go together!" Shi Junmao nodded as he helped Lan Yuyan untie the broken rope from his ankle. He didn't want to get hung up either and then have no one to rescue him. If they split up, then he could yell his lungs out and someone might not come to help him.
After that incident just now, everyone agreed to stick together.
"Then let's just choose a random path and get out of here." Huo Lin'er pointed to the crossroads in front of them.
"How about we choose the middle path? It's not like there's much of a difference between the three passages." Mu Du proposed and no one argued with his decision. It was just like he said, there really wasn't much difference between the three passages.
"Should we make markings along the way so we can tell which path we've already gone down?" Chu Heling asked.
'But we have nothing we can use to make a marking except for…." Wen Jiexi hesitated and her eyes fell on the broken rope on the ground.
"But this rope is too short." Wen Ting picked up the rope. The short rope was only one meter long, how were they going to use it to mark anything? Besides, they only had food in their backpacks and it wasn't like they could just throw their food around.
"We can twist the rope." Huo Lin'er said and stepped forward to look at the bush wall in front of her. The wall was thick enough that you couldn't see the other side as the dense foliage covered everything.
Huo Lin'er fumbled around with something in the dense foliage before she finally pulled out a withered vine. It was yellow and dry but still strong as she couldn't get it out of the foliage even when she pulled several times. After a little bit more pulling, Wen Jiexi walked up and directly broke the vine from the branches it was stuck on.
"We can use theses. It's easy to use and the color makes it eye-catching." Huo Lin'er joined the vines she pulled out and soon the rope became over twenty meters long in length.
"It really is easy to use and it's not breaking the rules either!" Shi Junmao said with a grin.
"Ai, if Old Zhan hadn't said anything, we could've asked Jiexi to just destroy everything. Then she can create a straight path out of this damn maze. We would definitely have been able to get out sooner too." Lan Yuyan sighed as he rested his head against Yan Haocheng's shoulder.
The rest of them either showed blank expressions or outright approval to Lan Yuyan's words except for Wen Jiexi who didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Were they addicted to destroying things now? So much so that they wanted to destroy everything every single time?
Old Zhan, who is currently observing the players through the aerial drones and the hidden cameras placed in the maze, patted his chest. Fortunately, he had added this rule, or else his maze would've been ruined! How frightening, these despicable saboteurs!!
The ten people walked slowly, twisting the vines they saw and creating makeshift ribbons to hang on the bush walls.
They turned left then right and encountered many small pits from time to time. They encountered a few of those traps that Lan Yuyan was caught in earlier and even a few moats that many of them feel in.
"Ugh…how evil….just who came up with these pitfalls…." Shi Junmao's eyes were full of suffering as he was pulled up from a two-meter deep pit filled with water. He was soaking from head to toe.
"No need to guess, it must be that Old Zhan again. Who else can it be?" After Mu Du pulled Shi Junmao up, he stretched out his hand to untie the knot on the teen idol's left ankle.
"What kind of trap is this? It's just plain messy." Wen Ting complained and patted off the dust and leaves on her body. It was not difficult to tell that she was the one who fell into the next trap.
The design of the soil pit trap was also roughly two meters deep and there was a dense pile of leaves on the bottom so that the people who fell in wouldn't get hurt. Of course, it will still hurt a bit, but it didn't take much effort for Wen Jiexi to pull Wen Ting out of the pit.
Among the ten people, it was Shi Junmao and Wen Ting who was the most miserable, and Uncle Mu Du dangled in the air at least three times by now. Just how much bad luck did Uncle Mu Du have? Lan Yuyan, on the other hand, didn't fall into any more traps after the first one while Wen Jiexi and the others were perfectly fine. That was to be expected as it was always Shi Junmao and Wen Ting who ran ahead while unknowingly springing the traps.
"Sister Su, do you want to take a break?" Wen Jiexi looked up at the sun high above her head and then at the thin layer of sweat on Su Chenyu's forehead. She felt a little worried and inwardly complained that the production crew is a bunch of heartless monsters. They knew that the weather was going to be unbreakable and yet they didn't even give them a hat or umbrella to wear.
"I'm fine, it feels good to move like this once in a while." Su Chenyu smiled and then grabbed Wen Jiexi's hand.
"This…my hands…are a bit dirty and sweaty-"
Wen Jiexi stammered nervously. Just like she had promised, Su Chenyu had started to smile more at Wen Jiexi but unfortunately, the smiles were bad for Wen Jiexi's heart. Her heart would beat uncontrollably every time Su Chenyu smiled at her and if this continued, her heart would shut down from the overexertion. She quickly lowered her head and looked down at her dirty hands instead.
She wanted to pull her dirty hands out of the other's grip but no matter how much she struggled she couldn't break free. She raised her head and met that blinding smile again,
"I don't mind."
Su Chenyu grasped Wen Jiexi's hand and tenderly rubbed her thumb over the girl's knuckles. Her eyes brightened after seeing that her wifey's ears turn redder with every second and the little sheep didn't even dare to look at her. So cute.
Everyone else who had suddenly been blinded by dog food again: "..."
"Whaaaaaa!" A scream sounded out and everyone turned around to see Uncle Mu Du point at something. They followed his finger and saw a dozen big dogs rushing towards them. The ferocious dogs barked madly at them, blaring their sharp teeth as they slobbered everywhere. No matter how you look at it, these dogs were not the lovable furry kind.
"Goddamn! What is this?! Are they trying to kill us?!!!" Shi Junmao jumped up with widened eyes.
"Old Zhan! You damn bastard!" Wen Ting also yelled panickily.
"I think we should start running." Li Lingqing grabbed Chu Heling's hand and began running, kindly leaving behind a reminder to the people who were still standing around in a daze.
"Whoa, wait up for me!"
"Let's go!"
Wen Jiexi watched as the group of people disappeared faster than the wind and blinked. Wow, they were much faster than usual.
"Uh…Sister Su, shouldn't we run too?" Wen Jiexi asked as the dogs got closer.
"If the dogs see us run, they will only become more agitated, especially these kinds of dogs. Furthermore, I don't think our physical endurance can outlast a pack of dogs." Su Chenyu said lightly but in her heart, she secretly believed that her wifey's affinity with animals will save them.
"Oh!" Wen Jiexi nodded and then stood up to stand protectively in front of Su Chenyu.
Awooooooo!!! The dogs approached, closer and closer until…..they braked hard in front of Wen Jiexi.
Ruff! Ruff! "Haaaa….." The dogs panted with their tongues out. Compared to the fierce hunting dogs from earlier, these big dogs were now harmless puppies in front of Wen Jiexi as they wagged their tails happily.
"Um…be good." Wen Jiexi was taken aback and then reached out to pat the dog closest to her. The big dog narrowed its eyes in enjoyment and nuzzled its head against Wen Jiexi's palm. The other dogs also crowded her and looked at her with expectant eyes. Fortunately, the dogs were not covered in mud and dirt, or else her clothes would've been ruined by now. Other than a lot of dog fur, her clothes were still in one piece.
The players who came back because the dogs stopped chasing them: "….." This difference in treatment is too obvious! Although….how could we have forgotten there was a 「Animal Whisperer」in our group. Ahhh, we're going to be seen as cowards for running away.
Production crew: Our specially trained dogs!!! Although the dogs do look scary, they're really nice on the inside. However! Why were the dogs so honest this time?!!
Dogs: Awwoooo! So what if we're honest! What are you gonna do?