Trembling At A High Altitude - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Karmic Retribution

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Li Teng didn’t head toward the roadside immediately. Instead, he cast a surreptitious glance in the cafe’s direction and tentatively picked up the bar chair that he had been sitting on. When he realized that there weren’t any warning words coming from the earphone, he walked over to the roadside with the bar chair in his hands.

The director had said that they mustn’t defy her instructions. However, judging from the current situation, it seemed that it was alright to act freely, as long as no further instructions were given.

“Why is he carrying a chair?” muttered the spectacled man in mild bewilderment at the opposite side of the road.

“Judging from his expression, it looks like he’s playing a thief that’s stealing a chair,” said the old lady.

Gao Fei looked contemplative. “Is this part of the story? Or is he giving himself extra scenes on his own?”

The white-collar woman made a guess and said, “He’s probably thinking of using the chair to block the car’s impact?”

“But how can it possibly be successful in blocking it?” Evidently, the spectacled man didn’t agree with her conjecture.

“It’s better than not having anything to use as a shield or to buffer with at the point of impact, right? He’s doomed, anyway. Desperate times call for desperate measures!” The white-collar woman looked and sounded relatively more relaxed now. From her perspective, they—the extras that had crossed the road—were evidently already out of harm’s way.

“Will he really be run over?” asked the teenage girl as she watched Li Teng, who had just stepped onto the road on the opposite, rather worriedly. Just now, during the time where she had never been more terrified in her life, Li Teng had been the one to offer her words of consolation. It had given her a rather favorable impression of him.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. This is what life is,” replied the spectacled man.

“Exactly, there’s nothing we can do about it. If he doesn’t get run over, then we will. No matter what, someone has to claim their box lunch in this scene, isn’t it?” The white-collar woman had only just finished when she suddenly cried out in shock. Her complexion turned ashen.

She had just received instructions from the director in her earphone. She was told that she had dropped her bank card in the middle of the road, and she was supposed to think of a way to retrieve it!

“But I didn’t have a bank card on me!” cried out the white-collar woman rather hopelessly in her own defense to no one in particular.

There was no doubt that Guo Zhipeng would come racing out to run over Li Teng any moment now. If she returned to the middle of the road at this point, she might just be implicated and sent flying too!

The director’s cold and detached order rang out in her ear again. “This is part of the story. You have to think of a way to retrieve the bank card that you misplaced and dropped in the middle of the road.”

The white-collar woman widened her eyes and looked at the middle of the road.

Sure enough, there was a bank card on the ground. From the looks of things, the story had forcibly set this up.

“I’ve dropped my bank card in the middle of the road. Can any of you retrieve it for me?” asked the white-collar woman. She was a clever woman. She had only been ordered to think of a way to retrieve the card. It wasn’t specified in the instructions that she had to be the one to personally retrieve it. In a moment of desperation, she decided to ask the people next to her for help.

Who knew if this would trigger new story developments?

The spectacled man looked at her as though she was an idiot. It was clear what he meant—returning to the middle of the road at this timing? Was she a fool, or was she taking them for fools?

“You can ask him to retrieve it for you!” The old lady hurriedly pointed at Li Teng, who was on the other side of the road and currently walking over to them with a bar chair in his hands. She had also realized that this might be a new story development.

“I’ll do it.” Gao Fei, however, piped up and took the initiative to take on the task.

“Thank you so much! You’re so kind!” The white-collar woman patted her chest in relief, grateful for her own resourcefulness and quick-wittedness in transferring the crisis to someone else with just a few simple words.

“You’re welcome,” replied Gao Fei. However, he had an awful look on his face, and he was cursing and swearing mentally.

He had no desire to be a hero at this timing, either. But just a moment ago, he had received the director’s orders in his earphone, which told him to accept the white-collar woman’s request for help and to retrieve the bank card she had dropped in the middle of the road for her!

This story development was honestly such a trap! He had thought that he was safe, yet this had to happen!

They were pranking him on purpose, weren’t they?

The urging voice came from his earphone again. Gao Fei sighed. The only thing he could do now was to head back to the middle of the road.

At the other side, Li Teng was currently walking over with a chair in his hands, while Gao Fei was walking toward him.

Li Teng was rather shocked to see Gao Fei walking over. However, he didn’t stop.

Neither did he dare to.

Li Teng and Gao Fei, fellow brothers in calamity, followed the director’s instructions and practically reached the middle of the road at the same time.

When Gao Fei reached, he acted according to instructions and bent over to pick up the white-collar woman’s bank card.

Right at this point, the ear-piercing sound of an engine revving rang out from where the alley was. With Guo Zhipeng behind the wheel, an extremely cool-looking sports car raced out of the alley at high speed. After he turned the corner, he sped up further and charged straight toward Gao Fei and Li Teng in the middle of the road!

With such a short distance between them and the car traveling at such a high speed, it was near impossible for the pair to avoid the car that was speeding toward them intentionally.

This was especially true in Gao Fei’s case, as he was currently bent over and picking up the bank card. It was even more difficult for him to get up and flee than what it was for Li Teng.

Gao Fei had lost all hope at this point. In this instant, he thought of his girlfriend, whom he had once been an incredibly affectionate couple with, as well as his short, yet never once glorious, life.

Life was truly so transient!

All the extras at the roadside screamed. When watching a car crash take place at such close range this clearly, and seeing two healthy men whom they had just been talking to about to be run over by a car—even if this was just filming—the sight, nevertheless, created an extremely great psychological impact on them.

Guo Zhipeng had waited for so long before he had started the car. Undoubtedly, his target was the one who had reported him in the past—Li Teng.

As for Gao Fei, one could only say that the story development had given him an undeserved catastrophe.

Guo Zhipeng, who was holding the steering wheel, had a sinister smile on his face at this point. An intense thrill of revenge filled him.

Li Teng’s report of him had made him lose his high-paying job and even needlessly caused him to spend tens of thousands of dollars to avoid being jailed. He hated Li Teng to the core for it.

Little did he think that he would have the opportunity to personally crash a car into Li Teng and send him flying today.

“What goes around, comes around! Who has the heavens ever spared? Despite everything, you’ve landed in my clutches in the frickin’ end anyway!” Guo Zhipeng rammed his foot on the accelerator, while the steering wheel and the car hood locked onto wherever Li Teng might flee toward.

Li Teng practically reached over and pushed Gao Fei, who was bent over and in the midst of picking up the bank card, away forcefully in the instant that the engine’s roar rang out in the alley.

Even at this point, the director didn’t give him any instruction or order to cease his actions. Li Teng turned around, picked up the bar chair, and charged toward the sports car without any hesitation.

He was just like a knight from the middle ages, who held a spear in his hand while on horseback and challenged someone to a one-on-one fight.

He charged ahead bravely, never once looking back.

Guo Zhipeng sped up by dozens of kilometers right after he whizzed past the mouth of the alley. When he noticed that Li Teng wasn’t making any attempt to dodge whatsoever, and was charging toward him with a bar chair lifted high up in the air instead, he couldn’t help but find his actions rather strange.

“…Is he out of his f*cking mind?!” A moment later, something seemed to click in Guo Zhipeng’s mind, and his expression changed dramatically.

However, it was too late!

With the bar chair lifted high, Li Teng charged toward Guo Zhipeng and the car. Right before the car rammed into him, he leaped into the air and directed the chair’s legs toward Guo Zhipeng in the car!

Under the high-velocity collision’s severe impact, the chair’s four wooden legs broke easily and pierced through the windscreen. One stabbed right into the area between Guo Zhipeng’s brows and straight into his brain, instantly smashing his frontal bone to bits, while another pierced all the way through his chest effortlessly!

The chair, which bore the brunt of the impact’s resulting backward force, broke Li Teng’s arms instantly at the other end, where the seat was. He was sent flying high up through the air.

When Gao Fei, whom Li Teng had pushed away just now, got back onto his feet and noticed Li Teng flying toward him, he rushed over to him subconsciously and reached his arms out in an attempt to catch him. However, he was also caught up in Li Teng’s overwhelming momentum, and the pair tumbled up and down before they landed on the pavement beside the road.

Li Teng, who was lying in Gao Fei’s arms, was covered in blood from head to toe, and his arms were broken, but he was still alive.

However, at the other end of the car crash, Guo Zhipeng had perished on the spot in this scene.

“Hahaha! This is karmic retribution! What goes around, comes around! Look up at the sky if you don’t believe it! Who has the heavens ever spared?!”

Li Teng threw up a mouthful of bloody coffee. He laughed loudly as he looked at the sports car, slowly coming to a stop at a far corner of the street after the woman in the sunglasses had stepped on the emergency brakes.

“Cut!”

Everyone heard the female director’s order in their earphones.

An actor had died in the car crash. Even though it hadn’t been an extra that died, nevertheless, the absolute requirement set for this scene prior to filming had been met.

…

“Unfortunately, the car comes crashing at high speed toward all of you, who are crossing the road. This car crash scene will be considered completed as long as someone dies.

“Everything is to be based on the instructions I give via the earphones.”

…

Li Teng had understood the director’s words inside-out. The most important thing in this scene wasn’t the rules but the director’s orders.

Thus, filming for this scene officially ended in the instant where Guo Zhipeng died.