Trembling At A High Altitude - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: An Inevitable Choice

The white-collar woman looked at the spectacled man, the pretty boy, and Feng Dahai, the newcomer. She said, “Is there even a need to separate us into camps anymore? It’s three versus five, right? You know with just a look that those three are definitely defectors. It’s written all over their faces!”

The spectacled man felt wronged. He said, “Big sister, can a person be judged whether they are good or evil just by their looks?”

Du Qing and Feng Dahai also looked at the white-collar woman.

She became a little sheepish and replied, “I’m just saying it casually. It’s just a joke.”

Feng Dahai wasn’t angry at all. He said, “Yes, you’re right, miss. Although I hate defectors with a vengeance in real life, I do like acting roles like this. As an actor, I should have diversification in my acting skills. It’s also a kind of skill if my portrayal of a villain can make people hate the character.”

The director spoke at this point. With the tin bucket in her hand, she said, “There are a total of eight lots in the tin bucket. Defector Chief is written on one of them, while the other seven are blank.

“The defector chief is the main character in this scene, so he will be the one leading the entire story. If you want to act as him, come over and draw a lot. If not, then give up your right to draw a lot this time.

“The eight of you will draw lots according to your levels.

“The drawing of lots will end when someone draws the Defector Chief. The actor that draws the Defector Chief can choose another actor to be the lackey by his side. He is also required to secretly choose another actor as the traitor hidden among the six editors.”

Although the drawing of lots hadn’t started yet, everyone had a sort of premonition that the defector chief’s role was definitely going to Feng Dahai. And if he chose a lackey, it would be Du Qing, the pretty boy.

As for the traitor hidden among the six editors, who else could it be?

The spectacled man, of course.

As for the resistance fighter, they couldn’t think of anyone more suitable than Li Teng.

Due to the actors’ compatibility with the roles, everyone felt like there was nothing secretive anymore about this confrontational performance that seemingly required a battle of wits and mystery-solving.

The drawing of lots began.

Feng Dahai’s level, as well as privileges, was the highest. Thus, according to the rules, he had the right to draw the first lot.

He took the initiative to walk over to the director. Evidently, he wasn’t giving up on the chance to act as the defector chief.

Feng Dahai had three chances to draw.

If he didn’t draw the defector chief in all three tries, the next to draw would be the one with the higher number of points between the woman in the sunglasses and the pretty boy, both of whom were two actors of the same level.

This would continue until the person acting as the defector chief was determined.

In this scene, the one acting as the defector chief held a very big advantage over the others.

The fact that the main character had the ability to decide how the story developed didn’t require any further explanation. Apart from that, acting as the defector chief was also very safe, similar to the You’re the ghost in the previous scene.

The defector chief could ignore the others’ choices and appoint a trusted lackey himself.

Apart from that, he also had an agent planted within the editor team to help him by providing him with clues.

The defector chief could also subject the newspaper office’s editors to torture to interrogate them in the story.

Although they were just acting, acting was no different from real events in this place. If the torturing of somebody was part of the story, then real torturing it would be. There was nothing ambiguous about it. Even though medical treatment was provided at the end of filming and every injury, no matter how severe, would be healed, who would want to be subjected to torture for no reason?

Therefore, there was no doubt that Feng Dahai would want the role of the defector chief.

If Li Teng became the resistance fighter, he could even use this opportunity to kill Li Teng and collect the bounty on his head that the guild had put out, thereby receiving an additional 100 points as a reward.

Of course, because he was a member of a guild, coupled with the fact that this was a face-off style of performance, even if he made use of the story and successfully killed Li Teng, he wouldn’t be able to wax-seal Li Teng and get his bounty reward right away.

However, by pushing Li Teng into a hell-mode performance, the outcome was pretty much the same.

When Li Teng died in the hell-mode performance, he would be able to receive the reward of 100 points without any fuss.

Everything went according to Feng Dahai’s plans, too.

He drew the defector chief lot on his second try.

The director had already explicitly stated that the other seven lots were blank lots. Moreover, once the defector chief lot was drawn, the drawing of lots would end immediately. Thus, there was no need for Feng Dahai to worry about a textual trap like what Mrs. Guo had experienced in the previous scene.

The defector chief was required to let everyone know of his identity.

After Feng Dahai showed the defector chief lot he had drawn to everyone, he publicly announced the actor he was choosing to be his lackey—Du Qing, the pretty boy.

This was an inevitable choice.

As the two of them belonged to the same guild, the film studio would bind them together and forcibly put them in the same camp in a face-off performance, regardless of whether he chose him or not.

Gao Fei asked the other original members of the film crew, “Say, among the six of us, who do you think will be the traitor?”

Everyone looked at the spectacled man.

“What are all of you looking at me for? Do I look that much like a traitor?”

The spectacled man wasn’t angry when he spoke. On the contrary, he even smiled ingratiatingly at Feng Dahai.

The white-collar woman commented, “I feel that this story wasn’t written in advance and given to us to act. Rather, every character was tailor-made according to the people in our crew.”

Feng Dahai asked the spectacled man, “Lad, what’s your name?”

“Big Brother Hai, my name is Huang Xun,” replied the spectacled man as he bowed hastily, as though he was overwhelmed by the special treatment he was receiving.

Feng Dahai patted him on the shoulder and said, “Okay, do your best. When you pass the assessment, we’ll be one big family.”

A hasty Huang Xun repeatedly nodded as he replied, “Of course, of course! I’ll be under your care in the future, Big Brother Hai!”

The defector team clearly had the upper hand in this scene! Naturally, Huang Xun would snatch the role of the traitor as soon as he could.

Otherwise, was he supposed to undergo torture together with those editors from the newspaper office?

“What the hell!? Has filming already started?” exclaimed Gao Fei. He honestly took his hat off to Huang Xun, the spectacled man, for “defecting” in front of everyone so quickly.

“We’re going to determine the actors for the six editors of the newspaper office now.

“In this scene, six people will be editors working in the newspaper office, out of which, one is a traitor, and one is a hidden resistance fighter.

“The names of the six editor roles, which are also their editor pen names, are Anna, Aisha, Mickey, Gao Fei, Tang Na, and Daisy.

“The six of you, please choose a character that suits you each,” said the director after the defector chief’s actor was determined.

Li Teng glanced at Gao Fei and said, “Your name has turned straight into a character name.”

“Cough…” Gao Fei didn’t know how he should respond.

The white-collar woman was rendered speechless when she heard the six character names. She remarked, “Oh, come on. This story is set during the Japanese occupation, alright? Did editors already choose such fashionable pen names back then?”

Gao Fei shook his head. “What logic is there to be discussed with them when they’ve even sent people up onto stone pillars?”

As the only thing confirmed was the names of the characters they were portraying, the identities of the traitor and the resistance fighter would not be explicitly indicated. Thus, all of these took place openly.

No one fought for any of the names. Gao Fei straight up chose the character name, Gao Fei.

Li Teng didn’t think that deep either and picked Tang Na… He had once called himself Tang Na when he had been joking around with Gao Fei in the past.

It felt like every action, every move, and every word they spoke in the film studio was under someone’s surveillance. Otherwise, the names would be too much of a coincidence.

The white-collar woman picked Aisha, the woman in the sunglasses picked Anna, and the teenage girl picked Daisy.

As the spectacled man had been busy talking to Feng Dahai and hadn’t picked a name, the last name that no one had picked, Mickey, went to him.

The teenage girl teased Li Teng. “Big Brother Tang Na, look, I’ve become your little girlfriend.”

In a certain cartoon, Daisy was indeed Donald’s girlfriend.

Li Teng smiled and replied, “I’ll take good care of you.”

“Be careful that someone doesn’t get jealous,” commented Huang Xun while casting a glance at the woman in the sunglasses, as though he knew of the clandestine relationship between Li Teng and her.

“Why is the name of his character Tang Na and not Donald?” asked Aisha, the white-collar woman. She was rather puzzled at Li Teng’s character name.

“Do you think he has any virtue 1?” replied Mickey, the spectacled man.

Upon hearing Huang Xun attacking Li Teng, Gao Fei immediately retaliated and said, “Do you really have the cheek to say that about other people? You’re an insult to the character Mickey.”

“I’m not going to speak to a troll like you.”

“Do you think I want to give haters like you any attention?”

The two of them got into an argument.

Footnotes:

Ch 53 Footnote 1

‘Donald’ is transliterated as ‘Tang Na De’ in Chinese. The character used for ‘de’ here means ‘virtue’