Prison Break Is Something I Have Experience With

"You've seen my sincerity, now tell me, how do I restore his appearance?"

"That's not enough sincerity!" Aaron replied, seemingly ignoring the question. "Your Highness, we're still in the prison!"

Legolas paused for a moment, then said, "If you heal him, I will naturally release both of you, as I guarantee in the name of the Elf King."

"What if you don't like it when you kiss me?"

"I might disobey him for the first time!" Legolas said with a wry smile.

Aaron looked at Legolas's resolute expression and nodded thoughtfully. "I see your attitude, but your promises mean nothing to me. What I need are concrete actions."

Furthermore, your nephew also made a similar promise. In other words, your sincerity is only equal to having a short sword in addition to your nephew's. What's the difference between this and trying to get something for nothing?

Legolas remained silent for a while, then raised his head and looked directly at Aaron. "What else do you want? I will not refuse anything I can do."

"First, you must return my Wand to me," Aaron said seriously, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Yes, but only after the project is completed."

"Secondly, the dwarves were released."

"That won't do."

"Let me finish speaking. You can accept the condition of releasing all the dwarves except Thorin Oakenshield, right?"

Upon hearing this, Legolas took a deep breath. "I will do my best to persuade my mother."

"Go do it!" Aaron waved his hand. "Until I change my mind."

After Legolas left, Aaron leaned against the cell door with an air of composure. "All done. Everything under control."

"How can you be so confident?" Bilbo looked at Aaron in surprise. "Your bargaining skills are nothing like a child's."

"I have received professional training."

Aaron raised his head triumphantly, but his feelings were quite complicated.

I really didn't attend those tutoring classes, but looking back, it's a lot of bitter tears.

"Gaius, why didn't you save Thorin?" Dwalin asked in a deep voice.

"Can't you use your brain a little?" Aaron glanced at him disdainfully. "The most important thing in negotiation is knowing the other party's bottom line. Thorin is like a treasure to the Elf Tribe in Thranduil's eyes. Do you think he will release him easily?"

I've done everything I can to benefit us, what else are you dissatisfied with?

Dwalin paused for a moment, "In any case, we cannot abandon Thorin."

"I was wrong." Aaron scratched his hair. "I thought you were just simple-minded and all brawn and no brains, but now it seems you really are brainless."

"You..."

"What do you mean, 'you'?"

If it's just Bilbo and me who get released, then it's the two of us who save your whole group.

But if we change to my previous condition, then it would be that we, fourteen of us, would save one Thorin.

Do I really need to tell you which one has a higher success rate?

"This, this, this..." Dwalin stammered incoherently for a while before bowing deeply to Aaron Zheng. "I'm sorry, I misunderstood."

"Aaron, didn't you say there was another way?" Bilbo asked. "What was it?"

"What could it be? A prison break, of course."

"What, Yue..."

Bilbo's eyes widened, and he was about to shout out instinctively.

Aaron quickly covered his mouth, "Dude, take it easy, don't attract the elves."

Bilbo nodded hastily and lowered his voice, saying, "Maybe I misheard you. You mean prison break?"

"Don't worry, I have experience."

Give me some time; this prison cell can't stop me.

"You even have experience escaping from prison?" Bilbo was already somewhat numb. "What exactly do you do for a living?"

"Sorry, I misspoke. I have no experience escaping from prison," Aaron said with an awkward laugh. "But the second half of what I said is true. I am confident that I can escape from here."

"What should we do?"

Aaron hesitated for a moment, then looked at Bilbo with a smile, "Although I'm not Golden Snitch, I do know a little about lock picking."

Upon hearing this, Bilbo raised an eyebrow and silently distanced himself from Aaron.

"My intuition tells me that you're definitely not doing me any good by telling me this."

"Uh... I just want to borrow something from you so I can unlock it."

Bilbo chuckled awkwardly. "Borrow what? Not your hair, is it?"

"That won't work. I tried it when I was a kid; you can't unlock it with hair."

"Mr. Baggins, you really do have a talent for being Golden Snitch. You tried picking locks with your hair when you were a kid?"

Don't overthink it. I'm not interested in your hair; I just want your sword.

"Sting?" Bilbo was completely bewildered. "What do you want it for? That sword can't cut through the prison door, otherwise Legolas wouldn't have returned it to me so readily."

Aaron didn't say anything, but spent two Magic Points to buy the wine from the shop and used Sting to remove the cork.

Gloin took a deep breath and licked his lips. "Where did this wine come from?"

"Don't worry about the details. It's not difficult to hide something under the elves' noses."

"No, I mean this wine is so mellow, I've never tasted such fine wine in my life."

"Aaron." Oin from the next cell stretched out his arm. "Give me a sip, just one sip."

"Dream on." Aaron blocked the bottle opening with his finger. "If you get drunk, you won't be able to get out even if I open the cell door."

The few near the entrance are keeping watch for me; if any elves approach, they should cough.

After saying that, he began to Sting cut the cork, comparing it to the keyhole on the cell door.

Wood chips flew everywhere. Bilbo stared in disbelief at Aaron's actions and the rapidly forming wooden key, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

"How come you're so skilled?"

"As an excellent chef, your knife skills and carving skills must be impeccable," Aaron said seriously.

Bilbo:...

Who are you kidding? I really can't find a reason to refute that.

"Ta-da!"

Less than two minutes later, Aaron had a key in his hand, but the back half of the key was half a piece of wood.

"Now comes the moment of truth," Aaron said to Bilbo, carefully inserting the wooden key into the lock and slowly turning it.

"You've succeeded?"

Bilbo was thrilled. Although he couldn't quite accept this method, he had to admit that the 'snap' sound was quite delicious.

Aaron nodded smugly, and just as he was about to push open the cell door, he heard a series of coughs.

Someone's here?

Aaron was startled. He quickly pulled out the key, stuck it in the bottle, and then shoved the bottle into Bilbo's arms.

After finishing this task, he sat down nonchalantly and closed his eyes to rest.

Tauriel descended the stairs and saw the somewhat irritated female elf stop at the entrance to Kili's prison.

She watched as Kili gently stroked a black stone and asked curiously, "What is that stone in your hand?"

"This is a Rune Stone."

It is inscribed with a powerful spell; anyone who reads the Runic Script on it, except for dwarves, will be cursed forever.

Tauriel was startled and was about to turn and leave.

"Maybe not," Kili said with a smile. "It depends on whether you believe in such things; it's just a rock."

The runestone was given to me by my mother to remind me of my promise.

"What promise?"

"I will go to her side." Kili played with the stone in his hand. "She is worried about me and thinks I am reckless."

"Yeah?"

"No, I didn't."

When he threw the stone upwards, it accidentally fell outside the cell and was stepped on by Tauriel.

Next, Tauriel told Kili about the elves' love of light. She was Eldar Elf and loved any kind of light, while the Wood Elf loved the brilliance of starlight the most.

Tauriel imagined the scene of her walking under the starlight, Kili also told her about the Fire Moon she had seen.

This conversation brought the two closer, and Tauriel returned the stone to Kili.

After she left, Aaron whistled with a half-smile, "Kili, if I hadn't said what I said before, you might actually have been able to steal the woman the prince desires."

Kili remained silent, but the upturned corners of his mouth and the slight blush on his cheeks betrayed his joy.

"But I still advise you to Reality Stone and not pursue her?"

"Why?"

"You are different races!" Aaron shrugged. "Elves can live for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years or even longer, but what about dwarves?"

Unless you live as long as she does, you'll just be a passerby in her life...

In short, if you don't have the skills, don't take on the job; you won't be able to handle it.

"Ahem!" Bilbo coughed. "Aaron, you're absolutely right. Everything before we escaped was just a mirage."

"Yes, the key."

Aaron took the wine from Bilbo, pulled out the cork, and opened the cell door under everyone's watchful eyes.

"The breath of freedom," Aaron said smugly. "I knew this door couldn't hold me back."

The dwarves all laughed, and Bilbo was especially excited.

He was just about to walk out of the cell when Aaron quickly pulled him back.

"Don't rush. Breaking out of prison is a huge undertaking. Opening the door is just the first step," Aaron said patiently. "There are elves everywhere outside. If we are discovered, we will be captured very quickly."

"Then what should we do?"

Aaron patted him on the shoulder and said meaningfully, "It's up to you now, top-notch Golden Snitch."

Upon hearing the words "top-tier Golden Snitch," Bilbo immediately realized that he could use his Magic Ring to become invisible, and finding the best escape route in this Woodland Realm was not impossible.

"I will find my way."

"And the key," Balin immediately reminded him, "The key to our cell door."

"Okay, I'll bring it over."

"And then there's the martial arts," Dwalin added. "We can lack anything else, but we absolutely cannot lack the martial arts."

"And wine," Gloin said. "If there's food, that would be even better."

"Hey, hey, hey, don't go too far." Aaron couldn't stand it anymore and turned to look at Bilbo, whose face had darkened. "Don't listen to them. Finding the key and the way is already a blessing."

But if you can, please bring me my Wand.

Bilbo sighed helplessly, "I'll do my best!"

Once out of sight of everyone, Bilbo put on his Magic Ring and became invisible.

He proceeded cautiously, not daring to make a sound, and after wandering around for most of the day, he finally found the elf who held the Portkey and followed him into the wine cellar.