8:43 PM, 17 minutes until the countdown to total annihilation.
In the biting cold wind, even the leaves trembled. Invisible panic and oppression were invading everyone in this world, while only the tireless projection lights flickered anxiously.
A row of seventeen staff members in performance costumes crouched directly beneath the stage under those circumstances, none daring to look up at the gun barrels hovering not far above their heads.
Hou Guisheng, dressed in black with a cold expression, cast his slender shadow entirely over the female actress at the far left and asked in a low voice:
"8:17, 8:24, and 8:30. Where were you, and what were you doing at those three times?
"If you take more than two seconds to think before answering any of them, I'll shoot."
The actress trembled all over. She only glanced at the gun barrel before collapsing to the ground in fright, hurriedly crying out:
"Don't, don't, don't! I'll talk, I'll talk!
"At 8:17, I was touching up my makeup backstage, getting ready for the encore after 8:30.
"At 8:24, I was chatting with a colleague. She can vouch for me.
"At 8:30, there was a minor mishap, so I went onstage two minutes late. I was smoking backstage then."
The same thing was happening to the other sixteen actors.
Without exception, each had either a handgun or a blade held over their head, while branch managers and employees with savage or gloomy expressions stood before them.
For the employees, the pressure of time had nearly reached an unbearable limit. They could only transfer equal, or even fiercer, pressure onto these people.
Thus, many actors who spoke too slowly or thought for too long immediately received a brutal beating.
After another three minutes of questioning, the five branch managers finally gathered together.
Hou Guisheng,