Tang Shiba and the others ran so fast that the three chasing them soon fell behind.
"Damn it, what did she eat to run that fast?"
Zhao Shen pulled the cobwebs off his face, seething with anger.
Zhao Tiantian stopped, panting hard. The swelling in her face had gone down a little, though her nose still looked strange.
Tang Xueqing glanced behind her and realized the cameraman was gone.
Where was the camera? How had it suddenly disappeared?
The cameraman was just as bewildered. His stomach had started hurting while he ran, so he had gone to relieve himself, thinking he could catch up afterward. But when he turned around, everyone was gone.
He was doomed. The livestream viewers were going to start cursing again.
The viewers weren't cursing, though. They were watching Tang Shiba roar with laughter.
Fang Cheng had run too fast and fallen straight into a muddy ditch. He had nearly dragged Si Wuyu down with him, but fortunately, Si Wuyu dodged his grasping hands in time and escaped disaster.
Fang Cheng was covered in mud. Tang Shiba couldn't hold it in anymore and clutched her stomach, laughing her head off.
Fang Cheng's face was thunderous. "Stop laughing and pull me up!"
"Pfft! Give me a second to catch my breath."
Si Wuyu found a vine, lowered it, and pulled Fang Cheng up.
Once he was out, Fang Cheng lunged straight at Tang Shiba, getting mud all over her too.
Furious, Tang Shiba grabbed him and shoved him back into the muddy ditch.
Fang Cheng cursed, "Tang Shiba, you dirty cheat!"
"You're the dirty cheat, you petty little brat! I just laughed a little, and you had to take offense."
"Getting mud all over me like some little kid."
Si Wuyu...
He truly had no words for their childish behavior.
In the livestream chat.
[Hahaha, it's confirmed! Fang Cheng can't beat Tang Shiba either.]
[Look at our man's face. He's lost the will to live. How did he end up with these two jokers?]
[Tang Shiba is so mean. The younger guy fell into a ditch, and she still laughed at him.]
After pulling Fang Cheng up again, the three gathered mushrooms in the woods.
It had rained yesterday, and there were plenty of tender, freshly sprouted mushrooms.
"Bro, tell me the truth. Are these really edible?"
Si Wuyu frowned at the assortment of mushrooms. "Honestly, this is my first time picking mushrooms too."
He picked whatever Tang Shiba picked. He didn't recognize them, but surely she did.
After gathering a large pile of mushrooms, the three headed back.
Back at camp, Fang Cheng dug a hole and buried their supplies. Only when he could see no sign of them did he relax.
Quite a while later, Zhao Tiantian and Zhao Shen returned, but Tang Xueqing was missing.
Oh, here comes the juicy stuff. Tang Xueqing fell into a hole. It's where the Director and the others are being held.
The Director told Tang Xueqing that everyone on the island was a scammer. She didn't entirely believe him and wanted to find evidence herself.
She pretended to agree to call the police once she got out, but she doesn't even have a phone. How is she supposed to call them...? And those people actually believed her...
As expected of the female lead, she was pretty good at bluffing her way through trouble.
"Hurry up and find her! We turned around, and she was gone!" Zhao Tiantian paced anxiously, urging the Director and his people to search.
Suddenly, she spotted Tang Shiba and marched over in a fury.
"Was it you? How could someone just disappear out of nowhere? You must have done something, right?"
"Xueqing said you can't stand her and are always bullying her. You wanted to use this chance to get her hurt."
Fang Cheng wasn't confused anymore. He interrupted Zhao Tiantian. "The three of us were together the whole time, and we didn't run into you on the way back. Where did you get this conspiracy theory? How could you even come up with that?"
He had previously thought Tang Shiba was the unreasonable one. It turned out Zhao Tiantian was stirring up trouble and twisting the facts. Even someone as slow on the uptake as he was could tell Zhao Tiantian was lying through her teeth.
"But..." Zhao Tiantian had nothing left to say.
She turned back and urged the Director to find Tang Xueqing, afraid something really had happened to her.
"Let's all look. We don't want anything bad to happen to her."
The moment Tang Shiba spoke, Zhao Shen looked at her with disgust. "You'd be kind enough to look for her? You'd love to see her dead."
Tang Shiba snorted. "There's no arguing with pigheaded idiots like you. You couldn't possibly be any stupider."
"What did you say? Say that again!"
Just as another fight was about to break out, Si Wuyu said coldly, "Are we looking for her or not?"
With the Film Emperor speaking up, nobody made any more trouble. They hurried off to search.
Off we go! Time to enjoy the drama.
The corners of Si Wuyu's lips curved upward as his tall figure stayed close behind Tang Shiba.
The Director followed too, giving his assistant a meaningful look. The assistant understood, and they split into three groups, with one group quietly heading another way.
Everyone was too anxious to notice.
But Tang Shiba had been watching all along.
This Director is clever. He guessed Tang Xueqing might have fallen into the hole. Follow him, and there'll be a show to watch.
Tang Shiba deliberately slowed down, telling Fang Cheng and the others to go ahead while she relieved herself.
Only after everyone had run off did she quietly trail the Director and his assistant.
Si Wuyu kept following her. Tang Shiba had been running for a while before she sensed something was wrong. She turned and discovered Si Wuyu behind her.
How weird. Why does Si Wuyu keep following me? He hasn't planted some sort of tracker on me, has he?
"I saw you running this way, so I followed."
To dispel Tang Shiba's suspicions, Emperor Si had no choice but to explain.
"Oh. Then let's hurry and look."
Fine, let him follow. Maybe he's worried about the female lead too.
The Director and his assistant reached the opening of the Cave. After circling it twice, the Director told his assistant to lower the rope.
"Boss, what if the others climb out?"
"Then we'll throw them back down."
The assistant had no choice but to toss the rope down. Soon, someone caught it and gave it a few tugs, signaling for him to pull them up.
"Boss, someone's there."
"Pull them up."
After hauling for a while, the Director and his assistant saw who was coming up and didn't know what to do.
It really was Tang Xueqing.
Her face was pale, and both her arms and feet were injured.
Looking at the person they had hauled up, the assistant was at a loss.
Tang Xueqing definitely knew there were people down there now.
Seeing no cameras nearby, Tang Xueqing burst into tears.
"Director, thank goodness you found me in time. You locked those Scammers down there, right? After I fell in, they actually said you were the Scammers and asked me to call the police."
That single remark dispelled the Director's suspicions.
He hurriedly pulled her the rest of the way up. Seeing the injuries on her hands and feet, he told his assistant to carry her on his back.
"We had no choice. We ran into Scammers as soon as we arrived on the island. They tried to tie us up, but we ended up tying them up instead."
"I was planning to call the police after we finished filming the variety show. If we called now, we wouldn't be able to finish filming. Besides, there aren't necessarily enough of us to keep watch over all of them, so we could only lock them in the Cave."
"Really? But won't they starve?"
"No. We send food down to them."
Seeing that Tang Xueqing believed him, the Director finally breathed a sigh of relief. He added, "I hope you'll keep this secret. If the others find out, it could cause panic."
"I understand."
Tang Xueqing didn't want to miss out on this shoot either. Although both sides had made reasonable arguments, she still trusted her own judgment.
She felt that the people down below were the real Scammers.
What Scammers would work so diligently on filming a show, even showing their faces on camera?
If they really were Scammers, they wouldn't be that bold.
Before you continue