Had a power outage in my area the whole of yesterday 😖… could only update today.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
Suppressed breathing sounds echoed intermittently from the corner of the ball pit. Colorful small balls filled the vast empty space, with children’s slides and all kinds of toys either floating or submerged among the countless small balls.
Also submerged was the young man wearing a cap, sitting in the corner of the ball pit.
Quentin buried himself in the ocean of balls, leaving only his head and one hand exposed, his phone held in that hand.
As he steadied his breathing, he scrolled through the photos in his phone’s album: “15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20…”
“Twenty photos, all taken.” He waved his phone at the cameraman who was also hiding in the ball pit. “My personal task is complete.”
The cameraman, wearing an earpiece, seemed to be receiving instructions from the director. A moment later, he nodded at Quentin, indicating the production team had received the confirmation.
Quentin sighed in relief and slumped back into the ball pit.
His black hair stuck up messily under the brim of his cap, and his lips were a bit pale. The experience of being chased by the cat team had still consumed a great deal of his energy.
Fortunately, his luck turned. He didn’t encounter any other players while going downstairs, and it seemed he was the only one on the second floor.
So, on his way to the children’s playground, he managed to take the remaining five photos. After completing his personal task, all he needed to do now was just survive until the end.
There was no choice. He was probably the first mouse team member whose identity has been exposed. Everyone knew he could be eliminated. If he continued wandering outside, he would eventually be surrounded by the cat team.
Just finding a hidden place to survive until the end wasn’t that difficult. The hard part was the random location update the cat team received every ten minutes.
The mouse team was still at full strength, with six members and no one eliminated yet. That meant he had a one in six chance of his location getting pinged.
‘The production team probably wouldn’t continuously ping the same person…’, Quentin thought, but he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure the last update was about him.
Who could be certain that Ji Sheng and Ji Xu were definitely cat team members? One of them was likely acting. Quentin didn’t believe that out of all the people he had encountered, aside from Yan Qiao, everyone else was on the cat team. How could that be!
“The last location update was at 8:20… another minute until the next update.”
Quentin glanced at the time on his phone screen and muttered to himself, “Should I change hiding spots? I shouldn’t be that unlucky.”
The production team definitely knew his identity was exposed and that he had just escaped a chase. Would they send out his location? Who knew if this ‘random’ was truly random or if the production team was manipulating things behind the scenes.
If he didn’t move, there was a one in six chance of being cornered. If he did move, he might not find a suitable hiding spot in such a short time, or he might even run into the cat team again and get chased once more.
Ah, such a dilemma.
*
“The location has been updated…”
Ji Sheng looked down at his phone screen, comparing it with the mall map he had photographed earlier to confirm the location: ‘Second floor. It seems to be the children’s playground area? Who’s hiding over there? Should I go check it out?’
He pushed his thoughts aside and looked up at Ji Xu, who was opposite him, and asked with a half-smile: “So, can you see the update?”
“Of course I can.”
Ji Xu was very calm. “It’s downstairs. I can’t tell you the exact spot. Who knows if you, Senior brother, are trying to trick me?”
‘This guy really knows how to take advantage. After calling me senior brother once, he has now stuck to it.’
Ji Sheng grumbled inwardly.
Well, whatever. They were from the same company. Senior brother it was. Who asked him to debut earlier? Every new person who debuted in the company called him that at first.
Once they got more familiar, or after they became famous, they would switch to other forms of address. He was used to it.
Ji Sheng didn’t respond, but Ji Xu had more to say: “Senior, are you going downstairs to look for people? Do you want to go together?”
His expression was earnest: “Did you hear the commotion before? I wasn’t wrong earlier. Quentin is a mouse team member. The last location update was pointing at him. So, Senior Brother, don’t test me anymore. I trust you. Are you willing to trust me?”
Ji Sheng didn’t expect Ji Xu to speak so sincerely and seriously. Meanwhile, he had been inwardly speculating about the other party’s ulterior motives…
The young man in front of him had bright black eyes, and his usually smiling face was now slightly tense. His face was small, but his cheeks had some baby fat, making him look very young, which he was, only eighteen.
Was it because BKL’s antics had been increasing in recent years that he had become so suspicious, even of a kid who just became an adult?
How scheming could a trainee who had been diligently training within the company, just trying to earn a debut opportunity, possibly be?
He himself had also started as a trainee. He knew how hard and tiring it was to be a BKL trainee, and how intense the competition was. When he first made the debut lineup, he had just turned twenty. His head was full of thoughts about dancing, with no energy to scheme about anything else.
Even though the atmosphere at BKL was more restless than before, he shouldn’t see problems in everyone he met.
Ji Sheng rubbed his brow and hummed in acknowledgment: “Yeah, I know. But I won’t go look for people.”
He paused, then added: “I compared the mall map. This update should be pointing to the children’s playground. I don’t know who’s there, but you can go check it out. There’s no danger anyway. Even if you can’t eliminate them, confirming a mouse team member’s identity is good too.”
“Okay, I’ll go take a look. See you later, Senior Brother!”
After Ji Xu left, Ji Sheng sat alone at the entrance of a fried chicken shop on the third floor, talking to the camera.
He analyzed the current situation, deliberately hesitated while guessing Ji Xu’s identity, and finally expressed his willingness to trust this conveniently acquired junior brother.
Years of recording variety shows had given him the ability to make ordinary things sound interesting. Just as he was about to explain his next course of action, he suddenly heard footsteps coming from the corridor on the other side of the fried chicken shop.
As luck would have it, this fried chicken shop was located at the corner of the path on the third floor. Ji Sheng was sitting by the ordering counter, while the pickup counter was on the other side of the corner.
Although the shop wasn’t open, the metal shutter door wasn’t pulled down. From Ji Sheng’s angle, his line of sight could pass through the pickup counter and see the scene in the corridor around the corner.
Similarly, if someone in that corridor approached, they could also see him through the ordering counter.
“Crouch down. Crouch down over there!”
Ji Sheng quickly waved at his cameraman, whispering for him to hide. He himself crouched low beneath the ordering counter, slowly creeping and hiding by the corner.
He remembered that the corridor nearby led to the elevator and stairs. After the location update, the cat team members would most likely head to the second floor. Whoever was coming to the third floor at this time… Regardless, he would treat them as a mouse team member first! Catch them first and ask questions later!
The footsteps grew closer and closer, and Ji Sheng’s breathing grew softer and softer. His crouched position looked like a runner in the starting blocks, or like a predator poised to strike.
However, just as the footsteps reached the pickup counter, they suddenly stopped.
The silent standoff seemed to freeze the air.
“…”
Ten seconds passed, and still no sound.
Ji Sheng cursed inwardly. Who was messing with his head like this? Could it be another cat team member? He was ambushing them, and they were ambushing him?
“Tap, tap, tap…”
The footsteps started again, but this time, they were moving backward.
‘Damn it. They were going to run!’
Ji Sheng shot up like a rocket. He focused his gaze and saw a figure in a dark green cap walking away. A back he knew all too well. So it was you!
Ha. Running right into me. How could I just let you run away, Quentin?
The man suddenly broke into a wide grin, his eyes locked onto the back of the young man ahead. He immediately accelerated and gave chase.
Was Ji Sheng fast? No doubt about it. This guy held a Level 2 Athlete Certificate. Before becoming a trainee, he had trained as a sports student. Whenever he recorded variety shows, if there was a chase segment, no one he set his sights on ever got away easily.
The two chased each other down the corridor, their two cameramen also struggling to keep up with their equipment.
By this time, most of the other guests had gathered on the second floor, following the location update. The chase on the third floor went unnoticed by the others.
Ji Sheng didn’t plan to shout to attract attention. He was confident he could catch Quentin on his own. He didn’t need help cornering him.
As for Quentin… if he hadn’t already expended so much energy earlier, he might have lasted longer.
Unfortunately, just ten minutes ago, he was chased by the three members of Inferno. He had barely made it to the second floor to catch his breath, and before he could rest for even two minutes, he got worried that his location would be exposed, so he forced himself back upstairs to find another hiding spot.
Other people turned corners and found love. He hadn’t even reached the corner yet, and he was already haunted by a ghost.
“No, I can’t keep running…” Quentin controlled his breathing, enduring the burning sensation in his lungs. “He’ll catch me sooner or later. The more I run, the more energy I lose.”
But he was on the mouse team. He couldn’t fight back and eliminate the other person. He hadn’t even had time to look back and see who was chasing him.
The person was silent, except for the heavy footsteps getting closer.
Just as he was about to reach the stairwell, Quentin suddenly turned around, pressing his back against the wall. He looked at the aggressively approaching Ji Sheng and said calmly, “Brother Ji, are you going to eliminate me?”
He didn’t know how flushed his face had become from the intense exercise. The mall’s central air conditioning was set to 18 degrees, so he wasn’t sweating too much, but he was wearing a cap, and the skin under the brim was pale with a rosy tinge.
His throat was dry from running. After speaking, he unconsciously licked his lips. His panting gave him a damp, alluring feeling.
Those green eyes looked at Ji Sheng from under the cap’s brim, like a spring of water, with the faint patter of rain and the chirping of birds lingering in the air.
At that moment, Ji Sheng suddenly understood why some people online said Quentin was so handsome he didn’t look like he belonged to this era.
Just standing there against the wall, he looked like a medieval oil painting. The dark green cap was a laurel wreath woven from vines. No wonder his fans called him Narcissus from Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection in the water.
Eighteen-year-old Quentin was indeed a forest-dwelling elf.
Ji Sheng’s mind wandered for a moment. Suppressing the subtle emotions inside him, he chuckled, “Well, you’re already here, who told you to run into me. I let you slip away before. It wouldn’t be too much to tear your tag off now, would it?”
Quentin pursed his lips, as if thinking about what to say, or simply stalling for time, trying to recover his strength.
“I was just chased upstairs. I haven’t recovered yet. Can you give me some time to catch my breath? So we can have a fair duel.”
Even though his expression remained faint, and his tone of voice didn’t change much, he carried an aura of calmness, untamed spirit, and the potential to counterattack at any moment.
Ironically, even knowing he wanted to fight back, it still made people unconsciously want to comply with his request.
Ji Sheng agreed readily: “Fine. Ten minutes. Let’s find a more secluded open space. Ten minutes from now, it’ll be one-on-one. I won’t call anyone else over, and don’t even think about running off halfway.”
Quentin nodded. “Okay.”
