Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Rooftop terrace.

A hand covered in dust grabbed the railing.

Bi Fang flexed his muscles, pulling his entire body up and flipping onto the rooftop.

"Phew, that was exhausting."

Shaking his sore arms, Bi Fang wiped the sweat from his forehead. The process of climbing the building had been simpler than he had imagined, so he went straight to the top in one go, as there wasn’t much difference anyway.

He pulled out the Dinima Rope from his backpack, tethered one end to the railing, and the other end to his waist. After securing it tightly, he slowly lowered himself down bit by bit.

Richard and the others hadn’t appeared, surely blocked by some external force, so he absolutely couldn’t enter through the main entrance.

Descending slowly on the rope, Bi Fang really resembled a window cleaner, too bad cleaners don’t work in the middle of the night, do they?

I wonder if those two will call the police.

Bi Fang thought, and at the same time, he had reached the window of Richard’s room. Securing the rope, Bi Fang pressed his ear against the wall.

No sound.

Bi Fang found it troublesome. He stepped on the air conditioning unit and moved to the adjacent room to continue listening.

This time there was a sound.

"You can’t detain us, it’s illegal!"

"Sorry, SIR, but you can’t leave this room. Sir, no filming, thank you, no filming."

"There’s not an ounce of freedom here, you won’t find anything! You are causing trouble, get out, get out!" @@novelbin@@

A loud noise came through the glass.

Bi Fang gave his ears a quick rub, easily imagining Jerret angrily shutting the door.

After waiting quietly for a moment, another room erupted into commotion.

Leaning against the wall, Bi Fang waited for about ten minutes, waiting until all the rooms quietened down, then tapped gently on the glass wall.

In the room, Jerret, who was fuming, was startled and turned to the photography assistant, asking, "Did you hear that?"

The assistant looked confused and responded, "Hear what?"

Jerret got up from his chair, slowly approached the bedside, and cautiously lifted the curtain...

"WTF!"

Jerret’s legs gave way, and he knelt to the floor.

The assistant Mond was so startled that he jumped up.

Bi Fang calmly tapped on the window and mouthed, "Let me in."

By the moonlight, Jerret, whose brain had almost burst from the rush of blood, finally saw who it was. He calmed down quickly, got to his feet, and opened the window.

Bi Fang swung inside, rolling on the floor upon landing, leaving only a white rope swaying outside the window and didn’t forget to greet the stunned Mond, "Good evening."

With chattering teeth, Mond stuttered, "Good... good evening."

When Bi Fang stood in front of Jerret, Jerret was dumbstruck, "How did you get up here? Won’t you be seen entering the hotel? What if they think you’re part of the gang?"

"Don’t worry." Bi Fang shook his hands off, "I climbed up from below."

"Climbed up ×2!?"

Jerret and Mond both rushed to the window, looking down to see the smooth glass facade reflecting the flickering moonlight, with only the slightly raised steel structures between seams of glass.

Besides that, there were only rust-stained air conditioner brackets.

Jerret sat on the couch, dumbfounded, muttering, "Although it’s unbelievable, if it’s Bi Fang, then it seems normal..."

Mond was young and seemingly hadn’t seen such a scene before, he was shell-shocked, repeating unintelligible words over and over.

Bi Fang washed his hands and came out of the restroom, pulling up a stool to sit in front of the two men, "Stop spacing out and talk, what’s happening?"

"Eh~~"

"Ah~~"

Jerret and Mond sighed heavily.

Bi Fang found it amusing, "Come on, spit it out, I still need to go back to sleep."

"Can’t you see...?"

Richard’s group consisted of seven individuals, all with foreign faces, and it was extremely difficult for them to stay in this small Asian town that had already seen them.

Not a single hotel was willing to accommodate them; all of them protested.

On the second day of driving around, they were followed, and Pondy even noted down a total of seven license plate numbers. No matter where they went, there were always people looking at them, intentionally or not.

Even staring straight at them.

"If you look back at them, they will gesture across their neck at you," Mond made a chopping motion across his throat from left to right, "I think they’re probably from the Japanese Organization. The last time Richard’s car was bombed, it must have been them."

Rage filled Mond’s face but after the anger, there was fear. Those men, covered in tattoos, had gazes so fierce they seemed like wolves—no, even more terrifying than wolves.

Wolves would charge at you; you could fight and struggle until the very last moment, but they wouldn’t. You could end up silently packed into an iron barrel, turned into a concrete pile, and sunk deep into the bay, where years or decades later, the green corpse oil would slowly seep out, forming the outline of a person.

Life is one’s own, and there’s only one.

Mond was beginning to regret setting foot on this land a second time. He had thought that with Bi Fang’s help, it wouldn’t be so dangerous, but now, fear enveloped him once more.

Why did I agree?

For money?

There was no money.

For my career?

I could have refused; Jerret is a good person.

Or was it a spur-of-the-moment decision?

Yes, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Flames, explosions, shards of metal flying everywhere, the broken eyes of a comrade, twisted joints, the smell of blood that couldn’t be washed away from the ground...

The memory of the orange scenes flashed like a runaway film projector until a large hand suddenly cut the film at the very moment it threatened to spill from his eyes.

Everything swiftly reverted back to the beginning.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Mond’s shoulder was firmly pressed down; he looked up at Bi Fang, and in a daze, came back to his senses.

Bi Fang, unconcerned, turned back to Jerret, "So what happened just now?"

Jerret looked dejected, "The police came too. From the entrance to the lobby, we were shadowed. Starting tonight, as soon as they see us come out, they’ll confront us and force us back in; they won’t let us out at all."

"Pondy tried to break out, but he got beaten up and dragged back. These people just want to wait until our visas expire and then send us back to our countries forcibly, damn it, I wondered why a hotel suddenly agreed to take us in, damn!"

"But there’s some good news too."

All of a sudden, Jerret, who seemed despondent, remembered something. He went to the bedside cabinet, opened the drawer, and pulled out a roll of a map, spreading it on the coffee table.

"Yesterday afternoon, Richard and I went to the city hall, and they gave us this map, highlighting these places strictly forbidden for Richard and me to visit. If we do, we’d be trespassing on private property, and they would arrest us and jail us."

Jerret pointed to the red circles on the map, his tone odd.

"I think they’re making some good points, and actually did us a big favor."

He looked up to find Bi Fang looking at him too.

The two suddenly shared a knowing smile.