Chapter 103

The group found the village chief and asked him how to stop the bomb countdown.

The village chief was unwilling to talk, so Ranlong told the villagers present about the bomb. The village chief was beaten up, but he still insisted that the countdown would not stop once it started.

With only five minutes left, Ranlong regretted coming in and dragged Qiu An away. Qiu An decided to give it one last try. She told the village chief, "The explosion won't cover up your crimes. It will only bring the dirty deeds done underground to the surface. The hollowed-out ground, the rebuilt pipes, the debris that the fire couldn't burn away. Then, the whole world will know what's grown at the foot of Fengbo Mountain."

There was finally a hint of relaxation in the village chief's stubborn expression.

Seeing this, Qiu An continued to persuade them, "The explosion has already happened. The police will arrive soon to investigate, and it won't be long before the truth is revealed. Right now, no one except you has the ability to save this village. Whether the bomb explodes or not, you must clean up the mess yourself. You must suppress the news before the police and media arrive. Only then will you have a chance to bury the evidence while rebuilding the village."

Ranlong thought about it and wondered if this meant that they were asked to cover up for the criminals?

But no matter what, she supported whatever Qiu An said: "Yes! Xiao An is right! You have to survive first before you can protect those people outside!"

The village chief was finally persuaded. He said that it was too late to evacuate to a safe place, so he led everyone to find a detonator embedded in the ground.

He said the planned explosion was a chain reaction like dominoes, so as long as the detonator was stopped, the big explosion would not happen.

There were only three minutes left on the countdown device, and Ranlong couldn't help but get anxious: "Then stop it quickly!"

"I told you, once the countdown starts, it won't stop." The village chief said calmly.

"What?!" The dye didn't fade at all.

Qiu An comforted her: "Don't worry, maybe we can find a way to disable the device."

Upon hearing this, Xinlong began to study the device. After searching for a while, she opened a secret button, and several wires of different colors were revealed to everyone.

The villagers handed over scissors, but they looked at the wires in deep thought.

They are singers, dancers and actors, not bomb disposal experts!

Seeing that there was only one minute left, Xinlong suddenly suggested, "Why don't we cut all the strings except the red one?"

Ranlong hit her on the head, furious: "You scored 600 points in the college entrance examination, but when the time comes, you can't handle it and you actually resort to superstition!"

Xinlong defended herself: "This isn't superstition! It's romance!"

Qiu An grasped the key point: "How do you know her college entrance examination score?"

"I'll check online—" Ranlong suddenly realized, "You damn village chief! Give me back my phone! Quick!"

After getting the phone, Ranlong opened the browser and searched for the word "bomb disposal". Sure enough, various methods of dismantling a bomb popped up.

The dazzling circuit diagram made Ranlong dizzy, and the nightmare of her middle school days came back to her.

She realized that this was probably the highlight moment prepared by the program team for Xinlong, so she gave up thinking and stuffed the bomb disposal tutorial into Xinlong's hands.

Thirty seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Ten seconds.

Xinlong finally placed the scissors on the electric wire.

"Are you sure? Are you sure it's this one? This is a scissors deal with a 600% chance of success!" Ranlong asked nervously, wrapping her fingers around Qiu An, as if the world was ending and this was their last second together.

"It's too late. If I made a mistake, you'll be buried with me—"

Click.

Xinlong cut the wires, the countdown stopped, and the explosion did not happen.

Yes, how could the production team plant a real bomb? Even if Xinlong made a mistake in editing, she would go back and edit the shot correctly.

But Ranlong was too immersed in the role, and the joy of surviving the disaster came like a tide, filling her wrinkled brain in an instant.

Everyone cheered, and she hugged Qiu An and kissed her hard on the face.

After the kiss, she was stunned.

Qiu An was also stunned for a moment, but quickly came to his senses and kissed Ranlong on the face again.

The NPCs were so immersed in the joyful performance that they couldn't extricate themselves. Xinran and Xinchi surrounded Xinlong and cheered and celebrated. Perhaps only the staff behind the camera noticed anything unusual.

But it doesn’t matter. Feeling the present moment and conveying the joy of every moment is what they should do most.

As for the rest, that is what Sister Hou should do.

Leaving the basement covered in dust and dirt, Ranlong asked Qiu An, "All the evidence we filmed has been deleted. Are they really going to let these people go just like that?"

Qiu An shook his head, took out the spare mobile phone hidden in his boots, showed Ranlong the recorded evidence, then decisively called the police and confessed to the arson.

The police arrived quickly and arrested Qiu An and a group of people led by the village chief.

Before Qiu An was taken away, Xiao Qiu's mother came and apologized to her and explained to her in a trance, repeating "life must go on" and "we must go on with our lives."

Qiu An looked at her calmly and got into the police car silently.

Just before the car door closed, Ranlong noticed that Qiu An nodded very lightly.

Not long after, several vans driven by media outlets, who knew from nowhere that they had gotten the news, rumbled in, kicking up a cloud of fallen leaves and dust. Braking, drifting, doors opening, reporters carrying cameras and microphones swarmed down like cockroaches.

The village chief's wife was in shock and tears over the arrest of the village chief and his son. The next second, she grabbed the microphone from the reporter and gave an inspiring speech to the camera, saying that she wanted to rebuild her home and create the most beautiful tourist town.

It was probably a task assigned by the Tourism Bureau. It was not enough for her to shout by herself, so she also called up the Heart-Stealing Girl and Ran Long and asked them to shout together.

The heart-stealing girl was quite adept at using the microphone, but Ranlong was so embarrassed that he wanted to crawl underground... Oh no, there were contraband raw materials and explosives underground...

So embarrassing, I really want to be captured together with Qiu An...

After the show was finished, they stayed in the studio to take some more promotional photos and post-interviews.

The post-interviews over the past few days were shot in one go. Perhaps because Qiu An’s role was quite special, she stayed in the room a little longer.

The heart-stealing girl had an announcement to attend in the evening, so she came over to say hello to her and said they would meet again when she returned to Beiji, then left. I don’t know if it was just a polite remark that she just listened to and let it go.

Variety shows are filmed and broadcast much faster than TV dramas. A season can be finished in a matter of days, and the show can air the following month after finishing one month's filming. Therefore, there are rarely grand opening ceremonies or wrap-up banquets. People gather to work, and then disperse when the work is done.

Such an easy meeting and separation made Ranlong feel empty inside.

Turning around, Qiu An came out after finishing the recording, squeezed her hand and said, "Let's go home."

She suddenly felt that she was too pretentious for being sad the second before.

"Well, let's go home."

At the end of the year, in addition to regular work, there are several more ceremonies and award ceremonies to attend, as well as preparations for several New Year's Eve parties.

As usual, Qiu An was busy flying around, but Ran Long had some free time.

She just returned to front-line work in the second half of this year. The TV series and movies she participated in either did not get released or did not become popular. Only the recently released "In the Name of Survival" received good responses. It is expected that she will be able to attend one or two ceremonies, but they will be in January or February next year.

Fortunately, many red carpet evening parties are concentrated in Beiji and Ducheng. Ranlong followed Qiu An to join in the fun, and they spent quite a bit of time together.

Just going in and out, it is inevitable to be photographed by passers-by and paparazzi.

The colleagues around them had more or less guessed their relationship, but there were many more bizarre combinations in the circle, so everyone was no longer surprised.

And the ignorant people in the forums are always asking, "What the hell is this RL busy with? There are so few announcements that appear in your sister Qiu's Reuters every day."

[I was clinging to Sister Qiu to ask for resources. I helped her out of good intentions, but she kept blaming me. Who can I turn to for justice?]

[It takes two to tango. Your sister won't let her stick around?]

"I'm going to slap you in the face and see if you make a sound. Sister Qiu, you're such a respectable person, are you really going to tear your face off with someone like you? Can't some people have some dignity? Can't they live without you?"

[The slap on your sister's face was pretty loud]

[Ahhhh, the tonic is so hellish upstairs! ! ! ]

Ranlong quietly exited the post, clicked the report button, filled in the reason as "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", and filled in the names of all the people who replied as the users involved.

Because he had been sticking close to Qiu An these days, Ran Long quickly noticed her subtle mood changes.

For example, after work, Qiu An often stood by the window and stared into the distance in a daze; for example, before going to bed afterwards, she often hesitated to speak for several times.

Ranlong knew what she was hesitating about.

Qiu An was hesitating whether to bring the relief she felt in the role of Xiao Qiu into reality.

I originally wanted to wait for Qiu An to figure it out and make her own decision, but Xixi suddenly contacted her and said that Qiu An's father had died and Qiu An's mother was not in good condition either.

"So suddenly? How did he die?"

"They said that years of bed rest had caused a blood clot to form in the pelvis, which was dislodged by walking around occasionally, leading to a pulmonary embolism. He died not long after."

"Oh, then why do you say that Qiu An's mother is not in good condition?"

"She lives alone now and only goes to the market to buy groceries every few days. She doesn't buy much each time, not even enough for her regular intake. She goes out more often, but she's gone to the river instead of the market, where she stands on the riverbank for a while before returning empty-handed. This didn't happen before Qiuan's father died."

"Who told you? Does Qiu An know about this?"

"I just found out. Sister Qiu An has arranged for someone else to visit her family every once in a while. But Sister Qiu An instructed, 'Unless Pei Chunlai dies or becomes seriously ill, don't report anything to me.' So they couldn't decide whether to tell Sister Qiu An, so they came to ask me first. I'm also undecided, so I can only ask you."

"I understand. Leave it to me." Ranlong nodded. "By the way, can you help me get the contact information of Qiu An's mother? Just tell her my name."

-

Qiu An discovered that Ranlong had a little secret that he was unwilling to share with her.

Ranlong would talk on the phone for a long time behind her back.

Sometimes she woke up in the middle of the night and saw Ranlong with his back to her. When Ranlong heard her get up, he would stop typing, lock the screen, and pretend to fall asleep.

The time she spent staring into the air became longer and longer, until it almost took up all of her rest time.

She had one more thing on her mind.

It seems that her Xiao Ran has fallen in love with someone else.

Is there something she didn't do well enough?

Is it because she lives too ordinary a life that Xiaoran no longer feels fresh?

So why not try some changes, like buying a set of sexy lingerie to try first?

But would this work? What if Xiao Ran really disliked her age? This would backfire.

That night, Ranlong was chatting with someone typing with his back to her. Qiu An pretended to sleep behind her, listening quietly to her fingers clacking on the screen, feeling a pang of pain in his heart.

When the conversation got to the exciting part, Ranlong suddenly sat up and covered his mouth with his hands, rejoicing for a long time.

The next day, Ranlong got up early. She seemed in a good mood and said to Qiu An with a smile on her face, "Baby, I have something urgent to do and I have to leave for two days. You should be alone for the next two days."

Ranlong can now call her "baby" without any burden.

But now, Ranlong doesn't really need her as a baby anymore.

Qiu And looked at Ran Long steadily, without saying a word for a long time, and shed two lines of tears.

She opened her mouth and choked up, "Xiao Ran, I don't want to be a burden to you. Let's break up."

The moist smile was frozen on her face like lard.