Captain: "…Justice will always triumph over evil!"
Young Master: "And then are you planning to charge forward shouting hot-blooded lines like 'companionship' and such?"
Captain: "No, what I mean is that Teacher Golden Hair isn't really evil. Look, Golden Hair is so cute, so why don't we just surrender?"
Young Master: "?"
He turned his head and looked at Chu Tingwu in the first-floor lobby.
A chandelier hung above her head, and at the moment, it seemed to be slightly swaying due to the pillow inside affecting its balance.
The pillow blocked part of the light, casting a large shadow on the ground, which also swayed… occasionally, Chu Tingwu's entire face was hidden in the shadow.
The two eyes visible under the mask, due to the shadow of the mask, looked like two black holes.
Young Master blinked: Just now, why did he feel that Chu Tingwu's eyes were glowing, like the eyes of a wolf in the dark, terrifying!
He glanced at the Captain: You call this cute?
Of course, the Captain wasn't really planning to surrender, but he was genuinely flustered by Chu Tingwu's moves.
Although he wasn't in the same group as Chu Tingwu during the performance, he knew that Chu Tingwu had excellent motor skills, but the production team seemed… not to know that.
They should have banned one of Chu Tingwu's hands and one of her feet! Or had her sit in a wheelchair the entire time. Otherwise, the Dog Team's advantage would be too big! This game's balance is terrible and will definitely… oh, it's just a one-time game in a variety show, so never mind.
As a participant in this one-time game, the Captain sighed helplessly—he certainly didn't really want to surrender, but clearly, to win the game, they had to find a way to completely deal with Chu Tingwu.
During the post-interview, he also said this to the camera.
When the episode aired, the production team inserted his post-interview video here:
Post-interview staff: "So, Teacher Qin, did you think of a way to limit Golden Hair at that time?"
Captain: "No, I was actually quite nervous at the time, but I thought about what the Captain would do in such a situation. Of course, he wouldn't give up—we haven't lost yet!"
Captain: "So, I thought of 'Tiger Head.'"
In this episode, because Three-Five-Five cosplayed as an orange cat, she lost her real name.
The Cat Team's main strategy to turn the tide against the Dog Team was to seize the guns, but the Captain felt that even without a gun, Chu Tingwu didn't seem like someone they could control—so he thought of another plan: locking the doors.
The rules of the entire building were very fair. The Dog Team actually controlled only the fifth floor and the elevator, while all other rooms were under the control of the Cat Team (provided they found the corresponding keys). During the time separated from Cheng Luwei, the Captain not only found a new key but also discovered two "hostages."
He muttered, "Where are Cheng Luwei and Shen Dazui… and Tong Bei, are they upstairs now?"
Young Master: "I'm too useless, I'm sorry."
At this point, the Captain didn't know the situation of the others, but because of the post-production editing, the production team maliciously cut to a few shots showing the audience what the other three mentioned were up to.
Tong Bei had completely sided with the Dog Team, successfully connecting with Pomeranian and enjoying snacks in the fifth-floor "laboratory," while watching Cheng Luwei do push-ups.
Shen Dazui, thanks to Three-Five-Five, had managed to stay alive, found a room on the third floor, successfully completed his slacking mission, and even discovered a hostage hidden under the conference table. But he didn't seem inclined to hand the hostage over to the Cat Team's police.
It seemed the Cat Team was completely "scattered like sand," with only the two police officers actually working.
[I'm touched…]
[Both Old Cheng and Captain Qin are really fitting their roles, genuinely thinking about how to escape with the hostages… justice will triumph over evil…]
[Now that you mention it, Little Qi and the pure street-wanderer Dazui also fit their roles—the scariest part is that they're not intentionally fitting them, that's just how they are!]
[What about Sister Tong, is she performing exceptionally?]
[She's successfully hugging the thigh!]
The shots switching between the three humans disappeared, and then, the camera showed a large cat moving swiftly and agilely—
The camera was focused on the face of the long-haired calico cat, and although she was wearing an orange cat headpiece, it looked quite funny, but from this angle, she even appeared serious and reliable.
Three-Five-Five was indeed very reliable.
Now, the camera split into two, one half showing her and the other half showing the Captain and Young Master. The next second, Three-Five-Five jumped onto a radiator, pried out a one-time use key from the middle.
The cat disdainfully lowered her head, bit the key, turned her head, and trotted a few steps, then fished out another key from a pipe in the workroom.
[It's Shen Dazui and Tong Bei's keys!]
…Although the cat didn't want to find the keys for them, that didn't mean the cat mom couldn't find them.
Because as long as they had been gripped, the keys would leave a scent, and after getting used to the smell in the building, Three-Five-Five gradually could locate these keys.
She wasn't sure exactly what they were for, but giving them to those people should be the right move.
The only problem was that the cat couldn't carry so many.
The audience was even more anxious than the cat, because actually, Three-Five-Five found more than just these… luckily, the Captain, although unable to find his teammates, remembered they still had a cat teammate (the big leg).
The Captain, dragging the useless Young Master, called out "meow meow" as they searched floor by floor—
Soon, they encountered the French Bulldog and the Chihuahua who had come down to forage.
French Bulldog & Chihuahua: "…"
Captain & Young Master: "…"
Both sides were a strong one leading a weak one. The French Bulldog was the one-meter-ninety-five muscle man, and the Captain, looking at himself, was well aware of his own combat abilities.
Young Master stepped back nervously: "What do we do?"
Captain: "Have you heard the story of… Tian Ji's horse race? Let the top horse beat the middle horse, the middle horse beat the bottom horse, only our bottom horse has to face the top horse."
Young Master: "?"
Captain: "Go, bottom horse."
Young Master: "!?"
You're not going to make me stall Brother Lin, are you!
Brother Lin hitting me with one punch might make me kneel on the ground crying, begging not to die!
[I'm dying laughing at Qi's expression, it's really rich… don't worry, you're just recording a show, not really meeting enemies, the production team will definitely call an ambulance for you.]
[I feel like everyone is really immersed in the game. It's said that this shoot was done entirely with drones, no photographers following, so everyone would be more immersed, right?]
Actually, I feel Captain Qin's words make sense. The whole building only has five sensor guns, whoever has the sensor guns controls the world. As long as he can grab the sensor guns, their advantage will increase.
Captain Qin also said this during the post-interview.
But the other side isn't following his script!
The two sides chased and fought each other, quickly turning into a chaotic battle, then scattered. Captain Qin had to face the one-meter-ninety-five giant, feeling extremely bitter inside, while Young Master thought the French Bulldog was chasing him, so he didn't chase the Chihuahua and ran straight upstairs.
The Chihuahua, ignored by both sides: "?"
Being short has this effect?
Then, Young Master bumped into Three-Five-Five.
Seeing the cat in front of him, he didn't realize at first that this was his team's "teammate." Under the influence of adrenaline, he—
directly did a hurdle over the cat's head.
On the first floor, Chu Tingwu looked up at that moment: "?"
Why did it sound like Three-Five-Five's voice? Was mom scolding someone?
-
Upstairs, the calico jumped onto Young Master's shoulder, raised her front paws, and "thumped thumped thumped" on his head.
Young Master: "Ow."
Between "fighting the cat in front of the camera and losing completely" and "enduring," he chose the option with fewer words.
Then Three-Five-Five led him to the key storage spot.
The keys that the humans had been searching for in vain were casually piled up like trash.
Program Team: "=="
There are all four types of keys here! Captain Qin's plan might actually work!
...But here's the problem: who's going to lock Chu Tingwu up?
The room door can naturally be opened from the inside, but once closed, the one-time key becomes invalid. However, the person inside can always open the door and come out... This is probably to prevent teammates from completely trapping each other in the room, which would leave the victim with no role in the show.
But the Captain had previously discovered a hidden rule—after closing the door, using a corresponding key could lock the room for half an hour.
Young Master counted the keys the cat gave him and fell silent:
Among the various keys here, two were exclusively his, three were universal keys, and the rest only had one each.
This means that even if the Captain arrives, theoretically, only he can open and lock the room.
The audience was also shocked—
The task of saving the world has fallen on the most insignificant waste (literally "waste") in the team, and he only has a cat as his helper.
[You guys are really making Golden Retriever look like the big villain...]
[Isn't that the case? This is the evil villain group determined to turn everyone into dogs! But now, five unlucky souls have been captured, and the useless guy who just wants to escape the experimental building has gotten the keys to save the world—everyone, cry, it's so touching, no matter what choice Xiao Qi makes, I support him!]
[Xiao Qi looks like he's about to cry!]
Young Master was still hesitating when Three-Five-Five had already made the decision for him.
Of course, the tabby cat was just going downstairs to find Chu Tingwu, but Young Master subconsciously followed.
Then he witnessed a chase between a human and a cat!
The human had a gun, but it was useless against the cat. The cat had no weapons, but it could chase the human all over the place.
Not only that, they were—
Chu Tingwu: "Meow meow meow! Meow~"
Three-Five-Five: "Meow!"
It seemed like they were even arguing?
But this had nothing to do with Young Master, because he was also running. When he saw Chu Tingwu coming, he instinctively ran, and then it turned into a situation where he was running in front, Chu Tingwu was chasing behind, and Three-Five-Five was chasing at the end.
Young Master spotted his own door (with a different frame color) in front, pulled out the key, and swiped it. As soon as the door opened, he darted in, and the next second, someone else squeezed in and closed the door from behind.
Young Master: "?"
Three-Five-Five: "..."
The Captain, who had finally escaped and run over, exclaimed: "What?!"
He encouraged Young Master through the glass wall with his eyes.
Young Master: My eyes have died.
Indeed, the villain was locked up.
But now I'm locked in the same cage with them!
Chu Tingwu herself was very calm. After glancing at him, she looked at the key around her neck, and then didn't even bother to pull out her gun.
Young Master: "..."
He slowly backed away, approaching the door, but Chu Tingwu drew her gun at that moment.
At the Chang household watching the show—
Chang Yixin: "He probably wanted to go out and lock the door, right?"
Chang Yile: "But Chu Chu thought he was going to let Three-Five-Five in."
Their thoughts didn't align at all!
The next second, Young Master, still in shock, darted out and was about to lock the door when he saw—
Chu Tingwu leaped up, grabbed the edge of the top vent, and silently climbed out.
Three-Five-Five: "Meow..."
Young Master & Captain: ...It seems we locked nothing.
-
This cat-and-dog battle lasted over four hours, and in the end, the dog team emerged victorious.
Of course, the four-hour battle was ultimately cut down to an hour and a half for the show, with an hour and a half of ads inserted in the middle. Because the ads were so watered down, the program seemed particularly short and concise.
The dog team won as a group because they ultimately did not leak the secret of the experimental building—
Two police officers died in the building, the street punk also vanished without a trace, turned into a dog, and Young Master now wanders the building every day.
Only the heartless office worker managed to escape, but he has to keep the secret buried in his heart day and night.
Tong Bei: "Oh dear, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to survive. My character just has a rule that if three people die at the same time, I automatically win."
So blame your lack of skill, okay?
Cheng Luwei: "..."
Sister Tong, since you took my head, pay the head fee.
Of course, in reality, four hours was enough for everyone to revive several times. And because both sides had slackers, simpletons, and unlucky wastes (literally "waste") dragging them down, the whole variety show felt very back-and-forth—as long as they didn't run into Chu Tingwu.
And Chu Tingwu, it seemed, wasn't really playing seriously.
During the follow-up interview, she pressed a hand against the mask on her face: "Ah?"
"I was going easy."
After all, it's a show, not really becoming a "crazy experimenter." And Chu Tingwu herself actually hoped the cat team could win, so she really was playing easy—
Every time she saw Three-Five-Five, she would run, trying to give the cat mom a fun gaming experience.
When she was bored, she would hang outside the building to get some fresh air, handing over her tasks to the cat team's underlings she had developed, letting Sister Tong Bei go and mess with her original teammates.
After dragging the hostage to the chandelier, giving the cat team's main force a big headache, Chu Tingwu slacked off even more—because she felt her task was overachieved and her contribution value was definitely enough, so she focused on randomly appearing to scare people.
When she appeared in Shen Dazui's room... Shen Dazui: "I surrender, I surrender!"
Please don't climb through the windows anymore!
Shen Dazui thought he was safe in the room, only considering the possibility of Tong Bei using a universal key to open the door, so he kept an eye on the door... but then, in the empty room, someone suddenly tapped his shoulder from behind: "Give me the hostage?"
Shen Dazui: "Ah!!!"
Better surrender... that vent is too high, I can't close it!
Chu Tingwu: "..."
She spread her hands: This is what it feels like to be invincible.
In the end, Shen Dazui, who had surrendered voluntarily, also lost his not-so-precious life, and the game concluded with an almost total wipeout in a dark ending.
The program team hesitated for a moment but decided to keep this ending.
The variety show "No One Survives" is originally sold on the premise of "reality," although there is a script, they only roughly arrange it and pre-allocate the strengths of both sides to ensure the ending is as expected... but even so, there are often unexpected turns.
This time, both sides could have won, but the program team didn't expect the dog team to win so overwhelmingly.
During this period, apart from Chu Tingwu, who was the highest scorer but removed, the most outstanding performances came from Tong Bei and Three-Five-Five.
During the game, Tong Bei actually perfected her assigned character, showing the complexity of the character. And Three-Five-Five grew stronger as the battle went on, from finding objects to finding people, and eventually seemed to understand their rules, recognizing everyone's positions and starting to help them resist the evil dog team.
If it weren't for the Golden Retriever in the dog team being too strong, the cat team might have succeeded in a counter-kill.
The show aired early, and after it ended, it sparked discussions online—
The focus of the discussion was: In the movie "Tiger Head," was the owner of the tabby cat, who appeared at the very end, actually a mastermind behind the scenes?
Seeing the topic online, Chu Tingwu: "...?
The owner of the tabby cat... isn't that the role I guest-starred in?
In this variety show episode, although she never revealed her face (because Shen Dazui couldn't take off her mask), her identity was almost obvious.
Because the program team was also very clever, labeling Chu Tingwu as "Special Guest Chu Laoshi (Teacher Chu)."
After the show aired, most viewers knew that the main antagonist in the program was her, the core figure of the dog team, and the spokesperson for the phrase "Not all golden retrievers are angels" ... After the show boosted the film's popularity, people discovered that the owner of Three-Five-Five in the movie was the same person in real life, so they began to project the image from the show onto the movie.
Fan: "Actually, this episode of 'No One Survives' can really be seen as a fan-made sequel to the 'Tiger Head' movie. Everyone played their own roles—the police didn't win in the end, but rather met their demise at the hands of the killer; the cat tried very hard, but the power of a cat was still insufficient; Young Master was naive and didn't help at all, and his death didn't leave any ripple; the office worker received help from the cat, but their real-life situation didn't improve, so to survive, they ended up siding with the antagonist, and finally, guilt-ridden, they survived alone."
Fan: "As for this big-mouthed street punk... who is he? He's just an extra, right? Don't pay attention to him!"
Shen Dazui, the big-mouthed himself: "Hey!"
The fans enthusiastically assigned roles and even created a more complete story setting—the orange cat had actually sacrificed itself, but its friend, the tortoiseshell cat, inherited its will and, to save the orange cat's comrades, entered the dangerous building, though in the end, it didn't help at all and left the building to become a stray cat leader.
In short, they were hurting themselves so much that tears flowed.
So, when it came to assigning roles to Chu Tingwu, due to her early contributions, everyone thought she was the core mastermind of the antagonist organization, but her later laziness made her seem like she was trying to hide in the background... Combined with the character arrangement in the movie.
A fan tagged Director Mu Lou: "Director, will Chu Tingwu's mastermind identity be revealed in the second movie!?"
Mu Lou: "Maybe."
She stayed in the hospital for two days, missing the latest buzz, and started cramming, but after watching, she had only six points to make:
Chu Tingwu's faceless extra role was nowhere near being a mastermind!
However, if they made a second movie, they could give her an "unwitting big shot" identity... After watching the show, Mu Lou gained a lot of inspiration: a cat that is a big shot outside but a house cat at home, and a seemingly ordinary student who is actually a versatile combat genius but unaware of her talents, joining the main cast and taking on the combat role—isn't that a perfect fit?
She was bursting with inspiration, even though the script for the second movie hadn't been written yet, but she had already contacted Chu Tingwu in advance to ask when she would have free time, such as during the summer vacation—
Chu Tingwu: "Even the summer vacation of sophomore year won't work."
Because she had joined the competition class, and the summer vacation might involve attending a summer camp.
When the new semester started at No. 5 Middle School, the top students in the class were transferred to the competition class, which now had forty-five students, but based on the teachers' experience, only about thirty would remain in the end.
Chu Tingwu had a question mark written next to her name.
In the end, after a series of meetings, the teachers decided to let her be free—
Study if you want, come if you want, take the exams if you want.
It wasn't because they were irresponsible, but because they realized that no one could predict this child's future: she might choose to follow the conventional path of education, or she could join the entertainment industry and make a fortune, becoming a success in worldly terms, or she might chase after wolves, or suddenly register as a professional athlete and get into a top school through sports.
"After all, it's Chu Tingwu."
So, let her do what she wants, and she can freely decide the life she wants.
And Chu Tingwu didn't think she hated biology.
After the official start of the semester, although she was teased by some teachers and classmates about the movie and show, she was still very serious about her studies, not being late or leaving early, and not taking leave during evening self-study.
... Even the competition teacher breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course, leave wasn't completely zero, as they still had to recruit reliable new members from the freshmen for the club, transferring the review work to the junior students.
Tang Zhe sighed: "We've actually become seniors too..."
It felt a bit strange.
Although they were no longer in the same class, everyone was still quite familiar, thanks to Chang Yile, who was in the same class as a bridge. On the evening of the club recruitment day, the eight of them rarely stood in a row on the corridor of the comprehensive building, eating ice cream bought by the person who lost the rock-paper-scissors game.
However, during the entire recruitment period, they didn't find any reliable freshmen.
The reliable seniors of the sophomore year exclaim: "Why could we start a club when we were freshmen, but they can't even patiently make a chart?"
Looking back now, they decided to start a club, take over the school's natural museum, and give the small animals a stable place to live... it had already been a full year.
And in this year, the animals had been adopted, the fixed live broadcast brought relatively stable income to the natural museum, and even the official account could take ads. However, the work was too cumbersome, and the hired employees weren't suitable for operating the account, so everyone was about to let go.
Chu Tingwu went to take a look at Blue Egg.
The more than one-year-old peacock was no longer the awkward creature it once was. It landed on the bird stand in the avian pavilion, its long tail feathers trailing behind it. When it saw Chu Tingwu, it gave a soft cry—
Egg opened its wings and flew down from the bird stand, gliding in mid-air, lightly flapping its wings, and actually flew up a bit, landing on a new platform.
The human and the bird looked at each other through the glass, and Chu Tingwu suddenly realized: the last time she taught this little peacock to fly was more than half a year ago.
Compared to humans, the life of an animal is shorter and more pure.
Although they didn't recruit new club members, the next day, their official account recruited a new employee named Cheng Cai, a young person whose thoughts were very aligned with the content of the official account.
Chu Tingwu: Then I should be able to focus on my studies.
She breathed a sigh of relief and told the system: "Reject all recent business collaborations."
She really had a lot to do.
Let the system reject them all.
-
Mu Lou: "She's probably busy?"
The director on the other end of the phone watched the show and was very interested in Chu Tingwu, hoping she would participate in their planned extreme sports-themed variety show, but was rejected by Chu Tingwu's agent.
Mu Lou: She has an agent?
The other side asked for help, so she also tried to contact Chu Tingwu on their behalf, but was still politely declined.
—Even though the director's name was very famous, and they invited Chu Tingwu to be a fixed guest on the show, even planning to build the show around her... this high school student didn't want to take leave.
The director felt very regretful and still wanted to try again:
"We'll invite many extreme athletes, and each episode will experience one extreme sport. She can be a fixed guest, and I really see potential in her athletic talent... she will definitely be remembered by the audience!"
Mu Lou: "I think that in a few years, she might become the guest you want to invite, not a fixed guest."
Director: "?"
Director: "But this child hasn't had any systematic training, right? She's only been exposed to extreme sports for a year... hey, was it also difficult to invite her for the movie? Was she rejected before? How did you succeed?"
Mu Lou recalled.
Mu Lou: "Because I rented a house with mice."
Director: "???"
Don't tell me, why are you lying?
Having mice can get someone to come over? Is Chu Tingwu a cat?
