Chapter 30: A Group of Kind People
Today was still sunny.
Li Teng was starving to the extreme, his vision blurred.
He had waited all morning, but the helicopter from Film and Television City didn't come to pick him up.
Having been in the sun all morning, by noon, he was incredibly thirsty again.
Li Teng crawled under the bed, wrung out the blanket that had been soaked by melting snow and still wasn't dry, caught the drops with his mouth — only a few stinking drops came out.
Unfortunately, there were only a few drops.
He hoped the helicopter would come in the afternoon.
If it didn't come, he really wouldn't be able to hold on any longer.
Would he have to drink urine in the future?
But he had no container to store it!
Would he have to hold it in his hands?
He waited from noon until the sun set in the west.
Li Teng never saw the helicopter arrive.
It seemed that between the two performances, the three to five days this time weren't the minimum of three days — it could be four days, or even five days.
Of course, it could also be a week.
It shouldn't be a week, should it?
If it really came to a week, wouldn't all the actors die of hunger or thirst at the top of the pillar? How would that benefit Film and Television City?
That said, what Film and Television City was doing was strange anyway.
Why did they place these people on top of pillars and then force them to make films?
Who was this film being made for?
Li Teng's resentment started to build again.
But soon, he didn't have the energy to stay angry.
Better save some energy for tomorrow's helicopter.
Tomorrow, the helicopter would definitely come.
Believing that everything would get better tomorrow.
With that beautiful wish, Li Teng placed the still-damp mattress on the bed, covered himself with the tattered blanket, curled up, and slept.
...
Today was still sunny.
Today, there were strange winds blowing erratically from left to right, and sometimes the wind would suddenly become very strong.
Extreme hunger and thirst again pushed Li Teng's body to the brink of collapse.
He became so weak that he lay in bed, not wanting to move at all.
He vividly remembered the last time he had been on a helicopter.
Inside the helicopter, there was a box with bread, biscuits, and drinks.
Li Teng strongly suspected that these were not ordinary bread, biscuits, and drinks, but possibly high-tech nutritional supplements.
Otherwise, given his weak condition at that time, it would have been impossible for him to have slept for a few hours in the helicopter, only having eaten bread and biscuits, and arrive at Film and Television City almost normal.
Perhaps, this weakness was just some kind of illusion?
These actors, as long as they didn't jump off the pillars on their own, wouldn't actually starve or die of thirst?
Of course, all this was just Li Teng's speculation or, rather, his beautiful wish.
But it also became the only motivation and belief supporting him to keep going.
...
It was noon, and the shadow of the helicopter was still nowhere in sight.
The noontime sun made Li Teng somewhat delirious.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed that something was blocking the sunlight.
Li Teng hurriedly glanced towards the sun, and then…
He had actually discovered a hot air balloon! Floating at an altitude of over 1,100 meters, it was passing just above Li Teng's head, momentarily blocking the sunlight reaching him.
Moreover, it seemed to be slowly descending.
"Hey! I'm over here!" Li Teng shouted with all his might at the hot air balloon.
Soon, Li Teng gave up shouting.
Because, it seemed like the hot air balloon was headed straight for him!
Could it be that his return to Film and Television City wasn't by helicopter but by hot air balloon instead?
That seemed unlikely, right? A hot air balloon can't fly in a specific direction; it can only control its direction by ascending or descending to catch different air currents at different altitudes.
It was almost impossible to approach a specific place at a constant altitude if the wind direction was wrong.
However, Li Teng was in luck, the hot air balloon descended to a height almost level with the top of the pillar, then approached it driven by the wind direction!
Li Teng could clearly see that there were people in the basket of the hot air balloon!
There seemed to be at least five or six people!
They also saw Li Teng and someone was waving at him from afar.
"Save me!"
"I'm trapped! Save me!"
Li Teng quickly waved back at them.
They didn't seem to be from Film and Television City, does this mean they could rescue him and take him back to his original world?
Li Teng's heart beat chaotically, filled with the desire to be saved, yet he feared hoping too much, only to be met with deeper disappointment.
The wind didn't let Li Teng down and continued to blow the hot air balloon closer to the pillar.
Just as the basket under the hot air balloon was about to approach the edge of the pillar, a gust of strong wind blew, carrying the hot air balloon away toward the side farther from the pillar.
Unfortunately, the hot air balloon eventually glided past about a dozen meters away from the side of the pillar.
There was nothing the balloon operator could do about the situation, as he could only control the balloon's ascent and descent. Stopping right beside the pillar to save Li Teng required extremely fortuitous wind direction, a very low-probability scenario dependant on luck.
When the basket under the hot air balloon was gliding past a dozen meters away from the pillar, Li Teng saw a person holding a bottle of mineral water drinking it. Li Teng quickly mimed a drinking motion and pointed to his extremely dry mouth, hoping the person would throw a bottle of water to him.
For Li Teng at that moment, a bottle of water was as good as his life.
The person saw Li Teng's gesture and apparently understood his intentions, quickly grabbed an unopened bottle of mineral water, and threw it toward the top of the pillar where Li Teng was.
Unfortunately, the throw wasn't strong enough.
From a dozen meters away and in mid-air, tossing a bottle of water to land precisely on the narrow top of the pillar was too difficult.
A bottle of mineral water, invaluable to Li Teng, tragically fell three or four meters in front of him and dropped below the pillar.
The person who threw the water bottle spread his hands in a gesture of regret and shouted something toward Li Teng.
Perhaps due to the wind, Li Teng couldn't hear clearly what he was shouting.
Just as Li Teng was bitterly watching the hot air balloon drift away, thinking he had missed this precious chance for rescue, the wind near the pillar changed again.
The hot air balloon, assisted by the wind, once again moved closer to the pillar.
This time after approaching, another man in the basket tied a bottle of mineral water to a rope and threw it over to Li Teng.
It seemed they were a group of kind people who, upon discovering Li Teng, were indeed earnestly trying to rescue him.
The rope was somewhat thick, with a thin rope tied to the front, which bound the bottle of mineral water.
The first two attempts had not succeeded in reaching him, but fortunately, since the water bottle was tied with a rope, it didn't fall below the pillar.
Finally, on the third attempt, the water bottle was successfully thrown to the top of the pillar and caught by Li Teng.
Li Teng quickly untied the water bottle from the thin rope, grabbed onto the rope, but didn't hold too tightly, worried that if the wind direction changed and the hot air balloon suddenly moved away from the pillar, it might drag him down with it.
The basket continued to sway left and right near the pillar, as the man who had thrown the rope shouted and gestured with his hands, apparently instructing Li Teng to find a way to secure the rope to the top of the pillar so that they could slowly approach and rescue him into their basket.
Li Teng... thought the same.
But where to secure the rope?
The only possibility was on the bed legs.
However, Li Teng was not very confident about the strength of the bed legs.
The pull from the wind-driven hot air balloon was enormous and could easily snap that bed leg.
Li Teng had another idea to save himself.