"Bluffing the Boss, Laughing with the Crowd."

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Lily was cracking up, and Nick was laughing while jotting things down. Kyle and Mia repeated a bit twice and totally clicked with the audience—they were laughing along in no time!

Kyle kept going, tapping his fingers for emphasis:

"To show our respect for knowledge, to honor intellectuals, to further promote scientific literacy~ and~ public education, and to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian physiologist—Pavlov~"

Mia squinted and said, "Man, so many reasons! At first glance, they almost sound legit—like you can't even argue with them~"

Kyle nodded with a straight face:

"So, we've decided to hold a grand commemoration event at Per Se Reataurant. Budget planning... hmm, how much is ten ducks?"

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Wait, how many did you say? I didn't catch that~"

Kyle counted on his fingers, "One, two, three... ten!"

Mia gave him a once-over. "There's four of you. You really gonna eat ten ducks?"

Kyle hesitated, then replied, "We can't finish them all~ but we'll take the leftovers home!"

"Ohhh, take the leftovers home—so this is what that phrase was made for!"

Lily laughed knowingly, and a lot of the audience was cracking up at the goofy delivery.

But Nick felt like that line wasn't really that funny—it just reinforced Kyle's image as a corrupt bureaucrat.

After the first big laugh, four more little funny moments followed. Which could only mean... the next big laugh was just around the corner!

Nick found himself eagerly waiting for it.

Mia counted on her fingers: "That's easy math—350 bucks per duck, ten ducks, 3,500 yuan."

Kyle nodded: "Add 400 yuan for alcohol, 20 for the sterilized tableware~"

Mia gave him another side-eye: "You're drinking 400 yuan worth of booze?"

Kyle looked a bit sheepish: "Hey, I just like good wine... just a little indulgence."

Mia tallied it up: "That's 3,920 yuan."

Kyle kept his official tone: "Budget: 3,920 yuan. On the dot!"

Mia scoffed: "Pfft. You're already at that number—why not just round it to 4,000?"

Kyle got all serious:

"No! We must not waste the nation's money. Every penny counts!"

"Pffffft~ I'm done! How did he even manage to say that with a straight face?!"

The crowd lost it. People were literally falling over laughing.

Nick was slapping his thigh, and Lily stretched her neck like a goose, craning to see better.

"You shameless clown! Acting all righteous saying 'every penny counts'?"

"Man's got no shame—invincible! All the good lines are his now!"

Viewers watching at home were losing it too. This kind of bold satire of officials? First time for many!

No one could tell if they were laughing because it was hilarious or because it hit too close to home.

"This is like fudging grades—don't dare fake 100 points, only 60-70. So fake it's real!"

"Wait… maybe I do have potential to be a leader?"

The applause wouldn't stop. Even one of the cameramen was struggling, the camera shaking from his laughter.

"Switch the shot! Don't let the screen shake!"

The director barked into the walkie-talkie, scrambling to keep it together.

Meanwhile, Matt's face was as pale as a ghost. He couldn't believe it.

"What's so wrong about officials needing a bit of nourishment?"

"Is eating sea cucumber a crime now?"

"The food's there to be eaten, isn't it?"

He fumed silently, convinced these performers were just smearing the hard work of officials like him.

Matt was boiling—he wanted to throw the mic at Kyle, but unfortunately, it was bolted to the table.

The laughter in the hall only died down after a while.

Everyone in the crowd might not have personally experienced this kind of sneaky, "official" expense-writing, but they've definitely seen or heard of it before.

When the applause finally faded, the skit continued.

Mia, clearly annoyed, said:

"Seriously? He actually said that out loud! I mean, do you think a higher-up would ever approve that roast duck report?"

Kyle picked at his teeth:

"Well, the duck was really good that day."

Mia shook her head:

"So the report did get approved, huh? But it's obvious you just tricked your boss with that!"

Kyle, like it was the most natural thing in the world:

"Sometimes you gotta bluff your superiors a little~ Hmm?! But you guys better not bluff me, okay?"

Mia looked at him with mock sympathy:

"Wow, all your brainpower's been used on little schemes like this, huh?"

"So, you used public funds, made up fake reasons, feasted on roast duck—nobody called you out?"

Kyle sighed:

"Well... unfortunately, some sneaky snitch in the crowd got the higher-ups involved. We got investigated. They even made me do a public self-criticism!"

Mia clapped back:

"Serves you right! I can't wait to see how you explain this to the public!"

Kyle suddenly got real serious:

"Comrades! Masters! Dear masters~! Esteemed comrades! Respected lea~ders!"

Audience (in sync):

"Colon!"

Seat 5, Row 16—Tony yelled out the colon with joy, totally unbothered. She genuinely found this hilarious.

There were no forced jokes, no over-the-top acting, no characters pretending to be saints, and no annoying, unreasonable ones either.

It was just like two people chatting—and naturally, some funny stuff popped up along the way.

If Nick were analyzing it, he'd tell Tony this was next-level comedy. It's all about immersion.

Lots of things these days talk about "immersion"—games, movies, music...

But comedy? That's hard. Because comedy's goal is to make people laugh—and the go-to way to do that is exaggeration.

Exaggerated body language, exaggerated voices, over-the-top performances.

But exaggeration breaks immersion—it separates the audience from the performer.

Kyle and Mia's performance, though? It built slowly, stayed grounded in reality. The jokes weren't non-stop, but they hit deep, and they made it easy to relate. They took something small and made it big.

Mia looked at the crowd, surprised:

"Wow, you really pulled them all in~"

Kyle puffed out his chest:

"Everyone, please welcome me~ to give a self-criticism~"

Mia tugged his sleeve:

"Hey, hey~ it's not welcome. You were ordered to give a self-criticism~"

Kyle ignored her and went on:

"Self-criticism is fine. As officials, when we make mistakes, we have to admit them. Mistakes happen. Some are just misunderstandings that need a little explanation~"

Mia rolled her eyes:

"Oh I must hear how you explain eating roast duck. I mean—ahem—explain, not excuse!"

Kyle looked heavy-hearted:

"That day marked the 150th anniversary of Pavlov's birth~ and we didn't even drink the first glass of wine~"

Mia was surprised:

"Didn't drink? Doesn't look like it! Your face is red~"

Kyle, looking hurt:

"The first glass... we poured it on the ground~ to express our grief. We were mourning the loss of such a great scientist... boohoo~"

Mia gave him a full-on sarcastic face:

"Wow. You can act, huh? Feeling sad now, are we?"

Kyle continued solemnly:

"Many comrades at the table even shed tears... sniff sniff... I mean... drool~"

"Pffft—so they were just drooling?! Hahahaha! You really have no sense of dignity!"

"Honoring a scientist's 150th birthday... and you're out here drooling over food? LOL~"

"Honestly though, ten roast ducks on the table? Who wouldn't drool?"

Even Nick didn't expect that punchline—he burst into applause. That was a surprise twist!

The rhythm was totally different from earlier. This must be the wrap-up of the skit!

Lily was covering her mouth, her shoulders bouncing as she laughed silently.

"What the heck? That speech was getting emotional—then BAM, drool?!"

Meanwhile, Matt looked on with disdain:

"Tsk. They're running out of tricks—relying on dumb jokes now. And I was worried about them moving up? What a waste of energy~"

At that moment, he finally relaxed.

"....."