Idol Chapter 126

“This lamp has been in water, hasn’t it?”

“It fell into a pot once, but I fished it out pretty quickly?”

“…Why would the lamp fall into a pot???”

“There was a heavy rain, probably last night. We were hanging the lamp and moving stuff, and it got wet,” Xie Lianyun explained seriously. “Do you think this lamp can be replicated?”

“Wait, should I make you a smaller one? How about turning it into a keychain? This way, it’ll also use less power.” The class monitor continued to type away at his program, his typing speed matching that of the dean’s. “You’ll have to wait a few minutes… I’m missing a few small materials.”

Knowing their identities were special and not to be disclosed, the class monitor made sure to close the laboratory door securely and even offered them a couple of cans of soda as a courtesy.

Two and a half hours later, Long Jia boarded the car with a newly replaced battery panel for the distance lamp, while Xie Lianyun held a bunch of Pikachu keychains.

Before starting the car, Long Jia gave the keychains an extra look, “If a tracker comes, will these Pikachus emit red light?”

“And they also come with vibration,” Xie Lianyun said with satisfaction. “This kid has a bright future ahead.”

As they drove back to the old district, Xie Lianyun felt increasingly worried.

At first, he kept quiet, but as they got closer, he became more restless.

Long Jia hummed along to “Drunk Baby” with the car radio and only glanced at him after a while, “Annoyed?”

“Aren’t you worried?” Xie Lianyun looked at him at a red light. “What if we go back and find that all four of them have been caught? I need to mentally prepare myself in advance, right?”

What if the four of them were frantically escaping, and the warehouse had already been taken over by trackers?

What if they had moved to a different location in a hurry and hadn’t managed to leave a mark or explanation, and from then on, they were scattered to the winds?

“Ren Ren is leading them; he won’t make a mistake,” Long Jia rhythmically tapped on the steering wheel.

“It’s not a matter of trust,” Xie Lianyun corrected. “I’m just anxious by habit. As a teammate, you should comfort me a bit.”

“I did comfort you, didn’t I?”

“…Long Jia, don’t you know how to console someone?”

“?”

As their business van approached the warehouse, it paused for about ten seconds at a small square on the corner.

Elderly men and women passionately danced to “Nightclub Wolf” with big red fans, vigorous and lively.

Xie Lianyun peeked at the little goldfish grass statue next to the steps, and from a distance, he saw a pure black bow tied on its left wrist and a small crown made from a menu placed on its head, heaving a sigh of relief, “Ren Ren says they’re safe, and the new hideout has been fully upgraded.”

Long Jia nodded and drove the car back to the supply point.

The warehouse had fewer items, likely moved to a safe location.

With a security guard patrolling nearby, they quickly took the essentials. Turning around, they saw a small snowman made of paper balls on the dining table.

A spark went through Xie Lianyun’s mind. Using the light, he unfolded the two paper balls and found a simple message written in French by Chi Ji.

“They’ve gone, restaurant,” Xie Lianyun’s translation was choppy, “the boss, second floor, address is…”

Long Jia looked down, “Turn left out of the yard, walk straight for five hundred meters into the commercial street, pass eight shops, there’s a small alley diagonally across, find a western restaurant there, they’ve already taken over the place.”

Xie Lianyun was surprised, “I thought you were brushing up on German?”

Long Jia raised an eyebrow, “Mr. Bo is fluent in French; I couldn’t show any weakness.”

Meanwhile, the tracking team was also conducting a thorough investigation.

The team recruited by the show included retired detectives, micro-expression experts, psychologists, and intelligence experts.

Corona clearly had a highly decisive and insightful leader, who completely abandoned all electronic devices at the start of the game and disguised all traces of their activities, making the search increasingly difficult.

Ordinary participants would likely have revealed their location or escape strategies by contacting friends and family due to a lack of resolve.

—In a dangerous environment, they are easily captured by insecurity, needing more emotional support and psychological comfort.

However, the tracking team found four torn-up escape plans in the trash bin of a hotel room and backup escape route encryption files in the agent’s email.

All. Of. Them. Were. Fake.

Someone’s counter-surveillance measures were so extreme that it actually spurred the tracking team’s competitiveness.

They decided to approach from a more professional angle—relationships.

Besides the relationships with friends and family that stars have, which can be monitored, the close relationships they maintain with their omnipresent fans could also be leveraged.

Since their close friends and family hadn’t been in contact or offered help, could it be that they sought assistance from the fans themselves?

“In this era of social media, according to my research, fans are keen to post about their encounters with idols. The program team is already writing web crawlers and real-time filtering programs,” said the leader of the tracking team seriously. “We need to disguise ourselves and infiltrate them.”

Thus, a new account named @A-Xiaorou quickly came online.

@A-Xiaorou: Saw Brother Huo Ren on the streets of Lin Du, looks like he’s filming a show [heart][heart]. Sneakily took a few pics, wonder where I could bump into him again [image].

This fan account, with only sixty or seventy followers, quickly caught other people’s attention.

After all, the post mentioned Huo Ren and even posted what seemed to be the latest candid photos, making it hard not to notice.

Within a few minutes, the account received a private message.

@EmeraldBlei: Miss, you must have recently started liking Crown, right? Did you take this photo yourself?

Three or four people gathered around the computer, quickly selecting the right words to probe further.

@A-Xiaorou: Yes, he really looked so handsome. I wish I knew where they would go next, it would be great to take more photos of him.

This sister Emerald didn’t seem aggressive, patiently and meticulously starting to explain the rules to her.

“Miss, please don’t post such candid shots randomly, it can disrupt the program team’s secrecy.”

“If you happen to take photos of the Crown boys, you can give them to the site’s sister for editing and color correction. Thank you for supporting the brothers’ work.”

The person responsible for the conversation faintly felt that this approach wouldn’t extract any information and decided to bait her with new material.

@A-Xiaorou: Actually… I’ve taken a very close photo of Brother Huo Ren. If you exchange information with me, I can secretly tell you which hotel they’re staying at. If you go now, you might still see them~

After saying this, she sent a very close photo, one taken before the program started, showing Huo Ren attending a dinner.

He was wearing a pure white suit, cutting steak, with an elegant and composed smile.

There was silence on the other end for half a minute.

Shaken so quickly?!

The people in the surveillance room exchanged looks, realizing they had found a new breakthrough.

@EmeraldBlei: A sasaeng fan, right? If you’re really against them, coming at me with a small account with so few retweets and likes, are you rushing to start trouble?

@EmeraldBlei: I warn you not to track my brothers’ location, or I’ll lead people to skin you clean. Sasaeng fans aren’t real fans at all. Stalking their hotels and cars is committing a crime, you know? Stay away from them!

Tracker: ???

We were just talking fine, why did the tone suddenly change??

@A-Xiaorou: Sister, what are you talking about… Don’t misunderstand me [crying].

@EmeraldBlei: Really WJBY, stop pretending, GUNA! SSFNDSL!

Tracker: ??????

“Maybe this approach is problematic,” said the leader of the tracking team quickly. “Switch accounts to contact their major fans and chat groups, post some videos or something, find topics to attract their discussion about the program. Maybe someone willing to cover for their whereabouts will show up.”

Another tracker quickly logged into the account [A_MaoMao] and infiltrated several fan groups for clues.

Answering Huo Ren’s birthday as the entry question was a piece of cake.

He posted a short video of the Crown boys in the makeup room of the set and then pretended to be watching them film the program.

Fans responded in kind, some asking where they were filming now, others inquiring about his identity, and some even started discussing the content of the officially announced program.

Although the program is called “Crown Warrant,” most of its content, including the filming country, recording methods, and game rules, was kept confidential. While the fans knew about their idols’ schedules, very few actually knew the details of the recording.

Soon, an admin stepped forward to maintain order: “Newcomers, please show your purchase history, digital or physical is fine.”

The tracker quickly sent her a non-watermarked image.

The other party was silent for about ten seconds, then became very aggressive: “You dare to send an online image? Are you a freeloader who joined the group?”

Tracker: Freeloader???

A kind-hearted miss quickly intervened, asking her if she had concert ticket stubs or other consumption records, not necessarily albums.

Before the tracker could respond, another admin messaged her.

“What’s your Weibo account? Do you know what the dedicated building for Crown fans is called?”

Suddenly, the group turned into a large-scale interrogation scene.

“Qin Jiu, Minstrel, Dong Jun, report their ages in order?”

“What are the names of the cats they keep?”

“What year was the Black Valentine’s incident?”

The fan circle, already complex with undercover fans and fans disguised as haters playing a game of endless Russian dolls, is no stranger to investigations, counter-surveillance, and deceit. With insiders, major fans, casual fans, and professional haters all navigating a complex web of secrets and codes that evolve with time, long-time members of the circle are exceptionally vigilant.

The attempt by multiple alternate accounts to probe information about A quickly got reported up the chain to the major fans, who then professionally contacted the company to inquire, ensuring no information leaked.

Someone’s targeting our boys!!

Are the haters stirring trouble again?! Wait till I overturn their days!!!

No one’s allowed to mess with our treasures!!!

Jiang Shu was slurping noodles when he received the message.

“Cough cough cough—damn—”