Idol Chapter 94

Huo Ren suddenly felt that something was off about himself.

This situation had come too suddenly. One moment he had just learned his role, and the next moment, he was already grouped and on his way to do tasks. He hadn’t been given much time to mentally prepare for this.

Just before getting on the car, the staff had given each of them a ribbon.

A small platinum crown was placed in the middle of the ribbon, which needed to be tied to any part of the body but couldn’t be hidden inside clothing.

Huo Ren thought for a few seconds and felt that there was a higher chance of him being mistakenly attacked by friendly forces. So, he decisively tied the black ribbon like a choker around his neck.

Xie Lianyun sat in the front passenger seat and prepared to chat with him, but he noticed his teammate’s slender and graceful neck with the slightly forbidden black ribbon.

Then, he silently turned his head away, pretending not to have seen anything.

Mei Shengyao, who rarely had the chance to ride in a car, was in a good mood, humming a song with a rising pitch in the end.

“By the way,” he remembered something. “Is there a spy in the first episode?”

“Probably,” Xie Lianyun replied lazily. “The production team will cue the flow. We just need to focus on completing the tasks.”

Huo Ren’s brain was a bit muddled.

This topic… Whether or not to participate, it all felt rather strange.

The first task for the blue team was located at the popular bakery “Snowy Berry,” and the red team was coincidentally doing their task at a barbecue restaurant across the street.

Both teams had to independently create products and earn a profit of at least 5,000 yuan according to market prices, with the specific score depending on the task.

When Huo Ren saw the task instructions, he chuckled and thought that it wasn’t easy to sell barbecue in broad daylight, especially with someone like Bo Jue standing by the charcoal fire. The scene was just something else.

Xie Lianyun also craned his neck to assess the situation while sitting in the front passenger seat, and Mei Shengyao had already quickly established a rapport with the restaurant’s manager and staff, bringing over all the ingredients for making croissants.

“Similar to the previous Crown Café,” the young man, full of fighting spirit, divided the tasks efficiently. “Xie-ge, help us weigh the flour and butter. I’ll bake the croissants with Ren-ge.”

“Alright—leave it to me!”

The three of them were highly efficient at what they did. While Xie Lianyun’s culinary skills were not the best, he was meticulous and precise in his work, and he remembered to pass the vanilla powder and dried cranberries to them.

Huo Ren realized that after ten minutes, the blue team had already prepared the dough, and he suddenly had a bad feeling.

Should he start causing trouble within his own team? At this rate, the red team would definitely lose. Although the other side could grill many things at once and had attracted many fans who came to order, the three of them had little experience with street barbecue, and they were struggling with the smoke. Currently, it was all up to Long-ge and Chi Chi to hold the fort.

The dough needed about ten minutes to rise. Suddenly, Xie Lianyun said, “Shall we go and take a look?”

“Xie-ge,” Mei Shengyao said leisurely, “when you go over to taunt them, do it gently. We don’t want to start a rumor that our team is always fighting.”

Huo Ren quickly wiped the flour off his fingers and said, “I’ll go take a look too!”

As they approached, Bo Jue sneezed due to the strong black pepper.

“The charcoal should be hotter,” Huo Ren adjusted the seasoning and charcoal density for them without leaving any traces. He even helped place a skewer of lamb for them. “Can Xiao Chi handle this?”

“Yeah,” Chi Ji replied with a smile. “I’ve mastered the trick.”

“You can put more at once, as long as the charcoal is evenly distributed, they will all cook at the same time,” Huo Ren taught him while fanning the flames, and he also listened with one ear to Xie Lianyun and Bo Jue’s bickering.

Long Jia stood next to them with an apron tied around his waist and a crown on his wrist, looking relaxed.

“Have you finished on your side?”

“We’re waiting for the dough to rise,” Huo Ren whispered, helping them arrange the spice plates and packing boxes. Just before leaving, he called out to them, “Xie-ge, I’m heading back first.”

“Hiss—wait for me.”

“Quick, go!”

Making croissants, from preparation to baking, would take at least an hour, but when produced in large quantities and well-cooked, passing quality checks was quite easy.

The barbecue restaurant across the street averaged about fifteen minutes for each dish to be served. Bo Jue, wearing a mask, helped them transport ingredients inside and outside, and his efficiency gradually improved.

Fans were crowded around the quarantine zone and the glass window, frantically taking pictures of them.

“It’s Baker Ren Ren! Ren Ren looks so handsome in a chef’s uniform!”

“Yao Yao is smiling at me, wuwuwu, my good son!”

“Let me in to sweep the floor and handle the cash register, I can even pay you to let me do it!! Is that okay?!”

By the time it was time to collect money, fans were afraid that they hadn’t given enough.

“A serving is only fifteen,” Huo Ren said seriously. “I can’t take more.”

“It’s a tip!”

“It’s a red envelope!”

“Our captain is working hard on the show!!”

Some fans even tried to stuff their bank cards along with the bills.

The program’s staff had to send additional personnel to maintain order. The smell of buttery croissants made their stomachs growl.

Huo Ren casually gave them four croissants and said kindly, “You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Have a little to fill your stomach.”

The barbecue stall across the street completed the task at a speed of one and a half hours, earning sixty gem coins.

“Ah…” Mei Shengyao sighed in regret. “We’re not the first.”

Fortunately, there wasn’t a significant difference between the two teams.

The task at the bakery took two hours to complete, earning them twenty gem coins, which was still not enough to catch up with the Red Team.

As they got back into the car, the second clue card was handed to them.

 

“Weapon Introduction”

Bubble Gun: 15 coins each, short range, poor accuracy, but wide spray area.

Small Water Gun: 30 coins each, long range, poor accuracy, but thin water stream and weak endurance.

Throwable Color Ball Bombs: 45 coins per bag, eight balls in each bag, non-toxic and non-dangerous, strong splashing ability.

 

“So, it means we are earning money by doing tasks to buy equipment, and then in the final stage, we go hunting,” Xie Lianyun handed the envelope to Huo Ren, contemplating which one to buy.

“Let’s save money for now,” Huo Ren said calmly. “Don’t consider the Bubble Gun; its hit rate is too low.”

The second activity turned out to be an escape room challenge.

Mei Shengyao had never been to a place like this before and felt like a child going on a field trip.

“Xie-ge! Have you ever played this before?”

There were four themed escape rooms in total, all of them featuring complex mechanisms involving sound, light, and lasers. Solving them conventionally required at least eighty minutes.

[William Castle] [Dolphin Adventure] [The Sound of Music] [Steam Era]

“The Sound of Music has already been chosen,” the owner kindly reminded them. “The other three are of similar difficulty, but the content and clues are related to their respective themes.”

Huo Ren chose the one that appeared to be the most challenging: “Steam Era.”

Mei Shengyao was still looking around at the decorations inside and outside the shop, feeling the joy of finally being released from the greenhouse of idol life.

“Do high school students usually come here to play?”

“Yes,” the owner replied with a smile. “Many college students do too.”

“Well, I’m a junior in college this year,” Huo Ren said casually, ruffling Yao Yao’s hair. “And this is a little kid who just finished high school and is about to take the college entrance exams.”

Yao Yao squinted and chuckled.

Meanwhile, the Red Team of three had already started the decryption phase.

Chi Ji initially felt a bit awkward about going into the escape room with his two older brothers. However, when he saw four violins embedded in the wall, his attention was quickly drawn.

“Xiao Chi,” Bo Jue called out, “look over here. The light beams projecting down are the black and white piano keys.”

They both reached out simultaneously to touch the beams of light, and the room was filled with the crisp sound of two pianos playing.

“It’s the small room, second group.”

“This is central C.”

“Oh, so should we do it like this—”

“That’s right, and there’s a guitar in the corner. You can see that two strings are marked—”

Long Jia tried to find a presence, “I found a small object.”

“Wait a moment,” Bo Jue cast a quick glance at him, “that antique phone is just decoration. Put the item down.”

Long Jia felt a bit dejected, “You haven’t talked to me today.”

Xiao Chi thought to himself that Long-ge was quite bold to act cute in front of the camera. In the next moment, he was once again captivated by the melodious sound of the piano.

“Jue-ge! Listen to this chord!”

The Blue Team chose the Steam Era-themed escape room. To immerse visitors into the role, the walls even projected a specific storyline.

Mei Shengyao enthusiastically watched the entire storyline, holding a small bowl of chocolate popcorn that the owner had given him as a friendly gesture.

Xie Lianyun and Huo Ren exchanged glances, feeling an inexplicable sense of companionship as if they were accompanying their little brother on a weekend outing.

Although Huo Ren was quick with solving puzzles and didn’t usually hide his abilities, in this situation, pretending to be clueless was convenient. After all, it was his first time doing an escape room, and he wasn’t a frequent gamer.

Slacking off didn’t require any special skills. He could leisurely flip through the codebook, fiddle with the Rubik’s Cube, and not raise suspicion.

Xie Lianyun had been playing escape rooms with friends during his vacation, so he quickly grasped how to decipher the code on the password box and the geometric Rubik’s Cube on the wall.

He initially wanted to help out, but he figured that the neighboring team wasn’t likely to finish so quickly. So, he let Yao Yao explore around like a curious hamster, holding his phone to take selfies of them.

“Got it!”

Mei Shengyao, who rarely had fun, was genuinely serious in his attitude. He crouched down and reported Morse code for his brothers.

With four rooms and 80 minutes, each room would average 20 minutes to complete. However, with his sharp mind, Yao Yao solved the puzzle in just ten minutes. His two older brothers sat beside him, eating popcorn and feeling quite relaxed.

When the first secret door opened, Yao Yao was startled.

“Wow!”

To move from one room to another, they had to go through a narrow passage. Yao Yao went first and remembered to take the codebook and the typewriter pendant from the previous room with him.

Huo Ren knelt down to prepare to crawl through the second vent. But the next moment, someone pressed his shoulder from behind, and he felt a cold barrel against his throat, which made it difficult for him to move.

A voice with a hint of coldness and a smile whispered in his ear, “Huo Huo.”

“You’re the spy, aren’t you?”

Huo Ren’s back suddenly chilled. He instinctively tried to turn around and look at Xie Lianyun, but due to the terrain, he couldn’t move.

The gun’s muzzle was already pressing against his throat, and his Adam’s apple was compressed, causing a slight tingling sensation.

The young man maintained his grip with one hand, keeping him in place, and his voice was cold but filled with a smile.

“Don’t move recklessly. Be careful not to accidentally discharge the gun.”