Fangaro opened the door to the rest area and gestured to Zhao Wenyu who was obediently sitting in his place, "Let's go, the show is starting recording, you can wait for me offstage."
"Okay." Zhao Wenyu quickly got up and followed closely behind the young man, showing complete obedience and calmness. It was clear that he enjoyed being with Fangaro.
Cao Xiaohui was shocked by the change in Zhao, pondering secretly what magic Fangaro had that made people so unable to leave. But soon, he witnessed what it meant to be irresistibly attractive. When this man walked into the studio, everyone was watching him, the cameras were filming him, and two outstanding young people rushed over, eagerly occupying the spots nearest to him.
The strong young man jostled Zhao Wenyu and plumped himself down next to Fangaro, while the petite and charming girl quietly leaned against Fangaro's arm, looking satisfied as if flowers were blooming in her heart.
Cao Xiaohui's mouth twitched as he watched the scene, feeling both sorrow for Zhao, who couldn't get a seat, and amazed by the incomparable charm of his own artist.
The other contestants seemed accustomed to this scene and turned their gaze back to the stage.
Ding Puhang sat in a crowded area, impatiently staring at his watch. Just then, a sweating Chongming urgently rushed in from outside, intentionally avoiding Fangaro, and sat in the front row. The bright lights and crowded space there provided him with the strongest sense of security.
His abnormal behavior didn't attract much attention, but Ding Puhang, staring at the back of his head, fell into a state of trance. Minutes later, his expression became increasingly terrified, struggling to control his breathing, he refrained from turning around to look at Fangaro. With his hands in his pockets, he looked nonchalant but his fists were already clenched and slightly trembling. It was only now that he realized what sort of characters were being brought onto this show!
The on-site host was quietly noting down the scripts when a staff member leaned in and said, "Xiaoxiao seems to have gone mad."
"Yeah, mad?" The host repeated in disbelief.
Ding Puhang discreetly eavesdropped, his heart shivering.
"Yes, mad, she's been barking nonstop, can't walk, just crawling on the ground and almost peed in Song Jie's dressing room. Didn't you see, she looks like a dog when she pees. She's gone completely mad. Song Jie has already sent her to the hospital but we don't know what's going on."
"Why has she suddenly gone mad? She seemed perfectly normal before!"
"I heard it's because her dog died and she was traumatised. She had been raising the dog for seven to eight years, so she was deeply attached."
"The dog died? What's that all about?"
"Who knows, there are so many strange things happening today! Hey, time's almost up, you should get back to work. Let's go visit Xiaoxiao at the hospital after work."
They didn't converse any further and went their separate ways. Ding Puhang then hesitantly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat off his forehead.
The host took the stage to announce the rules for the second round of the competition. Unlike the first round, this time, the sixteen contestants had to individually enter a closed room for testing. After the test, they had to wait in separate closed rooms for the final result and were not allowed to communicate with anyone. During this period, only the surveillance monitors installed in various corners would capture them, even the roaming camera crew had been completely removed, effectively closing off the contestants' access to information from outside.
No one knew what the test content was, including the on-site staff.
"It's so mysterious!" Ahuo muttered, but was even more interested in the competition.
Fangaro turned to his camera crew and asked, "Is there a girl named Xiaoxiao who suddenly went mad?"
The cameraman silently nodded and gestured goodbye, then left quietly.
Fangaro looked at Chongming seated in the front row, his eyes gradually growing cold.
The order in which the contestants entered the test room was determined by draw, with Ding Puhang drawing number 1, and Fangaro drawing number 16, ending up at both ends. This arrangement seemed to be a bit shady, but no one protested much, as those with real talent would not care about their turn.
Several judges watched attentively as Ding Puhang, the first to enter the test room, even Song Rui temporarily shifted her gaze away from Fangaro and turned it towards him. He lifted his head, looked towards a camera in the corner, and his smile seemed carefree, but his eyes were slightly flickering. This performance might have fooled Song Warming and the others, but not Song Rui. He was nervous, it was obvious. He circled the box a few times, then stretched out his arm, closed his eyes, and made a gesture of sensing.
Song Rui shook his head, affirming, "He has no idea what's inside the box, he can't feel anything at all."
"He hasn't said anything yet!" Song Warming defended Ding Puhang.
Song Rui smirked, indicating that he had already guessed what this person's ability was.
Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes… The thirty-minute hourglass ran out, but Ding Puhang stood still, pretending to be deep in thought.
Song Rui waved his hand, "Go remind him, it's almost time, tell him to submit his answer quickly."
"Why do I have to go? The assistant director is in the adjacent room, they can do it." Song Warming didn't want to move.
Song Rui turned to face her, his dark eyes like two deep pools.
Song Warming's subconscious almost drowned in the depth of this icy pool and had no choice but to frown and walk towards the test room. She pushed the door open, walked to the center of the room, and raised her voice, "Ding Puhang, you have only eight minutes left."
Ding Puhang's eyes immediately locked onto Song Warming's, and in an instant, all the anxiety hidden deep inside him disappeared, replaced by ease and calm. The path was clear at this moment. He retracted his stiff arm and calmly said, "I know the answer now. This is an egg, this is a stone, this is a seedling, and this is a chrysalis. Am I right, Miss Song?"
He pointed to the four boxes in turn and smiled confidently.
Song Wenwen was taken aback. She never expected him to guess so accurately. Perhaps his perspective eye was not the only reason?
Several judges in the observation room talked to each other and were amazed to find that the items they brought had all been guessed by Ding Puhang. Only Song Rui was unimpressed by Ding Puhang's performance and said into the microphone, "For the second question, tell me, which of the items in these boxes does not have a life force."
His magnetic voice, amplified by the speakers, caused Ding Puhang's smile to freeze slightly. What a stupid question! They had already guessed the items in the boxes, why ask which one did not have a life force? It's obviously the stone!
Song Wenwen also looked embarrassed. Couldn't her cousin have spared them of this superfluous question? Stones obviously couldn't emit a life force. Was he trying to discuss with the contestant whether a stone counted as a form of existence? This was a reality show, not some highbrow debate program!
Song Wenwen smiled awkwardly at Ding Puhang, who then pointed to the second box from the left and reluctantly said, "There is no life force in this box."
There was no response from the speaker, and Ding Puhang stood in place for seven minutes before realizing that he had been played by the voice from earlier. He looked at Song Wenwen with a feigned look of dismay, and she helped him open the door, saying, "Mr. Ding, your test has been successfully completed. Please come this way."
As soon as the two walked out about four or five meters, they saw a tall man in a black windbreaker standing at the end of the corridor with his arms crossed. He was very handsome and elegant, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses covering his sharp black eyes, softy calling out "Warmth" as if he were a very warm person. However, this caught Ding Puhang off guard, plunging him into a deep chill, causing him to tremble uncontrollably.
Upon seeing this man, countless images flashed through his mind - mountains of corpses, blood and gore, piles of bones, vast molten lava, and raging floods, along with countless mutilated limbs and decomposed skeletons forming grand palaces. Pain, despair, anger, and hatred... scenes of extreme cruelty that could not possibly exist in the human world, all appeared in this man's mind. The extremely dark emotions that could exist in the human world also existed in this man's heart, so clear and so real, as if he had personally experienced them, or was experiencing them right now.
Ding Puhang almost shouted in pain, nearly going mad. Just as he was about to collapse, the hellish scenes and excruciating emotions suddenly disappeared, and a cold voice resounded directly in his head, "You are a heart peeper, am I right?"
Ding Puhang lowered his head in a sorry state, avoiding the man's gaze, and hurriedly ran into a secluded booth and closed the door. Hearing the man's footsteps gradually fading away, he covered his sweaty face and bitterly said, "Damn it, what kind of program is this? How come there are all sorts of people here! This place is really something, I thought I was a big fish, but it turns out I'm just a shrimp!"
After Ding Puhang's test, Song Rui had the staff replace the four sealed boxes with open-top boxes, with the open side facing away from the contestant and towards the camera, allowing the observers in the observation room to see the contents of the boxes clearly.
The first box contained an egg, brought by Dr. Lin, which had been sitting in an incubator and was due to hatch in three days; the second box contained a stone brought by Song Rui, and he did not provide any specific information about it; the third box contained a pot with a small sapling swaying inside, and Dr. Ouyang said it would bear tangerines in the future; the fourth box had a deep brown cocoon supported by velvet, which was Dr. Qian's beloved item and would soon transform into an emperor butterfly.
These items were either about to be born or were full of vitality, except for the heavy and out-of-place stone.
Several judges looked at Song Rui with indescribable expressions.
Song Rui chuckled lightly and remained silent.
The second contestant entered the testing room and stood in front of the four boxes, waiting for a prompt from the production team.
Song Rui, without waiting for Song Wenwen to speak, spoke through the loudspeaker to the contestant, saying, "Tell us which box has a life force and which does not." He had completely lost interest in Ding Puhang and naturally changed the test question.
Song Wenwen, who had lost her right to speak, stared at the large screen with dead fish eyes, pretending to understand all of her cousin's arrangements. She was not her cousin's puppet, absolutely not!
Meanwhile, the director and his staff had already learned about the situation in the testing room through the monitoring system and were able to see what was inside the four boxes. One of the staff members silently noted down the placement of these items and found a reason to leave alone for a moment.
The performance of this contestant was mediocre, taking more than twenty minutes to point to the box containing the egg and saying, "This box does not have a life force."
In fact, it did. The small chick, about to hatch, was already gently moving its wings and claws, a fact Dr. Lin had proven through X-ray examination before bringing the egg to the show.
The man's answer was incorrect, but he didn't know that and smiled confidently at the monitor. After he left, several more contestants were tested, and many of them answered correctly, but none of them were very comprehensive, as some would miss one or two boxes with life forces.
It wasn't until now that Song Wenwen finally understood her cousin's intentions and admired, "It was Dr. Song's most comprehensive consideration. All of us brought life to test, and there were no hiccups during the test. Naturally, there was no excitement. By mingling a non-living thing among them, it was like setting a hurdle, allowing us to more intuitively see the strengths and weaknesses of the contestants' abilities. It's not easy to find all the boxes with life forces, and, in contrast, it's not easy to find the only box without life force. Dr. Song's arrangement has instantly increased the difficulty of the test by a lot, making it easy for us to see which contestants are professional and which ones rely on luck."
Song Rui stared at the screen displaying the contestants without saying a word. His arrangement was only for one person to see, and whether others understood it or not was not within his consideration. Also, Song Wenwen was wrong about one thing: this stone was not a threshold or a test, but a gift.
The testing continued, and to Song Wenwen's surprise, the contestant who she least expected much from, who had been ranked last in the previous round of auditions, was the first to correctly identify all the items. With this outstanding performance, she was out of danger of being eliminated.
"How did her abilities suddenly become stronger?" Song Wenwen murmured in puzzlement.
"This is not surprising. Mediums rely on intuition and sensitivity, both of which are elusive and unstable. Sometimes they exist, sometimes they do not, so inconsistent performance is normal," Dr. Lin explained.
"Well, that makes sense," Song Wenwen quickly dismissed her inner doubts.
As time passed, the contestants she expected to do well continued to enter, and their performances did not disappoint her:
Yuan Zhongzhou pointed to the boxes and said, "The life force in these three boxes is very weak, the first is stronger than the fourth, and the fourth is stronger than the third. I suspect there is a small animal in the first box with low intelligence, probably a bird. The life force in the fourth box is almost absent, it is purely instinctual, I guess it is an insect, but its life force is even weaker than that of an insect, which confuses me. There is a very long and gentle life force in the third box, I guess it is a plant. There is no life force in the second box, I get no feedback, but it must not be empty, probably containing something with a relatively high density, something like a stone."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a hearty applause in the observation room, but Song Rui just slightly raised his eyebrows.
The answer provided by Zhu Xiya was, "There is no life force in the second box, and there is a faint, fluctuating life force in the third box. Sometimes I can feel it, sometimes I can't, very weak. I can't figure out exactly what it is for the time being. The first and fourth boxes both have a life force, which gives me a joy of life. I like them."
Song Wenwen quietly gave a thumbs up, very satisfied with Zhu Xiya's performance; the three judges also nodded in approval, acknowledging her abilities.
He Jinglian only stood in the testing room for ten minutes and pointed to the second box, saying, "It's empty, the other boxes all have a life force."
Ah Huo sniffed for a while and then smiled triumphantly, saying, "The first one is the fast-hatching chick, I smelled it as soon as I entered the room; the second is a stone, I am very familiar with the smell of stones, our valley is full of it! The third is soil and a sapling, the sapling has a strong astringent taste, it should be an orange tree; the fourth is a cocoon, I used to often find insect cocoons to eat in the woods, which smelled great!"
This test was transparent to him. When it came to identifying items, his sense of smell was far more reliable than his perception.
Song Wenwen wiped her forehead and smiled bitterly, while the three judges shook their heads with a sigh, "Ah, we miscalculated, we forgot to take Ah Huo's dog's nose into consideration when setting the question."
The person most similar to Ah Huo was Chong Ming, who should have had no difficulty with this test. However, when he entered the testing room, instead of the usual confident expression, he was constantly wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, and his eyes searching around on the floor, seeming as if he had lost something important.
Song Wenwen had to remind him through the loudspeaker, and then he looked at the boxes, his eyes full of panic and uncertainty.
As minutes passed, he kept pacing in front of the boxes, even trying to go to the open side to peer inside, clearly in a panic. Fortunately, Song Wenwen stopped him in time, and in the last second, he pointed to the fourth box, saying, "There is no life force inside."
Undoubtedly, this answer was wrong. Dr. Qian had already had biologists confirm that the chrysalis was alive and in the process of hatching.
"Chong Ming is acting strangely today! I thought his answer should be the most accurate, after all, his ability is supposed to be perspective. But now, it seems that the answer he just gave was nonsense. Time is running out, and he just randomly pointed to a box, attempting to get past it. His ability is also very unstable. Ah, our strongest contender has finally arrived. Looking forward to this!"
As Song Wenwen spoke, Fagalo slowly entered the testing room, looking at a certain monitor above. As last time, his exquisitely handsome face and sharp eyes appeared on the large screen in the observation room. He knew who was peeking at him and knew how to trace it back.
The judges all covered their faces with their hands to avoid his penetrating and aggressive gaze. However, Song Rui faced him directly, then slightly raised the corners of his lips. It was a rare, genuinely pleasant smile.
Just then, the door of the observation room was suddenly pushed open by an assistant director, who ran to Song Wenwen and said hurriedly, "Song Jie, we found a note at the feet of the 16th contestant, and it has the correct answers written on it. She told us she bought it from Cao Xiaohui."
Cao Xiaohui was Fagalo's agent, which meant that Fagalo had long known the content of the test and the correct answers. He was cheating!
The eager expression on Song Wenwen's face instantly collapsed, and she gritted her teeth and said, "We're still recording the show, we'll investigate this betrayal later. Let's just get through this fiasco now! If Fagalo wants to cheat, then I'll make him embarrassed! Isn't he famous for being able to judge one's character? Go find a few people familiar to all of us, and let him evaluate their character on the spot! Interfering with my show, buying answers, manipulating the outcome of the contest, and ruining the fairness, justice, and credibility of the show, I'm really giving him face!"