Hailed as a "Genius Bomb Technician," I accidentally stumbled onto the set of a live-streamed reality show and was mocked by various celebrities for supposedly being desperate for fame. I offered a shy, toothy smile: "Should I leave then?" "Doesn't matter to me. The bomb will explode anyway." Heavily armed tactical units rushed in frantically: "Priority one: Protect the nation's top bomb disposal expert!" 01 I stared deadpan at the man in front of me: "Is it fried?" He furrowed his brow: "It's fried, it's fried!" In my earpiece, the desperate, cracking voice of Captain David Miller from the SWAT team rang out: "My dearest princess!" "I am begging you!" "Before a mission, can you please stop eating fried chicken?! It’s bad luck!" The owner of the fried chicken stand right across the street happened to hand me a fresh, piping hot, mouth-watering order. I couldn't help but take a deep breath: Ah! The smell of happiness! I stuffed my mouth full of steaming fried chicken and seriously rebutted David: "We must fight superstition and believe in science!" "Look at you. Every time you're on PTO, you get called in for a Level 1 emergency." "I haven't even complained about you being bad luck, why are you complaining about the fried chicken?" "Besides, if I die a heroic death out there, at least I’ll have a chicken to keep me company, right?" David said, exasperated: "If you die a heroic death, I'm going down with you." "Isn't having me keep you company on the way to hell enough?" Tears of emotion welled up in my eyes: "Thank you~ I choose the chicken." David: "..." As the nation's best bomb technician, dubbed the "Genius Girl," the fact that I have to eat a serving of fried chicken before and after every mission is widely known throughout the precinct. I practically single-handedly kept the fried chicken joint downstairs in business. Everyone says: "There's no bomb Chloe Quinn can't defuse, and no fried chicken she can't finish." 02 David and I are a "golden duo" of extreme contrasts. I'm always goofing off but consistently save the day at the last second. David is serious and by-the-book, the poster boy for a good cop, but complications constantly arise around him; even bad luck tries to avoid him. As for this time, David was urgently called back from his PTO yet again. An anonymous tip reported a bomb planted at 109 North Temple Street. Upon receiving the message, I vaulted out of my chair and commanded: "David, go get the car!" "Pick me up in front of the fried chicken place downstairs!" Before David could even express his exasperation, I had already expertly vanished from his sight. After all, getting the fried chicken required a quality check. I absolutely could not delay the mission. 03 By the time we arrived at the scene, the evacuation was already complete. I listened to a colleague brief me on the situation while putting on my bomb suit. David reached for a bomb suit to go with me, but I stopped him. I waved the file in my hand: "The explosive payload is over 250 grams of TNT." "According to protocol, only one person approaches." David frowned, clearly uneasy. But I had already finished putting on the suit and was walking toward the bomb with my tool kit. The bomb was placed in a dumpster that even stray dogs avoided. A food waste dumpster, to be exact. Before I even got close, I could feel the fried chicken doing flips in my stomach. Suppressing my nausea, I found the bomb beneath a pile of rotten eggs and decaying cabbage leaves. The moment I saw the device, my pupils contracted. David's anxious voice crackled in the earpiece: "What's wrong? How long until detonation?" I steadied my nerves and replied: "Half an hour." Before David could breathe a sigh of relief, my next sentence almost sent him to the afterlife: "But the bomb has a dual-trigger mechanism." "It can be detonated remotely." Not only did David gasp, but the expressions of everyone on scene turned grave. A remote detonator meant the bomb-maker could blow me sky-high at any given second. And I had absolutely no chance of survival. 04 David suggested over the earpiece that I pull back first, allowing multiple teams to assess before deciding on a course of action. But I had already started dismantling it. Every minute the bomb existed was a minute of danger. David was furious, but he didn't dare say anything, afraid of breaking my concentration. I focused entirely on the bomb, making non-stop calculations and judgments. Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead, but I had no time to wipe them. Soon, only the last wire remained. I exhaled a breath: "David, do you prefer red or blue?" David tried to maintain his composure through deep breathing, with... limited success: "I pre... I prefer your grandmother's second uncle!" "Hurry up and cut it!" "The suspect could detonate it any second!" I kept my tone light: "My grandmother's second uncle just celebrated his 80th birthday this year." "But age is just a number~" Before David could say anything else, my hand moved like lightning, snip, and I cut the blue wire. David let out a sharp gasp of "Hah," and then time seemed to freeze for everyone on scene. The countdown timer froze at and stopped ticking down. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, and David wiped his face: "Next time you're going to cut the last wire, could you give a little warning?!" "My hair almost fell out from the stress!" 05 My job was done, and the follow-up investigation was primarily David's responsibility. But a lingering doubt hovered in everyone's minds: Who exactly planted the bomb? If they set up a remote detonator, why did they allow me to defuse it? What was their goal? David arranged for someone to take me back to the precinct, and, following tradition, I went downstairs to buy fried chicken. The owner of the fried chicken stand was running around frantically. Seeing me, he smiled: "Off work?" "Wait a sec, I have it ready for you, frying it right now!" The owner was frying chicken with one hand and answering the phone with the other: "Right away, right away!" "There are no delivery drivers picking up orders in this area, my hands are tied!" "We'll get your food to you as soon as possible." I took the fried chicken the owner handed me, raised an eyebrow, and smiled: "Business is good, huh." The owner sighed helplessly: "Ugh, nowadays there are so many delivery orders, but no one to deliver them. If we're not careful, we might get a bad review." I thought for a moment: "Boss, I just got off work. How about I deliver it for you?" The owner was both surprised and delighted: "Oh my! That would be a huge help!" I took the packaged delivery order and checked the address: It wasn't far. A well-known entertainment and live-streaming company downtown. 06 I reached my destination smoothly. As soon as the elevator doors opened, a shrill female voice rang out: "Fine, so I couldn't eat!" "But I can't even get a nap without this noise?!" "What am I paying you people for?!" "You're all fired!" Another voice chimed in: "Serena, the live stream is about to start." The legendary Serena strutted past me, smelling like expensive perfume, her face twisted in a sour scowl. I have a sensitive nose, and I couldn't help but cover my mouth and sneeze, "Achoo!" Serena immediately shot me a look of disgust: "Gross!" Me: ??? At this moment, I also recognized her. She was a recently popular rising starlet, known for her "spoiled, diva princess" persona. Have to say, she was playing the role perfectly. She immediately noticed the delivery bag in my hand: "Oh, so you're the delivery driver?" "No wonder you're a loser, delivering food so slowly!" "This is all you'll ever be good for!" "Assistant, give the restaurant and the driver a one-star review!" After saying that, she sashayed away, with someone beside her carrying a prop case she needed for the live stream. The assistant took the bag from me with a bitter expression and whispered: "Don't worry, I won't leave a bad review." "You should get going." I was too lazy to say anything, shrugged, and prepared to leave. Just as I turned around, I heard the assistant complaining to someone else: "I don't know where that alarm clock sound came from, it was so loud." "It ruined Serena's nap, and we got yelled at because of it." My feet stopped instantly, and I turned back to ask: "What kind of alarm clock sound?" The assistant thought for a moment and answered seriously: "It was like a tick, tick, tick sound, very loud." "It felt like it was coming from Serena's prop case." I frowned, a sliver of suspicion forming in my mind. It took me only one second to make a decision. I turned on my heel and walked toward the studio. 07 The live stream had already started in the studio, and the tool case was sitting in a corner. I tried to walk over as quietly as possible to avoid interrupting the broadcast. To my utter surprise, before my hand even touched the case, Serena's voice rang out abruptly: "Hey! You delivery driver!" "What are you doing? Stealing?!" "Do you have no professional ethics?!" I... When you're talking, do you even consider that you're on a live broadcast? Which one of us lacks professional ethics? But the eyes of everyone in the room were already fixed on me, and even the camera swung my way. The live chat started scrolling rapidly: [What's going on? Who is this?] [Did the producers plant a random person? She's actually pretty cute!] [Look, Serena looks like she's about to lose her mind.] Indeed, Serena had a mocking look on her face, ranting aggressively: "She's just a delivery driver!" "I bet she has ulterior motives!" "She thinks sneaking in here will let her leech off my fame?" "Is she that desperate to be famous?!" Another actress beside her chimed in: "Yeah, little girl, you can't just get famous just because you have a pretty face." Seeing someone taking her side, Serena grew even bolder: "I'm famous for a reason, because I'm unique!" I nodded in agreement: "Unique? You are uniquely obnoxious." The live chat was instantly flooded with a screen full of [LMAOOOOO]: [LMAO this girl is so funny, I'm dying!] [Serena is definitely being a bit too aggressive.] [But it is true that this woman barged into the live stream first, she's definitely in the wrong here!] Serena had completely lost her mind and started calling for security to throw me out. I ignored the security guard walking toward me and instead quickly opened the tool case. A bomb suddenly appeared right before my eyes. At the same time, the heavy doors to the studio slammed shut and locked, seemingly out of nowhere. Everyone was trapped inside the room. 08 As everyone's eyes landed on the bomb, the room instantly descended into chaos. Serena screamed hysterically: "Why is there a bomb?!" "Get me out of here!" The security guard pounded frantically on the heavy doors, but it was useless. The cameraman had long abandoned the camera and pulled out his phone to call 911. The live chat was also in an uproar: [A bomb?! Real or fake?] [Doesn't look fake, look at how crazy everyone is acting.] [Call the police, hurry!] [That girl who stumbled into the stream is so calm?] I raised my voice and shouted: "Everyone, stay where you are!" "Avoid a stampede caused by panic!" The room went instantly quiet, and everyone looked at me. After a long pause, Serena sneered: "Who do you think you are?!" "What gives you the right to order us around?" "Do you really think you're some kind of savior?" I reached into my pocket, pulled out my badge, flashed it, raised an eyebrow, and smiled: "Well... why wouldn't I be?" 09 The room was dead silent. The live chat reacted faster than the people on set. [What's happening? Is the girl a cop?] [Wow! Thank God for her!] [Otherwise, if the bomb went off, they'd be done for!] [Exactly, and Serena is still being relentless.] [Is she openly insulting a public official?!] The veteran director in charge of the set rushed over in a flash, grasping my hand tightly: "Officer! Thank God you're here! I was terrified!" "What would we do without you?!" The old director had a grip like a vice. I tried to pull my hand away a few times, but failed. I had no choice but to speak up: "I know you're anxious, but you need to calm down." "Have everyone move to the other side of the room, and find me a tool kit." Serena said sarcastically: "Do you even know what you're doing? Don't mess with it if you don't!" "Our lives are worth much more than a lowly cop like you." "Just a beat cop, stop trying to show off!" "We need an expert for this!" Now, I really didn't get it. How could anyone be more obnoxious than that jinx, David? I narrowed my eyes, sized her up, then offered a shy, toothy smile: "Should I leave then?" "Doesn't matter to me. The bomb will explode anyway." "And did you forget that this is still being live-streamed?" "Watch out, or you'll ruin your precious image!" Only then did Serena realize that the cameras were still rolling, and her every word and action had been exposed to the audience. Netizens were already furious: [What does she mean, her life is more valuable? Are other people's lives worthless?] [In her eyes, we're all just ants!] [Unfollowing immediately!] While we were talking, my colleagues who had received the 911 call arrived. David, the "Jinx Pro Max," shouted through the heavy doors: "Can anyone inside hear me?" "Can someone give me a brief description of the situation inside?" I walked over to the door and cleared my throat: "The explosive payload is over 500 grams of TNT." "It's still a dual-trigger mechanism, timer and remote." "I have reason to believe this was made by the same person as the previous bomb." "The countdown has 1 hour left. We have enough time." "My recommendation is to set up electronic signal jammers first, then breach the door and evacuate the civilians." The people in the room stared at me dumbfounded, seemingly unable to understand how I knew so much. After a long pause, David's voice, laced with denial, came from outside: "My ears have been acting up lately." "Everyone sounds like Chloe." I was furious: "David, you jinx! Stop talking nonsense!" "Move your ass!" David was stunned: "Chloe?! Explain yourself! Why are you in there?!" I covered my face, feeling powerless: "You might not believe this if I tell you." "I was delivering food..." David's ghostly voice echoed: "Is the precinct holding back your salary, or is your expert stipend not enough for you..." At this moment, the tech team arrived, preparing to set up the signal jammers to prevent the suspect from detonating the bomb remotely. However, a sudden change occurred. Just a moment before the signal jammer was activated, the bomb's countdown suddenly began ticking down at three times its normal speed. In the blink of an eye, only 40 minutes remained. A terrible premonition washed over me: "Quick, tell the tech team to stop the jamming!" David hastily complied. Instantly, the countdown speed returned to normal. I exhaled a breath, my eyes sweeping over the security cameras around the room: "David, the bomber is warning us." "No signal jamming, no breaching the door." "Otherwise, I'm afraid they'll just detonate the bomb directly."
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