Inside the forest treehouse, Alakazam closed the conversation in a huff.
Venusaur’s voice rang out: “Is A Li looking for us?”
Alakazam smiled and said, “He’s just worried that the two of us are lonely here and feels like he’s neglected us, so he wants to spend some time with us.”
Venusaur chuckled, “Then why didn’t you agree to him?”
“We’re not one or two-year-old Pokémon anymore; we don’t need constant company,” Alakazam said irritably.
“Besides, if we Miss him, we can just go see him, can’t we? Hatterene is finally gone, so we have this period of peace. Why not enjoy it?”
Meanwhile, Mu Li, while lamenting that his 'children' had grown up and were no longer as close, thought for a moment and made a phone call.
The call connected, and a middle-aged man’s voice appeared: “A Li? What makes you think of calling me?”
“Uncle, how has he been recently?” Mu Li inquired.
“I haven’t seen any movement; he should still be in a semi-hibernating state,” the middle-aged man’s voice responded.
“It’s been over half a year like this. He hasn’t developed any problems, has he?”
“Whose fault is it for absorbing things randomly? But he should be fine,” Mu Li said.
“Also, I’m planning to go abroad, so I’ll trouble you to keep a close eye on him for me.
If there are any issues, just call me.”
“Don’t worry,” the middle-aged man said, “These are minor matters.”
Mu Li gave a few more instructions, then hung up the phone.
On the other end of the line, the middle-aged man frowned slightly, looking at the distant active volcano, and murmured, “I wonder if it’s just my imagination, but recently I feel like this volcano seems more active.”
After arranging matters at home, Mu Li flew directly to the Magic City.
Due to his new album, Mu Li had been quite busy lately.
In addition to preparing for his trip abroad, he also needed to record more shows to promote his new album.
Before that, he still had to record the pre-departure gathering video for “Flowers and Youth.”
On the day of the recording, Mu Li was ambushed by the production team.
At seven in the morning, Mu Li was still asleep when the doorbell rang.
The door opened quickly, but the production team didn’t expect the person who opened the door to be a timid-looking Zorua, not Mu Li.
The Miss from the production team was instantly melted.
Who could resist such a pitiful little Zorua!
“Little one, why did you open the door! Aren’t you afraid of meeting bad guys?” The Miss from the production team was about to touch Zorua but was dodged by Zorua.
Seeing Zorua run into the house, the Miss from the production team was stunned, then looked at the surrounding cameramen and asked, “Should we follow him in?”
The cameraman hesitated and said, “Isn’t that inappropriate? We should still greet him.
What if we record something we shouldn’t…”
The Miss nodded and called Liu Yun.
Liu Yun was shocked when she received the call: “You didn’t go in, did you?”
“No, Sister Yun, is there anything inconvenient to film?” the Miss asked.
“Uh, no, there isn’t, but it might be a bit dangerous inside,” Liu Yun immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
If they sent someone to the hospital on the first day of filming, that wouldn’t be good.
“How about this, you wait a moment.
I can’t get there myself right now, so I’ll have someone come over to help you.”
Liu Yun didn’t explain much, only telling them to wait five more minutes.
Although the two people from the production team didn’t understand, they still complied.
The two had been with the “Flowers and Youth” production team for several years and also had experience with other variety shows, so they were quite familiar with celebrity matters.
Mu Li was considered relatively good; they had previously encountered particularly unreasonable celebrities who, despite agreeing to meet at 10 AM, would drag it out until 12 PM and then blame the production team for not considering their schedule.
However, the Miss from the production team didn’t quite understand why Liu Yun repeatedly warned them “never to enter the door” even though the door to the house was open.
While waiting, the two began to chat.
“Did you know Mu Li before?” the Miss asked.
The cameraman shook his head and said, “Not too much, but I’ve heard some legends about him.”
Gossip!
The Miss immediately widened her eyes and asked, “Quick, tell me.”
“Didn’t Mu Li record a Mango variety show before? It was called ‘I Live Alone’,” the cameraman said.
“I have a friend who was also a cameraman on that team, and apparently, he followed Mu Li.”
“Really? What kind of person is Mu Li? I’m going to introduce him to the task later.
It’s best not to offend him,” the Miss immediately pressed.
“Mu Li is fine; he’s really easy to get along with and very good to the staff,” the cameraman continued.
“If you encounter any problems during the recording, just tell him immediately.”
The Miss immediately nodded, a smile appearing at the corner of her mouth: “That’s good.
I was worried about encountering one of those 'traffic' celebrities.
Wasn’t that the case with our previous shoot? They had so many demands and didn’t treat us like people.”
The cameraman naturally knew who the Miss was referring to and quickly nodded, “Indeed, that really disgusted me at the time.”
“Then this task should be alright, at least if the celebrity isn’t so difficult, we can breathe a huge sigh of relief,” the Miss chuckled.
The cameraman’s expression showed a hint of strangeness: “However, my friend said that Mu Li is a bit strange—no, it should be said that the Pokémon around him are a bit strange.”
“Pokémon? Strange?” the Miss asked, puzzled, “What’s so strange about them?”
“I don’t know the specifics; he didn’t say.
He just said there wouldn’t be any life-threatening danger,” the cameraman replied, also a bit confused.
“Life-threatening danger?” The Miss was still in a daze, completely unaware that the cameraman’s eyes were almost popping out at this point.
The cameraman trembled as he pointed behind the Miss, barely able to speak clearly: “You… you… beh… hind… ”
“What’s wrong with you?” The Miss finally saw the cameraman’s expression, “What’s wrong with me?”
But the next moment, she saw a huge shadow suddenly appear behind the cameraman, and from within this shadow, a pair of crimson eyes and a gaping maw suddenly emerged.
Before she could even utter a sound, the maw in the shadow opened wide and swallowed the cameraman whole.
The Miss immediately let out a scream: “Ah!!!!”
But to the Miss’s surprise, the normally somewhat noisy neighborhood, which had been bustling that morning, was now as if a mute button had been pressed.
She couldn’t hear any other sounds except her own.
“What on earth happened?” The Miss could even hear her own heartbeat.
At this moment, she was on the verge of tears.
How could a person just disappear like that?
Just then, she seemed to feel something enveloping her from behind.
She took a deep breath, turned to look, and saw a gaping maw lunging at her.