Chapter 7: You Can Keep That Prize Money!

Zhou Fei whipped around to Jiang Chen, looking as if everything he knew had just been called into question.

“Brother Chen, what does the officer mean? What timer? Weren’t we making a firecracker? All we put in that plastic pipe was powder. Where did a timer come from?”

Jiang Chen was just as bewildered. He quickly concentrated on the two virtual panels in his mind. His eyes passed over the measurements until, tucked into a corner at the bottom, he found a line of tiny print.

【For the host’s safety, the system has automatically installed a delayed detonation module at the base using a discarded digital watch and wires.】

Jiang Chen sucked in a breath. This wasn’t a firecracker! The system had walked him through making a time bomb!

He hadn’t noticed the small print while mixing the ingredients. He’d thought the scrap metal and wires supplied by the system were just filler to add weight. All along, the system had used his hands to add something extra!

He raised a finger, looking utterly innocent. “I swear, I really didn’t know it could do that.”

Wang Zhen leaned against the metal wall of the vehicle, miserable. “I was hoping to follow the captain to a five-million-yuan prize. Now it looks like five million has turned into five years, minimum.”

The officer in the driver’s seat spun around. “Five years? You wish! Jiang Chen, think of something! When we get there, you’d better dismantle it. If you can’t, forget five years. All three of you will get life!”

By now, multiple layers of police tape surrounded the farmhouse courtyard. Although people had been evacuated several hundred meters away, stream 952’s equipment was still mounted on high ground in the distance, its camera fixed on the battered table. The audience had passed one hundred thousand and was visibly climbing. Comments covered the image.

【Holy shit! Are they risking their lives for five million?】

【I don’t envy a contestant earning money like that one bit.】

【A hidden master among us!】

【Bro, if you can make a high explosive bomb by hand, why are you on a lousy reality show?】

【Why not go head-to-head with a bank ATM instead?】

【Don’t give him ideas. With that skill, the machine and the money would both turn to ash!】

【One time bomb and Jiang Chen’s variety-show debut has become a permanent spot on the crime channel.】

【I want to see how the production team gets out of this.】

At the temporary command post outside the perimeter, the squad captain urgently reported the situation over the phone to Professor Li, one of the country’s foremost bomb-disposal experts.

Professor Li had spent decades in military engineering and explosives disposal. He had seen every kind of emergency. After hearing the captain’s description, his voice dripped with disbelief.

“Nonsense! A few amateur contestants made a time bomb from agricultural fertilizer? Did the production crew fool you with a prop?”

The captain stamped his foot. “Professor Li, every instrument is flashing red! The volatile energetic components are off the scale! It is absolutely real!”

Professor Li fell silent for two seconds. “All right. I’m already on my way. But I still don’t believe it. If someone can really make an explosive of that caliber under such crude conditions, he shouldn’t be working among civilians. He should be sent straight to the country’s top military research institute. He’d be a once-in-a-century genius!”

The captain sighed. “All right, Professor. Please hurry. Our team is completely at a loss.”

After he hung up, the director, who had been crouching nearby and shaking, hurried over. “Captain, does your expert think it’s fake too? It must be a misunderstanding, right? If it is, could you lift the cordon? We still need to film the show. Having so many of you here really affects our guests’ performance.”

The captain spun around and pointed at his nose. “A reality show? This looks like a terrorist training camp! What decent person makes something like that? Even if it were fake, a commotion on this scale could cause public panic!”

The director had no answer. His legs gave way and he slumped onto the ground.

Soon, an SUV with a special license plate roared into the restricted area. The door opened and white-haired Professor Li stepped out with a silver metal case. Everyone hurried to meet him.

Pulling on a heavy protective suit, he walked toward the table, still somewhat skeptical—until he saw the cylinder, thicker than a wrist and tightly sealed inside a stout plastic pipe. He drew a sharp breath. A detonator used for quarry blasting was usually no bigger than a sausage. This thing was a monster.

“That contestant’s idea… is certainly unusual,” he muttered. He took a precision detector from the case and brought it near.

Beep-beep-beep-beep!

The shrill alarm rang through the courtyard. Professor Li’s hand jerked and he nearly dropped the instrument. “It’s real?”

He steadied himself, switched to an X-ray scanner, and examined the interior. Complex wiring and a dense mass of steel balls appeared on the screen. His surprise turned to shock, and his face flushed red. He straightened, slapped his thigh, and cried, “Good heavens! A genius! That young man is an absolute genius!”

The officers stared. The captain hurried over and lowered his voice. “Professor Li, this isn’t the time to praise him. Please figure out how to dismantle it!”

Professor Li pointed excitedly at the scan, practically spraying spit. “Look at the wiring! Look at the triggering logic! This isn’t a conventional series or parallel circuit. He used the capacitance difference in an old digital watch to make an ingenious anti-tampering circuit. The countdown is just a scare tactic, a distraction!

“The actual trigger is this: cut any wrong wire, subject it to a drastic temperature change, or even squeeze the casing slightly, and it detonates instantly!”

Sweat ran down the captain’s face. “So how do we dismantle it?”

Professor Li spread his hands. “We can’t. It’s so unconventional; it follows none of the usual rules. Bring the young man who made it here! He assembled it, so he must know the way out!”

The captain grabbed his radio. “Where’s Jiang Chen? Bring him here now!”

“Captain! We’re already on our way!”

Hearing this from where he sat in the distance, the director’s last hope died. He covered his face, close to tears. A perfectly good relationship-focused reality show had turned into a counterterrorism bomb-disposal operation. Who was he supposed to complain to?