Chapter 143: Tear Off the Name Tags!

“Let me see!”

Jiang Lun took a stack of rectangular stickers from the box, each about the size of a face mask. They had just been made, still carrying a strong smell of glue and warm to the touch.

“Have the marker pens been prepared?” Jiang Lun asked.

“Ready!” one of the students replied as he pulled a pen from his pocket.

“How many performances are left?” Jiang Lun asked again.

“About ten!” reported the student in charge of stage management.

Jiang Lun thought for a moment. “After two more performances, we’ll play a game. Go notify the hosts.”

The student immediately went to inform the Qiao sisters.

Before long, Qiao Ranran came over. “Jiang Lun, what game are we going to play?”

“Come here. I’ll explain it to you.”

Jiang Lun beckoned her over, took out the props he had prepared, and carefully explained the game and its rules.

“This… sounds a little too intense, doesn’t it?” Qiao Ranran exclaimed after hearing his description. “What if someone gets hurt?”

“That depends on you.” Jiang Lun narrowed his eyes. “You’re the host, aren’t you?”

“You…”

Qiao Ranran was momentarily speechless. She poked him with her index finger. “You’re something else. You’re leaving such a difficult task to me!”

“Elder Sister Qiao, you’re a veteran variety-show host. What kind of storm haven’t you weathered? This is nothing. Surely it can’t stump you?”

Jiang Lun showered her with flattery.

“You really are something…” Qiao Ranran shook her head helplessly. “You’re so young, yet already so slippery. Who knows what you’ll be like in the future?”

“Heh heh!”

Jiang Lun merely smiled. Qiao Ranran had no answer for him.

At that moment, two students from the acting department were performing a comic dialogue onstage. As soon as their act ended, the Shichahai Sharks took the stage.

After the fast-paced song ended, Qiao Ranran walked onto the stage.

“Students, tonight is Carnival Night. Of course, we can’t do without an interactive game for everyone. That’s right—the first interactive game of the evening is about to begin. Are you looking forward to it?”

“Yes!”

The students were cooperative, but their response was not especially loud.

Qiao Ranran noticed this and smiled faintly. “The final winner of tonight’s interactive segment will receive a Flying Saucer 7 camera phone!”

“Really?”

“A Flying Saucer camera phone? Did I hear that right?”

“Ha! No game can defeat me. I’m determined to win the prize!”

One girl turned to her boyfriend and said, “Wow! I really want that phone. Go take part in the game!”

“No problem!” The boy slapped his chest. “Is it a battle of wits or strength? Either way, I can handle it!”

“…”

Seeing the students’ reactions, Qiao Ranran smiled mysteriously. “This game requires couples to complete it together. We need six couples in total. Who wants to participate?”

“We do!”

“Pick us!”

At once, numerous couples raised their hands.

Jiang Lun was also there, selecting the participants together with Liu Nan and the others.

In the end, six couples were chosen, twelve people in all.

Only then did Qiao Ranran announce the game and its rules.

“The name of this game is Tag-Out Battle!”

Qiao Ranran continued, “The boys will carry the girls on their backs, and each girl will wear a name tag. If the name tag on a girl’s back is torn off, that team is eliminated. The last team remaining wins.”

The students had never heard of such a game, much less played one. They were interested and curious, wondering how it was supposed to work.

“Now I’ll announce the rules,” Qiao Ranran continued. “First, no attacks against anyone, whether verbal or physical. Any violation means immediate elimination. Second, name tags may only be torn off by hand. Biting or using any other method does not count. Third, spectators outside the playing area may not help. If they do, the team receiving assistance will be immediately eliminated. Fourth, no one may leave the designated area. Is that clear?”

“Clear!”

The students answered, but whether they truly understood was another matter. Even they felt somewhat confused about the game.

Jiang Lun stood to one side as a spectator. He was not taking part; he wanted to see how this game from Running Man would feel when transplanted into this world, viewed from the audience’s perspective.

For safety’s sake, the students worked together to bring over thick mats from the dance department’s practice room. They cleared a large area in the small plaza beneath the stage and covered it with more than twenty mats.

Everyone was curious to see how the game would unfold, and the crowd of spectators continued to grow.

Many of the girls who had previously been watching from the balconies hurried downstairs, eager to get a closer look.

The six participating couples were preparing onstage.

Jiang Lun handed one of the prepared stickers to each female contestant. Since this was the first time the name-tag game had appeared in this world—and tonight was essentially an experiment—he had reduced the difficulty. The boys would not be blindfolded; only the girls needed to wear name tags.

“Friendship first, competition second!”

Jiang Lun gave his final instruction. “Everyone must pay attention to safety!”

The boys served as the mounts during the game and had to protect the girls with both hands. Although they were not blindfolded, the force of their collisions could still be considerable, making safety a serious concern.

Therefore, the students involved in organizing the event, along with Jiang Lun and the other celebrities, all acted as guardians. If anything dangerous happened, they would immediately step in.

The six couples took their positions. At the command to begin, the game started.

At first, everyone was unfamiliar with the rules and too embarrassed to tear anyone else’s tag. They merely wandered around the playing area or cautiously tested one another.

“Go! Tear theirs off!”

“Stop hesitating, or you’ll run out of energy!”

“Hurry! That guy’s already struggling to hold on!”

“Come on, girls!”

“Go!”

Finally, encouraged by the surrounding students, one couple could hold back no longer. The boy charged toward another pair, and as they drew close, the girl on his back reached out to grab the opposing name tag.

“Watch out!”

The game had everyone on edge, and someone immediately shouted a warning.

The cry alerted the targeted couple. The boy carrying the girl spun around and retreated several steps, narrowly avoiding the attack.

But now that the two couples had reached this point, their embarrassment vanished. They charged at each other head-on while the two girls shrieked and clawed at one another like wild cats.

The other four couples were unwilling to be left out and rushed forward to join the fray.

In an instant, the first two couples became the target of a four-team assault.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, an excited scream rang through the night. One girl held up a crumpled name tag and shouted ecstatically, “I tore it off! I tore it off! Yes!”

“Whoa!”

The spectators erupted. Their blood was surging, and they cheered and applauded wildly. No one had expected a single victory to have such an electrifying effect.

Once the first couple was eliminated, the remaining five teams completely let loose. They were young, passionate, and full of restless energy; once they got into the game, they became utterly carried away.

The playing area filled with the shrieks of the girls, like an ensemble of high sopranos.

One boy was knocked to the ground, but he climbed right back up, hoisted his girlfriend onto his back, and kept going.

Another girl’s hairband was yanked loose. With her hair flying wildly around her face, she continued trying to tear off the others’ tags.

Some teams even formed alliances to eliminate their rivals, with four players joining forces against a single couple.

At last, after a chaotic series of tumbles and collisions, only two couples remained.

“Ah, no, we can’t go on! Let’s rest for a while!”

The two boys were panting heavily, sprawled on the ground and unwilling to get up. Their girlfriends, however, refused to let them rest.

“Get up, get up! They’re exhausted. We can finish them in one move!”

“Quickly! They’re about to attack us. Even if we lose, we can’t lose this miserably!”

“Are you even a man? Get up! You never exercise and spend all day playing games in the dormitory. Now you’re seeing the consequences?”

“Get up! With stamina like that, you still think you can climb into my bed? If you don’t get up, I’m finding a new boyfriend!”

The two boys gazed pitifully at their girlfriends. They had no strength to stand, yet they did not dare argue.

Seeing this, Jiang Lun had no choice but to step forward and call a halt.

“Take a break! Have some water and recover your strength!”

Some students brought over wet tissues. Others supplied snacks. One girl even took out the chocolate her boyfriend had given her and handed it to the two exhausted boys.

The game was suspended for about ten minutes. Then one of the boys suddenly sprang to his feet.

“All right! Let’s start!”

The other jumped up as well. “Come on! Let’s see who gets whom!”

Their girlfriends needed no prompting. They leaped onto their respective boyfriends’ backs and began shouting once more.

“Charge!”

“Ah! I’m going to tear yours off!”

“That Flying Saucer phone is mine! I’m going to win!”

“Bring it on! I’ll show you my true strength. It’s absolutely terrifying!”

The two girls roared at each other, completely disregarding how their boyfriends felt and displaying the spirit of true warrior women.

“Tear it off! Ah!”

At last, one girl’s name tag was ripped away. The victor waved the shredded, crumpled tag in the air and screamed with delight.

Her boyfriend instantly lost all his strength. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the ground.

“Congratulations to you both!”

Qiao Keke shouted as she hurried over to the winners. “That was incredible! I was watching from the sidelines and felt nervous for you. You’re both heroes in my eyes!”

Qiao Ranran came over carrying the prizes and handed two Flying Saucer phones to the winning couple.

“Thank you for giving it your all. These are your prizes. Originally, there was only going to be one phone for the two of you, but in the end we decided to give you one each.”

“Also, the couple who came in second put in an enormous effort. So we’re giving you a Flying Saucer smart camera!”

Qiao Ranran took the prize Jiang Lun brought over and handed it to the second-place couple.

They had been disappointed after losing first place, and the girl had even complained to her boyfriend that they had fallen just short.

But after receiving a prize as well, their disappointment immediately turned to joy. They accepted the gift happily.

The camera was a beauty-enhancing smart selfie camera made by Flying Saucer Mobile. After taking a photograph, it could transmit the image to a phone through a wireless connection. Although its market price was only around a thousand yuan, far less than that of a phone, it was a coveted prize for every girl who loved beautifying her photos with editing software.

The girl excitedly embraced her boyfriend, then shook hands with the Qiao sisters and Jiang Lun.

“Thank you for the gifts. Thank you…”

To be continued.