"I just spoke with her; she said she’ll be here soon," Paul raised his hand, pointing to the stands downstairs, "She’s already here."
Moses turned his face and saw Jessica taking a seat, which happened to be diagonally behind Gan Yuan; if anything unexpected occurred, she would be able to react instantly.
The guests on the viewing stand arrived in succession, and the representatives participating in the election had also taken their seats. The arena with a capacity of tens of thousands had no empty seats left.
Yet, Annie was nowhere to be seen.
"Marquis," a colleague sitting beside Smith gently nudged his arm, "why haven’t we seen Annie yet?"
"Don’t worry, she should be here soon."
Marquis Smith said this aloud, but he was also filled with concern and puzzlement; he had already had his assistant try to call Annie several times, but the calls wouldn’t go through.
He glanced at his watch and finally stood up, unable to sit still any longer, and walked to the side to call Annie personally.
As his call went through, Annie’s phone, which was on the table, immediately began to ring.
Hearing the ringtone, Annie lifted her face and looked at Helen.
"Can... can I answer the phone?"
Helen smiled, reached over to grab the phone on the table, and hung up the call, then looked at her watch.
The door was pushed open and an assistant walked in, whispering a few words to Helen.
Helen nodded, stepped forward, and pinched Annie’s mouth, stuffing something she was holding into it, and before Annie could react, she had swallowed it.
"What... what did you make me eat?"
"A capsule bomb." Helen pulled out a cell phone from her pocket and shook it at her, "As long as you follow orders, it will be expelled from your body after four hours. If you don’t behave... just a press of this button, and boom! Your stomach will explode and, due to the shock wave, your heart will also shatter; in other words, there will be a hole blasted through your chest."
She spoke casually, but Annie was already frightened to a deathly pale complexion.
"Gan... Gan Yuan... no, Miss Gan said she wouldn’t kill me!"
"I don’t want to kill you either!" Helen smiled, "This is just a precaution."
Before Annie could say anything else, Helen had already pulled her up from the ground.
"Alright, now it’s time for us to head to the venue!"
Dragging Annie into the car, Helen sat beside her, and the car immediately started off towards the stadium.
As the car moved forward, Helen turned her body to gently poke Annie’s chest.
"I’ll be watching you, so... don’t try any tricks!"
Annie’s hands pressed against her chest, and she was already too nervous to speak.
Shortly after, the car approached the entrance of the stadium. Helen yanked open the door and dragged Annie out, then jumped out herself.
Annie fell to the ground and Helen blended into the crowd nearby while the car quickly drove off.
Standing among the crowd, Helen shook her cell phone at her, causing Annie to tremble with fear. She immediately got up from the ground and walked towards the entrance, with Helen following her from a distance.
"Hey, isn’t that Annie Smith?"
A reporter spotted Annie walking up the steps, hardly believing his eyes.
How come she came looking ?
Having been taken away by Helen yesterday, Annie was still wearing the evening gown from last night’s banquet. The once gorgeous gown was now crumpled all over, hardly showing the splendor of the previous day, and coupled with her disheveled hair and her makeup that was long ruined, she had even lost a shoe.