It was more than 50 minutes into the second round of the program.
The other nine contestants had completed their tasks as all their good friends had arrived.
Thomson was the only one left.
While everyone was waiting excitedly, the host received a signal. He pressed his earpiece and walked to the stage, where he said to the audience, "Next, let's welcome the friend of our guest Thomson, Mr. Gates."
Welcome music blasted from the speakers, and the lights dimmed before a spotlight hit the stage entrance.
A man who looked exactly like Gates walked out with a smile under the lead of his so-called bodyguards.
The artist, Little Gates waved his hands at the people on stage as he made his entrance. He was not embarrassed at all.
The audience burst into laughter.
"D*mn!"
"Hahahaha, it's the real Gates!"
"This is awesome!"
"The rich man made the program team spend more money."
"To be honest, I really admire the rich man. If it were me, I would definitely hide and bury myself in a hole."
"Come on, even I'm embarrassed as an audience."
"As long as you're not embarrassed, then someone else will be."
The audience was laughing like crazy.
In the beginning, Thomson claimed that he had invited Gates. Although no one believed him, they were still shocked.
However, when they learned that the so-called Gates was the artist, Little Gates, everyone's shock turned into ridicule.
Meanwhile, the artist, Little Gates did not care about the audience mocking him at all. On the contrary, he was greeting everyone as if this was a rare opportunity for him to show his face.
The artist Little Gates even took over the microphone from the host and said while holding the crispy candy in his hand, "Hello, everyone. I'm the artist, Little Gates. I'm here today to support my friend, Thomson."
"Thank you, everyone."
Then, he took a bow and walked up to Thomson to hand him the crispy candy.
The director looked over again.
In any case, he had to make up for Thomson's bragging at the beginning. Only once he had sorted it out could he arrange for the rest.
He had already booked five businessmen. When the time came, he would have them pretend to be Thomson's friends to secure Thomson a place in the top three.
As for the artist, Little Gates, he could tell the audience that it was a surprise that Thomson had arranged with the program team at the last minute. It was to make everyone happy.
The director believed that the audience would not have too much of an opinion.
However, just as the director was thinking highly of himself, Thomson spoke up.
He looked calmly at the artist, Little Gates, who was holding the crispy candy. After one glance at him, Thomson shook his head and said to everyone, "Sorry, I don't know him. He's not a friend that I invited."
His words made the entire audience burst into an uproar. This time, they sided with him.
"They messed up!"
"Hahaha, the rich man says that the director has to pay more."
"The rich man says, 'You want to embarrass me with that little money of yours?'"
"Get your popcorns ready. The simple guest refuses to accept the program team's willful arrangements and is throwing a fit."
"I'll be honest with you. If I were the richest man, I would've scolded the program team and left."
"Yeah, this is too insulting."
"But I really want to ask, who wrote this script?"
"This is such a stupid script! To have the richest man invite Gates and then an imposter appears. Isn't this humiliating?"
Upon hearing Thomson's word, the audience knew he was angry.
After the blogger's analysis, the public saw Thomson's reputation as being ruined by the entertainment industry. It was true to say that he was very pitiful.
It was obvious, with Thomson's huge reaction, that he could not take it anymore.
However, it never once crossed their minds that the person Thomson invited was the real Gates, so these false impressions were all just made up in their minds.
At this moment, the director raged. To him, Thompson was always up to no good.
Despite that, he immediately told the host about his arrangements.
A few minutes later, the host quickly came out to smooth things over.
"Hahaha! Everyone, this artist, Little Gates, is a small interlude that our program team and Mr. Thompson arranged together. We just want to make everyone happy. Next, let's welcome Mr. Thompson's true friend."
The audience no longer reacted to the host's words because they had seen this coming.
Right then, a few burly men in black pushed the backstage curtain away and a familiar figure appeared before everyone.
"What's the situation with this program team? They've invited another artist, Little Gates?"
"Okay, so the program team is not done? They've invited another artist, Little Gates."
"Pfft, another Little Gates?"
"D*mn, this program team has thought of it all. There is another Little Gates."
The man who walked out was none other than the internet tycoon, Gates, whom Thomson had invited over.
Even though he was the real Gates, the audience subconsciously thought that this Gates was also an artist, considering how the previous Little Gates was one.
The first thing Gates saw when he came on the stage was the stunned audience. Then, his gaze fell on Thomson.
When he saw his boss, whom he had not seen for a few years, he was so excited that he ran over without a care about his image.
Ignoring everything else, he held the crispy candy in his hand and said respectfully to Thomson, "Mr. Thomson, here are the things you wanted."
At the same time, Gates could not help but look at the stunned artist, Little Gates. Only then did the audience realize that something was wrong.
"Wait!"
"That's not right!"
"This..."
"This seems to be..."
"He looks like the real person, Gates!"