Gao Liming and his group were now surrounded by the angry onlookers.
"Don't make things worse! You don't even know what's going on here! Those four are criminals!", Gao Liming said as he pointed at the four women who were trying to leave.
His idea was that it would be best to resolve this without any conflict with the onlookers.
However, that was just his own wishful thinking.
"Criminals?", one of the onlookers yelled as he pointed his finger at Gao Liming's nose, "I think you look more like the criminal here. Just look at yourself, don't you look like a bandit?"
The rest echoed his words.
"He's right, they look more like the criminals to me."
"You're calling them criminals, do you have any proof? Who do you think you are? A cop?"
"I also think they look more like the criminals. Call the cops! Let the police handle this."
"..."
The onlookers who didn't know the truth found it very difficult to associate those four powerless girls with criminals.
On the contrary, they were more inclined to believe that Gao Liming's group were the real criminals.
From the beginning, Gao Liming had been targeting those four weak girls.
Wang Hao, Zhang Wenrui and Zhao Tianyi didn't look like good guys either.
Wang Hao was muscular with dark skin, and had a pair of "wrestler's ears". One look and you could tell he was good at fighting.
As for Zhang Wenrui and Zhao Tianyi, the two rich second generations, there was no need to elaborate.
Because they were rich and idle all day, drinking and womanizing, you could tell from their faces that they were different from ordinary people.
You could almost see the words "overindulgence" engraved on their faces.
What good could these four men be up to when grouped together?
Seeing that trying to reason with these onlookers was useless.
And the four girls were about to slip away from right under their noses.
Zhao Tianyi stared coldly at the encircling onlookers and said, "You all wanna die, huh? We were nice and tried to talk some sense into you... Fine."
He paused for a moment, then looked towards the security guards.
"Beat them up until they learn to stop meddling in other people's business. Also... catch those four girls. If they really are Xu Mo's accomplices, we absolutely can't let them get away."
The security guards ignored his words.
Because these guards were all veterans, every single one of them.
They would never assault innocent bystanders who didn't know the truth, let alone do as he said.
Wang Hao rolled his eyes at Zhao Tianyi.
He thought to himself that this damn spoiled rich second generation was clearly used to throwing his weight around back home.
To actually say something like that out loud.
The onlookers were indeed hindering their plans.
But if they beat up ordinary people unrelated to this matter, that would change the nature of things completely.
"Don't listen to him.", Wang Hao thought for a moment and said, "Don't hurt any ordinary people, just catch those four girls!"
Hearing this, the security guards sprung into action.
Although they were outnumbered by the onlookers.
They had the absolute advantage in strength and physical fitness.
Soon, they tore open a hole in the encirclement formed by the onlookers.
And rushed towards the four girls.
"They're catching up, hurry!", Zhou Qiaoqiao saw the situation was dire and immediately yelled.
At this time, the two fastest security guards were almost upon them.
Li Jiaxin, who had the highest combat ability among the four girls, turned around and unleashed two kicks, sending the guards stumbling back.
"You three run ahead, I'll stay behind to hold them off!"
Seeing Li Jiaxin's kicks, the corner of Gao Liming's eye twitched violently.
That combat ability was not something an average girl would possess.
He instantly thought of someone—the martial arts expert Li Jiaxin, the helper the production team had arranged for Xu Mo.
"Li Jiaxin? I damn well knew there was something off about those four girls. They must be the four with Xu Mo. We absolutely can't let them get away!"
Witnessing this scene, the onlookers who had previously spoken up for the four girls collectively fell silent.
The reason they had favored the four girls earlier was because they thought the girls were the vulnerable party.
But now it seemed...
Were they really the vulnerable ones? The weak girls?
They were more like Iron Barbie!
At this moment, a thought simultaneously emerged in the minds of all the onlookers.
This was a gang shootout!
This was no place to loiter. They had to leave quickly.
Otherwise, they would end up as cannon fodder between the two gangs exchanging fire.
Without any prior consultation, everyone took the same action—they took out their phones.
Time for an emergency call...
"Oh Boss Wang, it's me... What? The proposal ran into problems and I have to get back to the company for overtime? Sure!"
"What's the matter, Mom? The widow next door got remarried and you want me to go eat at the banquet? Now? Okay okay, I'll head back right away..."
"Dear... The cat's going into labor at home? Why didn't you tell me earlier about something so big? Wait a minute, I'm coming back now!"
"..."
In less than a minute, the previously aggressive onlookers slipped away one by one, as if the ground under their feet was greased.
By now, Zhou Qiaoqiao, Yang Jingxuan, An Youyi and Li Jiaxin were completely surrounded by dozens of bulky security guards.
The endurance of girls would always fall short compared to men.
Let alone these guards who were much fitter than average people, being veterans and all.
The reason Zhou Qiaoqiao, Yang Jingxuan and An Youyi failed to outrun the guards was because they didn't have the stamina.
As for Li Jiaxin, she was dragged down trying to protect the other three, so she couldn't slip away either.
Now the four girls seemed on the verge of being annihilated.
Yang Jingxuan panicked.
She had just learned the show's ratings had skyrocketed. Yet now, just as she was about to gain huge popularity as a "hostage", her rescue was at hand?
Just as she was about to hit the big time, someone had swooped in to steal her limelight??
An Youyi also panicked.
She had just spent money calling in favors to get onto the show.
But she had barely finished one task before getting surrounded like this?
What was going on here!
At this moment, Zhou Qiaoqiao tugged Li Jiaxin's sleeve and whispered.
"Looks like those security guards don't dare rush in to grab us. Seems they're quite wary of your fighting skills. Can you take them all down?"
Li Jiaxin: "..."
Take them ALL down?
What nonsense!
She expressed that she was incapable of that!
These security guards were quite skilled.
If it was one or two, or even three to five, she was confident she could handle them.
But her opponents numbered several dozen.
What could she possibly do?
"Hahaha, finally caught you!", seeing the four girls surrounded by the guards, Zhao Tianyi laughed gleefully.
Apart from him, smiles of varying degrees also appeared on the other three men's faces.
Although they didn't catch Xu Mo.
Managing to capture the four girls by Xu Mo's side was still a decent achievement.
At the very least, it wasn't a wasted effort.
Gao Liming glanced back at the exhibition hall.
He could now confirm that the person who had turned back to "get his phone" earlier was Xu Mo.
And Xu Mo still hadn't emerged from the main door, which meant he must still be inside.
First, he instructed the security guards, "You guys should be able to handle these four girls. Go find some rope and tie them up first."
After giving orders to the guards, Gao Liming looked towards Wang Hao, Zhang Wenrui and Zhao Tianyi.
"Let's four go inside and catch him, and trap Xu Mo like a turtle in a jar!"