Calling Little Gates!

The contestants arrived at the competition venue under the host's lead.

The audience outside the venue could not contain their excitement anymore. They were very excited about the good show that was about to begin.

As soon as the host announced, the thrilling show of borrowing money began.

Thomson stood calmly in the middle of the venue, quietly observing the other contestants. He thought to himself, 'I'll stay until the competition is over, take the money, and leave. For the sake of Alice's feelings, I'll just pretend to be frustrated with the contact list and wait for time to pass.'

"Hello, is this Mike? My child's school results have been bad recently, so I'm looking for some connections to help him with another one. But I don't have enough money on hand. I wonder if Brother Zhou would be willing to help? Don't worry, my salary will be out in a week and I'll pay you back then."

"Hello, is it Jason? Do you still remember the real estate project I told you about the last time? This project was lucky to win the bid, but it's still short of funds. I was thinking if I could borrow some money from you to run it? Don't worry, I will definitely pay you back generously when the project is done. Please help me, CEO Wang."

"Hello, is this Ross? My children are all grown up now and I want to take them and my wife out for a trip. We bought a car when my children were still young, but it's been many years now and it's a little small for our family of five, so we're thinking of changing it. However, I'm still a little short on money. Please help a brother out."

Under the host's guidance, each contestant tried their best to borrow money from different people through the phone. 

The phone in their hands was not just a communication tool, but a money-making machine too. The more money they borrowed, the more money they could make.

Driven by this idea, the speed at which the contestants dialed the numbers accelerated.

The atmosphere on the stage became very intense. Except for Thomson, everyone was making calls.

However, looking at the rankings, only three out of the nine contestants, excluding Thomson, had borrowed money. The amounts were 400,000 dollars, 200,000 dollars, and 100,000 dollars respectively.

The rest had not managed to borrow money at all.

In fact, there was a reason for it. 

To the contestants, the rules did not state who the money would be given to once they had borrowed it.

As long as they borrowed more money, their profits would be higher, which was why they tried their best to do so. Having said that, they had to consider the reality of the situation for borrowing money as well.

Take the third contestant, Potter, who borrowed the most. He was a product manager of a technology company, and he earned about 500,000 dollars a year.

Since the reason he gave for borrowing money was to buy a house and not for risky things like investing, the probability that his friends would lend him money was higher too.

However, most of the contestants were ordinary people with an annual salary of 100,000 to 200,000 dollars. They did not have a social circle like Potter.

The people they were familiar with had a similar standard of living as they did, and they did not have much money. As such, it was naturally more difficult for them to borrow money.

Despite that, the contestants who did not receive the money were not discouraged. They simply picked themselves up and tried their best to make one phone call after another. If they were in the other person's shoes, they probably would not have any money to lend either. 

"Right now, contestant number three is in first place, contestant number five is in second place, and contestant number one is in third place," the host reminded them about the ranking situation, which was also displayed on the big screen. This undoubtedly added to the competition's tense atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the audience was engrossed in the competition. They could zoom in on a specific scene in the competition in real-time and look for the contestants they wanted to see.

However, their attention was not focused on the contestants who had borrowed the money but on the contestants who had not borrowed any. They wanted to see the predicament they were in.

Right now, it was contestant number seven who had attracted their attention. The contestant placed the phone to his ear, "Brother Parker, I'd like to..."

Just as he was about to hit the nail on the head, a voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Brother, I recently lost some money in a poker game. I lied to my wife and told her that I used the money as an investment. She didn't believe me and insisted that I return the money to her. I really have no other choice, so I have to borrow some money from you, my brother. Sigh, gambling is not a good thing. Please help me out this time. I promise that when she has calmed down, I will return the money to you."

The crowd burst into laughter.

"Haha, that's a good one. He wanted to borrow money, but he was tricked. What a loser."

"This is great. He didn't get the money, and now he has to consider if he wants to lend it to the other party. This phone call is really depressing."

Contestant number seven felt helpless as this friend had helped him before. After a long silence, he transferred 30,000 dollars to the other party under the ridicule of the crowd.

On the scoreboard, a negative score of 30,000 dollars was recorded under contestant number seven.

This caused the entire audience to burst into laughter again. "What's going on? He wanted to make money, yet he ended up digging a hole for himself instead. This call happened so fast!"

Some of the audience laughed while they said, "This program is too interesting. Are they deliberately making fun of this contestant to make us entertained?" The audience's laughter made the scene seem like a comedy show.

Contestant number seven hurriedly hung up amid the laughter of others. It was so embarrassing that even the host could not help but laugh. The latter thought to himself, 'I've hosted this program for so long, this is the first time I've seen such a thing. But to make it less awkward for the contestant, I should hold back my laughter.'

Contestant number seven probably wanted to dig himself a hole to hide in right now. However, when he thought about the 10,000 dollars that he could get for sure, he could not care less. He simply braced himself and made the next call.

Only then did the host realize that Thomson was still flipping through the contact list on his phone and had not made a single call yet.

He thought, 'Is he waiting until the end of the competition to get that 10,000 dollars prize money? If he thinks he can take the money without doing anything, nothing in this world is given for free."

Hence, he said to all the contestants, "If you can't borrow even a penny at the end of the show, you won't get any money, let alone 10,000 dollars."

At the same time, he looked at Thomson and reminded him to start.

Sat on the sidelines, Thomson's wife, Alice was also anxious. She ran onto the stage and said to her husband, "I'll give it a try no matter what.".

Thomson looked at Alice's anxious expression and felt very helpless. It was not appropriate for him to call anyone on his contact list.

Then, with a ghostly smile, Alice pointed to her husband's contact list and dialed a number that looked like her husband's colleague. The name was listed as Little Gates.

The audience's eyes were fixed on Thompson, who was making the first call. They were curious to see what was going to happen next.