WS - Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Even though Yu Nianbing reacted in time and did not flail about in panic like the others, the sudden male voice and the abrupt, amplified movements and shouts from everyone around still startled the long snake hidden in the undergrowth.
Song Shiyue had already been about to strike, but the shout from that startled male voice made her hand hesitate for a split second.
In that brief window, the snake that had been slithering slowly through the grass grew agitated. It reared up, nearly a third of its body rising off the ground, aiming directly at Yu Nianbing, who was only three or four paces away.
Every muscle in Song Shiyue's body tensed as she bent forward and straightened up. She had no time to process where that unfamiliar male voice had come from, much less curse the man for meddling.
The seven-inch spot!
The rearing snake hissed, tongue flickering, and shifted slightly. Song Shiyue's gaze sharpened. The stone in her hand flew out with lightning speed.
Almost at the exact moment Song Shiyue hurled the stone, the man who had earlier shouted, "Watch out! There's a snake!" yelled again, this time calling out, "Don't be afraid! Don't move! I'm coming!"
Out of nowhere, a man in an army-green assault jacket burst forth. Just as the stone Song Shiyue had thrown pinned the snake down, he dashed behind the long snake and brought a machete slashing down, also aiming for the snake's seven-inch spot.
But Song Shiyue's stone had been a beat faster, smashing into the snake's seven-inch spot. The reinforced force, centered on that vital point, drove the entire snake downward, embedding it into the soil. The stone lay flat, level with the ground, and the section of the snake's body beneath it was pressed straight into the earth.
With such power striking straight at the seven-inch spot, the snake naturally lost its life. The reared section of its body went limp, though the raised head still flickered its tongue with a hiss.
Yet, unexpectedly, the man swinging the machete — whether unable to stop his momentum or determined to finish the job — brought the blade slashing down upon the snake's seven-inch spot regardless. With a loud clang, the blade struck the stone Song Shiyue had thrown.
Stone and blade — barely half a second apart.
The man who had struck the stone thought nothing of it, but Song Shiyue, the instant she saw his blade continuing its arc without slowing, felt her face drain another shade paler.
It was too late to shout at him to stop, and there was not even time to bend and grab another stone. Almost in the same instant the man's blade hit the rock, Song Shiyue yanked off her hair tie — the one with two small glass-ball tassels — and hurled it toward the space just above and in front of the snake's head.
Yu Nianbing had never imagined that, barely minutes into this Wilderness Journey, she would already be facing something like this.
She fought to stay calm, but her body had gone ice-cold.
Had it not been for the young woman opposite her, whose gaze burned with the intensity of a hunter, Yu Nianbing's legs would likely have given way.
Only when Song Shiyue flung something in her direction did Yu Nianbing finally muster the courage to shift her stiff neck and look behind her.
And looking back only made things worse...
The moment she turned, a man's loud shout startled her, and a split second later the cold gleam of a machete flashed in her eyes.
But those were minor details.
The snake...
How had the snake suddenly launched itself into the air and come flying straight at her...
The hideous snake head, the razor-sharp fangs, the crimson flickering tongue...
Yu Nianbing wanted to retreat, but her stiff legs tangled against each other. She barely managed half a step before she began to topple sideways.
Just as Yu Nianbing, terrified, was about to shut her eyes on instinct, she saw the snake arcing toward her suddenly veer off course — it was dropping away to her right.
If not now, when? Flee!
A sudden surge of strength rushed into Yu Nianbing, and she hastily scrambled leftward.
"Ah..." As she shifted, her eyes stayed locked on the snake falling to her right. She had not expected that after only two steps to the left, something would encircle her wrist, and a reflexive yelp of alarm escaped her. She shook her wrist hard and fast, then looked left — only to find it was Song Shiyue.
"It's all right now." Song Shiyue held Yu Nianbing's wrist and, following the momentum of her sidestep, gave a gentle tug that pulled her even closer.
The two of them were suddenly pressed near, as if Yu Nianbing's entire body had been drawn right into Song Shiyue's embrace.
Under normal circumstances, Yu Nianbing would long since have felt that such proximity was improper and would have taken the initiative to put distance between them.
But right now...
Yu Nianbing glanced back at the undergrowth, where the snake seemed to have stopped moving entirely, and couldn't help pressing just a little closer against Song Shiyue.
"It's fine now. This time it's truly dead." Song Shiyue gently rubbed Yu Nianbing's wrist, then added, "At noon I'll roast some snake for you to eat."
Yu Nianbing had been leaning against Song Shiyue, her rigid body slowly relaxing, drawing on the young woman's warm body heat to thaw her icy hands and feet.
She had not expected Song Shiyue to suddenly come out with that. Yu Nianbing couldn't help but give her a light shove. "I'm not eating that. It's terrifying. If you want to eat it, you eat it."
The hand Yu Nianbing used to push Song Shiyue was her left — the very hand whose wrist Song Shiyue had encircled. Whether because her motion was too gentle or Song Shiyue's grip too firm, the shove accomplished nothing: her wrist remained securely held by Song Shiyue, still being gently rubbed.
"Fine, I'll eat it." Having killed the snake, Song Shiyue felt much more at ease now. Yu Nianbing was unharmed, so for the moment, whatever the frightened woman said, that was how it would be.
Perhaps it was the excess of tenderness in Song Shiyue's voice.
Yu Nianbing's rationality gradually returned. She made a subtle attempt to withdraw her wrist, then turned her head to look back at the undergrowth. "Is it really dead?"
While the two of them leaned close and talked, over in the undergrowth, the man who had appeared from who-knew-where, shouted his two warnings, and hacked down with his blade, was now sullenly poking through the grass with his machete.
"Really dead." Song Shiyue lowered her voice. "This time was my fault. From now on, let's try not to separate."
How was that... her fault...
Yu Nianbing turned back and saw the young woman's face, earnestly apologetic.
Was it because... of a life-saving debt?
But that life-saving debt could already be considered settled...
Yu Nianbing fell silent for a moment, then slowly stepped back, putting a bit of distance between herself and Song Shiyue. After a pause, she nodded. "All right."
Forget it. They were livestreaming right now, so it was not convenient to say anything about debts being cleared. She would just consider herself still owing her for the time being, Yu Nianbing told herself.
The two, having reached an accord, both felt their moods improve.
Though one felt vastly better, while the other only felt so-so.
But the man in the undergrowth, who had now sheathed his machete, was not feeling particularly wonderful.
"You — that stone just now, you threw it, right?" The man straightened up and jabbed a finger toward Song Shiyue. "Do you have any idea that, when you encounter a snake in the wild, throwing stones around recklessly can very easily startle the snake? When that happens, not only do you fail to save your companion, you're very likely to provoke the snake and make it attack even sooner."
Song Shiyue found herself on the receiving end of this lecture and couldn't help frowning. "I was not throwing recklessly..."
Yu Nianbing tugged at Song Shiyue's sleeve, cutting off the rest of her words. She turned to the man, her expression carrying a hint of coldness, and asked, "Who are you?"
"Who am I." The man smiled with a degree of self-assurance. "I am your wilderness survival leader for this expedition. You may call me Captain Yang."
Yu Nianbing and Song Shiyue exchanged a look, each reading a measure of exasperation in the other's eyes.
Since he was the expedition leader, that meant, like the production team, he was someone with a certain degree of authority. Even if he seemed somewhat unreliable, some things were better endured, Song Shiyue thought to herself.
But while Song Shiyue was willing to endure, someone else couldn't seem to stop.
"Captain Yang is right. Encountering a snake in the wild is no small matter. This time you got lucky, throwing a wild shot that happened to hit, but Teacher Yu was placed in grave danger." From a distance, Director Zhang suddenly interjected.
Having spoken, Director Zhang ducked back behind the holographic screen and shot a meaningful glance at Zhuang Jiachuan, who stood not far to his right.
Zhuang Jiachuan understood what Director Zhang's look implied. But Song Shiyue... Zhuang Jiachuan couldn't help recalling that day, the chicken pieces she had cleaved with smooth, clean-cut bones, and the potatoes she had snapped apart with her bare hands. To be honest, he did not think that Song Shiyue would be the type to throw stones recklessly, just to show off, with no regard for Yu Nianbing's safety.
So Zhuang Jiachuan pretended not to have seen Director Zhang's look, walking instead toward Song Shiyue and the others.
The remaining cast members had all been standing a fair distance away from Yu Nianbing. The whole incident had happened so fast and so abruptly that they were still struggling to process it, though they all instinctively began walking toward Yu Nianbing, intending to see what the situation was.
"Don't mistake a single stroke of luck for real ability. I hope every one of you will keep your companions' safety at heart. We're here to film a variety program, but out in the wild, anything can happen. Safety must always come before individual performance." With only Director Zhang chiming in to back him up, Captain Yang did not make his meaning too explicit, though his words, both overt and veiled, still carried the intent of blaming Song Shiyue.
Captain Yang's speech, at least on the surface, held the moral high ground.
But while some in the clearing found it convincing, others felt something was off.
The trained eye sees the craft; the untrained eye sees only the spectacle.
Yu Nianbing was no wilderness expert. Yet she could not tolerate this expedition leader going on and on like this.
"Before that, when Captain Yang shouted 'Watch out, there's a snake,' and later 'Don't be afraid, don't move, I'm coming' — were both of those really necessary?" Yu Nianbing regarded Captain Yang with cold eyes. "Throwing a stone might startle a snake. So does shouting like that not startle a snake?"
"The first shout was to warn you to be careful, to give you mental preparation. The second was to tell you not to move — that I was coming, that I would handle it. See, you didn't move after that, and I hacked the snake, didn't I? How can you lump that together with recklessly throwing stones?" Captain Yang frowned as well. These people were turning out to be even more troublesome than the production team had described. Why wasn't this show of authority landing?
"I did not stand still because of you." Yu Nianbing did not like Captain Yang speaking of Song Shiyue that way. Although she had not understood exactly how the snake had been killed, she had indeed only realized she was the person facing the snake because of Song Shiyue, and she had stood still precisely because she trusted that Song Shiyue could smash the snake dead.
Hearing Yu Nianbing say this, Captain Yang's face abruptly darkened, and his tone soured. "There are so many dangers in the wild. Acting like this — you're going to chill the heart of the person who saved you."
"Safety must always come before individual performance." Yu Nianbing raised a hand and touched her own face, murmuring, "Captain Yang, do you not know my name? Even if you didn't before, didn't the production team give you a list of names?"
A hush fell over the entire area.
Up until now, some had felt that Yu Nianbing was being a little too aggressive. But hearing this, it suddenly clicked.
You've spotted a snake. You're about to shout a warning — and you don't think to call out the person's name?
Without a name attached, what good does that do? All it achieves is sending everyone into a panic.
Could the goal have been precisely to send everyone into a panic?
To capture more footage?
With that thought, everyone turned to look at the three members of the production team.
"Did you release that snake?" Ning Chuyang was the first to realize that Captain Yang's entrance had indeed been ostentatious to the point of being suspicious — almost as if he had known the snake was there in advance and had been waiting to watch everyone's flustered reactions.
"Director Zhang?" Guan Yongyi was also somewhat astonished.
Director Zhang kept his eyes fixed on the holographic screen and said nothing.
"This is going too far." Mu Xingzhou strode toward the undergrowth where Yu Nianbing had encountered the snake, passing Captain Yang without sparing him a single glance.
Quickly, Mu Xingzhou rummaged through the grass, then lifted his head. "The snake still has its fangs intact, but I can't tell whether it's venomous or not."
"King cobra... venomous..." Yu Nianbing recalled the snake flying straight at her face and couldn't suppress a small shudder.
"It still has its venomous fangs?" Ning Chuyang looked at Mu Xingzhou to confirm.
Mu Xingzhou nodded. Yes.
"That's not one of our production team's snakes." Wang Daming, seeing the direction Mu Xingzhou's words were taking, knew that if he didn't speak up soon, this program probably wasn't going to be able to continue filming. He hurriedly emerged from behind a large boulder in the distance.
Director Zhang, having heard Mu Xingzhou's words, likewise stopped pretending he couldn't hear their questions. Instead, he turned to Wang Daming. "It wasn't our snake?"
"No!" Wang Daming shook his head vigorously, then raised the two large cloth sacks in his hands. "We haven't even had a chance to release our snakes yet! They're all in here! Fangs removed!"
Director Zhang: "..."
Everyone: "..."
"So that snake just now..." Cold sweat breaking out, Captain Yang hurriedly strode back into the undergrowth.
The snake's head, already turned over from the soil by Mu Xingzhou, lay belly-up, every last venomous fang starkly visible.
A wave of cold sweat broke out all over Captain Yang.
No matter how noble and high-minded his earlier speech had sounded, deep in his heart he had known: it was precisely because he had thought the snake the production team released was a non-biting one that he had dared make such a grandiose entrance...
And in the end, the snake was not the production team's.
And the snake had not been struck down by him first, either.
"It was a wild snake. That was a wild snake." Wang Daming knew in his bones that if he didn't clarify this immediately, the program probably wouldn't need to continue filming at all. After all, what artist in their right mind would want to work alongside a production team that released venomous snakes to bite them?
As he spoke, afraid that everyone still wouldn't believe him, Wang Daming untied the sack and began pulling out snakes.
He pulled one out, pried open its mouth, and showed everyone — truly, no fangs.
Only then did the cast members regain a modicum of trust in the production team.
True, they were still releasing snakes, but at least they were fangless ones, which was considerably more friendly.
Anyone who signed up for this program had anticipated being frightened. It wasn't entirely incomprehensible.
"Ahem... so it wasn't our production team's snake. Thankfully, Captain Yang made his move." Director Zhang did his best to shove the laurels back onto Captain Yang's head. "Let's continue."
The way things had now unfolded — no crisp, heroic snake-slashing pose, no magnificent rescue of the beauty, and the production team nearly imploding — had already veered far, far from the spectacular entrance show Captain Yang had envisioned.
With this bit of praise from Director Zhang, Captain Yang was ready to quit while he was ahead and drop any further notions of using that young woman Song Shiyue to establish his authority.
Yet, Captain Yang might have been ready to let it go, but Yu Nianbing was not willing to let the matter drop just like that.
All those things Captain Yang had earlier said about Song Shiyue sat uncomfortably in her heart, and she worried further that, with the livestream going out, if the audience didn't know the full story and simply deferred to Captain Yang's status, they might be led astray — once again drawing negative attention to Song Shiyue.
Living in harmony with the expedition leader was all well and good, but the prerequisite was that Song Shiyue could not be made to carry a burden that didn't belong to her.
"Right before you threw, you were certain you could hit it, weren't you?" Rather than arguing directly with Captain Yang, Yu Nianbing simply tugged at Song Shiyue's sleeve and asked.
Song Shiyue naturally nodded. "I only threw once I was certain. Why? Did I take too long? Did it frighten you?"
"Afterward, when the snake flew at me but didn't bite me — was that because you threw something else?" Yu Nianbing lifted a hand and touched Song Shiyue's loose, hanging hair. "Where's your hair tie?"
"Didn't I just say I threw my hair tie? Speaking of which, I need to go pick it up. Otherwise it'll be inconvenient having my hair like this all the time." So saying, Song Shiyue made to head toward the undergrowth.
"..." Yu Nianbing kept hold of Song Shiyue's sleeve, refusing to let go.
"What's wrong?" It took Song Shiyue a moment to realize. "Are you scared?"
"I'll split mine with you — half each. Please don't use that one anymore, all right..." Yu Nianbing couldn't quite accept the idea of Song Shiyue walking around in front of her with a hair tie that had struck a snake.
Song Shiyue glanced at the coiled hair rope wound in a loop in Yu Nianbing's hair; it did look quite long.
"Fine, I won't use that one then." Song Shiyue hesitated briefly but ultimately decided to go along with Yu Nianbing's wishes.
What a pity. One of the weapons she had specially prepared...
"That snake... why did it fly up into the air..." Yu Nianbing thought to herself: since the previous two questions had already let Song Shiyue confirm to the audience — first, that striking the snake earlier, and second, that sending the snake flying afterward, were both intentional on her part — then this question, too, was something she could now ask out loud.
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