WS - Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The day wasn't even half over, and Captain Yang had already had quite enough.

He'd led plenty of corporate groups and student groups, but none had been as difficult as this celebrity bunch.

They'd been spoiled by soft, pampered days. People who'd never tasted hardship: starve them a couple of meals, exhaust them for a couple of days, and they'd learn who was worth relying on.

Captain Yang wrestled his anger under control and resolved to be a man of his word.

Not long after Song Shiyue had practically dug up an entire patch of wild scallions, the party advanced to a three-way fork. Captain Yang spotted, at a single glance, a small patch of wild ginger half-hidden in the grass beside the path ahead.

Hah.

Let them stuff themselves.

Captain Yang sneered inwardly, fixed his gaze straight ahead, and marched forward without breaking stride.

He'd taken only seven or eight steps when he heard a stir behind him.

In his heart, for reasons he couldn't name, a foreboding premonition suddenly rose.

Captain Yang halted and slowly turned his head.

He saw, upon that patch of wild ginger he had deliberately ignored, a familiar figure, a familiar stone knife, a familiar brisk efficiency...

"Wonderful, now we've got scallions and ginger both, plus the lemongrass. It's like getting exactly what we wished for." Ning Chuyang's voice was light and bright, crashing into Captain Yang's ears like a fluttering little bird.

"I walked right past here and didn't notice a thing—my eyes really are hopeless. Thank goodness for Teacher Yu. Wild ginger is excellent stuff; not only does it get rid of gaminess, but if someone catches a chill, you can slice it and boil it in water to make them sweat." Zhuang Jiachuan, the one supposedly under a cooperation agreement with the production team, was overflowing with praise.

"If the sleeping arrangements tonight are rough, this wild ginger will really come in handy. Look closely—it's a whole little yellow patch of wild ginger, and none of us picked it out. Good thing Teacher Yu spotted it." Mu Xingzhou's words were full of admiration; clearly he was praising Yu Nianbing, yet Captain Yang heard in them mockery directed at himself.

Every word fell upon Captain Yang's ears, and as his gaze shifted toward Song Shiyue, who was laboring to dig up the ginger, his look grew darker and darker.

Everyone crowded around Song Shiyue in the ginger patch, some helping to gather ginger, some bagging it, some singing praises: everyone looked very busy. Hardly anyone paid attention to Captain Yang, who had been walking at the head of the group and had pulled some distance ahead.

It was only when Ning Chuyang, after bending to help pick up ginger for a long while, straightened up to stretch that she noticed Captain Yang still standing ahead, staring fixedly their way.

To be precise, staring at Song Shiyue digging ginger.

"Captain Yang misjudged things this time." Ning Chuyang didn't hesitate, her voice cutting straight through Captain Yang's unfriendly gaze.

At those words, Captain Yang's stare indeed shifted away from Song Shiyue.

Startled by someone, the gloom in his eyes was partly concealed by conscious effort, though he still couldn't manage a friendly facade in time.

Ning Chuyang, of course, saw that, and went on with a smile: "Guess you could say we've surpassed our teacher, right?"

Two sentences, like two heavy punches, landed square on Captain Yang's chest, nearly shattering a mask already poorly held in place.

This is a livestream!

After Song Shiyue, Captain Yang now also began strenuously reminding himself of that fact.

Strenuously he held his face together, then forced a smile onto his strained expression. Captain Yang hoped his smile conveyed magnanimity and cheerful acceptance, though he knew it probably did not.

Squatting beside Song Shiyue, helping her tidy the wild ginger, Yu Nianbing had lifted her head toward Captain Yang the moment Ning Chuyang first opened her mouth. She had been hesitating, wondering whether she should intervene, when Ning Chuyang landed a second blow without even pausing.

The earlier incident: Captain Yang had certainly been out of line. But they were in the wilderness, and he was a team leader who sided with the production team; it wouldn't do to offend him to the point of no return.

One, then two: these people really were fearless.

Yu Nianbing sighed and raised a hand to tug at Ning Chuyang's hem.

But having tugged it, she felt a momentary daze.

Other people's business, what did it have to do with her? These people, their lives, they could steer them on their own. If they couldn't, that was their own choice. Her interference might not be help, merely what she herself imagined was for their own good.

Without hesitation, Yu Nianbing let go of Ning Chuyang's hem.

Ning Chuyang, following the pull, looked over just in time to catch a flash of resolution at the corner of Yu Nianbing's eye.

"What's wrong?" Ning Chuyang squatted down, confusion written across her face.

Right then, Director Zhang's voice rang out from not far away.

"The vegetation here is thick. Anyone who needs to take care of personal business can go now. We'll rest here for ten minutes." Director Zhang's voice was steady and firm.

"What's going on?" Song Shiyue stopped what she was doing and looked at the person beside her. "Does the production team actually pick spots for us to handle personal business?"

"Pfft..." Ning Chuyang couldn't help bursting into laughter.

"..." Yu Nianbing gave Song Shiyue's hand a light poke, then looked toward Captain Yang up ahead.

Song Shiyue followed her gaze.

Captain Yang wasn't looking this way; he was looking farther back, toward where Director Zhang stood.

"I'm going." Captain Yang announced it loudly, then headed toward a grove of trees to the side.

This time the loudness wasn't emotion; it was protocol.

At the thought of protocol, Yu Nianbing couldn't resist glancing at Song Shiyue, who hadn't even remembered the wristband rules. "You do know, right? Once the show starts, when you need to... take care of personal business outdoors, you have to say it out loud in front of everyone, so everyone knows which direction you went. That way you avoid two people running into each other."

"I remember," Song Shiyue said, looking baffled. "What about it? Do you want to go? Want me to announce it for you?"

"No, it's nothing. Ha..." Yu Nianbing couldn't hold back a breath of air, and it turned, with practiced ease, into a soft laugh.

"If you need help, you have to tell me." Song Shiyue looked utterly earnest, though after Yu Nianbing shot her a glare, she didn't press further.

What goes through that woman's head every day... Yu Nianbing glared at Song Shiyue, momentarily unwilling to speak with her any further, and looked again, on her own, toward the production team's position at the back of the line.

As expected, Director Zhang was gone.

He wants to use the time while Captain Yang's shielded to go talk to him...

Yu Nianbing's mind turned to guessing what had passed between Director Zhang and Captain Yang, and for a moment she didn't notice the utterly different attitudes she held toward Ning Chuyang and Song Shiyue.

Yu Nianbing wasn't the only one among these people who'd noticed Captain Yang and Director Zhang disappear at the same time.

The instant Director Zhang signaled for everyone to take care of personal business, Zhuang Jiachuan sensed something was off. Sure enough, he then saw Captain Yang and Director Zhang lock eyes, and even watched the two of them leave, one after the other, heading in the same direction.

Upon entering Wilderness Planet—or more precisely, when the formal contracts were signed—the production team had held a separate meeting with Zhuang Jiachuan. They had discussed giving him certain conveniences on the show to showcase himself, and revealed a few tasks he could train for in advance. In return, Zhuang Jiachuan was to act as an inside man for the production team, at the right moment leading everyone to make the expected response.

The earlier business with the production team releasing the snakes: Zhuang Jiachuan hadn't known about that either. But he was supposed to, upon Captain Yang's arrival, be the first to show gratitude, respect, even admiration, so as to foster a favorable impression of Captain Yang among the other cast members.

Regrettably, in barely an instant, everything had spun beyond the production team's intentions.

Captain Yang's decline was, for the moment, irreversible. Zhuang Jiachuan, for the time being, chose to preserve himself and side with the others.

Still, this little trick of the production team—signaling everyone to handle personal business so they could communicate on the fly—was something Zhuang Jiachuan also knew about. So one look told him: Director Zhang had business with Captain Yang.

It seemed even Director Zhang couldn't stand watching any longer. A pity, though, even with the production team propping him up, this Captain Yang probably wasn't going to rise again.

Zhuang Jiachuan glanced at Song Shiyue, who had finished digging up the wild ginger patch and was beaming with delight, then shifted his gaze to the earnest-faced Yu Nianbing at her side. In silence, he lit a candle for Captain Yang.

Compared to Yu Nianbing with her guesswork and Zhuang Jiachuan who already knew the trick, it was still the viewers on StarNet who saw everything most clearly.

In Captain Yang's livestream window, not long after he turned and left, he became a patch of mosaic beside a thick clump of vegetation.

He'd activated the privacy shield button. For five minutes, Captain Yang was nothing but a soundless patch of mosaic.

If that were all, there'd really be nothing to see.

What made it interesting was this: a few viewers who had both Director Zhang's and Captain Yang's livestream windows open noticed that the two men, one after the other, had passed through roughly the same terrain. Director Zhang, in fact, was heading directly toward Captain Yang.

And while Director Zhang was still on his way, Captain Yang had already become a patch of mosaic.

That made those few viewers even more alarmed, wondering whether they were about to witness an awkward moment that even mosaic couldn't cover. They hurried off to the other livestream windows to shout a couple of alerts.

In the information age, a click takes you anywhere; speed is that fast.

Director Zhang had just come to a stop, and the viewer counts in both livestream windows were already skyrocketing.

"Witnessing a historical moment."

"Witnessing the show falling apart half a day in."

"Witnessing the historic meeting of wild outdoor bathroom breaks."

Such seal-of-witness danmaku flooded both their screens.

And interspersed among them...

"They're both men—even if they ran into each other, it's no big deal."

"Maybe they just had the same idea and picked the same tree."

Such danmaku seemed to be preemptively defending the two men.

Unfortunately, the Same-Sex Marriage Act had already passed. In the eyes of the melon-eating masses, same-sex or opposite-sex, everyone should avoid impropriety, or else there were melons to be plucked.

And so those few scattered defenses were quickly submerged under a tide of witness-bearing danmaku.

This day, from the snakes to Captain Yang, the production team had already served the audience more than enough surprises.

They had originally thought that Director Zhang's imminent collision with the mosaic-blurred, bathroom-business-handling Captain Yang would be the day's second-greatest surprise—right after the snakes—that the production team had to offer.

They never imagined that some things still had a much lower floor to fall through.

"Waaah, who's Director Zhang talking to?"

"Isn't there no StarNet client anymore? That doesn't look like a video feed—could he be talking to himself?"

"Nonsense—has The Wilderness Journey turned into a supernatural show?"

"There's no one around! Aaahhh! Waaah... Is the camera broken, or is Director Zhang broken?!"

"Too scared to watch—waaah, somebody save the children..."

"Is anyone from the production team watching? Can anyone see this? Has Director Zhang gone mad?"

"Is Director Zhang doing this on purpose? Scaring us on purpose? Waaah waaah waaah..."

"I hope the camera's broken, or else our little Chuanchuan will be traveling with a madman, aaaah!"

"Sister Song, please throw a rock at Director Zhang—just testing..."

"If anything, you should throw a crucifix or a silver bullet."

"Waaah, I beg Sister Song to rescue our Little Ice Block—I'm willing to turn into a little mooncake. – From a trembling Little Ice Bucket."

The moment Director Zhang came to a stop and spoke his first words into the air—"Don't get yourself worked up over the things they do, or the real trouble's still waiting down the line"—the danmaku on the StarNet livestream windows erupted into chaos.

In mere seconds, screens and screens of trembling danmaku rolled past.

Until one danmaku appeared.

"Attention! Attention! Please compare with the route Captain Yang just walked—I deduce that Director Zhang is standing right beside Captain Yang right now, and exactly at a spot Captain Yang's camera can't capture! Attention! Attention!"

This danmaku was posted twice. Because of its length, it stood out quite prominently amid all the wailing.

Very quickly, an expert posted a link. Clicking it brought up three comparison images: one was a screenshot of Director Zhang's current video, one a screenshot of Captain Yang's current mosaic-blurred video, and the final one was a screenshot of Captain Yang while he was walking on the path.

Three images: looking at any one alone, it was hard to see much. But placed side by side, the problem jumped out at once.

The spot where Director Zhang stood now was exactly where Captain Yang had just walked past. And the shots currently captured by their two cameras, though neither camera had caught the other person, showed scenery that already partly overlapped.

In other words, Director Zhang had already walked up beside Captain Yang and was now talking to him.

It was just that Captain Yang had activated the privacy shield: such shielding turned Captain Yang into mosaic while also muting the audio on Captain Yang's livestream page. That was why Director Zhang's voice didn't appear in Captain Yang's livestream window.

So the so-called reality show without a script still couldn't do without private communications, after all.

If Director Zhang hadn't also been given a livestream window, they'd all have been fooled.

With the appearance of this expert, the screenfuls of wailing in Director Zhang's and Captain Yang's livestream windows rapidly vanished, and tech analysts and deduction experts emerged one after another.

"Director Zhang can not only see the cast members' livestream feeds—he definitely also has a technique for judging when he's entering a shot."

"Right! How else could he stand in such a perfect position? Barely a hair's breadth from entering Captain Yang's frame! (Image attached.)"

"What happened to the promised StarNet intelligent filming? How can the camera angles—shifting up, down, near, and far—have a safe zone?"

"Strongly suspect Director Zhang has some other device on him that can influence the cameras or give him better judgment!"

"The production team really is bad. First the snakes, now conferring in private. If the production people hadn't had their own livestream windows, we'd all be getting played."

"Originally I thought the production team's livestream windows were an utter waste; now it seems they're really rather thrilling."

"The human heart, ah, the human heart. Wild survival—with the human heart added in, that makes a complete Wilderness Journey!"

On Wilderness Planet, Director Zhang, convinced he was standing in a safe position, remained utterly oblivious to what was happening on StarNet.

The look Captain Yang had cast at the cast members earlier had struck him as truly ominous, which was why, when the first day wasn't even half over, he'd spoken up to draw the man out.

Now, naturally, he had to seize the moment to talk him round.

"You didn't point out that wild ginger patch to them earlier—seems you also wanted them to go hungry for a bit and learn to appreciate your help." Director Zhang looked at Captain Yang, leaning against the tree, with a kind of exasperated disappointment. "Since you'd already decided to hold back, you ought to keep your glares and temper in check as well. Don't let poor control get broadcast out. It's no good for you, and no good for our show either."

Director Zhang's words struck exactly at what Captain Yang had been thinking earlier. On that point, Captain Yang had nothing to refute.

Only, those few words made the StarNet viewers blow up all over again.

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