WS - Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Provocation?

Captain Yang halted his forward steps abruptly, wanting to take a closer look, but Yu Nianbing had already turned her head away and was talking with Song Shiyue.

Did... I see that wrong?

No, I didn't.

Earlier, when they encountered the snake, Yu Nianbing was right. Captain Yang, as a modern person who could use StarNet, even if he didn't have much leisure time, had long heard of Yu Nianbing, who was so popular on StarNet.

But according to online rumors, shouldn't she be an extremely arrogant, cold, and unsociable person?

When they encountered the snake earlier, Yu Nianbing had come forward and said so much; that could be excused as an abnormal reaction due to fear and excitement from nearly becoming a victim.

But now...

The provocation in that gaze, and the disgust hidden behind the provocation, poured over him like a bucket of cold water, chilling Captain Yang and sobering him somewhat from the anger of having his authority challenged.

This time, Captain Yang's purpose in joining The Wilderness Journey was not simply to participate in a wilderness survival reality show. What he had his eyes on were Wilderness Planet and the Mingtan System.

Wilderness survival was still a niche interest, and while Captain Yang's business had been booming in the Changhui System in recent years, it was beginning to hit a bottleneck. Just then, the production team of The Wilderness Journey extended him an invitation, like a pillow delivered just as he was nodding off.

It was said that Wilderness Planet had undergone a grain-to-forest conversion, transforming from an agricultural planet into a primitive one over more than a decade in a new effort to harmonize humans and nature. In Captain Yang's view, though, wasn't it still a commercial enterprise? If it weren't for commercialization, why open it up? Why do a reality show to make a name for it?

But whatever the case, the opening of Wilderness Planet and its commercialization were a new opportunity for Captain Yang.

Before coming to Wilderness Planet, Captain Yang had a meeting with The Wilderness Journey production team and people from the Mu Group. Once he confirmed that the Mu Group indeed intended to add different wilderness survival maps as part of opening up Wilderness Planet, Captain Yang became determined to secure that piece of business.

As long as the Mu Group people saw his professionalism and abilities during this edition of The Wilderness Journey, he would have a chance to participate in their Wilderness Planet development plans.

This was an entire wilderness planet; compared to his original idea of using the show as a springboard to expand his business across the whole system, this wilderness planet was clearly a much greater temptation.

But the greater the temptation and hope, the more his lust for power made him unable to accept changes to the plan or momentary failure.

It was only that one glance from Yu Nianbing that cooled Captain Yang down a little from his feverish dream of dominating a planet.

Sure, establishing team authority and a voice in decisions was important.

But being disliked by a celebrity as hot as Yu Nianbing was by no means a good thing either.

Captain Yang himself had taken the path of building his personal brand through outstanding professional skills, attracting former fans to start a company, and using his personal image to further promote his company's business.

He naturally understood just how powerful the celebrity effect could be.

Still... too impatient.

Some thoughts and emotions should have been concealed better, and some things should have been done more in the shadows.

With that thought, Captain Yang no longer considered walking toward Song Shiyue and the others. Instead, he retreated a few steps, returning to his original position. The originally gloomy expression on his face gradually faded, and he didn't stop this metamorphosis until his face bore a measure of mildness and ease.

As for Yu Nianbing, who was talking with Song Shiyue, she could never have imagined that all the risky words Director Zhang had chased after them to say earlier would prove less effective than a single look from her.

The plump tuber that Song Shiyue had quickly dug out was, after Yu Nianbing's repeated inspection, confirmed to be edible jicama.

"How do we eat this? The same as potatoes?" Song Shiyue asked, hefting the jicama in her hand.

"Jicama is similar to potatoes; they're both starchy tubers with decent nutrition. You can cook them and eat them as a staple," Yu Nianbing glanced at Song Shiyue, thought a moment, and added, "Actually, they can be eaten raw too. Some people think the raw texture is like water chestnuts. But for me, I always find eating it raw has an earthy taste."

Earthy taste, huh...

Song Shiyue rubbed the mud off the jicama with her hand and sniffed it.

Well, yep, it really does.

In the time it took them to exchange a few words, the others had also dug out the remaining jicama one after another.

There were only a few jicama plants by this tree; counting the one Song Shiyue dug out first, they had harvested just two large and four small—six jicamas in total.

The two large ones each looked to be about half a kilogram. The small ones were noticeably smaller; the slightly bigger ones were only about half the size of the large ones, and the smallest was less than a third as big. Altogether, they added up to just over one and a half kilograms.

Unfortunately, when Yu Nianbing used the tree as a center and expanded the search area, she didn't spot any more plants resembling jicama.

But having a harvest was better than having none. At least...

Yu Nianbing looked at Song Shiyue, who was busily wiping mud from the jicamas and bagging them, her face full of cheer.

Yu Nianbing gave a slight shake of her head, yet a little happiness rose in her heart, gently diluting the displeasure from earlier, when they'd been under the production team's thumb.

The waterproof bags Ning Chuyang had contributed earlier once again proved useful.

Thinking of the clothes she had rewrapped in her own bag, Yu Nianbing regretted not having followed Ning Chuyang's example and wrapped her clothes in multiple layers of waterproof bags.

But when it came to preparation, how could anyone foresee absolutely everything?

So Yu Nianbing could only watch as Ning Chuyang beamed and received Song Shiyue's praise.

This time, no one needed to take a personal break; even though Yu Nianbing spent a little time checking whether any jicama had escaped their notice, it still went faster than the earlier wild ginger digging.

The team set out again, and some members noticed that Captain Yang seemed considerably more normal than his vaguely irritable earlier self, though they had no idea why.

Among those members, naturally, was Yu Nianbing.

From Captain Yang's different reactions when they first found the wild ginger and the jicama, Yu Nianbing could basically confirm that the production team had indeed transplanted plants along their path.

After all, they were doing a wilderness survival show; compared to handing out boxed meals directly, this method was indeed more subtle, more in line with the show's theme, and more interesting to watch. It was just... also easier for someone to exploit.

Captain Yang must have deliberately led them on a detour. Although she didn't know how many production-placed items they had missed, at least they'd managed to harvest a few catties of jicama.

This time, by sheer coincidence, they'd still reaped something.

What about next time?

On an altered route, could they be lucky enough to encounter useful plants every time?

Even if they did, her own knowledge of plants was only superficial; would she be able to identify them every time?

Relying on luck alone, how full could they eat, and how far could they walk?

After harvesting the jicama, the team moved on in even greater silence.

It seemed everyone was thinking about something.

Captain Yang was reflecting; Yu Nianbing was calculating; and Zhuang Jiachuan's unease didn't seem all that special in comparison.

Yes, unease.

While digging the jicama earlier, Zhuang Jiachuan had finally realized that Captain Yang's waning authority was no good thing for most of the team—including himself.

Most of the team were, after all, just ordinary people.

They had neither Song Shiyue's seemingly somewhat extraordinary strength, nor Yu Nianbing's ability to identify edible plants.

Zhuang Jiachuan did know a little about the production team's arrangements. Only a little, but enough for him to judge that if Captain Yang had held firm as leader, he would have followed the production team's intent and arranged things for them.

Whether it was challenges or ordeals, the production team's opportunities for screen time were still fairly evenly distributed; even if there was some bias, he himself would have been the favored one.

But now, because of that earlier snake incident, the team seemed to have shut Captain Yang out. Captain Yang had no say, seemed still caught up in his own emotions, and made no effort to integrate into the team, let alone arrange anything for them...

So the team naturally began to highlight Song Shiyue's and Yu Nianbing's abilities.

If this were genuine wilderness survival, they could simply follow capable people and switch leaders—nothing dramatic.

But this was a reality show... Zhuang Jiachuan was starting to find that without the production team's arrangements, he couldn't seem to do anything particularly interesting. If he wanted screen time, all he could do was play assistant to Song Shiyue.

It had been that way with killing the snake, with digging the ginger, and with unearthing the jicama.

That kind of screen time, though he had actively sought it out, wasn't what he really wanted.

Fortunately, after the jicama dig this time, Captain Yang seemed to have returned to normal a bit. Zhuang Jiachuan could now only pray that Captain Yang would step it up from here on; otherwise, he wouldn't even know where to start trying to help.

As Yu Nianbing had expected, the team walked diagonally leftward for a few minutes and then resumed going straight. This once again validated her earlier suspicion about the detour.

On the next stretch of the path, no matter how carefully Yu Nianbing observed, she didn't spot any plants of special note. Very soon, the team arrived at the designated noon rest area.

By now, it was close to one in the afternoon.

The noon rest spot didn't seem particularly special either; it was merely the point where their straight line ended with a short left turn out of the woods, arriving at the bank of a small stream.

"Alright, this is our noon rest spot. Since it's already quite late, we have to shorten the break to arrive at tonight's camp before dark. We'll head out in one hour," Captain Yang said, then pointed at the stream. "Before we leave, remember to refill your water bottles."

"One hour. One is enough," Song Shiyue murmured to herself, then looked toward Director Zhang on the production team side. "Will Director Zhang lend us a pot?"

"And seasonings," Ning Chuyang added. "We took down such a dangerous snake all by ourselves, allowing the show to keep filming. That kind of contribution ought to be worth some seasonings, right?"

Director Zhang: "..."

Feng Qianqian, who was nearby, walked over to Director Zhang's side and whispered, "Director Zhang, they've put it that way—we can't say no."

"Give them a little salt," Director Zhang said, glancing at the backpack on Wang Daming, and added, "Tell them the pot will be at tonight's camp. It isn't here right now."

"We have stainless-steel lunchboxes..." Feng Qianqian's words were cut off halfway by a glare from Director Zhang; she had to swallow the rest of her sentence.

Wang Daming dug a bag of salt from his pack and was about to walk over when Director Zhang raised a hand and added, "Just give them enough for those few snake pieces."

Because of all this hemming and hawing from the production team, it took a good while before Wang Daming came over to the artists carrying a small plastic bag with a scoop of salt and relayed Director Zhang's words about the pot.

The words didn't sound false. After all, a pot was so heavy; carrying it while walking was less practical than placing it at the camp in advance—that was perfectly reasonable. Likewise, their daily change of clothes had long ago been handed to the production team and placed at each night's camp.

But... Yu Nianbing's gaze darkened.

If no pot had been prepared for midday, then that meant the production team had originally intended to provide the artists' lunch.

Normally speaking, walking over from the aircraft took just over an hour; besides the production team's snake, there was no way they could quickly acquire any ingredients. Either the original plan was for this midday meal to be the snake Captain Yang killed—which would have had to be roasted—or some other arrangement had been made.

So which was more likely?

Now that the production team was keeping mum about the arrangements, did that mean even if they had originally planned to cover lunch, they absolutely wouldn't bring it out now?

Just as Yu Nianbing was racking her brain trying to unravel the production team's original plan, Song Shiyue suddenly poked her from the side and said, "Why do you look so worried? Is it because there's no pot?"

Who would be worried about having no pot? Who had agreed to be the lunch cook?

Already tracing the slender, fragmented threads in her mind to fish out the truth, Yu Nianbing found herself interrupted and once again plunged into a state of both exasperation and amusement. What else could she do?

The issues she was mulling over were impossible to voice aloud. Seeing the concern written all over Song Shiyue's face, Yu Nianbing could only nod against her conscience.

Yu Nianbing had assumed that a casual nod would end the topic. She never imagined that this nod would lead to a major problem.

"Don't worry." Believing she had correctly identified the source of Yu Nianbing's deep worry, Song Shiyue said confidently, "When I was searching for a stone knife in the stream earlier, I also felt quite a few big rocks with hollows. I'll go find one, and we'll have ourselves a stone pot."

"Hold on." Startled, Yu Nianbing hurriedly grabbed hold of Song Shiyue, who was about to set off. "We don't need a pot. Roasting will be fine."

"Didn't you say jicama is like potatoes? Boiling them with water makes them more filling, so we can save some food for the next meal," Song Shiyue said, reaching back to pat the water bottle in her pack's side pocket. "And if we can, boiling some hot water is safer than drinking straight from the stream."

"Didn't we get vaccinated and take medicine before coming?" Ning Chuyang couldn't help but interject. "You got vaccinated and took medicine, didn't you?"

"I did, and I did. But whenever you can, you should go the safer route. Only by being careful in everything can you survive longer." Song Shiyue's face was completely earnest.

Zhuang Jiachuan, standing nearby, really wanted to say: We're filming a show, not trying to survive in this wilderness indefinitely... Where on earth did this girl's even fiercer will to survive than the team leader come from?!

Yu Nianbing's thoughts somewhat resembled Zhuang Jiachuan's, except that in the split-second her mind wandered, the sleeve she was holding slipped from her grasp. Before she could make another attempt to stop her, Song Shiyue had already dashed toward the stream...

How could there possibly be a rock in the water that was exactly like a pot?!

She was definitely going to churn up the water, then secretly carve a stone underwater again!

Was she seriously applying a newly learned skill this quickly and to this extent?!

This girl...

So frustrated that she couldn't help but press a hand to her chest, Yu Nianbing let out a soft sigh.

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