WS - Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Captain Yang was practically one of the production team's own, so naturally his boxed meal wasn't skimped on; they gave him a full portion.
Only...
The box that was broken at one corner with juices leaking out, and the chicken leg inside bearing several teeth marks, really made it hard to feel happy.
Captain Yang shook the juice off his left hand expressionlessly, the displeasure churning in his heart nearly bursting out.
A few days ago, before filming started, when the production team held a meeting, they mentioned that the first day's boxed meals were ordered from Qianjiang Tower, a famous boxed-meal restaurant on Mingtan Prime where lines often took three or four hours. Captain Yang had felt a small sense of anticipation.
Now there was no need to talk about anticipation. That lunch box, made of assembled wooden pieces and wrapped in off-white plain paper, was missing a corner. The torn paper, the broken wood pieces, it was clearly chewed up, and you could tell at a glance it wasn't bitten by anyone from the production team.
Only... the Dog they'd brought along; its actions naturally couldn't be separated from them.
Also, hadn't the guests' boxed meals all been saved? Did they have to give him the one the Dog had chewed on? A boxed meal this full — could it be that they'd divvied up the six extra portions? Weren't they afraid of stuffing themselves so full they couldn't walk?
On the one hand, he didn't consider himself the captain; on the other, were they no longer treating him like a human being at all?
Captain Yang was furious, but he couldn't let his anger show. He simply didn't control his strength well, and the wooden lunch box inevitably creaked in his grip, deforming slightly.
It has to be said, in this matter, the production team really wasn't deliberate. If anyone was to blame, probably only half the fault could be pinned on Wang Daming.
Earlier, when Feng Qianqian took out the boxed meals, Director Zhang told her to put them under a tree and wait a moment. Feng Qianqian watched them carefully and even shooed away the Dog twice when it wandered back. Later, Wang Daming returned from the stream empty-handed. After Feng Qianqian gave a few instructions, she went off to take care of personal business. Wang Daming had done physical work at the stream and was starving; on top of that, Director Zhang had questions for him, so he grabbed his own boxed meal and ate while answering. In that brief window of gulping down his food, the Dog, returning with a little fish in its mouth, seized the chance.
Feng Qianqian had been meticulous earlier: when she set aside the meals, she'd spread large leaves under the boxes. Wang Daming shoveled down his own portion without looking carefully, and delivered Captain Yang's meal along with the big leaves underneath.
Wang Daming was careless, but the viewers on StarNet were watching with great interest.
Especially when Wang Daming was talking with Director Zhang with his back to the big tree where the boxed meals were placed, the Dog padded softly into the frame from the lower right. Wang Daming's livestream window switched angles and gave the Dog a close-up that lasted over a minute.
From biting through the box layer by layer, to accurately hooking out part of the chicken leg with its paw and taking a bite, to quickly pushing the chicken leg back into the little hole in the box when Wang Daming turned around, then calmly and swiftly pretending nothing had happened as it walked away — the whole process was a classic performance of snack theft.
Fortunately for the viewers, Captain Yang had already lost popular support. The Dog's prankish theft now became a model act of venting the people's frustrations. Aside from a few saintly, hand-wringing viewers, the livestream page was flooded with praise. The Dog was hailed as the production team's only conscience, and danmaku jokingly demanding the production team give the Dog its own separate livestream page blanketed half the screen.
Luckily, Captain Yang couldn't hear a single word of these cheers for the Dog on StarNet. Otherwise, right now it probably wouldn't be just clenching his fists in anger — he might've fainted from sheer rage.
This is a livestream... Captain Yang silently repeated in his heart. And by now, he had surpassed Song Shiyue to become the person who had silently recited that self-reminder more times than anyone since filming began.
Back when he did wilderness survival training on Changhui Planet, as a team leader, leading the way in eating bugs was commonplace. Now, what was a chicken leg that the Dog had taken one bite of? Captain Yang silently gave himself a psychological pep talk, trying to show some breezy, nonchalant resignation toward the broken box and the chicken leg missing a piece.
However, bugs were a gimmick; a chicken leg bitten by the Dog was more like an insult. Captain Yang's effort to put on a graceful show of resignation still ended up with a somewhat grim expression on his face.
Although the boxed meal was large, given Captain Yang's appetite, he could eat nearly all of it, and if he pushed himself a little, he could finish it very cleanly.
A few days ago, when the production team discussed this, Captain Yang had already thought it through: those actors who were always thinking about losing weight definitely wouldn't finish a portion this size. When the time came, he would polish off his own boxed meal completely, then give them a good lecture about how precious food was in the wilderness. The weather was still a bit warm, so leftovers couldn't be saved for them to eat in the evening, but punishment was still possible. The production team had prepared plenty of little bugs and specifically instructed that the guests should eat them on top of it all, so it would be even more of a spectacle. The lower he pushed people down, the more beneficial it would be for establishing his authority and subsequent management. Of course Captain Yang had no objection to that.
Only, plans always fail to keep up with changes.
After being angered for a whole morning and then receiving a lunch like this, Captain Yang had no appetite left whatsoever.
On top of that, the food had gone cold, the tomato-sauce pork chops were stuck to the rice, and even though it came from the famous Qianjiang Tower, it really didn't stir any appetite.
Captain Yang barely managed a few bites of the pork chop, and with the help of the other stir-fried dishes, he forced down a little less than half the rice, but he simply couldn't eat any more.
Originally, before starting to eat, Captain Yang had thought he might gnaw a couple of bites from the half of the chicken leg the Dog hadn't touched when he was almost done, just as a bit of show, to demonstrate the un-fussiness and lack of squeamishness needed to survive in the wilderness.
But he couldn't even finish the food the Dog hadn't touched, and looking at that chicken leg now — even one more glance made him want to throw up.
It wasn't that the chicken leg was so disgusting; it was just that Captain Yang felt his self-esteem had been punched down all day, and now it had been trampled under the Dog's paws. He truly felt too uncomfortable inside.
The viewers on StarNet didn't care whether Captain Yang's shattered pride could be glued back together. All they could see was a boxed meal more than half uneaten.
Never mind the chicken leg obviously bitten by the Dog; the pork chop that was in another compartment together with the rice had barely been touched, the stir-fried veggies and rice were more than half left, and the soup container hadn't even been opened...
Looking at the other windows nearby: the stone pot had been picked up and scraped clean; the leaf bowls were taken apart and the last drop of soup drunk; even the snake bones that had been simmered once for broth were being dried over the fire to bring along — too precious to throw away... It was a scene of such thrifty living that it would move any onlooker to tears and break their heart.
By such contrast, the viewers discovered that Captain Yang's image could, in fact, sink even lower.
Captain Yang's boxed meal was practically untouched, but in that same short time, the six people over at the stone stove had finished every drop in their bowls and scraped the pot clean.
Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing rinsed the snake bones with water, propped them on a few branches, and dried them over the fire that had previously roasted the snake meat, turning them into dried snake bones that could be further stored.
During this time, the others hadn't been idle either: the pot of water that had been set aside to cool was poured into the water bottles.
Zhuang Jiachuan helped fill the last bottle. Looking at the small amount of water left in the pot, he ultimately didn't bring up the idea of sharing it with Captain Yang or the production team again.
Over there, they ate boxed meals; over here, they ate a venomous snake. Even if the snake was delicious, Zhuang Jiachuan couldn't bring himself to say such obsequious words right now.
Still, in the end, he had to sigh silently in his heart.
After all, this type of variety show actually had some similarities to filming a drama.
In filming, there are always male and female leads, then main supporting roles, minor supporting roles, walk-on parts...
And variety shows, of course, don't make everything as clearly divided as in a script. But when it comes to the weight given by star status, it's already a tacit rule. Even livestreamed variety shows that boast about having no script still have arrangements made during the initial setup of the program.
Just like in this season of "The Wilderness Journey," the production team also had a positioning for each person. Zhuang Jiachuan wasn't about to compete with Yu Nianbing or Mu Xingzhou for viewer traffic, but as the saying goes, "Men and women working together makes light work." The production team's initial setup had pair groups. Three men and three women, split into three pairs. Mu Xingzhou was popular, but wasn't he currently dating Ning Chuyang? Of course they would be paired together. And one of the reasons Zhuang Jiachuan agreed to help the production team as an insider — to cheer when needed, to lend a hand when needed — was that his partner would be Yu Nianbing.
If it were a few years ago, when Zhuang Jiachuan had just won the Golden Planet Best Actor award, or around that time — when he was full of ambition and still un-famous, or just starting to fall on hard times — he wouldn't have been so desperately calculating. But... circumstances were stronger than the person.
The benefits of being paired with Yu Nianbing were truly too many.
But... Zhuang Jiachuan tightened the lid on the water bottle in his hand and glanced at Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing, who were packing the snake bones together.
This girl Song Shiyue — he had no idea where she'd sprung from — was like a sharp sword that had slipped off the scabbard of "rules," hacking the production team's arrangements to pieces in just a few moves, without the slightest bit of the entertainment industry's diplomacy or the friendliness one had to maintain at all times...
Come to think of it, the grouping should be done sooner rather than later. By all accounts, it would be set up either during today's noon break or in the evening at camp. Now, the production team hadn't spoken up for a long time, and Captain Yang's attitude was somewhat cold. The punishment of eating bugs at noon, which had been mentioned back at the Old Castle, had not been carried out either. It seemed like a lot of things had gotten messy. He wondered if the production team's grouping segment would still happen...
Ah... life was hard. Zhuang Jiachuan sighed again.
But very soon, Zhuang Jiachuan would learn that some of his worries had been for nothing.
When Captain Yang climbed back up the slope from the edge of the forest below to the area near the stone stoves, the six had pretty much finished packing up.
As for the noon break, one hour had definitely been exceeded by a bit, but Captain Yang had also gone overtime to eat his boxed meal, so he couldn't well raise it.
Looking at the six in front of him, refreshed and clearly well-fed and hydrated, Captain Yang recalled his own meal with the Dog's teeth marks and couldn't help feeling some regret.
If he'd known earlier, he wouldn't have gone down to eat that meal; he would've come straight over when the time was up and made them stop.
Let's see if they'd still be this happy if they couldn't finish eating and drinking.
A bit of malice surfaced in Captain Yang's heart, though he tried hard not to show it on his face.
Only... the words "let's set out" that had been on the tip of his tongue took a detour and were swallowed back down.
Captain Yang glanced again at the two stone stoves, the pile of extinguished campfire, and the two stone pots that were practically empty, just a shallow layer of water left.
Pretty impressive, huh.
Eating so well, so full, so satisfied, are you?
Very good.
"The noon rest is over. Before we set off, I want to remind everyone of something you should all still remember." Captain Yang smiled amiably, but the chill in his eyes wouldn't dissipate. "When we set out this morning, those who violated the rules — you should still remember your punishment, right?"
The guests: "..."
The production team: "???"
The StarNet viewers: "!!!"
Because the noon rest was over and Captain Yang had gone over to the guests, it seemed like they were about to set off. So the production team in the forest put aside burying the boxed meals with Feng Qianqian and Zhao Er and followed ahead first.
Director Zhang naturally walked in the very front. The camera central control system that he'd turned off for a while during the break was switched on again, and the moment he turned it on, he heard Captain Yang's sentence and couldn't help blurting out a curse.
The bug-eating punishment, which was originally set to take place during the noon break; Director Zhang had seen Captain Yang not mention it earlier, and thought he'd taken his words to heart. He never expected the big move was being saved up right here...
Are you kidding?
Making guests eat bugs was indeed a common gimmick in wilderness survival reality shows. Used well, letting the guests make small fools of themselves would definitely give the show's ratings a small explosion.
Because this season's filming was long, the production team had even prepared several extra sets of bugs.
But!
The purpose of eating bugs was to slightly humble the guests, to make them suffer a little hardship, to increase the viewers' curiosity, and to stimulate ratings. The default was always to have them eat just a little on an empty stomach, just enough for some footage; even if it was too disgusting, they'd just cover it up and throw up a little, and it wouldn't look too bad.
But to make already-full guests eat bugs — wasn't that just forcing them to throw up on the spot? Then there'd be retching and vomit all over the ground. How ugly would that be? Could it possibly be good?
Good for the guests, good for the audience, good for the show — for which one?
Director Zhang's words — "Stu..." — had a character bleeped out by a sharp censoring sound in the livestream window.
And the danmaku had long since filled the screen.
Captain Yang, completely oblivious to what he couldn't hear or see, merely cast a satisfied glance at the six people in front of him whose faces had instantly changed color, and then, with a certain pleasure, called out toward the production team stopped at the foot of the slope: "Director Zhang, give me the list of this morning's rule violations."
In his heart, Director Zhang silently recited, "To hell with your eighteen generations of ancestors."
After hesitating a moment, Director Zhang nudged Wang Daming, who was tying up the Dog nearby: "You wrote them down, right? Give it to him."
Wang Daming didn't think too much about it. He temporarily let go of the dog leash, rummaged through his bag for his previous notebook, tore off a page, and walked up the slope, completely unaware that on the slope and on StarNet, he was met with deathly stares.
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