WS - Chapter 51
Chapter 51
Yu Nianbing had only called it a "hunting dog" as a joke.
Even though the dog had pulled quite a few things out of the stream, whether by size or by quantity, calling it a hunting dog made less sense than saying it was there to be funny...
But while some people were joking, some dogs took it seriously.
The dog abandoned the stream on the right and plunged into the woods on the left, staying in there for quite a while without coming out.
Song Shiyue assumed it had had its fun teasing her and had gone off to find other amusement.
She hadn't expected that after walking for only about twenty more minutes, something that looked vaguely like the original dog would burst out of the woods.
The reason for saying "vaguely like" was that in such a short time, the once relatively clean dog was now covered head to paw in dust and dirt, making people rather unwilling to recognize it.
The excited dog raced over, entirely oblivious to the three people ahead who were half-inclined to avoid it.
The dog had made a big commotion coming and going from the stream earlier. The three walking in front hadn't seen the whole thing, but after hearing the reports from behind, they were still quite interested in the strange dog.
Now that a dust-covered dog had charged out of the woods on the left front, Zhuang Jiachuan and the other two immediately halted and turned to look at Song Shiyue in unison.
Those three burning gazes were truly hard to ignore. Song Shiyue pinched the bridge of her nose, a touch of grim determination on her face.
Sure enough, as the gray blur drew closer, the thing clamped in the dog's mouth became visible.
"Ah! Is that, is that-!" Guan Yongyi, standing at the very front, pointed at the approaching dog in astonishment.
"Is that a rat's tail?" Mu Xingzhou squinted, unable to resist rubbing his arm where goosebumps had risen.
Captain Yang, who had been quite displeased by their unsanctioned halt, gave an inward sneer, but his expression softened somewhat.
Zhuang Jiachuan couldn't identify what was in the dog's mouth; moving objects were just too hard to make out, so he secretly shifted his gaze to Captain Yang instead. Noticing the change in Captain Yang's expression, he couldn't help but lament the Production Team's poor judgment in hiring.
The two front members' discussion fell on the ears of the three behind. Ning Chuyang, who had been standing to Song Shiyue's right, hastily jumped and darted several steps to the right. At the same time, she said to Song Shiyue with some embarrassment, "It's not that I'm disgusted by you. I'm just very afraid of rats, really can't stand to see them."
"Alright, go on ahead first." Song Shiyue waved a hand, amused and unbothered by Ning Chuyang's retreat.
"You're the best!" Ning Chuyang clutched her slightly-startled heart and ran forward a couple of steps, then turned back to add, "Two minutes from now, we're still friends."
Song Shiyue: "..."
One had fled; another wouldn't matter.
Song Shiyue turned to her left. "You..."
Yu Nianbing's hands were clenched tightly at her sides, her expression grave. She didn't move, but lifted her chin forward and said, "It's coming."
Song Shiyue looked ahead. A pouncing dust ball executed a familiar sudden stop right in front of her feet, and a clod of mud was kicked onto her shoe by the dog's leg...
Alright, alright. First water, now mud. Mix them together and you could even play with clay.
However, the dog gave Song Shiyue no time to mourn her ill-fated shoe.
The dog opened its mouth, and a rat about half the size of a palm dropped out.
Thankfully, with her prior training, Song Shiyue nimbly stepped back this time. The rat that should have landed on her shoe only fell in front of her foot.
Lucky!
Only the dog seemed somewhat dissatisfied. It whined and looked ready to pick the rat up again and place it anew.
But it didn't succeed.
Song Shiyue, with some aversion, pressed a single finger against the dog's head, and with her other hand pointing at the rat on the ground, earnestly instructed, "This! Don't bring this back! I don't like it! Don't bring it back! Don't! Bring! It! Back!"
She didn't understand why the dog had suddenly taken on the air of conquering all four corners of the world, but the dog was smart, or at least seemed smart.
From having to refuse a can of food three times before the dog would back off, to later on needing only a single refusal for it never to bring that kind of thing back again, all of this proved that the dog could understand a little.
Unfortunately, Song Shiyue had tried to refuse the dog's urge to go hunting at all, but that hadn't succeeded.
So this time, all she could do was explicitly refuse rats.
After all, if the dog wouldn't even eat fragrant canned dog food, would it really eat a rat with barely any meat on it?
Song Shiyue stared at the skin-and-bones rat on the ground, clearly malnourished, and felt thoroughly disgusted.
Having completed her refusal, Song Shiyue prepared to do as before and stuff the rat back into the dog's mouth to conclude the matter. But just as she bent down, out of the corner of her eye she noticed Yu Nianbing looking away.
Come to think of it, ever since entering this show, Yu Nianbing had smiled far more often than she used to on Beichen Planet. Even when she wasn't smiling outright, she often held a hint of a smile.
Especially when the dog was going back and forth earlier, Yu Nianbing hadn't laughed as uproariously as Ning Chuyang, almost rolling on the ground, but she had always been full of delight and anticipation.
But now.
Song Shiyue straightened up and looked at Yu Nianbing's profile as she turned away. The lines of her face, which had gradually softened before, now seemed taut again, and her already fair, delicate skin appeared even paler...
"You also dislike rats?" The moment Song Shiyue spoke, she knew she'd asked a rather superfluous question.
Yu Nianbing, who had been keeping a stiff face turned away, turned back at these words, but there were actually tiny beads of sweat on her forehead.
There hadn't been any sweat while they were walking just now... Song Shiyue froze, even more aware of the clenched fists and somewhat rigid movements she had overlooked before.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go." Without waiting for Yu Nianbing to speak, Song Shiyue grabbed her and pulled her around the dog's left side. She didn't forget to press her palm downward in the air toward the dog. "You, don't move. Don't eat this. And don't bring this over!"
With that, Song Shiyue pulled Yu Nianbing, who was moving somewhat stiffly, quickly to the front.
Once they'd bypassed the dog, Song Shiyue couldn't help but say, "If you're afraid of this, you should have gone ahead with Ning Chuyang earlier. Why stay here and watch? It's so uncomfortable."
Yu Nianbing's expression, which had recovered somewhat, drained again at these words. Without speaking, she pulled her hand out of Song Shiyue's grasp, a small motion, but with force.
Song Shiyue turned her head in bafflement. Yu Nianbing said nothing, just walked quickly forward alongside her.
Was she angry?
Why?
What happened?
Under Captain Yang's urging, the group continued walking onward. Ning Chuyang slowed down, looking back and waiting for them.
But what she ended up with was a pallid Yu Nianbing and a question-mark-festooned Song Shiyue.
"Teacher Yu, what's wrong?" Ning Chuyang asked, not understanding.
Yu Nianbing shook her head. "It's nothing. I just didn't expect the rat to be so ugly. I got a bit frightened."
Actually, after flaring up, Yu Nianbing felt somewhat regretful, but she was truly angry and for the time being didn't want to talk to Song Shiyue. Now Ning Chuyang had offered her a way out, so she took it.
Really?
Ning Chuyang and Song Shiyue each were covered in question marks, but neither pressed the matter further. They just followed Yu Nianbing and continued onward.
As for the dog...
Who could understand the immense pressure a dog that repeatedly fought yet repeatedly failed was under?
Especially this time, although Song Shiyue hadn't yelled at it, she was somewhat irked, and unlike before, she didn't stuff the thing into its mouth and tell it to eat.
Why?
The dog, not hungry, didn't eat the skin-and-bones rat. It just gave it a furious smack and left.
As for the fact that the rat had only been stunned and, having escaped disaster, fled far away, well, that's another story.
Unwilling to dwell on what a fool Song Shiyue was, Yu Nianbing started to calculate. It had been nearly two hours since they left the Noon Rest Stop. Aside from one rest break that took ten minutes, they had been walking forward, or more precisely, heading up the mountain.
A wilderness survival show, called "survival," was definitely not just about hiking, especially on the first day when the livestream viewership hadn't yet stabilized.
One could say that without the dog suddenly stealing the spotlight for unknown reasons, their silent trek would have been truly dull. If even the hikers found it boring, how much interest could the viewers have?
Fans might tolerate boredom, but the general audience certainly would not.
Yu Nianbing didn't believe that those people had invested so much just to attract the fans of a few individuals.
Where was the problem? Was it because the conflict with Captain Yang had made him take another detour? Was the journey so tedious because they lacked supplies, or had some segment been omitted?
As Yu Nianbing thought further, she felt some regret. Actually, when she signed up for this variety show, if she had strongly demanded it, she probably could have been given some inside information. The Production Team had made similar hints during the contract signing. But to gain something, you had to give something. At that time, she had considered this show merely a final explanation to the company, approaching it with the mindset of completing a task. She hadn't wanted to cooperate further with the Production Team on promotional stunts, so she had pretended not to understand and muddled through.
Thinking back now, she really disliked this kind of reality show that appeared free but was actually arranged, and could be further manipulated due to someone's temporary temper. If she had known she'd dislike it this much, perhaps she might have compromised a little.
About matters of the past, Yu Nianbing couldn't say. But if Captain Yang had pulled strings, would Director Zhang just keep tolerating it? It was truly puzzling.
What Yu Nianbing didn't know was that Director Zhang was actually quite satisfied with this stretch of the journey.
Contrary to Yu Nianbing's thoughts, the Production Team really had no special arrangements for this part. In their original plan, this was called "restraining before raising." The plan had been that after a sumptuous lunch, the Production Team would formally announce that from then on they would no longer provide meals; the guests would have to obtain ingredients through their own efforts. There was an implied meaning in "obtain through their own efforts" - finding something in the wild was obtaining, and winning a show segment was also obtaining. But the Production Team wouldn't explain further at that moment.
The long hike and gradual hunger in their stomachs; Captain Yang would repeatedly bring up topics about calorie consumption and delicious food along the way, constantly depressing everyone's mood. Then, during this very long stretch, when people were hungry, weary, full of anticipation for dinner yet had found nothing, that was when the "raising" part of "restraining before raising" would begin.
Of course, the plan had already changed so much that the "raising" part was also removed.
Without the "raising," Director Zhang had worried a bit about the long, walking-only "restraining" part ahead, but then the dog came out and fooled around. It seemed that the rental fee paid to the training center had been money well spent.
Director Zhang's satisfaction, in the face of a plan that had gone terribly wrong, was partially restored by the dog. That was the source of his tolerance that Yu Nianbing could not guess.
Unlike Yu Nianbing, who was busy analyzing the Production Team, Song Shiyue did want to figure out what was wrong with Yu Nianbing, but the dog wouldn't allow it.
She had thought the finds in the stream were already quite abundant, but who would have guessed the ones on land were even more attention-grabbing?
Starting with that skin-and-bones rat, Song Shiyue in the following journey was presented with a lizard, three praying mantises, a strange green caterpillar, and a piece of something that looked like a gecko's tail...
Compared to these things, the earlier finds from the stream could practically be called adorable.
Hadn't Captain Yang already force-fed them enough bugs? Why did even the dog have to do this...
But it wasn't just that.
Aside from these things the dog caught and dropped on Song Shiyue's shoes, they also went into the woods twice because of the dog's loud barking.
The first time, it was a really, really large... ant nest.
The second time, it was a scorpion pinned under the dog's paw.
It was truly hard to tell whether to praise the dog for being smart or stupid. It knew that scorpions were poisonous and shouldn't be casually carried in its mouth, but thinking they liked bugs was just beyond words.
Because the things the dog brought back were too bizarre, Ning Chuyang didn't dare enter the woods either time the dog barked.
Song Shiyue had no choice. She had to go check. The first time, Zhuang Jiachuan and Guan Yongyi accompanied her; the second time, Mu Xingzhou took over.
As for... Yu Nianbing.
Song Shiyue didn't understand. Yu Nianbing was afraid of rats and couldn't even bear to look at the things the dog found in the woods later. So why did she insist on following every time they entered the woods?
But Song Shiyue didn't ask.
She kept feeling that Yu Nianbing was angry at her...
Yu Nianbing estimated that according to the original plan, they should reach the evening camp around five or six o'clock, so it would still be light enough to film some content. But with the several earlier delays, the plan might have changed, so she wasn't sure.
Around half past four, Yu Nianbing began studying the terrain. They had been heading toward the mountain top, so it was likely that this evening's camp was at the summit. That should be okay. At their current pace, if nothing went wrong, they could reach it in about an hour.
Just as she thought about things going smoothly, a problem arose.
"Do we still have to go look?" Ning Chuyang's face was full of refusal. "Just let it bark. Or have the Production Team go check."
"Teacher Yu, what do you think?" Song Shiyue seized the chance to speak to Yu Nianbing, though she really didn't want to go either.
Didn't want to go at all... Yu Nianbing thought for a moment, then sighed. "Even the boy who cried wolf had three times. Let's go check one more time."
This time, the dog was just a little way inside the edge of the woods.
Watching the dog industriously digging, Song Shiyue fell silent.
"Forget it, let's go. I'm afraid there might be a nest of bugs underneath..." Guan Yongyi, who had tagged along, hunched his shoulders.
"Let's go." Song Shiyue glanced worriedly at Yu Nianbing, whose complexion wasn't looking good.
Yu Nianbing nodded as well.
However, the instant she turned to leave, Yu Nianbing caught sight of something and quickly turned back. "Wait, let's watch a bit longer."
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