WS - Chapter 74
Chapter 74
If Captain Yang not causing any trouble all morning on the road wasn't enough to get everyone's attention, then the way he stood by the pond, gently explaining the competition like a mild spring breeze, still made people hear a note of something different from yesterday.
Before his words even faded, the six of them unconsciously turned to look at the nearest companion, trying to find in each other's eyes a resonance with that faint surprise.
Only, that surprise was destined to exist for just an instant, shattered the next moment by the action that followed Captain Yang's words.
Captain Yang had just finished saying, "As team leader, I'll be joining the fray too. You'd better give it your all." Almost at the exact same moment, he fished out something from his waist... a small net with a handle?
"Is... is this cheating?" Ning Chuyang raised a hand, pointing at Captain Yang, who was already dashing toward the pond, so shocked her words stumbled.
"Ignore him. It's all food. If we can catch more, we'll catch more. If we eat this at noon, we can save the jerky for another meal." Song Shiyue, ultimately more preoccupied with food, quickly steadied herself from the initial surprise and got back on track.
Just as Song Shiyue was speaking, she felt her right wrist tugged gently. Instinctively she looked down, and following the connecting short vine upward, she naturally saw Yu Nianbing's face.
"Not on purpose..." Yu Nianbing said, raising her wrist and beginning to untie the vine. "Let's loosen this first, or else it'll be inconvenient for catching."
Song Shiyue couldn't help pricking up her ears.
In those words, there was that familiar suppressed slight tremor and, hidden beneath it, that slow, deep breathing...
When was the last time Yu Nianbing had been like this? Was it right after entering the Old Castle, when she was frightened?
So, that tug on the vine just now — maybe it really wasn't on purpose. Maybe it was just a reflex, a shudder when she was startled by her words?
"Untie this—is Teacher Yu going to join the catching too?" Song Shiyue probed.
Sure enough, she saw the hands Yu Nianbing was using to untie the vine tremble and pause. Although the motion quickly resumed, Song Shiyue had already understood everything.
In this environment, even with some jerky, Song Shiyue wasn't willing to pass up a chance to supplement their food, especially since frogs were actually quite nutritious. In this interstellar world, because it was so developed, there were no longer any endangered creatures — the only distinction was between natural breeding and technological breeding.
Most importantly, it was already late summer. These frogs were big, fat, and full of energy, with no sign of wanting to hibernate at all. In mountains this vast, most of the frogs were in this pond, with barely a few hopping around outside. At a glance, it was obvious...
Song Shiyue looked back toward the Production Team, not far away.
They'd been walking straight down the mountain the whole time. Before Captain Yang turned, there had been footsteps behind them that headed off in this direction early.
At the time, Song Shiyue thought it was someone needing to go into the woods to take care of personal business, and she hadn't paid much attention. Now, though...
Very quickly, using her slightly sharper-than-average vision, Song Shiyue spotted the ring of wet mud around Wang Daming's shoes.
Oh, farmed frogs. That actually seems safer to eat.
Song Shiyue's somewhat long backward glance was rather conspicuous on the many screens in front of Director Zhang.
"When you went over there just now, no one saw you, right?" Director Zhang couldn't help but look over at Wang Daming beside him.
Wang Daming was momentarily confused about what Director Zhang meant, until Feng Qianqian up ahead turned around and mouthed the word "frogs" to him, and then it clicked.
"No, how could there be? I followed the earlier arrangement. When Captain Yang turned, I took the shortcut over. Before they even got here, I'd already finished setting up and circled into the woods." Wang Daming felt a bit aggrieved.
"What about the basket?" Director Zhang asked again.
Wang Daming showed a hint of pride awaiting praise: "They have to go into the water to catch them, right? I hid it in the tall grass in the woods, even pulled over some extra grass to cover it."
Fine, sounded like there wasn't a problem.
Director Zhang withdrew his questioning gaze and continued looking at the hovering screens in front of him. In one of the small squares, Song Shiyue had already turned her head back and wasn't looking their way anymore.
And Wang Daming, who wasn't getting his praise, gradually deflated like a ball with the air let out — though that was something Director Zhang couldn't see.
Unfortunately, even though Wang Daming made no mistake, Song Shiyue had still guessed where these frogs came from, and from there, thought of even more. For instance, in the future, the pattern of food ingredients appearing — under the Production Team's possibly friendly provisions — even if Captain Yang wanted to lead them around it, she might be able to guess from the footsteps on the Production Team's side.
But this time, Song Shiyue had been worrying too much. What she didn't know was that, right now, the one who needed food more was no longer the guests — it was Captain Yang.
In just the time it took the guests to exchange a few words, Captain Yang, who'd dashed to the pond ahead of them, had already made several crouching lunges. After sending many frogs hopping back into the water at the pond's edge, he finally managed to trap one with that tiny net.
What was interesting was, even though Captain Yang had won his first battle, he showed no intention of showing off to the guests at all. Instead, he briskly got up, went to the edge of the nearby woods, and broke off a few small tree branches.
Because of Captain Yang's earlier strange friendliness and his efficient frog-catching, the guests hadn't moved for a moment, their eyes just following Captain Yang.
Now that Captain Yang had gone to break off branches, Zhuang Jiachuan over on that side was even discussing whether Captain Yang thought the net was too slow, or that the ones in the water were hard to net, and was planning to make a fishing pole to catch frogs.
Song Shiyue, however, extrapolated something rather unpleasant from the length and number of those branches. Not even pausing to consider whether her guess was right or wrong, her first reaction was to grab Yu Nianbing, who had just untied the vine from her wrist, and spin her a full one hundred eighty degrees.
"All right, don't look. Nothing worth seeing." Song Shiyue took hold of Yu Nianbing's hand, preventing her from turning back, and added, "I'll handle it in a bit. You stay right here, watch this side. Don't look over toward the pond."
Having been caught by the waist and turned halfway around, Yu Nianbing had just been about to say "It's fine, I can..." when a sharp, piercing frog cry rang out behind her.
Then came Ning Chuyang's "Ah!"
And veiled expletives from Zhuang Jiachuan and the others: "What the hell," "Holy crap."
"All right, it's okay..." Meeting Yu Nianbing's somewhat frightened, uneasy gaze, Song Shiyue felt a slight jolt in her heart and suddenly became aware of the poverty of her vocabulary — how could comforting someone be so bland and ineffective?
Just shy, she'd almost blurted out the words to abandon this food source.
But if they gave up, would Captain Yang give up?
Song Shiyue thought... probably not...
"How about this — you count to three hundred right here, and I'll be done." Song Shiyue's voice was soft as a puff of cotton candy — the kind that's hazy, dreamy, pale pink.
"I..." Yu Nianbing wanted to open her mouth and offer to help, wanted to say how could catching frogs possibly take only five minutes. But just as she opened her mouth, she finally made the connection — what that sharp frog cry from earlier had been about. In an instant, her face went white, and these words of bravado became impossible to force out.
Seeing that instantaneous color drain, Song Shiyue, who had been watching all along, could also guess that clever Yu Nianbing had already understood what had just happened.
And so she was even more annoyed with Captain Yang — that was quite the masterstroke of intimidation!
Song Shiyue was never the only one annoyed with Captain Yang.
The viewers on StarNet didn't have Yu Nianbing's good fortune — they didn't have a Song Shiyue cleverly helping them turn off the livestream... Naturally, they saw everything, and wished they could blind the eyes they'd had a few seconds ago.
"Heaven is my witness — I was just eating candy when I heard the sounds from Captain Yang's side, so I switched over to take a look! Just one look! What the heck did I see?!"
"Honestly, uncensored livestream variety shows really are... too intense. I think I feel a bit unwell..."
"I was just thinking Captain Yang had started sounding like a human, and then..."
"This kind of wilderness survival, you have to eat small animals to survive. What Captain Yang did... is still bearable, right?"
"Friend up front, I really don't mean to criticize Captain Yang just to criticize, it's just too much to bear. Too savage."
"Right, kill it, fine, eat it, fine, but doing it while it's alive... look, that frog skewered on the branch is still moving!"
"So... is it dead?"
"I think... not dead... pierced from bottom to top, if it didn't go through the brain, is it not that easy to die?"
"Please, I'm begging you, why describe such a horrifying action all over again?!"
"Sigh, I thought Captain Yang had finally conceded and was ready to meld into the team. Never expected this kind of lousy move."
"Poor our little Ice Block, her face is all pale... sobbing..."
"The worst off is still Ning Chuyang — she saw the whole thing."
"At a time like this, you can only say one thing: the reliability of a CP."
"Mu Xingzhou himself was stunned — how could he even manage Ning Chuyang? Sister Song with her foresight is so much better!"
"Sister Song is mighty! Song-Yu CP sugar, so sweet!"
"Another round of 666 for Sister Song!"
Even if Song Shiyue could now see the praise for her on StarNet, she probably wouldn't have time to respond.
Three hundred counts, five minutes. In the pond, within eyeshot, there were over twenty frogs, and that wasn't counting the ones not yet visible.
Song Shiyue's goal: catch as many frogs as possible so Captain Yang would have no frogs left to skewer.
"What do you think about this plan?" Song Shiyue seized the moment, stepping forward two paces and drawing the attention of the other four. "Anyway, this time it's only a group competition to catch frogs — catch them for lunch. No one said we're ranking first, second, third or anything with rewards and penalties. How about this: I'll be in charge of hitting, and you all are in charge of scooping them up. We'll split equally after. No — our pair will take a little less. Teacher Yu won't go in."
The four, whose expressions had just turned terrible because of Captain Yang, were momentarily dazed.
"What's this? No cooperation?" Song Shiyue frowned slightly. If it had to be her alone, that wasn't impossible either — it would just be slower, and Yu Nianbing would have to wait a little longer.
"N-no, that's not it." Guan Yongyi quickly spoke up, though he then hesitated. "We already have so much jerky — we could skip eating these frogs, right? Captain Yang's way really looks a bit cruel."
"Right now our food is basically only jerky, with just a few small side-dish supplements. Eating jerky for all three meals a day, it'll only last just over two days. If we stretch it, go a bit hungry, maybe we can make it three or four days. We don't know what the situation will be like later, or whether there'll be another place to supplement food like this. If there is, whether they'd even lead us to it is also a question." Song Shiyue thought for a moment, then added, "From the look of Captain Yang, even if we sit this out, he won't stop. Rather than letting him skewer so many, we might as well give the frogs a clean end. Captain Yang doesn't have anything to put them in — we can put them in those two cloth bags the Production Team gave us before for the snakes. No need to skewer them on branches."
"Or... we could give Captain Yang a bag?" Zhuang Jiachuan offered weakly.
Ning Chuyang, Mu Xingzhou, and Guan Yongyi all heard this and turned to look at Song Shiyue in unison.
Oh. So they could also choose that...
After all, during the apocalypse, it had really been quite hard to extend a hand of friendship to someone you loathed by helping them hunt — thus dividing food that might be yours.
But now...
Song Shiyue paused for a moment, but then nodded. "Fine, lend him one. When we're done this time, remember to get it back from him."
"Then do we still need to get in and catch?" Ning Chuyang, looking a bit pale, asked.
"If you're feeling unwell, don't go. It's fine. You and Teacher Yu can just stand together and keep count." Song Shiyue then looked at the other three. "What do you say?"
"Even without Captain Yang's stunt, we ought to catch the food we should catch. Anyway, I've had my fill of bugs — I don't want to do that again." Mu Xingzhou recalled that truly awful taste, and spoke with a darkened face.
Guan Yongyi was habitually not an overthinker, which was why he'd earlier said they could just give up on the frogs. Now, with a few points from Song Shiyue illuminating the matter, how could he not understand that their current bounty was just an illusion? He quickly nodded along from behind, saying he'd go.
Zhuang Jiachuan, who was currently pulling bags out of his pack, didn't really want to catch frogs, but he had to admit the taste of frogs was vastly better than bugs, so of course he agreed.
Just as the four of them reached an agreement and began preparing to remove the sachets from their waists to leave with Yu Nianbing and Ning Chuyang, another agonized frog cry came from the pond.
"Does he have to go so fast..." Zhuang Jiachuan tugged and yanked his snake-and-bug-repelling sachet off his waist and tossed it into Guan Yongyi's arms, hurriedly saying, "I'll go give him a bag first."
With that, he quickly headed toward the pond.
The remaining three also sped up. In particular, Song Shiyue — after taking off her sachet second and dropping it into Guan Yongyi's hands — crouched down, paying no heed to size, and casually scooped up a handful of loose stones from the roadside, beginning to pick through them.
"Is it going to be like hitting snakes before — one hit, instant death?" Mu Xingzhou hesitated, then added, "Spreading through the pond water that way — wouldn't it be too bloody..."
"Just knocks them out. Kill them and they might sink." Song Shiyue pointed toward the pond. "Captain Yang's nearly standing in the middle of the pond. Looks like it's not too deep. Let's go take a look. If it works, each of you take one end, work from the edges toward the middle, and have Teacher Zhuang provide support in the center."
That pond wasn't large, only a bit over a hundred square meters.
The two looked in the direction of Song Shiyue's hand and saw Captain Yang already splashing around the pond, catching frogs everywhere, the water level no higher than his mid-thigh.
So, the two naturally agreed and quickly headed toward the pond.
And at the pond's edge, Zhuang Jiachuan had called out several times without managing to interrupt Captain Yang's battle of wits and courage with a single frog. Unable to hold back, he raised his foot and stepped into the water, quickly stuffing a cloth bag into Captain Yang's hands.
Captain Yang even tried to decline a couple of times.
Were it not for Zhuang Jiachuan's habitual desire to maintain friendliness, he might have almost blurted out that Captain Yang was being savage.
But at this moment, the best he could manage was stuffing the bag at him and then leaving.
When Zhuang Jiachuan headed back to the bank, Guan Yongyi and Mu Xingzhou were just arriving. They told him Song Shiyue's idea. Zhuang Jiachuan hesitated only a tiny moment before walking back to Captain Yang's vicinity.
To Zhuang Jiachuan, now returning, Captain Yang had only one thing to say: "If you're going to catch, catch. Be careful, don't move wildly. Don't startle the nearby frogs."
Startle? What's there to startle?
Startle them the way you're flailing all over the place?
Coming over with good intentions to deliver a bag, only to be snapped at, Zhuang Jiachuan was momentarily speechless. To say he wasn't annoyed at all would be impossible.
Just then, Song Shiyue was walking over, a palm full of hand-picked small stones cradled in her hand.
Zhuang Jiachuan glanced at Captain Yang, who was tiptoeing as he crept toward a nearby frog, and actually couldn't help thinking: Just enjoy your moment — your nemesis is about to log on right now!
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