WS - Chapter 102
Chapter 102
Just as Yu Nianbing was about to cry from anxiety on Wilderness Planet, viewers on StarNet were also quite interested in the discovery on their end.
"What's going on with this fish pond? When Wang Daming went over earlier and scattered dog food, he didn't lure up a single fish. That look of confusion and surprise really didn't seem fake."
"Definitely real. If Wang Daming had that kind of acting skill, why would he still be a director's assistant, kissing up to Director Zhang? He could have gone the method-acting route ages ago!"
"So where are the fish? Did they really swim back upstream through the water channel? Where's the production team? Give us a wide shot or go film the lake above!"
"Who cares about the fish? The question now is what's wrong with this pond? Song Shiyue just stuck her whole arm in there!"
"Our Little Ice Block also grabbed that arm of Song Shiyue's."
"Don't scare me. Could there be some ancient virus in the pond???"
"The one above, don't scare yourself. Wilderness Planet was a normal agricultural planet in the Mingtan System over a decade ago. Even if the rewilding of farmland to forest looks successful now, it's not like there'd be ancient viruses."
"As a biology student, I'd say, judging from the leftover fish scales and congealed fish blood, poisoning is unlikely. One possibility: a natural predator of fish appeared in this pond, and not just any predator—one that's really aggressive, not satisfied with just eating its fill but must stir the whole pond into chaos."
"Dinosaurs?"
"...I just said this planet was a normal agricultural planet over a decade ago. Where would dinosaurs come from???"
"Then could it be an earthquake? When I helped organize the old book stacks at my university's physical library, I read a lot of old books. One said animals sense earthquakes beforehand and behave abnormally."
"Of course not. That's ancient history. Technology now can predict crustal shifts months in advance. If Wilderness Planet had an earthquake, why would they be filming here now?"
"But isn't Wilderness Planet no longer under the Interstellar Government? It's a private planet now, right?"
"Private planets are still regulated by the Interstellar Government. One like Wilderness Planet, under the Mingtan System, has its orbital routes, surrounding interstellar security assessments, crustal changes and so on all monitored by the Mingtan Prime Aerospace Bureau—from a Little Mooncake who's studying for the civil service exam."
"Can't be an earthquake. In this era where even astronomical disasters around planets can be predicted, how could such a mistake happen?"
"So I still say there are dinosaurs!"
"Come on, enough already. Honestly, as a random passerby with zero interest in biology, geology, or civil service exams, I really just want to see if Yu Nianbing will actually cry!"
"As a Little Ice Bucket, I just want to know if the water in this pond is actually a problem. There's a doctor on the team, isn't there? Why isn't she checking it out? I'm worried!"
"Worried too (icons: Mooncake, Ice Bucket, Little Moon)"
"Whoa, the friend with the three icons above—first icon is free, adding more costs money. Are you all that extravagant?"
"Hahaha, well, Mooncake, Ice Bucket, and Little Moon are the standard set. I hope the production team does a buy-two-get-one-free deal, give a discount to us friends who ship this CP so sincerely."
......
In this world, what alarm can't be settled by eating sugar? If there is, then take another bite.
The viewers on StarNet, after a brief panic, once again returned to the proper track of eating sugar.
And Yu Nianbing, who had unwittingly given out a strange kind of sugar, was now feeling far more complicated.
It must be said, earlier when Yu Nianbing heard Song Shiyue say there might be something wrong with the water and fish, her gaze happened to follow Song Shiyue's arm, still wet from being pulled out of the water moments ago, all the way down to a spot of red on her hand.
Yu Nianbing's heart jolted. Facing both water and blood, she lost her composure; before she could look closer or think it through, a thin mist instantly welled up in her eyes.
The hand Yu Nianbing anxiously used to grab Song Shiyue's arm trembled slightly, but Song Shiyue acted as if nothing was wrong, even slowly raising her hand to wipe near Yu Nianbing's eyes. It truly made Yu Nianbing both anxious and angry.
Could she be an idiot?
"Wash your hands, quick!" Yu Nianbing forced herself to release Song Shiyue's arm, yanked the water bottle tucked in her backpack's side pocket, unscrewed the cap, and moved to pour it over Song Shiyue's hand.
"Hey hey..." Song Shiyue hastily stepped aside, used her clean hand to stop Yu Nianbing's water bottle, and said with a helpless smile, "Why use drinking water? I'll just walk up a bit and wash in the deeper channel ahead."
As soon as Song Shiyue's completely unconcerned words left her mouth, she saw Yu Nianbing, whose eyes were slightly reddened, press her lips together, making both cheeks bulge a little.
Like a pufferfish, hahaha... pufferfish.
"My hand just dipped in the water. There's no wound on my hand, so nothing will happen. Besides, this pond might have a problem—it's just my wild guess. Maybe nothing's wrong, and the fish just swam around out of boredom." Song Shiyue suppressed her laughter, quickly turned serious and consoled her. As she spoke and waved her hand, she finally noticed that spot of red and hurriedly rubbed her fingers, adding, "This is fish blood, fish blood. It'll rinse right off. Wait for me."
With that, not waiting for Yu Nianbing to deflate and speak, Song Shiyue swiftly covered the ground along the water channel in just a few strides to where it deepened earlier, and thoroughly washed her arm and hand twice.
Yu Nianbing watched in silence as Song Shiyue dashed off, then returned with a smile while shaking water from her hands. Her hand gripping the water bottle tightened and loosened, loosened and tightened, finally turning into a long sigh.
Yes.
It was fish blood.
Just like what was smeared on those stones on the ground.
Clearly, when they came over, they had already seen the fish scales and fish blood on the stones here.
So why, when hearing Song Shiyue say there might be a problem with this pond, did she think that crimson on Song Shiyue's fingertip was an injury...
Although when Song Shiyue raised her hand to touch Yu Nianbing's eyes, Yu Nianbing realized that crimson might be different from what she'd thought. But... such an obvious matter, how could that misunderstanding arise?
In that instant, it was as if she'd lost her mind.
Song Shiyue's sleeve was rolled up high on one side, and her slender arm was as fair and delicate as white jade. In the midday sunlight, it was so white it nearly glowed, translucent.
Yu Nianbing averted her gaze several times, but when Song Shiyue walked up, she fixed her eyes on her.
"Rinse it again." Yu Nianbing spoke words that brooked no refusal, first pouring a little water over the hand that had grabbed Song Shiyue's arm, then pulling the person over.
When Yu Nianbing got stubborn, even Song Shiyue's great strength couldn't turn her around.
The water in the bottle, after a morning, was already less than full.
Yu Nianbing carefully poured water onto Song Shiyue's arm. The thin trickle wasn't enough to rinse the entire arm on its own. Yu Nianbing instinctively caught some water with her hand, hesitated only briefly, then smeared the caught water back onto Song Shiyue's arm.
Song Shiyue looked down, watching Yu Nianbing scrub her arm from top to bottom as if giving her a bath, not missing even the gaps between her fingers...
The gentle motions, like soft, downy feathers, brushed over her arm, and also... drifted through her heart.
It tickled.
Song Shiyue secretly clenched her other hand into a fist. She tried to reach out and catch the water herself, but was blocked by Yu Nianbing, so she had to give up for the moment.
For some reason, Song Shiyue slowly lowered her gaze. She only dared to look at her own arm, lacking the courage to lift her head and look at Yu Nianbing.
"Alright, alright." Song Shiyue, who had already been made completely uncomfortable by Yu Nianbing's touch, saw that after finally rinsing from top to bottom, Yu Nianbing raised the water bottle as if to start over from the top, and quickly spoke up to stop her.
"Rinse it one more time." Yu Nianbing's gaze was firm, leaving no room for negotiation.
"Then use mine. I'll rinse it myself." Song Shiyue said, pulling off her own water bottle.
Earlier Song Shiyue had said something, but unfortunately Yu Nianbing's actions were really too fast, and those slightly red eyes looked like they could cry at any second. Song Shiyue truly didn't quite dare voice any objection.
But now, the pink in Yu Nianbing's eyes had gradually faded a little. Song Shiyue felt that her courage, which had run away from home earlier, seemed to be tentatively making its way back.
"Too much trouble." Yu Nianbing showed no intention of taking Song Shiyue's water bottle.
"I'm not going to let you go all afternoon without water, right? So look, do you want me to rinse again with my own bottle now, or do we share this bottle this afternoon?" Song Shiyue, having welcomed back her courage, smiled and shook the water bottle in her hand, blinking.
Yu Nianbing: "..."
Although Song Shiyue hadn't drunk much water on the road that morning and there was still plenty in the bottle, she was reluctant to use much. She just poured a little on her hand twice, gave her arm a cursory rub, and considered it done.
Beside her, Yu Nianbing pressed her lips together with some displeasure, but said nothing more.
It was just that while someone said nothing more, some people were talking as if they wished they had more mouths...
The current situation was a bit strange, yet the CP they shipped was still doling out sugar.
The viewers watching the livestream on StarNet saw danmaku flying across the livestream interface so fast—topics with both resonance and dissent abounded. Typing couldn't keep up; those in a convenient environment directly switched to voice-to-text input, just to keep pace with the army of topics.
And aside from that wave of topics where everyone was offering evidence for the cause of the strange situation, eating sugar was always the eternal theme.
"Honestly, I really didn't expect Yu Nianbing to be so timid. It was clearly fish blood, yet she got scared to tears."
"??? Was that scared crying? That was clearly tears of love!"
"Hahaha, the person above, don't talk like that. I've got goosebumps. Just say it's love for Song Shiyue. What's this 'tears of love'!"
"I'm now starting to believe that the sounds from their two tents last night were Little Ice Block crying. Thinking about it, those two mosaics yesterday—is there really no expert who can analyze the possible positions?"
"Ah, how should I put it? Shipping a CP, luckily discovering it seems to be the real deal, the sugar is handed out generously, making my mouth all sticky. But the problem is, this CP seems to like sweet-and-sour sugar. Watching Yu Nianbing with red eyes wash Song Shiyue over and over, why does it leave such a bad taste in my mouth?"
"Yeah... timidly asking the friend above, when you say 'bad taste', do you mean you kind of, just a little, want to smack Sister Song? (I'm a Sister Song fan, no hate here, please don't misfire—Little Moon icon, doge for safety!)"
"Hahaha, exactly! Wanna take a wrench to Wilderness Planet and tell Song Shiyue, 'Hey buddy, let me knock some sense into you!'"
"Right right right, it's killing me. Song Shiyue might be a bit dense; doesn't she feel that Little Ice Block treats her completely differently from others?"
"Exactly, and even washing her hand—it's really sweet enough to kill me."
"Laughing to death. I just jumped straight into shipping the CP, so it's better for me. You guys above who want to knock some sense into Song Shiyue are Little Mooncakes converted from Little Ice Buckets, right? Judging by your neat [Ice Bucket Mooncake Moon (maybe missing)] icons, it seems that way hahaha."
"The friend above who said they'd bring a wrench to Wilderness Planet, hahaha, I wish you a safe return."
"Anyone who dares provoke Sister Song like that probably won't be coming back hahaha."
"Actually, as a Little Mooncake transformed from a Little Ice Bucket, helping Song Shiyue realize things is secondary. Little Ice Block might be starting a real relationship, and there's nothing to oppose. However, I got into the fandom because of Little Ice Block's icy coldness, her aloofness toward others, that aura of distance, pride, and coolness. Even though I imagined many cute scenarios of her being cold on the outside but warm inside, actually seeing her cry..."
"Hahaha, kind of breaks the character persona, right?"
"Yeah, exactly. I still really like her, it's just that my feelings are a bit complicated."
"Even if the persona breaks, I still like her. I used to stan a male star with an 'old cadre' persona—the talented and steady type. Then in one variety show, he laughed like a goose. Just that one show broke it for me, and I was done. But this time, it's broken, but still... hahaha, she seems even cuter!"
"I can't stop imagining. Song Shiyue reaching out to wipe Yu Nianbing's tears earlier was really natural."
"Like she's done it thousands of times?"
"Hahaha the friend who said 'thousands of times', are you the same person who said 'tears of love' earlier? Can you ever just be normal!"
"I don't know about thousands of times, but at least, I think there was definitely one time last night."
"My heart, just thinking about what might have happened in that tent last night, it's like being filled with honey and stuffed with a few lemon slices."
"So after watching this livestream, does every sip of water taste like honey lemon water? Hahaha, shipping CPs saves you money!"
......
When Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing turned back, Zhuang Jiachuan and the others were still by the pond discussing how to catch fish. That made the two's feelings a bit complicated.
Yu Nianbing signaled for Song Shiyue to tell them about what they'd just discovered, then turned and walked back the way they'd come.
Song Shiyue instinctively moved to follow, but Yu Nianbing made a gesture indicating she needed to relieve herself, stopping her.
It must be said, the news Song Shiyue brought back was both a blow and full of doubt. It went without saying that the others all wanted to see it for themselves.
Fish scales under the water channel, fish scales and fish blood on the stone pile on the bank—everything was just as Song Shiyue had described. But seeing it with their own eyes was even more shocking and eerie.
Almost without needing any further analysis from Song Shiyue, everyone unanimously decided that whether or not this pond had fish, both the fish and the water here could no longer be used.
Fortunately, to minimize bathroom breaks in the wild, no one had drunk too much water that morning. Even the least full of the four water bottles was more than half full; with careful use, it would last until evening.
"Then should we still tell Captain Yang?" Zhuang Jiachuan glanced at Captain Yang in the distance, who seemed to still be scattering something into the pond to lure fish, and suggested this.
Of course there was no reason not to.
It was just a brief journey with different worldviews. Captain Yang wasn't likable, but there was no deep hatred; there was no reason not to mention this discovery to him.
Just as everyone was saying they should tell Captain Yang, Yu Nianbing also came back.
That seemed a bit fast. Song Shiyue silently estimated the time, but before she could think further, Yu Nianbing turned her hand and produced a pack of... disinfectant wipes.
"Wipe again." Yu Nianbing pointed at Song Shiyue's arm, whose sleeve she hadn't yet rolled down.
How long had it been since Song Shiyue encountered such a fastidious person? As she wiped her arm with the disinfectant wipe, she calculated: it must be over seven years.
In the apocalypse, just staying alive was hard enough. To keep surviving, you had to find food, find drinking water, find more valuable things to trade for survival necessities. Especially in the early apocalypse, the world was in chaos, there weren't even any bases. Every day you opened your eyes to hunger, every open mouth needed food. To put it bluntly, living was barely different from a beast driven only by instinct. Later, things got a little better, but it was still making do and scraping by.
Crawling out of a pile of zombies, covered in blood after fighting mutated beasts—managing to find a little usable water to rinse off was already pretty good.
Disinfecting... well, it was a treatment Song Shiyue hadn't received in many years.
Not to mention, this was someone else remembering to disinfect her.
In Song Shiyue's view, this pond might have a problem, but it probably wasn't a big one. At most, it was something that required washing her hands in the water channel.
But Yu Nianbing was different; she was truly meticulous. The procedure was a bit much, a bit troublesome...
But, somehow, Song Shiyue felt a warmth in her heart, so hot it was almost scalding, so hot that the warmth seemed to rush from her heart toward her face.
"What's going on? Why disinfect?" Ning Chuyang, who was squatting to look at the stones, smelled the disinfectant scent first. Looking up, she saw Song Shiyue diligently wiping and wiping, while Yu Nianbing stood beside her like a supervisor, hands behind her back, gaze firmly fixed on Song Shiyue's bare arm.
Ning Chuyang instinctively averted her eyes from Song Shiyue's arm.
"It's nothing." Song Shiyue briefly explained how she had tested the water depth earlier and gotten fish blood on her hand.
Sure enough, Ning Chuyang also glanced at Yu Nianbing with slight surprise, her face clearly saying, "What a fastidious person."
Song Shiyue felt like laughing, but when Yu Nianbing looked over, she cleverly swallowed it back.
No matter how others saw it or thought about it, Song Shiyue ultimately felt that Yu Nianbing was truly good, so good that she hardly knew how to repay her.
Yu Nianbing also agreed with telling Captain Yang. Not to mention there were no irreconcilable major conflicts, but if there was something bad going on and they kept traveling together, if one got affected, the whole team would be done for.
The messenger here was naturally best chosen: Zhuang Jiachuan.
That vague, seemingly nonexistent good rapport Zhuang Jiachuan had with the production team had been sensed by many from day one.
Although later Zhuang Jiachuan had abandoned darkness for light, he was still the most suitable candidate.
Zhuang Jiachuan didn't shirk it. He just gave a resigned smile and went over to Captain Yang.
The others were one thing, but since Song Shiyue paid a bit of attention, she saw and heard what needed to be seen and heard, and she understood.
Zhuang Jiachuan said what needed to be said. It was understandable that Captain Yang was half-convinced at first.
Then Captain Yang came over, looked at the water channel and the stone pile, glanced at Song Shiyue and the others a few times, and went straight over to Director Zhang in the back.
The production team at the back was also "..."
First Yu Nianbing, then Captain Yang. They were really busy today.
After getting Wang Daming's account, even though Captain Yang ultimately couldn't figure out what was going on with the pond, it was clear: for safety's sake, the noon rest here could be ended early.
Both Captain Yang and Director Zhang had maps loaded in their wristbands.
Both now opened the maps and examined them carefully.
Unfortunately, along their planned afternoon route, and even near the route, there were no other water sources. It wasn't until near the evening camp, on the other side of the mountain ahead, that a river passed through.
But reaching there meant reaching the camp anyway, so it didn't make much difference.
"Let's just keep moving forward." Director Zhang's hand tapped on the floating map. "Walk a bit further ahead. In about ten minutes, we can rest over here and call that our noon break."
"Without fish, what do we do for lunch?" Captain Yang, stomach growling, almost couldn't wait to point out the key issue.
Director Zhang: "..." He wanted to say, don't the guests have ingredients? And they have their stainless-steel lunchboxes—just cook something.
But then he thought again: something's off. No water... that's still a problem.
Captain Yang saw the hesitation on Director Zhang's face. He felt that even if he stood in Director Zhang's shoes, he couldn't come up with a good solution. The only way was to share some of the production team's lunch with the guests.
Indeed, Director Zhang had no better idea.
Captain Yang returned to the guests with the victorious news. Without even realizing it himself, when he said the production team would provide half the boxed meals, his tone carried a hint of taking credit.
However, while the guests were certainly happy, they weren't as excited as Captain Yang imagined. Moreover, no one spoke up to praise him. It truly left Captain Yang's little expectation rather deflated.
Back when Captain Yang went over to the production team, Yu Nianbing and the others had also thought about the lunch situation. Clearly, the production team's setup had gone awry; it was normal for the production team to take the blame.
"When we can eat in a bit, eat as much as you can. Tonight's camp is at the foot of that mountain ahead, on the other side." Captain Yang was a bit angry, so he vaguely stated the next objective to irritate them a little.
Sure enough, this time the guests didn't look too pleased.
It was already noon, and they were still on the halfway point of the mountain under their feet. Were they supposed to cross an entire mountain in the afternoon?
Looking at it, the mountain ahead and the one they were on were about the same height. The whole morning they had only covered half a mountain. If the evening camp was really where Captain Yang said, even without accounting for lost stamina, they'd be walking until midnight...
Comments
Post a Comment