WS - Chapter 145

Chapter 145

After building two bamboo rafts, the group lingered by the river for nearly a day. Zhao Da observed repeatedly that the Yaoxing Storm had widened the river channel, but probably not evenly on both banks.

Judging by the positions of the bamboo that the Production Team had transplanted to this side and then partially washed away, it looked like the bank on this side had been widened less, while the opposite bank had flooded more.

Combine that with the sparse reed tops now visible in the river, and Zhao Da roughly figured out the best spot to make his move.

Whether it was the location where the two rafts had been moored on the bank the previous day or the spot where Zhao Da and Zhao Er later retrieved one raft and repositioned it, everything had been calculated by Zhao Da.

Sure enough, when the moment came to enter the water, Zhao Da merely gave a few casual strokes with the crude bamboo paddle he had made from leftover bamboo, and the raft began drifting slowly toward the spot he had in mind.

From a shallower submerged area, the raft gradually made its way to where the original river channel's center had been.

After the Yaoxing Storm, the river had not only widened, but the current had also grown much fiercer. Following last night's aftershock, the river ran even swifter today.

Under Zhao Da's deliberate control, their raft drifted at a moderate speed, while Captain Yang's raft had already been carried farther downstream. The river situation was complicated enough that the other group was probably busy adapting and coping; by the look of it, they wouldn't notice what was happening behind them for the time being.

Seeing that the position was about right, Zhao Da gave the water two hard strokes with his paddle. The two splashing sounds, in the context of Zhao Da's earlier repeated use of the paddle, were not really conspicuous.

Zhao Er, who had been waiting for the signal, caught those two sounds immediately.

The rafts, made from nearly whole bamboo stalks, were narrow and long. Zhao Da and Zhao Er, who both knew how to swim, had logically taken the bow and stern positions, sandwiching Wang Daming and Mu Xingzhou in between.

The instant Zhao Er received the signal of the double paddle-splash, he gently inserted the steel knife he had prepared long ago between two bamboos bound together with vines.

The rushing river and the sounds of Zhao Da paddling masked Zhao Er's tiny movement.

With just one cut, the small tampering Zhao Da and Zhao Er had deliberately done while binding the raft caused half of it to come loose.

Zhao Er let out an "Ahhh" as he fell into the water. Then Mu Xingzhou, who was already panicking on the disintegrating raft and unsure whether to lie flat or cling to the bamboo, had his pant leg caught by the falling Zhao Er and slid off the now-slick bamboo after him.

Perfect. Zhao Da, wearing an expression of tense concern, turned his head. The raft beneath him hadn't completely fallen apart yet; according to his calculations, it should hold long enough for him and Wang Daming to reach the bank quickly.

"Zhao Er can—" Zhao Da began, meaning to say that Zhao Er could swim and that they should hurry to shore before the raft broke up entirely. Before he could finish, Wang Daming, his face deathly pale and trembling, threw himself at him.

"Save me! Save me! I can't swim! Save me right now!" Wang Daming's survival instinct flared, and with a surge of strength he slipped on the already slick bamboo and crashed right into Zhao Da's embrace.

"I—" Zhao Da couldn't even spit out a curse before Wang Daming latched onto him like an octopus.

Zhao Da instinctively tried to push him back to keep the raft balanced, but whether it was Wang Daming's weight or the acceleration of his slide, Zhao Da's shove couldn't dislodge him.

Even though he managed to slow Wang Daming down slightly, Wang Daming still wrapped him in a full-body hug.

The raft, already loosened in many places and relying entirely on Zhao Da and Wang Daming sitting in the middle for balance, suddenly tilted upward at one end.

The moment he hit the water, all Zhao Da could think was that he ought to just drown this thing clinging to him and be done with it.

Both brothers, at that moment, felt murder rise in their hearts.

Zhao Er, who had fallen in first, hooked Mu Xingzhou's neck the moment Mu Xingzhou hit the water. His posture was that of a rescuer—just with a slight change in technique, it became posture alone. The person being "rescued" actually had no way to breathe air from the surface.

In truth, Zhao Er had still been a bit cautious. When Zhao Da and he had discussed this murder method, they had indeed considered the problem of witnesses.

But they could never have imagined that the show had barely started before the nearest sole witness had already given up watching.

Even more, they could never have imagined that while their expected sole witness had abandoned watching, viewers across star systems on StarNet, countless, innumerable viewers, were seeing, in high definition on the Livestream Page, their whole sham performance.

"It's over. Knew this combo was beyond saving."

"Zhao Da and Zhao Er are truly evil. From the entry position to the signal of those two paddle strokes, to using a rescue posture to kill—if we hadn't watched that livestream last night of the two of them chatting while avoiding people, this step-by-step scheme, even watching it live, would've been impossible to figure out."

"Actually, Mu Xingzhou's songs... are pretty nice..."

"When he said he'd use all his assets to save Feng Qianqian, he probably meant it."

"These days, being willing to give all your assets is already something. How many married couples in this kind of situation still want only the money and not the person? People always care more about their own lives... aside from retreating a little too early, everything else about Mu Xingzhou can actually be understood."

"Ah, it's not like he subjectively wanted to retreat early. It's really that the split-up came too fast, and those two brothers who instigated it were in too much of a hurry to kill him."

"Looking at the Danmaku, it really makes you sigh. The old saying is right—in death, a person's stature grows... When someone is about to die, their good points get magnified and their flaws shrink accordingly."

"Yeah, when your life's gone, what's left to hold against you? Watching it now, it's genuinely heartbreaking. I can't believe I'm really quietly watching a life end, can I?"

"Ah... probably more than one life..."

"These people really take the cake. The younger brother's killing someone while the older brother's about to get killed himself. Wang Daming is clinging that tightly—does he want to live or die?"

"Wang Daming really hasn't betrayed his performance up to now. This whole step practically hinges on him taking Zhao Da down with him—call it eliminating a public menace."

...

No matter how complicated the emotions of StarNet's viewers were, whether they wished those people to live or die, for the four struggling in the river on Wilderness Planet, none of that mattered in that moment.

Zhao Da, smothered by Wang Daming, discovered that all his thousand calculations and every meticulous plan couldn't withstand the eruption of someone like Wang Daming's terror of death.

He had clearly picked the most cowardly, selfish person imaginable to be a witness, just a witness, no extra rescuing needed, no demands on Zhao Da to save him—yet Wang Daming probably hadn't even glanced at the two who had fallen in the water... Zhao Da forcefully tore at Wang Daming, struggling to surface and take a breath, but before his lungs could even fill, he was dragged back down by the octopus-like Wang Daming.

Zhao Da let out a string of curses in his mind. He couldn't pry the man off, and as for killing him outright to be done with it—that ultimately remained just a thought.

Two bodyguards on one raft, yet the other two both died—that would look way too suspicious and be way too easy to see through. Their goal wasn't just to finish the killing and walk away; in the end, they had to extract themselves clean and whole.

No matter how much Zhao Da disliked, even hated, Wang Daming, the last shred of reason forced him to spare this thing.

He struck the back of Wang Daming's neck with one palm and finally rose to breathe freely.

After two comfortable breaths, Zhao Da reluctantly dove back down to grab the thing he had just tossed aside.

Because of Wang Daming's interruption, Zhao Da had no time to check Zhao Er's progress—and he was completely unaware that, while he was tangled with Wang Daming, Zhao Er's mission had already failed.

Now, to go back to Captain Yang's raft.

Because of time and materials, each raft had been equipped with only two bamboo paddles.

Zhao Da and Zhao Er's raft naturally had them in their hands; since they were strong enough and had calculated ahead of time, they controlled the raft's speed from the very start, pulling away from Captain Yang's raft ahead to avoid having too many eyes on them.

And on Captain Yang's raft, Captain Yang and Guan Yongyi, who held the paddles, indeed had trouble controlling the raft's speed at first due to inexperience and nervousness, just as Zhao Da and the others had anticipated.

But one was a wilderness-survival guide with some experience, and the other was a retired fencer. After not many attempts, they gradually got the hang of it, slowed the raft, and began trying to head toward the other riverbank.

It was at that moment that something went wrong with the raft behind them.

Actually, the "ahhh" Zhao Er had faked when he fell in was very quiet.

Mu Xingzhou, dragged into the water in an instant, also didn't have time to make more sound.

But Wang Daming... right before he threw himself on Zhao Da and they both fell in, his earth-shattering howl probably nearly reached back at Yu Nianbing's camp.

Well, "reached back at camp" might be a slight exaggeration. But it was enough to make the people on Captain Yang's raft want to cover their ears.

Intervene? Stay out of it? Idle business?

Guan Yongyi answered with his newly grasped paddling technique.

With two people paddling, if one tried to stop while the other applied force in the opposite direction, they might as well be trying to capsize the raft...

Captain Yang was forced to cooperate with Guan Yongyi.

The raft came to a pause right in the middle of the river, swaying unsteadily, waiting for Mu Xingzhou, drifting with the current, and Zhao Er, chasing after in a breaststroke from behind.

Watching Mu Xingzhou bob and sink, in very bad shape, about to float past the raft, Ni Jinghe—who had been sitting at the back of the raft, watching Mu Xingzhou anxiously and praying that Zhao Er would swim faster—suddenly narrowed her eyes.

Sitting in the second-to-last position, Guan Yongyi was caught off guard when something was stuffed into his arms, nearly making him drop his paddle.

When he looked closely... it was Ni Jinghe's backpack.

And at the splash that followed right behind him, Guan Yongyi didn't even need to turn his head to guess what had happened.

Zhao Da, holding the unconscious Wang Daming from behind, climbed onto the two loosely joined bamboos still barely hanging together, half-kicking and half-swimming as he pushed the man to shore.

Not long after, the other raft—three sitting, one lying down, and two clinging to the sides and swimming alongside—also made landfall at a spot farther downstream from Zhao Da's landing point.

And compared to Wang Daming, who had been knocked out, it was Mu Xingzhou, half-drowned and still unconscious, who woke up sooner under Ni Jinghe's emergency care.

Zhao Er, equally soaked through, sat off to one side with an unreadable expression.

The group had a doctor, so Zhao Er had to make sure Mu Xingzhou actively swallowed enough water to make it look like he had drowned. That was why he hadn't knocked him out underwater right away. By the time Mu Xingzhou had taken in enough and seemed to lose all strength, there was also less need for Zhao Er to knock him out. Who would have thought... just as he relaxed slightly, while Zhao Er surfaced for another breath, Mu Xingzhou suddenly struggled violently and shook him off.

As a result, the two of them, one after the other, happened upon the paused raft of Captain Yang's group—which led to the current situation...

Ni Jinghe's emergency treatment was timely and accurate, and it wasn't long before Mu Xingzhou coughed up some water and regained consciousness.

Although his arms and legs were all extremely weak from struggling so long in the water and passing out once, his mental state recovered fairly quickly.

As soon as Mu Xingzhou woke up, Zhao Er went over, putting on a look of immense relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and also grumbled that Mu Xingzhou had thrashed too hard in the water, nearly dragging him down to the riverbed, and that if he'd known Mu Xingzhou was this difficult, he should've just knocked him out early and hauled him to shore.

Mu Xingzhou, dizzy and disoriented, got a face full of complaints. Finally Zhao Er added, "I was afraid that if I knocked you out and dragged you over, it might delay the itinerary, but I nearly got myself delayed in the process. Next time, don't blame me if I use too heavy a hand."

Overall, Zhao Er's act didn't differ much from before.

Once Mu Xingzhou cleared his head a bit, he did recall that while he was in the water, Zhao Er had indeed been pulling him along while swimming—it was just that he had been unable to get any oxygen, so he kept moving more and more frantically, finally reaching the point of fierce struggling.

So... had the problem really been his own posture while being rescued?

Mu Xingzhou had his doubts, and naturally he wasn't going to let Zhao Er have the only say. He described what had happened in the water from his perspective.

Zhao Er put on an expression of extreme astonishment and blurted out, "You mean you struggled free on your own and then drowned yourself? How is that possible? I may never have pulled someone out of a river, but we learned this in our security training course and even did practical drills. There's no way I couldn't have gotten you up!"

Mu Xingzhou, stomach full of river water: "..."

Just as both sides stuck to their stories and the atmosphere grew awkward and tense, Zhao Da, dragging Wang Daming—who was equally limp and limp-limbed, and even more half-dead than Mu Xingzhou—came walking down from a spot farther up the bank.

It was at this moment that most of the people there realized the other two had still been missing.

Seeing Zhao Da arrive, the somewhat rattled Zhao Er seemed to have found his backbone. He immediately took a few steps to Zhao Da's side, and while helping support Wang Daming, recounted his and Mu Xingzhou's conflicting stories as if telling a joke. He added, "I just don't get it. I've done the practical two times before—how come when it really comes to saving someone, it doesn't work?"

Zhao Da naturally understood that Zhao Er was passing along information and waiting for him to clean up the mess.

Stuffing Wang Daming into Zhao Er's hands, Zhao Da quickened his pace over to Mu Xingzhou, glanced at the water he'd vomited, and pressed on Mu Xingzhou's stomach.

"Mu Xingzhou is right. Your rescue technique really is no good. Practicing in a swimming pool just doesn't give you the same feel as being in a river. When the current's strong, you can't quite judge the right height you need to keep while holding someone and swimming," Zhao Da said, turning to face Zhao Er with a stern look and a hint of reprimand.

"I was worried that if I knocked him out and had to wake him up again on shore, getting knocked out twice would injure him—I didn't want to delay the itinerary... Who knew that if the person doesn't cooperate, and with the river... Ah, it's also my fault. I should've just followed procedure." Zhao Er acted the full part of a younger brother being lectured by his elder brother, put Wang Daming down, walked over to Mu Xingzhou, and said, "Brother, it was my mistake this time. I'll fix it next time."

Mu Xingzhou: "..."

Although Zhao Er's words lacked any sincerity of apology, Zhao Da had already scolded him...

These two brothers were practically the guarantee that they could keep reaching camp after camp. In the face of a mistake that had caused no serious harm, what else could he do but forgive him?

In fact, after Wang Daming described his own experience—being knocked out underwater, swallowing water, and getting hit awake on the bank—Mu Xingzhou almost began to feel that being rescued by the highly proficient Zhao Da wasn't necessarily a lucky thing either.

This time, underwater, Wang Daming had felt what it was like to have his life clutched in Zhao Da's hand. Even though being hit twice left him not especially grateful to Zhao Da, it was obvious that Wang Daming had become much more subdued. Even when he recounted these two beatings, his tone was mostly matter-of-fact, without the fury he was trying hard to suppress in his heart.

And so, Zhao Er's failed murder was glossed over by Zhao Da's surface reprimands—which were really just smoothing things over—and by Wang Daming's oblivious interruptions.

That was how it looked on the surface, of course.

After his ordeal in the water, Mu Xingzhou couldn't quite put it into words, but he still felt something was off.

Unfortunately, the need to keep moving immediately afterward left him no time to stop and properly think about what that something was.

The group resumed their journey, everyone wearing a neutral expression, as if the joy of having successfully crossed the river and the terror of a team member nearly dying simply had no need to exist.

Joy—well, that was one thing.

Terror—how could there be none?

Nearly causing someone's death was dismissed with a casual word: a mistake.

Others in the group, like Wang Daming, began to realize that continuing to treat Zhao Da and Zhao Er with the demands and attitude one had toward ordinary bodyguards was, indeed, very foolish.

But was obedience smart?

In the silent ranks, Ni Jinghe walked steadily near the middle-to-back, recalling the sight of Mu Xingzhou, still not far from the raft, groggy and about to be swept downriver by the current—and how Zhao Er, who had originally been swimming hard to catch up, actually slowed a little once he saw the raft was near.

Mu Xingzhou, unable to breathe at the water's surface under Zhao Er's "rescue"—was it really just because Zhao Er had no practical rescue experience and botched the operation?

Ni Jinghe didn't even dare to think too deeply about it. To think further meant conjuring dark scenarios of Zhao Da and Zhao Er preparing to eliminate the entire team and monopolize all supplies on Wilderness Planet...

Meat on a chopping block, people on a journey—other than staying vigilant and trying to look on the brighter side, there was nothing Ni Jinghe could do.

After all...

Ni Jinghe looked back. The broad river, with only a bank to land on, the bamboo rafts already mostly swept mid-river by the current...

Had these people never considered that if the road ahead failed, they might still need the rafts to go back?

No, perhaps they had considered.

They just couldn't go back.

Abandoning something was one thing; turning back to look at the aftermath of that abandonment was another.

Ni Jinghe gazed deeply at the great river, a road she would never travel again.

In the Livestream Page, the group led by Zhao Da and Zhao Er continued forward.

Mu Xingzhou's narrow escape was bound to bring more problems; the viewers, who had been holding their breath for Mu Xingzhou from the moment the rafts entered the river, truly couldn't decide whether to unclench their fists or not.

This was an attempted murder.

They had actually witnessed a real-time livestream of an attempted murder.

It was something entirely incompatible with a harmonious society.

This was the first time the livestream world had broadcast evil in progress, rather than evil that was already finished and relegated to social news.

It was truly a livestream that challenged one's entire worldview.

After watching a genuine brush-with-death for Mu Xingzhou, Wang Mancang pulled his gaze away from the Livestream Page and looked at Li Longsheng with a touch of mildness.

Just a touch, of course, and only for a moment.

The insurance company, thinking it was Song Shiyue's management company rushing them about the insurance payout—a matter that had no resolution yet—had been holding an emergency meeting for hours that showed no sign of ending, so they could only push a young insurance guy out front to hold the line.

Who would have thought that when he got here, it was only about explaining the insurance terms...

The young insurance guy practically arrived with the relief of having dodged a bullet and threw himself, with utmost sincerity and patience, into explaining Song Shiyue's insurance policy to Li Longsheng.

There really wasn't much to explain.

To sum it up, when Song Shiyue signed the insurance, the terms were: if something happened and she survived with the capacity to act on her own, the money went to her. If she lost that capacity—like becoming a vegetable—or if she died, then the money went to the insurance beneficiary she had written down. But due to the confidentiality clause she had signed, that person could only be disclosed by the insurance company after one of the above situations actually occurred.

Moreover, while Song Shiyue had not yet returned from Wilderness Planet, the situation was still changing; the amount of money and who should receive it were both completely uncertain. A situation like this, where a Yaoxing Storm prevented rescue, was the first in decades—in fact, the insurance company had no precedent for judging how such a case should pay out.

In any case, unless Li Longsheng was that beneficiary, the money had nothing to do with him anytime soon.

How could Li Longsheng possibly accept an answer like that? Wasn't this basically the same thing Wang Mancang had told him earlier? Then what had he been waiting all this time for?

"How is she not a vegetable? I watched that, what's it called, the livestream yesterday. There was an earthquake inside, she couldn't move, she wouldn't even open her eyes, being carried around by some man—what kind of appearance is that? And that's not a vegetable?" Li Longsheng self-righteously smacked the table. "You people just don't want to pay out, do you? Do you want me to go sit outside your company gates!"

The Insurance Guy's mouth was dry from all the talking; he had already drunk two glasses of water. He thought he had explained the issue in great detail, but when Li Longsheng came out with that line, it nearly made him spit blood.

"Is this person really Song Shiyue, Ms. Song's, biological father? I mean, by blood..." The Insurance Guy couldn't help but shift a little closer to Wang Mancang and murmur in a low voice.

Wang Mancang nodded.

The Insurance Guy: "..."

Li Longsheng slammed the table again, stood up, grabbed the porcelain plate that had held cake and pointed it at them: "What are you two whispering about? Are you conspiring to trick me? My daughter's a vegetable and you're trying to cheat us out of money, right!"

"No... I didn't..." the Insurance Guy raised his hands, a gesture of surrender. "Let me clarify: our company, to avoid unnecessary disputes, requires me to wear a recording device. If you take any dangerous action toward me, it will immediately leave evidence."

"Oh, so you can record, is that it? Well I've got something called, what is it, face rights—I have the right not to let you record!" Li Longsheng sneered. "Go ahead, call the police. Let's see who they arrest."

The Insurance Guy, who had actually misjudged the situation earlier as a negotiation and had only been secretly live-streaming the meeting to the people in the company meeting: "..."

"Then behave yourself. What were you secretly saying about me just now?" Li Longsheng triumphantly set the plate back down, as if he'd scored a victory.

"I was just asking Mr. Wang whether you were actually Song Shiyue, Ms. Song's, biological father," the Insurance Guy replied with an innocent face.

"Biological—I told you that from the very beginning," Li Longsheng frowned. "What lousy memory for a young man."

The Insurance Guy smiled. "How could a biological father not know that Miss Song has been waking up for a period every night? She can even eat and talk now—how could that possibly count as a vegetable? I think Miss Song is getting better day by day. She should be able to receive the payout herself."

To a biological father like this, the Insurance Guy really couldn't resist sticking a knife right where it would hurt the most.

Wang Mancang hadn't paid much attention to their earlier exchange, but the Insurance Guy mentioning a recording device made things a bit interesting. Now the Insurance Guy's comeback nearly made Wang Mancang applaud.

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