Chapter 17: Chapter 017: Soaring Popularity Chapter 17: Chapter 017: Soaring Popularity “Let’s go this way.”
Mu Jincheng pointed to the narrower path ahead.
Shen Yan had no objections and followed him.
Mu Jincheng himself was born a rich young master, and no matter how much he worked out in the gym, it was just a place to exercise his muscles.
The path they were walking today had both uphill and downhill slopes, and even carrying almost nothing, he felt tired after a while.
But it was much better than the weighted march they did yesterday.
Since joining this show, he had lost a considerable amount of weight.
The VJ and PD following them noticed Shen Yan trail a bit behind without even gasping for breath, and thinking of her performance from yesterday, they couldn’t help but secretly admire her.
When Director Li organized this group of guests, they had prepared for a relaxed approach.
With these celebrities on board, achieving realism in the show was impossible.
Yesterday was an example.
After several guests’ agents called to criticize Director Li for being too harsh, making their artists lose face in front of the camera and receiving poor fan reactions, today they immediately returned to a relaxed state, not daring to take it too far.
Among all the guests, only Shen Yan’s agent didn’t call to complain about the show going overboard.
If Shen Yan knew their thoughts, she would scoff.
Her agent wasn’t magnanimous, she just didn’t care about her artist at all.
Let it be whatever.
Even if Shen Yan ran into trouble with the show crew, Zhang Lu wouldn’t stand up for her.
You could say her agent was about as unreliable as they come.
“There’s a river ahead,” where there’s a river, there could be wild fish.
It was summer, a time when freshwater fish were plentiful.
Shen Yan said and moved towards the sound of water. Noticing a fork in the road, Mu Jincheng had wanted to go further to look for other wildlife.
But Shen Yan had already gone over, and he suppressed the irritation in his heart and followed.
Sure enough, there was a small river ahead.
The riverbank was covered with plenty of moss-grown river snails.
The water was clear, and you could see several small fish darting across the weedy surface.
The presence of small fish meant there could be bigger ones.
Shen Yan took out the small knife provided by the show crew, intending to use her talent for spearfishing to catch a few fish.
Since there was no rule on winning or losing, Shen Yan didn’t plan on increasing the catch.
Enough for their day’s meal was sufficient.
This was the so-called wilderness survival by the show crew.
Not challenging at all.
Mu Jincheng watched her pick and choose among various branches nearby, opened his mouth, then decided not to interfere in her business.
But fishing…
He was troubled.
He didn’t know how.
Then the thought struck him, perhaps Shen Yan was setting him up for embarrassment here.
If so, that would mean she was quite scheming.
Hence, he assumed that Shen Yan preparing branches must be for his use.
How should he react when Shen Yan hands him the spear for fishing?
How could he refuse without letting fans think he was useless?
While Mu Jincheng was pondering this, Shen Yan had already swiftly and neatly trimmed the branches, sharpening one end.
Seeing him standing quietly by the river bank being good-looking, Shen Yan didn’t bother him.
She was as aware as a mirror how much the male lead disliked her, so she tried her best not to touch the man meant only for the female lead.
To avoid any further misunderstandings.
The VJ promptly framed Shen Yan’s actions in the shot.
The VJ and PD following them today were fixed on Mu Jincheng and Chu Jinghe, so they weren’t aware of Shen Yan’s skill in spearfishing.
After a day of filming, they were as exhausted as dogs, without even the desire to check their phones, and they would fall asleep as soon as the break started.
Thus, they had no clue about Shen Yan’s capability.
The VJ, curious, said, “Shen Yan, are you going to spearfish? Or are you asking our Teacher Mu to do it…”
The VJ hadn’t finished speaking when they saw Shen Yan take off her shoes, revealing smooth and pale feet.
[I’m telling you, I could play with Yanyan’s little feet for years!]
[Pfft! How vulgar. If it were me, I could definitely play for over a decade! And even play fancy with them!]
[Is Mu Jincheng planning to just watch without doing anything? Could it be because his partner is Shen Yan he refuses to lift a finger, wanting to enjoy the fruits of labor directly? That’s hardly gentlemanly.]
[Ha-ha, my Brother Mu’s survival skills in the wild are the strongest among all the contestants. Can the Fake Princess even compare to Brother Mu taking action?]
[That’s right, the Fake Princess isn’t worth it.]
[I still prefer watching Brother Mu and Chu Jinghe as partners. The Fake Princess can roll as far away as possible.]
Seeing Mu Jincheng’s fans praise him so highly, Shen Yan’s fans became unhappy.
Letting a girl do all the work while he, a grown man, just watches from the shore is not the behavior of a real man.
Mu Jincheng’s fans were fierce, boasting about Mu Jincheng’s capabilities and saying Shen Yan wasn’t worthy.
[Mu Jincheng’s fans aren’t afraid of ‘blowing him up’ with their hype.]
There was a hint of malicious intent in that comment.
Mu Jincheng’s fans were furious.
Already at the final point and waiting, Director Li scrolled through the live stream shared by Shen Yan and Mu Jincheng, grinning like a sly fox.
Unexpectedly, these two partnering up had generated even more heat than partnering with Chu Jinghe!
Unlike yesterday, when they only had to sort out lunch.
Today they needed to prepare a whole day’s worth of food.
Shen Yan, holding a two-meter-long stick, rolled up her trousers and stepped into the water.
The camera just followed her move.
Then they saw Shen Yan spear a fish in one swift movement and swiftly spear another.
Raising them up, she then speared two more fish onto the shore in quick succession.
Both the VJ and the PD’s eyes bulged in amazement.
An overly self-conscious Mu Jincheng, “…”
He thought Shen Yan would toss this task to him, but instead, she pulled off such a fierce stunt right before his eyes!
It truly scared Mu Jincheng.
How did he not know Shen Yan had such skills?
Shen Yan pulled two fish onto the shore, letting them flop and jump around in the mud.
She then turned and pierced into the water where the aquatic plants were thick.
Water splashed all around, and Shen Yan lifted up another fish, which must have weighed at least three pounds, twisting wildly.
Shen Yan tossed it along with the stick onto the shore.
Whether by coincidence or not, the sharp end landed straight into the mud, and Shen Yan, turning back, plunged her hands into the water and grabbed forcefully.
In the camera’s view, Shen Yan actually caught two hand-sized fish barehanded!
Barehanded fish catching!!!
The spectators were stunned!
Mu Jincheng was dumbfounded by the abrupt scene that invaded his mind.
[Holy shit! Holy shit! Catching fish barehanded! Freakin’ awesome!]
[I’m asking my mom what kind of immortal I’m a fan of?!!]
[Give me a net and I wouldn’t be able to catch the fish in the pond; wild fish are so alert. Yanyan can actually catch fish barehanded! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would suspect those lively jumping fish were Photoshopped in.]
Both fans and haters of Mu Jincheng fell silent.
The blow to their face was too sudden, too unexpected!
Haters who had been badmouthing Shen Yan about making a fool of herself were now watching this scene, feeling as uncomfortable as if they had swallowed several lumps of shit.
They wanted to find Shen Yan’s dark side, but there wasn’t a single fault to find.
For one thing, Shen Yan wasn’t leeching off Mu Jincheng, for another, she wasn’t being pretentious, and thirdly, Shen Yan’s performance was so stunning, astonishingly quirky!
Director Li, who was drinking water at the final point, choked so badly on this move that his face turned bright red!
Someone clipped the live stream video and posted it online, instantly attracting a wave of casual viewers into the live stream. Female stars with both looks and ability were rare to come by.
They thought it would be just another monotonous survival show, but it turned out there was a hidden gem of a girl here!
The excitement added much joy to the dull lives of netizens!
Director Li saw the heat in the shared live stream room skyrocket to an alarming level, his eyes nearly popping out!
This was beyond his expectations!
Director Li felt like letting out three hearty laughs again!