Chapter 18: Chapter 018: Shrimp Catching Chapter 18: Chapter 018: Shrimp Catching With popularity comes doubt.
Shen Yan’s animated GIFs of hand-catching fish were posted online and quickly shot up the hot search charts.
Besides the hand-catching fish GIFs, there were also ones of spearing fish, and the funny GIFs of her carrying weight from the previous day, which her fans posted, attracting a wave of meme enthusiasts to save and use.
There were also fan-made comics; surprisingly, there were industry masters in Shen Yan’s fanbase.
The chibi-style drawings they produced were very vivid and entertaining.
Some animation wizards even made a short video for Shen Yan with adorable dubbing.
Whether it was animation or comics, they all drew lots of likes and shares.
In this myriad of ways, Shen Yan captured a bunch of fans!
“Too outrageous, the live broadcast must have been bugged.”
“It feels so fake.”
“The live video has definitely been tampered with.”
“My husband has bought so much fishing gear, but he’s not as good at fishing—or should I say, spearing fish—as the Fake Princess.”
“In short, it’s as fake as if they spliced in a different video.”
“I suspect the water and fish were green-screened, with animations added post-production.”
“This green-screen theory seems right, is there any expert coming out to draw circles and mock us?”
Silence.
Even Shen Yan’s fans couldn’t be bothered with this group of nitpicking flies.
Shen Yan wasn’t just lucky in her ability to catch fish by hand; she had been trained in the past by a bunch of maniacs to catch mudfish in the water.
And they trained her using the mudfish from outdoor ponds.
So for her, catching a couple of fish was nothing.
You could say she was quite skilled from practice.
When she got back to shore, she found a twig that was both flexible and tough, skewered the still twitching fish through their gills, and hung them in a bundle to hand over to Mu Jincheng.
Mu Jincheng snapped back to reality, stepping back half a step with an uncomfortable expression, “What are you doing?”
“Take them to the production team to be stored in water,” otherwise, just carrying them like this, although they wouldn’t rot, would make them both fishy and stiff. Eating them in the evening, the meat quality would not be so good.
Mu Jincheng wanted to say why don’t you go, but Shen Yan had already dumped the smelly and heavy fish into his hands, grabbing the small looped branch that Shen Yan had purposely bent, getting her hand wet.
Mu Jincheng frowned in disgust but didn’t end up tossing the fish away.
The VJ received a hefty chain of fish and turned to look at the PD he was paired with.
The PD nodded, and then someone came over with a bucket of water to put the fish in.
For the fish caught on sticks, whether they’d been left out for too long, the PD on the scene asked Director Li through the walkie-talkie whether they should take the injured fish to the endpoint first to be killed and preserved.
With the weather so hot, the production team had also brought portable refrigerators.
The generators were continuously supplying power.
Director Li hadn’t anticipated Shen Yan would exploit this loophole, and as he hadn’t said the production team couldn’t assist in preserving food, seeing the popularity skyrocket, Director Li broke protocol this once, allowing the wild fish caught by Shen Yan to be taken and preserved by the on-site chefs.
Turning his head back, Mu Jincheng saw Shen Yan entering the water again and his eyelid twitched, “What are you doing now?”
“Checking if there are any shrimps.”
Shen Yan bent down and waded at the water’s edge among the weeds, feeling the presence of many living creatures, before stepping onto soft mud and coming back up.
Seeing those previously flawless pale feet now smeared with mud, Mu Jincheng found it unexpectedly displeasing.
He wanted to remind her to clean them but felt it was unnecessary.
Shen Yan got back on land and started looking around.
Mu Jincheng followed behind like an idiot, “What are you looking for?”
Shen Yan didn’t respond.
She chopped down several vines of various sizes, choosing those that were both soft and tough.
Using them as a substitute for bamboo, she quickly began weaving them together.
Mu Jincheng’s brow furrowed deeply, unsure what trick Shen Yan was about to play.
Staring at the person bathed in mottled light and shadows, Mu Jincheng, who was closer, noticed that Shen Yan’s skin was so tender it seemed like water could be squeezed out from it, and even her lips had a natural rosy hue, tempting for a kiss.
She also had a faint layer of sweat clinging to her subtly prominent collarbones, as if that patch of skin was exuding a seductive fragrance…
Mu Jincheng’s face darkened.
How could he be tempted by such a woman?
To others, Mu Jincheng’s demeanor appeared to be discontentment with Shen Yan’s disregard.
Shen Yan didn’t care about him. After all, whether they would still be in the same group tomorrow after today’s task was another matter.
However…
She didn’t remember the book mentioning any group changes because from the beginning, the male and female protagonists were in the same group until the recording of the fifth episode was complete.
Even the cop crime movie they later received had them both as the male and female leads.
So what had caused the show to turn out this way?
The butterfly effect, maybe?
Shen Yan only wondered for a moment and didn’t reflect on it deeply.
No matter what had caused the change in the storyline from the book, she now just needed to trend online, eliminate the terminal illness that her soul had brought along, and then live beautifully alone in this world from the book!
In just a while, Shen Yan had woven something that looked like a sieve, then she walked to the riverside, specifically looking for a patch of aquatic plants. She targeted a spot, plunged in, and then fiercely scooped up, flinging everything toward the shore.
Carrying pebbles, river snails, wild shrimp, and some small fishies, she flung them all onto Mu Jincheng who was watching the excitement unfold.
A slimy little fish slipped into Mu Jincheng’s collar and slid down to his belly against the skin, causing a chilling sensation over his entire body!
He was so angered that he jumped up on the spot.
Like a young girl who encountered a large rat, he hurriedly shook out the little fish from inside his clothes.
After shaking out the little fishie, Mu Jincheng, with a dark face and teeth clenched, said bitterly to Shen Yan standing in the water, “Did you do that on purpose?”
On purpose to make him look foolish, on purpose to catch his attention.
Shen Yan was a bit speechless, “Who told you to stand there? Move aside; I’m going to catch shrimp.”
Mu Jincheng, suppressing his rage, moved aside grudgingly and watched her with a dark expression.
[Pfft! Mu Jincheng is really hilarious, he hasn’t lifted a finger to do any work from the beginning, and he still dares to give my Yanyan a dirty look.]
[Is this the “strong” that Mu Jincheng’s fans boast about? Or did I misunderstand the word “strong”?]
[It’s confirmed, Mu Jincheng is no doubt a woman in man’s clothing! Hahaha!]
[Here comes Fake Princess again, using such despicable means to attract Brother Mu’s attention, wasn’t it the same last episode?]
[That’s right, and also playing sick for sympathy.]
[Brother Mu is just unwilling to be in the same group with her, try switching to Chu Jinghe.]
[It was decided by drawing lots; Shen Yan doesn’t want to be in the same group with Mu Jincheng either, it’s just my Yanyan’s bad luck to encounter such a man.]
Those comments incited another battle.
And none of this was known to Shen Yan or Mu Jincheng.
Shen Yan tried several times, and she caught quite a few little river shrimp.
Seeing Mu Jincheng standing there like a door god with his arms crossed, Shen Yan felt he was a bit too much.
“Can you pick up the shrimp and little fish and put them together?”
Just standing there watching, don’t you feel it’s a loss to your manhood?
Don’t forget, this is a live broadcast!
Mu Jincheng reluctantly bent down to pick them up, flailing somewhat cheerfully, making him look rather ungainly.
“Splash!”
Suddenly, Shen Yan flung another thing onto the shore, and a long, soft thing wriggled to Mu Jincheng’s foot.
His face turned pale white with fright, “Snake!”
He sat down hard and kept kicking at the wriggling creature.
Shen Yan: “…”
National audience: “…”
His fans covered their faces: “…”
VJ and PD: “…”