Mu Li and four others used a vine to tie Chichi and brought him before Wang Xiang.
"Director Wang, this traitor said it, we're reporting him." Mu Li said, handing over a wooden stick, and fawningly added, "Director Wang, we've brought the person. You can do whatever you want with him, as long as you give us some cooking utensils, seasonings, and staple foods like rice."
Wang Xiang frowned, displeased, "Do I still need to do it myself?"
Mu Li's eyes widened, "Understood." With that, he winked at his remaining four brothers.
Fan Yizhi grinned, took out a branch, and kicked Chichi to the ground. Wang Qin, Wang Yijia, and Peng Xiaochang swarmed over, taking turns to 'whip' Chichi with branches.
Amidst the grim laughter of the four burly men, Chichi began to roll, groan, and scream on the ground, a sight that would break hearts and bring tears to eyes.
Mu Li, however, was not affected by Chichi's screams in the slightest. A fawning smile still on his face, he asked, "Director Wang, are you satisfied? If not, you can personally whip him a few times. You're free to improvise too. Tying him up? Wax dripping? Or some new trick, we can cooperate with anything."
Wang Xiang showed a look of disdain, waving his hand and feigning magnanimity, "Alright, alright, that's enough. A small punishment will suffice."
As he spoke, his gaze drifted towards Deng Fei, who was watching the show from the side.
Mu Li immediately nodded and shouted, "I understand, I understand, watch this."
Mu Li nodded to Fan Yizhi and the other three, then waved his right hand, pointing at Deng Fei, who hadn't reacted yet.
The four strong men pounced like hungry tigers, pinning Deng Fei to the ground and beginning a new round of merciless whipping.
"See, are you satisfied?" Mu Li asked with a fawning smile.
"Wouldn't it have been better to do this earlier? Trying to contend with me? Hmph!" Only then did Wang Xiang reveal a satisfied smile. "What did you want again?"
"Cooking utensils, seasonings, and staple food." Mu Li's smile deepened.
Wang Xiang stroked his chin, a hint of hesitation in his brows, "Cooking utensils and seasonings are easy enough to provide, but as for staple food? We don't have rice. How about two packs of instant noodles?"
Mu Li gave a bitter smile, "Director Wang, look, there are so many of us, isn't two packs a bit insufficient?"
Wang Xiang nodded, "Alright, I'll give you five packs."
Mu Li immediately beamed with joy, "Director Wang is generous!"
"However..." Wang Xiang's tone shifted, and Mu Li immediately followed up, "Director Wang, what other instructions do you have? Please tell us."
Wang Xiang pointed at Chichi, who was still rolling on the ground, and Deng Fei, who was pinned down, and said, "Give those two another five minutes of beating."
"You are truly wise!" Mu Li led the applause. "Don't worry, we will definitely serve them well and make sure they can't get out of bed tomorrow."
Wang Xiang frowned, "What? You still want them to sleep in beds?"
"No, you misunderstood." Mu Li quickly explained, "My meaning is to make them unable to touch the ground. We'll tie them to a tree to spend the night."
"That's more like it." Wang Xiang sneered, "The goods will be delivered in ten minutes, but how the next batch of goods will be depends on your performance."
Ten minutes later, five packs of instant noodles, cooking utensils, and daily seasonings were indeed delivered.
The seven people gathered around a large pot, unable to help but complain, "This is inhumane."
"Exactly!" Chichi said angrily, "I can't believe I sacrificed my body, only to get five packs of instant noodles in return. This is utterly heartless!"
"Exactly!" Deng Fei echoed, "Chichi, you got the raw end of the deal this time. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to swallow this! This instant noodles, I won't eat it!"
Before his words finished, Deng Fei was sent flying. Everyone looked closely and saw Fan Yizhi's retracted right foot.
"Why are you looking at me? He said it himself, he's not eating the instant noodles." Fan Yizhi said, puzzled.
Chichi immediately gave a thumbs up, "Big Brother is indeed Big Brother!"
Although there were only five packs of instant noodles, there were also two sea fish and some snails. Everyone carefully put away three packs as emergency food, and ate the remaining two packs of instant noodles, sea fish, and snails clean.
After eating their fill, the seven people lay in a row on the beach, "Wang Xiang is nothing special."
"Desert island survival is nothing special."
"Wu Ha is nothing special."
"Variety shows are nothing special."
"The entertainment industry is nothing special."
"Society is nothing special."
"Life is nothing special."
...
Through the surveillance, seeing the seven people acting as if they wouldn't survive tomorrow, Wang Xiang couldn't help but remind them through the microphone, "It's almost dark, and you don't have a place to stay. Have you thought this through?"
On the other side of the beach, the seven 'lying flat' members showed no signs of getting up.
Wang Qin: "Who's talking? Blah blah blah, isn't it annoying?"
Chichi: "Is it Wang Xiang? I recognize that voice."
Deng Fei: "What did he say again?"
Wang Yijia: "It seemed like he was talking about living somewhere, telling us to think clearly. Anyway, it has nothing to do with food."
Peng Xiaochang: "Not related to food? Then it's no big deal."
Fan Yizhi: "Don't mind him."
Mu Li: "Awesome!"
Everyone: "Awesome!"
...
It was already September, and it must be said that the weather in Minzhou during this period was quite good.
It wasn't too hot, and the seven people lying on the beach felt just right. Before long, they all fell asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, Mu Li, who was sleeping, felt his face getting wet. Immediately after, the surroundings became noisy.
"A Li, hurry up and get up, it's raining." Peng Xiaochang said anxiously.
Mu Li, still groggy, waved his hand and casually said, "Ninetales, Arcanine, Double Sunny Day."
Ninetales and Arcanine reluctantly transformed from their doll forms back to their original forms. Looking at the six confused people around them, they pouted, and energy burst from their bodies. Two incomparably thick beams of light shot directly into the dark clouds above everyone's heads.
The next moment, the originally dense dark clouds were directly pierced by two huge holes, and the thick dark clouds also began to thin, gradually disappearing.
The raindrops, and everything else, had long vanished.
The six people couldn't help but exchange glances and exclaimed, "Holy cow, there's such a move?"
However, although the rain had stopped, the six people were completely awake.
"This won't do if we keep going like this. We still need to build a temporary shelter, otherwise, if it rains again, we'll get drenched." Chichi said.
Peng Xiaochang pointed at Mu Li, who was still sleeping, and tentatively asked, "Should we wake A Li up?"
Chichi's mouth twitched, "You go wake him. I'm afraid he'll hit me with a Blast Burn before he even wakes up."
Peng Xiaochang couldn't help but swallow, looking at Ninetales and Arcanine.
Ninetales rolled her eyes exasperatedly and said, "If you want to go, you go. I'm not going."
Arcanine, however, offered an idea, "Actually, there's no need to wake A Li. We can just ask Hatterene for help."
As if hearing someone call her name, Hatterene also returned to her original form from her doll state.
As the Witch of the Forest, it was not difficult for Hatterene to build a treehouse in the woods. Coupled with the trees Snorlax had destroyed earlier, there was enough material to build two exquisite treehouses.
With Hatterene's help, vines began to grow between the trees, tightly wrapping around the built treehouses. Inside the two treehouses, Hatterene specifically left two flat wooden boards. By spreading some leaves or dry straw on these boards, they would become comfortable beds.
Putting everything else aside, these two long wooden boards alone could easily accommodate five or six people.
At least the sleeping arrangements were now resolved.
The others did not wake Mu Li, allowing Hatterene to directly control Mu Li and toss him into the treehouse.
The others also chose not to continue chatting and went to rest early.
In the middle of the night, a small shadow appeared beside the treehouse, observed it for a long time, and then hopped into the treehouse in a few jumps along the big tree. It saw Mu Li, Wang Yijia, Peng Xiaochang, and Wang Qin lying on the bed.
Just as the small shadow was about to search for something on the bed, it was grabbed by a purple, chubby hand that appeared out of nowhere and was thrown out of the window.
Before the small shadow could even see what happened, a huge smiling face appeared on the big tree. The small creature immediately let out a shriek of fright and quickly fled from the treehouse.
Gengar's body floated out of the big tree, looking somewhat dejected at the receding small creature, seemingly still wanting more.
"Go play, we're all here." Gardevoir's voice came, and Gengar immediately broke into a smile, his figure disappearing into thin air.
The next morning, Mu Li slowly opened his eyes, still groggy.
"Where is this?" Mu Li looked at the unfamiliar scene before him. After looking around, he found himself in a treehouse.
He seemed to have slept particularly heavily last night, perhaps because he was too tired, especially in the latter half of the night. He felt as if he had sunk into another world, but everything in that world, Mu Li had forgotten upon waking up.
"Where is everyone?" Mu Li had just walked out of the treehouse when he saw two groups of people confronting each other on the beach.
One side was Wu Ha's six brothers, and the other side was, of course, the production team.
Upon seeing Mu Li come out, Wu Ha's six brothers were instantly invigorated, their morale immediately soaring, "Yo! Our A Li is here! You underestimated us, this time, there's no way we'll lose."
"What's going on? Why are they competing again?" Mu Li asked curiously, "Didn't we save three packs of instant noodles last night?"
At the mention of this, Mu Li noticed that the expressions of the six brothers immediately changed. The six exchanged glances, and finally, their gazes all fell on Deng Fei.
Deng Fei pointed at himself in disbelief, but under the gazes of the other five, he dropped his smile, his expression becoming serious.
"Um, A Li, if I told you that someone came into our room last night and stole the instant noodles, would you believe it?" Deng Fei said in a low voice.