Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Eating Well

At first, she just wanted to eat chicken stewed with mushrooms to improve the flavor, but later she really wanted to eat it.

Especially now that the mushrooms, which were right within reach, had been confiscated. As the saying goes, what you can’t get is always the best. Her desire evolved from wanting to eat it to a determination that she must eat it.

Hang Sisi had originally been drooling in front of the tent, but hearing Lin Qianyu’s words, she was suddenly both amused and helpless. “Qianyu-jie…”

Guo Yanpeng sneered, “Such a light sleeper, always thinking about food. Missing one meal won’t kill you.”

An Lanqing clicked her tongue disapprovingly and glanced at Guo Yanpeng but didn’t say anything to stop him.

Her attitude showed she wanted to stop him, but she made no move.

Lin Qianyu had originally planned to take the sleeping bag back and lie down while flipping through the map. Upon hearing that, she gave Guo Yanpeng a sidelong glance as he passed by.

Guo Yanpeng barked harshly, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Under the live camera, Lin Qianyu had no intention of hitting anyone—winning a fight would only give others a handle against her.

Last time, Guo Yanpeng was just asking for trouble, knowing there was no surveillance in her room, so he purposely went up to threaten her. At times like that, hitting was hitting. But now, with so many eyes watching, in a society governed by law, one must be more careful.

Lin Qianyu said coolly, “You’re not wrong. It’s not just that missing one meal won’t kill you, even eating one meal every two days still keeps the energy up.”

“You—”

Before Guo Yanpeng could lose his temper, Lin Qianyu sidestepped him and went back to her small cabin. “Stop yelling. Save your strength, alright? Maybe tonight we’ll go hungry again.”

Lin Qianyu was in a good mood, always carrying a faint smile on her face. To Guo Yanpeng, that smile carried a hidden meaning. He clenched his fists and bit his teeth.

[What’s wrong with Guo Yanpeng? Why is he always targeting Lin Qianyu?]

[Uh… probably because he thinks Lin Qianyu is holding them back? When the show first released the guest posters, Guo Yanpeng posted a Weibo with some shady comments. You can tell he really dislikes Lin Qianyu.]

[Speechless. Doesn’t he see who’s really holding everyone back? That pig-brain is making the whole team starve.]

[Forget about unrelated people, everyone guess what Lin Lin will eat tonight.]

Someone cleverly organized the comments and started a poll.

Knowing Lin Qianyu’s preferences, they deliberately added chicken stewed with mushrooms as an option.

When the voting ended, as expected, chicken stewed with mushrooms was the most popular.

This result would be sent back to the streamer’s watch.

Lin Qianyu felt her watch vibrate, checked it, and saw the poll. She raised her eyebrows slightly, “Wrong guess, I’m not planning to eat that tonight.”

She touched her stomach, “I need to control my weight.”It was mainly because it was getting dark soon, and she was too lazy to go out looking for food. She had eaten the rabbit soup late at noon and still felt it hadn’t digested yet. Eating another meal now might make it hard to sleep tonight.

[???]

[Look at the streamer next door drinking water because she’s hungry, and you’re here controlling your weight?!]

“Time to sleep.” Lin Qianyu patted the waterproof cloth, pulled down the curtain, waved goodbye, and said, “We’ll get up early tomorrow to go pick mushrooms on the mountain. Good night.”

The live stream wasn’t over yet, but as soon as Lin Qianyu lowered the curtain, the screen only showed the big tree outside, and scattered comments saying “Good night” appeared.

Inside the small cabin, the dry grass laid on the floor had already been compressed.

The sleeping bag fit perfectly when laid down.

Although the sleeping bag was a second-choice item when selecting supplies, it had to be said—it was really practical.

Lying in the sleeping bag, Lin Qianyu zipped it up snugly in front of her and comfortably closed her eyes.

The next day.

The first ray of morning sunlight shone into the live stream room. It was not as breathtaking as the sunrise, but even through the screen, one could feel the warmth and the fresh, elegant scent of the mountain forest.

“Good morning, everyone!” Lin Qianyu’s face appeared from the side in the live camera’s view. Her fair jade-like profile lifted at the jaw, smiling warmly and brightly. “Are you ready to go pick mushrooms with me?”

[Let’s go!!!]

[Charge!]

Lin Qianyu took down the streaming equipment and set it aside, carrying an empty backpack as she headed up the mountain.

While making the cabin, she had whittled a stick, originally planning to make a hiking staff. But it was not easy, so in the end, she barely made a stick with a handle.

She had looked over the map several times yesterday and had roughly guessed where the mushrooms might be.

The Stadgali Rainforest was rarely visited by humans and showed no signs of overdevelopment—there wasn’t even a clear mountain path.

Lin Qianyu had to use the stick to press down grass or cross branches blocking her way in order to step forward.

“Did it rain before? The ground here is a bit soft.” Lin Qianyu touched the leaves, which still had dew on them. “The director didn’t give us a weather forecast, so I don’t know if it will rain soon.”

High heat and frequent rain were almost synonymous with the rainforest. Even during their early preparation and rest at the villa, there had been no rain outside.

The show’s live location was chosen in the rainforest, so natural rainfall was definitely a challenge.

[Indeed, I looked up information about rainforests. If it rains, many guests definitely won’t be able to handle it.][If the wood soaks up water, you won’t even be able to start a fire.]

[Is the streamer worried that her little cabin won’t hold up? Although it’s waterproof cloth, it doesn’t seem to be raised off the ground.]

Lin Qianyu grabbed a handful of berries somewhere, popping the little ones about the size of a pinky into her mouth like sunflower seeds, showing no concern for her cabin. Her fingers brushed under some tree roots. “With so much rain, there are many damp, dark corners without sunlight—there must be plenty of mushrooms.”

The chat was full of ellipses.

[Guess I’m overthinking it.]

Lin Qianyu was a theorist and also a doer. Moving further up, she parted the grass and unsurprisingly found mushrooms growing well beside tree roots.

“Look!” Lin Qianyu picked a red, spotted mushroom, but unfortunately, its appearance clearly said “poisonous.”

If you can’t distinguish mushroom species, the simplest way is to pick the ugly ones—those plain, low-profile, grayish, dirty-looking ones.

She roughly tossed similar-looking ones into her backpack, intending to gather enough first and do a second sorting later.

Lin Qianyu dug out another mushroom, pleasantly surprised: “Here’s a wild little vinegar dwarf mushroom. It grows above ground three days after being buried in soil. If anyone accidentally finds this mushroom in the Stadgali Rainforest, they won’t need to worry about food.”

[? You’re surprisingly kind.]

[You’re on a deserted island, huh? How careless would you have to be to get lost there?]

After circling around the little vinegar dwarf mushrooms, she found two more. She separated them from the others, planning to cut and plant them at camp later, so she wouldn’t have to keep climbing the mountain for mushrooms.

Nobody came near here; no one picked these mushrooms, so they grew plentiful and large.

Before long, her backpack was stuffed full of various mushrooms, known and unknown.

Lin Qianyu, tired, leaned against a tree and sighed, wiping sweat from her forehead, looking up at the horizon, which stretched endlessly.

Just as she planned to move forward, the livestream room made a “ding dong” sound.

Director: [During the on-site investigation, the crew found signs of wild beasts on the mountain—possibly black bears, or tigers and leopards. It’s best not to go too close to the mountain. Please be careful.]

Lin Qianyu’s eyes brightened as she saw the message in the chat. “Really?”

She hadn’t seen any wild beasts in this world yet. The red-tailed hawk was a fierce bird of prey, but it was different from ground animals.

Director: [?]

Audience: [???]

Judging by her reaction, you seem quite excited?

Other guests would definitely run away immediately when hearing these animal names, but Lin Qianyu just didn’t play by the rules.This suddenly made the director break into a cold sweat, not knowing whether to answer truthfully or not.

But seeing that if he didn’t respond, Lin Qianyu was definitely going to head up the mountain, and there was no time to think too much, the director—truly afraid Lin Qianyu might try to capture a tiger alive—hurriedly sent a message in the chat: [Really, come down the mountain immediately.]

Lin Qianyu pursed her lips. After the director repeatedly sent dozens of the same messages, feeling his urgent mood and considering his overburdened heart, she sighed helplessly and could only agree, “Alright then.”

A whole backpack full of mushrooms wasn’t gathered in vain.

As she walked down, she faintly heard chickens crowing.

She paused, then remembered the dish she wanted to make—chicken stewed with mushrooms. She had mushrooms but no chicken yet.

“Let’s catch a chicken,” Lin Qianyu decided immediately, picked up a stone from the ground, and headed toward the source of the sound.

Weighing the smooth stone in her hand, Lin Qianyu thought, “Better catch a smaller one; I want to eat more mushrooms today.”

Eating too much meat is hard to handle.

Also, younger chickens are more tender and better suited for stewing with mushrooms.

Thinking this, Lin Qianyu stepped on a fallen tree trunk and jumped down, spotting a flock of chickens pecking at something not far away. “I wondered why the director released so many broiler chickens but so few are seen when hunting—it turns out they’re all hiding here.”

Lin Qianyu pinched a stone between two fingers, raised it in front of her eyes, aiming left and right, comparing size. “Which one to catch?”

She had been walking lightly when coming here; broiler chickens are not as alert as wild ones, and they hadn’t noticed the person standing not far away.

With so many broiler chickens, Lin Qianyu was dazzled. Not wanting to waste time, she picked one and threw the stone directly.

Whoosh—!

The chicken hit on the head couldn’t even scream before it collapsed.

With the noise, the flock scattered like cold water dropped into hot oil, flapping wildly, feathers flying everywhere in the chaos.

[Ah? Ah? Ah?]

[I think I now understand what happened to that purple clay chicken earlier.]

[I apologize for my earlier mockery. She really can hit whichever one she wants! Point and hit, that’s amazing.]

[So cruel. Maybe that chicken had family in the flock. You just took it away to eat so easily, sigh, it makes me sad to watch.]

…

Lin Qianyu picked up the broiler chicken, glanced at the chat, and kindly comforted them: “Don’t feel bad. I’ll bring the whole family back in a few days so they can be reunited.”

Chat: [……][The King of Hell woke up one day to find himself dropped to second place on the leaderboard.]