Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Main Text 2: Food

The program team’s bus was parked right at the entrance.

After loading all the necessary equipment, the guests began boarding one after another.

Everyone participating in the show was from the entertainment industry. Riding a bus was dull and boring, and their phones had already been confiscated by the director back at the villa. With nothing else to do, the guests in the back of the bus began chatting and getting lively.

Lin Qianyu boarded and quietly took the single seat in the very front row. She casually placed her mountaineering backpack at her feet.

With her eyes closed and resting, Lin Qianyu clearly had no intention of joining the group in the back.

Rustle—

A faint sound of plastic wrapping brushing together reached her ears.

Lin Qianyu’s fingertips twitched. She opened her eyes and was met with a pair of round, cat-like eyes filled with a hint of a smile.

As a newly debuted and quickly rising young idol, Hang Sisi had a very recognizable appearance.

Hang Sisi handed her a handful of candy. “You don’t look too well. Low blood sugar? I picked some candy when choosing supplies. Have a couple.”

“No need, thank you,” Lin Qianyu politely declined. She didn’t have low blood sugar—her condition was due to her constitution. Eating candy wouldn’t help and would only go to waste. “Supplies are limited. You should keep them for yourself.”

Hang Sisi shook her head. “It’s fine, I won’t be able to finish them all anyway.”

As she spoke, she forcibly took Lin Qianyu’s hand and poured a full handful of candies into it.

Then, without giving Lin Qianyu a chance to refuse, she let go of the seat back and returned to her own seat.

The bus was filled with laughter and chatter all the way until it finally came to a stop.

Unnoticed by the guests, the bus had driven deep into the rainforest.

The director grabbed a loudspeaker, tapped it twice for a sound check, then raised his voice and said: “This is the recording location for this season—Stagokali Rainforest. I believe you all familiarized yourselves with the terrain before arriving. Inside your mountaineering packs are distress flares and a complete set of maps.”

“The crew has released some domestically raised chickens, ducks, and fish. Please make sure to distinguish them carefully when catching food.”

“Before the official start of the program, I’d like to remind everyone, as the director, that although the prize for lasting until the end is generous, your personal safety must remain the top priority.”

“For safety reasons, at night, try to stay close to the production team’s tent area. Don’t stray too far from the marked zones on your map to avoid any incidents with wild animals.”

Before filming began, all the guests had signed liability waivers, but some things still needed to be emphasized repeatedly.

“Alright!” After finishing, the director raised his voice again, “If there are no questions, feel free to form your own teams and make your own plans. Off you go!”

Though sitting in the front row, Lin Qianyu was the last one to get off.

As she slowly descended the bus steps, she was still lazily yawning.Not far off, Guo Yanpeng had already started organizing people to get busy preparing for the night.

Seeing Lin Qianyu’s calm and unhurried demeanor, the livestream comment section exploded with messages.

【Everyone else is busy—what can Lin Qianyu even do?】

【Honestly, I feel like just her sitting there and not dying is already helping the team.】

…

Lin Qianyu moved leisurely, looking like she was out on a casual camping trip. As she passed a bush, she even plucked a couple of grape-sized berries, popping them into her mouth one by one.

“Lin Qianyu, everyone’s working and you’re the only one slacking off. Don’t tell me you’re planning to freeload and just wait for food to show up?” Guo Yanpeng curled his lips with a nasty look, clearly plotting something unpleasant.

Clearly, it wasn’t anything good.

“I’m not joining you.” Her tone was brief and firm, leaving no room for argument.

Guo Yanpeng, who had been waiting for Lin Qianyu to offer to help so he could assign her some chores, was stunned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He quickly added, “Where are you going?”

Lin Qianyu walked past the temporary campsite without looking back and waved her hand. “I’m hungry. I’m going to look for food. You guys carry on.”

Just then, An Lanqing spoke up, “Qianyu, how can you say that? Yanpeng didn’t mean anything bad—he’s just looking out for you. If you’re just hungry, can’t you endure a bit? Once we set up the base camp, it’ll be more efficient to search for food together. You didn’t bring much in terms of supplies—how are you going to make it through the night without us?”

To say she didn’t bring much was an understatement—Lin Qianyu didn’t even have a tent or a sleeping bag for the night.

The rainforest might be fine under the sun during the day, but the temperature was sure to drop at night. If she didn’t find a proper spot, she’d be the first contestant eliminated due to the cold.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qianyu chuckled softly. Rather than “how can you say that,” she suspected An Lanqing really meant “how can you be so ungrateful.”

Now that she had separated from the group, An Lanqing had no one to create drama with. No drama meant no spotlight, and no spotlight meant no popularity—of course she was panicking.

Lin Qianyu said, “Before worrying about me, maybe you should figure out how you’re going to fit all of you into that two-person tent.”

An Lanqing choked on her words and was about to retort, but in the blink of an eye, Lin Qianyu had vanished, leaving only some gently swaying branches behind.

Seeing this, Guo Yanpeng consoled her, “Lanqing, don’t mind her. One less burden is actually a good thing. You must be hungry too, right? I think I saw a rooster run by earlier—I’ll go catch it for you.”

An Lanqing pursed her lips, her expression darkened momentarily, but she quickly composed herself and nodded to Guo Yanpeng in agreement.

The rainforest was full of shrubs.

As Lin Qianyu walked, she plucked fruit along the way. They were all fairly common wild berries, and didn’t need testing to check if they were poisonous.

She hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since waking up that morning—just did a quick wash and came down to gather. Now, after munching on several berries, she’d at least managed to get a bit of hydration.But there were too few and too small—barely enough to fill the gaps between her teeth.

Lin Qianyu had come out to look for a water source and see if she could also find something to eat.

She didn’t know how long she had been walking before finally stopping.

“Look.”

The rooster was quite large—clearly domestically raised. Now in the wild, it was warily swiveling its head, the comb twitching as it scanned the surroundings.

Lin Qianyu rubbed her chin and slowly crouched down. Her pale, slender fingers searched the ground. “Roast chicken would be perfect.”

【? Is she already so hungry on day one that she’s starting to hallucinate?】

【…Please no, I’m afraid that rooster might solo her. That’d be way too embarrassing.】

【Who are you trying to kill with laughter? That rooster’s gonna fly two miles before you even get close. Roast chicken? If you manage to pluck a single feather, I’ll call you nimble.】

Ignoring the banter in the livestream, Lin Qianyu continued her search until she found a pebble of suitable size. She picked it up between two fingers.

— Whoosh

A soft but swift sound of something slicing through the air.

Without any warning, the rooster that had been curiously poking around collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Lin Qianyu stood up and dusted her hands, then effortlessly lifted the heavy rooster and weighed it in her hand, casually remarking, “I could make beggar’s chicken with half and roast the other half. I probably won’t finish it in one meal.”

It was indeed a large rooster.

The production crew probably really was worried about the guests starving in the wild. After all, whether they could catch a wild pheasant was one thing; whether it was edible was a whole other matter.

【Huh???】

【Did my screen just lag?】

The audience stared in utter confusion.

Lin Qianyu didn’t have water, so directly singeing the feathers and roasting the rooster wasn’t realistic. She carried the rooster in one hand and used the machete in the other to slash through the tangled vines blocking her path, heading toward the water source marked on the map from memory.

Since the route was fairly long, Lin Qianyu coughed a couple of times as she walked, but her hand with the machete was sharp and steady, cutting cleanly.

Her pale complexion was further washed out by the light reflected off the machete’s blade, making her look even more fragile.

She didn’t overexert herself, either—when she felt drained, she leaned against a tree to rest a while before continuing.

As she drew closer to the water source, she could faintly hear the gentle trickling of a stream.Walking all the way to the stream, Lin Qianyu found a suitable spot and sat down on the ground. Holding the machete, she measured it against the rooster as if trying to decide the best place to make the first cut.

【So what if she got lucky and found a rooster? Just look at how weak she is—she definitely won’t have the guts to kill it.】

That comment drifted across the screen just as Lin Qianyu raised the blade and swiftly slit the rooster’s throat to bleed it.

Barrage: 【……】

Pretend I didn’t say anything.

While the blood drained, Lin Qianyu even plucked a few feathers in the meantime.

“No lotus leaves… I’ll just roast half of it. The other half… maybe I can trade it with the director’s team.” Or exchange it with another contestant for some supplies—that would be fine too.

There was no fridge, and she didn’t know if it would still be good tomorrow. Lin Qianyu had no intention of eating anything not fresh.

She found a large leaf and placed the cleaned rooster—gutted and rinsed twice—on top, coating it with seasoning. Then she gathered a good amount of dry twigs and leaves from nearby.

Starting a fire with friction isn’t as easy as it looks on TV.

It takes precise angles and proper tinder. The barrage again filled with mocking comments, laughing at Lin Qianyu for thinking she could pull this off.

But soon after, white smoke began drifting from beneath the leaves.

It was coming from the kindling under the leaves.

The livestream chat filled with question marks. Lin Qianyu had already started feeding small dried leaves to the tiny flame.

For Lin Qianyu, starting a fire like this was easy—just a matter of time. Having survived countless infinite-loop instances, if she couldn’t manage this basic survival skill, how could she have possibly escaped from those man-eating scenarios unharmed?

The half-roasted chicken was skewered and set over the fire. Lin Qianyu propped her chin on one hand as the simply marinated skin darkened over the open flame and began to change rapidly.

She constantly adjusted the angle to ensure the chicken cooked evenly.

Though it was just half a bird, cooking over an open flame took time.

She made a few slits at the outer part of the chicken leg to help it cook faster.

Once the surface was fully cooked and sizzling with oil, she grabbed a handful of mixed seasonings and sprinkled them on. The exact contents were unclear, but there was definitely salt and cumin.

Lin Qianyu added an extra dose of chili powder as well.

After flipping the chicken to the other side and letting the spices soak in, she cut off the leg.

The rest remained over the fire to roast slowly.Taking a bite of the chicken leg, Lin Qianyu nodded in satisfaction at her own cooking and said, “Surviving in the wild is actually pretty easy.”

In other livestreams, contestants were jumping through hoops just to get a bite of food, with tensions already beginning to rise.

Viewers who had been hopping between different livestreams fell silent in Lin Qianyu’s stream: 【……】

Did the director really not give Lin Qianyu any special treatment?

Really not??