Chapter 9

Chapter 9
Chapter 9 – Dispelling Rumors

The red-tailed crested eagle lowered its head at the noise.

Before it could even make a sound, fans in the livestream chat rushed to respond on its behalf:

【Well-done and deboned, no chili—I don’t like spicy food.】

【I like it grilled till it’s chewy, no need to debone, it’s tastier to gnaw on.】

...

Lin Qianyu made a few cuts into the roast rabbit. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Then I’ll just make it however I want.”

The red-tailed crested eagle seemed to be confirming whether she was actually speaking to it. Only then did it reluctantly let out a low “chirp.”

Compared to a fledgling’s voice, it was deeper, though the tail note was still crisp.

Receiving the response, Lin Qianyu nodded solemnly, “Okay, medium-well.”

【??? You two are really syncing up, huh.】

【Exactly. That was a ‘medium-well’ chirp, I heard it all the way in Australia.】

She rummaged through her spice pouch, carefully considering what to sprinkle on.

Animals can’t eat too much salt, but small amounts help replenish electrolytes. The prey they usually catch has salt content in the meat and blood anyway.

She sprinkled on a bit of fine salt, avoiding any other seasonings. She didn’t know what the eagle could or couldn’t eat, so she only used what she was sure was safe.

When it seemed about done, she pulled the roast rabbit off the fire and stabbed it into the ground upside-down to cool in the breeze.

When skewering the rabbit earlier, she had intentionally used a long branch, leaving extra length at the top.

Two fires burned in front of Lin Qianyu. Once the roast was done, she put out one of them. On the other, the iron can holding rabbit soup was already bubbling gently.

“Wait for it to cool before you eat.”

If it burned its mouth, they didn’t exactly have a vet around.

The red-tailed crested eagle fluffed its feathers at the reminder, ignoring her.

Lin Qianyu picked up a piece of rabbit, blew on it to cool it down, and was about to take a bite—when she realized everyone was staring at her.

She raised a puzzled eyebrow. “Why are you all looking at me instead of eating?”

The duck that had been soaking in the river was practically pale—what were they waiting for?

Weren’t they all hungry?"Uh..."

Prompted by Lin Qianyu’s reminder, everyone seemed to snap back to reality, laughing awkwardly as they got up and headed over to Guo Yanpeng to prepare lunch.

But without fire—and given that expecting Guo Yanpeng to start a fire by rubbing sticks was pretty much a lost cause—before he could even start stubbornly trying, Yin Youlin took the initiative to say he’d found the lighter and handed it over for him to use.

Although Guo Yanpeng was still trying to prove himself to Lin Qianyu, he’d stumbled enough times when it came to food, so this time he didn’t fuss with Yin Youlin and simply took the lighter to start the fire.

Lin Qianyu didn’t have a bowl, so she folded two clean, thick leaves and rolled them together to make a disposable one.

When cooking in the wild, it’s best to cut the meat into small chunks to help it cook through—otherwise the wood would burn for ages, and the outside would be cooked while the inside stayed raw.

If it weren’t for the bones being too big to cut further, Lin Qianyu would’ve made the pieces even smaller.

“This meat’s pretty tender.” Lin Qianyu held up a piece in front of the camera. “Can you see it?”

After showing it briefly, she popped it into her mouth and bit out a clean little short bone.

“I think this might be my first time having rabbit soup.” Lin Qianyu dipped it in some chili powder—another flavor entirely.

Meanwhile, the roast duck on the other guests’ side was finally on track. Even without seasoning or oil to bring out the color, it looked decent enough when roasted.

The one cooking was Yin Youlin.

After the chicken fiasco last night, An Lanqing had lost her chef privileges.

—No one had the ingredients to let her mess around again.

Lin Qianyu finished the meat, and the soup had cooled down quite a bit—it wasn’t bubbling hot anymore. She tested the heat of the iron pot and then poured some into her leaf bowl.

Meat and soup, a whole iron pot just for her, she ate heartily on her own.

【You’ve got food and soup—why not have a sip of wine too?】

【Everyone’s eating, but Lin Qianyu’s side is making my mouth water like crazy—I wanna crawl into the screen and eat with her. As for Hang Sisi’s duck… is that even edible?】

【Guo Yanpeng’s side is the real wilderness. Lin Qianyu’s already living her best life.】

【I always thought these kinds of variety shows meant eating well with the group, but now? Tsk tsk tsk.】

Getting warm from eating, Lin Qianyu drank the rest of her soup and then unrolled the leaf bowl and pressed it down over the fire to burn.

The roast rabbit, cooled by the wind, was just about ready. Lin Qianyu raised her hand and waved. “You can eat now.”

Because the red-tailed crested eagle hadn’t responded much when she spoke earlier, everyone assumed it would ignore her this time too.

But before Lin Qianyu had even finished her sentence, the red-tailed crested eagle swooped down from the tree, grabbed the branch skewering the roast rabbit, and with a single beat of its wings, soared back into the sky—disappearing past the treetops in a flash.Lin Qianyu waved and said with a beaming smile, “Come back for more after you eat well!”

“Chirp——”

After the red-tailed crested eagle left, Lin Qianyu got up to stretch a bit, then picked up the iron pot and headed to the river to wash it.

On the way back, she brought back a full pot of water.

She didn’t have a water purifier, and in the wild there was no direct source of drinking water. Even putting the variety show aside, she still had to be responsible for her own health.

She set the water to boil over a low flame—meanwhile, she could get something else done.

Faced with a flood of bullet comments guessing Lin Qianyu was about to go nap again,

Lin Qianyu put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows with a grin. “How could I? The sun’s shining so nicely—why would I sleep?”

【Heh, who was it again that took three naps during the first episode?】

【Why is she always so sleepy!】

【Eat, sleep, play, get tired, eat again, and sleep some more. There you have it—Lin Qianyu’s wild survival variety show livestream content.】

Lin Qianyu: “……”

Pretty accurate summary. No more summarizing next time.

It was because she’d been exhausted before, plus she still wasn’t used to her frail health.

“No naps, no naps. I haven’t even finished building my house.” Lin Qianyu took out her machete and flipped it lightly in one hand before swinging it through the air. “I only chopped wood for two walls before. One side’s still missing.”

She’d left one wall open as a door, but it’d be more stable to fill in the rest with wood.

There’d been too much to do yesterday and not enough time to chop more trees.

Luckily, there hadn’t been strong winds overnight, but she couldn’t rely on luck every time—better to fix up that last wall sooner rather than later.

“Time to work.”

“Wait a second.” The director stepped out from the production team’s tent. “Qianyu, are you going to chop trees?”

Lin Qianyu paused. “Mm? Is something wrong?”

Don’t tell her someone had complained about her chopping trees yesterday.

Hearing that, the director ducked back into the tent. When he came back out, he had the livestream equipment in hand. “I’ll go with you and shoot some footage. A lot of viewers are curious how you’re chopping the trees.”

“What’s there to be curious about in chopping trees?” Lin Qianyu looked puzzled but still nodded and agreed to let the director follow her.For some reason, the director’s face lit up with joy. “You don’t know yet, do you? You’re trending on Weibo.”

The guests’ phones were all collected on the first day, and Lin Qianyu, deep in the rainforest, had only the livestream chat as her external source of information. Comments from different platforms were filtered out.

Naturally, Lin Qianyu had no idea she was trending on Weibo.

The appearance of the red-tailed crested eagle on the livestream, with the headline “world-class protected animal,” was enough to catch people’s attention.

The director hadn’t deliberately promoted this; the trending was a pleasant surprise.

Most importantly, this trending also boosted the playback views of yesterday’s variety show livestream; many people went back to watch the first episode’s recording.

Many video accounts also clipped parts of the livestream, and the most eye-catching clip was Lin Qianyu looking fragile while swinging a machete—two chops per tree.

The contrast was striking.

#LinQianyuFragileAndUnableToTakeCareOfHerself

#LinQianyuChoppingTrees

#IfYouChopTreesYouCan’tChopMe

#LinQianyuChattingHappilyWithRedTailedCrestedEagle

Many passersby who saw the trending but didn’t understand why were curious: “Why is the entertainment industry so dramatic that chopping a tree can get you trending?”

After clicking to watch the video, they left comments asking which master this strong man came from.

With that kind of posture, even passing grass would get two chops.

The trending list had twelve spots in total; eight mentioned Lin Qianyu’s name, and the remaining four—including those related to the red-tailed crested eagle—were also connected to Lin Qianyu.

Lin Qianyu completely dominated the charts.

All based on a livestream from just four hours ago.

However, with rising popularity, there were naturally many negative comments as well.

Among them were many doubts. Lin Qianyu’s previous fragile “little white flower” image was deeply rooted in the public mind, so the haters immediately flooded the comments with insults.

“Fake,” “the production team rigged it,” “the forest was pre-cut, Lin Qianyu faked the chopping”—comments like these were quite popular in the discussion area.

So when the director learned Lin Qianyu planned to go chop trees, he proactively offered to accompany her, wanting to prove the show wasn’t faked and that it was all Lin Qianyu’s real skill.

Lin Qianyu’s livestream chat updated quickly, and she treated the fake accusations as hater provocations. Only when the director mentioned it did she realize the trending was boosting the chat’s popularity.

But… how could delicate and fragile Lin Qianyu, whose wrist was about as thick as the handle of her machete, chop a tree with just two chops? Even the director was a bit puzzled.“Actually, chopping trees is quite simple. Maybe the trees here are different from what everyone’s familiar with,” Lin Qianyu didn’t know how to explain, so she temporarily blamed it on the trees and the machete.

“And this,” Lin Qianyu lifted the machete and waved it in front of the camera, “it’s very sharp too.”

The director stroked his chin, thinking carefully, feeling that Lin Qianyu made sense. This machete chopping a tree should be easy—maybe it didn’t even require much strength; just a casual swing and the tree would fall.

The director nodded. “Actually, this machete isn’t as simple as it looks. Our production team had it custom-made by skilled craftsmen early in the preparation. It can cut through iron like mud.”

“I’ll demonstrate for everyone,” the director decided to debunk the rumors. Since there was talk online about the production team rigging things, he took the machete from Lin Qianyu. “Right here, I’ll make one cut—”

The director grabbed the handle with both hands, raised it high, and swung it around.

—“Clang!”

The blade sank into the tree trunk, but compared to Lin Qianyu’s cut, it was a big difference; it only embedded less than a third and barely stuck on the edge.

The director looked at the cut, then at his own hand holding the machete.

Silence.

Hesitation... self-doubt.

Lin Qianyu looked at the small cut and honestly suggested, “You need to use some force.”

“...”

The director’s face flushed red.

Do you know how much force I used?!!!