Get Good, Then

Li Jiabo and his group all looked displeased.

Zheng Ge forced a smile, noticed the basket at Shen Lian's waist, and asked, "Shen Lian, is that a prop from the Program Crew?"

What a question. Everyone knew the biggest selling point of this show was that the Program Crew provided no props whatsoever.

"No, I wove it myself for fun." Shen Lian sounded casual.

Just then, the staff arrived.

They also announced the second task-catching fish.

Shen Lian nearly laughed out loud when he heard it. He'd already done all this before.

That said, wading into a river to catch fish wasn't exactly a common pastime for these pampered celebrities and influencers. Besides, Clear Creek Bank was a wild river. Where the current ran fast, losing your footing on the rocks and taking a tumble was perfectly normal.

Zhao Lin and Fang Ke, however, were brimming with enthusiasm.

Fang Ke had already started taking off his shoes. "Perfect. I can rinse off a little. I'm filthy."

Zhao Lin nodded.

Meanwhile, Li Jiabo turned to Feng Susu and said, "It's not slippery like those mountain trails here. You won't keep falling over, right? There are plenty of us. If we work together, we'll definitely win."

Feng Susu's smile nearly slipped. "Okay."

[Is Li Jiabo saying Feng Susu's dragging them down?]

[What else? She keeps shrieking and grabbing Zheng Ge. How many times has she pulled him down now?]

[I can't with Zheng Ge's fans! Isn't it normal to fall on trails like that? Besides, Susu's a girl.]

[So what if she's a girl? If she can't handle it, she doesn't have to come. Zhu Yingyu's doing just fine, isn't she?]

Zhu Yingyu probably never would have imagined that someone known as the "mission poison gas bomb" would one day receive praise.

The water at Clear Creek Bank was clear enough to see the bottom, and the schools of fish were plainly visible. The problem was that wild fish were too fast to catch without a little technique.

Zhu Yingyu tied up her hair. "Shen Lian, let's get in there too."

"Get in where?" Shen Lian stood facing the light, his eyes narrowed slightly. His laid-back voice carried a reassuring confidence that made her heart flutter. "The water's too cold. No need for you to do this."

Zhu Yingyu's heart thumped. "N-no, that's not what I mean. How can you manage alone?"

"I'm all we need." As he spoke, Shen Lian untied the basket.

With nearly a million viewers watching the livestream, Shen Lian followed the current downstream, found a hollow, and moved the rocks aside, leaving a space just large enough to wedge the basket into.

The live comments filled with identical question marks.

Hold on, you little...

Shen Lian straightened and looked around, then abandoned his plan to take off his shoes. Fang Ke was so full of energy that he had already chased a school of fish over.

Shen Lian simply sat on a clean rock nearby.

With a flurry of splashes, quite a few fish were swept along by the swift current. They flipped over, flopped a couple of times, and fell into the basket.

Shen Lian watched patiently, then suddenly chuckled. "It's full."

The viewers: "..."

The Program Crew: "..."

Nobody had warned them before coming that this bastard was a variety show killer.

Shen Lian pulled out the heavy basket. Water splashed off the fishes' thrashing tails and sprayed his face. Wiping it away, he turned to ask the staff, "How many pounds do you need?"

The assistant director practically ground his back teeth to dust. "Ten!"

They had actually settled on six pounds, but watching Shen Lian breeze through it so effortlessly made even the male assistant director feel as though his breast ducts were clogged. In a fit of irritation, he changed it on the spot.

Shen Lian didn't care. "Put it on the scale."

The assistant director: "..."

Great. With a basket, ten pounds of fish really wasn't hard for Shen Lian, but this had unwittingly made the task more difficult for the other guests.

Three trips later, Shen Lian had met the quota. Compared with the soaking-wet group in the river, he looked as though he had come to conduct an inspection!

The contrast was jarring.

Shen Lian wasn't in a hurry to check in. Instead, he knocked a few extra fish unconscious, then patiently searched along the riverbank until he finally picked up a "stone flake" with satisfaction.

One edge was thin and sharp. He wet it, found another stone to grind it against a little, and it was ready to use.

As Shen Lian deftly gutted the fish, he explained to the already dumbstruck Zhu Yingyu, "A flake stone tool, get it? Not every stone can be made into a flake, though. You need three surfaces. I think they're called the dorsal surface, ventral surface, and striking platform. That makes it easier to flake and shape. I've only seen it on TV and learned a couple of tricks by copying them. It's actually not that easy to use."

[He finished cleaning a fish while telling us how hard it is to use.]

[I get the principle. I killed fish like this as a kid too. But isn't Shen Lian's whole string of moves a little ridiculous?]

Shen Lian looked into the bushes, seemingly spotting something, and told Zhu Yingyu, "Pick me a few of those ghost thread vines."

"Where? Where?! What do they look like?" Zhu Yingyu snapped out of her daze, barely able to contain her excitement at being carried by his sheer competence.

Was this what it felt like to lie back and soar?

"The brown ones tangled together over there. Watch out for bugs!"

Bugs, whatever. Zhu Yingyu feared nothing now!

Once she brought back the ghost thread vines, Shen Lian washed them twice and stripped off the hard outer layer. The stems inside were as pliable as rope. He threaded them through the fishes' gills, and soon several fish hung together.

Shen Lian held them up for a look and smiled. "I love nature."

The assistant director planted his hands on his hips and squeezed his eyes shut.

[The assistant director's thinking, go ahead and play. Who could possibly beat you?]

He could actually have cleaned a few more fish, but the stone flake was difficult to use, after all. Just those four had already left blood on Shen Lian's palm, with a cut across the pad of his right thumb.

Zhu Yingyu felt a pang of concern. "It won't get infected, will it?"

"No." After saying that, Shen Lian grabbed a few unfamiliar plants from beside his feet, stripped off their leaves, chewed the roots, then applied them to the wound.

Zhu Yingyu said, "That's..."

"Cogongrass root. It stops bleeding." Shen Lian couldn't help giving her a mild scolding. "You're on a survival show, at least. Do a little homework."

Zhu Yingyu felt wronged. "But even if I did my homework, all these plants look the same out in the wild. I can't recognize them."

Shen Lian spared her no mercy. "Get good, then."

Zhu Yingyu: "..."

Shen Lian checked in and asked about the points ranking while he was at it.

"The first to arrive at Clear Creek Bank was..."

"Us!" Li Jiabo raised his hand as he walked toward the bank, with the others close behind.

Shen Lian caught on and handed the basket to Zhu Yingyu, signaling for her to stand farther away.

"Seriously, Shen Lian? That stingy?" Fang Ke laughed in disbelief.

Shen Lian said, "We're competitors right now. Rely on your own abilities."

Zhao Lin chimed in, "You said it. Our own abilities."

As an old friend who had partnered with Zhao Lin for two episodes, Zhu Yingyu immediately heard alarm bells. She hadn't reacted this quickly before, but perhaps Shen Lian had rubbed off on her, and his "get good, then" had spurred her on. She turned and took off running.

She vanished in a flash.

Zhao Lin looked bewildered. "Didn't Yingyu say running was her weak point?"

Shen Lian said, "Clearly, it isn't anymore."

Everyone: "..."