Qi Gu looked at the burbling stream. "Everyone, stay away from that stream."
He had seen wisps of black threads in the crystal-clear current. Clearly, there was something beneath the water.
The rest of the crew naturally trusted Qi Gu. They nodded and thanked him at once. Even those who had collapsed onto the ground kept their original positions and dragged themselves backward on their bottoms, away from the water.
Only Sha Chuan had all sorts of doubts. He thought, Could Qi Gu have spotted the jade bracelet in the water too? Is that why he's saying this, so he can keep it for himself?
No way. I saw it first!
Qi Gu knew nothing of what was going through his mind. He was quietly agonizing over the dinner options the production team had provided.
The staff had brought self-heating hot pot and self-heating beef brisket rice, both of which Qi Gu loved.
The staff member was the young assistant who had accompanied Qi Gu from the airport to the guesthouse. She smiled and said, "If you like both, you can take one of each. We brought a few extra portions specially."
At her words, Qi Gu's eyes lit up and his smile turned radiant. "Thank you."
Before long, the staff and guests were sitting together in small groups, eating.
After setting up their cameras to face the group, the camera operators went to collect their meals too.
Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi sat with Mu Xingchen and Pubu Gesang. All four bent their heads over their steaming self-heating meals and dug in.
Sha Chuan was not particularly popular, and no one noticed that he had already slipped away from the group and headed toward the stream, which looked clear to the bottom and only calf-deep.
What he failed to notice, however, was that a camera operator had aimed a camera at the stream to capture Qingji Mountain's natural scenery.
[What beautiful scenery.]
[Huh... why did Sha Chuan suddenly walk over?]
[Maybe he's going to wash his hands.]
[Didn't Qi Gu tell everyone to stay away from the stream? My intolerance for idiots is acting up.]
[How is washing his hands stupid? Don't be so harsh, okay?]
[Exactly. What could happen from washing his hands? Besides, that stream only looks thirty or forty centimeters deep. Even a little kid couldn't drown in it.]
Worried that Qi Gu would fight him for it, Sha Chuan anxiously scanned the water for the jade bracelet, his heart pounding like a drum.
Before long, he found the jade bracelet roughly where he remembered seeing it.
He hurriedly rolled up his trouser legs and took off his shoes and socks, preparing to enter the water.
[??? What's he doing?]
[Playing in the water?]
[That stream looks so cool and refreshing. I'd want to dip my feet in too. What's the big deal?]
[Ah, I'm jealous. I really want to find a stream to camp beside too.]
Just as the viewers watching this camera feed were discussing camping, Sha Chuan suddenly bent down and grabbed something in the stream, a look of wild delight appearing on his face.
While the viewers were still puzzling over it, Sha Chuan, who had been standing perfectly steadily, fell heavily into the stream right before their eyes.
[Holy shit, that scared me.]
[How did he manage to fall over there? That's so careless.]
[Hahahaha, poor guy.]
[Wait... it's been ages. Why is Sha Chuan still struggling? Can't he stand up?]
The viewers watched helplessly as Sha Chuan, a full 1.8 meters tall, flailed his limbs and sent water splashing everywhere, struggling in a stream that did not even reach his calves. Yet his head never broke the surface, as though something invisible were holding it down relentlessly, refusing to let him draw a single lifesaving breath.
The viewers had never seen anything so eerie, and they were badly frightened too.
[What's going on aaaaaah!]
[This is really... no wonder Qi Gu told them not to go near the stream.]
[Is this really not staged?]
[If you can act that convincingly, I'll nominate you for this year's Oscar for Best Actor.]
[It's been a minute. Sha Chuan seems to be struggling more slowly. Is he about to... what is everyone else doing? Why hasn't anyone come to save him?!]
[Sha Chuan probably didn't tell anyone when he went over. Everyone else is some distance from the stream, and he can't shout. The splashing from his struggles blends right into the sound of the current.]
[Help, this is such a terrifying way to die aaaaaah!]
Sha Chuan had never expected that the instant he grabbed the jade bracelet, it would turn into a pale, bluish-white ghostly hand wrapped in black threads, clamping around his neck and forcing him underwater.
And that hand, which looked so slender and thin, had somehow rendered him, a grown man a full 1.8 meters tall, utterly powerless to resist.
The sensation of suffocation quickly overwhelmed him. Sha Chuan felt the stream stealing his breath, his life draining away as swiftly as the burbling water.
Where was Qi Gu?
Hadn't he assured Director Song that going up the mountain would be fine?
Sha Chuan struggled desperately. As he thrashed, the sachet fell out of his pocket, and golden light blazed forth. Before the ghostly hand could even cry out, it dissolved into black threads that drifted through the water, diluting until no trace remained.
The constriction around his neck vanished. Sha Chuan hurriedly scrambled upright, using both hands and feet. He had not noticed what had made the ghostly hand disappear, nor had he noticed that the sachet was gone. He simply stumbled and crawled blindly onto the bank, rapid gasps rasping from his throat as he greedily gulped down the fresh forest air.
He had... defeated the ghostly hand through his own strength and survived!
Meanwhile, in the livestream chat.
[Ah, what was that golden light just now?]
[I enlarged a screenshot. It was Qi Gu's sachet. It's already floated away downstream.]
[Oh my god, that sachet works so well. I have to get one aaaaaah!]
[Qi Gu said it could be used three times. Doesn't buying one mean I'd have three more lives than everyone else?]
[When you put it that way, I'm seriously tempted!]
[It's decided. I'm heading to Floating Mist Temple right now. I'll wait at the entrance, and the second it opens for business, I'll be the first one charging in to buy one!]
A staff member closer to the stream heard Sha Chuan's rapid panting. At first, he jumped, thinking some wild animal had appeared. Once he saw the soaking-wet Sha Chuan clearly, he was even more puzzled, but he hurried over and asked with concern, "Mr. Sha Chuan, what happened? How did you fall in the water?"
What he really wanted to say was, hadn't Master Qi told them to stay away from the water? But he was just a lowly staff member. If he said that to an internet celebrity with millions of followers, he could expect to be cursed to death.
His words drew everyone else's attention. All eyes turned to Sha Chuan, wondering why he was soaked through.
"There was something... in the water," Sha Chuan said, looking grim.
He left out the whole story of why he had waded in and stated only the final conclusion.
The viewers, however, would not let that point slide.
[Why did Sha Chuan go into the water... and why did he look so happy when that thing in the water grabbed him?]
[Could he have been fooled by an illusion?]
[That makes sense.]
[Too bad only the victim knows what they saw in an illusion. Otherwise, we'd know exactly what Sha Chuan saw.]
[Surely it wasn't gold, silver, or jewels, hahahaha.]
[It really might have been...]
[Uh, don't assume everyone's as greedy as you, okay?]
[If I remember correctly, Sha Chuan's ex-girlfriend passed away last year. He loved his girlfriend very much...]
[Could Sha Chuan have seen his girlfriend, and that's why he ignored Qi Gu's warning...]
[Oh my god, I'm tearing up.]
Before you continue