Never mind Xia Zhiyi-even the other guests were struggling to keep their composure.
Director Gong said, "Oh, come on, Xia Zhiyi, don't you have two hundred? Besides, it's a hundred per person. You're all living together, so that adds up to six hundred. With the extra hundred you got, that's seven hundred. That's plenty."
Put that way, it really was quite a lot.
But...
Xia Zhiyi sighed. "I practice martial arts. I eat a lot."
Then he pointed at Xue Ranran. "Sister Ranran clearly practices dance. She probably eats quite a bit every day, too."
Next, he pointed at Wang Chengran. "Wang Chengran-I remember he's an idol. Singing and dancing take stamina, too. He can't stop practicing for these two weeks, so he probably eats quite a bit every day as well."
Then came Fu Yunyi. "Fu Yunyi clearly works out regularly. He has nicely defined muscles, so he won't be eating all that little either."
At that, Xia Zhiyi paused and looked at Qin Yue. "Teacher Qin Yue, roughly how much do you eat per meal?"
Qin Yue said, "Well, I don't eat very much."
Qin Yue's case was normal.
In fact, Xue Ranran was very surprised. "How did you figure out that I eat a lot, Teacher Xia? I was just wondering whether I should diet and lose some weight over these two weeks."
Xia Zhiyi said, "Well, let's call it experience. My guess wasn't wrong, was it?"
Xue Ranran smiled. "No, not at all. I really do have a pretty big appetite."
She wasn't a slender beauty.
Hearing this beside them, Qin Yue glanced at Xue Ranran's stomach. She remembered accidentally catching a glimpse of Xue Ranran's defined abs on the way up the mountain earlier and pressed her lips together.
The good news: their personas didn't overlap.
The bad news: Xue Ranran seemed to draw more attention than she did.
Qin Yue sighed inwardly. I hope this variety show really is livestreamed the whole way through. That way, even if more people like Xue Ranran, I should still be able to attract at least some viewers, right?
Otherwise, if it were a prerecorded variety show, she would easily end up with barely any shots left after editing, since she wasn't as eye-catching as Xue Ranran.
That would be forcing her to resort to tactics to stand out.
Only then did Xia Zhiyi politely ask Zhou Kai. After briefly tallying up roughly how much the guests ate each day, he looked at Director Gong. "So, Director Gong, may I ask whether the production team looked into our needs at all before deciding on our starting funds?"
He flashed a brilliant smile. "With so many viewers watching the livestream, surely the production team wouldn't want to deliberately make the guests go hungry?"
In truth, Xia Zhiyi wasn't particularly worried about food.
He had extensive wilderness survival experience. Never mind the fact that the production team had given them some money-even if they hadn't given him a single cent, as long as they didn't restrict him from going out, finding something to eat in these mountain forests wouldn't be difficult for him.
But they were filming a show.
Since they were filming a show, they needed entertaining content, and as far as Xia Zhiyi knew, the guests matching wits with the production team was one of the attractions.
Of course, there were also shows where the production team arranged for the guests to suffer and embarrass themselves, but Xia Zhiyi hoped the Incredible Life production team wasn't that kind. Otherwise, he would probably leave them very disappointed.
Xia Zhiyi: he could stomach anything except hardship.
Director Gong hadn't expected Xia Zhiyi to be the first to raise the issue of the guests' appetites at this point. After a moment of surprise, he said, "Hold on. That really was an oversight on our part. We calculated it based on normal... ahem, based on how much our staff eat. We'll recalculate it now."
Then, after the production team gathered for a fifteen-minute discussion, they adjusted the guests' starting funds.
Yes, they went from a hundred per person to a hundred and fifty.
Director Gong said, "A hundred and fifty is enough. We can't give you any more. Besides, we won't stop you from going out to earn money, will we? If you really think you don't have enough, you can look around nearby and see if there's anything you can do to earn some."
Holding his newly received hundred and fifty, Wang Chengran was still a little dazed. He asked guilelessly, "Huh? We have to work, too?"
Director Gong said, "Well, that depends on the guests' own needs."
"We're a lifestyle variety show, after all, not a wilderness survival show, right?"
Xia Zhiyi was a little speechless at that.
Instead, a voice rose from among the villagers watching the fun nearby. "If you don't have enough money, you can buy vegetables from my family. They're a little cheaper than at the market!"
"Oh, yes, yes! Cheng Yazi's family is slaughtering a pig in a few days. You can save some money and buy some pork, offal, and things then. It's cheaper than going to the market!"
Once the first person had dared to speak, it wasn't hard for everyone else to join in.
And so, quite a few enthusiastic villagers chimed in to offer help. At first, Director Gong listened with a smile, until an elderly woman tottered over to Xia Zhiyi, took his hand, and said with a face full of concern, "Oh, this child. You look like such a good boy. You're not even an adult yet, are you? Why have you come to suffer out here in the mountains? Good boy, don't listen to them. If you don't have enough to eat, come to Granny's house. I have plenty of food. I won't charge you..."
The old woman spoke in a thick local accent, and her speech was a little unclear and muffled. More than half the people there looked bewildered as they listened.
But everyone could still understand a few key words.
For example... "won't charge you"!
Director Gong couldn't sit still anymore. He stood up and said, "Hey, that won't do. We're here to experience mountain village life. We can't take advantage of the local people. We have to pay!"
Xia Zhiyi felt warmth on the back of his hand. Looking at the old woman's age-spotted hands, his expression became very well-behaved. "Thank you, Granny, but there's no need. I can cook, and the production team won't let me go hungry. Don't worry."
He spoke in Mandarin. Although the old woman couldn't speak it fluently, she could understand it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have come over hoping to take Xia Zhiyi home with her.
She had just understood that the production team wasn't giving this child money for food!
Director Gong hurried to explain as well. "The production team provides basic staple foods. It's just the other ingredients that the guests need to pay for. We still guarantee the basics! Please don't misunderstand, Granny. We're not the sort of production team that deliberately mistreats people!"
As the only two female guests, Xue Ranran and Qin Yue were naturally sitting together. Xue Ranran now asked Qin Yue beside her, "Sister Xiaoyue, when Director Gong says staple foods, does he mean rice, or things like steamed buns?"
Qin Yue answered quietly, "We're in the south. The staple food should be rice."
Xue Ranran said, "...Oh. That works, too."
Xue Ranran's ancestral home was in the northeast.
By now, Director Gong also felt he couldn't keep watching the fun from the sidelines. He hurried to persuade the enthusiastic villagers to head back, making it clear that the guests had to provide corresponding compensation for anything they obtained from the villagers. That was the rule.
The villagers said they didn't understand. They might not have much else here, but food was something they truly weren't short of.
Only after a great deal of persuasion did Director Gong manage to get the villagers to head back.
The viewers watched the fun, and so did the guests. None of them showed the slightest intention of helping.
Director Gong: ...Sigh!