Chapter 31

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

(TL: The title is a Sino-appropriated Japanese term for a multi-sided love relationship with implied hostility between conflicting love interests, that in total must involve more than three people (otherwise it would be a love triangle, which also has its own unique term in Chinese). ‘Shuraba’ is the Japanese reading of the term. In this case, it is used metaphorically for the meaning of having a difficult situation in general due to a romantic conundrum)

The grill rack ended up in Liu Yu’an’s group in the end. When the staff presented it to them, Wei Jiangxue laughs while patting Liu Yu’an’s shoulder, “good, our fortune’s not done for yet!”

Liu Yu’an smiles and says with an intentionally arrogant tone, “fortune? No, this is called strength!”

“Hah.” Although they agree, but the person himself saying so still makes everyone laugh, before then saying, “yes yes, master Liu, it’s your strength.”

Yue Zhun is also chuckling, while thinking to himself, ‘didn’t expect him to be talented at this, to be honest, even though they’ve known each other for a while.’ He always thought Liu Yu’an was just a slightly rich and also recently a scum of a rich second-generation.

He compliments him, “nice skills, shidi .”

Though he wants to have nothing to do with Yue Zhun, but he’s in the middle of a show with a camera pointed to them, so Liu Yu’an of course has to follow up, “ shixiong , there’s lots you don’t know yet. I’m also skilled at things besides tent-making.”

Wei Jiangxue says, still laughing, “yo, a little praise and your tail’s already wagging at the ceiling, are we?”

Lin Xi adds to the mix, “but hey, the skill is really something, just look at this grill rack!”

That is when He Anran also joins in, wailing, “why didn’t Xiao-Liu end up in our group!”

Then she turns to Cui Shaolin, and dramatically flails her arms around, “Cui-ge, is it too late to ask for a reassignment?”

Of course, that’s impossible; He Anran is doing a good job of firing up the show and the future audience, however. So Wei Jiangxue decides to follow-up with an ‘ehh’ look at her, “we would much rather not lose a valuable pawn, isn’t that right, fellas?” While making a protective knight-stance in front of Liu Yu’an.

Lin Xi joins in, “that’s right!”

Even Yue Zhun ‘the Gentle’ speaks firmly, “Anran-jie, no way, shidi is ours.”

“Ahh! I call nepotism! I told you the shixiong-shidi pair cannot be put into the same group. Now look, we’re being bullied by them,” not that Yue Zhun was much help in setting up the tents, however, “Cui-ge, can we really, really not get a reassignment?” She says, looking towards Xu Bing, “they can have Xu Bing, he’s a good tent-builder too, the best in our group…” Then praises herself for it, “look how generous we are.”

While Xu Bing is a good tent-builder, he is still no match for Liu Yu’an.

Everyone laughs in response to that, even her own teammates are going, “stop daydreaming.”

Meanwhile, the person in question, Xu Bing, makes a show of clutching his chest, “Anran-jie, my hearts aches so much hearing that.”

Then a bit more faffing about later, Cui Shaolin ends the segment, “next, it’s time for food.”

He points over to the forest and the stream, “there are fruits on the tree and fish in the stream, they’ll be your food for the day.”

Normally, of course, it’s not actually easy to find much fish in the stream, but so that the celebrities wouldn’t be able to catch a single one, the show has already seeded the stream with many fishies earlier.

“Fruits, and fish? That’s it?” Wei Jiangxue asks Cui Shaolin with a shocked tone.

“Yeah,” Cui Shaolin points over to the different species of trees, “look, they all have different fruits, and there’s a variety of fish species too, how nutritionally rich!”

Everyone “…”

Then he adds in the final price, “good luck, the group with the most food gathered in the set time period will receive a prize from us – a grand collection of condiments!”

Everyone suddenly seems to have lightbulbs flash on top of their heads as they start asking everyone else in their team, “did you bring condiments”

“What? Of course not.”

Among the many depressing tones, Liu Yu’an’s neutral, “yeah, I did” is practically gleaming as everyone locks their gazes onto him.

He Anran fires up again, trying to sway him to their team.

And again when Liu Yu’an has caught some fish while many of them only have one.

Even old Mo ends up saying, “Xiao-Liu, you’re quite capable, lucky for you.”

“Yeah, we’re lucky!” Wei Jiangxue is laughing again, “Mr. Mo, please don’t ask us for him though, the answer is no!” Then she directs Yue Zhun and Lin Xi to form a protective shield over Liu Yu’an. And then another wave of laughter ensues.

Since Liu Yu’an already has condiments of his own along with the show’s prize, so when He Anran’s team comes asking with Xu Bing as a representative, “An-ge, we don’t have any, do you think we can exchange for some?” Liu Yu’an has a discussion with the others who tell him “we’ll be using the show’s prize, so you can do with yours whatever you want.”

Liu Yu’an asks Xu Bing, “you were picking apricots earlier, right?”

There is only one apricot tree nearby, but Xu Bing’s group had picked what was edible already when they were there.

“Yeah, An-ge, do you want some?”

“Sure, and I’ll give you the spices and whatnot for it,” Liu Yu’an says.

“Alright, I’ll get some,” then he runs back towards his team’s tents and had a few murmurs with He Anran and co., then they borrowed a bag from the show and put apricots inside, before coming back.

“An-ge, here’s the apricots, is that enough? We also have some other fruits,” there was only the one apricot tree and most of the fruit were still not ripe enough.

“That will do, thanks,” Liu Yu’an takes the apricots and puts them inside his team’s tent.

Meanwhile, next to the tent is Wei Jiangxue, who is washing the fruits while Yue Zhun and Lin Xi are dealing with the fish.

Clearly, neither have done anything similar, and the fish is… barely recognisable at this point.

“Let me do it,” Liu Yu’an takes over Lin Xi’s knife when he walks outside the tent, and starts gutting a new fish. He is cleaning it so professionally that their jaws are dropping. They would probably be excitedly dancing if not for trying to keep quiet lest He Anran’s team discovers this as well.

Even the staff are in shock. Isn’t this guy in that kind of relationship with the wealthiest man? Why would he have fish-cleaning skills akin to that of a stall owner in the fish market? No wait, was he actually one at first, but then somehow because he was handsome so the wealthiest man fell in love with him?

And then… cars and mansions and whatever and the seafood stall owner is so touched they ended up together?

When he was catching fish earlier too, he is catching them with decisive and precise movements, like he’s catching a fish from his tank to gut it live; he’d almost caught all the fish the show put in the stream in advance.

Though Liu Yu’an has no idea what sort of ridiculous ideas are forming in everyone’s heads. He tells Yue Zhun and Lin Xi to pile up the branches and dried leaves they gathered earlier under the grill and then light it up with the lighter, to start grilling.

Compared to them, He Anran’s group is having a much harder time. The old actor Mo Anping can’t cook; and given his age, he could only help gather branches and leaves.

The movie star Xue Junming and He Anran’s cooking skills are about good enough for cooking instant noodles at home. They have no idea how to cook without gas.

Only Xu Bing knows, but, he is not as talented as Liu Yu’an, and unfortunately for him, they don’t have a lighter.

And so after a good while of drilling the dried leaves, finally, he gets the fire going, though his face is also practically smoked.

Then they can finally start cooking. Xu Bing has a small pot, so they set up some stones to start cooking.

Though that is when a sweet aroma starts drifting in their direction, and they turn to see Liu Yu’an’s group sitting around their campfire while eating grilled fish and chatting.

“…”

“It smells so good,” He Anran gives it a big sniff, “I want to eat grilled meat again.”

Perhaps because they’ve gone hungry for a while, the smell seems to tell them this grilled fish is even better than the barbeque they had yesterday.

Xu Bing can’t help but express his admiration, “An-ge is amazing, he’s so skilled at everyone.”

Though He Anran was the biggest proponent of switching Xu Bing and Liu Yu’an around, she still quickly soothes him, “you’re just as amazing too. Look at the three of us, we couldn’t even light a fire ourselves.”

“Yeah, you really are,” the movie star Xue Junming and the old actor Mo Anping also encourage him.

Though the encouragement isn’t any help to the taste of the steamed fish, which is not exactly pleasant given these conditions.

Xu Bing says frankly, “it’s overcooked” and sighs.

In fact, when he and his pals go vlogging in the wild they usually end up making something tasty too, but… With three people practically helping ruin everything today and only himself, who is usually just the one securing the food and then wait to be fed, to rely on, it can’t be helped.

Not that he could say that, in any case, and he could only think so inside.

So the group just eats a bit under the camera before burying everything away. Then, it’s time to go to sleep.

Given that the wild is still full of potential danger, so to ensure the celebrities’ safety, the tent is just set up for show. They’ll be filmed going inside before heading back to the hotel.

Before they do that, though, Shao Yanxi is here, along with assistant He and several other staff of the show.

Shao Yanxi is still wearing Liu Yu’an’s short-sleeved clothes, and the assistant has also got himself one from who-knows-where.

The director is about to pause the shooting and greet them when Shao Yanxi stops him with a gesture, then quietly telling him to continue shooting.

He is just here to look because Liu Yu’an was still not back by sundown.

The director nods then continues the shooting. When it is time to go sleeping, because there are two girls around, so they get to sleep in one tent first. Then old Mo and the movie star are together, and Lin Xi looks at Liu Yu’an in thought before deciding to go for Xu Bing who is about his age.

So only Liu Yu’an and Yue Zhun are left.

And Liu Yu’an’s face quickly goes slightly pale. He looks over at Shao Yanxi, and, as expected, his face is as dark as coal. That, or it’s just because it’s night. But thankfully, because of the darkness, nobody else notices, other than the assistant.

Assistant He decides to go tell the director to switch it up, but Shao Yanxi stops him, “no need.”

“Mr. Shao…” The assistant weakly mumbles, before giving Liu Yu’an a sympathetic glance.

That is when He Anran inadvertently stokes the flames some more, “hey, you two shixiong and shidi sure are lovey-dovey? After working together to bully us by day now you’re sleeping together at night.”

“Shit.” Liu Yu’an feels like cussing.

Though because everyone will get to go back to the hotel soon enough he doesn’t even have the opportunity to cuss before having to quickly get into the tent with Yue Zhun.

Yue Zhun is also slightly embarrassed, and glances over at Shao Yanxi. Then he puts his hand on his mic before asking Liu Yu’an quietly, “I can go switch with Xu Bing.”

“I’ll do it,” Liu Yu’an walks over to Xu Bing’s tent and calls out to them. They come outside, and so Liu Yu’an quickly lies without so much as a little bit of guilt on his face, “didn’t you say you really want to know how to quickly build a tent earlier? I can teach you.”

Xu Bing is surprised, really, but still puts up an excited expression, “An-ge, really? I really want to know the technique. I thought I was quick with tents myself but I really didn’t expect to be beaten so badly.”

Liu Yu’an ‘mm’s and tells Lin Xi, “Lin Xi, why don’t you go and stay with Yue Zhun for now?”

“I want to learn too,” Lin Xi says, but he quickly changes his mind after receiving a death glare from Liu Yu’an, “oh, oh, wait, I’ll be going.”

Then he quickly departs, and Liu Yu’an heads into Xu Bing’s tent. Then, a few sentences later, the shooting is over.

Author’s notes:

Shao Yanxi: Ho. Ho. Your funeral.

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