Chapter 33

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

After the scene of them waking up from the tent is done, they wash their face at the stream and then decide to eat the hotpot they brought before as breakfast, since they’ll be leaving by sundown.

Though when they take the instant hotpots out, they realise… they don’t have water.

“How about the stream? If we boil it,” Wei Jiangxue looks towards the stream. Not that it’s unclean, but thinking about how they’ve directly stepped inside to catch fish, they’re a bit reluctant.

The host Cui Shaolin comes along to suggest, “water? The stream’s source is that way.”

Hearing that, He Anran immediately asks, “Cui-ge, have you got this all set up beforehand?”

Cui Shaolin chuckles, “of course. Your mission for this morning – carrying water from the water source.”

“Mission? Then what’s the reward?” He Anran asks.

“Here,” Cui Shaolin says as he hands them mission cards with a points system and rules described on them.

The number of points awarded goes from 27 to 20, 17, 15, 13, 11, 7 and 5, and the winning team is the one with the most points combined. They’ll be the ones resting this noon while the other team has to collect branches and leaves.

So the gang moves upstream, fired up, but then soon enough their passion dissipates as they realise the road has run out.

“This is the right direction, right?” While they can still follow the stream on, but the short path has already ended with the way forward covered in grass and fresh morning dew. Wei Jiangxue thus asks, looking slightly awkward.

“That’s right,” the staff says confidently, “the source is right ahead of you.”

Thus they continue on forward, but soon enough everyone’s shoes and lower feet are all wet. The two ladies present, Wei Jiangxue and He Anran are looking rather unhappy. The cameraman right behind them asks the director, “is this alright?”

“Yeah, of course, keep going.” This is a wilderness survival show. Obviously, they do need some genuine footage of wilderness pathfinding here.

However, a short while later Wei Jiangxue has tripped and fallen over. Her hand has been scratched by the grass when she tried to support herself. Now her face resembles a demon as she takes tissues out from her pocket to wipe the blood.

The procession has stopped for now as the staff, concerned, also comes and asks, “Xue-jie, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she says, even though she’s absolutely furious.

“I brought an iodine tincture and band-aid,” Xu Bing takes the tincture out from his pocket along with cotton swabs and the band-aid and hands it over as Wei Jiangxue says thanks.

Xue Junming, the movie star, then suggests, “should we have Jiangxue and Anran wait here while we move ahead?”

One member less for each team is still fair enough.

“I’m fine,” Wei Jiangxue says, standing up, “let’s go.”

If she just sits here useless now she’ll be ripped to shreds online when the show airs.

“Are you alright?” Mo Anping asks, also concerned.

“Yeah, I am,” Wei Jiangxue shakes her head, acting rather confident, “I dragged everyone behind, sorry about that. Let’s move or it’ll be lunchtime when we’re back.”

Soon enough they finally reach the source of the water. “Oh, thank god we’re finally here,” He Anran runs ahead with a happy yell.

The water is coming out of a gap between rocks, forming a small pool under a cliff.

He Anran was running happily forward but then the next second she immediately darts back, yelling ‘ah!’

“Snake, it’s a snake!”

She quickly turns around and runs, but the spooked snake follows behind, the quicker she runs the quicker it follows. Everyone else also backs off to retreat in fear, except Liu Yu’an, who quickly steps forth and, in the shocked gazes of everyone else, quickly steps onto the snake by about a third down its body.

Liu Yu’an recognises the snake as a red-necked keelback . It is a rear-fanged snake without the syringe-like hollow front fang but it does have a Duvernoy’s gland for producing venom.

Therefore he immediately tells He Anran, “stop running!”

If she has been injected with venom then running will disperse the venom even more, and it will be even more dangerous.

Liu Yu’an is speaking with such a stern tone unlike how gentle his tone usually is that He Anran immediately freezes in place.

Soon enough the others also calm down, and quickly ask He Anran, “how are you feeling? Are you alright?”

“Why would there be a snake here?!” Even the staff of the show are in shock, because they’ve actually come here yesterday and used branches to beat around the area of the pond, ensuring it’s safe before allowing the celebrities to come here. Who would have known…

The director and the producer have really complicated looks right now. He Anran’s fans are well-known for putting up a good online fight. The show can already imagine itself being ripped apart online, and it’s only just the first season.

“How are you feeling, were you bitten?” The director asks as nicely as possible; He Anran’s popularity means they cannot lash out at all no matter how wronged they feel right now too.

Liu Yu’an quickly tells the director, “this is a poisonous snake. I suggest immediately escorting He Anran back to the hotel with several staff members.”

Given this is a tourist spot, with snakes, there are likely immediate countermeasures available in its facilities. If worst comes to worst, there’s still a direct cable car connecting the mountaintop to the mountain base. A proper hospital isn’t too far out of reach either.

Perhaps Liu Yu’an seems too calm to the others that he manages to calm everyone down as well.

“Right, let’s do that,” the director does as Liu Yu’an instructs.

While the director is arranging the staff, Liu Yu’an tells He Anran, “do try to move as little as possible yourself, including walking. If there really is still toxin in your veins, it will spread more easily when you move. I can also tell you that the snake does not have its venomous fang in the front of its mouth, so it’s unlikely that you would be poisoned in this case.”

He Anran is currently in quite the panic, even her legs are shaking. Hearing Liu Yu’an say it’s unlikely she is poisoned makes her slightly relieved, but she can’t help but yelp and move back again when she then sees Liu Yu’an grab the snake where he stood on it earlier. Wei Jiangxue had to help stabilize her stance.

Then the director and the men he gathered carried He Anran off the mountain. Given this development, the show can’t continue either, so the director sighs and says, “let’s go back,” and they’ll come up with something else later.

Liu Yu’an, with the snake still in his hand looking much displeased to be handled, says, “you all go on ahead, I’ll let the snake go somewhere further away.”

Finally, someone puts two and two together and asks, “Xiao-Liu, have you kept snakes in the past?”

His reaction and speed and how he stepped on the snake where it couldn’t turn back to bite him makes him look quite experienced; too experienced, in fact. Unlike them who were panicking already at the sight of it.

When Liu Yu’an replies, “no, but I’ve seen videos of snake-keeping online,” they feel rather embarrassed about themselves.

Liu Yu’an, meanwhile, is too immersed in nostalgia to chat further, because, not only has he kept snakes, rather once he had many underling Yaoguai cultivators who are snakes.

“Need us to wait for you?”

“No need.”

“Are you sure?” The director asks, still concerned.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Liu Yu’an says, shooing them, while walking towards the other side of the forest with the snake.

As it happens, there’s a steep slope nearby, so Liu Yu’an lets the snake go down there. When he is making his way back, he notices bushes with a red variety of raspberries nearby. He hasn’t seen this fruit on sale in this world yet, so after some thought, he lifts his shirt up halfway horizontally to carry some raspberries with him, then starts walking back towards the campsite.

At the campsite, everyone has, of course, gone ahead to the hotel for now. Liu Yu’an looks around for a while before finding a bag and puts the raspberries inside before moving on.

Before he is even halfway to the hotel from the campsite though, he sees Shao Yanxi heading his way already, with actors and staff member following behind him.

Shao Yanxi is walking towards Liu Yu’an, while a bunch of people are speaking behind him, “An-ge might just be walking back slowly, Mr. Shao, don’t worry, we’ll arrange for people to look for him immediately.”

Don’t worry? Of course he can’t just ‘don’t worry.’

It’s been almost 20 minutes since everyone has reached the hotel already, and Liu Yu’an is still nowhere to be seen.

Shao Yanxi does not respond to anyone dissuading him. With his cold, expressionless face, he is quickly walking towards the campsite.

He doesn’t train regularly; the morning dew is making the path slippery; he is even wearing leather shoes but still trying to move quickly; he would have slipped several times already if not for the people following behind him helping him along.

But he does not intend to stop before he reaches that pond.

Seeing Shao Yanxi like this, nobody would think that Liu Yu’an is just a toy boy anymore. It’s definitely love. True love.

Finally, they encounter Liu Yu’an heading their way halfway towards the campsite. Shao Yanxi stops, and tears start rolling down his cheek. Liu Yu’an doesn’t see it at first, and was yelling ahead with a chuckling tone, “hey, what’s up!”

Closer, Liu Yu’an finally sees the trail of tears and can’t even chuckle anymore. He quickly hurries over to hug Shao Yanxi.

“I’m sorry, you must have been worried,” Liu Yu’an gives Shao Yanxi kisses while hurriedly trying to wipe his tears for him.

He wants to soothe him but all that would come out of his mouth is just ‘I’m sorry.’

Shao Yanxi doesn’t say anything or move at all. Only tears continue to roll out of his eyes.

Liu Yu’an continues wiping his tears, this time saying, “I’m sorry, I’m fine, don’t cry, good boy.”

Finally, Shao Yanxi seems to calm down slightly. He pushes Liu Yu’an away slightly, “why did it take you so long?”

The forests are dangerous, and Liu Yu’an was alone. So he really was scared.

Liu Yu’an wipes his tears and explains, “I let the snake go, and then, and then I saw raspberries I have never seen before. I thought you might have never tried it…”

Shao Yanxi of course has had all kinds of fancy food already, but remembering how he enjoyed the apricots yesterday…

Then he quickly adds, “I’m sorry I dallied and made you worry.”

Shao Yanxi seems to want to say something, but then only says, “mm. I was worried.”

Because the director said Liu Yu’an went to release the snake further away, and he wasn’t back even 20 minutes after everyone else, and the phone wouldn’t connect; there was no signal. It was scary, frightening. That was what enabled him to rush all the way here.

“I know, I know,” Liu Yu’an continues showering him with kisses.

Meanwhile, everyone else feels like poking themselves blind. Is this really that CEO Shao who is well-known for being cold and unapproachable and merciless and unforgiving?

Not only becoming stubborn as a bull for love, but to cry like a crybaby. Holy mother of God.

Liu Yu’an has no idea what blasphemy is taking over the others’ minds as he is too preoccupied with Shao Yanxi and explaining in detail again everything that happened, so that he doesn’t worry.

Finally, he ‘mm’s, and says, really coldly, “don’t do that in the future. I couldn’t care less about some raspberry.”

“Yeah, alright,” Liu Yu’an smiles and holds his hand, “I’ll always tell you beforehand what I’m going to do in the future.”

“You don’t need to go that far either,” Shao Yanxi bites his lips.

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