Wilderness Livelihood had been livestreaming for less than half a day when it shot straight onto the trending topics. This experimental show, which had not even aired its TV version yet, was becoming popular at a bizarre speed.
#ChuShichaTheRunawayPyramidSchemeEmployeeWithThePheasantCrest???#
#ChuShichaAndGuHanjianFirstTime???#
No purchased trending topic, no piggybacking on someone else’s publicity. The lukewarm fake Best Actor and aspiring crosstalk performer had used a one-man comedy routine and shameless lines to send the production team straight to the headlines.
Netizens were first drawn in by Chu Shicha’s competence, leaving them unable even to find a convenient angle from which to insult him. Then Gu Hanjian made them laugh.
[1]: Hahaha, “Triple-Crown Best Actor” really is the perfect description. I’ve always said Chu Green Tea’s old hairstyle looked exactly like a fucking pheasant crest.
[2]: HOLY FUCKING SHIT, shouldn’t the important part be “our first time”?!
[3]: Gu Hanjian’s face has converted me. I love a real man! Serious question: if Gu Hanjian is this handsome, why has he never become popular in the entertainment industry??
…
The first wave of popularity had arrived. Netizens suddenly began paying attention to the show. The livestream rooms welcomed their first influx of fresh viewers, and each cast member’s support score began jumping upward. At three in the afternoon, the first supply drop would be distributed according to those support scores.
Liu Xu watched Chu Shicha’s changing numbers, his clicking hand never stopping. But compared with the other three camps, Chu Shicha’s growth was clearly too slow. Liu Xu had never expected this one program to reverse everything, but he still hoped people could see Chu Shicha’s real self instead of the weak white lotus manufactured by the company.
“…Thank you, Best Actor Gu, for helping me that day.” Expressionless, Chu Shicha used the bamboo section to scoop himself some water.
The flowing spring water was clean and piercingly cool, with the faintest hint of sweetness. It made him visibly comfortable. His features relaxed, carrying a quiet gentleness.
A chatterbox meeting someone taciturn—according to Gu Hanjian, wasn’t that exactly a match made in heaven?
Gu Hanjian said, “Little friend, meeting is fate. Look at this vast sea of people and somehow we ran into each other. Let’s be friends. Do you know what the probability of us meeting was?”
“…One in four. Pretty high.” Chu Shicha hugged the bamboo cup and took another small sip. The sun was getting hot. Since they were near water, he wanted to rest for a moment.
Gu Hanjian scooped up water in his own bamboo cup and drained it in one gulp. “Refreshing! Yeah, that probability’s pretty high… Where are you planning to go?”
Chu Shicha frowned slightly. “What about you?”
Gu Hanjian said, “Isn’t this show supposed to inspire us to display the revolutionary spirit of mutual love and assistance?” In other words: shouldn’t the two of us walk together?
Chu Shicha looked troubled. “…No. We’re not close. My image is bad. If you walk with me, your fans will say I’m tying myself to you or playing white lotus. As a reasonable white lotus, I’d better shine beautifully on my own.”
He grinned.
The face that had been expressionless ever since the show began suddenly came alive with color. The clean, innocent smile was more startling than a pear blossom wet with rain. He made no silent accusation and raised no anguished cry. He simply, lightly and calmly, told Gu Hanjian to keep his distance.
After speaking, Chu Shicha had rested enough. He stood and left without affectation or reluctance, like a fresh breeze that stayed for no one.
Gu Hanjian watched his back. Even under the identical shell jacket, the flexible waist and long legs could not be hidden. Rubbing his neck, he stood and muttered resentfully, “Who wants to walk with some delicate little friend? I’m the king of the jungle, the flower of the forest, the righteous path of humanity, the most beautiful being in the universe. Hmph.”
Then he followed Chu Shicha.
At that moment, the livestream chat filled with: “Meow meow meow???”
At three in the afternoon, the first batch of supplies was dropped by small drones. They were not dropped directly beside the contestants; everyone had to find their own. Chu Shicha looked up, pressed his lips together in silence, then lowered his head and used his probing stick to comb through the grass.
Every so often he found one or two wild fruits. Chu Shicha wiped them off, confirmed they were not poisonous, and began eating them slowly.
Naturally ripened fruit fallen from the tree was very sweet. Although the flesh was overripe and soft, Chu Shicha loved that sweetness.
It was sweet enough to make his eyes narrow slightly, crescent moons bending as peach blossoms opened.
Watching from nearby while pretending merely to pass by, Gu Hanjian suddenly wanted to snatch one and take a bite.
That evening, Chu Shicha climbed directly into a large tree, used his spare jacket as a hammock, built a windbreak from broad leaves, and fell into a deep sleep.
For two days straight, they met no one else. He and Gu Hanjian barely spoke and communicated mostly without words—occasionally Chu Shicha deliberately left one or two wild fruits he had found on the ground. Gu Hanjian finally got fruit to eat. The sweetness jolted him awake; when he looked forward again, the young man’s thin back no longer seemed quite so far away.
That continued until the third day, when Chu Shicha found a wild persimmon tree.
The trunk was thick and the leaves sparse, with big red persimmons hanging from the branches. The slanting sunset burned like fire through the forest. Wrapped in his shell jacket, Chu Shicha cast a long, narrow shadow behind him.
His movements were light and graceful. Like a tabby cat, he went up with a swish. Clinging to the trunk, he climbed continuously, and before long he was halfway up the tree.
He opened his arms toward the sinking sun as though embracing it.
The persimmons were sparks scattered through a galaxy, spreading from his dark jacket into an illusory river of stars.
He had been here two days without ever truly eating his fill. His strength had fallen badly, dark exhaustion beneath his eyes making his skin look even paler. Considering his physical condition, Chu Shicha voluntarily spoke to Gu Hanjian.
“I’ll throw the persimmons down. Help me collect them. When we’re done, we split them half and half. All right?”
Leaning against the tree, half his face looked pale and weak, as though he might faint at any moment.
Gu Hanjian said, “Are you sure you can manage? Why don’t you come down and let me climb up?”
Chu Shicha did not waste time arguing. He plucked two persimmons and threw them down.
One nearly hit Gu Hanjian in the head. Quick-handed, he gathered them together and rubbed his nose. “Delicate little friend, but what a fiery temper.”
Working together, the two of them managed a meal that left their stomachs full yet somehow empty.
Night fell quickly. Once the cameras stopped supervising them, Gu Hanjian and Chu Shicha lit a fire and ate sweet persimmons to the crackle of flames.
Gu Hanjian had looted a few supply packs earlier and received a small amount of provisions. Digging through them, he found several White Rabbit milk candies and handed them to Chu Shicha. “One good turn deserves another.”
Chu Shicha accepted them and lowered his head to sniff. Both beautiful pupils visibly moved. He twisted open the wrapper and put one candy into his mouth.
Miraculously, his expression softened. Distance and coldness melted away in an instant. Leaning against a rock, he tossed Gu Hanjian a firm persimmon.
He stayed muted and silent the entire time, nearly blending into the background.
“Hey, can you really fall asleep this early?” Gu Hanjian scooted his butt closer.
“Fifteen days in pitch darkness is going to be boring. Delicate little friend, sing me something?” Gu Hanjian was, frankly, the sort of person who became more annoying the colder Chu Shicha acted. The icier Chu Shicha was, the more Gu Hanjian wanted to crowd into his space. He was not like this with everyone. It was just that every time he saw Chu Shicha, he remembered the few scenes in which they had met.
One time, Chu Shicha had landed astride the base of his thigh. Another time, he had looked handsome and cold enough to fight an investor outright, yet when treating Gu Hanjian’s wound he had been quiet, restrained, and wordless, his hands gentle and decisive.
This person seemed cold from head to toe, yet half-finished gentleness hung from his fingertips and somewhere inside his heart. The moment he sat there, his whole body seemed to say, “I have a story. Do you have wine?” It scratched at Gu Hanjian’s curiosity until he desperately wanted to hear about his past, present, and future.
Chu Shicha lifted his eyelids, his lashes dyed warm by the firelight. “I can’t sing.”
“You can’t? Doesn’t matter.” Gu Hanjian pushed his luck and moved closer. “I’ll teach you. Brother Gu started out as a singer. If nothing had gone wrong, I should’ve been a legendary singing star in chaotic times.”
“Then why did you…” Not become a singer?
Before Chu Shicha’s confusion could finish forming, Gu Hanjian opened his mouth and sang. The five notes galloped around like horses scattered across a hunting ground, missing the melody from the very first sound.
At the end of the song, Gu Hanjian mourned for everyone incapable of appreciating him. “Can you blame anything except the outside world for having no taste? What else could it be? Could it be that your Brother Gu is too handsome, suave, mature, steady, and irresistibly charming?”
“…” Chu Shicha closed his eyes again. “We’ll take turns standing watch. Wake me in two hours and I’ll switch with you.”
Gu Hanjian leaned beside him, the two sitting very close. The fire crackled. Behind them, a doghouse-like shelter made of leaves blocked wind and rain. Gu Hanjian held a stick and occasionally added wood to the flames.
The night was frighteningly quiet. Gu Hanjian hummed old songs from ten years ago now and then. Suddenly, something moved beside him.
The young man who had been leaning against the tree, keeping the world a thousand miles away, slowly tipped sideways onto the prepared ground. He slept restlessly, curling into a ball. His waist and back bent, revealing a short ridge of protruding spine.
One glance was enough to see how thin he was. There seemed to be no flesh on him at all.
Gu Hanjian covered him with the oversized shell jacket and studied Chu Shicha.
He was different asleep than awake. Sleeping, he looked very obedient, his face almost bloodlessly pale, his relaxed body no longer held taut as when he was conscious.
His brows and features carried an indescribable charm. The little face warmed red by the fire looked especially pretty, his cheeks faintly puffed. Gu Hanjian reached out and poked one, then noticed the White Rabbit wrappers arranged neatly nearby.
“…Tsk. Little friend with a sweet tooth.”
Gu Hanjian poked his cheek again. The warmth under his fingertip numbed him for a brief instant.
Chu Shicha was afraid of the cold. Sensing the furnace-like heat beside him, he slowly shifted closer and obediently leaned against Gu Hanjian’s leg.
“…[corrupted character].” Gu Hanjian’s entire thigh instantly went rigid. Warm softness spread from the place where they touched. If it had been anyone else, Gu Hanjian would already have kicked them into the sky to hold hands with the moon. But Chu Shicha’s face was far too pale, and his whole body trembled faintly. One look showed that he could not endure the late-autumn chill.
Gu Hanjian watched through narrowed eyes for a while, the corners of his eyes lowering. Finally he sighed, pulled the jacket more securely around Chu Shicha, tucked in the edges, stuffed the strip of waist that had been exposed back into his trousers, and added more wood to the fire.
“Good grief, just like a little kid. You need candy, you’re afraid of the cold—what next, should I feed you milk powder?” Gu Hanjian murmured beside Chu Shicha’s ear. “How is it? Brother Gu is a natural human heater. Warm enough?”
No one answered.
Deep in the night, a faint sound moved through the air. The person hidden near the bushes silently walked away.