The blinding light froze the dark figure in place. Only after his eyes gradually adjusted to the light did he finally see what was before him—
Lin Yi stood in front of the clump of mutant plants, holding a high-powered flashlight. “Go on. Sneaking into your own field in the dead of night, what exactly are you trying to do?”
The person caught red-handed was none other than the chubby man. The bucket full of alkaline water was still in his hands.
Lin Yi wasn’t surprised in the least. In fact, he had already guessed it would be this man. After all, the only person who harbored such a grudge over the outcome of the bet that he would destroy his own family’s crops just to frame Lin Yi was this one.
Startled by the light, the chubby man quickly tried to compose himself. “I couldn’t sleep, so I came to check on our field. What about you? What are you doing on our land?”
“And that in your hand?” Lin Yi pointed at the bucket.
“I, I came to water the field!”
“Oh? Watering in the middle of the night? I’ve never seen you so diligent before.”
Under Lin Yi’s oppressive gaze, the chubby man grew flustered and blurted out without thinking: “It, it was my brother who told me to come!”
“Really?” Hearing this, Lin Yi smiled warmly instead, as if he had just heard something amusing.
The chubby man quickly added, “R-really! My brother was worried, so he told me to come water…”
His voice trailed off, and then he froze.
As if sensing something, he slowly turned his head.
Behind him, Du Hong stood a few paces away, staring fixedly at him.
His face was shrouded in shadow, his expression unreadable.
The bucket in the chubby man’s hand clattered to the ground.
Du Hong bent down, picked up the fallen bucket, and dabbed a bit of the liquid inside to sniff it.
Then, his expression darkened inch by inch.
The chubby man no longer had any thoughts of making excuses. He stood before Du Hong, trembling, waiting for his brother to lash out.
But Du Hong simply stood there in silence, his expression unreadable.
After a long while, he spoke wearily, “Brother Lin, sorry to have put you through this tonight. But… for my sake, let’s pretend tonight never happened.”
Although he hadn’t spoken a word before, Du Hong’s voice suddenly came out hoarse.
Having said that, he picked up the bucket and walked off toward home without another word.
Lin Yi watched his retreating figure, shook his head, and ultimately said nothing. He turned off the flashlight and left.
The chubby man, thinking he had narrowly escaped disaster, quickly caught up to Du Hong and said ingratiatingly, “Brother…”
“Don’t call me ‘brother’ anymore.”
The chubby man’s footsteps halted.
“Move out tomorrow. That empty house to the west was always meant for you anyway. Don’t worry, you’ll get your fair share of the family possessions. But this field was cultivated by me alone, so it’s not yours. Go clear your own new land. If you really can’t manage, ask someone else for help. No one knows what happened tonight, so your reputation isn’t ruined yet…” Du Hong didn’t stop walking. With his back to the chubby man, he deliberately rambled on.
But the meaning behind his words chilled the chubby man to the bone. “Brother, you… you don’t want me anymore? You’re kicking me out?”
“You’re an adult. Living alone isn’t such a bad thing.” Du Hong glossed over the issue, answering lightly.
From beginning to end, Du Hong never got angry. But at that moment, the chubby man would have preferred a good scolding.
For the first time, he felt true panic. He reached out desperately to grab Du Hong. “Brother…”
His hand was coldly shaken off. The chubby man lost his balance and fell to the ground, forced to watch helplessly as his brother walked further and further away.
From start to finish, Du Hong never once looked back.
No matter how much tension simmered between the two brothers, on the surface, life went on peacefully for the others, largely unaffected.
At most, the sharp-eyed noticed that the chubby man, who used to be inseparable from Du Hong, had moved out on his own. They saw him clumsily clearing new land by himself, trading for supplies alone…
But they only gossiped out of curiosity for a moment before quickly forgetting about it.
Lin Yi, however, noticed a new student sitting attentively in the front row of his schoolhouse, none other than the chubby man, who used to always skip class.
In the months since being kicked out, the chubby man had naturally suffered greatly. He went hungry every day and had to labor with his weak, overweight body.
Within just a few days, he had lost a lot of weight and grown much darker, which actually made him look more pleasant than before. Standing next to Du Hong now, the stark contrast between the formerly fat one and the thin one had faded, the chubby man and Du Hong actually looked more like brothers now.
The chubby man had neither physical strength nor farming experience. To keep himself from starving, even though he gritted his teeth with resentment, he had no choice but to obediently come to Lin Yi to learn techniques and collect the seed rewards.
Naturally, he couldn’t avoid running into Du Hong at the schoolhouse.
But then—
Lin Yi tapped the podium and announced the end of class, only to see the chubby man dash for the exit, colliding with Du Hong as he stood up.
The chubby man quickly reached out to grab him. Before the word “Brother…” could leave his mouth, Du Hong walked right past him as if he were thin air, coldly brushing by.
The chubby man’s outstretched hand froze in place. Scenes like this had played out countless times recently.
Lin Yi witnessed it all and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.
…
After everyone had left the room, Lin Yi said his usual goodbyes to the viewers and turned off the live stream.
He was just about to power down the screen when his wrist terminal buzzed a few times. A message from Director Lu popped up.
Since the incident last time, Lin Yi and Director Lu had been in sporadic contact. Over time, their relationship had actually become quite cordial.
Lin Yi read the message. Director Lu was complaining about how hard it was to find actors. Even though the second round of auditions had already begun, they still couldn’t settle on a male lead’s second role.
Lin Yi sighed, already able to guess what Director Lu was about to say.
Sure enough, after circling around the topic, Director Lu changed tack:
【Xiao Xin, are you really not going to come? Food and housing provided, great benefits. Think it over some more.】
To be honest, Director Lu had zero promotional skills. It was clearly a legitimate job, yet he made it sound like a pyramid scheme recruiting new members.
Lin Yi shuddered, inexplicably picturing Director Lu’s eager eyes staring at a screen. He quickly declined firmly:
【No, no, no. I really don’t have any interest in that…】
However, his fingers moved a beat too slow. Before he could send the message, Director Lu had already rapidly fired off a script file, as if afraid of giving Lin Yi any chance to refuse.
Lin Yi: …
Unable to withstand Director Lu’s excessive enthusiasm, Lin Yi reluctantly opened the script and began skimming through it.
The general story of Jungle Assault was set on ancient Blue Star. It followed a assault team formed spontaneously by civilians, who fought desperately against mutant beast attacks and successfully rescued innocent people.
Although the plot seemed simple on the surface, the script was filled with clever details throughout. It was indeed a very well-crafted script.
What surprised Lin Yi even more was that the script chose the ancient Blue Star setting, a theme that was very unpopular in the interstellar era. This unexpectedly gave him a rare sense of familiarity.
After casually flipping through the script, he roughly glanced at the character setting for the male lead’s second role: highly skilled in combat, taciturn. On the surface, he appeared cold and ruthless, but in reality, he simply didn’t know how to express himself. Beneath it all, he was soft-hearted and clumsy.
It was indeed a role with a lot of highlight moments. No wonder Su Qingning would resort to underhanded tactics to try and push him out.
But then again, a cool exterior hiding a clumsy heart… this character felt strangely familiar to Lin Yi…?
Lin Yi clicked back to his chat with Director Lu:
【I’ve finished reading the script.】
【So you agree?】 came the immediate reply.
【No.】 Lin Yi responded.
Before Director Lu could even feel disappointed, Lin Yi sent another message—
【But I can recommend someone for you.】