Wang Ren’s pupils were deep, cold, and enigmatic. Perhaps due to his relatively deep eye sockets, his eyes seemed to conceal the venomous coldness and danger of a serpent, making it impossible to guess when he might suddenly deliver a fatal strike.
“Share some of the food with us.”
Wei Yan answered, “Probably not enough.”
Counting them alongside the production crew’s staff, there were twenty to thirty people in total. Once a single goat’s meat was divided up, it would realistically only be enough to fill everyone’s stomachs and nothing more.
“You heard him, there’s not enough to share! Go find your own!” Big Mac lifted his chin triumphantly.
Wang Ren couldn’t be bothered to waste words with him. “I’ll give you one of the bullets from this gun. Whenever you find a use for it, just say the word, and I’ll pull the trigger for you.”
That was the condition for the exchange.
The group was slightly startled, not expecting Wang Ren to use such an item for the trade.
Wei Yan didn’t actually know what purpose this item served, but along the way, he had occasionally heard Zhang Tongtong express envy over it. It seemed to be an extremely formidable weapon.
Wei Yan fell silent for a moment. Zhou Youlan assumed Wei Yan wouldn’t agree, but to his surprise, Wei Yan nodded.
No one had any objections. After all, the food had been found by Wei Yan, and since he had agreed to share it, no one else had any qualification to make the decision.
After a great deal of commotion, the group finally rested quite late into the night. Wei Yan remained deep in thought about a certain matter.
Earlier during the dispute with Lao Gui, he had heard Big Mac mention the Great Qi Dynasty.
That was the dynasty he belonged to, separated from this era by a chasm of a full thousand years.
He planned to stay one more day before leaving.
Mainly, they needed to find containers to hold water first, lest they run into a prolonged period of being unable to find a water source and suffering from dehydration again.
Therefore, after everyone woke up the next morning, Zhou Youlan divided them into two groups: one to search for water-holding containers, and the other to check the river and see if yesterday’s fish traps had yielded any catches.
Zhao Guanjun took those without water flasks to search nearby for bamboo groves, while Zhou Youlan led several people down to the river.
“Brother Wei, do you think we’ll catch any fish?”
Zhang Tongtong had the bow and arrow made by Wei Yan strapped to his back, sticking close to Wei Yan the whole way.
“Maybe.”
After they brought back the game yesterday, Big Mac had crammed all the rotting wood grubs he found into the fish trap. Using them as bait was barely passable, though it was hard to tell whether their luck would be any better.
When he came back later last night, he had also tossed in some animal offal. If the current wasn’t too fast, they would most likely have a harvest.
As the group arrived at the riverbank, Zhang Tongtong stepped into the water first to retrieve his fish trap, while Big Mac went to grab Zhou Youlan’s.
The gaps in the fish trap Zhou Youlan had made were rather wide, and the weaving wasn’t very sturdy. Having been battered by the current all night, it fell apart for the most part the moment Big Mac lifted it, spilling mostly weeds out of the frame.
Zhou Youlan: “…”
“Can you be a bit gentler?”
Big Mac looked completely innocent. “Is it my fault that it fell apart?”
Obviously feeling guilty yet unwilling to admit it, Zhou Youlan retorted, “Well, then whose fault is it?”
Big Mac turned his head toward the camera: “I am officially speechless, folks.”
[Hahaha, the young master’s stubbornness is cracking me up.]
[Big Mac: Utterly wrecked.]
[The young master’s eyeballs are darting around: Anyway, it’s definitely not my fault.]
[Wah wah wah, I’m so looking forward to Wei Yan’s. I bet Wei Yan definitely caught something.]
[If the young master couldn’t catch anything, Wei Yan’s probably won’t be much better.]
Over on the other side, Zhang Tongtong stood in the water, pulling and tugging with all his might until he finally dragged his trap to the bank. Wei Yan gave him a hand, effortlessly lifting it onto the shore.
[Hold on, you making it look this easy makes our Tongtong look awfully weak.]
[Have some mercy on Tongtong, hahaha.]
[Something this heavy definitely has fish.]
[Could it be weeds again though?]
“Are there fish? Are there fish?” Zhang Tongtong quickly scrambled out of the water. “Is it this heavy because there are fish?”
Zhou Youlan and the others hurried over as well. Wei Yan untied the opening, pushed aside the weeds at the front, and tipped the trap over. Out tumbled five or six palm-sized small loach-like fish, a large black fish as thick as a wrist, several river prawns, and a portion of small fish and shrimp.
“Wow!” Zhang Tongtong jumped up in joy. “Ah哈哈哈, so many, Brother Wei!”
Big Mac clicked his tongue twice. “Look at how you’ve gone and rattled the kid’s brains with joy.”
Zhou Youlan’s face turned even gloomier. He covered his mouth and coughed lightly. Exactly where had his steps gone wrong? He had caught fish in the wild before, yet he had never been this embarrassing, not catching a single fish while his trap fell completely apart.
“Hahaha, Brother Wei, you’re so amazing! With so many fish and shrimp, can I dream of drinking fish soup today?”
Wei Yan gave a slight nod.
Zhang Tongtong happily knelt there counting the fish and shrimp. He took the camera equipment from the cameraman and brought the lens in close so the viewers could see Wei Yan’s harvest.
“Be jealous of me, folks in the livestream. We ate mutton last night, and we’re eating fish and shrimp today. Following Brother Wei means winning all the way.”
“Hanging out with Brother Wei means nine meals a day.”
“In one word, my Brother Wei is simply the absolute best!”
Filled with envy and jealousy, Big Mac curved his mouth upward in a heavy pout: “Flatterer.”
Zhang Tongtong twitched his shoulders smugly, his entire demeanor radiating cockiness: “Then don’t eat any. Anyway, my Brother Wei definitely won’t let me starve.”
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t be like that. We’re in the same team after all,” Big Mac said shamelessly, squatting down beside Zhang Tongtong to count along with them.
The two of them kept giggling stupidly, radiating pure goofiness.
Zhou Youlan smiled helplessly and shook his head, turning his head inadvertently to lock eyes with Wei Yan.
“…”
He darted his eyes away and quickly spun around, thinking to himself: It’s over, why is Wei Yan looking at me again? With that kind of look, he must be letting his imagination run wild about me in his head again. Ah, this damned, uncontainable charm of mine.
Wei Yan merely cast a casual, fleeting glance, yet Zhou Youlan acted as though he had run into some kind of plague.
Having heard Big Mac mention the Great Qi Dynasty while in the river yesterday, Wei Yan couldn’t help wondering: Could Zhou Youlan’s Zhou family be descendants of Zhou Zheng?
Yet through a thousand years of shifting eras, whether they truly were or not still required further verification.
Though Zhou Youlan had his back turned, he couldn’t help stealing sideways glances backward.
With lowered eyelids, Wei Yan had reverted to his usual cold detachment, as if that brief eye contact moments earlier had been nothing more than an accidental collision.
He let out a sigh of relief, yet it felt as though some other indescribable, vague feeling had been hoisted up inside him, something akin to an expectant emotion.
“Brother Wei, let’s carry this fish trap along with us on the road. That way, we can use the bow and arrow for land, and use this for the water. We’ll never have to worry about food!”
Zhang Tongtong was certainly optimistic, but judging by their travel route, the truly dangerous areas lay deep within the rainforest, where these tools might not always come in handy.
“Bro, we still need to go look for things to hold water. In case Teacher Zhao and the others can’t find any, we’ll have to figure something out ourselves,” Big Mac said.
Zhou Youlan nodded: “Yeah.”
The problem of food for midday was solved for now, but they weren’t planning to stay here forever. They still had to push forward, which meant they needed a water container, otherwise failing to encounter fresh water along the way would constantly delay their journey.
Zhou Youlan looked around appraisingly, but there were no bamboo groves nearby, nor any way to fashion a flask the way Wei Yan had done.
Noticing Zhou Youlan’s distress, Wei Yan coldly reminded him: “Tree trunks work too.”