Everyone divided up the fruit, and Hu Lu’s complexion looked much better than before. Wei Heng handed the tree roots to Lin Yue, telling her to boil them together with the yellow rattan and drink the decoction a few more times for her to recover.
“Thanks to you,” Lin Yue said, “otherwise we wouldn’t have found the medicine.”
Hu Lu looked at Wei Heng, unsure what she was thinking.
As night fell, everyone gathered around the campfire, cutting firewood while chatting.
Wang Chunqin and Chen Nan loved sucking up to Zhao Champion. Zhao Champion appreciated Wang Chunqin’s quick wits, and as for Chen Nan, his physical build aligned with what he liked.
Practitioners of martial arts favored strong physiques with well-defined muscles, which projected a more masculine charm. As for someone fair and slender like Wei Heng, or Niu Xixi who put on heavy makeup every day just like a woman, Zhao Champion kept his opinions to himself on the surface, but inwardly he certainly held biases.
Chen Nan handed Zhao Champion a clean wild fruit. “Teacher Zhao, I’ve watched your movie Wudong Tianxia many times, including the behind-the-scenes footage. When you were sparring with Rong Keli, you shattered a piece of wood with a single punch, and that shot was actually done in one take.”
Wang Chunqin chimed in from the side as well. “Yes, yes, I love that movie so much. When the behind-the-scenes footage came out, many people didn’t believe that shot was done in one take, and I even got into arguments online with them.”
Only after eating and drinking their fill did the guests have the mental bandwidth to interact with the livestream, and today it was Zhang Tongtong’s turn.
Holding the recording device, Zhang Tongtong spun around filming everyone. He liked pointing the camera at Wei Heng, but Wei Heng always pushed it away.
“That shot really is one of the most classic scenes in that movie,” Li Xiaohuan added from the side. “I remember it circulating online that Wudong Tianxia was the fastest movie you ever filmed, because basically all the martial arts choreography was done in one take.”
Zhao Champion nodded. “Indeed, many were done in one take because the actors cast for that film all had foundational training and could endure hardship, so filming went very smoothly.”
Hearing them chat, the fans in the livestream chat also began stirring up a commotion.
Pointing the camera toward them, Zhang Tongtong laughed and said, “Teacher Zhao, the viewers in the livestream are asking you to recreate the classic scene of shattering wood with a single punch.”
Big Mac had also seen that movie and joined in the teasing. “I specifically tried imitating Teacher Zhao’s move when I was a kid, and ended up nearly crippling my own fingers.”
Chen Nan proposed that all the male guests give it a try to see who could shatter a piece of wood with one punch.
Niu Xixi said disdainfully, “It’ll hurt your hands. I’m not doing it.”
Clearly, Chen Nan hadn’t intended to include him anyway. “Go on, go sit over there. You weren’t counted in the first place.”
“Hmph, who cares.” Niu Xixi angrily went to sit beside Lin Yue and the others.
As the group messed around, they tried using the burning branches and firewood they had gathered, but none of them could break them. Some blamed the branches for being too thick, while others blamed them for being too damp.
Zhao Champion picked up an arm-thick branch, gripped it tightly with five fingers, and struck it with a single punch, snapping the branch right in the middle and eliciting gasps of astonishment and cheers from everyone.
Yet he still shook his head. “Not happening anymore, I’m getting old.”
Big Mac gave it a try as well, throwing a punch only to cradle his hand and howl in pain.
Zhou Youlan couldn’t help laughing out loud, telling him not to make a fool of himself if he didn’t know how.
“Sss, then why don’t you try?” Big Mac said.
Naturally, Zhou Youlan wanted to try too. Everyone was joining in the fun, and he didn’t want to be a party pooper. Furthermore, the majority of his works were martial arts films; if he could pull off feats like Zhao Champion, executing many high-difficulty action sequences in a single take to become a widely passed-down classic, it would also represent a major achievement in his acting career.
Picking up a branch, he made a fist and gathered his strength, but before he could swing it, Wei Heng stopped him.
“What are you doing?” Big Mac asked.
The bark was uneven and the material hard; if Zhou Youlan scratched his skin or drew blood on his hands, his pay would end up being docked.
Zhou Youlan pulled his hand out of Wei Heng’s grip. Such concern from Wei Heng in front of the cameras, aside from creating troublesome topics of discussion for him, also placed a heavy psychological burden on him.
“You’ll get hurt,” Wei Heng said.
Zhou Youlan: “”
Chen Nan sneered, “If you aren’t participating, go sit with Niu Xixi over by the girls. We know you’re afraid of getting hurt, but why police other people having fun?”
“Exactly, Wei Heng. If you’re scared of getting hurt, just watch from the side. Why manage things for Brother Zhou?” Wang Chunqin felt he was a buzzkill. “It’s rare we get Teacher Zhao to give us a live demonstration and everyone’s having a great time. Even if you want to care for Brother Zhou, read the room and don’t ruin the mood, alright?”
Originally, according to the plan, he was supposed to be the most heavily focused person on the show aside from Zhou Youlan. His manager had even mapped out using his performance on the program as a talking point to help him pitch scripts in more genres later on.
Yet Wei Heng had suddenly burst onto the scene halfway, hogging the spotlight everywhere and making him look completely invisible.
“Oh, right,” Li Xiaohuan suddenly said. “Earlier today Zhang Tongtong kept talking about how Wei Heng drove his dagger deep into a tree trunk. It sounds super impressive. Isn’t that hard to do without some actual hand strength?”
“Right,” Xiang Kang chimed in. “Hearing Zhang Tongtong chatter about it all day made me want to open my eyes and witness it. I’d love to see how someone can throw a knife like a flying dart.”
The previously joyful atmosphere instantly turned sour. Their tones sounded less than friendly, prompting Zhang Tongtong to look apologetically toward Wei Heng.
He had originally wanted everyone to know that avoiding starvation was entirely thanks to Wei Heng, not intending to throw Wei Heng onto the fire to be roasted.
Chen Nan proved extremely eager. He picked out the thickest piece of firewood from the pile, which was still connected to a waist-high tree root and measured a full palm’s width in thickness.
“Come on, Wei Heng, show it to everyone.”
Clearly, Chen Nan wanted to make a fool of Wei Heng in front of everyone.
Although he had witnessed the whole thing that afternoon, the skill of snapping wood wasn’t something one could pull off simply by knowing how to handle a blade.
“It’s that thick?!” Zhang Tongtong stared wide-eyed. “Are you doing this on purpose? Forget Brother Wei, even Teacher Zhao would probably find this a hard challenge.”
It wasn’t just a hard challenge; it was entirely impossible.
A tree trunk this thick would require sawing for a while, let alone using a bare fist.
Chen Nan’s lips curled into a mischievous, wicked smile. “Since Wei Heng is so amazing, of course we have to ramp up the difficulty for him, otherwise your bragging would go to waste.”
“This would be hard to burn even as firewood.”
“Exactly, this is way too thick.”
“Wei Heng, if you can’t do it, just admit defeat.”
“Alright,” Zhou Youlan interrupted them, reaching out to grab the half-section of trunk still connected to the dead root. “Let’s swap it for a thinner—”
With a sharp crack, the waist-high tree snapped right down the middle, cutting Zhou Youlan’s words short.
Clutching the half-section of the trunk, he stared blankly at Wei Heng’s fair palm, its clear lines exposed to view.
The scene fell instantly silent, save for the faint, crackling sounds of the burning firewood.
Sitting in the background with his upper body concealed in the shadows, Wang Ren let out a chuckle, thoroughly satisfied as expected.
Suppressing the churning emotions within his gaze, Ah Hu lowered his head and slowly flexed his injured wrist, looking profoundly unwilling.
“Holy shit!” Big Mac was the first to cry out in shock. “Wei Heng, are you Lin Daiyu unrooting a weeping willow?”
Looking frail, he always managed to pull off the most unexpected stunts.
Stepping forward, he inspected the trunk; it had been snapped straight from the ground by force, and the tree core wasn’t completely dry yet, making it even harder to break than fully dried wood. Yet Wei Heng had shattered it with a single palm strike?
Zhao Champion was actually the most astonished of all. While others might not understand the difficulty threshold of the applied force, he understood it crystal clear.
Wei Heng had snapped such a thick tree trunk in half with a single palm strike. Fists were normally much more powerful than palms, yet Wei Heng had used his palm.
Even with decades of martial arts practice since childhood, he couldn’t manage to break it in one go with a strike, yet Wei Heng possessed what could only be described as slender wrists. How on earth had he managed it?
“Oh my god!” Ruan Mengmeng hurried over, examining the broken edge of the tree trunk repeatedly. The uneven fractured surface was undeniably the mark of being shattered by external force.
“Really… snapped in half…”
That was insanely awesome!
Frowning, Chen Nan remained silent, though the astonishment and shock in his eyes betrayed his inner thoughts.
Working out in the gym every day, he knew full well that even if this were a completely dried-out log, breaking it with a single punch was impossible without years of training and a solid weight foundation. Yet Wei Heng hadn’t even needed to wind up; he shattered it with a single slap. How was that possible?
With a calm expression, Wei Heng glanced past Zhou Youlan. “Let’s play something else.”
Zhou Youlan: “?”
Was this coaxing-a-child tone—”this is dangerous, go play something else”—really appropriate coming from Wei Heng toward him??