The Eunuch Is A Heartthrob On A Survival Variety Show [Ancient To Modern] - Chapter 10

Wei Yan gave a light, indifferent glance. “Why aren’t you coming over?”

“I’m not a doctor. Besides, there are already so many people swarming around him, and my social standing is too low for my words to carry any weight.”

Ruan Mengmeng jogged over, caught sight of a spider lingering near the edge, and recoiled in a chill. “So you were picking up spiders just now, but are these even edible?”

“Maybe I’m just that hungry, but I actually feel like the taste might turn out pretty good,” Damahou chimed in, having wandered over at some point. He craned his neck to peer into the container, his nostrils filled with the crisp fragrance of mint.

Not gonna lie, the aroma was remarkably enticing.

Zhang Tongtong swallowed a mouthful of saliva, keeping his eyes glued to the stone plate. “It honestly looks terrifying, but if you wrap them in these mint leaves and swallow them with your eyes closed, I think they’d probably be okay to eat, right?”

Perhaps they had truly been starving for too long; the scent resembled something stir-fried with mint, smelling far from terrible.

Wei Yan handed his dagger to Zhang Tongtong. “Grass spiders possess weak toxicity and can be used in traditional medicine. These are merely immature spiders that haven’t even learned how to hunt. They are edible, but shouldn’t be consumed in excess, just enough to temporarily supplement your physical energy.”

Zhang Tongtong looked as if he had heard some fascinating revelation. “Grass spiders can be used in medicine? What ailments do they treat?”

Zhou Youlan couldn’t help pricking up his ears either; he had never heard of spiders having medicinal properties.

Wei Yan explained, “Pounded into a paste for topical application, they detoxify and reduce swelling.”

Upon hearing this, the group instinctively turned their gazes toward Chen Nan.

The areas on Chen Nan’s face that had been bitten by the spiders were already starting to swell up red. Could this method be used on him as well?

Recalling something he had read in a medical text, Wang Daodao tried to place it, though he couldn’t quite remember which specific species of spider it applied to.

Chen Nan, however, snapped back with a sour, raspy voice, “Stop pretending you know what you’re talking about. I don’t believe a word you say.”

When he crawled out from that spider nest, Wei Yan was the only one standing off to the side with an air of complete detachment. Knowing full well that he had been bitten by spiders, Wei Yan had still brought the culprits back. Wasn’t that intentionally trying to make a fool out of him?

Zhang Tongtong blurted out bluntly, “He wasn’t even talking to you. Your voice is completely wrecked from the bites, so why don’t you just stay quiet and rest?”

Waving his hand to cut off their bickering, Zhao Guanjun intervened, “Let’s just use proper medication first. Don’t we have anti-inflammatory shots? Give him one right away.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that Wei Yan’s claims lacked solid backing, and he didn’t want anyone’s condition to be botched by guesswork.

The roasted spiders tasted far better than anticipated. Damahou and Zhang Tongtong were the first to sample them; the moment the food hit their mouths, their eyes lit up, and they eagerly reached for a second bite, only for Wei Yan to intercept them before the third.

“You can’t eat too much of this.”

It wasn’t that he was stingy with the food; rather, consuming an excessive amount of these creatures carried a genuine risk of poisoning.

With a sheepish smile, Zhang Tongtong said, “Well, then you guys go ahead and eat, Mengmeng.”

Ruan Mengmeng hesitated slightly. She really couldn’t bring herself to stomach these things, as the sight of them crawling all over Chen Nan’s face was still fresh in her mind.

“Even if they aren’t as delicious as meat, they’re definitely way better than wild berries. The smell of the wild mint is actually quite fragrant,” Damahou tempted further.

Rubbing his rumbling stomach, Ruan Mengmeng closed her eyes and took a tentative bite. Not daring to chew in her mouth, she swallowed it straight down. Shortly after, the flavor of the mint began to diffuse across her tongue and fill her oral cavity, leaving behind nothing more than a refreshing minty taste without any strange aftertastes.

Pleasantly surprised to find the flavor quite palatable, she asked for another small piece, this time daring to chew and taste it properly. Once finished, she couldn’t help giving Wei Yan a thumbs-up. “Delicious! You can’t taste any weird flavors at all, just pure mint.”

Hearing this, the rest of the group hurriedly swarmed around the campfire to claim a piece each for a taste test.

“Not bad at all, the mint flavor is very refreshing.”

“I think it tastes amazing. Oh gosh, maybe it’s just because I haven’t eaten in ages and I’m totally starved.”

“Actually, once cooked, spiders are surprisingly meaty when you chew on them.”

Sitting gloomily off to the side, Chen Nan inhaled that fragrant mint aroma while watching the entire group crowd around Wei Yan with words of praise, feeling thoroughly disgruntled.

Damahou managed to snag a piece for Zhou Youlan, carefully wrapping it in a tree leaf, but Zhou Youlan refused to eat it.

“Have a bite, Brother. You’ve been starving for days, and you didn’t even touch that bird meat yesterday either. We’re not just doing a short challenge in one fixed spot; we have to trek for a month or two before reaching the finish line. How are you going to manage without any stamina?”

Zhou Youlan persisted in his refusal, thinking to himself: If I’m going to refuse, I might as well make a clean break of it. What if— he caught a whiff of the rich aroma, causing his Adam’s apple to bob, what if he starts feeling overly pleased with himself and mistakes this for me having feelings for him?

Unwrapping the leaf and munching away, Damahou said around a mouthful, “Well, it’s not like he’s got his eyes on me, so I might as well eat it myself.”

In truth, he was simply craving food.

Zhou Youlan crooked a finger at Wang Daodao nearby, who immediately stood up and walked over. “What is it, Brother Zhou?”

Lowering his voice, Zhou Youlan asked, “Let me ask you: back when we were rescuing Chen Nan, was that tree branch I used to pull him up thrown over by you?”

“A tree branch? Didn’t you pick it up yourself?”

The situation had been so frantic at the time that none of them dared step forward, paralyzed by fright. Only Zhou Youlan had charged forward without a backward glance, so wasn’t it something he had brought along himself?

Wang Daodao shook his head. “It wasn’t me. It was too dark, and you were holding the flashlight, so I didn’t see clearly.”

“What tree branch?” Damahou wandered over, still lingeringly sucking on his greasy fingers.

Disgusted by his lack of tidiness, Zhou Youlan raised an elbow and shoved him aside.

Ruan Mengmeng returned to sleep after eating her fill. Zhou Youlan called out to stop her, asking whether she had noticed who threw the branch that landed near Chen Nan.

“What tree branch?” Ruan Mengmeng uttered an acknowledging sound before adding, “I have no idea. None of us had any lighting tools, and Brother Qin’s torch was practically dying out by then, so we couldn’t see a thing.”

Wang Chunqin had been holding a piece of firewood, but it definitely wasn’t him, nor was it the two girls or Wang Daodao.

If Li Xiaohuan possessed that kind of reaction speed, he wouldn’t have stood there frozen while Chen Nan was trapped in that tree pit.

That left only one possibility.

Standing nearby, Li Rongsheng opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it the moment she saw Wei Yan return.

Wei Yan sat down beside Zhou Youlan, pulled his backpack over as a makeshift pillow, and lay down to rest.

Zhou Youlan wanted to ask, but ultimately kept his mouth shut.

Early the next morning.

Wei Yan was already up. He collected dew to clean out the bamboo tube that had held the spiders, refilled it with fresh water, and finished these tasks just as Zhou Youlan woke up.

The moment Zhou Youlan got up, he headed straight for the spot where they had set the traps yesterday, with Wei Yan trailing right behind him.

“Don’t follow me.”

“I’m not following,” Wei Yan replied with a completely expressionless face as he spun a falsehood. “I just need to fetch some water.”

Whether Wei Yan was telling the truth or lying remained unclear to Zhou Youlan. Given how harshly he had spoken yesterday, Wei Yan had still failed to change his ways, leaving Zhou Youlan with no choice but to adopt the silent treatment while quickening his pace.

Just as Wei Yan predicted, Zhou Youlan’s traps hadn’t captured a single piece of game; the setups hadn’t even been disturbed.

Turning toward the side of the bamboo grove, Wei Yan located several withered old bamboo stalks, chopped them into sections about the width of a finger joint, cut them down to arm length, and bound them together with vines.

Having dismantled his trap, Zhou Youlan returned to find Wei Yan carrying a bundle of bamboo sections strapped to his back.

Throughout the return journey, the two walked in complete silence. Glancing sideways from time to time, Zhou Youlan noticed how Wei Yan’s posture remained impeccably upright. No matter how exhausted the others grew, sprawling out flat on the ground, Wei Yan never looked disheveled or weary; every movement of his reflected deeply ingrained habits shaped by years of strict discipline.

His own old man had demanded the same of him since childhood, demanding calm composure amidst crises and strict adherence to rules in sitting and standing, yet he could never manage it.

This wasn’t a feudal society; nowadays, everyone simply wanted to live more freely and casually. Why bother letting oneself be shackled by so many rigid rules? Yet Wei Yan lived like a proper, upright gentleman bound by countless self-imposed constraints.

Upon returning to the campsite, Damahou caught the shoelaces tossed over by Zhou Youlan. “Were they really that hard to catch?”

“I’ll need to modify the trap layout next time. I probably messed up the calculations somewhere.”

Instructing the others to extinguish the campfire, Zhou Youlan led the group forward once more.

Throughout the trek, Wei Yan’s hands remained busy. He untied one of the vines binding the bamboo strips, peeled away its outer bark, split the remaining vine into thin strands, extracted fine fibers from each strand, twisted multiple fibers together into a single thread, and rolled several of those threads together to form a bowstring.

No one understood what he was attempting to make. The journey was already arduous enough; every single leaf and blade of grass along their path could conceal unknown insects waiting to slip into their clothes, and every step required intense concentration to avoid twisting an ankle or stepping on a venomous snake.

Yet he still had the leisure to weave vine strings for play.

Zhou Youlan harbored a vague guess as to what Wei Yan intended to do, though he remained uncertain, as crafting such items without absolute confidence usually resulted in crude failures.

Still, looking at Wei Yan’s slender, fair fingers, hands that looked as though a single swipe from a leaf could scratch them, Zhou Youlan found it hard to imagine Wei Yan as someone skilled in such craft.

Among the guests, aside from Wang Ren’s independent clique, only Wang Daodao carried water storage gear, though that meager supply couldn’t sustain a large group. Consequently, every stretch of travel required them to scout for water sources first.

Yet all the water they encountered along the way consisted of stagnant pools devoid of drinkable fresh water.

Wei Yan faced no such trouble, however, as his bamboo tube remained filled with water.

Zhang Tongtong sighed enviously, “If I’d known, I would have learned from you and made one.”

Noticing the larger, thicker bamboo tube still strapped to Wei Yan’s pack, he buttered up with an ingratiating call of “Brother Wei.” “Could you cut off a section of that bamboo tube for me? I want to learn how to make a canteen like yours so we won’t have to go hunting around for water sources all the time.”

Taking down the bamboo tube, Wei Yan chopped off a section with a steady, swift stroke of his blade, guided Zhang Tongtong in carving a mortise-and-tenon lid, and shared half of his water with him.

Overflowing with gratitude, Zhang Tongtong’s eyes lit up the moment he held the water. “Thank you, Brother Wei! Brother Wei is an absolute saint!”

“You’re welcome.”

Ruan Mengmeng watched from the side with intense envy. “I want a drink too.”

“Then go ask Wei Yan for some, and share a sip with me if you get it,” Damahou suggested shamelessly.

Exchanging a look of shared misery, Ruan Mengmeng and Damahou both wished they had water, yet neither possessed the nerve to open their mouths and beg Wei Yan for it.

After all, water resources were precious enough to save a life in an emergency. Since they lacked the foresight to plan ahead and devise such methods themselves, how could they shamelessly ask someone else to hand it over?

Zhao Guanjun, however, had no such quais and spoke up first: “Little Wei, no wonder you’ve been carrying that bamboo tube this whole way. Why didn’t you share this idea with the rest of us? If you had shared it earlier, everyone here would have water to drink by now.”

Zhao Guanjun’s intent was glaringly obvious: he wanted to force Wei Yan into sharing his water supply.

Yet, considering himself a senior, he maintained a haughty facade and refused to speak politely, choosing instead to blame someone else for figuring out a clever survival trick and keeping it to themselves.

Zhao Jie couldn’t help shaking her head, expressing profound disappointment in Wei Yan’s conduct. “While this is an individual competition show, we’re all traveling companions after all. There’s really no need to be so selfish.”

Zhang Tongtong slowly swallowed the water in his mouth, wanting to speak up in Wei Yan’s defense, but lacking the courage to talk back to the seniors.

“Exactly,” Wang Chunqin chimed in. “You clearly thought of using a bamboo tube for water last night, yet you kept your mouth shut all morning and secretly filled a flask for yourself. I was wondering why the water we boiled over the fire this morning had vanished, thought it had evaporated away, but turns out you poured it all into your own container.”