The Eunuch Is A Heartthrob On A Survival Variety Show [Ancient To Modern] - Chapter 7

Seeing Zhou Youlan so furious, Niu Xixi stopped in his tracks and didn’t dare approach any further.

Wei Yan didn’t need to rely on Zhou Youlan to climb into any social circle, but he understood the latter part of Zhou Youlan’s statement: Zhou Youlan disliked men and loathed being pursued by them.

That remark was spoken as much for him as it was for the pursuers lingering behind.

Wei Yan’s expression remained unchanged, and after Zhou Youlan walked away, he followed right behind him.

Even Niu Xixi couldn’t help but admire Wei Yan’s persistence. With Zhou Youlan phrasing things so bluntly, Wei Yan could still continue clinging to him without batting an eye.

Seeing the bird left behind in the grass, Niu Xixi’s eyes rolled as he hatched some scheme in his mind.

Zhang Tongtong and Hu Lu had returned from fetching water long ago. Craning their necks, they finally waited for Damahou to come back, but unfortunately, he returned empty-handed.

Zhang Tongtong poked his head around. “Where are Brother Zhou and the others?”

“Did they split up to look for food? Good thing it wasn’t too far away, or I almost got lost.”

Zhang Tongtong rubbed his stomach. “Not even a single wild berry?”

Damahou took their water and drank a few mouthfuls. “I didn’t recognize the things in the wild, so I didn’t dare pick them randomly. The nearby wild berries had all been pecked at by birds, so they couldn’t be eaten.”

The others hadn’t found anything to eat either, returning completely empty-handed.

They had thought that in a forest like this, they would at least run into some game, or failing that, some wild berries. But unluckily, there was nothing at all.

Zhao Guanjun had been waiting in place all along. Seeing them return empty-handed, he shook his head helplessly, remarking that they simply hadn’t reached the point of starving to the extent that they would chew raw grass roots.

Wang Chunqin hurriedly explained ingratiatingly, “We were mainly afraid of picking poisonous food. What if we ate it and got poisoned? We didn’t dare bring anything back for you to eat casually, either.”

After all, they had no experience in this area.

“Forget it, then let’s keep moving forward and see if we can find food,” Zhao Guanjun said, making to stand up.

Having just returned after walking for so long, they hadn’t even sat down to rest for a few minutes. Yet with Zhao Guanjun moving, no one dared to keep sitting, and seeing someone rise, they all stood up one after another.

Zhang Tongtong tentatively spoke up, “Brother Zhou and the others aren’t back yet. Didn’t we say we were gathering here? Let’s wait a bit longer for them.”

“Yeah, Brother Zhou isn’t back yet, and neither is Wei Yan,” Ruan Mengmeng said, counting the people in the group.

“And Niu Xixi,” Hu Lu added.

She and Niu Xixi were web celebrities on the same platform and were also acquaintances in private.

Zhao Guanjun remembered just then. “Ah, right, Little Zhou too. But why have they been gone so long? Didn’t we agree on an hour?”

Just as he spoke, Niu Xixi emerged from the woods with twigs snagged in his hair. He was whimpering coquettishly, yet his face beamed with a triumphant, all-smiles expression.

Seeing him carrying a partridge, Old Ghost’s eyes lit up instantly.

“Stop right there,” Old Ghost blocked his path, staring intently at the bird in his hand. “You’ve got some skills, managing to bag something like this.”

The others looked over at the sound, astonished to find that Niu Xixi was actually the only one on-site who had managed to catch prey.

Zhang Tongtong trotted over with an excited expression. “Niu Xixi, you actually caught a bird? You’re so good!”

Chen Nan and the others slowly crept over, curling their lips in dissatisfaction, jealousy, and envy upon seeing the bird in his hand.

While it looked like none of them had found food, only he had brought back something to eat. Ordinarily, people like Chen Nan and Old Ghost would act passive-aggressively toward him, finding fault with everything he did. But this time, he finally had the chance to straighten his back and puff out his chest.

Niu Xixi let out a triumphant, mocking chuckle, twisting his shoulders with haughty exaggeration. “Average, I suppose. It’s not that hard, really.”

The next second, however, the bird in his hand was snatched away, ending up in Old Ghost’s grip.

“Hey!” Niu Xixi shrieked. “What are you doing?”

Niu Xixi reached out with his other hand to snatch it back, but Old Ghost tossed the bird to Ah Hu behind him, and Ah Hu tossed it to Wang Ren. They tossed the bird back and forth deliberately, playing with Niu Xixi and spinning him around in circles.

Noticing the cut on the bird’s neck, Wang Ren couldn’t be bothered to squabble with them and tossed it back into Old Ghost’s hands.

Niu Xixi asked angrily, “What do you mean by this? Are you trying to rob us outright? Have you no sense of reason at all? How shameless!”

Everyone hadn’t expected Wang Ren and his crew to be this arrogant. They were filming a show after all, and the livestream was broadcasting in real-time. Weren’t they afraid of being cursed at and cyberbullied if the audience saw this?

Zhang Tongtong found it hard to watch. “If you want to eat, go catch your own. Why snatch someone else’s? Isn’t this going too far?”

Although he and Niu Xixi had no real connection and didn’t particularly care for his constant jumpy, dramatic persona, this was something Niu Xixi had managed to find with difficulty. For these people not only to snatch it but also to humiliate him like this was simply trampling on someone’s self-respect.

Old Ghost’s hooligan nature came out in full force as he shamelessly declared, “I just like things given to me for free. Whatever is in someone else’s hands always smells better. Got a problem with that?”

He pulled out a dagger and directly slashed open the bird’s belly right in front of the crowd.

The rest were startled back a few steps by Old Ghost’s unhinged and cruel behavior.

When Wei Yan and Zhou Youlan returned, they walked straight into this scene. The production crew members were holding filming equipment to record, yet showed no intention of intervening.

What they didn’t know, however, was that the moment Old Ghost raised his knife to slice open the bird’s belly, the livestream platform had cut off the feed under the pretext of bloody and violent content.

Zhou Youlan hurried over to defuse the situation, blocking Niu Xixi and the others behind him. He glared at the blood-stained blade in Old Ghost’s hand. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Seeing the prey in Old Ghost’s hand, wasn’t that the exact catch Wei Yan had intended to give him?

Off to the side, Niu Xixi shifted his eyes guiltily, quickly looking away the moment he spotted Wei Yan.

Wei Yan didn’t expose him, merely moving slowly to stand close beside Zhou Youlan.

Zhou Youlan swept his gaze across Wang Ren’s group. “Fighting over a tiny bit of game like this, it’s only been a few days, and you’ve all starved out of your minds?”

Wang Ren sat perched on an elevated spot with an arrogant posture, a half-smile on his lips carrying a dangerous edge. It was evident he didn’t care to be ordered around by Zhou Youlan like the others did, showing him no respect whatsoever.

Taking advantage of their conversation, Niu Xixi tried to snatch the prey back from Old Ghost’s hands. But instead of recovering the game, he found himself with a knife pressed against his neck.

Several minor starlets shrieked in terror, wondering how things could escalate to the point of holding a blade to someone’s throat.

Niu Xixi froze in fright, not daring to move an inch. He looked to Zhou Youlan for rescue, his eyes welling up with tears in an instant, as he never expected Old Ghost would dare play for keeps.

Wei Yan stepped forward, but Zhang Tongtong hurriedly grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”

The knife in Old Ghost’s hand had easily sliced open a bird’s belly just a moment ago. What if someone got accidentally injured in the scuffle?

Zhang Tongtong lowered his voice. “Who knows if this is just a staged bit for the show? But things are getting a bit out of hand, so don’t stick your neck out. Brother Zhou and Teacher Zhao are both here, so surely these guys wouldn’t dare actually do anything.”

Zhao Guanjun watched for a moment, wanting to step in and smooth things over, but Zhou Youlan beat him to it by gripping Old Ghost’s wrist. “You’d better think this through. If you hurt someone, you’ll be held legally responsible.”

Old Ghost had a background in martial arts, and trying to wrench the knife directly out of his grip wasn’t ideal, so Zhou Youlan could only restrict his wrist first.

Amidst the struggle, Niu Xixi found an opening and scrambled away. Old Ghost strained his arm with raw force; while Zhou Youlan lacked practical combat techniques, he possessed the brute strength gained from frequent gym workouts and weightlifting.

Old Ghost gradually began to struggle, but under so many pairs of eyes, he couldn’t afford to lose face. Staring at the knife in his hand, a venomous glint stained his gaze.

Someone else moved faster than him, though. Accompanied by a crisp crack of a joint shifting out of place, a piercing pain shot through the wrist bone of Old Ghost’s knife-holding hand, instantly radiating up his entire arm.

His grip on the dagger involuntarily loosened. Wei Yan caught the falling weapon, the blade spinning fluidly in his palm before coming to a rest right against the main artery of Old Ghost’s neck.

The moment Wei Yan snapped Old Ghost’s little finger, Zhou Youlan had instinctively released his grip. He had already sensed Wei Yan standing behind him, but he never expected Wei Yan to suddenly strike, and with such ruthless efficiency.

With a calm expression, Wei Yan turned sideways, shielding Zhou Youlan behind him.

Zhou Youlan: “”

Wang Ren lowered his bent leg, dropping his laid-back demeanor as he narrowed his eyes slightly to stare at Wei Yan.

Wei Yan’s move of disarming someone by breaking their finger clearly marked him as an expert with blades, and his reaction speed surpassed Old Ghost’s by more than a little bit.

“Whoa, you actually dare catch a blade with your bare hands?”

“Awesome, he plays with that knife like it’s a spinning pen.”

The onlookers couldn’t help whispering in shock. In reality, even Zhou Youlan, who stood closest to Wei Yan, hadn’t caught the full sequence of his movements; it was like a clipped martial arts movie, executed in one flowing breath.

Clutching his injured, broken finger in agony, Old Ghost didn’t dare make any rash moves.

Wang Ren leaped down from his elevated perch. Wei Yan tilted the blade slightly; no matter whether Old Ghost tried to dodge backward or sideways, the edge could slice into his carotid artery in a split second.

Wang Ren curved his lips in a cold, sinister smile. “Just joking around. No need to resort to hurting people, is there?”

With one hand kept behind his back, Wei Yan slowly raised his gaze to meet Wang Ren’s probing, meaningful look, his expression cold and majestic.

Seeing that they had the upper hand, Niu Xixi immediately tried to borrow authority by association: “Didn’t you guys just hold a knife to my neck too?”

Wang Ren kept his eyes fixed solely on Wei Yan. “Just a joke. We’re filming a show, aren’t we?”

Wei Yan had no intention of taking Old Ghost’s life; otherwise, following his usual methods, Old Ghost would have already stopped breathing.

“Alright, alright,” Zhao Guanjun stepped forward at that moment. “Let’s stop bickering. Minor conflicts and friction are normal, and we’re all filming a show anyway, so no need to blow it out of proportion. Next time, let’s just share things peacefully, why fight over them?”

Supporting Old Ghost by the shoulder, Wang Ren slowly pulled him back.

Only then did Wei Yan withdraw his hand and toss the dagger back. Wang Ren caught it, and the look in his eyes as he glanced back at Wei Yan carried a newfound sense of respect.

Old Ghost still looked thoroughly unconvinced, angrily kicking the bird over toward them.

“Unbelievable.”

“What kind of people are these? Snatching other people’s things and acting like they’re in the right.”

“Is this even still edible, though? I’m so hungry.”

Damahou didn’t mind at all. He hurriedly picked up the prey. “Hurry, hurry, hurry, before it stiffens up, get the fire started!”

Chen Nan genuinely refused to believe Niu Xixi could catch a bird. “Birds roost in high places. Without some arm strength and accuracy, there’s no way to hit one. How did you catch it?”

Niu Xixi didn’t have any hunting tools, and with those scrawny arms and legs of his, it was impossible for him to knock something down barehanded.

“I…” Niu Xixi glanced at Wei Yan. “When did I ever say I caught this? I, I picked it up, is that so wrong?”

“Figures,” Chen Nan sneered. “Otherwise, as if you could ever catch game.”

Zhang Tongtong sighed enviously. “Why can’t I ever pick anything up? I want to eat meat so badly, too.”

Seeing Wei Yan standing right beside him, Niu Xixi didn’t dare continue that topic and scampered off in frustration.

Handing the bird over to Damahou for processing, Damahou held it by the neck, inspected the wound, and turned to Zhou Youlan. “Brother, look.”

“This bird died from having its neck slit, and the cut is so clean it looks like it was done with a knife. Niu Xixi has incredible luck to accidentally pick up game that someone else hunted.”

Zhou Youlan looked toward Wei Yan, who was sitting off in the distance. “It was caught by Wei Yan.”

“What?” Damahou asked in astonishment. “Wei Yan actually managed to bag this?”