The Eunuch Is A Heartthrob On A Survival Variety Show [Ancient To Modern] - Chapter 9

He took the firewood from Wei Yan’s hand, held the two pieces together, and blew gently, coaxing the flame back to life.

Feeling quite relieved for a moment, he hurriedly turned around and immediately reverted to a fierce, impatient demeanor: “Stay close to me. This is a downward slope, and a single misstep will send you tumbling down.”

Wei Yan: “Mhm.”

“Got it, Brother Zhou,” the two girls echoed.

Li Rongsheng handed her own firewood over to Wei Yan, who accepted it, and the two logs instantly flared up brightly again.

They tracked the broken twigs of the low shrubs along the route, with Zhou Youlan calling out Wang Chunqin’s and the others’ names the entire way, though there was no response.

Wei Yan calculated the time and distance. “Half a incense stick’s worth of time has already passed.”

They couldn’t continue pressing forward; walking any further would distance them too far from the campsite.

Ruan Mengmeng said, “That’s strange. Where are Brother Qin and the others? The broken branches on these bushes must have been snapped by them as they passed. Could they have lost their way?”

Before her voice even faded, Zhou Youlan motioned for her to be quiet.

The group listened closely. It sounded like someone was shouting.

“It sounds like someone calling out. Could it be Brother Qin and them?” Ruan Mengmeng asked anxiously.

Turning his head toward the sound, Wei Yan stated, “Southwest.”

In the middle of the night, who could remember which direction was north, south, east, or west? The stars in the sky were completely blocked by the tree canopy, making orientation impossible, and the group stared around blankly.

Wei Yan took the lead, heading toward the left. When they left the campsite, he had observed the stellar alignment: the Big Dipper pointed due north, which had been their forward heading. Extrapolating from the direction of the shouts, the source should indeed be the southwest.

They hurried after Wei Yan, quickening their pace, and finally managed to locate Wang Chunqin.

While Wang Chunqin’s group had originally set out with four people, only Wang Chunqin and Wang Daodao remained here now.

“Brother Qin, are you alright?”

Breathing heavily, Wang Chunqin hadn’t expected them to show up here. “Why did you guys come?”

Ruan Mengmeng said, “You all never came back, and we were worried something might happen to you, so of course we had to come look for you.”

“Where are the others?” Zhou Youlan asked.

Wang Chunqin shook his head. “Originally the few of us were walking together, but Chen Nan said searching like this was inefficient, so we split up.”

“Absolute nonsense.” The group was startled by Zhou Youlan’s sudden burst of anger. “You dared to split up without any lighting tools? Do you have a death wish?”

Though unhappy about being reprimarded, Wang Chunqin didn’t dare to talk back.

Wang Daodao was even less inclined to speak; he had little fame to begin with, and if Wang Chunqin hadn’t called for him, he wouldn’t have wanted to come along either.

When Wang Chunqin suggested splitting up earlier, he hadn’t actually intended to separate. It was Chen Nan who complained that none of them could find food and insisted on breaking apart, refusing to share his flashlight and telling them just to wait in place.

As a result, a hedgehog had suddenly darted out from somewhere, startling him badly in the dark.

Utilizing the faint firelight from the torch, Wei Yan spotted footprints on the ground. Following them forward led to a patch of caltrops wrapped and parasitized by yellow silk vines.

Animals detested living and foraging in such places. Before the thorn fruits on the caltrop thickets matured, their sharp barbs easily injured people, and once matured, they clung stubbornly to fur. Entering this kind of area to hunt was an extremely unwise choice.

Wei Yan asked, “Did they head this way?”

“Yeah,” Wang Chunqin nodded. “Chen Nan has the flashlight. That’s the way they went.”

“Let’s move together. Once we find Chen Nan and the others, we’re heading straight back to the campsite,” Zhou Youlan instructed.

The group had no choice but to push onward. When cutting through the caltrop thicket, Wei Yan borrowed Zhou Youlan’s machete to hack open a path in front.

If Zhou Youlan were scratched even an inch of skin by those sharp caltrop thorns, five thousand yuan would be gone.

They walked along for about ten minutes when a faint beam of light flashed in the distance, followed instantly by Chen Nan’s cries for help, which abruptly cut off after a short, sharp shout.

Crying out for Chen Nan and Li Xiaohuan, the group rushed forward anxiously.

Wei Yan and Zhou Youlan arrived first, finding Li Xiaohuan stumbling as he picked up a dropped flashlight. He sat collapsed on the ground, frantically shrinking backward.

They had unknowingly stumbled straight into a spider nest, where densely overlapping spiderwebs blanketed an entire grove of bald cypress trees.

Worse still, the terrain sloped downward at that spot. Due to previous rainwater erosion, a collapsed tree pit had been entirely concealed by overgrown weeds, and Chen Nan had unfortunately tumbled right into it, disturbing the resident spider colony.

Snatching the flashlight from Li Xiaohuan’s hand, Zhou Youlan shone the beam forward to reveal Chen Nan covered from head to toe in crawling spiders. Ruan Mengmeng and Li Rongsheng screamed in terror, backing away frantically, while Wang Chunqin and Wang Daodao stood frozen in utter panic.

Chen Nan swatted wildly at the swarm covering his body, but no matter how hard he slapped, he couldn’t clear them away. Terrified, he tried to scream for help, but the horrifying part was that whenever he opened his mouth, the panicked spiders scurried frantically right inside, leaving him unable to climb out of the pit.

It was a sight that made one’s scalp crawl.

Blaming Li Xiaohuan was impossible; in such a terrifying scenario, no one dared step forward for fear of ending up like Chen Nan if those spiders crawled into their ears, eyes, or mouth.

Everyone involuntarily retreated, wishing only to flee the area immediately before getting caught in the disaster.

“Save…” Chen Nan couldn’t form words; the moment he opened his mouth, spiders seized every gap to crawl into his oral cavity.

Wang Chunqin and Wang Daodao managed to pull Li Xiaohuan up and drag him back. Looking around for any usable branches to pull Chen Nan out, Zhou Youlan found nothing nearby in the panic of the night. Realizing there was no time to search for tools, he decided he had to risk it and pull the man out of the pit himself.

Handing the dying torch to Wang Chunqin and the others, Zhou Youlan switched on the flashlight and charged forward.

Wang Chunqin wanted to stop him, but the words died in his throat.

Admittedly, leaving Chen Nan trapped there wasn’t a real option, yet none of them dared step forward rashly. Still, someone had to do it.

Drawing the dagger from his thigh sheath, Wei Yan swiftly severed a nearby tree branch and hurled it toward Chen Nan. The diagonally cut tip of the dagger-hewn wood drove firmly into the ground, stopping just within reach for Chen Nan to grab.

Fumbling blindly in panic, Chen Nan touched the branch and gripped it like a lifeline. With a strong, decisive pull, Zhou Youlan yanked him right out of the pit.

Having a background as a fitness coach, Chen Nan possessed a burly physique and weighed even more than Zhou Youlan, yet Zhou Youlan pulled him out of the pit as effortlessly as plucking a radish.

Chen Nan rolled continuously on the ground, trying to shake off the remaining spiders.

Staring blankly at the scene, rendered speechless by what had just transpired, Li Rongsheng blinked until Wei Yan pressed a finger to his lips in a silent gesture for quiet.

Numbly nodding in understanding, Li Rongsheng hurried forward to help.

The night was too dark, and everyone’s attention was entirely fixed on Chen Nan, so no one noticed who had thrown that branch.

The camera, however, captured every single detail for the livestream audience.

“I’m calling it right now: Wei Yan is the absolute coolest man on this entire show!”

“Did anyone screen-record that? Wei Yan literally sliced through a tree branch with a single casual slash, then casually tossed it so it stuck straight into the ground? Is that even real?”

“Say what you will, Wei Yan definitely has some serious hidden depths.”

“Seriously, what day of the show is this, and nobody has dug up Wei Yan’s background yet? Who even is this guy, where is he from, and why is he so mysterious and insanely badass?”

“Bro, are you joining the entertainment industry right after filming this? Because I’m ready to sign up as part of your first batch of fans.”

“Excuse me? Did you all forget how he acted all high and mighty and hogged screen time on day one?”

From his backpack, Wei Yan retrieved the bamboo tube, squatted down to pop open the lid, and guided the spiders inside so they swarmed right into the container.

After stripping off his outer garments to clean himself up, Chen Nan managed to get rid of most of them. Fortunately, his clothing had shielded his skin, preventing widespread bites, though his exposed face and neck were covered in swollen welts.

By the time everyone finished packing up and prepared to leave, Wei Yan’s bamboo tube was completely filled.

“What are you doing?” Li Xiaohuan asked with an unfriendly tone.

Everyone else had been busy helping Chen Nan deal with the spiders, while Wei Yan hadn’t even bothered to ask a question before doing his own thing, as he was so cold and detached.

Snapping the lid securely shut, Wei Yan hung the bamboo tube from the side of his backpack without answering.

Unable to hold back his urge to criticize Wei Yan for not helping, Li Xiaohuan was cut off by Zhou Youlan urging from the side: “Alright, let’s head back to the campsite first. Who’s holding the first aid kit supplies?”

Wang Chunqin thought for a moment. “I think Sister Lin Yue has it.”

Taking turns carrying Chen Nan on their backs all the way back to the campsite, the group inhaled sharply upon learning he had fallen straight into a spider nest.

With swelling covering much of Chen Nan’s face, Zhou Youlan hurried over to borrow the first aid kit from Lin Yue.

Zhao Guanjun asked, “They aren’t venomous spiders, right?”

Possessing a basic understanding of traditional Chinese medicine, Wang Daodao dabbed at Chen Nan’s swollen, bitten areas. “Thankfully not. They’re just ordinary grass spiders; otherwise, he’d have lost consciousness by now.”

Finding a thin piece of flat stone nearby, Wei Yan placed it over the campfire to heat up, poured a small amount of water over it to boil away impurities, laid down a layer of wild mint leaves, and emptied the spiders from the bamboo tube directly onto them.

Seeing him dump a pile of pitch-black creatures out of the bamboo tube, Zhang Tongtong leaned over curiously, only to jump back in fright. “You, you, you, why did you catch so many spiders?”

It looked like he was about to cook them, but could you actually eat those?

Wei Yan had only collected very small grass spiders, with the largest being no bigger than a fingernail. Deep-frying them would yield a better flavor, but lacking the proper conditions right now, making do had to suffice.

Once everything was tipped onto the stone, Wei Yan covered the pile with another layer of wild mint leaves and sprinkled a small amount of water, just enough moisture to thoroughly dampen them.

Gradually, the fragrance of the mint began to release, drawing everyone’s attention over toward the scent.

Sitting by the fire with his long legs naturally half-bent, Wei Yan leisurely turned the food roasting over the flames with his dagger, his focus entirely on the food as if completely indifferent to the people around him.

Feeling a hint of grievance in the air, Zhang Tongtong scuttled over to Wei Yan’s side and whispered, “Man, it looks like you just drew aggro all over again.”