WS - Chapter 75

Chapter 75

By Song Shiyue's arrangement, once Guan Yongyi and the other two entered the water they couldn't stay clustered together, so one cloth bag would definitely not be enough. Fortunately, they had prepared the night before, keeping all the sealed bags from the camp luggage. At this point, breaking out two sealed bags was nothing.

The pond was just over a hundred square meters. At its center the water reached about up to Captain Yang and Zhuang Jiachuan's thighs, and it was shallower near the edges.

Mu Xingzhou and Guan Yongyi stood at the bank and exchanged a few words, then began rolling up their trousers and taking off their shoes. Watching them, Zhuang Jiachuan — who had already walked in the water twice — felt a twinge of envy, and his irritation with the ungrateful Captain Yang only grew.

But Mu Xingzhou and Guan Yongyi's cleverness was stopped at the last moment by Song Shiyue, who walked over just in time.

Never mind that everyone's clothes, right down to their shoes and socks, were made of breathable quick-dry materials. Even if they weren't, in Song Shiyue's view, exposing one's bare feet to the risk of being cut by submerged stones just to keep shoes dry was an extremely foolish course of action.

Since Song Shiyue saw it, of course she stepped in to stop them.

Fortunately, after this entire journey, Song Shiyue's authority was well established. The two didn't argue, only rolling their trouser legs up as high as they could, each taking a sealed bag, and then getting into the water.

The pond wasn't large, and with four people suddenly in it — even before they began rounding up those frogs — the commotion of moving through the water was enough to startle every frog in the pond.

The third frog, which Captain Yang had been chasing for a long time and looked about to scoop up, darted off hopping and swimming as if it had taken some kind of stimulant, all because of the disturbance Mu Xingzhou and Guan Yongyi caused when they got in.

Captain Yang glanced at Zhuang Jiachuan, who was still trying to intercept that frog with his cloth bag, and was rather speechless.

These were frogs, all ugly and slippery — didn't any of these people have the slightest hesitation? They got over here this fast?

Captain Yang, who'd thought he'd have enough time to feel out five or six frogs before anyone else entered the field, was feeling a bit displeased.

Only, this displeasure, like those before it, was the sort of petty thought not worth sharing with anyone. He could only swallow it raw like this for now. After all, Captain Yang knew in his heart, this place was the supply point for all three meals of the day. If he didn't scoop up a few more before others got the hang of it, this would inevitably be a day of hunger. Thinking of that, the enormous dissatisfaction with Director Zhang that rose in Captain Yang's heart was another matter entirely.

Luckily, whether it was Zhuang Jiachuan trying to use a cloth bag to intercept that speeding frog, or Mu Xingzhou and Guan Yongyi flailing on both sides, not even touching the edge of a frog and getting their faces splattered with water instead — all of it gave Captain Yang a measure of comfort.

Not everyone, after all, knew the Production Team's follow-up arrangements like he did, and had secretly made preparations in advance the night before.

Captain Yang looked at the small net in his hand — made with a fine-vine hoop and a wooden stick handle — and managed to steady his nerves somewhat, continuing to target the next frog.

The four people near the pond, Song Shiyue included, were not affected at all by this little bit of scheming from Captain Yang.

Guan Yongyi and the other two made a couple of casual attempts. Once they discovered that catching frogs on their own was indeed quite difficult, they immediately abandoned that naive idea. It wasn't as though they were here to catch frogs anyway.

When Song Shiyue reached the pond's edge with a handful of small stones, the three pairs of eyes in the water fixed themselves squarely on her — along with Dog, who always stayed close at her side, constantly looking up at her with a trace of expectation, striking rather a similar expression to the three in the water.

Thinking of Yu Nianbing, quietly counting numbers as she waited behind, Song Shiyue wasted no words. Seeing everyone looked as if they were ready and waiting, she narrowed her eyes, casually picked out a small stone, hefted it, and threw it toward Mu Xingzhou's side.

The stone flew straight but rather high. Mu Xingzhou couldn't help remembering the two snakes from the previous day, which Song Shiyue had hit from far away with a single stone throw to the bone... Intellectually he knew this stone was definitely not targeting him, but Mu Xingzhou still couldn't help dodging.

Dodge or not, the stone's height was enough to fly well over Mu Xingzhou's head.

Only, that dodge made Mu Xingzhou turn his head, just in time to see the stone miss, hit the water, and — right beside the ripples it kicked up — a frog making a frantic escape...

Mu Xingzhou could pretty much guess how this frog had escaped death. Rather embarrassed, he looked back at Song Shiyue. "Sorry, Teacher Song... I'll stay still, I won't move next time."

"It's fine." Song Shiyue watched the several frogs near Mu Xingzhou scattering chaotically, and so for the next stone, threw it toward Guan Yongyi.

Having witnessed Mu Xingzhou's blunder, Guan Yongyi had already straightened up early, standing ramrod straight. When the stone came, he endured the urge and stayed perfectly still.

Soon, a somewhat muffled, soft thud came from behind Guan Yongyi to the right.

Only then did Guan Yongyi dare to move a little, turning around to look.

Among the several waterways cut by darting frogs, one frog was half floating, half sinking.

Guan Yongyi lightened his steps, tiptoeing over. The sealed bag in his hand swept upward from below in one swift scoop.

A frog — one didn't know whether it was stunned or already dead — was snagged into the bag just like that, easily. And despite Guan Yongyi poking and prodding it through the bag in all sorts of ways, the frog only twitched slightly, showing no sign of waking up.

Mm... suddenly he felt that all the cautious tiptoeing of before had been quite unnecessary and self-indulgent.

Guan Yongyi: frog plus one, effortlessly acquired. Watching this, Mu Xingzhou grew even more embarrassed, but he was too shy to urge Song Shiyue to throw one his way quick, to prove he wasn't some useless coward. But though the words were hard to say, his eyes were full of hopeful expectation, a look very difficult to ignore.

With one frog in the bag, Song Shiyue's gaze paused at the center of the pond.

There, was Zhuang Jiachuan, standing just as straight as Guan Yongyi had, and...

Captain Yang, who'd been watching the show, hurriedly averted his face. Bending back down, he gripped his net, picked the nearest frog, and moved toward it with light steps.

If Song Shiyue hadn't been mistaken, on Captain Yang's face just now, as he was watching the drama unfold, had been obvious nervousness, clear as day.

It was just catching frogs. No one was competing with Captain Yang. What was he nervous about?

Song Shiyue couldn't figure it out for a moment, but there wasn't more time to dwell on it.

Since Captain Yang was making quite a bit of movement over there and the frogs were fairly agitated, Song Shiyue threw the next small stone toward Mu Xingzhou's side, which was brimming with expectation.

This time Mu Xingzhou didn't mess up. Soon he too, just like Guan Yongyi, had scooped up a flattened frog in his sealed bag.

Thus, Song Shiyue started a cycle: one to Guan Yongyi's side, one to Mu Xingzhou's side, then back to Guan Yongyi.

Standing in the center of the pond, Zhuang Jiachuan: ...

It wasn't actually that Song Shiyue had any issue with Zhuang Jiachuan and was deliberately ignoring him.

The real reason was that Captain Yang's frog-catching commotion was far too big, compared to the two on the sides who stood collecting frogs. Most of the frogs in the pond's center area had all fled toward the edges...

The few that remained were precisely the ones Captain Yang kept shifting his position trying to catch.

It was also while Song Shiyue was throwing stones left and right that a sudden inspiration hit her: could it be that something had happened between Captain Yang and the Production Team? After all, this morning Captain Yang seemed to have left his tent only when it was nearly time to head out, and hadn't even eaten breakfast. Given the current level of physical exertion, this shouldn't have been a mistake Captain Yang would make.

Song Shiyue didn't have an overabundance of sympathy. She just had more or less guessed the day before that the team leader's meals were probably supposed to be shared with them, the team members. The day before, with Captain Yang acting that way and also stopping the cattle hunt, she had naturally been unwilling to share anything with him.

But the wild scallions and wild ginger — no matter how they had gotten there — in the end had been pointed out by Captain Yang. Because everyone disliked him, they hadn't shared those with him either... Now the frogs in this pond were very likely meant to feed seven people's portions. Captain Yang hadn't targeted the guests much today. Song Shiyue felt that skipping Captain Yang's portion while hitting frogs was a normal enough operation.

After all, this was only a variety show, not a disaster world with scant resources and massive populations.

It was a pity, though: Song Shiyue showed mercy, but some people didn't necessarily appreciate it.

Just as Song Shiyue was hitting one on the left, one on the right, and Guan Yongyi and Mu Xingzhou's hands couldn't stop scooping, another shrill, wretched frog cry suddenly drew the attention of everyone nearby.

Zhuang Jiachuan, who had been watching somewhat enviously as Guan Yongyi lifted yet another frog, turned his head stiffly.

"You... I... didn't I give you a cloth bag, Captain Yang..." Watching Captain Yang only two steps away, now lifting up a freshly skewered frog on a new twig, Zhuang Jiachuan was so furious his tongue seemed to disobey him.

"Yeah. What of it? Did I not say thank you? Thanks, it really is convenient." Unconcerned, Captain Yang tossed the new frog skewer into the cloth bag in his hand. Already inside the bag were the old frog skewers and plenty of unused small twigs.

"You've got the cloth bag now, so there's no need to skewer the frogs, right? Don't you think it's... a bit cruel?" Zhuang Jiachuan finally got out what he'd been wanting to say all along, and his stifled chest felt a long-absent relief.

"Cruel?" Captain Yang found it somewhat laughable. "We're all catching frogs here, but only I'm cruel? They'll all be eaten soon enough anyway."

Zhuang Jiachuan: "..."

Those words seemed to have some logic at first, but on closer thought, they were completely wrong.

You could clearly put them into the cloth bag and give them a quick end later — did he have to skewer them alive, and from bottom to top at that? The two frogs that had been skewered in the cloth bag earlier were still moving right now, all right!

Zhuang Jiachuan felt he was a bit unable to take it. If he thought about this any more closely, he himself could probably spare himself lunch.

Yet, this kind of person who used twisted logic to argue, was somewhat hard to retort against. If the conversation continued, wouldn't the audience think he was strict with others and lenient with himself...

Just as Zhuang Jiachuan was feeling deeply unwilling and somewhat hesitant, he heard Song Shiyue on the shore call out, "Teacher Zhuang."

Zhuang Jiachuan looked up at the sound. He saw the small stone he had been so eagerly anticipating earlier, now flying right toward him.

The rest of the words didn't need to be said. Song Shiyue had neither the time nor the mood to debate cruelty with Captain Yang.

What was there to debate? Even in the apocalypse, killing and torturous killing were not the same thing.

But everyone had their own standards and bottom lines in their hearts. Song Shiyue felt she didn't need to discuss things this deeply with Captain Yang.

She just needed to act according to her own mood.

Captain Yang liked skewering frogs, and looked quite pleased and cheerful doing it, so let him go ahead and do it.

As for Song Shiyue, because she didn't like Captain Yang doing that, she decided to collect all the remaining frogs.

Very quickly, Captain Yang realized the situation had turned unfavorable.

Before, Song Shiyue hadn't hit any frogs in the center of the pond. Captain Yang had thought that was their silent agreement about territory in the pond...

But now...

Left, center, right, left, center, right...

The order in which Song Shiyue threw stones changed. Zhuang Jiachuan started getting busy too. And Captain Yang couldn't even get near the edge of a frog anymore.

That's right... he couldn't even get near the edge.

He didn't know how many times it had happened now. When Captain Yang selected a target and slowly approached, even when he was still three or four steps away, a small stone would drop from the sky and harvest that frog.

Right on its heels, was Zhuang Jiachuan's voice: "Amazing, amazing, another one from Teacher Song! I'll scoop it right up."

Stealing his targets while also guarding against him picking up any leftovers — it was double the infuriation!

Yet Captain Yang had no way to say, "Are you targeting me?!" — words that held none of the dignity of a team leader.

After all, in a team, the team leader was supposed to encourage team members to try more and work harder, to be the one clapping and cheering for team members' progress. Not the one envying team members' success...

Since it was their first time cooperating, from discussion to execution, some time had been unavoidably lost. Midway, there was the incident of Captain Yang actually skewering another frog even after getting the bag. Song Shiyue was a bit worried about Yu Nianbing, so her attacks became somewhat rushed.

Here, Song Shiyue quickened her pace, and the people underwater running and picking up frogs couldn't keep up.

Guan Yongyi and Mu Xingzhou had long since abandoned scooping them one by one with sealed bags. What light steps, what carefulness... forget it. As long as they ran over at top speed, scooped one up casually by hand, they had to be off to the next one.

Even Zhuang Jiachuan, who joined in later, quickly adapted to this rough-and-ready, as-casual-as-grabbing-items-off-a-supermarket-shelf style of frog collecting.

But unfortunately, even this pace became a bit too slow toward the end.

After all, the people underwater had to move around. Sometimes the frogs near them reacted strongly, so Song Shiyue could only target those a few steps away, meaning another few steps of walking.

Song Shiyue on the shore was like a repeating crossbow, and the people below couldn't quite take it.

It was Mu Xingzhou, with his comparatively weaker stamina, who was the first to say he couldn't pick them up fast enough. The other two chimed in as well.

Listening to this, Captain Yang's heart leaped with joy. But as soon as the joy rose, he heard Song Shiyue say, "It's fine. Once I've hit them all, we can just gather them all at once. They won't sink that fast."

Such sweeping, all-in-one-net words, such enormous boastfulness... Captain Yang was provoked into a surging will to fight.

Pity... fighting will was one thing; skill... was another.

The clamor at the pond's edge, very soon, gradually quieted down.

Before long, beside the quietly counting Yu Nianbing's ear, a familiar voice rang out.

"What number did you reach?"

Get instant access to all chapters now.

Previous Table of Contents Next