WS - Chapter 79
Chapter 79
One tree yielded six wooden sticks, two trees gave twelve.
Two per person, balanced left and right, no slipping while walking.
Guan Yongyi followed them back and forth, never expecting his entire role would be... holding the sticks.
The four waiting where they were hadn't expected Song Shiyue and the others to bring back twelve wooden sticks so quickly either.
And of course, even less did they expect that what Song Shiyue planned to do went beyond just whittling twelve sticks in such a short time.
"Here, Teacher Yu, try the length." Song Shiyue took two wooden sticks from Guan Yongyi's arms and walked toward Yu Nianbing.
Yu Nianbing suppressed the faint, inexplicable dislike she felt toward these wooden sticks, raised her head, and with an expression as usual, took the sticks from Song Shiyue's hands.
The end of the stick with a wooden knob had been whittled to a uniform thickness from top to bottom; at a glance it looked quite smooth...
Yu Nianbing looked over at Guan Yongyi again; the big pile of sticks in his hands were all more or less the same.
Counting the time they'd been gone, Yu Nianbing couldn't help but heave a long sigh inwardly.
With some people, you really can't take your eyes off them for even a minute!
Whatever happened later could wait; for the dozen-odd days of filming this show, she would just have to keep a closer watch.
Song Shiyue sensed none of Yu Nianbing's inner grumbling; she was busy guiding Yu Nianbing to place her hand on the end without the wooden knob, then comparing the knob-end to the ground.
A couple of tries and Song Shiyue quickly figured out how much to cut off. Two swipes of the Stone Knife and the excess sections of two sticks hit the ground.
Only then did Guan Yongyi understand why the sticks had been made so long.
"For the handle, do you like the cane type, or round? Or like a grip that's just a bit thicker than the stick?" Song Shiyue asked as she used the Stone Knife to smooth the fresh cut ends of the sticks.
Fine... with some people, even watching them isn't enough.
Yu Nianbing rubbed her brow in resignation. Yet having felt this resigned twice in a row, the inexplicably low mood that had settled in before Song Shiyue and the others returned gradually began to lift.
"A grip style then. Should it have a bit of a curve to prevent slipping?" Yu Nianbing made her choice when Song Shiyue looked up again.
"We can wrap it with that." Song Shiyue pointed at the face cloth hanging behind Yu Nianbing's pack to dry.
It was a damp face cloth that had been sent in Yu Nianbing's luggage before she came to Wilderness Planet. Because the Production Team was stricter than imagined, Yu Nianbing hadn't been willing to throw away this towel-like cloth after using it; she'd washed it and hung it on her pack to dry as they walked.
It hadn't been needed for the sachet earlier, so now it was perfect for wrapping the walking stick.
These wooden walking sticks naturally couldn't compare to proper adjustable trekking poles. To match each person's height and make them comfortable and easy to use, the only way was to rely on Song Shiyue comparing, whittling, and smoothing.
Fortunately, the sticks weren't thick now, and doing all this with the Stone Knife, while still feeling somewhat overly efficient, was not overly conspicuous overall.
It was far more normal than earlier when Song Shiyue had used a single Stone Knife to split six sticks from one tree trunk.
Very soon, the twelve wooden sticks were processed into twelve walking sticks.
After Yu Nianbing contributed the remaining face cloths in her pack, everyone had enough fabric to wrap the handles of the sticks.
Of course, some newly unwrapped ones needed to be hung on packs to dry and air out a bit more.
But luckily, Song Shiyue's handiwork was truly good; even without wrapping, the handles felt smooth under hand, not rough at all.
"Song Shiyue, what would I do on this show without you..." Ning Chuyang took a few steps with her walking sticks and spoke the heartfelt words of everyone present.
What would we do? Probably just have to submit to Captain Yang's authority.
Everyone thought this and couldn't help but shudder inwardly in displeasure.
"Right, you'd better mark your own walking sticks. Otherwise, they'll get mixed up during breaks and then they won't feel right."
Song Shiyue said, then pulled another Stone Knife from the other side of her backpack and handed it to Guan Yongyi, who was standing nearby.
Since everyone had followed Yu Nianbing's choice of grip style and would use the same cloth wrapping, people of similar height could easily mix up their sticks.
Guan Yongyi took it and began carving lines on his sticks.
Song Shiyue, however, held a Stone Knife in one hand and extended the other toward Yu Nianbing with a smile: "Come, Teacher Yu, let me carve you a little flower."
Yu Nianbing: "..."
Guan Yongyi: "..."
The listening crowd: "..."
But Song Shiyue's expression told everyone she was serious.
Yu Nianbing looked at Song Shiyue and saw those eyes looking back, bright and sincere.
Though not as intense as the expectation for food that made refusal feel like doing something wrong.
Still... it was very hard to say no.
A little flower it is — childish as it is, but it's pretty cute too.
Thinking this, Yu Nianbing slowly returned her two newly acquired walking sticks to Song Shiyue's hands.
And so, by the time the others had finished — some neatly carving their surnames, others a few casual lines — Yu Nianbing finally took back her walking sticks with the carved little flower.
Mm, a small circle, five half-circles around it, a vertical line sticking down below, and two little leaves on the side, one on each side, one higher and one lower, just like that.
The viewers who had witnessed Song Shiyue's entire carving process, and then saw the livestream on Yu Nianbing's side give the little flower a sharp close-up, were exploding with laughter.
"What the hell, 'carve you a little flower'! And it really is a little flower!"
"What expectations did I have for Sister Song! To think I actually believed she could carve a flower that only exists in legends, exquisite beyond compare, unforgettable at first sight!"
"Hahahaha, exquisite beyond compare: absent. Unforgettable at first sight: absolutely true."
"Sister Song just jumped down from her divine pedestal like that, so sudden I didn't even have time to close the eyes I should never have opened at this moment."
"What happened to carving the walking stick into a flower wand shining with magic and wisdom! I've already put in eye drops, and this is what I get? Boohoo!"
"I didn't have such high expectations, but why does this little flower seem familiar?"
"??? Can it be that this flower has a history?"
"Is this a sweet moment? Is this the first flower Song Shiyue has given to Yu Nianbing?"
"Could it be a story belonging to the two of them that we don't know about?"
"!!!"
"With all due respect... this flower is really similar to what my niece, who just started kindergarten this year, drew."
"Friends looking for sweet moments in kindergarten! With all due respect! Isn't this just the simplest flower taught by kindergarten teachers when we were little?"
"Hahaha, finally someone said it, now I dare to speak up too. Look at the two leaves on the stem, one higher and one lower — isn't that what kindergarten teachers call 'liveliness'? — from a Little Mooncake who just graduated from preschool education"
"Please, Production Team, stick out a microphone and interview Teacher Yu about her feelings right now, hahaha, she must think it's adorable!"
...
Yu Nianbing's feelings at that moment were actually not as dramatically up and down as the StarNet viewers'. Perhaps it was because in her eyes, Song Shiyue didn't have the 'Sister Song' halo and was always just a young girl.
This little flower actually matched Yu Nianbing's initial imagination.
Mm, one could say it was exactly... exactly as she had guessed.
Although...
Yu Nianbing looked up at Song Shiyue, who had picked up the Stone Knife again: "What are you going to carve on yours?"
"Carve my surname? Or a moon might work too. A round moon it is." Song Shiyue murmured in reply, quickly making up her mind.
A round moon? Isn't that just a circle?
A circle is also simple and tasteful, so why is mine a flower...
Yu Nianbing's thought flashed fast, but her hand moved even faster: "I'll carve you a flower too."
"..." Song Shiyue wanted to say that the Stone Knife could easily hurt one's hand, but the four over there had all carved their own, and they were right beside her, so the words were a bit hard to say.
Yu Nianbing's gaze was very insistent, and Song Shiyue soon gave in: "A flower is too complicated, how about you carve a round moon for me. It's just a mark, really, even a single line would do."
Saying this, she ultimately handed the things over.
At this point, neither of them had noticed that for each other's requests, they really found it hard to say no.
Ning Chuyang, off to the side, had overheard this conversation. She turned her head, wanting to say that carving wood with the Stone Knife was really hard; she'd tried and couldn't do it, and in the end Mu Xingzhou had helped.
But with one glance at these two, one carving with force and the other with a face full of concern, she couldn't quite get the words out.
And reflecting on the exchange of "I'll carve yours, you carve mine," Ning Chuyang seemed to sense something off.
But...
No way...
Ning Chuyang was somewhat surprised by her own little discovery, completely unaware that she had already stepped one foot into the watermelon field and would only be able to continue living by eating melon from now on...
Because she missed Ning Chuyang's unspoken warning, Yu Nianbing, holding the Stone Knife, suffered a Waterloo on her very first cut.
The stick was thin, round, and had been smoothed so perfectly by Song Shiyue. Yu Nianbing had intended to first carve a small round center for the flower, but the knife slid and became a diagonal slash instead.
Awkward...
So very...
So why had she done this kindergarten-like exchange of gifts?
Or rather, like being a mere child yet saying things like 'giving you a house'...
Indeed, for Yu Nianbing, having made one cut and already experienced the slipperiness of the stick and the bluntness of the knife, getting a normal little flower carved on this wooden stick had already become as difficult as asking a kindergartner to casually gift a house.
However, Song Shiyue, who thought Yu Nianbing was just starting from the flower stem and hadn't noticed this in time, missed the chance to rescue her.
Just then, Captain Yang, who had been waiting somewhat impatiently up ahead, spoke up. Though he had resolved to be patient, Captain Yang's limit for forbearance was really quite average.
"Are you done back there? We need to reach the summit by 4 PM today; if we don't hurry, we won't make it. After 4, we won't reach Camp by tonight and will have to sleep wherever we end up." Captain Yang's voice was a bit loud, as if to make sure everyone could hear clearly.
If this were the usual Yu Nianbing, she would certainly have begun pondering: why would not reaching the summit before four mean they couldn't reach Camp that night? Couldn't they just walk a bit longer, like yesterday? Was there something hidden here?
But just now, she was focused entirely on carving the flower. Captain Yang's urging made her even more anxious; blood rushed to her head, and her face turned a little red.
"How about we get moving first? Everyone else has carved theirs, mine won't get mixed up even without a mark." Song Shiyue said this, not wanting to argue with Captain Yang over something like rushing to set out.
Captain Yang aside, the moment Song Shiyue spoke, Yu Nianbing's second cut — which she had intended as the start of the flower center on top of what she had considered the stem — also slipped again.
The two diagonal lines intersected, forming an X, small on top and big on the bottom, as if mocking Yu Nianbing's impulsive whim as a mistake.
No, more accurately, Yu Nianbing felt that it seemed to be mocking as a mistake that tiny thought that had just sprouted in her heart, one she didn't want to, wasn't willing to, and didn't dare to see clearly.
Although it was a fragile little sprout that would fade away in a few minutes at least, at most a dozen days — a small thought that she was unwilling to face or contemplate deeply from its emergence to its dissipation.
But if it was denied and mocked... it was still quite... infuriating.
"Wait a moment, I'll be done soon." Yu Nianbing's voice wasn't loud; it was just a reply to Song Shiyue.
Yu Nianbing said soon, and indeed it was very soon.
In less than a minute, the two walking sticks were back in Song Shiyue's hands.
Before Captain Yang could urge a second time, the group set off again.
Ning Chuyang, who had been in the middle of the group, kept slowing down, and after doing so several times, finally waited until Song Shiyue, who was moving forward, caught up.
She didn't know why, but the glance she cast at Song Shiyue's walking sticks felt even to herself a bit sneaky. And the moment she saw clearly, she thought her eyes must be playing tricks.
This is...
That is...
I really want to ask!
Ning Chuyang held back again and again, casting several glances at Song Shiyue, but the other didn't sense her sky-high curiosity at all.
On the other hand, Yu Nianbing, who was walking on the other side of Song Shiyue, as if she had sensed it, took a step forward and glanced sideways at Ning Chuyang.
Ning Chuyang, who clearly hadn't done anything wrong, inexplicably stiffened.
But thankfully, that rather cool gaze quickly fell on Song Shiyue.
This time, Yu Nianbing's look didn't go ignored like Ning Chuyang's earlier ones.
Song Shiyue soon turned to look at Yu Nianbing and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing..." Yu Nianbing lowered her eyes and didn't speak further.
Seizing this gap, Ning Chuyang quickened her pace and returned to her original position ahead, but her two ears were pricked up, straining, as if she hated that she wasn't an animal that could perk its ears.
Heaven never lets those who try too hard down.
Sure enough, Ning Chuyang soon heard Yu Nianbing's voice again.
"What I carved is an orchid." Yu Nianbing's voice sounded a bit stiffer than usual.
"It's an orchid, it's carved very well, what's the matter?" Song Shiyue's voice was still full of puzzlement.
Ning Chuyang refrained from looking back.
Yu Nianbing, however, raised her eyes.
Song Shiyue's eyes seemed to hold the same "what's wrong?" as her puzzled voice.
Is it because she recognized it as an orchid at first glance...
So she didn't say that I'd promised to carve a flower but just scratched a few random lines...?
So... it wasn't that she was tolerating the pattern on the sticks for the sake of my pride...?
"Nothing. Your little flower is carved very well too." Yu Nianbing's mood instantly brightened.
If her mood could be visualized, a little flower had probably bloomed in her heart at that moment too.
A tiny one, five petals, with two lively leaves on the stem, one higher and one lower.
Ning Chuyang up front was not in as good a mood.
She had clearly understood every word, yet she understood even less how Yu Nianbing's emotions could swing so wildly over such ordinary, common lines, going from a biting winter wind to spring blossoms, without requiring a rich, mature reason?
If Ning Chuyang's mood could also be visualized, it was probably like eating a sweet watermelon that tasted salty.
Realizing it should be sweet, yet strangely salty.
However, among this group, when it came to the largest emotional swing, it was not the self-imagining Yu Nianbing, nor the melon-eating bystander Ning Chuyang, but Song Shiyue, who had narrowly escaped.
Who could have imagined that those tangled lines were an orchid.
Who could have guessed they weren't foxtail grass...
Anyway, Song Shiyue couldn't.
But Yu Nianbing's low pressure had been so low that even someone as thick-skinned as Song Shiyue couldn't ignore it.
Instinctively, her acting had exploded for a moment.
So it was an orchid after all. Then is this the first time someone has given me flowers? Thinking about it, it's rather interesting.
Song Shiyue ran her hand down the stick, touching the lines she had thought were foxtail grass, laughter welling up in her eyes.
With walking sticks, the group's trek became much easier.
They rested briefly twice more along the way, and in the end, before the 4 PM deadline Captain Yang had mentioned, they reached the summit.
Once they looked out from the summit, everyone understood what Captain Yang meant by saying that if they came up after four, they might not make it to Camp that night.
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