WS - Chapter 117
Chapter 117
After a round of bickering with Zhao Da and Zhao Er, Wang Daming lifted the stretcher again and walked for over twenty minutes. When he truly could not go on any longer, he finally spoke up and set the person down. His partner, Zhuang Jiachuan, was also so exhausted he was panting heavily and barely able to speak.
By this point, they had been walking continuously for an hour since setting out from the cave. Although their pace was not fast, the prolonged walking had made the whole team increasingly weary. Without careful attention, the group would stretch longer and longer; from the tail end, it was already almost impossible to see the people at the front.
When Wang Daming called out, Zhao Da and Zhao Er, who were already at the head of the group, stopped. Looking back, they saw a string of people gasping for breath and dragging their feet. Even though time was getting on and they had not yet found a suitable place to camp for the night, it was time to rest.
As soon as the team halted, Mu Xingzhou and Ni Jinghe, who had been walking near the stretcher the whole time, immediately gathered around the person on the ground. Ning Chuyang also went over to lend Ni Jinghe a hand, so they could check whether the splint on Feng Qianqian's leg was still properly aligned.
Song Shiyue, standing a bit apart, glanced at the cluster of people gradually gathering around. She tugged at Yu Nianbing's arm and whispered, "Let's go take care of some personal business."
Because Ni Jinghe had earlier collected all the water from everyone's canteens to clean Feng Qianqian's wound, Song Shiyue had been sweating weakly the whole way, losing a lot of fluids with no way to replenish them. Now that she opened her mouth, her throat was so dry it hurt, and her voice came out hoarse despite herself.
Song Shiyue had mentioned this half an hour earlier, so Yu Nianbing naturally did not think she truly wanted to take care of any personal business.
However, before the two left the group, Yu Nianbing went to tell Ning Chuyang, so that if they were delayed, the people in the team would know where they had gone.
In the woods here, every direction looked the same. To avoid getting lost, they opted to walk in a straight line.
Following the mountain's foot to this point, there was no path to speak of. The two pressed on through waist-high grass, veering further into the woods until the group was out of sight and they could no longer hear any sounds from that direction. They walked a bit farther before stopping.
Before, when walking, it had been Song Shiyue who took Yu Nianbing's hand, offering strength and support. But on this stretch, it was the other way around. This mutual support, only a few days in, seemed to have already become a habit.
Once they reached a suitable spot, Song Shiyue released their clasped hands. Yu Nianbing actually had to react a moment before she likewise let go.
As soon as their hands separated and Song Shiyue was free, things became... interesting.
"Hey! You! Wait!" Yu Nianbing stammered incoherently, spinning around swiftly and shutting her eyes.
At the same time, on the new StarNet livestream page for "The Wilderness Journey," the image in Song Shiyue's livestream window started to look a bit strange. Most viewers, their faces dark with confusion, weren't sure if they should keep watching or switch to another stream first.
Quite a few viewers were even typing furiously, just hoping that before things got worse, the team behind the new livestream page would quickly notice the current problem.
"Paging @ the tech gurus of the new livestream page! Your mosaic isn't covering properly, hey! Come fix it!"
"Someone save our Sister Song! If this gets broadcast live, how will she ever face people again! I'm so furious I can't breathe, aaaaah!"
"You managed to handle communications during the Yaoxing Storm—don't tell me you can't fix a mosaic glitch! If you can't fix it in time, then shut down Sister Song's livestream window first!"
"Everyone reading this, all of you! I said! Shut your eyes for five minutes right now aaaaaah!"
"What's going on! What's going on! We'd rather stop watching the Wilderness Planet livestream altogether than have Song Shiyue be seen!"
"I'm seriously fuming! If nothing happens to her on Wilderness Planet, she's still going to have trouble when she gets back!"
"Please don't let broadcast mistakes like this happen! I'm begging you!"
"Close your eyes! Close your eyes! Please close your eyes!!!!!"
...
Line after line of danmaku scrolled rapidly across Song Shiyue's livestream window on the new page.
At the same moment, in an underground shelter on a farmstead on Mingtan Prime, in a spacious hall containing only a long table and a few cabinets, a young bald man scratched his scalp. He promptly stood up from the long table crowded with people and walked over to Ye Liu, who was sitting against the wall, her hand propped on a cabinet, lost in thought.
"Miss... Miss Ye." The man seemed to deliberate over the form of address, hesitating as he shared his StarNet page and asked, "Do you think we need to interfere technically and patch up the mosaic?"
Ye Liu turned her head to look at the livestream page he shared.
It was Song Shiyue's livestream window, and at this moment, the image of Song Shiyue kept switching between a normal broadcast and a mosaic.
"Didn't we load the StarNet Intelligent Analysis System? Is there a bug?" Ye Liu sat up straight.
The man shook his head. "No, there shouldn't be a problem. What's happening now is probably that even StarNet can't accurately analyze whether Song Shiyue is about to cough..."
"Interfere," Ye Liu said decisively, then added, "Keep monitoring afterward. Be sure to protect the privacy of those girls."
The man nodded while rapidly tapping on the StarNet screen in front of him.
Inwardly, however, he couldn't help grumbling: girls' privacy is privacy, but is the men's privacy not privacy anymore?
If the man had actually voiced his question, Ye Liu could indeed have given a nod in reply.
Honestly... it had nothing to do with gender discrimination. It was simply that none of the men here really had anything worth caring about when it came to their privacy. Let StarNet Intelligent Computation manage with a rough broadcast; who would bother with human monitoring and protection for them?
Following the bald man's rapid keystrokes, in the livestream window, Song Shiyue finally turned into a stable mosaic at the moment she drew out her belt.
The viewers, who were likewise rapidly typing on StarNet, sending out line after line of danmaku, shed tears of relief.
"Thank you to the great master who fixed the bug! On behalf of all the Little Moons, thank you so much!"
"Seriously... my heart was about to jump out... We know it's tough getting the signal from there, but please don't let bugs like this happen again!"
"Honestly, this really can be added to the 'Mom asked me why I was watching the video on my knees' collection..."
"I've never been this excited and happy to see a mosaic before."
"Thinking back to those nights when we complained about the mosaic, we really were too mean to it."
"Hope the mosaic doesn't get mad and treats our Sister Song well!"
...
However, just as the StarNet viewers were expressing gratitude for the mosaic's timely appearance, the mosaic on the screen moved.
Originally, the mosaic was overlaid on the human figure with a border extending a certain range beyond. So earlier, when Song Shiyue became a mosaic, Yu Nianbing's back had also been partially mosaicified at the edges.
But now, the mosaic labeled "Song Shiyue" shifted from Yu Nianbing's back to her front.
StarNet viewers' faces were once again covered with black lines.
"??? Pardon me, but is Song Shiyue about to...???"
"In front of someone...???"
"This... although I ship the CP and am very happy, isn't this a bit heavy taste?"
"I hate myself. My experience reading those pocket books over a decade ago is making my imagination kill me!"
"I couldn't imagine it at first, but after seeing the words 'pocket books,' I also kind of... um..."
"Is the great master still here? Watching? Can you make the mosaic a bit bigger? My heart seems unable to take it!"
"Forget the mosaic... maybe just cut the livestream for a while..."
"Cough... actually, I, kind of, want to watch a little... (a hundred dog heads protecting me)"
"Honestly, I don't believe Sister Song is that kind of person. I beg the master to turn off the mosaic's audio!"
"I don't believe it either... even if you skipped a million words of the plot, my Sister Song couldn't turn into this kind of Sister Song! Aaaah!"
...
In the underground shelter on Mingtan Prime, the young bald man hesitantly looked at Ye Liu again. "Miss Ye..."
Ye Liu wasn't spacing out at this moment; she was also watching Song Shiyue's livestream window.
Frowning slightly, she considered for a moment and said, "Remove the interference we just placed on the StarNet Intelligent Analysis."
The bald man, already somewhat at a loss, now had clear instructions; he nodded and deleted the interference code he had just inserted.
Thereupon, on Song Shiyue's livestream page, the person and the sounds reappeared.
Meanwhile, on Wilderness Planet, although Song Shiyue had no idea of the several upheavals outside, she was immensely amused by Yu Nianbing's stammering and her swift turning away.
Her belt was rather wide and thick; threaded through the belt loops of her trousers, it was a bit stuck, and Song Shiyue had to put in some effort to pull it out.
While Song Shiyue was busying herself with the rustling sounds, she heard Yu Nianbing, facing away from her, blurt out a string of fragmented murmurs: "Wait!" "Should I walk a bit farther?" "Is it okay if I move away now?" "I'll just walk forward a bit; are you okay on your own?" "Why aren't you talking..." "Are you still there?" "Don't... I..."
What was this person thinking?
Song Shiyue's face was full of smiles. She even mischievously held her breath and didn't respond to Yu Nianbing, just listening to the other's rambling, flustered murmur. Who would have thought that in such a situation, she'd still have moments when her eyes crinkled with laughter and the corners of her lips couldn't be kept down?
Yu Nianbing was truly too amusing.
What a pity...
Song Shiyue's smile gradually faded, her expression turning gloomy, but she finally managed to pull out the chunky belt and then walked over to Yu Nianbing's front.
Perhaps because too long had passed without hearing the expected sounds, and instead the footsteps had moved in front of her, Yu Nianbing stopped her rambling and cautiously opened her right eye just a crack.
Like a stealthy peep, yet the moment she opened it, she was caught.
"Yo, trying to sneak a peek at me?" Standing in front of Yu Nianbing, seeing this timid behavior, Song Shiyue couldn't resist teasing.
It was just a casual quip from Song Shiyue, but who knew Yu Nianbing's face would instantly flush bright red.
"What are you doing?" Yu Nianbing was both angry and vexed, but considering the sweat still occasionally dripping from Song Shiyue's forehead, she couldn't bear to lose her temper, and even her tone couldn't turn harsh.
Not wanting to delay, Song Shiyue waved the belt in front of Yu Nianbing, then pointed at the small leather belt around Yu Nianbing's waist. "Let's switch. I've wrapped some salt packets inside here. Wearing it is indeed a bit heavy, but salt is very important; even if it takes some effort, you'll find it worthwhile. Right now, everyone still has some seasonings; don't take it out in a hurry. Even when we first run out of salt, don't rush to take it out. Supplies are best obtained from the various camps; wait until there's nothing left to consume and you're desperately short on salt, then slowly bring it out. See the stitching here..."
As she spoke, Song Shiyue leaned in closer, pointing to the stitching on the belt to explain it in detail to Yu Nianbing.
But Yu Nianbing's heart jolted with alarm, and she subconsciously took a step back, putting distance between herself and Song Shiyue.
Song Shiyue looked up with some confusion, but upon seeing the resistance in Yu Nianbing's eyes, her expression turned to helplessness.
"Come, look at the stitching here. You can tear off a small packet each time; you don't have to open it all at once." Song Shiyue lowered her eyes, yet still moved closer to Yu Nianbing, once again holding the belt before Yu Nianbing's eyes for her to see.
"I'm not looking!" Yu Nianbing pushed Song Shiyue's hand away, her face showing a resistance and coldness she had almost never shown to Song Shiyue. "It's your own belt; why don't you wear it yourself, untie it yourself? Why tell me about it?"
Sometimes, when a person is too clever and too sensitive, it's also a lot of trouble...
Song Shiyue sighed heavily in her heart, but on her face, she wore a relaxed expression, even a little embarrassed smile. "I just... find it heavy... Can you wear it for me for a while?"
Yu Nianbing hadn't expected Song Shiyue to say such a thing when she spoke again, and she was momentarily stunned. But she quickly realized that Song Shiyue's coaxing tone was even more abnormal.
"I won't help, I won't wear it. I'll just carry other things for you." Yu Nianbing looked warily at Song Shiyue, showing not the slightest intention of being fooled.
"Ah... could I possibly harm you..." Song Shiyue feigned grievance, her mood sinking.
"You wouldn't harm me; you would even help me. Then tell me: if I take your belt, take your salt, and even learn how to tear the stitching, then what about you? Where will you be? If you were going to stay with me, even if you gave me the salt to hold, would you need to teach me how to tear the stitches? After the earthquake, what exactly is going on with you?" Yu Nianbing glanced around, saw that no one should have followed them, and could no longer hold back.
Song Shiyue also didn't think she could keep her odd behavior hidden from Yu Nianbing forever.
But Yu Nianbing's such pressing questions still left her somewhat at a loss for words.
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