WS - Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Is she accommodating me like this...
...because... I saved her life?
Her subconscious told her that was exactly it. But her right hand still reluctantly set down the charcoal.
"Why?"
Song Shiyue glanced sideways at Yu Nianbing, then smiled and quickly scribbled on the cardboard: "You saved me, after all."
Oh, so that was really it.
Yu Nianbing only swept her gaze over the cardboard before looking away. She pursed her lips, shifted slightly toward her own side, and lay back down with her back to Song Shiyue.
It seemed the matter of saving a life was never going to fade in Song Shiyue's mind. It only made the softening Yu Nianbing had felt in her heart these past two days seem a bit ridiculous...
Five parts embarrassment, four parts irritation, and one part faint, elusive resentment—all mixed together, clogging Yu Nianbing's chest. Even lying down and no longer looking at that person, she couldn't dissipate it for a while.
Poor Yu Nianbing didn't want to talk anymore, but Song Shiyue wasn't done yet.
With her eyes closed, Yu Nianbing listened to the sound of charcoal scratching across cardboard behind her—scritch, scritch, scritch.
After a short while, the scratching behind her ceased, and Yu Nianbing felt two light taps on her shoulder.
Yu Nianbing: "..."
Some people are just infuriating like that, yet you can't bring yourself to keep ignoring them.
Yu Nianbing let out a soft sigh, rolled over—not sitting up, just propping herself on her arm to look at the cardboard Song Shiyue was holding out.
"Um... It's been a bit uncomfortable wearing that for so long, so tonight I want to take it off to sleep. You don't mind, right?"
Yu Nianbing was a little dazed the first time she read it, not quite understanding. But when she read it through once more, her eyes instantly went wide. The lazy lethargy born of her sulking was also startled right out of her.
Wh... what...
Why did she have to ask that!
Couldn't she just quietly deal with it herself?
Yu Nianbing's face grew hot. She didn't dare look at that line of writing anymore, much less raise her head to look at Song Shiyue. For a moment, she was so flustered she didn't know where to direct her gaze.
But Song Shiyue then held the cardboard even closer to Yu Nianbing's face.
Nod, nod—Yu Nianbing nodded several times in rapid succession and hurriedly moved to roll back over and lie down.
But Song Shiyue stopped her.
Yu Nianbing's mind was in chaos. A thought even flashed through her heart: "Surely she doesn't mean for me to watch her take it off?"
Of course, Song Shiyue had no such intention.
After the familiar scratching sound, the cardboard was once again thrust before Yu Nianbing: "You should take yours off too. You've been wearing it for days. It's not good."
If her face had merely been a little hot before, then now Yu Nianbing felt heat rushing straight to the top of her head, her eyes nearly spitting fire.
Well, thank you so very much!
Yu Nianbing spun around swiftly and slammed herself onto the mattress with a thud.
Then... she heard stifled laughter behind her.
This person!
What's going on in her head!
Yu Nianbing couldn't help herself and grabbed a random piece of clothing and threw it behind her.
Then the laughter behind her seemed to grow even louder...
Yu Nianbing: "..."
Fortunately, Song Shiyue knew when to stop and didn't keep laughing. Soon, she seemed to slip out of the tent again, making rustling sounds.
Hearing nothing more behind her, Yu Nianbing rolled over.
As expected, she was alone in the tent again. The cardboard and charcoal sticks were gone, too—probably taken out and tidied up by Song Shiyue.
Yu Nianbing sighed softly. Just now she had been so busy being angry about this and that, she hadn't even thought to write a couple of lines urging Song Shiyue to show some restraint... She was being far too emotional; she couldn't go on like this. Thinking of that line "You saved me, after all," the heart that had softened somewhat began to firm up again, bit by bit.
Song Shiyue hadn't gone far. She just took the things out and tossed them into the fire in front to burn, tended the fire, washed her hands, and came back in. As soon as she lifted the tent flap, she saw the figure that had quickly rolled over to face away from her again, and couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips.
I was just afraid that when I took that thing off, I'd make too much noise and scare her.
But it turned out that telling her in advance was also enough to startle her.
It's because of that confession from the original host, I guess. In the end, it made Yu Nianbing more guarded.
Song Shiyue, who considered herself quite straight, felt the smile on her lips gradually tinged with helplessness. But her hands didn't stop as she pressed something into Yu Nianbing's hand.
Something damp and a little cool landed in Yu Nianbing's hand, nearly startling her into throwing it away on reflex.
Luckily, she opened her eyes in time and discovered it was a wet facial wipe...
Yu Nianbing had plenty of wet facial wipes in the luggage she'd shipped to each camp ahead of time. Tonight, after retrieving them, she'd shared a few with the others. She hadn't expected Song Shiyue to use one so soon.
Only when she accepted the wet wipe did Yu Nianbing realize the hand that had been holding the charcoal stick was still gray and black...
This person...
Yu Nianbing lowered her eyes and carefully wiped her fingers clean. The heart that had just firmed up stealthily loosened a little again.
After she finished wiping her hands, Song Shiyue took the wet wipe away again.
With her back to Song Shiyue, Yu Nianbing didn't move. She closed her eyes and buried her face into the pillow.
Sure enough, soon the sound of fabric rubbing came from beside her.
She didn't know how Song Shiyue was doing it, but she even stirred up a breeze carrying a hint of fragrance.
Not the scent of body wash.
More like the... milky scent from her body...
Yu Nianbing's heart stirred slightly, and she instinctively held her breath for a moment, but very soon, she quietly, slowly, secretly took a breath in.
I really am...
Yu Nianbing buried her face even deeper into the pillow.
Having shed her bonds and feeling completely at ease, Song Shiyue paid no attention to the suddenly uneven breathing beside her. At that moment, she let out a good long sigh of relief and lay down.
The flashlight had already been turned off since Song Shiyue had taken away the used wet wipe. Now, inside the tent, they could only make out vague shapes by the light of the distant campfire.
Lying flat, Song Shiyue couldn't resist turning slightly to glance at Yu Nianbing.
Judging from her earlier reaction, she probably won't take hers off.
That's right. Sleeping next to someone who once confessed to her is already a bit forced. To ask her to...
And recalling Yu Nianbing's shock when she saw the note about wanting to take it off, Song Shiyue began to regret those last few words. Now, thinking back, they seemed like she had some sort of ulterior motive.
Also, these past few days she and Yu Nianbing had been getting along so well and comfortably, sometimes Song Shiyue unconsciously forgot that the original host had confessed to Yu Nianbing.
Some things, maybe fine to say and do between friends, became inappropriate between people who'd had a confession.
It seems I'll have to be more careful from now on, Song Shiyue thought, letting out a long sigh.
Beside her, Yu Nianbing, with her ears pricked, was a little puzzled. Was that a sigh of comfort?
"Want me to give you a massage?" Song Shiyue's voice floated over.
Yu Nianbing hesitated, then shook her head. "I'm fine. How about I give you one?"
Song Shiyue seemed to shake her head reluctantly. "I don't need one either."
With that, the tent fell silent, and neither spoke again.
Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing's tent was the best-equipped, with two pillows and one blanket. The blanket wasn't small, enough for two people to share. The whole team had only gotten two blankets. Zhuang Jiachuan hadn't been able to persuade Ning Chuyang to stay in a tent, so he'd given his blanket to her.
The inflatable mattress and pillows were decent quality, quite soft and comfortable.
As Yu Nianbing lay there, she gradually grew drowsy. But even as she drifted toward sleep, she still hadn't figured out why Song Shiyue, who was usually quite forceful in certain ways, had given up as soon as she was refused this time and didn't insist on massaging her.
Some people fell asleep with questions in mind, while others lay awake for a long time with regrets.
To Song Shiyue, Yu Nianbing was different.
Yu Nianbing was the first person Song Shiyue saw when she opened her eyes in this unfamiliar world, and she had extended a hand of friendship, saving Song Shiyue.
There's a saying in the apocalypse: If you must give someone your trust, trust the one who saved you, not the one you saved.
Song Shiyue already thought this saying made a lot of sense, and later, in the seventh year of the apocalypse, when relations between the Central City and the various bases changed, she experienced the truth of it even more deeply.
Such principles applied in the apocalypse, and naturally applied in this new world, too.
Unfortunately, the original host had a failed confession with Yu Nianbing. Song Shiyue wasn't sure whether, in Yu Nianbing's heart, she entirely believed it was just a ploy to ride a hot search, or whether she also suspected there was some genuine feeling in it.
Song Shiyue hoped it was the former. That way, after this show, they might become good friends.
But alas, it seemed to be the latter...
Between people, how to maintain a distance that makes the other comfortable...
In the dim tent, Song Shiyue glanced sideways at the small gap between herself and Yu Nianbing, and sighed again.
Compared to Yu Nianbing, with whom it was starting to be hard to gauge the right distance, Wang Mancang, the second person to show Song Shiyue goodwill in this world, was someone she could get along with more casually.
Thinking of Wang Mancang, Song Shiyue couldn't help recalling the crash course he'd given her on reality show basics before she came to participate.
"Reality shows are built on people. Short-term reality shows may focus more on the 'show' part. But for a long-term, grueling livestream reality show like 'The Wilderness Journey,' the early stage might still lean on 'show,' but the later stage definitely shifts more toward that 'reality.' After all, who can keep performing twenty-four hours a day, for so many days in a row? Especially when people are tired, worn out, and the material conditions are poor—their true personalities become very hard to hide behind a persona."
When Wang Mancang said this, he was actually advising Song Shiyue not to be too tense or hold things in. Because after saying that, he immediately added: "If you're suffering or tired, just cry if you want to, don't bottle it up. If you let negative emotions pile up, they'll all burst out at once and that's even more trouble. If there's something you can't do, don't try to tough it out. This show's difficulty really is a bit much for you. Just treat it as a way to earn money. Don't fixate on getting too much out of this program—first get yourself back in one piece."
It had to be said, Wang Mancang really was a good person who knew the original host well. She wondered what Wang Mancang was doing now, whether he was watching the livestream, and whether he, too, was lying awake because of that mountain of debt.
The current Song Shiyue certainly didn't need to cry, but now that she couldn't sleep, mulling over Wang Mancang's words again brought out a different meaning.
Discounting the time on the spaceship and in the old castle, it had only been two days since they jumped off the plane and officially started hiking.
By this evening, everyone really was a little different from how they'd started out.
The cheerful Ning Chuyang was so exhausted she couldn't suppress her little temper; Mu Xingzhou, who hadn't talked much originally, began to show some calculating thoughts; the straightforward Guan Yongyi seemed to have an unusual competitive streak; but Zhuang Jiachuan's overly gentlemanly friendliness from the start had held up pretty well. She wondered if, later on, more of that other sort of "reality" would emerge.
Quite interesting. This is what people are really like.
Imperfect, but truly quite interesting.
At this thought, Song Shiyue slowly rolled over, now facing Yu Nianbing's back.
And what about Yu Nianbing?... As the days of the reality show went by, would she also show a change later on?
I hope today's little misstep won't affect the possibility of us becoming friends... Song Shiyue murmured silently in her heart, taking one last look at the narrow gap between her and Yu Nianbing before closing her eyes.
As for regretting saying she wanted to take that thing off to sleep...
Song Shiyue declared, it was so comfortable—she didn't regret it one bit!
If she had to wear that thing to be friends, then being friends would be way too exhausting!
Of course, if not wearing it was doomed to cost her Yu Nianbing, then Song Shiyue could definitely reconsider.
Yu Nianbing, who had already fallen asleep, could never have imagined that she would have to compete with taking that thing off for status or something like that.
Meanwhile, Wang Mancang, whom Song Shiyue had been silently thinking about, was at this moment lying on the sofa, watching several livestream interfaces on the StarNet screen that were now mostly mosaics. On the coffee table beside him were also two boxes of takeout braised rice, eaten down to the very bottom.
Without lamb's quarters braised rice, mixing beef braised rice and vegetable braised rice together could also make him feel like he was eating the same style as the livestream. Anyway, after eating it, Wang Mancang felt he could give his creativity a like. After all, when he posted this idea in the danmaku, he got quite a few approvals and compliments.
Now, although StarNet had already judged it to be lights-out time and the guests had automatically turned into large mosaics, just by relying on the occasional sound they could pick up and the huge amount of danmaku on the screen, they could keep scrolling for most of the night.
Now the livestream windows were covered in mosaics, but the danmaku was still very lively.
Wang Mancang let out a belch carrying the scent of braised rice and raised his hand to maximize Song Shiyue's livestream window.
"Based on my observation of the overlapping area of the two mosaics, I can responsibly say they're definitely touching!"
"Hahaha, with just one little blanket, even if they aren't touching now, they'll definitely roll together as they sleep."
"Using mosaics to protect sleep privacy is fine, but I strongly demand the production team give different people different-colored mosaics!"
"??? And then tomorrow morning we'll see a two-colored twist doughnut in the tent?"
"Hahaha! Don't say so many big truths when making suggestions!"
"I just want to know what Song Shiyue was doing running in and out after she dumped Little Ice Block's foot-washing water?"
"I want to know too, and I also want to know why they didn't massage each other today!"
"Ning Chuyang: In the end, I was the only one who got a massage, how come?"
"Laughing to death, Ning Chuyang is really tragic."
"Right, why didn't they do it in the end? And what was that swishy or rustling sound after Song Shiyue came in later?"
"Dunno... Only heard someone laughing later..."
"If there's something funny, tell us so we can laugh too! So unfair!"
......
One after another, danmaku flew across the mosaic background, rapid and staggered.
Even though it was Song Shiyue's livestream room, a full ninety-nine percent of what was being spammed were topics about Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing as a pair.
Wang Mancang also enlarged the neighboring livestream room for Yu Nianbing. The mosaic positions on the background were slightly different, but the danmaku being posted were more or less the same as those on Song Shiyue's side. Of course, Yu Nianbing's side did have some topics solely about Yu Nianbing, but paired topics still made up at least seventy to eighty percent of the danmaku...
Looking again at the viewer counts for these two rooms, leaving aside the production team's ones, among the guests, Yu Nianbing was first, and Song Shiyue had already reached second, a whole large chunk ahead of the third, Mu Xingzhou.
From the danmaku to the viewer numbers, it truly made Wang Mancang sigh with mixed feelings.
The situation where the livestream danmaku always grouped the two of them together had been intensifying since yesterday morning.
Especially on Song Shiyue's side. At the start, she didn't have many fans, and most of the traffic came from haters... Later, the haters turned into fans, but the fans were of the Song-Yu CP...
Logically speaking, when an artist under your management gains traffic, the agent should be very happy.
But perhaps because Wang Mancang came from a farming background and believed more in achieving results through steady, down-to-earth effort—that what you grow yourself is what truly belongs to you... In any case, he felt that the surge in Song Shiyue's current traffic was a bit hollow, and he couldn't help worrying about her a little.
Over half a year ago, Song Shiyue's confession to Yu Nianbing had been an unauthorized move made while Wang Mancang was away.
After the Ciming incident this time, Wang Mancang saw that Song Shiyue and Yu Nianbing were getting along reasonably well, and it seemed Song Shiyue had no further intention of using Yu Nianbing for publicity. He had thought StarNet had a short memory, and even if the production team wanted to stir things up, as long as they were good friends, it wouldn't blow up.
He never expected that things would reverse so quickly. Before Wang Mancang could even react, the CP fan ranks had already swelled to a degree that would be hard to suppress...
And the company's stance was to let things develop as they would.
Which was indeed letting things develop—after all, what the company wanted to see more was an artist whose popularity skyrocketed quickly, not one whose growth was slow...
Only Wang Mancang was still worried about whether Song Shiyue would get hurt because of this.
But since the company didn't mind, Wang Mancang alone shouldn't go messing things up with reckless moves.
Two days... just two days... Wang Mancang looked at Song Shiyue's livestream page. Even though it had already become a mosaic, the number of viewers on the livestream page was still so high, still climbing...
Truly a mix of comfort and guilty unease.
Compared to Wang Mancang, who watched the livestream with sweetness tinged with bitterness, Ouyang Hui watching this show really felt nothing but bitterness in her heart.
Not just bitter, but also angry, also stifled, also agitated—overwhelming negative energy. By the afternoon, even her milk had dried up and was gone.
Poor little baby wailed from hunger, and was thus weaned off breast milk and switched to a different feeding plan.
But for the nanny watching the child, this was actually a good thing. After all, every time she brought the baby for Ouyang Hui to feed her, she'd wait and wait. Either the woman was too engrossed in the livestream to attend to the child, or she was throwing things in a fit of temper so the nanny dared not enter, or... she finally found an opening to go in, but the baby couldn't nurse properly, and then both adult and baby threw a tantrum... All in all, it was a chaotic and thoroughly unpleasant experience. Truly, a day of work aged you by a year.
Now that the milk was temporarily gone, and the adult wasn't letting a doctor come to induce lactation again, the nanny breathed a sigh of relief. She just soothed the baby with goat's milk and no longer had to risk provoking Ouyang Hui's mood.
Without someone bothering her every now and then, Ouyang Hui could immerse herself even more in watching the livestream.
And thus, even more bitter, more angry, more stifled, more agitated.
From the guests to the danmaku, nothing was to her liking!
Ouyang Hui watched helplessly as Yu Nianbing and Song Shiyue drew closer and closer, watched Yu Nianbing smile at Song Shiyue, watched even her attitude toward the others on the show start to soften. It felt as if a hedgehog were shut inside her heart, doing continuous backward rolls.
Why...
Ouyang Hui recalled how, when she was pregnant, Yu Nianbing had suddenly stopped visiting her. Later, when she herself, heavily pregnant, had returned to Beichen before the show began, their meeting had ended on a sour note.
A Yu Nianbing so close, a Yu Nianbing who spoke so nicely and smiled... How long had it been since she'd last seen her like that?
Senxin's contract did have some rather harsh restrictions, but before Yu Nianbing said she wanted to terminate it, Senxin had always given her good resources, and no one earned less money. Ouyang Hui considered her relationship with Yu Nianbing to have always been well-maintained. Given Yu Nianbing's personality, which disliked much socializing, she could say she was Yu Nianbing's best, and only, friend.
But now...
The bedsheet beside Ouyang Hui's hand was already crumpled beyond recognition.
From the time Yu Nianbing stopped visiting her, to later wanting to terminate the contract, how many times had Ouyang Hui tried to communicate with Yu Nianbing, only to never get a definite answer.
Even a few days ago, during that meeting when she returned to Beichen Star, Yu Nianbing had only looked at her belly and said, "There's no why. Just take care of yourself," before leaving.
Ouyang Hui had her suspicions. If Yu Nianbing had brought up even the slightest thing, she could have matched it and figured out exactly where things had gone wrong.
But Yu Nianbing didn't...
Ouyang Hui certainly couldn't expose her own faults without knowing whether Yu Nianbing was aware of certain things.
And so, it had deadlocked.
Deadlocked into... the current situation.
On the livestream page, a sea of mosaics.
Ouyang Hui didn't know how those viewers posting danmaku could discern the overlapping area of two mosaics and thereby calculate that their bodies had touched. She, for one, couldn't make it out... Yet just watching like this was enough to make Ouyang Hui furious to death.
For the same show, different people watching could have such starkly different takes and feelings.
Some were so sweet they squinted, some were hollow with worry, and some were mad enough to explode...
And then there were some...
On Mingtan Star, in the basement home theater of a villa, over a dozen livestream windows were displayed across an entire wall.
Perhaps because most of the livestream windows were silent mosaics, and for certain people, there wasn't much to see anymore, at this moment the home theater was empty.
Yet the livestream windows on the wall flickered, perhaps from changes in the ambient light outside.
The light from the livestream windows fell on the coffee table in front of the wall.
On the coffee table were stacks of papers.
If someone were to enter now, they would discover that these papers were covered with many names matching those in the livestream windows on the wall.
Guests, production staff—it turned out to be the files on every single person on the show.
And if that person were to look more closely, they would see that some names had been marked with a checkmark, and some with a question mark.
Among them, the two on the very top were the ones with question marks.
One bore the heading "Yu Nianbing."
And the other belonged to Song Shiyue.
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