WS - Chapter 135

Chapter 135

Since the previous evening, when the people on Wilderness Planet formally brought the matter of team division to the table, even though Ning Chuyang tried to stop it by arguing that the majority on her side did not want to split, the moment she failed, public opinion on StarNet once again began to unanimously tilt in a certain direction.

To repay a debt of gratitude or to save oneself.

Choose friendship or life.

Was it moral blackmail from a lofty position... or hastily shedding a burden before reaching a dead end...

Different people, looking at the same matter, often have different thoughts.

On StarNet, there was still some debate over the team split. However, the strengths of the two sides were too imbalanced, and no real splash could be made.

Generally speaking, people tend toward kindness, especially when the matter does not actually threaten themselves.

In adversity, true feelings may not reveal themselves; but when even a life-saving grace cannot make those people hold out for three or four days, it truly chills the heart.

Ever since the Yaoxing Storm on Wilderness Planet, when the new livestream page opened and the Mu brothers' "good deeds" were exposed, Mu Group's stock had been falling. However, falling as it was, a giant group like Mu Group, even with brothers turning against each other, was still a camel that has shed its fur but remains bigger than a horse— it would not become completely worthless all at once.

Not to mention, a traffic magnet like Mu Xingzhou, as long as he does not actually die on Wilderness Planet and can return, would still be very beneficial to Mu Group. If the people at Mu Group had a bit more sense, threw those two brothers out and welcomed Mu Xingzhou back, even without considering whether Mu Xingzhou had business ability or talent, at least they could regain a foothold in public opinion. At most, they could hire more professional managers to run things together. It would still be better than those two brothers with poisoned hearts.

So these past two days, Mu Group's stock had indeed been falling, but not to the point of being unwatchable.

And on that night of camping halfway during the Yaoxing Storm, because of Mu Xingzhou's words offering his entire fortune in exchange for Zhao Da and Zhao Er's help to take Feng Qianqian on the road, Mu Group's stock had even seen a small rebound. Although it could not suppress the overall downward trend and was just a flash in the pan, people with insight could see the potential positive influence this illegitimate son Mu Xingzhou could bring to Mu Group.

Until Mu Xingzhou was completely killed by Zhao Da, a considerable number of people were still prepared to curse the Mu brothers while holding onto Mu Group stock, waiting and watching.

In fact, Old Master Mu, before going to see Yao Yuxi the previous night, had already received reports on Mu Xingzhou's latest moves.

Setting aside the threat from Zhao Da and Zhao Er, without knowing their identities, abandoning a burden and following a team with more combat ability, experience, and hope for survival— Old Master Mu thought Mu Xingzhou's choice was not a problem.

One could say that if Zhao Da and Zhao Er were not killers but genuine bodyguards, Old Master Mu would even be gratified that this usually indecisive youngest son finally knew to cut the Gordian knot, letting reason override emotion to make the right decision.

Of course, now there was no gratification, only worry.

Old Master Mu had of course also thought that the livestream of Mu Xingzhou's final decision to leave first with that team would cause him to be condemned by some righteous and moral people. But, he was just a singer, originally just a youthful lark. If he had not been a singer, he would not have joined this variety show, and none of the later events would have happened. Old Master Mu hoped Mu Xingzhou could return safely, and then he could just quit being a singer; Mu Group still had a mess of affairs, and in his lifetime, he had to prop up at least one son, right.

Even though Old Master Mu had anticipated the impact on Mu Xingzhou, when he woke up and faced Mu Group's cliff-like plummeting stock, his first reaction was still that his two unfilial sons had more scandal exposed.

In the early morning, the two teams on Wilderness Planet officially parted ways.

StarNet traffic hit another record high, and the public's backlash— how could it only hit Mu Group?

Captain Yang had previously been doing small-scale corporate team-building on Changhui Planet, and three years ago, leveraging his second-place finish in that year's Wilderness Survival Individual Challenge on Changhui Planet, he opened a company. Over the years, doing corporate team-building and university events on Changhui Planet, he had gained quite a reputation. If he had played steadily, in a few more years, breaking out of the Changhui System and entering other systems would not have been impossible.

The mistake was that Captain Yang's estimation of himself and his company seemed too optimistic. A pie as big as The Wilderness Journey fell on someone who was only second- or third-rate in the wilderness survival world, and he dared to cheerfully jump in.

A one-man dictatorship in team-building training might be considered a strict teacher producing outstanding students. But in a celebrity variety show livestream... on the first day Captain Yang appeared in the program, his company's page on StarNet was nearly cursed into collapse.

The program had only been running for a few days, after all.

Before the Yaoxing Storm, Captain Yang's company's StarNet client account and StarNet page had already had to set comments to forbidden, and the office on Changhui Planet, due to a surge in unfriendly visitors, was also guarded by a big lock...

Thankfully, the other people in the company still had normal brains; otherwise, holding out until the moment of the team split, they probably would have found it hard to even step out of the office.

For a small company like Captain Yang's, the ugly scene outside the office was not only not as visually striking as Mu Group's falling stock, but a business page that could be shut down at will also could not compare to the traces Director Zhang had left on StarNet that drew everyone's attention.

As for Director Zhang, he did not have any blockbuster big-screen works, but he did direct quite a few popular variety shows.

Once the team split happened, those works that Director Zhang had participated in directing ran into bad luck... directly setting a historical record for the time it took for reviews to slide from five stars to one star...

Even if there were some sensible people advising that those works were only directed by Director Zhang in the past and that the works also contained the hard work of many other people, those rational exhortations fell among the furious masses and were nothing but a drop in the bucket.

On StarNet's most influential and publicly rated fairest Blue Apple Site, every work Director Zhang had participated in directing was already at one star. Even the fans of other participating stars who wanted to pull up the scores could not withstand the continuously surging masses. It could be said that if one star were not already the lowest score on Blue Apple Site, Director Zhang's works would absolutely have been beaten into negative territory...

Compared to Mu Xingzhou, Captain Yang, and Director Zhang, the last actions of Guan Yongyi and Ni Jinghe before the split at least... slightly helped them recover a tiny bit of image.

But the masses were at the peak of their anger, so both the hospital where Ni Jinghe worked and the fencing team Guan Yongyi had previously been part of still suffered some impact.

As for Wang Daming, though he was extremely annoying, this person had neither a company nor works, and even his contract was signed under the production team of The Wilderness Journey, truly leaving people with no outlet for their anger.

Compared to Wang Daming, the most hated Zhao Da and Zhao Er were like bare sticks fallen from the sky; even with almost the entire web mobilized now, their backgrounds still could not be dug up, leaving people's anger with no place to land.

The three people who should have drawn the most fire were all a bit bare, so of course those before them had to endure a bit more.

Of course, after the team split had settled, some bore the fury, while others... were crowned with laurels.

Unlike Little Stars and Little Braves, who had gone silent at almost the same time, Little Sunshines and Little Skewers, along with Little Ice Buckets and Little Moons, were practically exploding on StarNet.

The decision of Yu Nianbing and the other two made fans both heartbroken and proud. That entire night, they cried and laughed, laughed and cried again, as if possessed.

Especially Yu Nianbing's fans, who had always been the most protective. Yet in the past few days, most Little Ice Buckets, because the candy was too sweet and tempting, could not help but climb the wall and openly or secretly join the Little Mooncakes. Now that Yu Nianbing was clearly staying for Song Shiyue, for them it was simply double the worry and double the tears...

However, there were always some good things that could temporarily give their hearts some support.

Originally, Zhuang Jiachuan's participation in The Wilderness Journey was partly to promote a newly finished film he had directed.

Riding the wave of Zhuang Jiachuan's soaring popularity brought by the team split, that movie accelerated its post-production schedule, released a trailer, and moved up its release to five days later.

Whether it was the fan effect, or a desire to truly reward kindness, or even just following the trend...

As soon as presales opened, in less than five minutes, all screenings for the three-day presale period were fully booked, even the corner seats and the uncomfortable front-row seats that were hard to watch from— all sold out.

Half an hour later, theaters across various star systems added double the screenings, which were again completely sold out within seven minutes.

It could be said that by this point, whether Zhuang Jiachuan could return or not, he... had truly become popular again.

Of course, it was not just Zhuang Jiachuan. Yu Nianbing's new drama "Yu Xian" also began adjusting its broadcast schedule, and the sitcom that Song Shiyue had appeared in was re-aired in multiple star systems. As for Ning Chuyang... she was at a bit of a disadvantage, since her most popular drama co-starred Mu Xingzhou, and it could not be carried, just could not be carried. But several of her other dramas were once again pushed to popularity, their view counts visibly surging upward.

If it had been an ordinary, simpler disaster, perhaps these two groups would not have faced so much resentment or received so much goodwill.

But it had to be a Yaoxing Storm, and a Yaoxing Storm whose forecast had been concealed, drawing in the entire population of all star systems as an audience.

Whether hate or love, there was far, far too much.

Yet whether hate or love, it was all a distance unreachable by those still on Wilderness Planet.

With one team gone, only three who could still stand remained in the camp, and for a moment, it even seemed somewhat desolate and lonely.

"First move Song Shiyue to the tent where Feng Qianqian is. Ning Chuyang, you watch over them. Teacher Zhuang and I will dig up the thermal storage box." Yu Nianbing's voice broke the gradually cooling atmosphere.

When they had decided to stay earlier, both Zhuang Jiachuan and Ning Chuyang had briefly discussed the upcoming plan with Yu Nianbing, so there was no need to say much now.

Zhuang Jiachuan nodded, rolled down his sleeves, bent over, and picked up Song Shiyue.

Yu Nianbing swiftly scooped up the quilts spread on the ground, walked quickly past Zhuang Jiachuan, arrived first at Feng Qianqian's tent, and spread the quilts out again.

Soon, the two were lying side by side in the tent.

"Neither of them has woken up. They cannot be left alone. Firewood and such— we will gather it when we get back." Yu Nianbing pulled a stone knife from the side pocket of Song Shiyue's backpack and handed one to Ning Chuyang.

Ning Chuyang nodded: "Teacher Yu, do not worry. I will keep watch right at the tent entrance."

There was too much to do, so Yu Nianbing did not say more and led Zhuang Jiachuan out.

The place where the thermal storage box was buried was not far, probably only because the production team's original plan did not want the guests to see their meals, so they did not put it in the camp.

Though it was not too far, they were too short-handed, and the two might wake up at any moment. Keeping things outside ready, or fetching them back and forth, was truly inconvenient. Better to take the trouble, dig up the entire thermal storage box and move it over, saving later trivialities.

Yu Nianbing took a stone knife, and with Zhuang Jiachuan, they rummaged through the original camp supplies and found two spatula-shovels, then went to dig.

If she could choose, Yu Nianbing would of course want to stay by Song Shiyue's side all the time, not even going to that not-distant thermal storage box.

But she could not...

There were only three of them, and the other two did not actually have deep emotional ties to the two who had collapsed. It was either for moral duty, for gratitude, or... out of kindness.

Without emotional bonds, Yu Nianbing did not dare think too much about how far the two of them could persist.

But... Yu Nianbing needed them, and Song Shiyue needed them too.

What Yu Nianbing could do was to do a little more, and a little more, hoping the situation could get a little better, and better.

And just as Yu Nianbing and Zhuang Jiachuan were exerting all their effort digging up the thermal storage box, Ning Chuyang, left behind in the camp, sitting with her back to them at the tent entrance, tightly gripping the stone knife and vigilantly observing every rustle of wind and grass in the camp, suddenly heard from behind her the sound of gasping and coughing.

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