Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

Lu Yan: "What’s this survival method about?"

The camera guy tilted his chin, gesturing toward the ground.

Looking down, there was a card on the ground.

To add to the realism, the card was made to look like aged parchment, with frayed edges.

As he was looking at it, the camera guy suddenly turned off the camera and said, "Dude, you gotta read what’s on it out loud."

"...Oh," Lu Yan cleared his throat, "Dear, I’m sorry to say that finding this letter means you’ve landed on this deserted island. My crew and I have been stuck here for twenty years, and today I’ve finally finished my wooden boat and am about to leave this godforsaken place. Since we’re in the same boat, I’m leaving all the supplies I’ve got on the island to you. They’re scattered all over the place. Good luck—and watch out, this—"

The card ended there.

...This is so cringey.

Imagining Gu Xu’s deadpan expression while reading the script, Lu Yan couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Once he was done, Lu Yan turned the parchment over in his hands, muttering to himself, "The other half of this parchment is torn off, so... is this episode about teamwork?"

Seeing the agreement in the camera guy’s eyes, Lu Yan immediately confirmed this guess.

He crumpled the parchment into a ball and got ready to move. The camera guy was just about to follow when Lu Yan suddenly stopped, almost causing the camera to bump into him.

The camera guy caught his balance, curious about what Lu Yan was doing.

Lu Yan turned around, looked at the waist bag he was wearing, and asked, "Hey, you got any paper on you?"

The camera guy nodded.

Lu Yan grabbed the paper, found a spot, and spread out two sheets.

He plopped down and patted the spot next to him, saying, "Come on, sit here."

The camera guy sat down next to him, looking confused.

After sitting for a while, the camera guy finally couldn’t help but ask, "Dude, what’s the plan here? We’re not gonna have any usable footage if we keep shooting like this!"

Seriously though, Lu Yan was the star of this season. If he came back with nothing, he’d definitely catch hell.

Lu Yan looked relaxed, "Just hang tight for a sec."

Wait for what, though?

Just as he was about to ask, he heard rustling sounds from behind.

He turned around and saw two guys walking toward them.

It was Gu Xu and his cameraman.

Lu Yan wasn’t surprised at all. He stood up, patted his butt, and smiled, "Did they make you read that script too?"

"...Yeah," Gu Xu walked over and brushed off the grass stuck to Lu Yan’s clothes, "What are you doing sitting here?"

"Waiting for you to find me," Lu Yan picked up the paper and put it in his pocket, "I was gonna look for you, but wandering around would’ve made it harder to find you."

The two camera guys: ...What kind of scene is this??

Lu Yan asked, "What does your mission card say?"

Gu Xu handed over the card in his hand, and Lu Yan took it and looked at it.

"...Our mission cards are the same."

The words on the two cards were identical, even the torn parts were the same.

Hearing this, Gu Xu narrowed his eyes, took the card from Lu Yan's hand, and looked at it, displeased, "If they're identical, we can't team up?"

Lu Yan replied, "That seems to be the case."

Gu Xu turned and walked away, leaving a sentence, "Stay here, I'll be back."

After another ten minutes, Gu Xu hurried back, holding a different card, which was noticeably smaller than the one in Lu Yan's hand.

He stuffed the mission card into Lu Yan's hand, "Now we can team up."

While looking at the mission card, Lu Yan asked, "Did you swap it with the crew?"

Gu Xu replied, "No, I took it from Xu Ze."

"You ran into him?" Lu Yan raised an eyebrow, "He actually agreed to swap with you?"

"We met earlier," Gu Xu sneered, "I told him this game requires exchanging clues."

Lu Yan said, "...That's pretty dumb."

There were only a few words on the mission card: There’s more to it. Trust me, keep your distance from him.

Gu Xu initially wanted to grab Lu Yan's hand, but upon seeing the two cameras, he tutted and gave up.

Lu Yan leaned over, walking beside him, their shoulders touching, his fingers gently brushing the back of Gu Xu's hand, "Let’s go grab the supplies first."

Gu Xu finally seemed satisfied, curling his lips and saying, "Alright."

No idea where the crew found this island, but it really has a bit of a desolate island vibe, very suitable for a deserted island-themed shooting location.

After walking for a while, they didn’t find anything, but they did encounter Xu Ze, who had just figured out he’d been tricked, and a male celebrity.

Xu Ze spotted them and marched right over, angry, "Gu Xu! You liar! That card was clearly for teaming up!"

Gu Xu replied, "You’re just clueless."

Xu Ze asked, "You teamed up with Lu Yan?"

Gu Xu ignored him, took Lu Yan by the wrist, and was about to continue walking.

It was autumn, the air was getting chilly, and the guests were all wearing long sleeves. Gu Xu's movements were large, and his sleeve was pulled up a bit, showing off the black watch on his wrist.

Xu Ze said, "...You, you, you, how come you're wearing that watch?!"

Lu Yan snorted lightly, turned around, and said, "Stutter boy, go do your mission with your partner."

His tone was friendly, but his eyes were full of warning. Xu Ze looked into those eyes and immediately remembered the beating he received last time. He wanted to follow but didn't dare, standing there like a scolded puppy.

After the two left, the male celebrity next to Xu Ze glanced at him and said indifferently, "Come on, I’ll help you with the mission."

Xu Ze was still angry and simply vented on him, "Who even wants to team up with you!"

"Oh," the celebrity turned and walked away, "then stand there by yourself."

"Hey?" Xu Ze was taken aback and quickly followed, "What’s your problem? Wait up! You can’t do the task without me, can you?"

The celebrity said, "I’ll just find someone else."

Xu Ze: "Fine, fine, I’ll team up with you, but slow down!"

...

Lu Yan and the others roamed the island aimlessly for a full hour but found nothing. Not only were there no clues or supplies, but they didn’t see anyone else besides Xu Ze and that celebrity.

The weather was cool, so it wasn’t hot, but they were thirsty. Lu Yan asked the camera guy beside him, "Hey, do you have any water?"

"Yes," the camera guy put down the camera and took out a small bottle of mineral water from his waist bag, "but I can’t give it to you."

After saying that, he took a big gulp.

"..."

Gu Xu looked around and said, "I’ll go look for some; you stay here."

"No," Lu Yan said, "we’ll go together."

After walking for another half an hour, they finally found the supplies in a cave.

The supplies were a box of mineral water, a few red bags with who-knows-what inside, and a small iron plate.

But everything was locked in an iron cage.

Next to it was a card and a phone. The card read: "Use the VV phone to go live on DouMao TV, answer the first question from a netizen, and if you answer correctly and successfully broadcast for ten minutes, you will get the password."

Boss Gu, clueless about the product placement for their own streaming site: "..."

Lu Yan opened the phone and smiled at the two camera guys, "Guys, look, this phone has no signal; it can’t get online."

The camera guy swiftly pulled a mobile Wi-Fi from his waist bag.

Lu Yan: "..."

Neither of them had any experience with this, but with the help of the camera guy, they finally managed to start the live broadcast.

The program team had already advertised in advance, and as soon as the live broadcast room opened, the viewer count skyrocketed.

Netizens stared at Lu Yan’s face on the screen, spamming comments.

"666666, this show’s about to cause some drama again."

"Yan Yan, marry me!!!!"

"Yan Yan, who’s your teammate? He’s so tall."

Lu Yan turned sideways, revealing Gu Xu behind him.

"Who’s this?? He’s so handsome!"

"Tell us his name, please, please..."

"Here’s the scoop: This is Gu Xu, Jiaming’s boss, the one who sent out that lawyer’s letter last time. Also, the media they targeted last time already paid up and pinned an apology post for a month."

The comments were flying by too fast, and Gu Xu casually glanced at them, seeing words like "husband," "I love you," and "I want to marry you."

He tutted and said, "Let's get on with the task."

"Okay," Lu Yan clicked the question button and smiled, "The quickest to click can ask either me or Gu Xu a question. Are you ready?"

Right after Lu Yan spoke, Gu Xu suddenly reached out and directly pressed the start button.

Ding—the first viewer to click was immediately selected, and their avatar was pushed to the front.

"?? What??"

"Ended??????"

"This viewer must have been single for at least thirty years."

This viewer was clearly ready. As soon as they got to ask, the question popped up on the screen.

"Question: Gu Xu, question: Lu Yan has been to the DouMao TV live broadcast room before. How many people were in the live broadcast room that day?"

Lu Yan: ???

"Haha, as soon as this viewer spoke, I knew they were a pro."

"I'm not as upset now; this question is even funnier than what I wanted to ask, haha!"

"Gu Xu definitely doesn't know; mission failed, haha."

Gu Xu gave a cold look to the laughing crowd: "When he left the game, there were 394,000 viewers."

"..." Lu Yan was stunned, looking at him amusedly. "You..."

Gu Xu: "Right?"

The admin took a while to find the snapshot of the live room. After finding it, they paused the comments and posted the snapshot in the chat.

Online number: 394,002.

Naturally, this counted as a pass, and they got the password.

The broadcast was only ten minutes long, and the admin spent over half of it finding the snapshot. As soon as the password was obtained, the stipulated time was up.

Lu Yan smiled and waved, saying professionally, "We'll continue with the task. The first episode of 'This Time for Real' is set to air at the end of next month. I hope you all tune in, and my big-screen debut 'War Song' will be out soon!"

After speaking, he nudged Gu Xu and held the phone out to him. "Come on, read the ad."

Gu Xu looked at Lu Yan, amused yet helpless.

He turned his head, his smile vanishing as he faced Lu Yan's adoring fans, saying flatly, "Remember to watch Xiao Yan's 'War Song.'"

Lu Yan couldn't help but laugh, leaning in close to Gu Xu. "DouMao TV's live streams are always fun. That's it for us today, goodbye everyone!"

After speaking, he pressed the button to end the live broadcast.

Viewers who felt suddenly hit with a wave of PDA were left speechless: ???