Chapter 022

As this season of Wilderness Challenge drew to a close, the production team had prepared a proper trophy for the champion. It sat on a tray draped with red cloth, carried out by two staff members. All the guests cheered in unison, giving the trophy a warm welcome.

“And now, our champion…”

As the host spoke, he picked up the trophy and was about to hand it to Lu Jianxing when he noticed a little tot beside him. The boy had his head tilted back, looking up with eyes full of anticipation. His chubby little face was packed with longing, and his small hands were already raised, ready and waiting. The host’s reaching motion took a sudden curve, and he tucked the trophy right into Qiao Man’s arms.

“Congratulations to our little friend, Qiao Man, for winning this season of Wilderness Challenge!”

The others clapped along enthusiastically.

The trophy was large, so big that Qiao Man’s arms could barely wrap around it. When he held it to his chest, it nearly blocked his entire face, but he refused to let go. He was radiating joy, two sweet dimples appearing on his cheeks as he beamed.

• Well deserved! –

• I dare anyone to disagree that baby Xiao Man is the survival champion! –

• Out of all the adults present, not a single one can compete! –

The host leaned down and held the microphone to the boy’s mouth. “Sweetie, now that you’ve won the championship, is there anything you’d like to say?”

Qiao Man thought about it, then lifted his chin. Holding the trophy with an air of immense pride, he declared, “I’m super amazing!”

The host: “…”

Beside them, Pei Xiwang burst out laughing and clapped even harder. Lu Jianxing helplessly ruffled the child’s fluffy hair and nodded in agreement. “That’s right, Xiao Man is very amazing. Our victory is entirely thanks to him.”

The contestants hadn’t seen the live broadcast like the audience had, so they didn’t know what the others had experienced during the week. Consequently, the director had rushed to edit a highlight reel of the contestants’ best moments to play for everyone now, while recording their reactions.

Over the past week, each contestant had faced their own trials, with plenty of thrills and shining moments. However, among the winning team’s footage, the child’s highlights were the most numerous.

Watching the screen show a little boy who seemed omnipotent – climbing trees, diving into rivers, hunting, catching fish, grabbing snakes, and finding paths – everyone couldn’t help but glance toward Lu Jianxing…

No wonder the invited guest was Lu Jianxing, but the one who won the championship was his teammate, Qiao Man.

Which one of you is the adult here?

Wait, are kids these days really this overpowered?

• Hahaha, that was exactly my expression when I first watched the stream. –

• It wasn’t an unfair loss, not in the slightest! –

• The youngest champion in the history of Wilderness Challenge! –

• What an upset! At the start, everyone thought this duo was doomed to lose. Who would have thought that in the end, baby Xiao Man would carry Lu Jianxing to the championship! –

Xing Lei had originally been a bit disgruntled. He had been a favorite to win this season and was very confident in his own strength, yet the title had slipped through his fingers. Losing to anyone else would have been fine, but losing to a five-year-old?

Now that he had seen the highlight reel edited by the production team, he couldn’t feel even a spark of resentment.

The kid’s wilderness survival skills were simply better than those of many adults.

Lu Jianxing glanced at Xing Lei and took the initiative to say, “Brother Xing is also very capable. If that path to the summit marked on the map hadn’t disappeared, the champion might have been Brother Xing.”

Xing Lei felt a twinge of regret. Lu Jianxing had warned him that there was no path ahead, but he hadn’t believed it, which had put him a step behind Lu Jianxing’s team. Still, he was curious. “How did you know the path to the summit was gone?”

Qiao Man: “I calculated it!”

Xing Lei: “Calculated it?”

Without Qiao Man needing to boast, Zhan Yue and Pei Xiwang immediately stepped forward to testify for him. “That’s right, his fortunes are incredibly accurate.”

Pei Xiwang: “Whatever Master Xiao Man predicts comes true. That day he said it would rain at night, and sure enough, there was a downpour!”

Zhan Yue: “I can testify too. The first time he saw me, he could tell I wasn’t my parents’ biological child. I’ve lived all these years and only just found out I was adopted!”

Pei Xiwang: ???

Xing Lei: ???

Those who hadn’t witnessed the fortune-telling sessions firsthand turned to look at the Zhan siblings in shock.

Xing Lei couldn’t help but click his tongue. “Really?”

Lu Jianxing rested his hand on the child’s shoulder and said nonchalantly, “Our Xiao Man has been studying his craft on the mountain since he was small. His master is a Taoist. Xiao Man learned a whole set of skills from him – he can tell fortunes and draw talismans. He’s very talented.”

Qiao Man tilted his head back, his mouth hanging open slightly as he looked at Lu Jianxing in surprise. Xingxing would pat his head when he was happy, but he rarely praised him so directly.

Qiao Man felt lightheaded from the praise, as if he were stepping on a soft, fluffy cloud, but that didn’t stop him from puffing out his chest with pride. “Mm-hmm!”

Xing Lei: “Really? That amazing?”

Xing Lei hadn’t really believed it at first. After all, the person standing in front of him was just a five-year-old child; he didn’t look like a master no matter how you sliced it. But with so many people speaking with such conviction, combined with the “omnipotent” child he’d just seen in the clips, he felt the pull of the crowd. His skepticism began to waver.

“You’re really that good?” Xing Lei rubbed his hands together. “Then, could you help me with a reading?”

Qiao Man: “What do you want to know?”

“Well… could you see when I might have a child?”

Everyone’s eyes drifted toward him.

Xing Lei’s tanned face turned red, looking a bit embarrassed. He and his wife had been married for several years but had no children. Both had gone to the hospital for checkups, and neither had any issues; it just seemed they lacked the fate for it. However, both of them loved children and had been longing for a baby of their own.

Qiao Man studied him carefully for a long moment before saying, “You’ll have one very soon.”

“Very soon? What does that mean?”

Qiao Man: “After you go home, you’ll hear good news!”

Understanding his meaning, Xing Lei grinned from ear to ear. Whether it was true or not, he was happy just hearing the words; he took it as a lucky blessing.

His interest piqued, he scanned the others and pulled Xie Yunqian over. “What about Xie Yunqian? Give him a reading too.”

Xie Yunqian declined with a wave of his hand. “No need. I don’t believe in that sort of thing.”

Qiao Man asked in confusion, “But doesn’t he already have several children? There’s no need to calculate then.”

Xing Lei laughed. “You must have gotten that wrong. Xie Yunqian isn’t even married yet, how could he possibly…” His laughter cut off abruptly.

Lu Jianxing suddenly looked down at the child. Beside him, Pei Xiwang and Zhan Yue also realized something, their eyes widening simultaneously.

[??????]

Xie Yunqian said with a smile, “That’s right. I raise several cats and dogs, and I treat them like my own flesh and blood. Just taking care of them is enough to give me a massive headache.”

Xing Lei wiped away a non-existent cold sweat and let out a long sigh of relief. “Right, right. Taking care of pets is indeed quite a handful.”

Qiao Man looked up at the two of them but said nothing.

The host quickly pulled the conversation back on track. “Over this past week, everyone has had many rich experiences…”

“There were plenty of experiences, mostly thanks to the production crew being absolutely heartless,” Xie Yunqian joked. “Setting that aside, now that the champions have been decided, you’re only giving out one trophy. How are two people supposed to share it? You should give one to Lu Jianxing too, shouldn’t you?”

No one had thought of this point, and the realization dawned on them all at once.

Indeed, in previous seasons everyone fought alone. This season had teammates, so why was there still only one trophy? It would be hard to divide!

Qiao Man held the trophy with both hands, refusing to let go. “Xingxing and I won this together. Both Xingxing and I are champions. We don’t need to divide it, we’re together.”

Xie Yunqian watched him, a hint of a smile on his lips. “But there’s only one trophy. Whose house should it stay at?”

“It’ll stay at our house,” Qiao Man said.

There was a bookshelf in Lu Jianxing’s home with several trophies on it. They were awards he had won during his time in the entertainment industry; though they weren’t prestigious major awards, they were kept very clean. Every time Qiao Man passed by, he would stop to admire them.

Now there was another championship trophy that he and Xingxing had won together. Qiao Man had already planned it out: he would take this trophy back and put it with Xingxing’s other awards, right in the most prominent spot in the center.

“Your house? Do you live with Lu Jianxing?”

Lu Jianxing’s eyelid twitched. Before he could speak, Qiao Man had already answered directly, “Yeah.”

Xie Yunqian asked again, seemingly casually, “You live together?”

“Of course. Xingxing and I are family, so of course we live together,” Qiao Man said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Xie Yunqian fell silent.

The other contestants looked at each other.

Lu Jianxing’s hand on the child’s shoulder tightened slightly. Qiao Man felt it and tilted his head up to look at him in confusion.

Pei Xiwang glanced at the camera, his brow furrowing slightly. Both on and off camera, others instinctively turned to look at those beside them, communicating through silent glances.

The cameras were still pointed at everyone, and the livestream hadn’t ended. Because all the contestants were gathered, the traffic from the various individual streams had merged, and the number of viewers online had reached a staggering figure.

The audience had been boisterously celebrating the birth of the champions, but hearing this conversation, many quickly sensed something was off.

[Wait? What does ‘family’ mean?]

[Family? Is it the kind of ‘family’ I’m thinking of?]

[…Holy crap! Wait!]

[Would a kid lie? I was wondering why Lu Jianxing suddenly brought a child onto a survival show. Turns out it’s his secret son!]

[It might not be a secret son, right? Who says ‘family’ has to mean father and son? Maybe it’s a relative’s kid?]

[Oh, please. Everyone knows Lu Jianxing is an orphan. What relatives could he have? Did they pop out of a rock¹?]

The host: “…”

The host really couldn’t smooth this over anymore. At the director’s signal, he simply rushed through the closing remarks: “This season of Wilderness Challenge ends here. Thank you all for your attention! The official edited version will be available on Litchi TV in one week. For more exciting moments and missed details, please tune in!”

The screen went black.

The livestream was closed.

Wilderness Challenge was over, but outside the stream, various social media platforms began to boil over.

…

With the program finished and the stream closed, the Wilderness Challenge crew began packing up their equipment, and the contestants prepared to head home.

Since the filming location was deep in the mountains and forests, it wasn’t convenient for vehicles to enter, so they had to take the transportation arranged by the crew to leave. For the guests who had been isolated from the world for a week, the first thing they did after filming ended was get their phones back to reconnect with modern society, exchange contact information, and catch up on the news they had missed.

Pei Xiwang came over with his phone to find someone, but he didn’t see the child. He only saw Lu Jianxing packing his luggage alone. He looked around. “Where is Master Xiao Man?”

“He went to find the director,” Lu Jianxing said.

The director had confiscated Qiao Man’s Luo Pan, and he had gone to get it back.

Pei Xiwang exchanged contact information with him. Master Xiao Man had helped him survive a deathly calamity, and he hadn’t paid the fee yet.

Without Qiao Man there, the two had no need for pleasantries. They coldly added each other’s contact info and set a nickname.

Pei Xiwang turned to leave after adding the contact, but after a moment, he turned back hesitantly. “Lu Jianxing, is Master Xiao Man really your son?”

“…” Lu Jianxing let out a breath and said, “He isn’t.”

Pei Xiwang visibly relaxed a bit. “I thought so. How could you possibly father such an incredible child?”

Lu Jianxing: “…”

“Then did you offend Xie Yunqian somewhere?” Pei Xiwang said in a low voice. “During the livestream earlier, he brought up your relationship with Xiao Man several times. I’m only telling you this for Master Xiao Man’s sake.”

Lu Jianxing froze for a moment, then his lips pressed into a thin line.

Audiences loved to speculate, and marketing accounts especially loved to spin wild tales from thin air. Usually, in front of the camera, everyone was careful with their words and actions to avoid causing trouble for themselves.

Xie Yunqian had debuted many years before them and should understand this better than anyone. Especially since he had a massive following of fanatical fans who would easily act blindly based on a few words from him. By hinting that the relationship between Lu Jianxing and Qiao Man was unusual during the livestream, it was likely that people would attack Lu Jianxing because of it.

Of course, even without his earlier hints, the internet was already ablaze. One look at any social media platform showed that the entire web was discussing the news of Lu Jianxing having a child out of wedlock.

Pei Xiwang had originally held a very favorable opinion of this senior who had brought him onto the show, thinking he was a genuinely good person. However, after Qiao Man saved his life, his loyalty shifted toward his savior. Looking back on everything now, he realized that Xie Yunqian might not be as wonderful as he had imagined. Moreover, Xie Yunqian’s attempts to fish for information today had been excessively blunt.

Deliberately trying to trick information out of an innocent child was truly crossing a line.

Lu Jianxing had only just begun to recover from an internet-wide smear campaign. His career hadn’t even started to gain momentum again when this news of a child out of wedlock broke. This would be a devastating blow to his fragile professional recovery. It was entirely possible that Wilderness Challenge would be his final job.

Pei Xiwang felt a pang of sympathy, murmuring to himself, “Forget it, I shouldn’t worry about you. I’d better handle my own PR first…”

Given how much of a burden he had been during the show, he expected Xie Yunqian’s fans were already tearing him apart on the internet.

Both of them were minor celebrities; their combined fanbases didn’t even amount to a fraction of that top-tier star’s following. Together, they wouldn’t even last one round in a fight against the opposing side.

Then there was his father. His father was dead set on him coming home to inherit the family business. After seeing him nearly get struck by lightning during the livestream, his father would be even more opposed to him wandering around the entertainment industry. The moment Pei Xiwang got his phone back and turned it on, the device nearly crashed from the sheer volume of messages sent by his family.

Nursing a headache, Pei Xiwang began walking back.

By the time Lu Jianxing finished packing their luggage, Qiao Man hadn’t returned yet. He sat on the ground guarding their backpacks, staring blankly into the distance.

His newly powered-on phone was filled with countless unread messages. The notification icons for every social media app showed “99+”. He didn’t open them, but from the occasional glances, averted eyes, and whispers of the staff members after the livestream ended, he could guess the general content.

With the matter of the Luck Borrowing fresh in his mind, Lu Jianxing didn’t panic. In fact, he felt remarkably calm.

While waiting for Qiao Man to return, he was deep in thought.

How could he ambush someone with a sack over their head without exposing his identity?

…

Qiao Man retrieved his Luo Pan from the director. Stepping out of the production team’s tent, he wasn’t in a hurry to find Lu Jianxing. Instead, he stood at the entrance and looked around.

A staff member soon noticed him and leaned down to ask, “Sweetie, are you waiting for someone? Do you want me to take you to find Xingxing?”

Qiao Man shook his head and asked instead, “Do you know where the person with the Amulet is?”

“The Amulet… oh, you mean Xie Yunqian.” The staff member looked around. “He shouldn’t have left yet. I just saw him… over there!”

Following the direction the staff member pointed, Qiao Man spotted Xie Yunqian. He thanked the staff member and jogged over with his backpack.

“Amulet… Uncle Xie!”

Xie Yunqian was about to catch a ride down the mountain. Hearing the voice, he stopped and turned to see the child again. Suppressing his internal impatience, he said gently, “Little friend, what’s the matter?”

Qiao Man didn’t answer. He stared fixedly at him with his dark, round eyes for a long moment. Just as Xie Yunqian began to feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up from the scrutiny, the boy reached out both hands. Pursing his lips, he offered a sweet, well-behaved smile. “Uncle, can I give you a hug?”

Xie Yunqian was stunned.

The child’s request wasn’t unreasonable. With the show ending, everyone was saying their goodbyes, and a hug was just a standard form of farewell. There were many staff members in the crew who were still asking him for autographs. The only strange thing was that he wasn’t familiar with this child at all.

However, with so many eyes watching them in public, Xie Yunqian wouldn’t refuse such a simple request from a child.

Pushing down his reluctance, he gracefully knelt down and opened his arms. “Of course you can. Come here.”

The child took two steps forward, placed his small hands on Xie Yunqian’s shoulders, and gave him a proper hug. Xie Yunqian felt a pair of soft little hands gently pat his back before quickly letting go.

Qiao Man stepped back. “Thank you, Uncle.”

“It’s nothing…”

His neck suddenly felt light, as if something had fallen. Xie Yunqian didn’t react at first, but then his expression changed drastically. He quickly pulled at his collar. The cord of the Amulet he always wore around his neck had snapped, and the object had slipped down through the bottom of his shirt.

Xie Yunqian lunged to catch it almost instantly. But before he could touch it, the Amulet that had accompanied him for years disintegrated in mid-air. The fine stitching snapped inch by inch, and the vibrant colors of the fabric turned grey and dull in an instant. Like an ancient relic sealed underground for centuries only to crumble upon first contact with the light, it became as fragile as thin paper.

His eyes nearly burst from their sockets as he clawed desperately at the air, but he only caught a few fragments of shredded cloth. The contents inside had already turned to black ash.

“No…”

The disaster happened in the blink of an eye, leaving Xie Yunqian no time to react.

What followed was a surge of panic that submerged him like a tidal wave.

The Master who gave him the Amulet had told him that once he lost its help and the protection of that luck, he would be returned to his original form. He would become just as unlucky as the person he had borrowed luck from.

The senior who had once told him about this method hadn’t stayed in the spotlight for long. One day, a scandal suddenly broke, and the company quickly blacklisted him. He never appeared again. The last piece of news about him was that he had lost his legs in a car accident and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

It felt as if some invisible presence was rapidly fleeing his body along with the shattering of the Amulet. No matter how tightly Xie Yunqian clenched his fists, those things that never belonged to him in the first place were draining away like water.

Xie Yunqian could no longer maintain his composure. His face turned deathly pale as he looked at the child before him in horror.

“You… you…”

Qiao Man looked at him with a face full of innocence. “Uncle? What’s wrong?”

The child before him looked no different than usual. He still looked up with a tender, cute little face. When he smiled, two sweet dimples appeared on his chubby cheeks.

“Uncle, are you scared?”

“Don’t be afraid. I’m just returning the luck you stole.”

Translator’s Notes