Chapter 16: Are They Really That Stupid, or Is Qiao Yitong…

“Saving you is a hassle.”

Those few simple words didn’t just leave Lu Cheng dazed on the spot; the bullet chat froze for a moment before exploding into a massive wave of “Hahahaha.”

Lu Cheng: QAQ¹.

What was he supposed to do? He was feeling like a useless little burden all over again.

Lu Cheng didn’t dare disobey Qiao Yitong. He obediently stepped back a few paces, but he didn’t go far.

His gaze was fixed intently on Qiao Yitong, terrified that she might run into some kind of danger.

His muscles were taut, ready to rush forward and save her at a moment’s notice.

In reality, however, Qiao Yitong’s seemingly slender body stood as steady as a rock in the ocean waves.

She stared quietly at a specific spot, appearing as still and serene as a tranquil painting.

Until a certain moment, when she suddenly moved.

The fork in her hand struck down with the speed of a lightning bolt.

And then…

Lu Cheng rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

A-A fish? She actually caught one just like that?

But before he could process his shock, he saw Qiao Yitong move again.

Fish on the spear x2.

Lu Cheng: …

After successfully catching two fish, Qiao Yitong walked back calmly and handed the spear to Lu Cheng. “Do you know how to grill fish?”

Lu Cheng took it, still reeling from the shock of how easily she had caught them.

“I do…” Lu Cheng said.

“You handle them,” Qiao Yitong said.

“Okay.” Lu Cheng nodded.

After handing the fish over to Lu Cheng, Qiao Yitong turned and returned to the bamboo grove to deal with her pile of bamboo.

She had cut a sufficient amount; the next step was to organize it all and fully construct a Bamboo House.

She had already chosen the site for the house, and she was very satisfied with the location.

The ground was clear, surrounded by large trees for support, and backed by a rocky hill. She wouldn’t have to worry about high winds, the elevation was high enough for easy drainage, and the side would catch the sun.

It was a perfect site for a shelter.

In her past life, a spot like this would have caused several factions to fight until their heads bled.

A peaceful moment like this was hard to come by.

As Qiao Yitong thought, she trimmed the excess parts from the bamboo stalks. Once they were cleaned up, she began to piece them together bit by bit.

She drove one end of the bamboo deep into the ground, forming two concentric circles based on the house’s structure.

This served as a stable external frame for the Bamboo House.

With them firmly embedded like this, she wouldn’t have to worry about the house collapsing even in wind and rain.

After finishing the frame, Qiao Yitong used layers of bamboo, interlocking them in a wedge pattern to form the outer walls. To ensure the interior was comfortable, she laid a full layer of bamboo across the ground to create a bamboo floor.

She even pieced together a roof. On top of the roof, she gathered several types of leaves and layered them, ensuring no rain would leak through.

Of course, for Qiao Yitong, this shelter was somewhere she intended to live for a long time, so it couldn’t be too crude.

Once the frame was complete, she used her machete to cut a door into the structure, adding a mechanical hinge so it could slide shut. At the same time, she made a circular window that could also be opened and closed.

This series of designs was so sophisticated it would make a professional carpenter applaud, yet Qiao Yitong had completed it all by herself from start to finish.

She didn’t even need blueprints or any other tools. With just a machete, she had finished everything.

The moment she finished the window and installed it, she heard Lu Cheng’s shout from the distance.

“Sister Tong! The fish is ready, come eat!”

Qiao Yitong looked over, picked up her machete, and headed back to the campfire by the shore.

When Lu Cheng saw Qiao Yitong walking toward him, and then saw the machete in her hand, his mind involuntarily flashed back to the crisp, efficient way she had hacked through the bamboo. He felt a surge of intimidation and couldn’t help but swallow hard.

But he quickly began to reassure himself.

Sister Tong is a good person. She won’t hack me… probably.

Lu Cheng timidly handed the grilled fish to Qiao Yitong. She took it and said, “Thank you.”

“Taste it and see how it is,” Lu Cheng asked expectantly.

He had put a lot of effort into this grilled fish.

He had gutted it, scaled it, and then held it over the fire, terrified of burning it. He hadn’t dared to put it too close, grilling it bit by bit.

Finally, he had produced this result.

Qiao Yitong looked at the fish. As a Culinary Cultivator, her evaluation of the dish was: at least the attitude was there.

As for the rest, after taking a bite, Qiao Yitong felt that perhaps she should be the one to do this from now on.

“Not bad,” Qiao Yitong told Lu Cheng.

Lu Cheng’s eyes brightened, but before he could get too happy, he heard her continue.

“But your control of the heat is poor. It’s grilled too dry.”

Lu Cheng: ?

Lu Cheng: QAQ

If he understood correctly, another one of his skills had been rejected by Sister Tong.

However, he didn’t know yet that in the future, when it came to food, he would be completely won over, without a single complaint.

While Lu Cheng didn’t have any objections, a portion of the netizens were unhappy.

[Seriously, it’s already nice enough that someone cooked for you. I hate people who don’t lift a finger but still nitpick other people’s food.]

[That’s unfair. It’s not like Qiao Yitong hasn’t done anything. From the moment they left the team until now, it’s obvious Qiao Yitong has been taking care of Lu Cheng more.]

[I’m not arguing that. I’m just saying, Qiao Yitong’s words just now make me want to say: if you’re so good, you do it.]

[Honestly, given the skills Qiao Yitong has shown lately, I suspect she might actually be good at cooking too.]

[Why are we still talking about grilled fish? I’m still stuck on that house. Seriously, what is Qiao Yitong’s background? A massive Bamboo House like that—I was timing it—she finished it in two hours?]

[You didn’t see it wrong. I’m shocked too. If I hadn’t been watching the whole time, I’d suspect it was fake. You’ve got to be kidding me, I can’t even put together Legos that fast.]

“It feels like she’s playing at double speed.”

“No, I’d say eight times speed. Even if someone gave me the blueprints for that Bamboo House, there’s no way I could put it together in less than half a month.”

…

The discussion in the bullet chats grew more heated. Unlike the beginning of the show, when Qiao Yitong’s Live Stream Room was flooded with insults, the comments were now diverse. Aside from a group of persistent anti-fans² still working hard to hate her, more people were objectively analyzing and evaluating her actions.

A portion of the audience had even been won over by her string of miraculous feats.

As things developed, the viewership in Qiao Yitong’s stream continued to climb, eventually beginning to overtake the numbers of the main Live Stream Room.

The fans noticed this shift themselves, and some couldn’t help but ask, “Hey, I recognize those IDs. Weren’t you guys always in the main stream? Why’d you jump over here?”

“Don’t even get me started. Watching the main stream was giving me a stroke. I came here to cleanse my eyes. I just don’t get it – eleven grown people, and they’ve regressed to the point of eating roasted snails because they’re starving? I’m seriously… ugh.”

“Are they faking it for the sake of variety show drama, or are they actually that useless? This is an island! You live off the sea when you’re by the sea. Is it really that hard to go down and catch a couple of fish like Qiao Yitong did?”

“Is it possible… that catching fish in the ocean is only easy for Qiao Yitong, but in reality, it’s not simple at all?”

…

That particular comment echoed the inner thoughts of everyone on Shisan’s side.

After their meal of snails, more than one person in Shisan’s group was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

What was even more soul-crushing was that the food problem hadn’t actually been solved.

Furthermore, their dry rations were completely gone.

“I don’t think we can go on like this. We have to find a stable food source, otherwise we won’t have enough energy. We’re all going to get sick.”

“Everyone knows that, but the problem is there’s simply no food, right?”

“We’re by the sea; the marine resources are so rich. Why can’t we just catch some fish?”

Living off the sea was a consensus they all reached.

Shisan watched them discuss the matter with such feverish intensity and felt the urge to warn them. However, remembering how his efforts over the last two days had been met with nothing but grief, he chose to keep his mouth shut.

People were often like that. When they were convinced they were right, any attempt to stop them felt like an attack.

Perhaps they wouldn’t realize how difficult things actually were until they hit a dead end.

If they were so eager to go fishing, then let them.

To ensure no one starved to death, Shisan called Peppa Lamb and Jing Xueqin over to continue searching the surrounding area for snails.

Even though the things looked disgusting, they were still a form of food. At the very least, they would keep a person from dying of hunger.

Meanwhile, the group eager to fish discussed their plan, grabbed some random branches from the jungle to use as harpoons, and headed into the water.

As they entered the sea, every one of them was filled with anticipation.

Once in the water, they made a massive commotion, looking as though they were engaged in some sort of epic battle.

Half a day passed. When they finally trudged back onto the shore, their heads were hanging low. They had caught absolutely nothing.

The group of failed “fishing experts” huddled together, exchanging their thoughts.

“I’m certain there are fish in there. Several swam right past me just now.”

“Then why didn’t you catch them?”

“You think I didn’t want to? My depth perception goes to hell in the water. Plus, the fish swim incredibly fast, while our reactions and movements are slowed down. It’s not that I didn’t want to catch them; it’s that it’s physically impossible.”

“I don’t think it’s realistic for humans to compete with fish in the ocean using brute force. The best way would be to find a fishing net and just wait for them to swim in.”

“Easier said than done. Where are we supposed to find a net?”

…

The empty-handed group argued until they were red in the face, defensively summarizing the lessons learned from today’s failure.

Their every move was broadcast to the audience through the live stream.

The bullet chat was momentarily speechless…

“Can someone tell me if these people are actually this stupid, or is Qiao Yitong just so badass that she makes them look exceptionally moronic?”

Translator’s Notes