Chapter 48: He… He’s Not Going to Die, Is He?

The smile that had been on Shisan’s face could no longer be maintained.

His face turned ashen as he turned to leave, not saying another word to Zhou Yifei or the others.

This sudden change in expression left Zhou Yifei completely speechless. “Wait, what’s wrong with him? Was there something wrong with what I just said? Did I offend him?”

Sun Yumeng was the type of person who feared offending anyone; because of this, he was much more sensitive to shifts in people’s emotions.

“He probably just heard something he didn’t like,” Sun Yumeng said.

It wasn’t hard to guess what that “something” was.

It was nothing more than hearing someone suggest that they couldn’t survive on their own.

After all, they had always carried themselves with such an air of superiority.

“Let’s go, we need to get back quickly. It’ll be hard to walk once it gets dark,” Sun Yumeng said.

The two of them carried bags filled with the island’s strange plants, clutching as many other items as they could in their hands as they trudged toward Qiao Yitong’s location.

When Shisan returned, he sat on the ground with a look of deep frustration.

Jing Xueqin tossed him a piece of fruit and smiled. “Brother Shisan, what’s with that look? Did something annoying happen?”

Shisan took a bite of the fruit. “I just ran into Sun Yumeng and the others.”

“Oh?” The smile on Jing Xueqin’s face inadvertently faded a little.

Shisan curled his lip. “They were searching for all sorts of plants. I assume they’re making some kind of deal with Qiao Yitong.”

Qiao Yitong. Her again.

Since arriving on the island, this name had been appearing with far too much frequency.

Based on his experience with entertainment industry trends, Jing Xueqin judged that the direct consequence of Qiao Yitong’s actions would be his own total loss of initiative in this program.

Everything he did might seem insignificant when contrasted with her.

It was the same… before.

Once, because they had appeared on a show together, he and Qiao Yitong had been pushed as a “shipped” couple by the media.

At that time, whether it was positive or negative attention, Qiao Yitong’s popularity and influence were far higher than his.

By tying himself to her, he had originally thought that using her fame would at least raise his own popularity to a new level, especially since the “script” he had been given at the time was quite good.

But what was the final result?

Just as the shipping was gaining momentum, some old scandal of Qiao Yitong’s was dug up.

The “couple” brand turned toxic.

Only two types of people remained active online: those who were tired of hearing Qiao Yitong’s name and didn’t want to see anything related to her – including him – and those who were pure anti-fans of hers. As for who Jing Xueqin was? They didn’t care. If you know what’s good for you, don’t meddle, or we’ll curse you out too.

The summary was that the whole shipping stunt hadn’t benefited him in the slightest.

On the contrary, because of some videos edited together when the official accounts paired them, Qiao Yitong had actually gained a wave of fans who just liked her looks.

Even thinking back on it now, Jing Xueqin wanted to curse his bad luck.

And now, the bad luck wasn’t limited to just that one incident…

He had come to this variety show, a show that forced him to endure so much hardship, with the mindset of burning his bridges¹ – suffering for a short time to make things easier later. But now, with Qiao Yitong’s current behavior, well, his suffering was practically for nothing.

Shisan didn’t have as many thoughts. After finishing the fruit, he calmed down.

He looked over at Jing Xueqin, who was sitting with his legs tucked in, leaning against a large tree.

Even now, the man’s fingers were gently brushing the bangs on his forehead, maintaining a sort of lazy, disheveled aesthetic.

Previously, everyone had been busy with one thing or another, and they were constantly arguing, so Shisan hadn’t really noticed Jing Xueqin’s state.

Looking at him now, Shisan suddenly found it quite interesting.

“Still worrying about your image at a time like this?” Shisan teased with a laugh.

How could anyone actually look refreshed and beautiful while doing nothing? Looking at him now, it was clear it was all carefully maintained.

He had been wondering how, while everyone else was covered in dirt and struggling to survive every day, this Jing Xueqin kid had managed to stay looking handsome after all these days.

He had truly thought some people were just born beautiful, but looking at it now, “born beautiful” my foot – it was all his own grooming.

Hearing Shisan’s teasing, Jing Xueqin also smiled. “I can’t help it. My profession is being an idol, after all. An idol must maintain their image at all times. It’s become a professional habit and a matter of professional ethics.”

Hearing this, Xu Yang looked at Jing Xueqin, leaned in closer, and chuckled. “Then life as an idol isn’t easy. With cameras on you twenty-four hours a day like this, doesn’t that mean you can’t relax for even a minute?”

“Well… it’s true you can’t relax when the cameras are on, but it’s become a habit, so it’s fine,” Jing Xueqin explained.

“I’m a bit curious. Besides the image in front of the lens, what other ethics do idols have?” Xu Yang had never interacted with these kinds of people before and was genuinely curious.

“There are plenty,” Jing Xueqin said, his mind racing.

He suddenly realized that while he had thought that the other group leaving meant there were fewer people to contrast with the “greatness” of their group of four, now that there were fewer people to clash with, he stood out even more among these four.

Everyone’s attention would naturally fall on him.

Especially now, with the four of them sitting together chatting like a talk show. As long as he seized the opportunity, he could still improve the public’s opinion of him.

“It involves a lot of things,” Jing Xueqin said after a moment of thought. “Back when I was a trainee at the company, it was practically torture. We had specialized teachers who came every day to teach us the idol code. For example, absolute self-discipline in front of the camera, managing emotions and expressions like a machine, not being willful, and often not even being allowed self-expression.”

“Oh, I see,” Xu Yang nodded in response. Seeing that Xu Yang didn’t quite understand, Jing Xueqin began to elaborate.

“For example, during our training, we were told we could only pick up food that was closest to the camera. When we smiled, the instructors would use a ruler to measure our mouths. Everyone has a different face and personality, so there were specific requirements for exactly how wide a smile should be to look its best,” Jing Xueqin said.

He didn’t mind revealing these industry secrets at all. After all, once this show ended, he would no longer be an idol; he intended to rely on his actual talent to transition his career.

Exposing his past now wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, his candor might make his long-time fans more willing to accept his new direction.

“That’s so harsh. Even the degree of a smile has to be standardized?” Shisan was genuinely shocked.

“It’s more than just that. We even had to receive professional guidance from movement coaches on our sleeping positions. If your posture looked bad while you were asleep, you’d be hit until you woke up. For a while, I became a very light sleeper. Even in my dreams, I had to worry about my posture. If I rolled over just a little, I’d startle myself awake.”

“Man, that’s just inhumane, isn’t it?” Xu Yang couldn’t help but chime in.

“Actually, that’s not even the most ridiculous part. I eventually got used to all that. I think the most absurd thing is the emotional management. Everyone has emotions, right? But an idol isn’t allowed to have them.”

Jing Xueqin continued, “I remember it very clearly. At one fan meeting, I had been standing for over five hours. I’d been busy the whole time and was incredibly exhausted. I desperately wanted to rest, but I couldn’t. I was so tired I couldn’t even make a facial expression, yet I still had to maintain a fifteen-degree smile. That was the specific arc the company calculated was best for me.”

“That strict? What does a smile like that look like?” Shisan asked.

“Like this,” Jing Xueqin said, offering a faint smile, his eyes filled with a gentle warmth.

The others froze. They were very familiar with that smile – wasn’t it the exact expression Jing Xueqin always wore?

It was this very expression that made them feel Jing Xueqin was polite, gentle, and good-tempered – a kind person who was easy to get along with, yet possessed a slight air of detachment that kept people from thinking he was a pushover.

“I thought that was just your personality,” Shisan murmured, feeling a true sense of shock for the first time.

So the Jing Xueqin they usually saw was just a facade?

“My personality…” Jing Xueqin gave another helpless smile. “Strictly speaking, I don’t even remember what my real personality is anymore. I remember once, when my grandmother passed away, I was at the hospital when I heard the news. I completely broke down. I held my mom and cried in a corner of the hospital. At that moment, I didn’t care about anything. I was in pain, I was suffocating. But I couldn’t cry out loud because my manager hadn’t arrived yet. If I attracted too much attention, it might have caused a scene.”

The group fell silent, thinking Jing Xueqin’s life sounded quite miserable.

But the story wasn’t over. Jing Xueqin continued, “However, what I got wasn’t my manager helping me fend off the paparazzi. It was a phone call from him. He said, ‘That charity gala we booked was suddenly moved up. We just got the notice. Where are you? I’m bringing the makeup artist to touch you up quickly. We need to get there as soon as possible.'”

“I told him my grandmother had passed away and asked if we could cancel,” Jing Xueqin said. Recalling the events of that year, his expression tightened slightly, yet his composure remained intact.

Just as he said, even in grief, he couldn’t show emotions that were too extreme.

“The manager wouldn’t force you over something like that, right?” Xu Yang said instinctively.

“My manager paused for a second and only asked me one question: ‘What do you think?'” Jing Xueqin laughed softly.

“Huh? And you actually went?”

“Yes. I had no way to turn it down, and it was my job. While my grandmother had just passed and my mother was wailing outside the hospital, I was at that lavish, bustling charity gala, wearing a smile, energetically and gently telling everyone: ‘Thank you all for your support. All the funds raised today will go toward the mountain children’s protection program…'”

“After that, I suffered from occupational emotional detachment for a while. Sometimes, even when I was clearly miserable, I would smile. I lost the ability to correctly identify and express my own emotions.”

The other three fell into a deep silence after hearing this.

For a moment, they didn’t know what to say.

It felt like they should pity him.

But they didn’t know how to comfort him.

Finally, Shisan stepped forward and lightly patted Jing Xueqin on the shoulder as a gesture of comfort.

He suddenly felt that his own profession was actually quite good. At least he didn’t have to be like an idol, where even his basic human emotions were subject to control.

Xu Yang had also felt uncomfortable at first, thinking Jing Xueqin deserved sympathy.

But before he could voice those sympathetic words, he suddenly realized that compared to a Fitness Coach like himself who had total freedom over his facial expressions, Jing Xueqin’s daily salary probably equaled his entire yearly income.

Thinking of it that way, the words of comfort suddenly stuck in his throat.

If he were given the choice, he would rather be the one who couldn’t freely control his expressions.

He stopped dwelling on it and turned his gaze to the crocodile meat next to them, which had been picked clean. Now, only the crocodile skin remained, sitting there as their trophy.

“Speaking of which, we still have fifteen days left. How are we going to spend them?” Xu Yang asked.

Jing Xueqin felt a slight flicker of dissatisfaction at this sudden change of subject.

However, he didn’t force the conversation back to himself. Instead, he offered his thoughts: “I think survival shouldn’t be a problem for us. This island is rich in resources. We just hadn’t explored enough before, which is why things were difficult. But it’ll be different now. Besides crocodiles, there are surely other creatures to hunt. Qiao Yitong and her group caught a wild boar, for instance. I believe we can do the same.”

The others nodded. Only Song Weiqiang, standing to the side, frowned slightly upon hearing this. He looked at Jing Xueqin once more, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

“I think it’s doable. After all, we don’t just need to hunt for food. We have all sorts of fruit around here. We can just live off that for a while, and these fifteen days will fly by. Survival won’t be that hard for us.”

“That’s only because we found the right way to go about it. It’s actually quite interesting now.”

The group looked at each other and smiled.

Though their current life was difficult, it was worth enduring for the sake of the ten million yuan waiting for them at the end.

Moreover, through this survival challenge, they had witnessed their own courage. They believed this would be a personal highlight they would look back on in the future.

The four of them were very relaxed, lying there and chatting idly. It seemed their lives had indeed improved after the redundant person left.

However, as the first person to break away from their small group, Peppa Lamb was not having such a good time.

It had been nearly three days since he left the team. After walking away in a fit of impulse, he had been wandering the Deserted Island alone. Once the impulse and anger faded, all that remained was a sense of utter bewilderment.

As the cold night wind blew, Peppa Lamb shivered.

Without the support of that angry impulse, he truly felt what it meant to be isolated and helpless. The jungle was dense and the island was vast, but he had no idea which direction to take.

He certainly couldn’t go to Qiao Yitong’s side. He was the one who had the most conflict with her in the entire group.

If he went to her and she truly held a grudge, it wasn’t impossible that she might secretly let that tiger eat him one day.

She wouldn’t even have to lift a finger to end his life. To survive, he had to stay as far away from Qiao Yitong as possible.

He could only walk in the opposite direction.

But the further he walked this way, the further he got from that beautiful bay, and the more desolate the surroundings became.

Seeing nothing but dense, tangled jungle ahead, Peppa Lamb didn’t dare go any further. Gritting his teeth, he decided to make do here for the night.

Then he faced his second major problem. He had been very cool and detached when he left, taking only his bag and the small combat knife assigned to him, but nothing else.

Without a source of fire, he was likely to freeze to death here.

Peppa Lamb thought back to the hand-drill method they had used to start a fire at the beginning. He had participated then; although he wasn’t the one who finally got the spark, he knew the process.

Now, everything depended on him.

Peppa Lamb found suitable wood and some bark that would catch fire easily. He tore off the inner wood fibers, carved a matching small hole, and began trying to drill for fire.

Every step of the process was correct, and the wood was dry enough.

Yet he didn’t know how long he had been spinning the wood. His arms were already aching and numb from exhaustion, but other than a few black scorch marks on the wood dust below, not a single spark appeared.

Feeling the soreness in his arms, Peppa Lamb finally gave up.

If he continued like this, he might die of exhaustion before the fire ever started. He had no food with him right now and needed to conserve his energy.

But the nighttime cold seeped through his clothes and invaded his skin. If he slept in these temperatures, he feared he might not see tomorrow’s sun.

Peppa Lamb looked around. Fallen leaves were the one thing this jungle did not lack.

He used the flashlight he had been given when he first arrived on the island. The battery was low now, providing only a faint glow. Using it for light, Peppa Lamb gathered many sticks and leaves from the forest. He spread some on the ground and piled the rest to the side.

He lay down on the pile of leaves, using them as a heat source to help shield himself from some of the wind and cold.

A gust of wind blew by, scattering many of the leaves covering him. Peppa Lamb trembled.

But the physical cold wasn’t the most terrifying part. The most terrifying thing was that, isolated and helpless, he could see no future for himself.

There were still two weeks left. How was he supposed to get through them?

Amidst such worry, anxiety, and exhaustion, Peppa Lamb fell into a deep sleep.

He slept until the next day. When the sunlight spilled over him, feeling warm and raising his body temperature significantly, he finally opened his eyes.

Having spent the night in the cold, his sleep had been far from restful.

Furthermore, his body had consumed a vast amount of energy to ward off the cold. Now, he was both thirsty and starving.

He surveyed his surroundings and spotted a coconut tree near the shore. Three coconuts hung high in the tree, looking very tempting.

Rather than going elsewhere to look for uncertain fruit, it was better to find a way to knock down these guaranteed coconuts.

They had experience knocking down coconuts before, so Peppa Lamb decided to follow their example.

There was no bamboo here, and he didn’t have a machete, so cutting bamboo was unrealistic. He simply picked up some long branches from the ground. He still had some useless fishing net in his bag, which he used as rope to tie the branches together bit by bit, extending them until they could almost reach the height of the coconuts.

Peppa Lamb thought about it but decided not to tie his combat knife to the end. First, the knife was too small, making it impractical to tie on; it would be faster to just knock them down with the stick.

Second, it wasn’t safe. If it fell off during the process and hit him right in the head, he would unlock the most pathetic way to die.

Having finished his pole, Peppa Lamb carried it over to hit the coconuts.

The pole was very difficult to control once it was extended so long. Just lifting it made his arms ache. He remembered how he and Jing Xueqin used to control the bamboo together to get coconuts. He hadn’t expected it to be so difficult to do entirely alone.

It would be better to cooperate.

As soon as the thought appeared, Peppa Lamb’s lips twitched. He remembered the feeling of being isolated and excluded. Forget it. He could survive on his own.

Enduring the hunger and the ache in his arms, his face contorted as he looked up at the coconuts and struck at them again and again. But the coconuts remained motionless, as if they were part of the tree itself.

His physical energy was being depleted bit by bit. Peppa Lamb even felt his vision darkening. He was likely suffering from severe hunger and low blood sugar.

Finally, hard work paid off. He must have hit it at just the right angle, because two coconuts tumbled down at once.

Peppa Lamb was overjoyed. He couldn’t wait to crack one open and began gulping down the juice inside.

After finishing the liquid, he used a small knife to scrape out the coconut meat and swallowed it down. The dizzy spell he had been fighting finally began to recede.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Peppa Lamb stood up and stretched his limbs.

He looked at the remaining coconut beside him and felt a wave of relief.

That was right. He could survive perfectly well on his own, so why should he depend on that group?

If nothing else, as long as he could find coconuts, he could last through these fifteen days.

So what if he had to suffer a little? Compared to the ten million waiting for him at the end, this bit of hardship was nothing he couldn’t handle.

However, he had overestimated his body’s physical endurance.

The grueling life on the Deserted Island over the past few days had already pushed his body to its limit. After catching a chill the previous night, his immune system had plummeted, and his body’s ability to regulate itself had weakened significantly.

He failed to find any other food that evening and was forced to crack open the second coconut to stave off hunger. Almost as soon as he finished it, a sharp, agonizing pain tore through his stomach.

His entire face turned pale from the pain.

Spotting the nearby camera filming him, he didn’t stop to think. He threw his jacket over the lens to cover it, ran a short distance away, and succumbed to a bout of diarrhea.

He didn’t feel even a slight reprieve until it felt as though every drop of fluid had been drained from his body.

He returned with a ghostly complexion.

Yet, before he could even reach the spot where he had been lying, or even pull his jacket off the camera, his stomach cramped again.

Back and forth he went, time and time again. Peppa Lamb began to break down.

Suddenly, Shisan’s previous warning echoed in his mind: “I don’t recommend eating only coconuts. We have to find other things for sustenance. Coconuts are ‘cooling²‘ by nature; if you keep eating them, I’m afraid you’ll end up with diarrhea.”

He hadn’t given the advice much thought when he was eating, but now that he was on the verge of collapse from dehydration, Peppa Lamb realized the terrifying truth behind those words.

But realizing it now was too late.

The coconut was already in his system, and regret was useless.

Peppa Lamb was falling apart, and beneath the exhaustion, panic began to set in.

His stomach showed no signs of settling, and on this island, he had no medicine for diarrhea, nor any other source of energy to replenish himself.

His physical condition would only continue to spiral downward.

Was he… was he going to die?

Translator’s Notes