Chapter 18: Qiao Yitong is Still Alive

Wen Bojun’s entire body tensed up.

He slowly exhaled, forcing his rigid muscles to relax. By the time he answered the phone, his tone was perfectly composed.

“Brother Bai.”

The man on the other end, addressed as Brother Bai, sounded somewhat older. He asked with a hint of a smile in his voice, “President Wen, how is the project progressing lately?”

Hearing that the call wasn’t about Qiao Yitong, Wen Bojun relaxed slightly.

The two exchanged a few words about the project. Just as Wen Bojun had completely let his guard down, Brother Bai shifted the conversation. “That Qiao Yitong seems to be quite active lately?”

Wen Bojun immediately grew tense again. He gave a dry laugh and said, “Brother Bai, you’re paying attention to her?”

“I wouldn’t call it paying attention. My driver mentioned it to me today. President Wen, it seems you’ve given her another chance.” Brother Bai’s voice still carried a smile, but the underlying coldness was enough to make one’s blood run cold.

Wen Bojun paused, then laughed as well. “I wouldn’t call it a chance. She just had a bit of luck. But so what if she survives well on the show? Once she comes back, she’s still a dead woman walking.”

“Is that so?” Brother Bai said flatly.

Wen Bojun’s eyes narrowed, unable to grasp the meaning behind that remark.

“Qiao Yitong’s martial arts skills – where did they come from? Why did she train in them?” Brother Bai simply laid it out.

At this, Wen Bojun’s expression changed completely.

This was exactly what had been bothering him most over the past two days, the thing that was driving him toward a breakdown.

How did an entertainer like Qiao Yitong, who was supposed to be weak and helpless, possess those “assassination” skills? Where did they come from?

Did she practice in secret?

But in this peaceful world, why would anyone secretly train in such skills?

Just thinking about it sent a chill through his heart.

…

The island.

Shisan and the others had gone five full meals without real food.

For those five meals, they had survived entirely on snails Shisan had scavenged and the bitter, astringent, sour fruits picked from the trees.

At this moment, every single one of them truly felt the hardship of survival.

One person even broke down, shouting at the camera, “I want to quit! I don’t care how much the penalty fee is! Just let me leave this variety show, I’m not filming anymore!”

But there was no response.

From the moment they signed the contract, there was no exit mechanism or valid reason for withdrawal for thirty days.

Even if someone died, their body would have to wait until the thirty days were up before it could be taken off the island.

Realizing this filled everyone present with despair.

Hunger ruthlessly eroded their willpower. After five missed meals, even the strongest person couldn’t hold out.

Those who had been extremely repulsed by the snails at first were no longer picky.

When hunger hits a certain level, all dietary taboos vanish.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, they imagined the snails were some other food. After barely lining their stomachs to avoid starving to death, the eleven people sitting around the campfire looked more somber than ever before.

“If anyone has any thoughts, speak up. Let’s talk to each other,” Shisan said, taking the initiative as he scanned their faces.

On a deserted island, venting emotions was also a crucial part of survival.

He was met with silence. Or rather, after starving for several meals, they didn’t even have the strength to speak, let alone vent. They simply lacked the energy.

Instead, after a long silence, Qi Qing, who had been sitting there quietly, spoke up. “I wonder how those two, Qiao Yitong and the other, are doing now.”

She didn’t know about the others, but for her, Qiao Yitong had become a knot in her heart these past few days.

As someone directly involved, no one knew the situation that day better than she did.

Qiao Yitong hadn’t been acting. It was Qi Qing’s own fall that had dragged Qiao Yitong down. Then, when Qiao Yitong was attacked, Qi Qing had been momentarily paralyzed by fear. Combined with the way public opinion had shifted and the clear hostility and exclusion everyone showed toward Qiao Yitong, Qi Qing hadn’t dared to say anything in her defense.

Now that she suddenly brought it up, everyone was stunned.

On this deserted island, it was every man for himself. They couldn’t even manage their own lives, so who had the energy to worry about others?

However, since the topic had been raised, people began to chime in.

“I reckon they’re probably gone by now,” someone said first.

A shiver ran through the group. Although they weren’t familiar with each other, they had all come to the island together. They were all living, breathing people when they arrived, and now some might already be dead.

This kind of cruelty happening right beside them was a massive shock to anyone.

“Surely it hasn’t come to that. At least Lu Cheng is with her,” said a man who had been quite low-key.

“Are you joking? You think they can live just because Lu Cheng is there? You’ve all seen how barren this island is. We can’t even survive with all of us gathered together. How are the two of them supposed to live?” said the thin, frail man who had snatched food earlier.

He hadn’t been in good health even before coming to the island.

He used to stay at home all day playing games, never seeing the sun. It wasn’t until he realized he had run out of food one day that he was struck by the fear that he would starve to death in his rented room.

But after years of gaming, he was already a wreck.

He couldn’t find a job, and he didn’t have the strength for manual labor. He spent his time lurking online until he finally found this opportunity to make a fortune in one go.

Participate in a Deserted Island Survival Variety Show, last thirty days, and he could live comfortably for the rest of his life.

Upon hearing the news, he immediately signed up. It wasn’t until the day of the interview that he realized how popular such a life-risking show actually was.

But it was understandable when he thought about it.

After all, the temptation of a ten-million-yuan prize was right there. To take a big gamble with his life and then do nothing for the rest of his days – wouldn’t that be wonderful?

What he never expected was that the survival games he played in the past would become the capital that allowed him to enter this program.

So now, he had successfully arrived.

His only goal was to survive these thirty days and get that ten million. As for who he offended? Or whether he had a good reputation? He didn’t care about any of it.

Now that the conversation had turned to Qiao Yitong, his tone was cold and indifferent.

To him, the only person who mattered was whoever could keep him alive. Whoever provided was the master of the island; as for the rest, whether they lived or died had nothing to do with him.

But what he said made Qi Qing freeze for a moment.

A complex wave of emotion spread through Qi Qing’s heart before she finally spoke. “If something really happened to her, then we indirectly caused her death. Of course, I’m the one most to blame.”

Perhaps these words pricked someone’s guilty conscience, or perhaps they were simply too harsh to hear.

The group’s expressions immediately soured.

“What are you talking about? She’s the one who did something wrong. She’s the one who decided to leave. What does that have to do with us?” Peppa Lamb said, his voice laced with displeasure.

“She didn’t do anything wrong. Back then, I was the one who got scared by the python. I bumped into her when I backed away. It wasn’t her fault,” Qi Qing said.

This single sentence left everyone stunned.

Peppa Lamb, in particular, never imagined Qi Qing would suddenly say something like this now. Didn’t that make his previous hostility look ridiculous?

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you say anything then?” Peppa Lamb’s first instinct was to shift the blame.

The others nodded in agreement.

Qi Qing could feel it – these people were closing ranks.

When people simply want someone to blame, the facts and the truth no longer seem to matter.

Qi Qing suddenly felt as though she understood the situation Qiao Yitong had been in. A sense of powerlessness washed over her, accompanied by a surge of intense frustration.

“I hadn’t even said a word yet and every single one of you was already targeting her and scolding her. Between being terrified and seeing how you all were acting, I just froze,” Qi Qing argued.

Peppa Lamb let out a sharp, angry laugh. “Good grief. We were standing up for you, and now you’re turning around and biting us? That’s hilarious.”

“If you’re so unhappy with us, you can get lost too. Go find Qiao Yitong. Otherwise, don’t stay here and stab us in the back,” he snapped irritably.

He was the one who had set the narrative in motion back then.

The reason he had dared to lead the group’s sentiment so blatantly was because Qiao Yitong was the common enemy. No one was willing to speak up for her.

If everyone insists that black is white, then black becomes white.

Who could have guessed that as soon as she thought Qiao Yitong might be dead because she left the team, this woman would start getting sentimental and try to clear her name?

Qiao Yitong might be dead, but he didn’t want to be hounded to death by netizens.

The most important thing right now was to make Qi Qing shut up.

A sense of helplessness surged within Qi Qing, but just as Peppa Lamb said, she didn’t dare leave the team.

If she left, she would become the next Qiao Yitong.

Seeing one wave of conflict follow another, Shisan stepped in once more, looking exhausted.

“Enough. Let the past stay in the past. Our priority now is finding food. Otherwise, regardless of what happened to Qiao Yitong, every one of us is going to die here,” Shisan said.

This change of subject effectively ended the confrontation.

However, this entire conversation had been clearly heard by every viewer in the Live Stream Room.

[??????]

[I can’t quite believe what I just heard. So when they first got on the island, Qiao Yitong’s “deliberate” fall to get attention wasn’t an act? It was just the others controlling the narrative?]

[While they were talking, I went back and watched the replay. I slowed it down several times, and you can clearly see that Qiao Yitong really was knocked over.]

[Then why didn’t Qiao Yitong explain herself?]

[That’s kind of funny. Everyone was screaming at her – would an explanation have even mattered?]

[So she was misunderstood, ostracized, and bullied by this team, and then she just couldn’t be bothered to explain and left on her own with her pride intact?]

[I’m suddenly starting to feel bad for her. What do I do?]

[I actually think it was good that she left. Now Sister Tong is living in her little house, drinking spring water, and eating grilled fish. Life is great. If she hadn’t left, wouldn’t she be starving and eating snails with them?]

[I don’t care what her image was like on the outside before, but on this Deserted Island, I officially declare that she is the sole representative of the ‘beautiful, powerful, and tragic’ archetype!]

…

The bombshell Qi Qing dropped because she thought Qiao Yitong was dead immediately grabbed the attention of a massive audience.

But that wasn’t even the biggest shock.

Just as the viewership in the main Live Stream Room skyrocketed and everyone was discussing Qiao Yitong’s framing, another explosive piece of news arrived.

“Attention all members on the island. Congratulations on surviving 7 days on the Deserted Island. There are currently 13 surviving members. You have 23 days remaining. Please keep up the good work.”

The director’s voice broadcasted across the island through loudspeakers, interrupting the discussion between Shisan and the others.

After a brief silence of several seconds, the group suddenly stood up.

Thirteen survivors. That meant…

Qiao Yitong was still alive!