Chapter 32

Somehow, Wei Sheng once again went viral in a strange and unexpected way.

This time, however, his new fanbase consisted of people who loved watching old house renovations and wilderness survival content.

No one knew where this kid had gotten his “Social God” certification, but while the other guests were still worried about where they would sleep and shower, Wei Sheng had already coordinated with the aunts and sisters-in-law who had come to help.

“Sister Meifen’s house just got a new water heater, and her bathroom even has a heater. We can go there to shower these next few days.”

“Sister Chunxia has two bamboo beds. We can go get them later. Us three men will just tough it out and sleep on those, while Chen Jie can have the wooden bed in the inner room.”

After solving the issues of bathing and sleeping, Wei Sheng went on to borrow two cooking pots, a kettle, some tableware and kitchen utensils, and even got a mosquito net for Chen Mengjie!

“There are still mosquitoes this season in the mountains?” Chen Mengjie asked curiously.

Wei Sheng didn’t want to scare her, but he had to give her a quiet reminder: “No mosquitoes, but in old houses like this, even after a thorough cleaning, there are still tiny black bugs that fall from the ceiling. I got you a mosquito net so you won’t have to worry about something dropping into your mouth in the middle of the night.”

Chen Mengjie was horrified, her eyes welling up with tears. She suddenly felt the urge to swear brotherhood with Wei Sheng right then and there!

He was more considerate than an actual younger brother—
Even though she didn’t have a younger brother ┓(‘∀`)┏

The two other men overheard their conversation, and their hair instantly stood on end.

Zhang Zexuan, who had never stayed in such a rundown rural house, nudged Ouyang Xia with his elbow.
“Ouyang, is what Xiao Wei said true? Will there really be bugs dropping from the beams… into our mouths?”

Ouyang Xia solemnly nodded.
“These old houses have bamboo and straw ceilings. If people live in them, they change the materials every year. But if no one’s lived here for a while…”

Zhang Zexuan’s whole body bristled like a frightened cat.

Thankfully, Wei Sheng was a cleanliness freak himself.

After settling their only female team member, he went to the village chief to get more plastic sheeting.
“We three men will keep it simple and build a temporary tent with this.”

Zhang Zexuan’s eyes teared up instantly.
“Wei Sheng, from now on, I’ll look out for you at work! If anyone dares to mess with you, just come find me!”

The three of them got to work.

They picked a corner and hammered nails into two adjacent walls, layering plastic sheeting along them. Then they moved the borrowed bamboo beds inside and secured two thick bamboo poles upright at the foot of the beds.

Once the “frame” was in place, Wei Sheng dragged in two thinner bamboo poles and positioned them horizontally about two meters high. Finally, he draped the remaining plastic sheeting over the top, overlapping the sides.

A massive transparent indoor tent—two meters tall, 2.5 meters wide, and three meters long—was complete.

Now that they had shelter on all sides, the three men felt an overwhelming sense of security.

Chen Mengjie, watching from the side, was nearly in tears with envy.

She had thought she was lucky just having a mosquito net.

But there was an upgraded version?!

That plastic tent was impenetrable—even the tiniest bugs wouldn’t get in!

However, her envy didn’t last long.

Because Wei Sheng regretfully pointed out, “This tent keeps bugs out, but since it’s all plastic, we can’t use a fire pit inside. If it gets cold at night… we’ll just have to warm up by shivering.”

Chen Mengjie: “Pfft~~”

The aunts and sisters-in-law all chuckled.

That afternoon, several villagers brought them water-filled heating bags.

That night, the four guests sat around a warm fire pit, with an iron rack on top holding several enamel bowls of various sizes.

Since it was cold, Wei Sheng decided against stir-frying dishes—they’d cool too quickly. Instead, he borrowed lidded enamel bowls and made stews using the ingredients the village chief had sent over.

Ham and tofu stew.
Smoked pork ribs with radish.
Braised pork belly with homemade fried tofu and rehydrated shiitake mushrooms.
Pork belly stewed with Chinese cabbage.
Potato and chicken stew.

The finished dishes were served in the lidded enamel bowls and placed over the charcoal fire. The lids trembled as the stews bubbled inside.

Next to the fire pit, a small pot was suspended over another burner, filled with sausage-flavored claypot rice!

When making the rice, Chen Mengjie had almost drooled on herself.

Wei Sheng diced the village chief’s homemade sausages along with carrots, garlic sprouts, and mushrooms, stir-fried them, then poured everything—juices included—over the rice. He also drizzled some vegetable oil along the edges of the pot. The fragrance was enough to make everyone’s stomachs growl.

“Dinner’s ready!!!”

With Wei Sheng’s shout, the other three immediately sprang into action.

One grabbed chopsticks.
One scooped rice.
Zhang Zexuan even poured each of them a glass of the village chief’s homemade rice wine.

“Cheers!”

They clinked their cups together, drank the sweet rice wine, and dug into the hearty meal.

At the start, the four guests had looked like disaster victims, but now, they were living the dream—eating meat and drinking wine without a care in the world.

Not only were the show’s original fans entertained, but even the newly hooked audience—drawn in by big data and their love for old house renovations—were utterly captivated.

By the time the livestream ended, these new viewers eagerly hit the follow button.

Then they checked out the show’s homepage—
And were instantly stunned.

Wait, what?

Isn’t this supposed to be some kind of home renovation show?

How could a “rural revitalization and poverty alleviation” program be this addictive?!

This doesn’t make any sense!!!

Oh well, this show is actually pretty novel. The unsatisfied netizens, unable to wait until Saturday night for the full episode, decided to rewatch the live stream replay.

However, as they watched, someone suddenly noticed something off.

“Uh… this might sound a bit impolite, but in my hometown, we only set up a tent with white plastic sheets or white gauze when there’s a funeral wake…”

Finally, one brave netizen spoke up.

Immediately after, a wave of comments followed: “Same in my hometown.”

Netizens started pointing out that this tent—cough—kind of looked like a funeral wake setup.

“An old house, eerie wind, and a funeral wake… Wei Sheng, are you sure you’re sleeping in there tonight?”

“No offense, but… should we be preparing condolence money now?”

“You’re too late. I’ve already started setting up a banquet.”

“Lay down in the wake, cover with a cloth, friends and family await the feast. The departed leave, the pallbearers¹ lift, a sea of white follows behind (🤣).”

“Rounding up, I’m already burning incense.”

“Rounding up, I’m already paying my respects.”

“Rounding up, I’m already kneeling and weeping at the wake.”

“Shivering… So there aren’t just one, but three people lying in that ‘wake’?”

“Now the real question is—since there are three people inside, how much condolence money should we give?”

“I only have one question: If we give three portions, do we have to attend the banquet for three days straight?”

Meanwhile, the three people lying comfortably in bed, having eaten their fill, soaked their feet, and now snugly cuddling their hot water bags while browsing their phones: “???”

Inside the sealed and warm tent, a sudden gust of eerie wind blew through…

“AHHHHHHHH!”

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

“I’m going to the bathroom!”

“Wait for me, I’m coming too!”

The three of them grabbed their phones, threw on their down jackets, and scrambled out of the—ahem—tent.

At that moment, Wei Sheng suddenly turned back to look.

Under the dim glow of the kerosene lamp, the plastic-sheeted tent that had looked bright and normal during the day now, for some reason, seemed like a massive coffin!

And just moments ago, the three of them had been lying inside that “coffin”! (⊙⊙)

Suddenly, another gust of wind blew, rustling the plastic sheets with a chilling sound.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Zhang Zexuan screamed in terror and instinctively clung to Wei Sheng.

Ouyang Xia felt his hair stand on end.

But as the oldest among them, he couldn’t bring himself to clutch onto the younger guys and scream.

So he clenched his teeth, balled his fists, took a deep breath, and after a long moment, he suggested in a slightly trembling voice—

“I-it’s too early to sleep. How about we go by the fire pit, brew some tea, and chat?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Zhang Zexuan nodded frantically.

Wei Sheng also felt a bit spooked and quickly nodded along.

The three of them wasted no time escaping from the tent that now seemed eerily like a funeral wake. Only when Wei Sheng used a small shovel to stir the ashes in the fire pit, revealing the warm embers beneath, did they finally feel some warmth of the living world returning to their bodies.

After a while, Wei Sheng finished brewing a pot of aged tree tea. The three of them cradled their warm enamel mugs, finally managing a smile of relief—

Just then!

From inside the white mosquito net, a slender, pale arm suddenly stretched out.

Clang!

Zhang Zexuan’s enamel mug slipped from his hands and smashed heavily onto the large stone by the fire pit.

Scalding hot tea splashed everywhere, with two drops landing on the back of Ouyang Xia’s hand, making him flinch.

Ouyang Xia chuckled, about to tease Zhang Zexuan for being so easily scared just because of some netizens’ jokes—nothing spooky had actually happened in the house, so why was he freaking out?

But before he could say anything, his peripheral vision caught sight of something.

A long-haired female ghost was floating toward them!

“HOLY SHIT!!”

Ouyang Xia almost flung his mug away.

Wei Sheng felt his soul nearly escape his body…

Breathing became difficult!

He kind of wanted to pee.

Fortunately, in the next second, the “female ghost” let out a sleepy, sweet yawn from behind her disheveled hair.

“Why are you guys still awake this late? Having a secret midnight snack behind my back?”

The “ghost” pushed aside the long hair hanging over her face.

Who else could it be but Chen Mengjie?

“HOLY SHIT! BIG SIS! You almost scared us to death!” Zhang Zexuan couldn’t help cursing.

Then, looking pitifully at his dented enamel mug, he thought—tomorrow, I better find out whose mug this was and pay them back.

Chen Mengjie, feeling a bit wronged, tugged at her hair with both hands and whined like a child in despair—

“I forgot to bring a hair tie when I left the house today! o(╥﹏╥)o”

Ah, the eternal struggle of long-haired girls with hair ties!

It always feels like you own a bunch, but when you actually need one, poof—they’re nowhere to be found!

Short-haired guys would never understand the suffering of long-haired girls.

The three men, speechless, simply couldn’t relate.

In government jobs, appearance and grooming were strictly regulated—forget about growing their hair out, even if their hair went a little past their ears, the disciplinary committee would catch them and lecture them.

How could they have known they needed to carry hair ties?

In the end, it was Wei Sheng—who was most familiar with their supplies—who managed to dig out two floral fabric strips from somewhere and handed them to Chen Mengjie, allowing her to tie her hair into two braids.

“This hairband is actually pretty useful. Where did you find it, Wei Sheng?”

“Uh… it was in that pile of stuff the village chief gave us,” Wei Sheng stammered, trying to explain.

How could he possibly tell Chen Mengjie that these two floral cloth strips were originally used to tie up chicken feet?

The village chief had given them two live chickens, and to keep them from running off, their feet had been tied with cloth strips and placed in a basket.

Earlier today, they had cooked one of the chickens. While plucking its feathers, Wei Sheng had casually washed the cloth strips and hung them by the fire to dry. He had planned to buy a few more free-range chickens from the locals before heading back and use these same strips to tie their feet for easy transport—after all, his grandma would love them.

These cloth strips might seem insignificant, but when you actually needed them, they weren’t always easy to find.

Growing up helping his grandparents run a small store, Wei Sheng had developed a habit of saving useful odds and ends—especially different types of string or rope, which always came in handy when tying up packages for customers.

But now, instead of binding a chicken’s feet, the cloth strips had ended up tying Chen Mengjie’s hair.

At least they hadn’t been stained with chicken poop… cough!

(End of Chapter)

Notes:

1. Pallbearers are individuals who carry or escort a coffin at a funeral, often close family or friends. Symbolically, they can represent those guiding someone to the end of a journey. ↩︎