Chapter 68 – End of the Second Recording

But who would be credited with seeing it first?

Lin Ganzhi and Qi Yushuo looked at each other, both seeing the bewilderment in the other’s eyes.

At that moment, Brother Chen, standing below, took out the walkie-talkie from his pocket and pressed play. “It seems both teams have discovered the location of our logo. We will now announce the hidden rule of this competition: the entire team must see the logo for it to count!”

Everyone had to see it?

Wenren Yi looked up at Lin Ganzhi on the top. “Ganzhi, what did you see?”

“A giant logo, viewed from a forced perspective. You can only see it from up here!” At this point, anyone with eyes could see that Director Fang wanted to play a big game. Being amazing yourself wasn’t enough; the whole team had to complete the challenge to win.

At that moment, everyone couldn’t help but curse Director Fang in their hearts: Old dog!

Now, the faces of those below became solemn. After all, it had taken some effort for the two strongest members of both teams to get up there, and they had even made mistakes at the end. To ask them to climb up now was simply a fool’s dream, forcing the impossible.

Lin Ganzhi frowned in thought, looking at the nearly eight-meter-high rock face. It was unrealistic to have them climb up like this, and the chance of injury was almost one hundred percent. Was there any way he could help? The vines from a few days ago came to Lin Ganzhi’s mind.

He shouted down, “Wenren, do you remember those vines? Find some! There should be more in the water around here!”

That’s right!

One sentence enlightened both teams. Wenren Yi excitedly gave Lin Ganzhi an “OK” sign. “We’ll go look!”

After saying that, Que Jin and Lu Xi quickly followed, without a hint of hesitation.

On Luan Yuanzhou’s side, however, anger was one thing, but work still had to be done. “Let’s go find some vines too.”

Fan Feimiao grumbled but didn’t make a move.

Luan Yuanzhou then turned his gaze to Zhong Jingyi. Zhong Jingyi hesitantly glanced at the top of the slope and said, “Yuanzhou, I’m afraid of heights.” This time, there was no pretense. When filming scenes that required wire work, Zhong Jingyi always insisted on a stunt double.

This was something that Luan Yuanzhou had once felt very sorry for, but now it seemed so ironic and laughable.

Luan Yuanzhou rubbed Zhong Jingyi’s shoulder and said with his last bit of patience, “I’ll go up first. Then you tie the vine around your waist, and Yushuo and I will pull you up together. You just need to hold onto the vine and close your eyes. It’ll be over quickly.”

“Who can say if the vine is sturdy or not?” Fan Feimiao retorted.

Towards Fan Feimiao, Luan Yuanzhou had much less patience. He said bluntly, “I don’t know if the vine is sturdy, but I do know that it was very dangerous for Yushuo to go up empty-handed just now.”

One sentence left Fan Feimiao speechless.

The two of them fell into silence again. Luan Yuanzhou completely lost his patience and said in a deep voice, “If you don’t want to, then forget it. I’ll go up by myself.” After saying that, he turned and walked towards the jungle where the vines were.

“Wait, Yuanzhou, I’ll go!” Zhong Jingyi was completely terrified by Luan Yuanzhou’s attitude and gritted his teeth as he followed.

Now only Fan Feimiao was left. He kicked a stone on the ground and subconsciously looked back up at the top of the slope, just in time to meet the gazes of Lin Ganzhi and Qi Yushuo. One was standing and the other was sitting, but their eyes were surprisingly consistent—cold and filled with contempt.

Fuck! Were they looking at him like he was a coward?

Fan Feimiao, concerned about his pride, followed them. The two cameramen also went to film them, leaving the place quiet for a moment.

“He’s pretty shameless,” Lin Ganzhi commented accurately.

“There are many people like that in the industry. You get used to it,” Qi Yushuo said, showing a maturity beyond his years. His perspective on things was so calm it was admirable.

Lin Ganzhi sighed. This was also why he had been so resistant to variety shows in his past life. A motley crew of monsters and demons, who smoked and drank in private, but had to act like characters in a script on a variety show. The unlucky ones were always the newcomers without any backing like them.

“If we can draw lots next episode, you should try to get on our team,” Lin Ganzhi thought of a compromise.

Unexpectedly, Qi Yushuo laughed out loud, a clean and bright laugh belonging to a young man. “If I come to your team, who gets replaced? Sister Que Jin or Lu Xi?” If either of them went to the other team, they probably wouldn’t even survive.

Lin Ganzhi felt a pang of sympathy, but he also knew that it wouldn’t be good to replace anyone on their team. “Then I’ll go talk to Director Fang later, try to get some information. What if there’s a guest star next episode? You still have a chance!”

Qi Yushuo looked down at Lin Ganzhi, his gaze filled with gentleness. In the industry, apart from his teammates, no one had been this good to him for a long time. But he couldn’t rely on someone who was in a precarious situation himself because of this. He still hoped that he could become more famous, famous enough to shield Lin Ganzhi from some of the storms.

“Don’t overthink it. They just have nasty mouths. There’s a saying, if you have skills, you won’t go hungry anywhere. They’ll have to rely on me to pull them up later, won’t they?” Qi Yushuo couldn’t help but reach out and ruffle Lin Ganzhi’s head.

Lin Ganzhi quickly covered his head and retreated. What an unruly little brat!

Wenren Yi was quick to act. She used the stone Lin Ganzhi had used to kill fish to quickly cut a few vines. On Que Jin’s suggestion, she combined three vines into one to prevent the risk of it breaking.

“I’ll climb up with the rope later, and then Ganzhi and I will pull you guys up,” Wenren Yi planned.

Lu Xi frowned and objected, “How can we let a girl go up first? I’ll go up first, and then Ganzhi and I will pull you guys up.” Although Lu Xi was a weakling in many aspects, he had learned his fair share of machismo from his brother.

“Pfft!” Wenren Yi couldn’t help but laugh. She pointed to a vine still hanging on a tree branch not far away. “Then why don’t you hang onto that vine for twenty seconds and show me?”

Lu Xi paused, then very pragmatically said, “I take back what I just said.”

Que Jin patted Lu Xi’s shoulder with concern and encouragement. “It’s okay, everyone has their own strengths. Your hearing is the best among us.”

Lu Xi’s eyes instantly welled up. He was being comforted, so happy~

The three of them cut six vines, tied three together, and then joined the two large vines. To be on the safe side, Que Jin cut some more palm leaves and wrapped them tightly around the connection point of the vines. After testing it by pulling many times and seeing no signs of breaking, she confidently carried the vines back.

Luan Yuanzhou’s group was much faster than Wenren Yi’s. When they arrived, they saw that Luan Yuanzhou had already tied a stone to one side of the vine and was forcefully throwing it up. After three attempts, Qi Yushuo finally caught it on the fourth try.

Wenren Yi also threw up a section of her vine. Thanks to her exceptional strength, Lin Ganzhi caught it on the first try.

The atmosphere at the scene became tense again.

“Are you sure it’s sturdy?” Lin Ganzhi asked worriedly.

Wenren Yi nodded. “Don’t worry, Que Jin tied the vines. It’s guaranteed to be sturdy!”

Being praised, Que Jin couldn’t help but blush. She playfully pushed Wenren Yi and then reminded her, “Be careful on your way up.”

Wenren Yi nodded. As she took her first step, Luan Yuanzhou was already a third of the way up, pulling on the vine. It was clear that his physical fitness was quite good. There was probably also a factor of not wanting to be a burden, so his speed was exceptionally fast.

Wenren Yi also pulled on her vine and climbed up step by step. Her long sleeves were rolled up to her shoulders, revealing well-defined muscles on her fair arms. Her crisp and clean movements made the live stream audience go wild, and her girlfriend fans were ecstatic.

Although Lin Ganzhi’s strength was average, there were a few protruding rocks on the top of the slope. By bracing his feet against them, he had a point of support that was just enough to bear the force needed for Wenren Yi’s climb.

Qi Yushuo carefully watched Luan Yuanzhou’s ascent. He wasn’t sure if he was overthinking it, but he always felt that their vine was a bit thinner. The other side had two vines connected together, but they had used three, yet the length was about the same. The knot in the middle was large but didn’t look very secure.

Just then, he saw that the knot closest to him was slowly shrinking. With every step Luan Yuanzhou took, it loosened a little more.

But Luan Yuanzhou was already two-thirds of the way up, less than a meter from the knot!

Qi Yushuo broke out in a cold sweat. Wenren Yi had Que Jin and Lu Xi watching below, but on their side, Fan Feimiao was standing far away, looking like he didn’t want to get close. Although Zhong Jingyi was standing below, it was clear he wasn’t prepared for any accidents.

“Senior, can you go a little faster? My hand seems to be cramping,” Qi Yushuo said in a low voice, just loud enough for Luan Yuanzhou to hear.

Luan Yuanzhou was stunned. He could tell from Qi Yushuo’s eyes that he was definitely not joking.

“Okay!” Luan Yuanzhou had actually used up most of his strength by now, but because of Qi Yushuo’s words, he didn’t dare to slack off for a second. He climbed up the vine in large strides, grabbing the vine with one hand just a second before the connection point completely came loose.

“Fuck!”

The people below watched as the two sections of the vine fell without warning. Luan Yuanzhou’s one hand was tightly gripping the vine, his body swinging in the air like a kite with a broken string.

“Yuanzhou!” Zhong Jingyi screamed in terror, then turned to Fan Feimiao with red eyes. “Didn’t you say you tied the last knot tightly?!”

Fan Feimiao was startled and stammered, unable to say a word.

He hadn’t expected anything to go wrong. When he was tying the knot just now, he was still sulking. But these two film emperors hadn’t paid any attention to his mood at all. He thought being a little careless wouldn’t be a problem, but he never expected… Crap, it was all over now.

At that moment, Wenren Yi used both hands to climb to the top of the slope and went over to help with Lin Ganzhi. The three of them worked together to pull Luan Yuanzhou up. Luan Yuanzhou’s face was pale as he thanked them.

“Yuanzhou! Are you okay!” Zhong Jingyi’s voice was filled with tears. If he could have gone up, he would have hugged Luan Yuanzhou long ago.

Luan Yuanzhou looked down and said, “I’m fine.”

He had never participated in a variety show before. When he was younger, he had even sworn not to participate in such staged, publicity-seeking programs. He just wanted to be a good actor, hoping to leave his name in the history of film with his passion and dreams. That was until he met Zhong Jingyi. Before, he thought, what’s a variety show for his sake?

Now, thinking about it, he suddenly seemed to regret it.

“I just relied on Ganzhi’s team for help, which violated the rules of the competition. Jingyi, I’m forfeiting.” As Luan Yuanzhou said this, a heavy weight seemed to lift from his heart.

Below, Zhong Jingyi’s lips trembled, but he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.

Later, Lin Ganzhi and Wenren Yi pulled Que Jin and Lu Xi up one by one, rightfully winning the competition. The recording officially ended. The time was six in the afternoon. The countdown to Yan Shengping’s birthday: six hours.