Chapter 34
Inside the production team’s control room, the other staff members who had just stopped their training all widened their eyes in horror.
“Director, calm down!” the head of the publicity team shrieked. “A Force Eight typhoon can really kill people! This is an island, not the mainland! A Force Eight typhoon could very easily create a storm surge. What if the waves flood this wooden cabin directly?”
Little Li had been eating breakfast just now. When he heard Sun Xinping’s order, a mouthful of soy milk got stuck in his throat, and he was now coughing like mad.
Even then, he did not forget to persuade him. “Director, a Force Eight typhoon really is a bit much. In the city, you can’t even go outside during a Force Eight typhoon. And it’s too fake if there wasn’t any warning at all.”
He pointed at Qi Xiu on the screen. “Little Qi does divinations every day. He even predicted the heavy rain earlier. How could he possibly fail to predict a typhoon?”
Sun Xinping: “…”
Damn it, that made so much sense.
He calmed down a little and argued, “Little Qi hasn’t gone out these past two days. He hasn’t done any divination.”
Little Li: “…”
Hey, was that the point he was trying to make?
Old Qian, the head of the publicity team, reached out and touched Sun Xinping’s forehead. “Old Sun, what kind of shock did you suffer?”
“It’s not like we’re lacking popularity. Why do you have to make life difficult for the guests? Don’t tell me it’s because you’re jealous they’re living well and not suffering?”
Sun Xinping felt guilty for a moment.
That was indeed part of the reason.
The head of the equipment team, Goat, continued persuading him from the side. “Director, stop messing around. If you’re bored, just stop the heavy rain and drive the guests outside.”
Sun Xinping’s expression grew conflicted, as if he had been moved by his subordinates’ persuasion.
But…
He irritably wiped his forehead.
“Raise it. Raise it to Force Eight. Haven’t people online been curious lately about just how sturdy Shen Jinfeng’s wooden cabin is? At Force Eight, some older houses in rural areas can’t withstand it. Even the tiles might almost fly off. This is the perfect chance to see how strong that cabin really is.”
“And lower the rain a little while you’re at it.”
If the wooden cabin got blown away, he could not really let all the guests turn into drenched chickens. With the current level of rain plus a typhoon, it would probably scare them senseless.
He did not want the guests to end up traumatized and then come after him once the show was over.
It was enough to see them embarrass themselves a little.
Although he knew his behavior was already somewhat dishonorable.
That was precisely why he needed to keep the consequences within a controllable range.
But after he gave the order, no one moved.
Everyone looked at him as if he had gone insane.
Little Li even secretly rolled his eyes. He decided that once he had time later, he would anonymously rant about this online.
Sun Xinping widened his eyes and roared, “Go do it! What are you standing around for?”
It was not as if he was the only one losing his mind. The investors had lost their minds too!
A few seconds later, seeing Goat lead the other technicians in his team to get started, he finally sat back down in the director’s chair with a grave expression.
He had known from the beginning that most of the guests he had invited this season were people with terrible reputations, people who had offended others.
Some had even been abandoned by their original companies.
Aside from Qin Ye and He Erwang, whom he had invited in a moment of “delusion” to serve as the show’s respectable front, but how were those two not victims of being tricked in another sense?
One had been “tricked” by his mother, and the other had been “tricked” by his agent.
There was also Qi Xiu, whom he had casually shoved into the show. Unexpectedly, Qi Xiu had brought plenty of surprises.
Probably because of the skills he had displayed on the show, no one had called to threaten him for now. Instead, quite a few people had asked for his contact information because they needed divinations.
But as for the remaining three…
He had not expected the people behind them to be so unable to tolerate seeing them do well.
Mo Fan, a washed-up actor with a notorious reputation and a domestic violence scandal hanging over him, had only just gained a little attention because of “Being Human” and the newly aired “Operation Blade Sheath.”
Then his ex-wife’s current partner, a big shot Sun Xinping could not afford to offend, called to give him instructions.
The request was that Mo Fan must be made to embarrass himself on the show, that his character setting should be fully exploited, and preferably that he offend every other guest, such as the currently explosive Shen Jinfeng, He Erwang, who had promised to give him a hand after the show ended, and Qin Ye, who had powerful backing…
As for Gu Shengsheng, before the show even began airing, Sun Xinping had already received hints from his parents. They said he could assign Gu Shengsheng the worst character setting in the show. Sun Xinping had accepted it without “taking it seriously”—or rather, with delighted willingness.
The day before yesterday, his parents had called to ask whether the character setting for Gu Shengsheng had been assigned incorrectly.
They spoke with heartfelt earnestness, saying that the current harmony on the show was not interesting to watch. Someone had to take on the scolding. Their son usually had a bad personality, so he could serve as that candidate.
Sun Xinping believed Qi Xiu’s words. Those two old fossils really could not stand seeing their own son do well.
Sun Xinping was a father himself. No matter what, he could not understand why such parents existed in this world. But he was too lazy to meddle in other people’s affairs. Perhaps this was simply the diversity of species in the world.
There were plenty of celebrities in the entertainment industry who had been screwed over by their parents.
Gu Shengsheng’s parents were nothing much. They were just two ordinary people. Even if they disappeared from the entertainment industry, they would not stir up the slightest splash.
But immediately afterward, Li Hao, who had previously risen by stepping on Gu Shengsheng, called and asked whether his character implantation had failed. Why had selfishness, self-interest, arrogance, and tyranny not been displayed at all?
Sun Xinping: “…”
When all the guests were eating and drinking well as if they were on vacation, what need was there for anyone to act selfish and self-interested?
As for arrogance and tyranny, he felt that it simply went against Gu Shengsheng’s true nature.
However, the company behind Li Hao, and even the CEO supporting him, personally got involved and pressured the production team.
They demanded that no matter what method he used, Gu Shengsheng had to be made notorious.
“Didn’t you handle the previous two seasons just fine? You even dragged Film Emperor Zhan down.”
Sun Xinping explained that it was truly because Film Emperor Zhan had a bad nature. One had to know that he had arranged an excellent good-person character setting for the man.
But the other side would not listen. They told him directly that if he could not do it, he could forget about making the next season of “What Kind of Person Are You?”
Sun Xinping spat inwardly.
With his show’s current popularity, would he have to worry about no one investing in or protecting the next season?
But his way of dealing with people was to avoid offending these big shots openly. What if one day he capsized in a gutter?
So he agreed.
Last came Shen Jinfeng.
Oh-ho, this one had quite the background. Sun Xinping had spent the past few days asking around through his connections before finding out.
Shen Jinfeng’s parents had formidable backgrounds. His father had once stood at the top of domestic business, and his mother was a scientist.
But heaven envied talent, and they died early. Both of them passed away in a plane crash when Shen Jinfeng was four.
Sun Xinping, thinking in conspiracy-theory mode, wondered: for people so rich and so talented, who knew whether that plane crash had been an accident or intentional?
Ahem. Set that aside for now.
Because the two of them died early, they probably never imagined such an accident would happen and had not even made a will.
Relatives from both families appeared one after another, fighting over the family property and over custody of Shen Jinfeng, the heir, until blood nearly flowed.
Then came the dramatic part. Before the battle over the assets reached any conclusion, because no one was taking care of him, four-year-old Shen Jinfeng ran out to play by himself and went missing.
Sun Xinping once again went into conspiracy mode. This definitely looked like there was a huge story behind it.
It was not until fifteen years later that Shen Jinfeng, who had ended up in an orphanage, was discovered by an old colleague of his mother’s while working outside.
Because he looked far too much like his mother.
That colleague sent Shen Jinfeng back to the Shen family, thinking she had done a good deed by sending this child who had suffered for so many years back home to inherit the family business and enjoy a good life.
But during the decade or so when Shen Jinfeng was absent, the Shen family’s business had long been controlled by various relatives. After all these years of factional struggles, no one handled proper affairs, and the family had long lost its former glory.
Still, a starving camel was bigger than a horse. The remaining family assets were still enough for an ordinary person to spend for several lifetimes without exhausting them.
From this point of view, the identity 888 had chosen for Shen Jinfeng was indeed excellent. It perfectly met the requirements.
No parents, no attachments, tall, handsome, and wealthy.
Unfortunately, 888 was unreliable and only completed half of its task.
After Shen Jinfeng returned, that group of people came up with all kinds of strange tricks in order to defend the last interests in their hands.
Who would believe that the rightful heir of the Shen family was still someone with low educational qualifications who had not even finished university?
Oh, Shen Jinfeng had originally gotten into a fairly decent university through his own efforts.
But after returning to the Shen family, the inexperienced him was tricked into studying abroad.
A child who had grown up in a remote orphanage naturally thought that studying abroad was some impressive, high-end opportunity when he heard about it.
So he directly gave up his admission to the domestic university.
Taking advantage of the fact that Shen Jinfeng had just been recognized and brought back, did not understand the situation, and still yearned for family affection, the Shen family put on the act of benevolent elders who were acting for his own good.
After all, how could a four-year-old child remember things from childhood? He only thought that his parents’ relatives had found him and brought him home.
Moreover, his standard of living had suddenly risen to a whole new level. His monthly allowance was an amount he would not have dared to imagine before.
But he had no idea that a bunch of bloodsuckers were living in his house, while treating him like a fool, coaxing and deceiving him.
That money had been his to begin with.
Shen Jinfeng had not studied abroad in high school, nor had he attended any preparatory classes in the country. He had no language foundation, and he failed almost every school interview.
He even blamed himself for not being good enough, and then the Shen family sent him to a diploma mill overseas.
Later, Sun Xinping could not find out why Shen Jinfeng dropped out of that foreign university.
Therefore, Shen Jinfeng’s current highest level of education was only high school graduation.
After returning to China, as expected, Shen Jinfeng was not arranged to enter his own company.
He was tricked into entering the entertainment industry instead. Later on, his reputation in the entertainment industry…
Sun Xinping sighed. One could see why.
What was even sadder was that the Shen family was one of the biggest investors in the third season.
That was why he had previously arranged for Shen Jinfeng to have a big-shot character setting that no normal person could possibly handle.
Praise on the surface, criticism underneath. It seemed good, but was actually bad.
Only, no one had expected that after the show began airing for only a few days, Shen Jinfeng would actually pull off the character setting perfectly and become the most talked-about person so far in the third season of “Being Human.”
His reputation kept reversing.
A large group of netizens had already begun digging deeply into his past scandals, trying to prove his innocence.
Shen Qianxi, the son of the current head of the Shen family and also the heir before Shen Jinfeng returned, had probably heard the news and called him yesterday to issue an ultimatum.
Since Shen Jinfeng was so capable, then create a bigger crisis.
If heavy rain did not work, then use a typhoon. A gust of wind could blow all the coconuts away. The waves could flood the wooden cabin. Ferocious wild beasts could appear in the woods. Venomous snakes could slither out from their holes…
Were those not all possible?
Listening to the icy tone of the person on the phone, Sun Xinping broke out in a cold sweat.
One had to know that ensuring the guests’ safety was the production team’s responsibility.
“Young Master Shen, our guests also include President Qin and Young Master He, two major figures. If their safety is threatened, my lousy show will suffer consequences it can’t bear.”
Not just him. The current Shen family would not be able to bear it either, right?
Sure enough, Shen Qianxi’s momentum weakened slightly. He muttered under his breath, “What’s there to be afraid of? The real people won’t actually get hurt.”
But he also knew that Qin Ye was someone he could not afford to provoke.
If something happened to Qin Ye on the show, and after coming out, Qin Ye felt humiliated and came to settle accounts with him, it would not be worth it.
He snorted coldly. “Your lousy show is living way too comfortably. There’s no crisis at all.”
Sun Xinping rolled his eyes on the other end of the phone.
What do you mean no crisis? That was because Big Boss Shen was too powerful!
You idiot, if you’re so capable, then you go on. You’d probably be crying for your parents on the first day.
He actually had such an idiot as his financial backer.
These days, money really was hard to earn and shit really was hard to eat.
“The current show is going too smoothly. It doesn’t fit the survival theme of the third season. Director Sun, you should use your brain about who can have things go smoothly and who can’t.” Shen Qianxi hung up after leaving that threat behind.
Thus, Sun Xinping, who had originally intended to lie low for a while, was once again forced to use his brain.
He looked at Shen Jinfeng on the screen, lively, relaxed, and at ease, and a wild thought suddenly popped into his mind.
Was the Big Boss Shen in his show really the same Shen Jinfeng who sounded so useless in the rumors?
Sun Xinping could not figure it out no matter how he thought about it. Had Big Boss Shen been hiding his strength all along, secretly plotting to amaze everyone and take back his family assets?
He shook his head and waved away the unreliable idea in his mind.
Perhaps Big Boss Shen had simply grown up in a remote mountain area since childhood, so his physical skills were better, and he had naturally learned many survival methods.
Maybe there were experts in remote places who had taught him.
Novels were all written like that.
Sigh. He could not refuse to listen to the investors, but he could only listen selectively.
After racking his brains for an entire night, Sun Xinping decided to first test the waters with a typhoon.
If he could make the guests embarrass themselves a little, that would count as having delivered an explanation.
Within the production team, the director was the highest authority.
Goat could not win against Sun Xinping, but he only adjusted things slowly.
As the wind continued to strengthen, he watched the situation on the island without blinking.
Shen Jinfeng had just finished breakfast with the group.
Today, he planned to teach the others how to weave fishing nets, make some animal traps, and learn a few traps for catching wild beasts in the woods.
It had already been several days, and they still had not eaten meat!
After the heavy rain, there should be plenty of delicious things scurrying around in the woods, right?
Shen Jinfeng thought cheerfully.
Probably because he was looking forward to food, his entire mood seemed quite good.
“Boss, can this fishing net really catch fish?” He Erwang clumsily worked with his hands. “Does that mean I’ll be able to catch fish by myself in the future?”
Shen Jinfeng nodded lazily. “Mm. Once the rain stops, I’ll take you all out once.”
Qi Xiu’s eyes shone. “Can this be as cool as using a fish spear?”
Shen Jinfeng paused for a moment, then said with a straight face, “Mm. Practice it later. It’s cooler than using a fish spear. If you get the posture right, when you cast the net, your movement can be as dashing as spreading out a cloak. When you pull up a whole net full of fish, everyone around you will look at you with admiration.”
Gu Shengsheng hesitated, then said, “So in the future, we’ll go catch fish by ourselves?”
There was always a voice inside him telling him that this sounded so tiring.
Originally, he only needed to wait for food. Now he had to do it himself.
But, but Boss was his “life-saving” benefactor!
He felt that he was willing to catch fish for Boss to eat.
Just as the two voices inside Gu Shengsheng were fighting, Mo Fan slapped him on the shoulder. “That’s right, Little Gu. Shouldn’t you thank Boss?”
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. From now on, even if you’re alone, you’ll still be able to catch fish to eat.”
Shen Jinfeng, whose real purpose was simply that he did not want to move anymore and wanted to command a group of underlings to find ingredients for him: “…”
He smiled and nodded, waving his hand with the air of someone who had put in painstaking effort yet remained calm and indifferent. “No need to thank me.”
Gu Shengsheng came back to his senses and was once again educated by Mo Fan. He could not help feeling ashamed of his thoughts just now.
Boss was the truly selfless one.
Mo Fan reminded him every time. Next time, he could give Mo Fan one of the fish he caught.
At this moment, the typhoon outside the wooden cabin had already reached Force Eight.
The viewers watching the livestream also noticed that something seemed off.
“Why do I feel like the sound of the wind is ridiculously loud? It’s howling. It almost doesn’t sound real.”
“Doesn’t sound real? It sounds way too real, okay? I’m from a coastal city. Every time the weather forecast says a typhoon is making landfall, I can hear this exact sound from inside my house.”
“Hiss, it really is a violent storm. Huh, wait. The rain seems to have gotten a little lighter.”
“Is that just an illusion? Holy crap, look at the deserted island’s weather data!”
That was right. The deserted island simulated the real world.
Just like the real world, it even had a weather forecast.
Before the heavy rain, the production team had announced it in advance.
Now, in the weather forecast column…
Huh?
When had the production team secretly displayed a yellow typhoon warning signal?!
A yellow typhoon warning meant that the wind force would at least reach Force Eight or above.
“What’s going on? Is this the deserted island’s natural weather change?”
“Holy crap, a yellow warning. A typhoon above Force Eight is coming soon? Something could happen!”
“Shouldn’t the production team intervene? That little wooden cabin won’t be able to withstand it. What if it gets blown away?”
For now, no one suspected that this was something the production team had deliberately done.
After all, the deserted island itself was a virtual world created to simulate reality. Even without manual intervention from the production team, it would naturally have its own operational rules after being generated.
In real life, after several days of heavy rain, it was normal for a typhoon to make landfall.
“I remember in my hometown, when there was a Force Nine wind before, even the greenery in our residential compound was ripped up, and several trees were snapped.”
“I once had the fortune of walking outside during a Force Eight typhoon. Holy crap. I weighed exactly one hundred jin, so I wasn’t exactly light, right? I really couldn’t move an inch. Hugging a utility pole, I felt like I was about to be blown away.”
“Yes. When you stay at home after a typhoon warning, you don’t really feel much. But I remember once, I went hiking on Mount Huangshan on a light rainy day. Standing in that narrow passage between the rocks, the gusts kept blowing, and I couldn’t stand steady at all. I really couldn’t. It was the kind where my whole body drifted forward involuntarily. When I got home and looked it up, the wind hadn’t even reached Force Seven… I was drunk.”
“Holy crap, sister who said the rain sounded lighter earlier… the sound of the rain got quieter not because the rain got lighter, but because the wind got louder!”
Even the netizens watching the livestream were already so nervous.
Naturally, the guests inside the wooden cabin also felt it.
Listening to the howling wind outside, He Erwang frowned. “What’s going on? Why is the wind getting stronger and stronger?”
Shen Jinfeng glanced at him and also looked outside.
Then he calmly withdrew his gaze. “It’s fine.”
“Sit down and finish making your wooden stick for poking coconuts first.”
The wind by their ears grew louder and louder, but there was firewood burning inside the cabin, and they had not been affected at all.
The cold air had not even blown inside.
He Erwang worried for a moment, but only for a moment.
Then he sat back down. “Okay, Boss. But once the wooden stick is done, will you still teach me how to smash coconuts with stones?”
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
Gu Shengsheng turned his head back. He had already heard about He Erwang’s glorious deed earlier.
It made his heart itch.
“Boss, is that slide really fun?”
Shen Jinfeng froze slightly. “What slide?”
“Gu Shengsheng, we agreed not to mention that in front of Boss!” He Erwang’s face twisted as he hurriedly stopped him.
Qi Xiu glanced at him and stabbed him from the side. “It’s when Boss climbed the tree to save him and used a leaf rope to lower him down. After he came back, he started bragging to the others that it was really fun.”
How shameless. He even wanted Boss to play with him. Was he not worried Boss would get tired?
Shen Jinfeng did not know whether to laugh or cry. Just as he was about to speak, the wooden latch on the door suddenly trembled, then fell to the ground with a bang.
Without the wooden latch, the wooden door began to shake.
Qin Ye stood up, preparing to walk over and close the door properly.
Shen Jinfeng’s eyes sharpened. He stopped Qin Ye, stood up, and stepped forward first.
“I’ll go check the situation.”
Qin Ye did not stay where he was. He walked forward with him.
Shen Jinfeng noticed him from the corner of his eye and did not stop him. He only lowered his voice and said, “Stay behind me. Don’t be scared.”
His voice was low, and no one else in the wooden cabin heard him.
Only Qin Ye’s heart trembled. He also felt that something was a little strange.
No… why did it look like he was the one being protected?
He stared fixedly at the young man’s fluffy, pitch-black back of the head in front of him.
It was over. When facing danger, Shen Jinfeng only wanted to protect him.
Although they had not actually encountered danger yet.
The little captain really liked him terribly much!
Listening to the whistling wind, Qin Ye felt as if the wind had blown straight into his heart.
Shen Jinfeng had no idea about the secret thoughts of the person crushing on him. He opened the door, and the wind only slipped in a little before he blocked the crack with his entire body.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and saw that, a hundred meters away, the waves were faintly surging. Yet his body remained steady without the slightest trace of trembling.
He looked for two seconds, then lightly turned back and closed the door.
The door latch was placed back in position. He also twisted it a few times with skillful force, locking it tightly and seamlessly. Compared with before, it was several times more secure.
“Stop being curious. Haven’t you seen rain before?” He sat back in his original spot with an easygoing posture, split open a coconut, and slowly took a sip, his expression showing no trace of panic.
At this moment, the weather display in the livestream room showed that the typhoon had actually gone mad and reached Force Nine.
The wind swept past, making a sound like ghosts wailing and wolves howling.
The wooden cabin’s location was actually quite far from the sea, but now they could faintly hear the sound of waves churning.
The bullet comments were already filled with fear.
“Did Big Boss Shen not see that the wind just blew a tree down? Why does he look completely unpanicked?”
“Panicking won’t help. Can they leave the wooden cabin and run outside? He’s the backbone of the whole team. He’s acting like this to soothe the other members, right?”
“It’s almost Force Nine. I remember one time when I was in the countryside, a Force Nine typhoon directly blew apart an abandoned wooden cabin behind my house. The whole roof came off. Fortunately, every family in our village has built new houses now.”
“Can the production team intervene? This typhoon is a bit too exaggerated. Looking at those waves is making me scared.”
“Mother of God! The tree on the left side of the wooden cabin has been blown crooked! It’s about to smash onto the house!”
“This is too terrifying, damn it. I feel like the wooden cabin is shaking too.”
“You’re not imagining it. But what’s strange is that the part shaking the most isn’t the roof. It’s actually the door.”
“When the wind was Force Eight earlier, that wooden latch was blown right off. Just now, Big Boss Shen did something to put it back, and it seems to be a tiny, tiny bit more secure.”
Everyone was frightened, their eyes all focused on the door that looked like it was shaking violently.
Qi Xiu could no longer remain calm either.
“Boss, is this really okay? What kind of damn weather is this?” He put down the fishing net he had just barely finished weaving and swallowed.
Shen Jinfeng said to him with certainty, “It’s fine. Don’t worry.”
“This house can still hold.”
Although it was a wooden cabin, had ancient emperors not also lived in wooden buildings?
He had simplified the structure a little, but it could still withstand the current wind force.
Moreover, looking at the state of the sea, the wind force was probably about this strong at most. It had reached its peak.
Qi Xiu swallowed a reassurance pill, but out of habit, he took out his tortoise shell and muttered, “Let me do a quick divination.”
Shen Jinfeng smiled and did not stop him.
The viewers in the livestream room were worried, but miraculously, most of that worry had been eased by Shen Jinfeng’s two sentences.
Now, they even had a little attention to spare for curiosity.
Two minutes later, Qi Xiu raised his head blankly. There was no trace of worry left on his face.
“Huh? Boss, why did my divination show that this is a timely wind?”
Shen Jinfeng: “Hm?”
Qi Xiu gazed at him worshipfully.
He thought to himself: sure enough, as long as he followed Boss, they could turn misfortune into fortune.
He said cheerfully, “It seems like happy news is about to come knocking!”
