Day 8 of Provoking
Jiang Cheng exchanged for the utility knife and held it in his hand. Don’t look down on this new utility knife, it had many uses.
“I’ll modify it first,” He said.
Song Ji-Jae glanced at Jiang Cheng with some doubts. What tricks did this Chinese guy have up his sleeve?
Jiang Cheng first used it to sharpen one end of a long and thick stick – two blades had been spent just for this step. He put away the blunt blades. “I’m not certain if they can still be of any use.”
The remaining utility knife blades were deeply hammered around the pointed end of the stick. At first glance, it looked like a rough replica of a wolf teeth club.
There were around ten short, sharp blades, and the exposed blade tips were possibly only half a centimetre long. It was unknown what they could be used for.
Song Ji-Jae saw the long wooden stick in Jiang Cheng’s hand and couldn’t help but grin. “I don’t think this can be of any use at all. They are essentially still useless utility knife blades, and you even changed them into something with no redeeming point.”
Jiang Cheng shrugged, not minding Song Ji-Jae’s comment. “Just wait and see. It can at least be used as a good probing stick.”
“As long as you’re happy,” Song Ji-Jae said.
The barrage also didn’t look too good –
[Originally it could still be considered a knife, now it’s truly trash ah]
[It’s over, it’s over, it’s really like they have no props at all now]
[The team leader probably looks down on the utility knife, so he didn’t feel distressed at all when he saw Jiang Cheng using it as a sharpening tool]
[Indeed]
After Jiang Cheng happily got the probing stick, the group ventured into the forest on the island.
“Back when I participated in international rescue operations, I would often come across tourists stranded on such islands.” Song Ji-Jae quickly entered the role of the team leader and guide, and knew how to increase his own camera time.
He rambled on, “In fact, we receive hundreds of such related cases every year, and the number of tourists who are still missing is as high as a few thousands.”
“…Right now, we only have a utility knife in our hands. To acquire food in such a situation will depend on the rich experience of surviving in the wild as well as a strong knowledge of the basics. I will try to show everyone to the greatest extent.”
[Okay okay, we know you are experienced and have abundant knowledge, let’s quickly get to the point, don’t make us sleepy!]
[This is the first time I’m seeing this kind of bragging, hey… my scalp is numb from embarrassment]
[It’s possible oppa doesn’t know that humility is a virtue in China and that bragging isn’t popular]
The urging of the program team was transmitted to his ears. Song Ji-Jae knit his brows, made a light hissing sound, then showed a look of impatience after turning his back to the camera lens. With a small movement, he covered his lapel mic and said a few words. It was unknown what those words were, but the translator by his side was visibly a bit embarrassed.
He led Jiang Cheng and Jiang Xinghao deeper in the forest.
Although the program team had a script for the process, the specific operations such as looking for food, water sources, and so on, were actually all based on real performance.
For the sake of avoiding making mistakes, Song Ji-Jae had bribed a staff member in advance and received the itinerary. As such, he knew where there would be food.
Song Ji-Jae bowed his head in anger as he led the team of five forward, looking as if he was in a hurry, but he also didn’t forget to rant about popular science as he walked – the bits and pieces of information were mainly based on his past experiences.
In the midst of his energetic ramble, he heard Jiang Cheng suddenly speak and stopped.
“These small mounds…”
Song Ji-Jae, who was interrupted, had a trace of dissatisfaction in his tone, but he still restrained himself and asked politely, “What is it, Mr. Jiang Cheng? We don’t have a lot of time, we need to find food quickly and return to the campsite. We don’t have the time to waste staying here.”
“So we even more can’t let any opportunity to find food on the way slip by, isn’t that right?” Jiang Cheng smiled when he heard his words, then raised his brows as he asked bluntly. “You look like you have a destination in mind, as if you know exactly where to find food?”
Song Ji-Jae’s face sank, and he smiled dryly. “How could that be? I just think that there doesn’t seem to be food here, that’s all.”
Jiang Cheng muttered an “oh” and didn’t say anything more, and used the “wolf teeth club” in his hand to fiddle with the mound beside his feet.
The small dirt mound was firm, but the tip of the stick that Jiang Cheng had modified was like a rough version of a shovel head, so the pile was loosened considerably after several pokes.
Song Ji-Jae knit his brows in impatience, not understanding what Jiang Cheng wanted to do in the end. Just when he was about to urge the latter again, his pupils suddenly shrank!
He saw countless black ants suddenly drilling out of the opening Jiang Cheng had poked in the dirt mound!
Jiang Xinghao inhaled sharply and hurriedly retreated two steps. “O–h my god! Jiang Cheng! What are you doing! You poked into an ant nest!!”
Song Ji-Jae suddenly realised what Jiang Cheng wanted to do –
“I precisely want to disturb the ant nest,” Jiang Cheng grinned slightly. Having a “wolf teeth club” was just right. This way, he didn’t have to explore the ant nest with his bare hands.
He used the tip of the stick to gently sweep open the dirt mound and move the colony of ants away. With the help of this modified “wolf teeth club”, he was able to effortlessly dig into the originally quite solid dirt mound. Jiang Cheng searched for around 5 to 6 minutes.
This time, Song Ji-Jae didn’t open his mouth to urge him again.
“Found it!” Jiang Cheng cried out softly, a faint smile on his face. After sweeping enough, a few clusters of small white things that looked like rice grains soon appeared in the camera’s view.
The small and fine “rice grains” were squeezed together into a pile. Occasionally, there would be some that were slightly more round and as big as a thumb scattered around.
Jiang Xinghao swallowed his saliva before asking, “What are those?”
“Ant eggs. The small ones are worker ant eggs while the big ones are reproductive ant eggs, which are equivalent to… the successors of the queen ant,” Jiang Cheng explained absentmindedly. Beside him, Jiang Xinghao heard these words and was greatly affected, his face turning green.
Jiang Cheng raised his eyes to look around. His gaze quickly locked on a wide fallen leaf that was still fairly clean, and he went to fetch it to place several handfuls of ant eggs on it. Afterwards, he folded the bulging leaf tightly into the shape of a bag.
“Be careful, this is the queen ant.” Jiang Cheng carefully used the tip of the stick to catch and lead the brown, plump and thick queen ant back into the hole along with part of the ant colony. “After placing it back, the ant colony will either find another nest nearby or follow it back to reproduce again.”
In this way, their actions could almost be considered negligible – even a heavy rain could have toppled this dirt mound.
[Today I learned, so it can still be like this]
[Lol, Jiang Cheng is quite understanding. Also, why did the oppa next to him suddenly turn silent?]
[Though… I still want to know what Jiang Cheng was doing by looking for ant eggs? I have an ominous premonition]
[So there still are people who don’t know about my top famous dish, ant eggs!! I will recommend it to you!!]
[??]
Jiang Cheng poked at another dirt mound in the exact same way, but it was empty and looked like an abandoned ant nest.
“Digging these can somewhat be regarded as a harvest,” Jiang Cheng said with satisfaction, then looked at Song Ji-Jae. “This shouldn’t be counted as a waste of time, no?”
Song Ji-Jae didn’t pay attention to Jiang Xinghao.
He looked at Jiang Cheng, nodding his head slightly in acknowledgement, “Pretty good observation ability…”
He didn’t want to praise too much, so he looked at the camera lens and changed the subject. “Ant eggs contain 8 kinds of amino acids that are essential for the human body, and the protein content is even as high as 40 to 60%. They contain vitamin B1, B2, B3, and so on, and also the 14 types of trace elements required by the human body, such as 3, C, D, and…”
Jiang Cheng interrupted Song Ji-Jae’s textbook output and explained in a simplified manner, “The nutritional value is high, and the key point is that they can be eaten raw. It is very convenient.”
Jiang Xinghao, “…”
Surely he must have heard wrong. Eat it raw? Ah? Ant eggs? Ah??
[I just want to ask upstairs who mentioned the famous dish, did you ever think that it would be eaten raw?]
[…Indeed, I didn’t, I was negligent]
[F*ck, people with trypophobia are dying!! What kind of monster is JC ah ah ah]
[My god, do the other guests at the campsite know that this will be their dinner??]
[That won’t do, I want to throw up—]
[I’ll bet a Buddha Jumps Over The Wall that they won’t really eat this!!]
Jiang Cheng used the vines that could be found everywhere in this forest and fixed his attention on them to successfully make a rope, then fastened it tightly around the leaf bag that contained the ant eggs and directly carried it in his hand.
Song Ji-Jae looked at Jiang Cheng, then at the heavy bag the latter carried in his hand, and felt slightly uncomfortable – obviously he was the leader, so how is it that this person found food first?
He was especially unwilling to lose, so he wanted to find the food from the itinerary the program team had arranged as soon as possible in order to win back a game in front of the live broadcast.
However, not long after he was immersed in wanting to hurry on the journey, there was another light voice coming from Jiang Cheng’s side: “Team Leader Song.”
“What’s the matter?” Song Ji-Jae took a deep breath before stopping and turning around to look over.
– And caught sight of Jiang Cheng squatting near a shrub, not knowing what he was trying to find by turning it inside out.
“I’d like to ask you, is this edible?” He dug open a pile of leaves and soil, revealing the pine cones and berries that were concealed underneath.
Song Ji-Jae was stunned. The dark berries were piled up into a small slope. This was just like food falling from the sky!
“Edible,” Song Ji-Jae had no choice but to admit that this was the most common edible berry found in the wild. Animals like monkeys and squirrels loved it.
This pile of food appearing here was way too unexpected, and it was even arranged in a neat and tidy manner…as if it was specially stored here as a food reserve for them!
Song Ji-Jae immediately realised – Jiang Cheng must have cheated! It was no wonder that he could come across and find rarely seen food materials like ant eggs!
He was instantly secretly pleased. He just knew that there was no way these pretty little Chinese boys who looked like weak chickens could possibly compare to him!
“Mr. Jiang Cheng, I hope you can understand that this is an authentic survival variety show. Cheating by any means to get food cannot be accepted!” Song Ji-Jae’s face sank as he turned to look at Jiang Cheng’s PD. “I hope this can be truthfully reported to the director! And when the guest is acknowledged to have cheated, the food materials obtained through fraudulent means should be confiscated!”
The barrage immediately made a commotion!
[The f*cking nerves? Condemning is fine, but why are you also confiscating it? I see that this team leader didn’t even find any food!]
[Speechless. This kind of cheating is a bit too obvious, it’s embarrassing on an international level]
[Shouldn’t the program team at least cover up the props a little bit next time? We can all understand, really]
The PD subconsciously got in touch with the director, and the latter answered in a puzzled manner: “We didn’t arrange any food at that place, though?”
Jiang Cheng sneered as he looked at the team leader who had a righteous attitude and said, “You should take a careful look around before making a conclusion. Cheating? I don’t even know if there is any extra arrangement by the program team. But seeing that you’re so clear about it, doesn’t it just mean that you know something?”
Song Ji-Jae’s face became stiff. He reacted quickly and flatly denied it, “Mr. Jiang Cheng, please don’t bring up irrelevant things!”
“All right, then let’s talk about what matters. I’ll explain it to you clearly,” Jiang Cheng wasn’t in the mood to argue with him and directly turned to the cameraman, beckoning at the latter. “Mister Cameraman, I’ll trouble you to come over to take a picture of this trail. I believe the audience in the live broadcast room should be able to clearly see the green space in between that is covered by the bushes, which is proof that small animals frequently pass by.”
“Furthermore, here, you can also see a few black particles that are the size of a fingernail scattered near the grass roots. These are obviously the faeces of the small animals, and they use these to mark their territory.”
“If this was a group of monkeys, the amount of faeces would be a lot more than what we are seeing currently. For this reason, I’m more inclined to believe that it is a small mammal like a squirrel. They will store edible berries everywhere in their territory, and will more often than not forget where they hide them.”
“If you examine this bush closely, you can find the traces of it being messed with, which is why I tried to fiddle with it and found this pile of berries that seem unexpectedly fresh. It is probably a new storage area that the little guy dug up a short while ago,” Jiang Cheng said to the camera, then looked at Song Ji-Jae.
Song Ji-Jae only felt that the glance Jiang Cheng swept over him was like a provocation, and his face immediately flushed bright red.
Actually, once he heard the explanation from the translator, he was clear that Jiang Cheng’s observation and analysis were both correct. It was merely that his luck was too good that he really managed to find a pile of edible berries that seemed as if they were arranged props.
– As such, he can’t be blamed for being rude. In any case, words of mouth alone cannot be taken as guarantee, and the people from the city are more inclined to believe that these are props arranged by the program team.
Before he could finish speaking, a pine cone suddenly fell from above his head and landed exactly on Song Ji-Jae’s forehead!
Song Ji-Jae cried out in pain and raised his head in anger to look as his forehead quickly turned red. Unexpectedly, right above his head was actually a red-bellied squirrel that was standing on a branch!
The squirrel looked like it had been terrified, and it maintained a posture of holding a pine cone with its two front paws. Its pair of round eyes that resembled two black soybeans was staring at the crowd of “unexpected visitors” under the tree.
Jiang Cheng was also stunned upon seeing this, and soon couldn’t help laughing. It was really like God helping him. “It’s over, it was caught red-handed.”
When the red-bellied squirrel heard the noise, it let out a “squeak” and quickly fled into the tree fork, disappearing in an instant.
Jiang Cheng retracted his gaze, then turned to Song Ji-Jae. “What were you saying just now?”
Song Ji-Jae, “…”
This damn luck!
He said in a rough voice, “Nothing.”
The PD following closely said, “We confirmed with the director that this isn’t the food backup source arranged by the program team. The food materials were found by Teacher Jiang’s outstanding observation ability and analysis, and there is no cheating involved.”
Jiang Cheng forced a smile as he looked at Song Ji-Jae, “Don’t you have anything to say?”
Song Ji-Jae’s temples throbbed, and his mouth opened and closed twice before finally forcing out three words: “I am sorry.”
“Okay, I accept your apology.” Jiang Cheng said in a lighthearted manner.
Song Ji-Jae paused for a while before saying sarcastically, “…It looks like Mr. Jiang Cheng has done quite a lot of homework for the sake of this variety show.”
“Oh, not at all, this is merely just some basic knowledge about the wilderness.” Jiang Cheng said with a smile, using Song Ji-Jae’s own words to fight back.
Chinese home, Chinese spirit, remember that modesty is a virtue!
The translator tried hard to suppress a smile as she saw Song Ji-Jae’s face sinking after she interpreted Jiang Cheng’s original words.
[Fighting fire with fire! Beautiful!]
[Suddenly fell in love with Jiang Cheng’s sarcasm hahaha]
[jc: Is it that you want me to teach you how to be a team leader?]
[F*ck! This reversal is something I didn’t expect even for a thousand years! Who’s happy? I’m happy!]
[This little squirrel is a godsend!!! If it hadn’t showed up, Jiang Cheng would’ve really had no choice but to suffer in silence]
[So, doesn’t this mean we have to give our own people some trust? Don’t speak ill just because of what that Korean says, okay!]
[I didn’t expect that Jiang Cheng would be a fan of the Discovery Channel hahaha]
[Is it only me who finds the little squirrel cute? Really? (Scared melon seeds all fell off.jpg) hahaha] (T/N: Sticker usually used to show being scared, but can be used as a coquettish expression or in funny situations)
[I suddenly feel a bit sorry for the little baby whose stockpile will all be taken away]
Separated by the screen, the Jiang family was also watching the live broadcast. Jiang Chi couldn’t help slapping the table, “Great! Let him take a good look! What cheating? Only those with a dirty mind will think of cheating!”
Jiang Jin also nodded in agreement and with some gratification, and her eyes showed a trace of a smile from the happiness of seeing Jiang Cheng win back a game.
Jian Xingce had a hint of doubt in his eyes, and he narrowed his eyes slightly to hide it –
Not to mention how the prop at the beginning was modified according to the circumstances into a useful one, just the meticulous environmental observation of small mammal trails as well as the comprehensive analysis ability were all worthy of that of an outstanding professional.
In fact, it had to be based on an incomparably rich outdoor experience and tempering. Even an excellent professional international rescue team may not necessarily do better.
– How did Jiang Cheng do it?
He couldn’t help but size up the other party again, and subconsciously held an increasing curiosity and interest in Jiang Cheng while also being a bit wary –
A young man who was strangely contradicting suddenly appeared into his sight, intersecting with his life.
Other people would say that Jiang Cheng is a pathological liar, a useless flower vase, a depressed and autistic person, but he saw the vitality and slyness in the eyes of the person he met that night, flustered yet weirdly calm, and at this time… it was once again like a different person.
Jian Xingce watched the live broadcast with full interest.
Even until dinner time in the evening, at the dining table, Father Jian felt that it was rather foreign to see that his son, who had always abided by the rules since childhood, was unexpectedly watching a live broadcast while eating?!
Did the sun rise from the west? Which beautiful woman attracted him to this extent?!
Father Jian leaned closer to look with a mind full of curiosity and saw a young man in the middle who was squatting by the seaside to wash some kind of white things.
“What is this? Why is he washing it? What are you watching?” Father Jian asked curiously.
“Ant eggs, edible, survival in the wilderness.” Jian Xingce answered concisely one by one.
Father Jian, “…” Unfilial son! Ruining his good appetite!!
