Jing Yang busied himself in the tree for a long time, after he set up the structure of the house, he let down a rope ladder. After he got off the tree, he placed the wheels back on the trailer, dragging the trailer back into the forest.
The other people saw that Jing Yang had left, and only then returned back to their senses, they had looked over at Jing Yang's side too many times, making them waste too much time. The progress made by three people was actually even slower than the speed of one person. They quickly started to speed up, but they had already been laboring for almost a day, their bodies were extremely exhausted, even if they worked hard and wanted to go faster, they were still much slower than they had been in the morning.
Not much later, Jing Yang dragged the trailer back, he spread out the hay in the cabin, and then laid out some wide tree leaves that had a texture like silk. This way when he went to sleep at night it would be more comfortable. Then he fastened some of the bark from the iron tree onto the roof, then he wouldn't need to be concerned about the "surprises" from the organizers, he would be able to sleep in peace.
Jing Yang took out the golden pheasant that he had just caught and cleaned it up in the ocean, after coating it with spices, he wrapped it up with some leaves and buried it in the dirt. Then he made a small bonfire and cut up some fruits to make a salad. Today he had used up too much physical strength, he was a little tired, so he would just eat a little more simply and then rest earlier after eating.
Other people saw that Jing Yang was already starting to prepare his dinner, and they became even more hurried.
The next team to finish their house after Jing Yang was Kedi's team, the fans gave them the name Strong Combo team. For Jing Yang they gave the name Lonely Shadow team, and some people also called him the Brain Problem team.
Before the sky turned dark, basically everyone had already finished, for those who really weren't able to finish, they just covered the top with some bark and did some improvisation, and counted that as done, when really it was just a makeshift building.
Everyone entered the forest to find some dinner materials, after the sky turned dark it would not be good to go into the forest again. Kedi's team caught a white-feathered chicken, the other teams could only catch the hemp-feathered chicken, which didn't really run and also didn't taste as good. And then they all picked some fruit.
A group of people tried for half a day and were still unable to come up with a fire, but they also weren't willing to go ask Jing Yang to borrow his, so they could only worry helplessly.
Kedi's group finally lit their fire, the other people all went over to borrow the fire, because now it's a competition, Kedi's team actually didn't really want to lend it to them in their hearts. But they were being watched by so many netizens, not letting them borrow the fire would suggest that they're too petty, so they pretended that they were being generous and let every person borrow some fire. After those people borrowing the fire thanked them, they all disdainfully looked at Jing Yang, as if this meant that Jing Yang not taking the initiative to lend them some fire was being vile.
Everyone roasted their chickens and ate fruits. After Jing Yang finished eating his fruit salad he rested for a while, and then dug out the pheasant from underneath the fire. Knocking off the dirt from the outside, he carefully opened the leaves, and the fragrant smell instantly sprung out into the air.
Jing Yang used a knife to cut the entire chicken into two halves, he placed one half on a different leaf, and for the other half he wrapped it back up in the original leaf and put it to one side. He cut the half of the chicken still left out into small chunks, and then started using his hands to eat them.
In the afternoon, everyone had seen Jing Yang bring back a golden pheasant. Wild golden pheasants could only be eaten in the fanciest restaurants, and the price was also very expensive. Most of the people here had never eaten it before, but just from smelling the fragrance, they all almost started drooling directly.
The fragrance that wafted over from Jing Yang's side was too fragrant, too alluring, the crowd of people who had labored for an entire day were hungry to the point of their stomachs growling. Waiting for when their own roasting chicken was finally good to eat, they couldn't wait to bite in, but when it entered their mouth it tasted like a sponge, very hard to swallow.
"You're not eating meat?" Danny asked Jake, who was currently biting into some fruit.
"No need, it's too hard to eat." Jake shook his head to reject it, his eyes constantly staring at Jing Yang's side. They were located relatively close to Jing Yang, just with his naked eye, he would be able to see the meat in Jing Yang's hands, the quality was definitely great. Plus the fragrance wafting over, he didn't even need to taste it to know that the flavor would definitely be amazing.
"We still don't know how long the first round of the competition is going to continue, if you don't eat some meat it'll be very hard for you to keep going." Danny said.
Jake still shook his head, the delicacies were right in front of his eyes but he was unable to eat it, for him this was a huge torment. Then if he still was going to eat some bad tasting food, he would rather just starve.
Jing Yang extinguished his bonfire and then tidied up his area, quickly climbing up his ladder to his treehouse to rest. He propped open his window, letting in the cool, refreshing sea breeze, and then lay back on the soft hay. The leaves under his body were like satin sheets, very comfortable.
Everyone had been working hard for a day, after they finished eating, they all entered their homes to rest early. They would raise their spirits, and only then would they have the energy to continue the competition.
Just when everyone was hazily falling asleep, suddenly large gusts of wind came blowing through, raindrops the size of beans quickly fell down. Everyone was shocked awake, finding it strange that it had suddenly started raining. Some people opened the door to their cabins to peek out, looking up into the sky. Originally the winds and rain were being manufactured from the airships, this was what Ruth meant by "surprise."
The organizers wanted to test out just how strong their cabins were. This would also be within their scoring range.
Jing Yang sat up and closed his windows, and then laid back down again. Even though the sky had already turned dark, every person's flying camera had their own lighting, otherwise they would not be able to film. So the cabin inside was still quite bright, not dark at all. Jing Yang reached out to grab a fruit, and then put up his feet to leisurely gnaw on it.
The wind grew bigger, the leaves started rustling from all the wind, and the weaker, thinner trees showed some signs of bending. In such a large wind, those "makeshift" cabins naturally wouldn't be able to withstand, two teams' roofs were directly blown away.
"Ah! Roof, our roof!" A competitor loudly shouted while wanting to give chase.
"Don't chase it, you definitely won't be able to catch up, just leave it!" His teammate quickly tugged him back. Because he was trying to speak loudly in such wind and rain, not a small amount of water rushed into his mouth.
"Then what do we do?"
"We can only hide a bit under the tree, there's no other way, we just need to endure tonight and then it's over, tomorrow we will have to rebuild our house."
Danny and Jake's house was one of those whose roofs was blown off, not only was their roof blown off, but even their wall supports had fallen, the two people were only covering themselves with some large leaves, hiding under the tree to escape the rain.
But the leaves and the big trees weren't able to shelter them very much, the rain fell even more fiercely, when the drops fell on people's bodies there even was some soreness.
Those whose roofs had not been blown away also weren't better than them by that much, outside their cabin there were huge rains, inside the cabin there was drizzle, all of them had gotten soaked. It was just that inside the cabin the wind would be slightly smaller, and they wouldn't be as uncomfortable. Those who had built their homes in the trees also weren't that much better off, they were being shaken like crazy, besides being worried that the house would be shaken off, they even had some sense of seasickness.
No matter whether they were inside or outside, they all seemed to be quite miserable.
For the fans, besides feeling bad for their favorite live streamer, when they saw other people having a hard time, they all found it quite interesting. Especially for those who had their roofs blown away, the surprised expression of those competitors, made them want to laugh. These fans were also quite busy, watching the live stream competition in the middle of the night, on one hand they felt sorry and on the other hand they felt a sense of schadenfreude, and they also felt that it was quite interesting, they also wanted to go experience it a bit.
For those people who concentrated on blackening Milton, they suddenly thought of him, and wanted to see how miserable he would be now. They first wanted to see it and be happy, and then ridicule him a round. But when they enlarged his screen, they actually saw that he was very peacefully sleeping in his cabin, not only did his cabin not leak rain, but also did not even sway a bit.
How could it be like this? The netizens all were shocked and incredulous, this totally seemed like there were two worlds, one of the worlds had howling wind and torrential rain, and another world was peaceful and calm. These netizens all somewhat understood why he would choose a thick and tall big tree. Even though it's said a tall tree attracts the wind, but because this tree was thick enough, and its roots were embedded enough, that big winds were still unable to shake it.
Jing Yang peacefully slept an entire night, everything that had happened that night seemed to have no relationship with him, in any case he had rested quite well.
The next morning, the wind and rain had already stopped. Jing Yang opened the door and looked downwards, it actually wasn't too messed up down there, everything that could be blown around had long ago been blown away to who knows where. Two of the cabins had their supports blown apart, it looked quite pathetic. The most miserable were Jake and Danny, their cabin's frame wasn't even left behind, it had already disappeared.
Jing Yang let down his ladder and after he got off he went back into the forest. After a night of rain, the fruits had all been scrubbed into a clean luster. He picked some mung bean grains, and then collected two coconuts, one big and one small, and prepared to use the other half of the chicken from last night to make some porridge. Then he would eat some fruit, and his breakfast would be settled.
Coconuts were very good things, the big one would be used as a pot, and the smaller could be used as a bowl, the milk inside could also be used to boil the porridge. The chicken was cooked, the mung bean were also very easy to cook, not long afterwards the chicken porridge was done.
The other people were both hungry and tired, the fragrance of the chicken porridge wafted over, and their stomachs instantly started growling. They also learned to cook some porridge like Jing Yang, but their porridge had no taste, it wasn't even as good as eating some fruit.
"Achoo!" Jake rubbed his nose, after being drenched in the rain for a night, he seemed to have a bit of a stuffy nose. But he was still able to clearly smell the fragrance of the chicken porridge.
Jing Yang was drinking his porridge when Ruth brought three judges over. "Everyone, good morning! You all had a good rest right!"
No one responded to her, because they obviously couldn't say that they had rested well, but also couldn't say out that they didn't have a good rest. The only person who had rested quite well last night, Jing Yang, was concentrating on drinking his porridge.
Ruth didn't seem to mind that no one responded to her, and continued to smile: "I will first make some introductions, these three are the on-site judges for the competition, the scores that you all will be getting, will be given by them. Now, they will go examine your homes, and then give you all the first round of scores. For those teams whose homes are no more, very sorry, you will not be able to get a score. But no need to worry, the off-site judges will still give you a score based on your performance when building your homes."
When the judges had gone off to examine the homes, Ruth couldn't wait to walk to Jing Yang's side and crouch down: "Can I eat some? It's really too fragrant!"
Jing Yang looked at her and paused for bit, rejecting a lady's request seemed to not be good. Thinking that she was only a host and not a judge, he shouldn't be suspected of bribing a judge, so he poured some porridge into the other half of the coconut and gave it to her.
"Thanks! Too grateful." Ruth happily thanked him.
"Doesn't your airship provide you breakfast?" Jing Yang asked.
"Of course they provide it, I already ate before coming here. But your porridge was too fragrant." Ruth drank a mouthful and immediately praised: "Too good! Too delicious! This is definitely the best porridge I've ever had."
Jake looked at the porridge in Ruth's hands, drooling in envy, he wasn't even able to keep on eating the fruit in his hands. Forcefully sucking in a breath, the fragrance was deeply inhaled into his nose. He made a decision, walking in Jing Yang's direction.
Danny discovered his intention and immediately pulled him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm hungry, I want to go over." Jake said.
"Are you sick? Making contact with him, you'll definitely be attacked by the netizens, we just need to last until the end, scoring to us makes no difference, in any case we won't be able to get a place." Danny thought that Jake was truly too disappointing, it had only been a day and a night, and he had already been unable to endure the lure of food. If it weren't for not wanting to be by himself in a team, he wouldn't be trying to advise him.
"No matter, if they want to scold then they can scold." He knew that coming to participate in this competition, he would definitely not be able to get a place, but he was really lacking money, so he really wanted to last until the end of the competition and get the consolation prize money, and he would be satisfied. But for someone who was strongly attached to gourmet food, deliciousness being in front of their eyes but not being able to eat it, was a kind of extreme torment. He would rather withdraw from the competition than have to keep suffering.
"You need to think clearly, if you're scolded because you ate his things, then even if you regret it in the future, I will still not be in a team with you." Danny seriously warned him.
Jake looked at him, and pushed off his hand, firmly walking to Jing Yang.
"I…, can I have a bit?" Jake very carefully looked at Jing Yang, scratching his hair with some embarrassment.
Jing Yang knew that he was a gourmet review live streamer, he had gone to many different planets to taste all kinds of delicacies and then review them. He was someone who was extremely unable to withstand the enticement of delicious food. Him coming over to find him was within his expectations, he just didn't think that he would come over so fast, it had only been one day and night. But Jing Yang didn't really care.
"You can have all that." Jing Yang pointed at the coconut shell that was being used as a pot.
"Really? Thank you so much!" Jake happily crouched down, lifting up the coconut husk and started drinking, and then squinted his eyes with satisfaction. It was really too delicious, especially after being hungry for one day and night, this was really a delicacy hard to find in the entire universe. Jake had his own way of distinguishing between good and bad people, from the first time he saw this person named Milton, he felt that he was a good person, at least not as bad as the comments on Star Network made him out to be.
"Save some for me ah." Ruth reached out her hand.
Jake instantly moved back, using pitiful eyes to look at her: "You have already eaten breakfast, I've already been hungry for a day and night."
"…All right then." Ruth gave up on robbing the food, it was hard for women to be vicious to that kind of small animal-like gaze. She curiously asked, "Do you want to be in a team with Milton? Then his score would also be able to be your score, after all that pitiful little house of yours has long been blown away to who knows where."
"Oh…" Jake looked at Jing Yang, even though his expression showed indifference, but he had not helped even a bit with his house, so he was too embarrassed to take advantage of him. So he shook his head, "No, maybe next time."
The judges finished examining the homes, so Ruth gathered up all of the competitors to let the judges announce their scores.
Of the three judges, the thinner and taller one came forward and said: "We have finished examining all of the houses, and then unified all of our opinions. Now I will announce your scores. Kedi, Rhett, and Goodyear's team, your score is 9 points, in the condition of not using any high tech products, the home you built was close to perfect, and then after experiencing last night's wind and rain, it was not too damaged. Both aesthetics and stability were quite good."
After the congratulatory applause, the tall thin man continued: "Afterwards, the one person team of Milton, we gave the score of 7 points, from aesthetics and stability, your cabin could be considered passable. But you chose a tree that was too big and tall, this would make going up and down inconvenient."
Ruth used a shocked gaze to look at the judges, she had not thought that the judges would give Milton such a low score. Last night she had seen the entire process from the Star Network, Jing Yang's home from no matter what aspect was definitely the best, if the judges' eyes weren't blind, they should be able to see that. But the reason that they gave a lower score was also not completely unreasonable, acting as a host, she couldn't interfere with the judges' appraisal.
After some sparse applause, the judges continued to announce the other people's scores. In the remaining four teams, there were some with 8 points, 7 pants, and 5 points. Even that team who had only the wooden supports remaining were able to get 3 points. Jake and Danny's cabin had completely disappeared, so they did not get a score.
The other competitors were probably unclear on Jing Yang's situation last night, but the netizens were all very clear, Kedi's cabin last night was constantly leaking rain, even now their cabin was soaked inside. But Jing Yang's cabin didn't even leak a drop of rain, inside the cabin it was dry and cozy, how would the judges not be able to tell?
The judges used the excuse of Jing Yang picking a tree too tall and big to give him 7 points, but gave Kedi's team 9 points. You need to know, Kedi's home not only leaked rain, but also was constantly rocking from being blown by the wind. Under this situation, would it not be true that picking a thicker and taller tree would be better?
It was very obvious, the judges giving out scores like this, was in order to curry favor with Kedi's team's fans, who let those three have the most number of fans. And the judges were also selfish, in those three judges, two of them were fans of Kedi. Since they could comply with the netizens' intentions, and also satisfy their own selfishness at the same time, Kedi's team getting the highest points, and Jing Yang getting a relatively lower score, was an inevitable result.
Were the fans unable to see that the scoring was unfair? They were naturally able to see it, but some fans had a sort of very mysterious ability, that was that they didn't care about what the reality was, they could find thousands of excuses to justify their favorite people, in order to persuade themselves, and also attempt to persuade others. They were even able to fantasize thousands of nonexistent matters to belittle and attack those they didn't like.
So in the comments left on Star Network, you could see that the majority of them were all from Kedi's team's fans congratulating them on getting the highest score. Occasionally there would be a couple comments helping Jing Yang speak, but they might be ganged up on and attacked by fans, or they would be very quickly submerged in a flood of other comments.
But Jing Yang's objection votes, showed signs of decreasing.
Translator Notes:
[1] iron tree – 铁皮树, idk if this actually exists…
[2] golden pheasant – 彩锦鸡, also not sure about this. 彩 means rainbow of sorts, but 锦鸡 means golden pheasant
[3] makeshift building – 豆腐渣工程, literally means built on soybean dregs
[4] schadenfreude – 幸灾乐祸, idiom, literally means to take joy in calamity and delight in disaster
[5] a tall tree attracts the wind – 树大招风, idiom, probably meant in its literal sense here
[6] very carefully – 小心翼翼, idiom, literally means cautious and solemn
Random Notes:
This took 2 hours: 4 pm – 6 pm, for 5.2k characters to 3.8k words. Yes, I am finally past the two over 5k character chapters. But the chapters in this arc are all more than 4k characters…I don't know what's up with this arc. Actually I won't say that bc the next few arcs will all be like this, averaging around 4k something characters. Guess the author was just being nice in the beginning. This arc isn't that bad though bc there isn't too much terminology. I just get a bit confused sometimes btw things that are IRL and things that aren't, especially animal names…