Chapter 231: Chapter 229: This Variety Show is Too Real

Meng Xiaoyi covered her mouth, unable to hide the shock in her eyes.

In a wildly exaggerated tone, she asked, "You... Where did you get a fire? Where did you get a pot? And all this other stuff?"

Meng Xiaoyi pointed her other hand at the stove.

"Isn’t the production team going too far? We’ve been starving for so long, and you guys are over here enjoying yourselves. This is so unfair..."

Xu Jiali took a few satisfied sips of noodle broth, set down the bamboo tube, and then turned to look at Meng Xiaoyi.

"Back to accusing the production team of giving us special treatment again?"

"I... I didn’t mean that."

"That’s exactly what you meant! Fine, you’re incompetent, but the moment someone else does well, you assume they’re getting special treatment? Just how twisted do you have to be to say something like that every single time?"

Xu Jiali stared at Meng Xiaoyi, as if genuinely curious.

The rims of Meng Xiaoyi’s eyes turned red, and her voice became a soft, choked sob. "I, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s my fault you misunderstood, Jiali. I apologize to you, and I apologize to Doctor Wen."

Meng Xiaoyi looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"What’s the point of bullying Meng Xiaoyi, Xu Jiali? Is she wrong? Just the three of you, you think you could accomplish all this? You don’t actually think the livestream viewers will believe you, do you? None of you have ever played the role of a naive damsel, so why are you acting like one now? Xiao Yi is just blunt, why do you have to make such a big deal out of it?"

Wen Ying cleared her throat, stopping Xu Jiali, who had been about to fire back.

"We built this shelter. We found these things. Everything you see, we made with our own hands. If you’re not satisfied, you can go find the director, understand?"

As Wen Ying spoke, she flung the makeshift chopstick in her hand.

WHIZZ!

Jiang Beibei, who had been about to make a sarcastic comment about Wen Ying’s posturing, looked in the direction the chopstick had flown.

The words died on her lips as she froze in place!

Jiang Beibei ran over to the tree and reached out, staring at the chopstick embedded in the trunk.

She gave it a hard tug, but couldn’t pull the chopstick out.

"Brother Fu Yao, help me pull this chopstick out."

Xie Fu Yao went over. He was also caught off guard and couldn’t pull it out on his first try, either.

But he was quite strong, after all.

Once the chopstick was pulled out, Jiang Beibei stared at how deep it had been lodged in the trunk, her expression completely bewildered.

’Are we even on the same show?’

Xie Fu Yao was stunned as well.

’This has to be a coincidence, right?’

The cameraman gave an awkward laugh. "Everyone, Doctor Wen and her team really did accomplish all this together. I filmed the entire process, and the viewers on the livestream were watching the whole time. If you don’t believe it, you can check it out online for yourselves after we finish shooting for the day."

After the cameraman’s explanation, they couldn’t very well say anything more.

’We definitely have to watch the footage!’

’We have to find a flaw in that bitch Wen Ying!’

’I refuse to believe the production team’s cover-up is that seamless!’

"Our side was in the wrong about this. I apologize."

Xie Fu Yao truly was a pragmatic man with a bright future ahead of him.

"I see you’ve cooked. Are there any leftovers?"

"It smells so good! What is that?" Zhao Qi, who had been missing, appeared, drawn by the aroma.

Seeing the scene before him, Zhao Qi sneered. "Don’t tell me you’re all here to scrounge for food?"

Xie Fu Yao was left speechless.

’Aren’t you here to scrounge for food too, you bastard?’ he wanted to curse at Zhao Qi.

But with the cameras rolling, he restrained himself and maintained his image.

Xu Jiali looked at Zhao Qi curiously. "Aren’t you two in the same group?"

Zhao Qi started to object, but he swallowed his words. They were, in fact, a team; it wasn’t something he could change just by wishing it otherwise.

Fortunately, Xu Jiali was the type to fill in the blanks. "Zhao Qi, you must have gotten fed up with their posturing and decided to go it alone, right? I knew it. When Song Jiayan and I ran into them earlier, I wondered why you weren’t with them."

Zhao Qi was a little irritated, but he nodded anyway.

Seeing Zhao Qi confirm her theory, Xu Jiali was even more delighted. "Sister Yingying, can we give Zhao Qi a share of the noodles?"

Wen Ying agreed.

Zhao Qi didn’t act coy or hesitant. He ran right over, took the clean bamboo tube, and carefully transferred some noodles into it with chopsticks.

He also got two fragrant pieces of potato.

As for the eggs, he could forget about those. They had been divided up long ago.

But Zhao Qi was already satisfied.

He wolfed down the noodles, the feeling of his starving stomach slowly being filled making Zhao Qi feel like this was the single best move he’d made since joining the show.

’I’ve managed to connect with Doctor Wen, right?’

Wen Ying and Xu Jiali each had one serving and then stopped, dividing the rest of the noodles in the pot between Zhao Qi and Song Jiayan.

Jiang Beibei couldn’t hold back. "Are you really not going to leave any for us at all?"

Meng Xiaoyi chimed in, "We’re so hungry, and we still haven’t eaten. We found out where some supplies are hidden, but it’s probably really far, and we don’t have any energy left."

But Wen Ying and her group acted as if they hadn’t heard a thing.

Zhang Jingxing stepped forward, a gentle smile on his face. "Doctor Wen, I see you still have some noodles left. Would you be willing to cook them for us?"

The words had barely left his mouth when Xu Jiali shot to her feet, immediately gathered the remaining dried noodles, and put them back in the bamboo basket.

"Sorry, this was only our first meal. We don’t know where our next one is coming from. Instead of wasting time here, you’d be better off going to find your own supplies."

Wen Ying’s tone was gentle, but her words made every last one of them grind their teeth in frustration.

Seeing that they weren’t reacting, Wen Ying was a little surprised.

’Are these people really this dense?’

"Do you not understand? I mean, stop dreaming. If you want to eat, fend for yourselves!"

Wen Ying added.

Jiang Beibei’s expression turned ugly, and Xie Fu Yao didn’t look much better, though he wasn’t about to stick his neck out at a time like this.

After all, those were the rules of the show.

"Aren’t you being too cruel? You’re going to starve us just because we had a little conflict earlier..."

"Sister Bei Bei is right. Can you really stand to watch us starve?"

Zhao Qi couldn’t help but laugh out loud. "My dear princesses, are you sure you’re on a survival show? How can you have the gall to say something so ridiculous? Can you name a single show like this where a team lets its rivals use their supplies? What, did you eat your own brains? Your stupidity is genuinely irritating~

Even though this is my first time on a reality show, I just couldn’t hold back. My apologies. You have a long, long road ahead of you in this industry."

"It’s already getting dark. Where are you expecting us to go find things? Besides, even if we found something, we’d be out of time, wouldn’t we? We have to rest here for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll—"

"Wait a minute!" Xu Jiali suddenly cut Meng Xiaoyi off.

"Why are you resting here?"

"Xu Jiali, you’re not planning to keep this shelter all to yourselves, are you?" Meng Xiaoyi asked, pointing at the deluxe, two-story survival-style house that Wen Ying had built.