TRYMBPIETM 13: The Ancient Tree’s Deep Shade(7)

At 8:30 AM, Scenery Along the Way began its live broadcast on time.

Deng Jinhai sat down in front of the computer with a bucket of old-fashioned sauerkraut instant noodles, eating while checking messages in the work group on his phone.

He worked as a professional online public relations specialist, also known as an internet “water army.”

Recently, their studio received a big project, and several bosses had instructed them to target the same artist.

This artist was named Chi Qingzhou, who had just debuted with no works to his name. It seemed that he hadn’t even signed with a company, and it was unclear whom he had offended.

Deng Jinhai felt a little sorry for the artist but was swayed by the huge rewards the bosses offered, and that small pity wasn’t enough to make him give up the potential profits.

He slurped up a mouthful of noodles and saw that the group was preparing new talking points.

The black material and brainwashing kits they had prepared worked well before, but perhaps they had been used for too long. The audience began to feel rebellious. The effects weren’t as good when the variety show officially aired yesterday.

By the middle of the live broadcast, as Chi Qingzhou slightly showed his abilities, the audience’s impressions of him improved significantly, almost drowning out their voices.

No wonder the boss was so eager to come up with new tactics today.

Deng Jinhai swallowed the last bit of noodles and started to follow the instructions in the group, questioning whether Chi Qingzhou had undergone plastic surgery in the live chat, trying to suppress the fans who had just started to support him.

He typed loudly on the keyboard, but unfortunately, Chi Qingzhou was just too handsome. Even though he often seemed lackluster in terms of personality, very few face cons could take their eyes off him.

Deng Jinhai watched the many comments like “I’m not a fan, just admiring his looks” and felt annoyed. He was busy arguing with them, nearly knocking over the noodles.

In a hurry, he grabbed the keyboard and moved it away from the spilled soup.

He only had one keyboard left now, and he couldn’t afford to ruin it with soup.

Deng Jinhai thought of going to the kitchen to grab a rag to clean the table, but he forgot that his keyboard was wired.

As he turned around, the keyboard’s cord tripped his ankle.

The next moment, he crashed dramatically to the floor, his body hitting the ground with a loud “crack,” and he vaguely heard the sound of bones cracking.

He winced in pain and was about to complain when a series of loud noises came from behind him, followed by the strong scent of sauerkraut noodles filling the air.

Shaking, he looked up and saw that his chair had tipped over, the noodles bucket rolling off the table’s edge, and the soup dripping down.

His keyboard, which had fallen with him, was soaked in noodle broth, and even his phone, which had accidentally fallen, was covered in soup.

Deng Jinhai let out a yelp, jumping up in panic.

Before he could rush over to check on his phone, sharp pain suddenly shot from his tailbone.

He froze for a moment, realizing belatedly that the chair had probably fallen on him…

Meanwhile, other members of the same water army in the studio also encountered a series of unfortunate events after struggling for half an hour.

One of them recalled Chi Qingzhou’s gaze when he glanced at the camera during the live broadcast and nervously typed in the group chat.

[This Chi Qingzhou is a bit… odd… Could we be suffering some kind of backlash?]

The studio head, furious, scolded him, telling him not to disturb the group’s morale.

[We’ve been in this business for years. If there was any karmic backlash, we would have been hit by it long ago! We wouldn’t have waited until today. It’s just an accident. Everyone calm down, let’s try the new…]

His voice trailed off, and a strange noise came through the voice chat, followed by a scream that sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

At 9:10 AM that day, he was rushed to the hospital by his family.

The doctor examined him and confirmed that it wasn’t anything serious—just two broken wrists.

The head of the water army sat in the hospital room, staring blankly for a long time before asking his wife to send a message.

[Let’s stop working for now… this Chi Qingzhou, he really is a bit… strange.]

……

Chi Qingzhou woke up early, much earlier than the live broadcast of Along the Way Scenery.

He sat in the yard of the villager’s house, peacefully finishing his morning session. A complex emotional voice echoed in his mind.

【Host, did you already guess this would happen?】

Chi Qingzhou answered calmly, “Guess what?”

System: 【You know you’ve gained fans, right? And not just any fans, but proper face fans, more than 100,000! When I first bound you to me, you said thateverything will be fine after the live stream started. Did you anticipate this situation?】

Chi Qingzhou raised an eyebrow, glancing at the distant trees, and smiled lightly, “You’re the system. You should be more familiar with predicting the future than anyone.”

【… Heh.】 The system sneered, 【I wouldn’t dare. I’m just a small system for ordinary planes. How could I possibly predict things for experts like you? Host, just tell me honestly. You don’t want to do the tasks I set for you, right? Is it because you’ve already seen ‘death approaching’ and ‘total defeat’ written all over Chi Qingning’s face?】

Chi Qingzhou laughed softly, “You’re still the same. Always assuming the worst about others. My brother is a good person. Stop targeting him.”

The system snorted coldly, remaining silent. It knew the host wouldn’t admit it, and it never expected him to. The mention was just a procedural check. When the host refused to accept a task and didn’t give a reason. it was normal for the system to hide some information.

The system hummed a reminder that someone was coming and returned to its quiet state in Chi Qingzhou’s mind.

Chi Qingzhou greeted the early-rising Lu Man warmly and asked whether his sister had appeared in his dreams.

Lu Man held back his laughter and answered no, and once again assured Teacher Chi that if his sister came to him in a dream, he would definitely help Teacher Chi convey his intention to make friends.

Chi Qingzhou nodded in satisfaction and sent Lu Man on his way. He wasn’t worried about Lu Man tricking him.

People who entered the occult world like him had very accurate premonitions. Even before participating in the show, he had sensed that good things would happen.

Now, it seemed he might get everything he wanted.

Chi Qingzhou was in a good mood, and by 8:30 AM, when the live broadcast started, his smile remained genuine.

Fans couldn’t help but swoon over how beautiful his smile was, flooding the screen with comments.

Although there were water army members trying to stir up trouble, the face fans kept their support.

In less than half an hour, the water army suddenly went silent, and the chat became much lighter and fresher. The other viewers also started feeling more relaxed and happy.

It was at this point that Lu Man announced that the guests had successfully completed the task and could start the next one.

The elderly man in charge of mushroom picking stepped out from behind Lu Man and, with a few awkward phrases in Mandarin, greeted the guests.

He appeared to be in his sixties, with weathered skin and a muscular build, indicating that he was in excellent physical condition. His outfit was characteristic of the Puluo tribe, and he had a strong presence.

Lu Man smiled and said, “As everyone knows, people in Qing Province love picking mushrooms, and every year many people suffer from mushroom poisoning. Some even end up staring at white walls watching dramas, or holding hands with little dancers.”

Since the show aimed to promote Yinping Village, the mushroom-picking segment was of course essential.

Mushrooms, especially wild mountain mushrooms, could be dangerous. For safety reasons, having an experienced guide was necessary.

This elderly man was recommended by the village chief of Yinping Village, and he was the most knowledgeable about mushroom picking in the area.

He had over forty years of experience and knew every mountain around Yinping Village like the back of his hand.

With him guiding them, the guests were unlikely to encounter major issues.

However, considering the potency of some wild mushrooms, the elderly man still gave a few serious warnings.

The guests listened with confused expressions.

The Puluo tribe had its own language, and the elderly man wasn’t very fluent in Mandarin. The more critical the information, the more likely he was to slip into his native language, so the guests couldn’t understand.

The director smiled with satisfaction, ready to announce the cost of hiring a translator when Chi Qingzhou stepped forward to speak with the elderly man.

The guests’ eyes lit up.

Chi Qingzhou knew Puluo?

Liang Ji and the others immediately approached him, asking, “Little Chi, have you studied Puluo language?”

Chi Qingzhou gave an ambiguous reply: “For research purposes.”

The guests quickly realized that Chi Qingzhou’s major was in anthropology, so studying minority languages for research was plausible.

They eagerly asked, “What did the elderly man say?”

Chi Qingzhou responded, “He reminded us that there are over seven hundred types of wild mushrooms in the nearby mountains. Many poisonous mushrooms look very similar to non-poisonous ones. He told us that no matter what mushrooms we pick, we must show them to him for identification to make sure they are safe.”

The guests nodded, agreeing to be careful. Then they asked, “Did he say anything else?”

Chi Qingzhou answered, “He also reminded me that Yinping Village is very close to the Puluo tribe’s homeland. We must stay close to him when picking mushrooms. The Puluo tribe values their homeland deeply, and even tribe members cannot casually approach it. If we accidentally wander in…”

He smiled, his lips curling in amusement.

Though his smile was charming and his voice clear and pleasant, there was an unsettling undertone to his words.

The guests instinctively agreed, even the usually scheming Chi Qingning, at this moment, also promised to stay close to the elderly man.

Chi Qingzhou once again discussed with the old man, quickly finalizing the time and route for heading up the mountain, without any involvement from the production team.

Once the old man went back to pack his things, Zhong LingShu casually asked Lu Man, “Who is this young man beside you?”

Lu Man, with a slightly numb expression, replied, “Oh, this is the translator we hired who knows Puluo language. If you need him, you can hire him for 400 yuan a day…”

Zhong LingShu immediately said, “No need, we have Xiao Chi!”

Everyone nodded in agreement, even Chi QingNing said, “We already told the old man that we will stick close to him. With Second Brother around, we won’t have communication issues.”

The production team: “…”

The director, unable to do anything about the guests, gave Chi Qingzhou a helpless look and had to follow along with them.

Who would have thought that a small artist inserted into the variety show by the investors would actually be the biggest bug of the season?

Chi Qingzhou gave the director a smile, his gaze somewhat deep.

He didn’t like people disturbing his friends who needed peace.

And when it comes to Xing Shuangzhan’s matter, his patience is not very good.

He hoped Zhu Yantong would act faster and not make him wait too long.

…..

At the time of the live broadcast in Yín Píng Village, it was the season with the heaviest rainfall.

Last night, there had been a light drizzle in the middle of the night, and many wild mushrooms in the nearby mountains had just started to appear.

The old man gave each guest a basket and a snake skin bag and led them into the mountains.

The six guests didn’t dare to stray far from the old man, walking and picking mushrooms. Their harvest was actually quite good.

By noon, the old man found a spacious area for everyone to rest, reminding them again not to wander too far.

The guests all responded and found a tree shade to sit down and eat lunch.

Tang QiChen forgot to bring his lunch and had to spend 10 yuan to buy a meat sandwich from the production team.

He sat down near a big tree not far from Chi Qingzhou, eating while complaining that the director was a fraud.

The cameraman responsible for filming him, hearing his words, had a stiff expression.

He glanced at him strangely and was about to change his position when Chi Qingzhou suddenly shouted, “Don’t move!”

Tang QiChen looked confused, “… Huh?”

In his personal live broadcast room, fans were frantically warning him and the production team.

[Chen Ge, don’t move, there’s a snake on the tree behind you!!]

[Oh my god, it’s so big! What is the production team doing? Hurry up and do something!]

[I’ve never seen a snake like this, its pattern is so strange, is it poisonous?]

[Where’s the rescue team? Why hasn’t the production team arranged emergency assistance?!]

[Come on, production team, do something! If you keep dragging this out, I’ll just call the police myself!]