Chapter 100 The Smell of Victory
Seeing that Kendall was actually roasting meat, the guests stood rigid, like ice-frozen statues, their faces stiff.
Kendall didn't spare them a single glance. She set the skewers next to the fire and took the sea crab and flatbread offered by Henry, lowering her head to eat slowly.
Henry had also skillfully washed the wild berries they picked in the forest today and wrapped them in leaves, setting them out as a post-meal fruit course.
Jasper remembered the arrogant words he had just spoken to Kendall when he came out of the forest, and a feeling of acute embarrassment instantly washed over him. He lowered his head and returned to his tent.
With all the unpleasantness that had happened today, the other guests certainly weren't comfortable asking Kendall and Henry for food, so they all followed him back into their tents.
Before long, in addition to the aroma of seafood, they gradually began to smell the tempting scent of roasted meat carried by the sea breeze.
———
Last night, Jasper and the others had their tents submerged and washed away by the sea, leaving only four usable tents.
After some discussion, they decided to pair up.
Mia and Sophia would share one tent. Ezra and Elijah would share one, Liam and Jasper would share one, leaving Daniel to have the last tent alone.
Although these four tents weren't washed away last night, they all had varying degrees of wear and tear.
Jasper assigned the best tent to Mia and Sophia, and he and Liam also claimed the next best tent.
Looking at the remaining two tents, Jasper said, "You guys divide them up yourselves, you're all people from the entertainment industry anyway. "
The tent curtains weren't drawn, so it wasn't a private space, allowing the audience in the live stream to witness this scene.
user @CalmMind: "Jasper is so selfish. He took the two best tents, leaving only a slightly collapsed tent and a tattered, broken one."
user @ElijahIsMyHusband: "The slightly collapsed one is clearly better. Although it's slumped, it at least keeps out the wind and rain. The broken tent... who knows what it went through last night. It has so many tears! Sleeping in that is no different than sleeping on the ground."
user @DanielDieHardFan: "That leaves Ezra, Elijah, and Daniel without tents. How will those three choose?"
user @KingDaniel: "Ezra kept saying he was Daniel's fan before, he should give up the better tent."
user @DanielIsTheBest: "Mhm... Daniel fell from a wire during a previous filming and was bedridden for a whole month. Another time during a shoot, he accidentally fell into an ice cave and barely survived, leaving him with injuries all over his body."
"Daniel, Elijah and I are two people, and the smaller tent won't fit two grown men. We want that one." Ezra spoke first, raising a hand and pointing to the slightly collapsed tent.
Daniel's heart sank when he heard this, but he responded calmly, "If you put it that way, then Elijah and I can share a tent, so you can sleep alone in the remaining one, and it won't be crowded."
user @AngryTeen: "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
user @GossipGirl: "They're starting to turn on each other. Exciting."
Ezra's expression turned ugly when he saw Daniel disagreed.
It was already the second day, and the program team still hadn't appeared.
Everyone secretly suspected something had happened, either to the program team's returning yacht or to the outside world.
Otherwise, why had they been squatting on the rock hill for most of the afternoon without seeing the program team's yacht or even any passing boats?
Ezra had previously presented himself as Daniel's fan in front of the camera, hoping to leverage that persona to gain some of Daniel's popularity.
Now, without the program team or cameras around, Ezra was naturally too lazy to maintain the persona.
"What do you mean, Daniel? Elijah and I have been friends for years, and we've slept together more times than not.
I can't fall asleep without him beside me. "
Elijah stood next to Ezra. Although he didn't speak, his silence clearly meant he agreed with Ezra. Daniel quickly assessed the situation and realized that if he fought them, he wouldn't gain any advantage, so he compromised. "How about we each sleep in it alternatively?"
user @PeaceMaker: "That's a good solution. One day for you, one day for me. Fair!"
"No way," Ezra refused without hesitation. He glanced at the tattered small tent, there was no way he would sleep in that!
"We're in the wilderness now. If Daniel doesn't agree, then we'll use a wilderness method to settle the ownership of the tent."
"What method?"
Ezra shifted his body and said with some aggression, "A fight! The two of us against you. Whoever wins gets the good tent."
user @ColdAsIce: "Holy cow? Is that Ezra?"
user @DanielIsGreat: "No way! Two against one? I can't believe you'd say that!"
user @DanielGreenHeart: "That's obviously unfair to Daniel!"
user @InterestedPasserby: "I'm suddenly turned off. When he first entered the show yesterday, he kept emphasizing that he was Daniel's fan... that magazine he packed in his luggage couldn't have been genuine, right?"
user @DetectiveSoo: "I get it now. It was all for his persona. He pretended to be Daniel's fan in front of the camera to gain followers using that persona. Now that there's no profit to be gained, he's throwing his persona aside to secure his own interests."
user @KingDaniel: "What about Mia and Sophia standing by? Are they mute? They were both calling themselves Daniel's fans in front of the camera, too."
user @HopelessRomantic: "Disgusting. It's all marketing."
user @JustHereForFun: "Thinking back to when Daniel was celebrated by everyone before entering the show yesterday, and now he's about to sleep in a small, broken tent... pathetic."
user @ChasingWinds: "There's not much sincerity in the entertainment industry."
Daniel certainly wouldn't agree to fight Ezra and Elijah. He was alone, and the two younger, stronger men put him at a clear disadvantage.
Jasper, Liam, Mia, and Sophia, who were observing on the side, watched this scene without saying a word. Of course. They had already claimed the two best tents for themselves. To them, it didn't matter who slept in the broken tent, as long as it didn't affect their own interests.
Daniel clenched his fist, suppressing his inner anger, picked up his backpack, and walked toward the small, broken tent.
user @MyHusbandDaniel: "Woowoo, I feel so bad!"
user @DanielNumberOneFan: "Bullying our Daniel like this? Fine. Fans of Ezra and the others, we have a grudge now!"
user @UnapologeticallyHonest: "Jasper and his group are clearly unfit to be leaders.
Now, Ezra and Daniel are being forced to bow due to power dynamics, but Jasper's group only cares about their own comfort, completely ignoring the struggles of their subordinates and watching them turn on each other.
How are they different from those ancient tyrant rulers? "
———
Kendall, sitting by the fire and roasting meat, also heard the commotion from the other guests talking. Although she couldn't make out what they were saying, she could tell from their tone that it must have been a very unpleasant conversation.
It hadn't been long, and they were already turning on each other.
Kendall turned the skewer, suddenly feeling that it wouldn't be so bad if the program team arrived a little late. She enjoyed watching Liam and the others suffer from hunger.
The meat sizzled with dripping oil in Kendall's hands, and waves of tempting aroma drifted into the noses of the guests from time to time.
Mia tossed and turned restlessly in her tent. In the dark, her beautiful eyes were filled with hatred, an emotion so dense it felt almost tangible.
After the meat were roasted, Kendall generously gave Henry one of them. Henry was stunned when he saw the skewer handed to him. He thought he would be lucky to even get a piece of meat, instead, he got a whole one!
"T-t-this... isn't this too much?" Henry stammered in surprise.
"Take it," Kendall placed it in his hands. "We'll catch more tomorrow."
Henry accepted it tearfully with gratitude. "I can't catch rabbits or chickens, but I'll work hard to find seafood and supply bags."
Kendall acknowledged him with a shallow hum.
user @UltimateFoodie: "Ahhh, it's true! Follow Kendall for meat!"
user @CutieMiMi: "Those other guests are seriously blind. Look at the treatment Henry gets compared to the treatment they get following Jasper's group."
user @DanielLover: "Daniel! Stop following Jasper's group and team up with Kendall! Then you can crash in Henry's tent!"
For the other guests, tonight was another difficult night.
———
In the dead of night, a tall, slender figure was traveling through the forest. He walked alone in the darkness. The sounds of insects and wild beasts occasionally broke the silence, but he paid no attention.
Clenching the small, glowing nightlight in his arms, his steps were firm, and his direction was precisely toward Kendall's campsite. Ahead of him, a small creature hopped through the grass, as if leading the way for him.
The night passed without further incident.
———
The next day, as the sky began to lighten, the guests emerged from their tents one after another. They had been hungry all night and bitten by mosquitoes, none of them had slept well.
Standing on the rock hill and looking out, they still didn't see any sign of the program team. They felt both unsurprised and dejected.
However, they had no time to ponder why the program team and the rescue were so late, as the food they found yesterday was already gone, and they woke up with empty, growling stomachs.
Jasper emerged from his tent and instructed everyone to split into two teams, half to go to the beach for seafood, and the other half to enter the forest to look for supply bags, rabbits, and wild chickens.
Sophia, Mia, and Liam volunteered to go to the beach to look for food, which left Jasper, Daniel, Ezra, and Elijah who would have to enter the forest.
Glancing at Kendall and Henry's two silent tents, Mia urged Sophia and Liam in a low voice to hurry up. She was going to the beach to collect all the seafood!
Mia had clearly seen the breakfast Kendall and Henry cooked yesterday morning. It was a pot full of seafood, more than two people could eat. Kendall and Henry only had two people and could find so much, they had three, so she didn't believe they would be hungry today!
Mia was full of confidence, and Sophia and Liam felt similarly. But once the three of them actually reached the beach, they discovered that after walking around for a while, they couldn't see a single piece of seafood!
user @JustHereForFun: "Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter. How can those three find seafood just by walking around?"
user @BrattyBabe: "It didn't rain last night, so not much seafood washed up. It's indeed a bit hard to find."
user @WidlifeExpert: "Flip the rocks! Flip the rocks!!!"
user @EagleEyes: "I just saw a sea crab hiding right next to Mia's foot, and she didn't even see it... Sigh!"
The three searched for over ten minutes, and only Sophia spotted an octopus.
The octopus was still alive but had been stranded in a small puddle.
Sophia screamed in terror. Mia also didn't dare to grab the soft, living creature.
Finally, Liam rushed over and, after a huge effort, managed to catch the octopus.
user @TopCommentor: "Luckily, this was a small puddle separated from the ocean. Otherwise, with how timid these three are, that octopus would have already run back into the sea."
However, catching the octopus made Sophia realize, "It seems some seafood hides under rocks. We need to flip some rocks over."
Mia and Liam nodded listlessly. The three of them frantically flipped rocks for over twenty minutes on the beach, and after all the trouble, they managed to catch two swimming crabs and a few large and small conch shells...
Just as the three were exhausted, the freshened-up Kendall and Henry walked toward the beach.
(End of Chapter)