【No way, do you have proof?】
【No, just a vague impression. Seems like there were photos of them too.】
【Did you mix up the First Episode stream with something from ages ago? It’s been a pretty long time since then.】
【Yeah, look at my brain, got everyone confused.】
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Fen shaved off a pile of bark and looped the strips around a tree trunk, rubbing them back and forth until they softened. Then he wove vines between two trees, interlacing bark in the middle. In less than half an hour, a simple single-person bed was ready.
After washing up in the stream, he sat bare-chested by the fire pit roasting his clothes, tossing in firewood now and then. By the time his clothes were nearly dry, the wild boar head was done too.
He sliced off the charred outer skin with a knife, revealing tender pink meat inside.
“Smells so good. That’s the pure, fresh aroma of wild boar meat.” Xiao Fen skewered a piece with the tip of his dagger, sprinkled it with salt, and grinned at the camera. “Fans first.”
【Drooling now. Teasing me like this.】
【This boar head meat is tenderer than any other part. I can already imagine the taste.】
【Can’t take it. I’m going to buy a braised pig head. We’ll eat together when I get back.】
Xiao Fen took two bites of boar meat, then skewered some mushrooms inside and ate a few. Their fresh flavor instantly filled his mouth.
He cooled the pine nuts and chestnuts in water, then roasted them soon after. The pine nuts popped open, making it easy to shell and pop them into his mouth.
After a hearty meal, drowsiness hit him hard.
Time for bed.
Before dawn the next day, he checked the bamboo tube soaking in the water and found two hand-sized fish. He swiftly killed them, scaled and gutted them, threaded them onto branches, and grilled them simply until done. A sprinkle of salt and some wild berries made them taste sour and sweet.
After the fish, he washed a few wild hawthorns he’d picked the day before. One bite and the sourness made him yelp, so he spat it out in a hurry.
Then the day’s journey began again.
With a full belly, Xiao Fen darted nimbly through the jungle. He swung across narrow cliffs on vines, climbed slopes, rolled down grassy patches—taking no detours.
【Wait, hold on. Slow down. I see a snake.】
【It’s a giant python.】
【Aaaah! Run!】
Xiao Fen stepped on the snake’s tail. Both man and snake jumped in fright.
The giant python writhed its brown body, its triangular eyes glaring evilly at him as it flicked its tongue, poised to strike.
Xiao Fen watched it with keen interest.
“Let me ask, what level of protected animal is this snake in Y Country?”
Wang Ze replied in his earpiece, “Second-level in H Country, but Y Country has no relevant laws yet. Hang on, what are you planning?”
Before he finished, as the python lunged, Xiao Fen grabbed its head and slashed it with one knife stroke.
“Tonight, we eat roasted snake meat.”
Live Stream Chat: 【……】
“Poor thing with no legal protection ends up like this.”
【Spreading the law like this?】
【I shouldn’t have said anything. Worried for nothing.】
【We should be worried about the animals on his path, not Brother Fen.】
【Yesterday’s monkeys were lucky to escape monkey brain extraction.】
【A man carrying half the Wildlife Protection Law on his back.】
Xiao Fen gutted the giant python, cut off the section of snake meat he liked best, and left the rest for nature.
“Want the snake gallbladder shipped back for your wine? It’s super nourishing.” Xiao Fen laughed.
Wang Ze was exhausted to the point of numbness. “No need. You causing less trouble would be nourishing enough for me.”
“I’ll bring it for you anyway.” Xiao Fen cut out the snake gallbladder and took it along.
Wild rabbits they passed on the road didn’t look appetizing anymore.
Dinner that night was roasted snake meat skewered with mushrooms. Soon the white snake meat turned golden on the surface, sizzling with oil, while the golden and brown mushrooms glistened from the fat and gave off their signature aroma.
One bite and the mushrooms’ sweet freshness paired perfectly with the chewy python meat. It was so good that Xiao Fen didn’t say a word to the audience across the camera.
【No share for fans today?】
【Not fair! Let me have a bite at least!】
【Mouth watering. Is this an escape show or an outdoor wilderness cooking program?】
【He’s eating too well. Fang Yama, hurry up and catch him.】
On the third day, Xiao Fen finally managed to catch a deer through his own skills. He drank several gulps of warm deer blood, carved off a deer leg for a hearty feast, and returned the rest of the meat to nature.
He jumped into a waterhole for a bath. Before he could climb out, rustling came from nearby bushes.
Faint human whispers drifted over occasionally.
Half his head emerged from the waterhole, wet black hair plastered to his forehead. He crept toward the shore, grabbed his clothes, and submerged again.
When he surfaced next, he was already several hundred meters away on the opposite bank.
Xiao Fen leaped ashore, dressed quickly, and bolted without a word.
The Vice Squad Officers soon noticed the faint, rapid rustling of grass.
“There!”
“Chase!”
A game of cat-and-mouse chase unfolded in the vast jungle.
What alarmed him was the moon overhead growing brighter, illuminating the path underfoot more clearly.
That meant fewer trees around.
The ground confirmed it—harder and harder.
The terrain grew drier, bushes thinned out, and Xiao Fen had fewer places to hide.
Ahead lay a swamp. Detouring would take who knew how long, so Xiao Fen leaped backward, landing on his back and sinking right in.
He dove underwater, held his breath, and swam quietly to the reeds by the water’s edge, hiding there.
A few minutes later, the Vice Squad Officers saw the swamp—clear on top, murky below—with no signs of movement.
Flashlights pierced a meter-deep into the water, revealing only mud.
Nothing unusual.
“Check over there,” one Vice Squad Officer whispered, reporting the situation into his earpiece.
No trace remained by the swamp’s edge.
Xiao Fen was about to climb out when more Vice Squad Officers arrived, patrolling the area and sticking around nearby.
He exhaled quietly underwater, crouching low with only his head above water, using the reeds for cover. He waded forward, deep one step, shallow the next.
The mud’s suction grew stronger at the bottom, the clear water shallowed, until it barely reached his chest. Every step left a trail of muddy slurry.
Xiao Fen started feeling the strain, his pace slowing.
The shore was in sight, but the resistance intensified.
“This is the terror of a swamp. The harder you struggle to lift your foot, the deeper you sink—until you’re stuck, waiting to die.”
He groped underwater and surfaced with a turtle flailing on its back.
“Sorry, grabbed the wrong thing. You look tasty, though.”
Xiao Fen tossed the turtle aside, groped again, and pulled out leftover vines and a deer antler.
“Told you it’d come in handy.”
He tied the deer antler to the vines like a lasso, swung it cowboy-style overhead twice, and hooked it firmly onto a tree onshore.
With that pull, he relaxed his body and inched slowly to the bank.
When he finally climbed out, he was covered head to toe in mud.
No nearby streams to rinse off, so he endured the discomfort and pressed on.
The landscape ahead started giving hints.
【Wait, isn’t Brother Fen’s route way off?】
【Way off the mark. Deep Mountains are north, Guiwu Forest east—this is the cliff to the west!】
【Deep Mountains really make it easy to get lost. Chased right here.】
【Trapped like a turtle in a jar. Block the east, herd him west—forcing his hand.】
【Don’t go farther. Nothing ahead but hundreds of kilometers of sheer rock walls. No way around.】
【I bet he’ll go straight up.】
【They’ve got blank cartridges. Special forces backgrounds, all crack shots. Amid gunfire with no big trees around, where can he hide?】
【Done for. Brother Fen’s losing this time.】
Before long, Xiao Fen stood at the foot of towering cliffs piercing the clouds.
“Wang Ze, time to prep a parachute for me.”
“You… you… this… isn’t what I think it is, right?” Wang Ze stammered.
“No parachute? Guess I’ll just climb.”
“Wait, wait, wait—”
Ten minutes later, a helicopter dropped off several staff members.
At the same time, inflatable cushions and safety nets were set up at the cliff base.
【Brother Fen’s gonna climb the cliff?】 Live Stream Chat caught on late.
【That’s gotta be a few hundred meters high.】
【Not even a few meters—nobody climbs a sheer barren cliff like that.】
【Holy shit, real man!】
【A path never imagined!】
The Live Stream Chat exploded again. Even at midnight locally, plenty of people were glued to their screens.
Viewership surged continuously, shattering records nonstop.
Old Master Lu and President Lu rushed to the TV station overnight. Seeing the data, they grinned ear to ear.
“As long as it doesn’t touch core principles, anything Xiao Fen wants, our whole group delivers,” Old Master Lu said. “Truly glad this artist signed with us first. Merge his subsidiary straight into HQ—full resource tilt, top-tier perks across the board.”
He’d really misjudged before. Why rattle an artist like this? Others would treasure him like gold.
Luckily, his grandson played good cop—one “young and clueless” smoothed it over, and Xiao Fen hadn’t pursued it.
“After this show, we’ll both go see Little Fen, show the Lu Family’s sincerity. Don’t let his heart go cold. Prep every perk for an A-list superstar.”
Madam Lu advised gently from the side, “Dad, he might not even survive this show.”
Old Master Lu declared firmly, “Order it: ensure Xiao Fen comes out safe and sound. We’ll launch a world-famous all-around superstar. Lu Family will dominate H Country’s entertainment empire for decades.”
“If he loses this episode…”
“You don’t get it. Win or lose, this barehanded cliff climb creates massive buzz. Only upside for us, no downside.”
Madam Lu fell silent.
As Old Master Lu and President Lu basked in the group’s booming glory, she slipped out of the room, uninterested.
“This Xiao Fen’s no pushover.” Snowed under, yet stirring up waves.
“Madam, what’s your plan?” asked her bodyguard and assistant, Yan Feng.
“What counts as a principles issue?” Madam Lu pondered, recalling something. “Wasn’t he a gambling prevention spokesman recently?”
“Yes, did two videos,” Yan Feng said. “Platform almost forgot to unban him—I reminded them, and they finally moved. Getting lazier. But Xiao Fen hasn’t mentioned it to the officials.”
“A guy covered in scandals—banned? Normal. Nobody cares about small fry.” Madam Lu sneered coldly. “Official types speak cautiously. Just a spokesman—no one’s saving him. But if he pulls some stunt, this time he’s fully blacklisted.”
“But Old Master…”
“You think a mega-corp’s future hinges on an outsider?” Madam Lu found it ridiculous. “Only A-Jin is the group’s future.”
One small star’s fate changes nothing.
If Xiao Fen fell, more Zhang Fens and Li Fens would rise, winning fans’ adoration.
Their job: keep innovating, packaging idols fans crave.
—
At Tengcha Cliff’s edge.
Xiao Fen had just geared up with a parachute and was eyeing the cliff face for a starting point when Vice Squad Officers burst from the treeline.
Leading them was Fang Si Ting.
Xiao Fen, pulling on gloves, spotted the arrival and instinctively leaned back, blinking warily.
Fang Si Ting stared at the mud-caked figure and froze for a second.
【Fang Yama’s face seems to say: What monkey is this? Do I know him?】
【Brain reboot. Confirmed: target to capture.】
“Surrender now.” Fang Si Ting prepared to grab him.
“Do you think I’m the kind of person who would say something like that?”
Xiao Fen stuffed the knife into his pants pocket. “No one can trap me.”
Including Fang Si Ting.
With that, he turned and climbed up the cliff.
