Song Juyao found a location she believed to be the most suitable was next to a fast-flowing river. The riverbed was wide and deep, unlike the shallow creeks they had encountered before.
"Brown bears' sense of smell is seven times that of hounds, and will soon be able to find us based on the scent we leave behind, and only by passing through the river can we cut off our trail so the bears can't find us." Song Juyao said and seeing the nervous expressions of the three people, she added: "We won't just leave now, we'll wait here."
Only then did the three boys relax their brows, following Song Juyao's instructions they began to chop light woods.
Meanwhile, Evans was given another task by his sister - to make a fire and send up smoke signals.
Wet kindling could produce black smoke, and coupled with their bracelets positioning, anyone who sees it would understand their meaning.
Balsa wood is a light, easily cut material used for crafting and even a small knife can process it. [T/N: Ochroma pyramidale – commonly known as balsa, has the lightest wood in the world. It gets its name from the Spanish word for raft due to the wood's high buoyancy. Balsa is the only 100% natural, sustainable, and ecological composite material in the World.]
The three teenagers went to chop the balsa wood, while Song Juyao went to chop some vines. The forest was abundant with such materials, and there were various types that could be used as substitutes for ropes.
She used the vines to bind the light wood together in a sturdy and secure raft that would not easily come loose, weaving them together. The three children were quick learners, and after Song Juyao showed them once, they were soon able to make a raft on their own.
They did this by the river, their experiences from the previous night clearly left no small shadow on them, as they were constantly alert and jittery at every rustle from the forest, afraid the bear might silently appear from behind the trees.
As time passed, the simple yet sturdy rafts were ready and as night was about to fall, someone finally arrived.
"Evans! Ellie!" It was Stanley and his son Stanley. Stanley was an international action movie star, strong and muscular, often being teased that a single punch from him could knock out a cow. At the moment, though, he looked rather ragged, with numerous scratches on his body and face from the plants. Addison seemed to be in better condition, with just some dirty clothes – it seemed he had been well protected by his father.
Last night when the brown bear reappeared, his athletic reflexes kicked in and he reacted swiftly to get himself and his son away while the others still dared not move, dragging Addison away as he often exercised.
Initially, he had brought Addison along with the larger group just so Addison could make more friends and interact with others, but who would have thought something like this would happen. Now he deeply regretted his decision and wished he had followed Evans and his sister.
Evans would of course not care about this matter, he liked to be in a world of his own with his sister, now they came over to follow and his sister still would have to take care of them. If not for the special circumstances now, he would have driven people away. Look, now he even had to cook fish for them.
Stanley and Addison had barely arrived when three more people came - Li Wenling, her husband and supermodel Li Dada. Mr. and Mrs. Li Wenling saw their two sons again, the Li family immediately embraced in a tight group hug, the relief and lingering fear of surviving such an ordeal bringing both tears of joy and cries from the family.
Hearing from their son about how Song Juyao had saved them, Li Wenling was enormously grateful.
"I'm sorry, Miss Song, I really... didn't take the time to get to know you or interact with you personally before, just going by what I heard secondhand to form an opinion of who you were. I'm sorry, please forgive me." Li Wenling sobbed. She no longer cared about keeping up her image as a celebrity.
She had been frightened for a whole day, fearing that something would happen to her two children, and at the moment, her heart was filled with remorse for her rudeness and contempt for Song Juyao. If Song Juyao was really the kind of person she thought, she would not pay attention to the death of the three children, even if it was really live. She could have pretended not to know what had happened, and the audience would have had no reason to blame her. However, the fact was that she had gone out of her way to find them and rescue her children.
The followers followed the trend. Previously, Li Wenling stood by Wen Zhulian's side, and her attitude toward Song Juyao had been negative. Therefore, her fans had also been unkind to Song Juyao. Now that Li Wenling had changed her attitude, her fans also started flooding the live chat with gratitude to Song Juyao, apologizing for their earlier online harassment, throwing stones from above, or turning a blind eye.
[Even though we, as viewers, know it's virtual, Song Juyao actually risked her life to save those three children.]
[Lingling, don't cry, you're so good, you'll be fine.]
[I think with just this, no one can say bad things about Song Juyao anymore.]
[The real heiress is truly real. In comparison, the fake heiress is really fake.]
[If you're praising Song Juyao, then do it. Why are you bringing up our Zhuzhu? Did she bring the bear?]
[Wen Zhulian didn't summon the bear, but it's funny how one second she said she would protect someone and the next second she let go of their hand.]
[That was a conditioned reflex, okay? Even Song Juyao would have reacted the same way!]
"It's okay." Song Juyao forgave her, handed her a shell bowl, and said gently, "Have some hot soup. We might have to set off at any moment, so save your strength."
Her eyes were gentle and tolerant, obviously only 18 years old, but she tolerated the other person like a mature adult. Li Wenling felt even more ashamed when she saw her, and was embraced by her husband to go and sit by the fire with the children.
"Dada, your father will be fine." Li Wenling said when she saw Li Dada's listless appearance. Li Dada was also separated from her father last night.
Li Dada was of mixed blood, her father was a famous painter and her mother was once a supermodel too. With excellent family genes, she debuted as a model at 15, walking major brand runways. Her vibrant and uplifting smile had earned her the nickname "Baby Sweetheart" and was very popular among fans, and now at just 19 years old, she was already among the top commercial models.
Li Dada barely managed to squeeze out a smile towards Li Wenling, causing her fans to be heartbroken, where had they ever seen Dada smile like this.
[Although Dada seems to have some kind of estrangement with her father along the way, and has been silent, but now that something happened she is still very worried about her father.]
[How can father and daughter have a long-lasting feud? In the face of life and death, all those issues should not matter anymore.]
[Dad is fine, don’t worry Dada, he is with Zhuzhu.]
[Thank you Zhuzhu for taking the trouble to help Dada and his father resolve the unknown misunderstanding. I have a hunch that Dada and her father can resolve the misunderstanding here]
[Zhuzhu is very kind, she's been chagrined about letting go of Zhenzhen's hand - even if that was an involuntary reflex, so please don't pretend that you didn't see it.]
"Have some hot soup," a warm voice came from beside her.
Li Dada was taken aback and turned to Song Juyao in a daze, awkwardly accepting the fish soup she offered, "Thank you."
Song Juyao showed her a smile, without the slightest blame, she saw encouragement from the heart, making Li Dada instead feel a little overwhelmed, "Thank you ......you're really kind."
Although Li Dada was not like Chang Zhenzhen and the others who constantly stood by Wen Zhulian at all times to criticize Song Juyao, but because she was friends with Wen Zhulian and was in a bad mood herself, she had always ignored Song Juyao, in essence, she also had been among those isolating them. Now Song Juyao was offered Kindness regardless of past grudges, she felt very ashamed.
Song Juyao smiled at her and looked towards the fire. The firelight illuminated her face, giving her features the feel of an oil painting, also like the texture of early movie screens, yellowish yet distinctive—softly glowing, evoking a sense of nostalgia..
Li Dada could not help but look at her a few more times–so beautiful.
Then when Song Juyao looked over, Li Dada quickly averted her eyes, pretending she hadn't been sneaking peeks at her.
Song Juyao turned back, her eyes forming a gentle curve.
Li Dada ah......
When she found herself in an unfamiliar orphanage and met Jiang Mi there, she did think that she had entered a new world, until she later saw a lot of familiar information—Fangxing Group, Chang Youqing, Li Wenling, and so on, as well as their movies and TV shows. It was only then that she realized that the original 2nd episode world was still the same 2nd episode world, just that her script had changed.
Obviously, the production of the background of the world for each installment of the trial show was quite expensive, so how could they afford to change all the world settings. Therefore, it would be better to just alter her script and change the fate of a small number of people.
Aside from the very small percentage of people whose fates were altered, everyone else's fates should have remained the same, for example, Li Dada. If there was no Survival Island, Li Dada wouldn't have come to this program, and in the future, she would have been in the bathtub of her apartment, slitting her wrist arteries and slowly dying.
Song Juyao looked at the bracelet, there were many points of light on it, each representing a person. A group of people was gathered here, some were rushing this way, while others weren't. And, of course, the only people they had to wait for were the ones heading this way.
The night grew deeper, but no one dared to sleep. After it was popularized that this bear would hunt and kill the human beings on the island, those who had seen the bear with their own eyes couldn't sleep at all. It was important to know that the bear's attack speed is very fast. From waking up to getting to your feet, you might already be killed. So even if someone was on night watch, they didn't dare to sleep.
They all sat by their respective rafts, which were right next to the river. That way, if anything happened, they could immediately push the raft into the water and jump on, escaping on the river.
A wolf howl sounded under the silent and eerie night, putting people even more on edge.
Just then, there was movement in the forest. Everyone tensed up nervously looking over, and saw that it was Chang Youqing, his mother, Wen Yingting and Li Xin arriving. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.
Among them, Chang Youqing was in the worst condition. During the bear's second attack yesterday, although he had avoided a fatal blow, his arm was slashed open by it, skin and flesh torn apart to reveal bone. He fell near the body of Chang Zhenzhen, and only managed to survive because the others were so startled they scattered like birds, causing the bear to give chase to others and neglect him and his unconscious mother.
Only then did mother and son scrape by with their lives.
Chang Youqing couldn't care less about his badly injured arm, fearing the bear's return, he carried his mother and ran. Survival instinct exploded to the fullest at that moment. When his mother woke up and saw her son on the verge of death, she temporarily ignored her dead daughter, and gritted her teeth to support him all the way to find them.
Not everyone would choose to come find Song Juyao. This was Chang Youqing's own decision.
"Mom, if we find Song Juyao, we might still have a chance to survive, so let's look for her." That's what he told his mother.
At that time, he had already lost too much blood, his lips were white, and that arm not only had three deep visible bone wounds, it was also dislocated. In other words, he couldn't look for food, the food in his bag wouldn't last two days. Moreover, his wounds were likely to get infected, and once he died, it was even more unlikely for his mother to survive. So choosing to seek Song Juyao's help was their only way out.
In fact, he felt he was doomed to die for certain, he just wanted his mother to live. So he persisted with his last breath. Along the way, they encountered Wen Yingting and Li Xin, and the four helped each other get here. Were it not for Wen Yingting, a strong man among them, they might not have made it in time.
"There are wolves following us behind." Wen Yingting didn't care about his conflict with Song Juyao and immediately said as soon as he came over.
The others were instantly startled, "Wolves, it should be fine, right? There are so many of us and there's a fire."
"Right, wolves are afraid of fire."
Song Juyao noticed the blood on Wen Yingting and her expression changed. "Did you kill a wolf?"
"It was a last resort". If he hadn't acted, Chang Youqing would have been torn apart by the wolves.
"This is bad, everyone quickly get on the raft! We need to leave immediately," Song Juyao said urgently.
Her tone and expression made one's heart beat a drum.
"No!" Wen Yingting blocked, "Zhuzhu hasn't arrived yet!"
"You can wait here by yourself." Song Juyao said.
Wen Yingting's face was unsightly, and Li Xin angrily said at this point, "How can you be so selfish at a time like this! Zhuzhu and your father are already on their way here. Even if you hate Zhuzhu, that's your birth father, how can you leave him behind?"
Evans' expression immediately changed, "This lady, please get it straight, Ellie only has us family members, not you, don't try to climb relatives there."
"Guys, I don't think this is the time to argue." Seeing the two parties bickering, Li Wenling hurriedly voiced out, "Juyao, is there some kind of emergency now?"
"Wolves are creatures that unite and hold grudges. You either kill all the ones on the scene, only killing one will lead to being tracked by the wolf pack, and the wolves will definitely come over to retaliate. Wolves are indeed afraid of fire, but because of hatred, they won't be deterred."
Song Juyao's words left no room for debate. Who would stay behind in such a situation, especially when they had their own family members to think about? Li Wenling turned to Wen Yingting and said, "I think we should leave first. Zhuzhu and Wei Yan are together, they should be fine."
"Seeing so many of us, the wolf pack will also hesitate and not attack so quickly. Zhuzhu and the others will be here soon!" Wen Yingting looked at the others pleadingly, "Wait for another half an hour, okay?"
When Wen Yingting said that, the others felt that it was a bit reasonable again, half an hour didn't seem like a long time, so they hesitated a bit.
What Wen Yingting said made sense to the others and they hesitated as half an hour didn't seem to be long.
Li Wenling hesitantly spoke to Song Juyao: "Should we wait half an hour?"
[Half an hour should be manageable, right?]
[No, if she mean to retaliate intentionally. Just because Song Juyao is nice to other people doesn't mean she doesn't hate Wen Zhulian.]
[It's normal for a real daughter to hate a fake daughter, right? Besides, in such a dangerous situation, why would you risk waiting for someone you hate?]
[Hating the fake one is understandable, but when her biological father is also there, can she really leave him behind?]
[He hasn't even shared a meal with her, and he's still fond of the fake lady. Her biological father? That's ridiculous. He gave all his love to the fake daughter, so of course his filial piety is towards her too. What does the real daughter have to do with it?]
As the barrage of comments erupted, Wen Zhulian's overbearing fans were suppressed after being beaten down, unable to rise again. Coupled with the other guests' fans' perception of Song Juyao changing along with their idols, the number of people who supported Song Juyao increased a lot.
"No!" Meng Cong shouted loudly, pulling Li Wenling. "Mom, let's listen to Sister Juyao and leave quickly!"
Li Quan also nodded repeatedly, and even started running to their raft unable to hold back anymore.
At this moment, pairs of glowing green eyes appeared in the pitch-dark forest.
Half an hour? They couldn't even wait two more minutes.
People walk much slower than wolves can run.
Fear painted the faces of everyone.
[F*ck!]
[Half an hour? There'll be no bones left in half an hour!]
[Now, someone is going to get hurt. I should have listened to my sister and left right away.]
[Now it's certain someone is going to get hurt. It would have been better if they had just listened to the sister and left immediately earlier.]
[A bunch of idiots, don't understand things and still don't listen to the experts. Blindly following and always blabbering nonsense, they'll deserve it if they die.]