Chapter 40

“Lu Yang, do you see anything?” Lin Xinmeng’s upper body leaned towards Lu Yang, and her head came close.

Lu Yang’s eyes twitched. Her gaze stopped on Lin Xinmeng for two seconds, then drifted back to Lu Mingyu.

Lu Mingyu got her signal and raised his eyebrows. “I know this.”

“You know about this?” Lin Xinmeng was puzzled.

He went on, “It’s a drawing of a mushroom and an orange. In picture 1, the orange on the road knocked down the mushroom, and then the mushroom snarled, “Orange, you blind bastard, go to hell!” therefore, the orange in scene 2 became a speck of dust and died. Therefore, the orange is gone in drawing 2, and only the mushroom is left.”

“I have to say, his theory and the drawing really match!”

Hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought.

Wen Jian was puzzled as she asked, “Why did the mushroom let the orange die?”

Lu Mingyu’s analysis made sense, and even Zhou Moli could not help but ask, “Why did the mushroom tell the orange to die, and the orange really died?”

Lu Mingyu was stunned. “The emperor commands one to accept the privilege of ending one’s life with dignity.”

Everyone who was looking forward to an answer was speechless.

“He’s referring to the mushroom as the emperor and the orange as the emperor’s subordinate. Good fellow... It’s actually a pun!”

“Hahahaha! What the heck is one have to end their life if the emperor commands so?”

“At this moment, an energetic netizen passed by and laughed so hard that he fainted.”

“What the hell? I thought that Lu Mingyu really knew the answer. It turns out that he was spouting nonsense!”

Lu Yang’s lips curled up as she continued, “Wrap the orange in a layer of sauce, and it won’t die.”

“That’s right!” Lu Mingyu snapped his fingers and said confidently, “Because the sauce is out there, it will be hard for the mushroom to command its death.”

Wen Jian burst into laughter when she finally reacted.

“Lu Yang is always the only one who can receive Lu Mingyu’s joke. They are indeed the national treasure siblings!”

“It’s a joke, but I think Lu Mingyu’s explanation was right. He vividly expressed the meaning of the card drawing and also understood the subject of the emperor.”

“To be honest, that snap just now hit my... heart.”

“What the hell? How did they tell such a terrible joke in such a dark wilderness?”

“With Lu Yang around, Lu Mingyu will never have to worry about awkward silences when telling terrible jokes.”

Lu Yang restrained her smile, and her gaze fell back on the card drawing. She stated, “Mingyu has provided an idea. Mushrooms are a fungus substance. We can follow this to find it.”

“We’ve searched in the north before.” Lin Xinmeng stammered, “We’ve also found some mushrooms, but we didn’t find any useful information.”

“Did you guys go deeper into the forest?” Lu Yang asked.

“No, we didn’t. Is mission 3 in the depths of the forest?” Zhou Moli asked in return.

“We can go in and look,” Lu Yang replied.

“The program team wouldn’t place the mission in such a dangerous place, right?” Lin Xinmeng didn’t agree with Lu Yang’s thoughts. “Furthermore, the deeper we go, the worse the environment gets.”

“Have they forgotten that this is a survival variety show? ”

“I knew it. How could the program team let them complete their mission so easily?”

Lu Yang’s lips twitched slightly. “The director said the show will be filmed in the mountains and the ocean.”

Qin Yitan had a bad feeling and inquired, “So, you’re saying that we can’t be stationed here until the end of the filming?”

“If you choose to give up now, it’s still not too late for you to withdraw from the show,” Lu Mingyu added.

“Who’s quitting?!” Qin Yitan was furious.

“This place is so big. How do we know where the mission is? ” Lin Xinmeng asked in a daze, “Do we have to climb the entire mountain? ”

“Mushrooms can’t stand strong light and direct contact. They’re suitable for growing in dark and humid environments.” Lu Yang looked toward the mountain’s north and uttered slowly, “If you want to find mission 3, you don’t have to cross the mountains. You need to go to the north where the mushrooms are suitable to grow.”

Wen Jian was the first to express her opinion. “I’ll go with everyone. I’m fine with going anywhere.”

“I don’t have any objections,” said Zhou Moli.

Lin Xinmeng smacked her lips and acquiesced.

“Why did you suddenly say you want to go north? Why the north? ” Qin Yitan was confused.

Lu Yang’s finger pressed on the mushroom on the card and explained, “There’s an ‘n’ on the mushroom head. ‘N’ on the compass means north.”

Her words enlightened Lin Xinmeng.

This was crooked, and one had to have good eyesight to see that it was n.

“Although I know that ‘n’ represents the north on the compass, it takes quite a bit of imagination to connect this mushroom head symbol to ‘n’...”

“The commenter above, I understand the feeling. It’s like I know all the knowledge, but I can’t get a full score on an exam!”

Qin Yitan touched his nose in a daze. “All right, let’s go to the mountain’s north side to look for clues.”

Lu Mingyu raised his hand and rubbed the back of his neck. He glanced at the four of them and said, “If there’s no problem, you can go back.”

She was tired and needed to rest.

“Wait! I still have a question.” Qin Yitan straightened his neck and asked, “We’re a team of six. Do we need to split the supplies?”

Qin Yitan, who had the most food, was only concerned about whether Lu Mingyu had run out of food. He wanted to take the opportunity to gain something out of Lu Mingyu.

This was also a question that Zhou Moli and Lin Xinmeng were concerned about.

They all looked at Lu Yang, waiting for her to address this.

“There’s no need.” Lu Yang responded concisely, “We can use our own supplies.”

...

Lu Yang and Lu Mingyu had the least supplies among the three teams. Zhou Moli and the others wanted to work together mainly because they wanted to share the supplies of the other teams. However, Lu Yang said that was not the case.

Lu Yang seemed to have seen through his confusion, so she said, “There might be wild animals in the forest.”

A dozen words enlightened everyone.

It turned out that she was afraid of encountering wild animals and couldn’t solve it, so she was scared.

Realization dawned on Lin Xinmeng, and she felt that her tone was much gentler. “Lu Yang, Don’t be afraid. If there are beasts, hide behind us.”

“Yeah,” Lu Yang replied half-heartedly.

Lu Yang wasn’t worried about the mission, nor was she afraid of wild animals. She was more concerned about Lu Mingyu.

To her, this environment was like a holiday island next to the mountains and sea. She could stay there for a long time.

However, ferocious beasts were roaming around here, so someone had to stay awake at night. Knowing Lu Mingyu, he would definitely let her sleep while he watched over her.

If the six of them worked together, they would take turns to stand guard, and Lu Mingyu would not have to work so hard.

After the discussion, everyone returned to their respective camps to rest.

...

That night, the sky seemed to be covered by an impenetrable black cloth. It was pitch-black, with no stars or moon. The branches of the bonfire burned out, leaving only the charcoal to burn a hole in the night.

Lu Yang woke up when the sun rose.

She put the sea salt into a simple box made of bamboo, washed the remaining wild fruits from yesterday, and stuffed them into the bamboo basket.

Based on the rate at which they drank water, they would be running out of mineral water by the end of the day.

Although the salinity of the water in the waterhole near the seaside was much lower than that of the seawater, it was still not up to the drinking standard.

Even if there were wild fruits, eating only fruits without drinking water was not good for the body. Moreover, the water in wild fruits could not replace daily drinking water.

It seemed that finding fresh water came before solving mission 3’s mystery.