Of the ten contestants, two didn't head toward the Yukon River, instead plunging straight into the mountains.
According to them, they were avoiding the Yukon River because of seafood allergies. This season, the river was teeming with migrating Red Salmon, which had 'contaminated' the entire water source. Going there would only worsen their health.
Without the readily available resource of fish, their lives were exceptionally harsh, which meant that few people were willing to stick around in their live streams.
Live streaming is different from a pre-recorded show. A pre-recorded show can splice together exciting clips to make an hour-long program. A live stream, on the other hand, is like putting all the contestants in a direct competition to see who can survive in the wild more spectacularly.
While the most popular contestant doesn't receive any tangible rewards, they can attract an unimaginable amount of potential commercial value.
As Lin Chen's popularity gradually spread on YouTube, audiences from Great Xia slowly started to take notice.
"Holy shit! Wait, one of our own is on Wild Survival?"
"I thought this show never invited Asians to participate? How'd they suddenly invite a chef from Great Xia?"
"I looked this guy up online. He's only in his early twenties, came to Canada to study abroad. Supposedly, he was studying Western cuisine. After graduating, he worked part-time in a restaurant, but then he was forced to leave his job due to circumstances beyond his control and started selling food from our Great Xia at a street stall."
"Whoa, hold on, isn't this the guy who was trending on YouTube a while back? He was even on the news back home for making a thousand US Dollars a day selling pea and noodle soup on the street. Why'd he just up and join Wild Survival without a word?"
"What the hell! A thousand US Dollars a day from selling pea and noodle soup? Can someone who knows do the math? How much is that in RMB?"
"It's rare to see a full-blooded Chinese person on an American reality show. C'mon, brothers, hit that like button and throw him a follow!"
"We're all countrymen when we're abroad! Go, fellow countryman!!"
「At that moment.」
The host, having just finished the last round of routine checks, disembarked from the helicopter with a VJ and a doctor. His legs were a bit shaky, and he nearly stumbled and fell.
Thankfully, the quick-reflexed VJ caught him, saving him from making a fool of himself.
The female doctor beside him glanced over. "Robert, you have low blood sugar. Eat an energy bar and rest for half an hour. You'll be fine."
"Thanks."
Robert forced a weak smile. He'd been up and down the helicopter's rope ladder fifteen times over the last half-day. Even for someone who had filmed Wild Survival for years, his stamina was completely drained.
'I guess only a VJ who lugs a camera around all day could handle such a high-intensity workload,' he couldn't help but sigh internally.
As the three of them walked into the log cabin, they immediately noticed that the expressions on the faces of the staff inside were a little off.
"What's going on? What happened? Why the long faces?"
"Robert," the program director, who was watching the monitors, began with difficulty, "that young man from Great Xia..."
"What delicious thing did he make this time?"
"No, he boiled a pot of water with wild apples, fir needles, and arborvitae leaves. He said he was going to use it to wash his hair."
"Whew... I thought something serious happened. It's just washing his hair, what's the big... washing his hair??"
Suddenly realizing what was said, he darted to the screen, only to find that Lin Chen's camera feed was empty.
The female doctor pushed her way over as well. "What did you just say he boiled the water with? Wild apples, fir, and arborvitae?"
"Yes, we watched him boil it ourselves. He said the leaves of those two trees have... a lot of compounds that can control oil, reduce inflammation, act as an antiseptic, and even help with hair growth or something."
"How come I've never heard of this??"
The female doctor's jaw dropped in disbelief. Judging from the sound of water coming from the feed, the guy had clearly already started washing.
To ensure the contestant's safety, she quickly picked up the satellite phone.
"Hello, Professor? It's me. Have you been watching our show... Oh, you are watching right now? That's great. Could you do me a favor and look up the specific medicinal properties of fir needles and arborvitae leaves?"
Although she was the on-site doctor, her primary role was to handle things like fevers, poisonings, and infections. She was completely incapable of gathering materials in the wild to make medicine.
In this respect alone, her skills were far inferior to the genius doctor who was also a contestant.
"Ahh... So refreshing!"
「In the forest.」
Lin Chen vigorously shook his wet hair, letting the warm droplets of water fall onto his body.
He had been a little apprehensive at first, worried about whether the water boiled with those two types of leaves would actually work.
But after washing his hair, the jubilant, refreshing feeling spreading across his scalp completely put his worries to rest.
While the effect wasn't as good as a professional shampoo, this was the wilderness. To get this kind of result here was already quite impressive.
He poured the remaining water from the pot over his body, feeling the hot liquid run down his skin. All the pores on his body seemed to open up and let out a sigh of relief, as if the accumulated fatigue from the past few days was washing away.
After rinsing off, he quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes to avoid catching a chill. He slung the dirty clothes he'd worn for four days over his shoulder, planning to take them to the river for a quick wash.
Among the essential survival items provided by the show, besides a waterproof tarp, a fire starter, salt, a pot set, and a warm sleeping bag, there were basic clothing items like hunting boots, rain boots, gloves, a hat, cotton socks, a waterproof jacket, and a shell jacket.
Even though there weren't many opportunities to bathe in the wild, the production team had thoughtfully prepared four or five sets of clothes for the contestants to change into.
Items like the Multi-Functional Engineer Shovel and the American-style hunting bow were part of the ten items he had chosen himself.
Having not washed up for four days, a fine stubble had clearly grown on his chin. His wet hair hung down in strands, giving him a sort of wild, handsome look—a stark contrast to the clean-cut young Asian boy image he had before the competition.
"What? The compounds in fir needles and arborvitae leaves can really be used to wash hair? And extracts from these two plants are actually added to many shampoos?"
After getting an affirmative answer from her professor, the female doctor dazedly turned her gaze back to the monitor. She stared intently at Lin Chen, who was putting on a shirt, a look of admiration in her eyes.
Although she had only been involved in filming for two seasons, she herself was an avid fan of Wild Survival.
Never before had she seen a contestant whose knowledge base was so broad.
From Chinese food to Western cuisine, to identifying poisonous mushrooms, distinguishing easily confused edible plants, selecting and building a shelter, hand-weaving tools, and now, even making shampoo by boiling common plants.
This wasn't some young chef; he was clearly a hidden wilderness survival expert!