In the show "Deserted Island Survival", Wen Yao already had a fan base, and her performance in the show never disappointed, causing her popularity to skyrocket.
The most direct performance was the increase in Weibo fans. Wen Yao's Weibo fans grew by ten million in half a month since the start of the show, combined with the original fan base, has now reached twenty million.
Wen Yao has only been active in the public eye for a few months, but she gained twenty million fans, equivalent to the debut of others for several years.
This alone is enough to prove Wen Yao's potential. Setting aside her recognized acting skills by Director Wen An, just based on her popularity and traffic, she has already surpassed several rising stars.
Many in the industry believe that Wen Yao will definitely be at the top of the pyramid in the future.
Now, while Wen Yao is not yet so popular that she's booked for events years in advance, they need to seize the opportunity to collaborate with this treasure girl.
Therefore, internally, Wen Yao's surge in popularity is reflected in the fact that her agent, Li Qing’s phone has been blown up.
She thought that after Wen Yao participated in a program that didn't require an agent to follow along, she could relax and take a break to spend time with her family.
But with the broadcast of the program, Wen Yao's popularity continued to soar, with dozens of offers coming in every day, and the company sending various activities, and even asking her to write a 5-year development plan for Wen Yao.
The company's attitude is clear, they want to promote Wen Yao. As Wen Yao's agent, Li Qing is naturally happy, but the pressure is also extraordinary.
If she doesn’t do well, the company could replace her with another top agent to manage Wen Yao.
Wen Yao is not just a cash cow, but could also potentially surpass her achievements in the agent circle. How could Li Qing possibly let her go to someone else?
Thinking about possibly nurturing a superstar that everyone looks up to, Li Qing is motivated, and doesn’t complain despite the high stack of scripts and contracts in front of her.
Just as she had just rejected a trash script, ready to go to the pantry to make herself a cup of coffee, a tall figure appeared in front of her office.
This sudden appearance of the person startled her.
After taking a good look at the person's face, Li Qing was startled once again.
"Mr. Han?"
Li Qing was somewhat uncertain because the company has always been managed by the Managing Director Song Ling, and the behind-the-scenes boss Han Muyao rarely comes to the company, and she rarely gets to see him.
Han Muyao nodded slightly after taking a look at Li Qing, "Agent Li, are you busy?"
"I'm helping the artist pick a script."
With Wen Yao's current popularity, scripts are piled up and handed to her, but she can't possibly read every single one.
Usually, the company’s resources department sifts through a batch, and then the agent sifts through the rest, leaving the artist to pick the ones they are willing to accept.
Han Muyao glanced at the desk, which had a stack of files piled even higher than on his own desk.
"No assistant or senior agent?"
Assistants and senior agents at Ruihan Entertainment are privileges for artists above the second-line level, and Han Muyao's question made Li Qing somewhat embarrassed.
Li Qing replied tactfully, "Wen Yao has only recently signed with the company."
Han Muyao sympathized, "You've worked hard, I'll have Mr. Song arrange it for you later."
Upon hearing this, Li Qing was overjoyed and quickly expressed her thanks, "Thank you, Mr. Han."
After taking two steps into the office, Han Muyao paused and asked, "Is Wen Yao’s 'Deserted Island Survival' contract here?"
"It has already been submitted to the department."
"I’m referring to the one belonging to Wen Yao."
An artist's contract is usually in triplicate: one for the partner, one for the artist, and another stored in the artist's agent company. This is typically signed by the three parties. Usually, the three copies of the contract should be identical, but sometimes the program team may have specific detailed requirements for the artist, so the artist's contract differs from the one kept in the agent company.
And this time, with Wen Yao's participation in "Deserted Island Survival," which involves life and death, the company cannot bear this responsibility. So many terms were directly signed with Wen Yao herself.
Seeing that Han Muyao wanted to see the contract belonging to Wen Yao, Li Qing was inwardly puzzled but did not show it on her face, smiling as she asked, "Mr. Han, what do you need it for?"
"I want to understand the specific situation of the 'Deserted Island Survival' program and the detailed agreements with the guests."
Wen Yao's benefits represent the company's benefits. Han Muyao, as the company boss, has no reason and no need to disadvantage Wen Yao.
Furthermore, the terms of Wen Yao's contract only detailed the requirements for participating in the program, including the addition of a life-and-death statement and a liability waiver, with no major differences from the company's contract.
Han Muyao coming in person to request the contract definitely had his reasons, which undoubtedly favored Wen Yao.
Li Qing said, "Wen Yao's contract is indeed here with me, Mr. Han, please wait a moment, I'll go get it for you."
"Thank you."
As Li Qing spoke, she entered the inner office and, after a while, came out with a thick file bag.
"This is the contract for 'Deserted Island Survival.' Mr. Han, take a look, but please return it to me as soon as possible after reading it. As the agent, I am only keeping it for the artist."
"Don't worry, I'll send it over before leaving work."
With the contract in hand, Han Muyao immediately returned to the CEO's office on the 28th floor. The desktop computer in the office was broadcasting a live stream, with "Deserted Island Survival" playing on it.
After minimizing Wen Yao's channel, Han Muyao quickly scanned the overall situation. The content for the other guests was as expected, so he expanded Wen Yao's channel again.
As he flipped through the contract, he watched the livestream. Ruihan Entertainment was just something he and a few friends had started out of boredom during college, with no one expecting it to become a top company in the industry.
However, even as a top company, it was not worth mentioning compared to the Han Group.
Han Muyao's focus was still on the Han Group, so he basically didn't pay attention to Ruihan Entertainment. By the time he found out, Wen Yao had already signed a contract with the "Deserted Island Survival" program crew.
It was self-evident how dangerous "Deserted Island Survival" was. He immediately had his company call Wen Yao to ask if she regretted it. If she did, she could choose not to go, and the company would bear the penalty for breaking the contract. But in the end, Wen Yao still chose to go to the deserted island.
Afterward, whenever he had time, he would follow the progress of the program. However, his work was very busy and he didn't watch the livestream much, so he could only search for clips online later.
At first, he was worried about Wen Yao's condition, but her performance time and time again shook him, and he felt slightly reassured about her safety.
But as time went on, Han Muyao gradually discovered some doubts.
This program used the world's most advanced drone technology to track and film the guests, and coincidentally, he was also a drone enthusiast.
From the first drone to now, he had played with almost all of them.
He had also been in contact with this type of drone used by the program crew for a while. Indeed, it was powerful, but it had never captured the appearance of a dead guest's "body."
The program crew's explanation to the public was that the tracking device of the drone was hidden in a sleeve tag, which was attached closely to the skin, enabling the sensor on the tracking device to detect the vital signs of the human body. Once the vital signs weakened, the drone would stop filming.
This explanation seemed reasonable, and combined with the fact that many aspects of advanced technology were not known to the general public, the audience readily believed it.
But Han Muyao knew that there were currently no drones with this kind of functionality in the world.
On the contrary, drone filming with a black screen and no signal could be manipulated by humans.
With a drone signal jammer, all nearby drones could be made to lose their signals.
The program crew lied to the audience and had multiple instances of black screens and signal loss at critical moments, indicating that there were definitely problems with the program crew.
If someone had died, for a more thrilling and realistic viewing effect, wouldn't it be better to broadcast the situation of a corpse live?
This was one of Han Muyao's suspicions. Another was that the control of the film and television industry in Huaguo was very strict, and any slightly inappropriate plot points would be required to be deleted. How could a program with a mortality rate be allowed to air?
So Han Muyao thought that these were just distractions by the program crew, and those people hadn't really died.
But where had those people who hadn't died gone?
This program had been in existence for three years, five seasons in total, and the people who disappeared in the first season had not reappeared to this day.
Every industry had its own dirty secrets, and as long as these secrets did not threaten his interests, he wouldn't interfere.
Now that the artists under his company had entered this program, he naturally had to understand it thoroughly.
Otherwise, what if trouble arose later?
After reading the contract, Han Muyao discovered that the program crew had cleanly absolved themselves of responsibility in the contract. During the program, no matter what problems occurred, the crew was not liable.
In addition, there was a life-and-death statement, and after the guests signed it, it was equivalent to entrusting their lives to the program crew.
Other than these, Han Muyao did not find any other flaws in the contract, so he called his assistant in.
"Mr. Han."
"Return this contract to Wen Yao's agent, Li Qing. Also, have you compiled the detailed information of the deceased from the first four seasons of 'Deserted Island Survival' that I asked for?"
"It’s all been compiled. Eight people in the first four seasons, five men and three women."
"I want their detailed information."
Han Muyao stared at the live broadcast on the screen and felt that the situation was more delicate than he had imagined. He had to start investigating quickly, otherwise the show would soon be coming to an end.
---
Since the incident that night, Wen Yao and Lu Yunxi had been harbouring grievances against the production team.
They thought that the drone would broadcast the scene that Lu Yunxi saw at the time to the audience. However, several days had passed, and the live broadcast was still continuing, with no reaction from the production team.
If the audience had seen that scene, the outside world would have already been in an uproar. The production team could not have remained completely silent.
Wen Yao believed that since the production team was engaging in some trickery behind everyone's back, it wouldn't be leaked so easily.
The black clothed individuals might have had signal jammers or similar devices that could cut off the live broadcast from the drone.
But regardless of whether the audience had seen the situation that night, Wen Yao was not planning to sit and wait. She had to find a way to investigate the matter clearly.
Because this matter was related to the life and death of the guests, and as one of the guests, if the next person taken away by the black-clothed individuals was her, then what?
Wen Yao and Lu Yunxi were completely unaware of the intentions of the production team at this moment, so in order not to alert the enemy, they continued to act as usual during the day, trying to find a way to survive.
When they entered the tent at night, they communicated with each other using paper and pen, starting to plan how to expose the production team's real intentions.
Since the four black-clothed men were able to carry away the seriously ill guests on stretchers, they must have a base or transportation equipment on this deserted island.
Thinking about this, Wen Yao looked up at the sky.
There had always been helicopters arranged by the production team hovering in the sky. The production team had previously informed them that the purpose of these helicopters was to provide a signal hub for the drones, not to help the guests.
Wen Yao had been deeply convinced of this before, but now she felt it wasn't so simple.
The deserted island was very large, and the production team had divided the guests into six groups and dropped them onto the island.
Now that more than half of the show's time had passed, Wen Yao had only encountered a few guests, so it was impossible to walk to find those black-clothed [individuals].
Not to mention that they had no idea who the next target of the production team was or which direction to search in.
The only entry point now was the black-clothed men, and to find them, they could only wait for them to come to them.
But to make the black-clothed men come to them, someone's life had to be in imminent danger.
Wen Yao and Lu Yunxi's eyes met, and Wen Yao tightly held Lu Yunxi's hand, saying, "Do you trust me?"
Lu Yunxi looked at Wen Yao, nodding without any hesitation, "I do."
After spending over half a month together on the deserted island, if it weren't for Wen Yao's help all the way, she would have been out of luck long ago. So, what reason did she have not to believe?
"Then that's it..."
Wen Yao quickly wrote out her plan on the paper.
The next evening, the two of them started preparing dinner as usual.
Wen Yao quickly picked some wild vegetables and handed them to Lu Yunxi, saying, "Yunxi, I'm going to set a trap nearby to see if we can catch some game. If you have nothing to do, go and pick some of these wild vegetables."
Wen Yao handed the sample of wild vegetables to Lu Yunxi, then took out a plant that looked very similar to the wild vegetables, and instructed, "Don't go far, there are many nearby. Also, be careful when picking, don't pick this kind, it's poisonous and inedible."
Lu Yunxi casually took the plant that Wen Yao had mentioned as poisonous, saying, "Don't worry, when did I mess up with things you asked me to do."
Wen Yao still looked worried, "Don't mix them up."
"I won't, am I that stupid?" Lu Yunxi playfully pouted, expressing disbelief.
Seeing Lu Yunxi's appearance, Wen Yao tapped her arm, "Alright, you're not stupid."
"Okay, I need to go and set up the hunting trap, otherwise we won't have any meat for dinner tonight."
Saying this, Wen Yao took out her tools from her bag and went to the area she had previously surveyed, while Lu Yunxi started to look for wild vegetables. When she arrived at the area where the vegetables grew, she murmured, "I can't mix them up, I need to keep the poisonous plant in my bag and take it out to look at it when I'm not sure, otherwise, I might mix them up."
Then she put the poisonous plant into her waist pack.
At this time, the barrage in the live broadcast room was in a frenzy.
"Damn, isn't it the wild vegetable you're holding in your left hand? You put the wild vegetable in your bag."
"You said you wouldn't make a mistake, but you made a mistake even before you started!"
"Oh my god, I hope Yao can find out if the wild vegetables are problematic!"
...
Lu Yunxi picked a large bunch of wild vegetables following the sample given by Wen Yao.
After bringing back the wild vegetables, she was worried that Wen Yao hadn't caught any game, and the amount of these wild vegetables was not enough to eat. After all, when the plants were cooked, their volume would decrease significantly. So, she went back to pick more.
After bringing back more wild vegetables, she took out the "poisonous plant" from her bag and compared it, realizing that she had not picked it mistakenly. She hummed a little tune happily, then threw the "poisonous plant" far away.
The audience in the live broadcast room saw Lu Yunxi's cheerful appearance, feeling frustrated and angry. They wished they could jump into the screen and tell Lu Yunxi how foolish she was.
However, no matter how anxious and infuriated they were, Wen Yao and Lu Yunxi were unaware and just kept reading the barrage.
"It's poisonous!!!"
"Lu Yunxi, you're a jinx, just die already!"
"Ahh, I am so worried, Yvonne."
"Yvonne will definitely find out, please, she must find out."
However, Yvonne hasn't returned yet, and everyone saw Yunchi directly cut the wild vegetables into two pieces and put them in the pot after a simple cleaning.
She placed the pot with the greens aside and skillfully started a fire, and soon the fire burned vigorously.
Yunchi looked around, saw that Yvonne had not yet returned, and the fire was burning vigorously, so she looked at the wild vegetables in the pot and felt her hungry stomach.
There were plenty of wild vegetables, so she decided to make a pot of vegetable soup first.
So Yunchi set up a small pot over the fire, put in some water, and then threw in the wild vegetables after the water had boiled.
Soon the water in the pot turned green, and the fragrance of the vegetable soup wafted out.
Yunchi tasted a spoonful of the soup, and although it had no seasoning, the freshness of the vegetables still stimulated her taste buds.
Just then, Yvonne arrived with a snakeskin bag, obviously with a harvest inside.
Yunchi quickly asked, "Yvonne, such a quick harvest today, what did you catch?"
As Yvonne opened the bag, she said, "I'm afraid you won't dare to eat it."
"These days, I've eaten everything with you. There's nothing I wouldn't dare to eat."
Upon seeing the snake inside the snakeskin bag, Yunchi's face turned pale instantly.
"Why is it a snake."
"Snake meat is delicious, whether in soup or roasted, the taste is pretty good."
Yunchi looked at the snake that had been cut into three sections and was still wriggling on the ground, shaking her head as if to ward off evil spirits.
"Enjoy this delicacy by yourself, I'll just drink my vegetable soup." Yunchi then poured the vegetable soup into a bowl and handed the pot over to Yvonne.
Yvonne looked at Yunchi drinking the vegetable soup and asked, "Did you cook all the wild vegetables?"
"I'll help you pick them after I finish the soup."
"No need, snake meat doesn't need any side dishes, and the soup is best when it's milky white."
"Do you want to have a little vegetable soup first?" Yunchi said as she held the bowl in front of Yvonne.
Everyone in the live broadcast room was on edge, shouting, "Yvonne, please don't drink it!"
They stared at the screen without blinking, only to see Yvonne look at the steaming vegetable soup and say, "I'm thirsty, hot soup doesn't quench my thirst. Can you fetch the water flask for me, please? Thank you."
Upon hearing this, the audience temporarily breathed a sigh of relief, but then started worrying about Yunchi.
They worried whether Yunchi had been poisoned, if and when the poison would take effect, and whether there was any way to save her after it took effect.
Although Yunchi was usually clumsy and useless, having been with Yvonne for so long, if she suddenly died, Yvonne would be devastated.
Yvonne's fans were anxious, praying that the wild vegetables were not poisonous.
However, reality was extremely cruel.
After Yunchi took the water flask from the tent, she had only taken a few steps when blood started oozing from her mouth, and then she collapsed to the ground.
Seeing this, Yvonne hurried over to hold Yunchi and asked, "What's going on?"
She dipped her finger in the blood on Yunchi's lips, then rubbed it and observed the color, and finally looked at her tongue, asking anxiously, "What did you eat?"
Yunchi stared at Yvonne with wide eyes, lifted her hand, and then dropped it back down.
Anxiously, Yvonne looked around, picked up a fallen leaf near the fire, and her face changed instantly.
Immediately, she helped Yunchi up, disregarding Yunchi's condition, and ordered, "Open your mouth."
Yvonne reached straight into her mouth, triggered her gag reflex, and then Yunchi began to retch.
"Get everything you ate out."
However, after retching for a while, Yunchi hadn't thrown up anything. She cried, "Yvonne, am I going to die?"
At this moment, Yvonne's face was grave, and she didn't answer Yunchi.
At first, Yunchi kept retching, but she couldn't bring anything up. Later, she just spat out a mouthful of blood and completely lost her strength.
Looking at Yunchi in this state, Yvonne's face showed no expression, but her eyes were filled with anxiety and panic.
She checked Yunchi's pulse, and then, even more worried, she rummaged through her backpack for the medicine box, but there was no useful bottle in it. Her hands trembled with nervousness.
The barrage in the live broadcast room exploded.
"Oh my god, when did Yvonne get so nervous and scared that her hands trembled!!"
"Yunchi is so deeply attached to Yvonne. If Yunchi dies, Yvonne will be devastated, alone on a desert island, and her emotions will be in shambles. It's terrifying!"
"I'm crying. Oh god, my heart aches for Yvonne. Miss Yunchi, you must hang in there."
...
Yvonne helped Yunchi into the tent, looked at the darkening sky, took out a flashlight from her backpack, put it in her pocket, and then, holding back her emotions, said to Yunchi, "I remember there were detoxifying herbs in the place we stayed before. I'm going to find them now. I'll tell you, Yunchi, you cannot die before I come back!"
Then Yvonne quickly left the tent using light work, moving so fast that the unmanned aerial vehicle couldn't keep up, and the screen began to blur.
Lan Yunxi and Wen Yao spent the whole day getting to this place, even with Wen Yao's fast light work, it was impossible to come and go in a short time.
In addition, it was already dark, how could one search for herbs in the dark?
Wen Yao clearly couldn't bear to watch Lan Yunxi die, and clung to a faint hope, making one last struggle.
Seeing the poisoned Lan Yunxi and the next second, Wen Yao, who would soon be on the verge of an emotional breakdown, everyone felt heartbroken.
At that moment, they didn't find the survival show exciting at all, instead, they felt it was especially cruel.
Just as they clenched their hearts, staring at the channels of Lan Yunxi and Wen Yao's, afraid to even blink, fearing that something might happen to them, both channels simultaneously went black.
"Damn! The signal is gone again!!!"
On a deserted island.
Wen Yao didn't actually leave, she just pretended to go back to the original place to search for herbs to fool the production team.
She used light work to create the illusion that she had gone far away, but in fact, she had been nearby and didn't go far.
After a few circles, Wen Yao noticed some movement nearby, so she found a place where she could see the tent and hid herself.
Wen Yao kept a close eye on the tent, waiting.
About ten minutes later, several men in black appeared in her line of sight.