Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 431: Chapter 265: Point Settlement

From just a few sentences, Lin Chen could already imagine the despair Erica’s maternal grandparents must have gone through.

No one wants to get sick. But just because they fell ill, not only was the house they’d lived in their whole lives taken away, but they were also forced onto the streets, unable to fill their stomachs or even wash themselves, all while enduring strange looks from others.

Any normal person would likely be unable to accept such a drastic change in such a short time.

"And then?"

He asked the question, but he already had a faint suspicion that this was the very catalyst for the sudden change in Erica’s mother.

"You’ve probably guessed, haven’t you?"

Seeing the thoughtful glimmer in his eyes, Erica sighed.

"At the time, my grandparents deliberately hid it from my parents. It wasn’t until my parents took me back to visit them, planning a surprise, that they unexpectedly discovered the house had a new owner."

"What followed was a series of complicated events. I was young then, so they didn’t really involve me. In short, our family suddenly had no money after that, and my mom started taking out loans to go into business."

"Luckily, she was quite fortunate and actually managed to make money. You probably know what happened after that."

She didn’t go into too many family details, just glossing over it with a few sentences. After all, Lin Chen’s question was only about how she knew about these things.

"I see..."

Lin Chen nodded and spread his hands. "Alright, then. I don’t have any more questions."

"Huh?"

Erica was stunned.

"Aren’t you curious about anything else? Like how much the outrageous medical bill was, or..."

"I’m curious, but not so curious that I have to ask."

Lin Chen was very direct. There were too many things he could ask, and he couldn’t ask them all at once. Besides, everyone’s perspective provided different information.

Rather than asking her, it would be better to search online himself later. He’d probably get a more realistic and comprehensive picture that way.

Once he had a basic concept of the fundamental systems in the United States, he could ask more precise questions.

Anyway, he’d already decided to stay in Canada, so there was no rush to learn about the neighbor next door. He could take his time and learn more whenever he was free.

Erica had been prepared to give him a detailed explanation lasting several hours, but the topic was over just two minutes after it began.

’What are we supposed to talk about for the rest of the time?’

’We can’t actually talk about things that aren’t suitable for broadcast, can we?’

She wasn’t worried for herself, but she was mainly concerned Lin Chen couldn’t handle it. It would be no fun if he got shy and ran off after just a few sentences.

After thinking it over, her eyes lit up as she suddenly thought of a very suitable topic.

"Oh, right! Tell me about Great Xia."

"Just... tell you? You’ve got to give me some questions to work with."

"True. Let me think... I’ve got it. I went to school in Europe when I was little, and I still go back to travel sometimes. The concept the media there promotes most about Great Xia is the ’credit score system.’ They say it’s terrifying if you don’t have enough credit points, and you might even be thrown in jail."

"...?"

Lin Chen’s face was a mask of confusion, his mouth slightly agape.

"Credit points? What’s that?"

"Huh? You don’t know?" Erica was stunned too.

"I’ve never heard that term before," he said, frowning in thought for a while before gradually finding his bearings.

"If it’s related to jail time, I think you might be talking about our credit reporting system. Oh, right, ’credit points’ could be a way to translate it. But you know Western media—smearing Great Xia is their usual tactic. They definitely only talk about the bad stuff and deliberately hide the context."

"The credit reporting system, or personal credit, is generally managed centrally by the People’s Bank of Great Xia’s credit system. It only records finance-related activities."

"For example, if you max out your credit card and fail to make the payment by the due date next month, and you still don’t pay after repeated reminders from the bank, your credit score will be damaged. It’ll be impossible to get a credit card or a loan in the future."

"More serious cases might lead to restrictions on high-end consumption. For instance, you wouldn’t be able to travel by plane or high-speed rail, or stay in luxury hotels, but you could still take buses, subways, and stay in regular hotels."

"As for going to jail... that would likely require reaching the level of a financial fraudster."

After hearing his explanation, Erica rolled her eyes, speechless.

"Just as I thought. The Western media is just a tool controlled by capital to deliberately smear Great Xia. They intentionally make it sound terrifying to us uninformed citizens. But from what you’re saying, isn’t it just a perfectly normal thing? The laws in every country in the world probably include similar regulations."

"In that case, the media claims that your Great Xia’s environment is dirtier and messier than India’s, that wages are so low people can’t afford meat... that must all be fake too, right?"

"...Have you ever watched the Olympics? Anyone with a functioning brain who’s seen the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, the Paralympics, or any similar international event probably wouldn’t come to that conclusion, right?"

"Actually, I haven’t. I’m not interested in that stuff."

She wasn’t angry, though, because she knew Lin Chen wasn’t insulting her, but rather those brainless people.

Since they had nothing better to do, the two of them chatted to their hearts’ content, going through all the questions they had about each other’s countries.

If it weren’t getting dark, Erica would have even wanted to talk all night.

"Let’s stop here for now. No amount of talking can compare to the impact of seeing it with your own eyes. I’ll search for some videos of Great Xia for you to watch when we get back to the hotel."

"Okay! It’s a deal."

After making one last meal for Erica, they both tacitly prepared for an early night.

She didn’t even plan on going back. Her cave had no infrastructure to speak of; she could just abandon it without any issue. Some animal would eventually move in.

Since it was the last night, Lin Chen couldn’t be bothered to chase her away. Besides, there were two beds inside.

「Day 46.」

It was just after five in the morning, and the sky was still dark.

The two of them were already up, washed, and had begun to dismantle the bamboo house.

Building a house with her bare hands was a struggle for her, but she was particularly good at demolition.

She didn’t even need any tools. Grasping the stone axe Lin Chen had made, she hacked at the bamboo walls one blow at a time.

Within minutes, the two-story bamboo house collapsed with a thunderous crash before Lin Chen’s eyes.

They shoved most of the bamboo into the cellar, piling it up haphazardly, before heading towards the beach empty-handed and with a swagger.

When they arrived, they could see Andre waiting for them in the distance.

"Good morning, you two."

Andre’s usual deadpan expression was gone, replaced by a teasing smile that crinkled his wrinkled face.

"How come you two arrived together? It wasn’t cold last night, was it?"

"I’m very interested in Great Xia, so I kept him up for a long time talking about it. Then I just drifted off to sleep without realizing it."

Erica explained calmly, silently putting on the camouflage jacket that had been tied around her waist. It would prevent her from getting tanned when the sun rose and also block any unwanted gazes.

She was reasonably familiar with Andre, and anyone Lin Chen approved of could naturally be trusted. But she couldn’t guarantee what the other five contestants were like.

After surviving in the wild for a month and a half, any normal person would be pent-up. She had no desire to be stared at by other strange men in front of Lin Chen.

As the first golden rays of dawn appeared on the horizon, a large speedboat roared across the sea from the southeast, rapidly approaching.

At the same time, the deafening THUMP-THUMP-THUMP of a helicopter’s engine echoed from above the sea.

It was obvious that the boat was picking up the other contestants.

「Ten minutes later.」

The three of them boarded the deck of the large speedboat and immediately saw five unfamiliar faces staring intently in their direction.

To Lin Chen and Andre’s surprise, besides Erica, another female contestant had survived until the end.

Although she didn’t look as clean as Erica, she was still much cleaner than the other four men.

Standing next to the two female contestants, these four men looked like savages. Their skin was dark, their hair was a messy bird’s nest, and a faint, rotten stench wafted from them.

Their clothes and jackets, in particular, were tattered and torn, a stark contrast to Lin Chen and Erica, who looked like they were wearing almost new outfits.

"Did you find soapberries?"

No one who survived this long was an idiot. Without even having to ask, someone immediately guessed the root cause of this phenomenon.

"Being clean doesn’t mean anything. In the end, it all comes down to what you’ve gathered."

"That’s right. I can’t guarantee a top spot, but I feel like I can compete for fourth or fifth place."

"So confident? What a coincidence, I was thinking the same thing."

The contestants had only just exchanged a few words of small talk when Robert descended from the helicopter onto the deck via a rope ladder.

The moment his feet touched the deck, he took command of the scene.

"Alright everyone, quiet down."

"First of all, congratulations on surviving until the final day. You’ve all done an excellent job. In any previous season of the show, you would all have the potential to be champions."

"But this season is the Champion Sinking Season, which means that even if you have what it takes to win, you might not even place. After all, there will always be someone in the world who is stronger than you."

"Alright, enough idle chatter. Let’s begin this season’s final scoring immediately."

"You can vote among yourselves. Do you want to hear the results starting from last place, or do you want to hear the champion first?"

"I vote for last place," Erica said, raising her hand first. Andre quickly followed suit.

Seeing this, Lin Chen could only silently raise his hand as well.

He didn’t really care; either way was the same to him.

Seeing three people vote for last place, the remaining five looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

Unless four of them voted the opposite way, they couldn’t change the order of the announcement. The odds of that were extremely low, and besides, announcing from last place was the most common method.

"In that case..."

Robert once again took out his reddish-brown-covered notebook and, with a FLIP FLIP FLIP of pages, turned to a specific page.

He then looked up, his gaze sweeping over all the contestants, before looking down again.

"Eighth place. In forty-five days, this contestant acquired a total of 2 grouse for 20 points, 6 Green Iguanas for 6 points, 33 mangoes for 10 points, one bunch each of plantains and bananas for 20 points, approximately 14 cassavas of average size for 7 points, and a simple shelter of branches and straw for 6 points. Total: 69 points."