Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 436: Chapter 270: Erica’s Revenge

"What’s this idea of yours? Tell me about it."

Erica propped her cheek up with one hand, tilting her head as she gazed at him with a smile, sipping from a cup of red bean soup.

"Well, sir, you’d better choose your words carefully. Whether or not I invest depends entirely on your pitch."

Lin Chen nodded and slid his phone across the table to her. It was playing a daily vlog from an overseas content creator in Europe.

"If we’re going to buy land, we have to do our due diligence on the ground. I’ve been thinking about it, and just visiting isn’t enough. We need to live there for a while to get a real feel for the area."

"I can start by renting a stall at a local market and selling food. That’ll guarantee some income while allowing me to integrate with the local community. It’s the best way to get a read on the real situation, including the volume and frequency of tourist traffic."

"Not bad. It’s a very safe approach that minimizes investment risk. Plus, you get to test the locals’ palates. Killing three birds with one stone. You’re every bit the man I thought you were."

The smile on Erica’s lips widened, her eyes filled with satisfaction.

’Logically, Lin Chen was a chef by trade and had spent a huge amount of time learning wilderness survival skills. He shouldn’t have much expertise in other fields.’

But after spending time with him, she was surprised to discover that Lin Chen also possessed a remarkably sharp instinct and judgment for business.

’And on top of that, as one of the Da Xia People, he seemed to have this innate sense of high morality and peacefulness that far surpassed most foreigners. The more she observed him, the more pleased she was, and the more she liked him.’

’How many other men this perfect could there be in the world?’

"Since this preliminary proposal doesn’t involve any investment from me, I can’t really interfere with your plans. Personally, though, I don’t see any issues. We can discuss the actual investment later."

"Now that we’re done with work for the moment, how about we talk about our personal lives?"

"Personal lives?"

Lin Chen froze. His mind raced, but for a moment, he couldn’t figure out what she was referring to.

Without any warning, Erica stood up, took a step forward, and straddled his lap. With a chic toss of her flaxen, shoulder-length hair, she revealed her pale collarbone.

?

Her sudden move made him freeze on the spot. He instinctively turned his head away and gripped the arms of his chair.

"Wh-what are you doing? Let’s just talk. Go back to your own seat."

’He suddenly remembered that when they were filming the show, the cameras had been a deterrent, so this girl had been able to restrain herself.’

’Now that the cameras were gone, he had no idea what she was capable of.’

"Do you remember that I promised to apologize to you?"

’An apology?’

Lin Chen blinked. Only then did he recall that, yes, she had said something like that.

She had said she would tell him after they got back to the hotel. Besides, he wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. He usually just slept things off, so he’d completely forgotten about it.

"Then just apologize! What are you doing sitting on my lap? Get off! What if someone sees and gets the wrong idea?"

As he spoke, he glanced at the living room curtains, only to discover that the white, semi-transparent sheers had been drawn at some point.

The hotel was right on the coast, and the window faced the ocean directly. You could only see other floors off to the sides, so there was virtually no chance of anyone seeing them.

"But this is the only way to make it a sincere apology~"

Seeing his flustered expression, Erica felt a strange little thrill of excitement. She loved seeing him get shy like this whenever she teased him.

She cupped his face in her hands, turning his head to face her directly. Then, she slowly reached for the collar of her shirt.

POP.

A button popped open.

The already low V-neck gaped open, revealing a deep, shadowy line.

Lin Chen’s pupils dilated in shock. His throat went dry. He instinctively tried to turn away, but a strong force from behind his head pushed him forward, and his face was shoved into something incredibly soft.

?

??

????????

In that dazed moment, a string of question marks flooded his mind.

’What is happening right now?’

"What do you think? Feel like an airfield to you?"

"...Sorry... MMPH MMPH!"

Before he could finish, a faint blush crept onto Erica’s cheeks. A flicker of excitement flashed in her eyes, and she pressed his head down even harder.

"I’m going to suffocate you!"

...

SLAM!

The door slammed shut.

Lin Chen leaned against the door, panting heavily. His heart hammered in his ears, and he could still smell a faint, sweet fragrance in the air.

Never in his life had he imagined he’d experience something like this.

’This could only happen overseas. If this were back home, it would be absolutely impossible under normal circumstances.’

He touched his cheeks and earlobes; they were burning up as if he had a fever. He rushed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

Sure enough, his entire face was beet red.

The last time something like this happened was in the ocean. He’d thought she was drowning at the time, and her struggles had been so frantic that it had barely left an impression.

This time, however, was deeply memorable. He doubted he’d be able to forget it anytime soon.

’Dammit, Lin Chen, why are you so shy, like some little maiden? It’s just a pair of... you know. It’s not like you’ve never seen them before. Did you have to react like that?’

He pointed a finger at his reflection, clearly unhappy with his recent performance.

’It just happened so suddenly I wasn’t mentally prepared. Yeah, that’s it. That’s definitely it.’

’An opportunity like that just falls into your lap, and you do nothing? Next time that damn girl tries something like that, you need to show her who’s boss!’

After his brave speech, he slowly calmed down and realized that approach was probably a bad idea.

’That damn girl is already completely shameless. What if I make a move and it doesn’t scare her off, but just gets her more excited?’

’Sure, in more open-minded countries, people hop into bed as soon as they hit it off, but I just can’t do something that irresponsible. I’m not a scumbag.’

He ran a hand through his hair, a headache coming on. He couldn’t think of a good solution, and the memories of what just happened kept replaying in his mind. He finally just hopped in the shower again to cool off, which at last did the trick.

Even though he’d won four million US dollars, that wasn’t the actual amount he’d take home.

With a prize that large, according to United States tax law, he’d have to pay taxes at the highest bracket—over 30%.

The exact amount would depend on the state, but it would be at least 30%.

In other words, out of the four million US dollars, he’d have to pay at least a third in taxes, leaving him with just over two million.

The more you earn, the more you pay in taxes. That’s true not just in the United States, but in most countries around the world.

Trying to buy a huge plot of land with just over two million was unrealistic. He’d have to make money through online traffic.

As for competitions, he definitely wouldn’t be entering another one anytime soon.

He’d competed twice in a row, and his body needed time to properly recover. Prolonged nutritional imbalance could lead to a host of health problems, and he had no intention of ruining his health.

The show was just a springboard, a means to earn his first pot of gold. His follower count and name recognition were the real assets he could monetize.

With that in mind, he quickly snapped a few photos of the view from his window, took a couple of selfies, and uploaded them to his social media accounts, both domestic and international. He also completed the identity verification process to prevent malicious individuals from impersonating him.

As it turned out, the traffic from the *Wild Survival* show was incredible. The moment his identity was verified, his notifications blew up. Countless little red dots appeared every second, quickly exceeding the 99+ display limit.

His follower counts across all platforms began to grow at a slow but steady pace. In just half an hour, he’d already broken a thousand, and the number showed no signs of stopping.

An hour later, his Instagram account, which had the most followers, had already surpassed three thousand.

He glanced at his Douyin and Xiaohongshu dashboards; his follower counts there had also broken a thousand.

Looking at the comments, it seemed most of them were fans who had found him from Bilibili.

’So many new followers in just an hour. At this rate, breaking ten thousand in a day shouldn’t be too hard. For a regular person, that’s a pretty impressive result.’

’Wilderness survival is a niche category, after all, with limited appeal. It’s not like I can gain hundreds of thousands or millions of followers overnight like a celebrity or a major influencer.’

’My standards aren’t that high. I’d be grateful to hit one hundred thousand followers within a month.’

’One hundred thousand followers might only make you a minor content creator back home, but overseas, it’s enough to be considered a minor celebrity.’

’Most importantly, these were all dedicated fans from a specific niche, not just casual followers who might unfollow at any moment.’

’They were either into wilderness survival or interested in food. As long as I can consistently put out content in those two categories, my follower count should only go up.’

Just as he was thinking about how to monetize his fanbase, an idea suddenly struck him.

’Of course! Instead of blindly searching online myself, why not just post an update and ask my followers directly?’

He quickly recorded a video about his future plans, briefly explaining his idea and asking his followers for their opinions.

And what do you know, the method worked even better than he had imagined.

The video had only been posted for a few minutes, and there were already dozens of comments.

Many of them were locals from Vancouver, both ethnic Chinese and other foreigners. They were all offering suggestions, and some even offered to be his guide.

The ethnic Chinese fans were noticeably more enthusiastic than the others, practically begging him to fly over, buy land, and open a shop so they could bring their friends and family to experience it.

After all, this was wilderness survival—something that, for most Da Xia People, only existed on television.

If they could experience it firsthand, even enthusiasts from back home would be willing to book a flight over to try it out.

He spent the entire afternoon doing almost nothing but collecting suggestions from his followers, jotting down dozens of locations, and then looking them up on a map one by one.

After comparing them on various factors, he eventually eliminated most of the unsuitable spots, narrowing it down to five relatively promising areas.

These areas met the basic criteria: they weren’t far from the city, making transportation relatively convenient; they were close to both the mountains and the sea, offering abundant resources; and there were plenty of farms nearby.

After selecting these five main areas, his next step was to continue gathering feedback from his followers. You could never have too many backup locations.