The Rich Second Generation's Wilderness Suicide vs. Lin Shen's Mortise and Teno

"Is this wretched place meant for humans or wild beasts?!"

Zhao Kuo irritably ripped open the collar of his five-figure Arc'teryx windbreaker and wiped the sweat that was streaming down his forehead.

He glanced with disgust at the program crew's supplies that were carelessly tossed at his feet.

It was a rusty machete with a handle wrapped in cheap anti-slip tape.

How could such junk be worthy of his status as a wealthy young master from Beijing's elite circles? Holding it in his hands would be beneath him!

Fortunately, he was always quick-witted. Before arriving on the island, he had already spent a lot of money to bribe the staff on the outside and secretly hid an extremely exquisite Swiss Army knife in the lining of his custom-made Martin boots.

Made of pure steel, multi-functional folding design, priced as high as 18,000.

In Zhao Kuo's mind, wilderness survival doesn't rely on hard labor at all, but on brains and sophisticated high-tech equipment.

He strolled to the edge of the jungle and spotted a branch of a wild shrub about the thickness of a wrist.

To set up a windproof tent before dark, you first need to gather some sturdy wood to make a frame.

"Viewers in the live stream, pay attention!"

Zhao Kuo looked at the camera of the miniature drone not far away and gave a smirk that he thought was wicked. "When dealing with nature, brute force alone won't do."

He pulled out his expensive Swiss Army knife, deftly extended the main blade, and slashed fiercely at the thick bush.

Ten minutes have passed.

The imagined scene of cutting through iron like mud did not materialize.

This wild shrub, which grows year-round on the deserted island, has exceptionally tough wood and its bark is full of viscous sap.

That delicate little knife, capable of cutting hair in an instant, was completely useless against this tough, raw wood; instead, it became stuck to the sap.

Twenty minutes have passed.

Zhao Kuo was panting heavily. His once meticulously combed slicked-back hair was now soaked with sweat and stuck to his scalp in a disheveled state.

His hands were sore and numb, and his thumbs were throbbing with pain. His expensive Swiss Army knife had even begun to chip slightly, while the tree branch hadn't even been cut down to one-third of its length.

Under the blazing sun, the nameless fire in Zhao Kuo's heart finally erupted.

He gritted his teeth and decided to break it by brute force, no matter what.

He gripped the knife handle tightly with both hands, pressed down with all his weight, and slammed it down hard!

A dull, teeth-grinding "thud" was heard.

Because of excessive force and a lack of technique, the sweat-soaked knife handle slipped suddenly from my palm!

The rough, hard bark, combined with the immense friction of the knife handle, ground mercilessly into Zhao Kuo's pampered right palm without any cushioning.

"Hiss—Ah!!!"

A piercing scream, like a pig being slaughtered, instantly shattered the oppressive atmosphere on the beach.

Zhao Kuo flung the knife away as if he'd been electrocuted, clutching his right hand and hopping around wildly on the scorching sand.

Just now, from that intense friction, a huge, transparent, shiny blood blister the size of a copper coin was rubbed into his palm.

Before he could even catch his breath, the thin layer of dead skin couldn't withstand the pressure and cracked instantly!

Fresh blood mixed with clear tissue fluid gushed out, and a piercing pain shot straight to the top of the head.

Zhao Kuo was in so much pain that his face contorted, his legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the scorching sand, clutching his arms and wailing incessantly, looking like a clown who had messed up his performance in a circus.

After a brief period of silence, the live stream chat erupted in a frenzy of celebration:

[Help! Using a manicure razor to cut a raw tree branch as thick as a wrist? Did Mr. Zhao learn physics from a gym teacher?!]

[A knife bought for over ten thousand yuan can't even cut a piece of firewood. This is truly a massive waste of money.]

[A max-level player with god-tier gear insisted on going to the starting village to fight slimes, only to get solo-killed by one. I'd call that a killer move!]

[As it turns out, trying to show off in front of nature will only get you struck by lightning. Sweating buckets, buddy!]

The noisy screams drifted away on the wind, but did not affect the completely different scene on the other side of the island.

Lin Mo didn't even spare a glance for the farce on the beach.

He carried the worn-out machete that Zhao Kuo utterly despised in one hand, while holding Jiang Ruoyun's hand steadily with the other.

The two strolled leisurely into the depths of the island, one after the other.

After passing through a patch of low bushes, the view suddenly opened up, and the temperature dropped sharply.

This is a wild bamboo forest nestled against a mountain cliff.

Towering bamboo, dozens of meters tall, pierces the clouds, blocking out the sun. A gentle breeze rustles through the bamboo leaves, creating a calming sound that completely shuts out the sweltering heat and restlessness of the outside world.

"This is fine."

Lin Mo stopped, looked around, sensed the wind direction and terrain, and nodded in satisfaction.

He walked to a flat, wide bluestone slab deep in the bamboo forest.

Without any unnecessary words, Lin Mo took out a clean tissue from the pocket of his camouflage uniform and slowly wiped the fallen leaves and dust off the stone slab until it was spotless.

"Sit down and rest for a while, don't wander off."

Lin Mo turned his head, pressed on Jiang Ruoyun's slender shoulders, and gently placed her on the rock.

"oh."

Jiang Ruoyun obediently responded.

This top tycoon's daughter, who is usually unapproachable in Beijing's elite circles and only goes out in a Rolls-Royce, was completely unpretentious at this moment.

She was wearing an expensive silk sun-protective outfit that was slightly stained with mud, her legs were together, and her hands were cupping her fair and delicate chin.

He sat quietly on the rock, like an obedient kindergarten student.

Those clear, pure eyes followed Lin Mo's movements without blinking.

Those eyes were filled with unreserved reliance and almost blind, absolute trust.

Lin Mo was about to turn around to select bamboo when he met those bright, sparkling eyes.

His heart, which had lived two lives and should have been calm and undisturbed by now, skipped a beat uncontrollably.

On the surface, Lin Mo maintained his lazy, perpetually sleepy old-fashioned demeanor, but in his heart, unnoticed by anyone, a storm was brewing.

A secret and immense vanity unique to adult men was unprecedentedly satisfied at this moment.

What was his original plan?

It's legally slacking off, it's passively shirking responsibility. It's doing everything possible to make the audience hate you, and then being eliminated from the competition as a matter of course.

After all, he still had that exorbitant breach of contract penalty of five million yuan on his mind.

In this game of capital, the harder he tries, the deeper he gets trapped.

But when Lin Mo looked at the girl in front of him, all his rational calculations were instantly thrown to the winds.

"A delicate young lady should sit neatly and cleanly, untouched by dust."

Lin Mo sighed inwardly.

"Surviving on a desert island, that kind of rough work that leaves your hands covered in mud, is nothing for someone as tough as me."

"But she looked at me with that adoring gaze... ugh, really... what a sin."

"This isn't a TV show recording; this is clearly a curse sent by God to torment me. The lethality of that look is more deadly than that five million yuan breach of contract penalty."

Lin Mo took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the inappropriate flutter in his heart.

He raised his hand and casually took off the oversized, cheap camouflage jacket and threw it aside, leaving only a slightly faded cotton short-sleeved shirt.

With deft hands, he rolled up the cuffs above his elbows, revealing the firm, smooth muscle lines on his forearms, free of any excess fat.

His usual颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a state of listlessness, apathy, or lack of motivation) and 不随鱼 (不随鱼 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a state of being listless, lazy, or unambitious) aura vanished instantly at this moment.

Instead, there is an absolute focus that is like that of a master descending upon the world, making people hold their breath and concentrate.

"Whoosh—!"

Lin Mo managed to create a beautiful flourish with an ordinary, worn-out machete.

The blade sliced ​​through the air with a sharp, low whistling sound, precisely cleaving an old bamboo stalk as thick as a thigh.

Just one cut.

The incredibly tough bamboo snapped with a crisp cracking sound. The cut was smooth as a mirror, without a single extra splinter.

There were no unnecessary movements, and no fancy techniques deliberately performed for the camera.

Lin Mo flipped his wrist, and the back of the knife scraped along the bamboo joint with a sudden motion.

Those sharp, thin branches that are usually extremely difficult to clear away seem to have encountered a natural enemy, and are instantly cleaned up.

Jiang Ruoyun sat on the bluestone slab, not even daring to blink.

She stared intently as the tall, imposing man moved through the lush green bamboo forest.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the bamboo leaves, dappling Lin Mo's broad, powerful back. With each chopping motion, the muscles in his back displayed an explosive and wildly beautiful curve.

For the millions of viewers in the live stream, the next half hour was nothing short of a mind-blowing, top-tier craftsmanship extravaganza.

Lin Mo did not bring a measuring tape or any modern measuring tools.

With only his eyes, which had witnessed two lifetimes of experience, and his fingertips' exquisite perception of the wood grain, he made hidden marks on several thick bamboo tubes.

There were no nails or ropes on the deserted island.

This is a desperate situation where even the most skilled cook cannot make a meal without ingredients, a situation that would be impossible for any modern survival expert.

But this is no challenge for a master craftsman who is proficient in all kinds of skills and has reached the pinnacle of ancient building restoration.

Lin Mo firmly placed the tip of his machete against the bamboo joint, and with a swift motion, wood chips flew like snowflakes.

Instead of using brute force to chop, he skillfully used the angle of the blade to create grooves and protrusions of varying shapes and depths at both ends of the bamboo tube.

That rusty, broken knife seemed to possess a soul in his hands, transforming into an extremely precise surgical scalpel.

"Click".

A crisp, melodious sound of wood snapping together suddenly rang out in the silent bamboo forest.

Two bamboo tubes, without any fixing or even a drop of glue, were somehow perfectly joined together!

Without any external support, even if you kick it hard with your foot, the connection point remains as stable as a mountain and doesn't budge.

This is the unique wisdom of mortise and tenon joints, the soul of China's thousands of years of ancient architectural civilization.

Lin Mo's movements were so fast they were dazzling.

Grooving, opening holes, and making tenons.

One by one, the processed bamboo stalks were rapidly assembled by him, quickly forming a large and sturdy rectangular frame.

Considering the heavy dampness of the deserted island at night, and the possibility of poisonous insects and snakes lurking in the jungle at any time.

Lin Mo deliberately lengthened the bottom support legs, raising the entire frame by more than half a meter off the ground.

After the main frame was formed, he turned around and selected a few thin bamboos with excellent flexibility. He quickly split them lengthwise, flattened them, and scraped off the inner bamboo sheath.

The slender, bluish-green bamboo strips fluttered and danced like butterflies among flowers at Lin Mo's long, slender fingertips.

In just over ten minutes, he wove a smooth, dense, and highly elastic bed surface onto the frame.

An incredibly spacious and sturdy "moisture-proof double bamboo bed," large enough to comfortably accommodate two people lying down, has sprung up deep in a deserted bamboo forest!

But this is still not the end.

Lin Mo dusted off his hands and turned to walk into the bushes not far away.

With a swift motion, he effortlessly tore off more than a dozen enormous wild banana leaves with thick veins.

Back in front of the bamboo bed, Lin Mo layered the large banana leaves, like fish scales, onto the deliberately long extension supports at the head of the bed.

He cleverly utilized the tough veins of the leaves themselves to secure them by interlocking them upside down.

In the blink of an eye, a perfect, all-natural green canopy that is strong enough to protect against wind and rain was completed.

The live stream chat completely stopped for a full minute the moment Lin Mo finished securing the last banana leaf.

It was as if all the servers had crashed at the same time.

Then came a deluge of exclamation marks, almost bursting off the screen:

[Accidentally trespassed into the Heavenly Realm]

Am I blind or did I get too excited? In just half an hour! He built a bed out of thin air right under my nose?!

Not a single nail worked! Not even a blade of grass used for binding! This defies physics! How on earth did it get in place?!

My grandpa was a carpenter his whole life. He was so engrossed in the screen that he didn't even notice he burned a hole in his pants with a cigarette butt!

[Lin Shen isn't forced to come to the wilderness for survival; he's clearly here for a vacation on the island, and maybe even open a guesthouse on the side!]

Where's that young master Zhao who wielded a Swiss Army knife worth 68,000 yuan and ended up crippling himself while chopping down a tree? Come out and see a deity!

The entire internet was abuzz with excitement at this moment.

In the capital city, thousands of miles away, in the Jiang family's luxurious yet understated villa on the hillside.

The atmosphere, however, felt strangely out of place.

Jiang Jianguo, the richest man in Beijing's elite circle, was sitting casually on a custom-made leather sofa.

He habitually held two priceless, century-old, blunt-tipped lion's head walnuts in his hands.

Looking at the exquisite bamboo bed that had risen from the ground on the huge LCD screen on the wall, Jiang Jianguo's face turned pale and then red, a truly fascinating sight.

In fact, he was already stunned by Lin Mo's amazing skills.

But as the head of a multi-billion dollar empire, his father-in-law's dignity would never allow him to easily bow down in front of a poor boy.

"Hmph! Just trying to attract attention! Pretending to be something they're not!"

Jiang Jianguo cracked the walnuts in his hands, and to cover up his inner shock, he deliberately raised the volume and continued to stubbornly deny it.

"Without even a single nail, you just cut a few holes in it with a knife and pieced it together, and you think you can sleep there?"

He pointed at the big screen with his finger, then turned to his wife beside him and complained with great conviction.

"The wind must be so strong on this deserted island at night, and the humidity is terrible. This rickety bamboo structure looks nice, but it's just a pretty facade! It'll definitely collapse halfway through your sleep if you turn over in your sleep!"

Jiang Jianguo sneered, "I'll sit here and wait to see this kid make a fool of himself!"

However, he had barely finished speaking.

Song Wan, who had been sitting gracefully to the side, sipping her tea, suddenly put down her Ru kiln celadon cup.

"Yes."

The bottom of the cup struck the precious rosewood tabletop, producing a slightly rapid and crisp sound.

Song Wan's usually calm and composed face was now suddenly filled with an unprecedentedly turbulent emotion.

She sat up abruptly, leaning slightly forward.

Those eyes, which always exuded a scholarly air, were now fixed intently on the screen.

In the close-up shot from the miniature drone, the bamboo joints, held together tightly without any adhesive, made the Kyoto University history professor's breathing quicken.

She ruthlessly interrupted her husband's foolish sarcasm.

Song Wan's tone was filled with immense amazement and undisguised shock; her voice even trembled slightly with excitement.

"What do you know! Shut your mouth and watch!"

"Those are 'dovetail joints' and 'cross-shaped joints'!"

Song Wan pointed at the screen as if she were looking at a rare treasure.

"This is a top-secret woodworking technique used only by the most skilled craftsmen in ancient China when constructing large palaces and wooden pagodas! This is not ordinary carpentry; it is a true intangible cultural heritage!"

She slowly leaned back on the sofa, let out a long breath, and her gaze fell once again on the young man in the white T-shirt, the light in her eyes growing brighter and brighter.

"Without a single nail or rivet, it has withstood a century of wind and rain. This young man... is simply a walking cultural treasure!"

Just as Song Wan gave this evaluation that can be described as that of a national hero.

On the deserted island, the tide receded at dusk.

The afterglow of the setting sun pierced through the bamboo forest, bathing the entire campsite in a warm orange-gold hue.

Lin Mo patted the wood shavings off his palm and lazily stretched.

The bones made a few satisfying cracking sounds.

He turned his head and looked at Jiang Ruoyun, who was sitting on the bluestone slab, gazing at him with eyes full of stars.

Lin Mo's lips curled into a casual yet heart-pounding smile.

"Let's go, young lady."

He reached out his large, well-defined hand to her.

"I'll take you to buy some goods."