Chapter 5 – A Twist of Fate
The first official challenge of Stars and Survival was classic, high-stakes reality TV bait: survival camping in a rugged, isolated stretch of mountain wilderness.
The objective was framed as a simple race to a designated camp point, but the unspoken truth was that the cameras were hungry for conflict, failure, and dramatic breakdowns.
Xiao Xi's strategy was simple: stay quiet, avoid danger, and let the other self-destructive contestants create the content for her.
She knew her luck was still too low for any overt actions.
She needed to be the grey mouse in the background, conserving energy and slowly, strategically observing the movement of the golden-haloed protagonist, Lin Yueran.
But Fate, it seemed, had received Xiao Xi's strategic memo and promptly shredded it.
The weather turned hostile with terrifying speed.
What began as a brisk, autumn afternoon quickly devolved into a meteorological nightmare.
Black clouds rolled in, swallowing the light, and a torrential downpour began, turning the already slippery mountain paths into treacherous slides of slick mud and loose rock.
The shoot quickly became less "survival camping" and more "actual survival."
The group, comprised of seven celebrities and a few crew members, was attempting to traverse a narrow, muddy trail situated on a sharp cliffside.
The wind howled, whipping the rain against their faces, making visibility nearly zero.
Suddenly, a loud snap! cut through the roar of the storm.
A safety cable, rigged by the production team to help the contestants navigate the most precarious part of the path, frayed and snapped under the stress of the weather.
The scream that followed was thin and piercing, swallowed instantly by the wind.
A figure slipped—one of the younger cameramen, burdened by his heavy equipment—losing his footing on the slick mud and sliding straight toward the precipitous edge.
Xiao Xi acted entirely on instinct, a reaction born not of plot calculation but of the desperate need to save a life, a muscle memory from her old life when immediate action was the only option.
She lunged, throwing herself down onto the mud, extending her arm with all the strength in her core.
Her fingers clamped around the man's wet sleeve, the cheap fabric biting into her palm.
Her own feet skidded precariously close to the drop-off. Mud splattered everywhere, soaking her hair and face.
The specialized camera drones, still operational despite the rain, captured the horrific scene in stark, water-streaked detail.
The agonizing tension lasted only a few seconds before the security team, moving with practiced efficiency, managed to reach them both, hauling them back to safety, away from the roaring void.
Panting, drenched, and shivering from the sudden drop in temperature, Xiao Xi was pulled roughly onto a slightly flatter, safer ledge.
She pushed the wet hair out of her eyes. Her heart was hammering against her ribs, the adrenaline a thick, bitter taste in her mouth.
The man she'd saved, the cameraman, coughed violently, spitting out mud and water.
Then, he looked up.
It wasn't the cameraman.
The man staring at her, drenched in mud and rain, his expensive, custom-made hiking gear utterly ruined, was impossibly striking.
His sharp, deep-set eyes held a look of profound shock that rapidly transformed into focused, penetrating inquiry.
His face was angular, his jaw set, and his entire bearing—even wet and covered in filth—screamed authority.
It was Gu Yanzhou.
The male lead. The formidable, controlling corporate figure who was supposed to be dead before the novel began—now alive, breathing, and staring straight at her on a muddy cliffside.
Xiao Xi's throat went dry. Her meticulously planned, calculated path to survival had just been obliterated by a character who shouldn't even exist.
A sudden, aggressive wave of alerts cascaded across her visual system panel:
[System Alert: Unknown variable detected. Timeline divergence at 12%.]
[Warning: Introduction of Prime Variable. Host's threat level increased.]
[Luck Status: Unstable.]
Xiao Xi swallowed hard, ignoring the curious, horrified stares of the reality TV crew.
She met Gu Yanzhou's piercing gaze.
"Oh, great," she muttered under her breath, a bitter taste of fate in her mouth. "Now even the plot wants to mess with me."