Chapter 57
Female streamers don't have long careers.
Most start streaming in their early to mid-twenties and enjoy great popularity while their looks are at their peak.
Then, as time passes and the streamer grows older, they naturally choose a different path.
Some start businesses of their own.
Some return to ordinary life and live as regular people.
Some quit streaming, find a decent partner, and get married.
Maintaining the same position forever is anything but easy.
Yerin was twenty-eight now.
She had started streaming at twenty-three and had been loved by her viewers ever since, but it was true that she'd been increasingly troubled lately.
Younger streamers kept rising up from below, while above her were major streamers who had already firmly established themselves.
Internet broadcasting was a cold, ruthless world.
The moment you let your guard down, not only did you fall behind, but your viewers' interest could also vanish like foam. That was why participating in Mystery Rich's content was a major challenge and adventure for Yerin.
She wanted to prove to her viewers that she was still going strong.
After hearing what Rils had said a little while ago, Yerin felt considerably more at ease.
-Ms. Yerin is plenty charming.
Maybe it was a common sort of consolation, but was it because Rils was the one saying it?
For some reason, it reassured her.
The Rils she'd seen up close was a little kid who made even the impossible come true.
Yerin let out a small laugh.
Yeah. When she thought about it, it was nothing.
So what if they were younger than her?
It wasn't as though they were better than she was.
With just one thing Rils had said, the huge anxiety in Yerin's heart faded like foam.
@
Once your stomach was full, it was time to work.
People couldn't just spend their days playing and eating. Why else would being a rich loafer be a dream? Because it was impossible, which was what made it a dream.
To improve efficiency, division of labor was essential.
It was far more efficient for each person to take on the tasks they were good at than for all three to do the exact same thing.
Everyone had their own area of expertise.
I looked at Yerin, who was sprawled out on the bamboo bed.
The more I looked at her, the more she resembled a sloth. It wasn't that she was lazy; she worked hard at whatever she was told to do.
It was just that she lay down whenever she got the chance.
Anyway, there was a separate task for Yerin, who was good with her hands.
Since today's task was fairly dangerous, I planned to leave Baby with Yerin and go with Kim Woong alone.
“Ms. Yerin.”
“Yeah?”
“Please look after Baby for a bit. And do you know how to make pottery?”
Yerin stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.
“How am I supposed to make pottery?”
“With clay.”
“I've never made anything like that before.”
Neither had I.
People learned things by putting them into practice, after all.
You had to try something to improve your skills.
“Give it a try.”
“Easy for you to say. Isn't it too difficult?”
“You're good with your hands, Ms. Yerin. I'm sure you'll make it well.”
I gave her a little encouragement, and she immediately broke into a silly grin. Streamers seemed to be people who were always hungry for praise. Maybe it was because their viewers were constantly pampering them?
“Well! If you're going to flatter me like that, Rils, I'll give it a try. But don't expect too much—I have no idea how it'll turn out.”
After handing Yerin her assignment, I immediately turned toward Kim Woong.
“Mr. Kim Woong.”
“Yes!”
“Today, we're going to look for honey.”
“Honey?”
The moment she heard the word honey, Yerin, who had been stretched out on the bamboo bed, shot upright.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“Honey?”
“Yep.”
“The honey I'm thinking of?”
“The sweet kind.”
Yerin's eyes sparkled.
Women were naturally crazy about sweet and spicy foods.
Cake, malatang, and things like that.
On top of that, honey was practically a complete food in itself.
Thanks to its high sugar content, it provided energy quickly, and because it contained little moisture, it generally didn't spoil even when stored at room temperature.
In fact, honey made thousands of years ago has been discovered, to the point that people say it was still edible.
Since coming to the deserted island, the only real sweetness she'd tasted was coconut water.
And even that had been bland rather than sweet.
It was about time she started craving some proper sweetness.
“A cup of warm honey water would feel like heaven.”
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“I'll definitely make the dishes, so do you really have to bring some back?”
With that, Yerin hoisted Baby into her arms.
@
Naturally, to get honey, we had to find bees.
More precisely, we had to find the home the bees had worked so hard to build.
As we left the cave and headed toward the place where we'd spotted the bees, Kim Woong asked curiously,
“Benefactor, why do bees make honey?”
“Emergency rations.”
“Emergency rations?”
“Yep.”
Bees went around looking for flowers and stored nectar in their honey stomachs. Then they put the nectar stored there into the hive to preserve it.
They did so to consume the stored honey and obtain the nutrients they needed during winter, when the flowers died.
You could think of it as being similar to squirrels storing acorns.
Kim Woong smiled and said,
“So we're stealing and eating the honey the bees worked so hard to make?”
“Yep. Strictly speaking, we're robbers trespassing in their home.”
“Benefactor.”
“Yep.”
“Thinking of it that way makes me feel guilty toward the bees.”
“I don't.”
“Why not?”
“Because it's delicious.”
As we walked and chatted, we eventually arrived at the place where we'd spotted the bees.
I stopped and looked around.
“This is where we saw the bees.”
“Then wouldn't there be a hive nearby?”
“I don't know.”
“Huh?”
“Probably.”
Just because we'd seen bees didn't mean we could immediately find their hive.
But if there were bees, they had to have a home somewhere.
The problem was where the hive was.
Hives were often harder to find than you might think.
They might be hanging from the top of a tall tree, or hidden in a crevice on a cliff that was difficult for people to reach.
They even built their homes in cracks between rocks or inside tree hollows.
“Benefactor, then how do we find the hive?”
“Find one bee and follow it.”
I pointed toward the flowers blooming nearby.
Honeybees didn't wander around for no reason.
They were the very symbol of diligence, after all.
They diligently gathered nectar from flowers, then returned to the hive to deposit it.
Then they went back out looking for flowers to gather more nectar.
In other words.
Once you found one bee, there was a good chance you'd gained a guide who would lead you straight to the hive.
“Oh. That makes perfect sense.”
“Of course, finding it and harvesting it are two different matters.”
“Is that so…?
“If the hive is on a cliff, we're out of luck. It'd be a problem even if it were hanging from a tall tree.”
I looked up at the surrounding trees.
There were many enormous trees in the jungle. If we were unlucky, the hive might be hanging seven or eight meters above the ground.
In that case, it would be safer to give up on the honey.
Even if we succeeded in climbing the tree and harvesting the hive, we'd inevitably be attacked on the way down by bees furious at the intruders.
I hoped the hive would be somewhere accessible.
“Let's find the bees first.”
“Yes.”
And so, we moved toward the flowers in silence, holding our breath.
@
Yerin had boasted to Rils and Kim Woong, but when she actually tried to make pottery, her mind went blank.
‘Where on earth am I supposed to start?’
How many people in South Korea had actually made pottery with their own hands?
Potters, master artisans who worked on cultural heritage, or people who attended pottery workshops as a hobby, perhaps?
Yerin certainly wasn't one of them.
Before leaving to look for honey, Rils had told Yerin in his characteristically indifferent tone,
-You just need to shape the clay roughly, dry it in the sun, and then fire it.
Easy for him to say.
Everything in the world sounded easy when you only listened to an explanation.
-To get rich, you just need to make a lot of money.
-For stocks, you just need to buy ones that look like they'll go up.
-For dating, you just need to date someone you're compatible with.
Yerin sighed as she recalled the method Rils had taught her.
First, she needed to get some clay.
There was no problem there, since she'd already found a place with clay while exploring the deserted island with Rils on the first day.
Yerin tied several bamboo tubes to a cord, hoisted Baby into her arms, and left the cave.
‘It's pretty heavy….’
How did Rils go darting all over the place with Baby in his arms?
His body was as small as a little kid's, yet his stamina was incredible.
Yerin trudged toward the place with the clay, panting for breath.
When she reached the damp terrain, Yerin filled the bamboo tubes to the brim with thick, sticky clay, then headed back to the cave.
“Ugh. This feels gross.”
The sticky sensation and the clay packed beneath her fingernails.
“How on earth did Rils smear this all over his body?”
She remembered Rils covering his entire body in clay to block the sunlight, saying it was a substitute for sunscreen.
A normal person wouldn't even think of doing something like that.
Still grumbling, Yerin carried the bamboo tubes full of clay back to the cave.
Then she plopped down on the floor.
“There.”
She looked down at the clay in the bamboo tubes.
“Now, what was I supposed to do?”
She racked her memory for a moment and recalled Rils's explanation.
-You just need to shape it first.
“I don't know. I guess I'll just make something rough.”
Yerin picked up a lump of clay and pressed it firmly between both hands.
It felt like playing with modeling clay back in elementary school.
On a deserted island without even a smartphone, clay made a pretty fun toy.
Yerin quickly began to take an interest in it.
“This is kind of fun.”
She stretched the clay into a long, thin shape like the snake that had invaded the cave last time, then rolled it up in circles like a coiled snake.
“I wonder if this will work….”
A shape resembling a bowl gradually began to form.
Of course, it was extremely crooked.
“What the heck? Why is it so ugly?”
Yerin stared at the lopsided, misshapen bowl she'd made as if displeased with it, then—
Thump.
She crushed it with her fist.
“Again.”
All endeavors came with trial and error.