Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 534: Don’t Eat Monkey Meat, Lin Yuan Sets Sight on the Villagers of Xiala

After solving the problem of drinking water, Lin Yuan felt much better.

Then there should be only one last possible problem, which is diet.

Lin Yuan was not too worried about the food problem, because the Congo jungle was originally rich in resources. He was not worried that he would have nothing to eat while guarding such a large forest.

What's more, even if there is a lack of food in the forest, the worst that can happen is to take a truck back to Kisangani to buy more.

A few trips by truck would be enough to meet the needs of the entire camp.

Yesterday, Lin Yuan purchased a large amount of salted fish and other supplies in the Bakawi area. They will be delivered to Xiala Village in batches, so there is no need to worry about going hungry.

The only thing to consider is whether we can enjoy all kinds of wild delicacies like in Tukanba Village, so that the crew can always maintain high morale.

"Is there anything delicious to eat near Xiala Village? What kind of food do the local villagers eat?" Lin Yuan asked expectantly.

As a person with a foodie background, he always attaches great importance to food.

In response to Lin Yuan's question, Gary said with some embarrassment, "I'm afraid you won't be able to accept the eating habits of the Xiala villagers.

The village chief learned that you arrived today and wanted to invite you to attend the 'Monkey Stewed in a Big Pot' dinner tonight.

This is a favorite delicacy of the locals. Monkeys caught in the jungle are stewed in a large pot and then eaten with ant sauce.

Mr. Lin, do you want to accept the invitation?"

Monkey stewed in a big pot?
What kind of dark cuisine is this?
For Lin Yuan, eating primates is still unacceptable.

After all, primates look too much like humans. Lin Yuan finds it hard to imagine that when the villagers of Xala hold monkey ribs and chew on them, they don’t feel a chill in their own ribs.

But many villagers in Congo like to eat primates. In addition to monkeys, they also like to eat chimpanzees and even gorillas.

Primates are social creatures and are easy to catch, so it is easy to get a large harvest.

This also leads to primate meat being quite cheap, so cheap that it is not sold by weight, but by the piece.

A chimpanzee weighing more than 50 kilograms is sold for only $8.

A gorilla weighing 200 kilograms only costs about 40 US dollars.

These primates can be said to be the cheapest source of protein, with the unit price being less than one-tenth of beef and mutton.

But Lin Yuan really couldn't eat this kind of food, not to mention that eating primates is not safe.

The repeated outbreaks of Ebola virus in Congo are highly correlated with the local people's consumption of chimpanzees.

Regarding Lin Yuan's resistance, Director Eastwood showed a hint of curiosity: "I can't quite accept monkey meat, but what is ant sauce?"

“The local yellow ants, hammered into ant mud,” Gary said.

"It sounds quite disgusting, is this thing delicious?" the old director asked curiously.

"I think it has an indescribable fishy smell, but people who have eaten it say that it is very helpful for male sexual performance, so they all like to eat it." Gary paused and asked, "Director, do you want to experience it?"

"NO! NO! NO!" The old director hurriedly shook his head and said, "My body is in good health. In that aspect, I am like a 20-year-old young man! To be honest, I don't think Lin Yuan is necessarily stronger than me!
My girlfriends are all very satisfied and don’t need this kind of thing! "

Hearing the old director's words, Lin Yuan smiled helplessly and shook his head.

If a man's physical condition allows, he will not give up in that aspect even when he is 70 years old.

He knew that this old cowboy was quite open-minded when it came to men and women, and it was no secret that he had several girlfriends at the same time.

Lin Yuan was no longer surprised by the chaotic relationships between men and women in the Hollywood film and television circles. Besides, he himself was not a pure lover, so he had no right to look down on the old director's behavior with men.

"It seems you're all reluctant to accept the local food culture. So, we'll have to explore the jungle and find delicious food ourselves," Gary said. "You all know that the people of Xiala Village are very lazy. Their diet consists mainly of fruit and bushmeat. They don't even bother to grow cassava."

Cassava is the staple food of the Congolese people. Similar to wheat in northern China and rice in southern China, it is the main source of carbohydrates for their three meals a day.

Cassava can be eaten raw, roasted, ground into flour and cooked into porridge, or rolled into small dough balls and eaten.

The cassava flour after being ground into flour is called "Fu Fu" locally. Before it is ground into flour, it is uniformly called "Ma Niu Ke".

It can be said that cassava is the source of life for the Congolese people, but Gary said that the villagers of Xiala are too lazy to even grow cassava.

After hearing Gary's words, Lin Yuan remembered that he had not seen even a piece of farmland around Xiala Village.

There is no farmland in the countryside?

This is simply unimaginable for Lin Yuan, a descendant of agricultural civilization.

But Xiala Village is not a village of agricultural civilization at all, but the most primitive gathering civilization.

Their staple food is bananas from the orchard.

Their ingredients and dietary fiber sources are also pineapples, mangoes and other fruits in the orchard.

As for protein, leave it to various "bush meats".

No wonder the locals don’t have kitchens in their homes, because they don’t cook at all!
At most, you can build a few stone platforms to stew monkeys, and a few racks to grill jungle meat.

No wonder they can sleep ten hours a day and spend most of their waking time playing.

When a gathering civilization no longer needs to spend time gathering, then it can just lie back and live its life away.

No wonder many scholars believe that, excluding the latest form of industrial civilization, among the four forms of human civilization, namely agricultural civilization, nomadic civilization, gathering civilization and hunting civilization, gathering civilization is relatively low-level.

Agricultural civilization needs to fight against natural disasters, so water conservancy facilities must be built. This requires the organization of large-scale human labor and a relatively strict organizational structure to complete the construction of those ponds, reservoirs and dams.

Nomadic civilization and hunting civilization are equivalent to agricultural civilization. Their social organization is looser, but they have to fight against the cruelest nature, and they will inevitably cultivate the characteristics of being tough and good at fighting.

Only the gathering civilization is the most relaxed. Anyway, how much is collected depends entirely on the conditions of the location, and the degree of personal effort has little impact on the results.

Therefore, gathering civilization is also the type of civilization with the lowest resource carrying capacity.

This phenomenon is reflected in the villagers of Xila. Although they sleep until they wake up naturally every day and play after waking up, it is ultimately a low-quality life.

They can only drink water that has been sedimented by mud, and can only endure it when they are sick. Even eating instant noodles is amazing, and they wish they could tear down their own house to buy it.

There is no happiness without a price in this world, and the villagers of Xila cannot fight against this law.

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "Let's go hunting in the jungle and look for other delicious food."

As he spoke, he recalled the time when he was in Tukanba Village, where he ate mushroom hotpot, deer meat, and bamboo shoots... His mouth was watering.

He lived off the forest and didn't believe that there would be no delicious food while guarding such a large forest.

"Okay! I'll go notify Kane and ask them to bring guns." Gary replied.

Lin Yuan shook his head: "When we go hunting, they must bring guns with them for protection. But they don't use guns for hunting. They don't have hunting rifles. They only have large-caliber assault rifles.

One shot and the prey's internal organs are all shredded, which is definitely not tasty."

"What are we going to use to hunt if not guns?" Gary asked in confusion.

"No matter how lazy the villagers of Xiala Village are, they still hunt occasionally. You can go and ask the village chief if he has the anesthetic that can be applied to blowguns." Lin Yuan said.

For the Shara villagers who don't have guns, they should have plant-derived anesthetics for hunting, and that would be enough.

In fact, when saying this, Lin Yuan felt a little uneasy:
What if the villagers of Xala are just too lazy and only use traps when hunting?
But at this time, we can only let Gary try it first. After all, hunting with an assault rifle is not the best choice. The gunshot will scare away the prey and even attract some malicious people in the forest.

Although Lin Yuan can use throwing knives, their killing power against large prey is relatively limited, and the best effect is achieved when combined with anesthetics.

After receiving Lin Yuan's instructions, Gary nodded to show that he understood.

She first led everyone to their respective thatched huts, and then walked towards the village.

Hunting had to wait until the afternoon rain stopped. This period of time was just enough for Lin Yuan and the others to put their luggage away and have lunch.

Let’s take a short rest and then we’ll set off again after the rain stops.

Lin Yuan and GAKKI-chan walked into the thatched hut assigned to them, and looking around they saw that the house was bare.

The only wooden clothes rack should have been made temporarily by someone arranged by Gary. It was a special consideration for them, avoiding the embarrassing situation of having to put clothes on the floor when sleeping.

In the corner of the thatched house, there are mats, pillows and sheets for sleeping.

GAKKI-chan tried to lay the mat: "It's quite flat, but it's a little hard. I don't know if you can get used to it."

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "It's good enough to sleep on the floor. I'm a tough guy and have endured all kinds of hardships. But is this your sleeping habit?"

GAKKI-chan showed a typical energetic smile: "Have you forgotten that I'm Japanese? This is not much different from the feeling of sleeping on tatami mats. How can I not be used to it?"

Since both of them said so, sleeping will definitely not be a problem.

In fact, rather than whether sleeping on the floor is comfortable, Lin Yuan is more concerned about whether this thatched house is soundproof.

After all, it takes one or two months to shoot in the village, which is such a long time.

After finishing the shooting every day, the night is long, so we always have to do some adult-only programs to add some fun to life.

It would be embarrassing if the sound insulation is poor.

Lin Yuan walked outside the thatched hut and whispered to GAKKI-chan inside, "Can you hear me?"

"Of course I heard it, what's wrong?" GAKKI-chan's clear reply came immediately.

Although Lin Yuan had anticipated this outcome, he couldn't help but sigh. "How foolish of me to have such high expectations for the soundproofing of a thatched hut?" Lin Yuan muttered inwardly.

It seemed that his expectations were completely dashed, and Lin Yuan began to think about finding a safe place suitable for a field battle.

At this time, GAKKI-chan in the thatched hut had no time to care about what Lin Yuan was thinking about. She packed her luggage and began to prepare lunch for today.

Just now, Lin Yuan rejected Gary's invitation to go to the cafeteria for dinner. He planned to have a simple meal with GAKKI in his thatched house.

Without a kitchen, GAKKI couldn't cook anything no matter how skillful she was. She could only soak two buckets of noodles in boiling water, put a boiled egg and a sausage in each, just to make do for the time being.

The instant noodles were ready soon. Lin Yuan picked up his bucket of braised beef noodles, while GAKKI picked up the Japanese pork bone ramen.

"Tell me, whose life is better, the Shara villagers or the Bakawi people?" Lin Yuan asked while slurping noodles.

"I don't know either." GAKKI replied.

"It's okay, I just asked casually, you don't need to answer." Lin Yuan said while eating noodles.

At first glance, there is no need to hesitate about this question. The villagers of Xiala are definitely better.

The villagers of Xiala can sleep for ten hours a day, and after waking up they don’t need to work much, they just need to play.

The residents of the Barkawi slum are busy every day, but in the end they can't even fill their stomachs.

Not to mention their living environments. One lives on the edge of a beautiful jungle, while the other lives in a smelly sewage ditch.

It seems the answer is obvious.

But if you think about it carefully, it is not that absolute.

If life in Xiala Village is really so good, why don’t people migrate here?
Lin Yuan knew that if he asked the Bakawi people whether they wanted to come and live in Xiala Village, most of them would probably refuse.

Because even though the Bakawi people live a miserable life, they still enjoy modern urban services to some extent.

Given the medical distance, if someone gets a serious illness, they will all die, but if it is just an acute illness, the Bakawi people can get treatment in the hospital.

Even if the medical bills will become their debt, they still survived, right?
The average life expectancy of residents in the Barkawi slum is around 50 years.

The average life expectancy of Xiala villagers is only 40 years old.

For the Bakawi people, no matter how difficult life is in Kisangani, it is the third largest city in Congo, a place that brings them a sense of pride and allows them to see a bigger world.

Having seen the bigger world, they would never want to live in a place like Xiala Village, even if life there would be more comfortable.

Lin Yuan really doesn't know whether this phenomenon is good or bad.

Wouldn’t it be the case that many young people in China in later generations would rather stay in first-tier cities, live in shared rentals, or even become “rat tribes” or “ant tribes” rather than return to their more comfortable hometowns?
There is nothing new under the sun. The same things, always with slightly different forms, are repeated all over the world.

"Boom!" At this time, thunder sounded in the sky.

The atmospheric movement in the tropics is quite violent, and the thunder is particularly loud.

GAKKI covered her ears, obviously frightened.

Lin Yuan walked up to her and gently hugged her: "It's okay, the camp has lightning protection facilities, don't worry."

"I'm not afraid of being struck by lightning, it's just that the sound is too loud and a bit scary. Aren't you scared at all?" asked GAKKI.

"Me? Filming has already raised my threshold too high. This little thunder is nothing to me." Lin Yuan replied with a smile.

After hearing Lin Yuan's words, GAKKI remembered that when filming "The King of Spy", Lin Yuan was in a thunderstorm cloud and felt the lightning and thunder up close.

Compared to the shock of thunder right next to your ears, this little thunder is really just child's play.

Thinking of this, GAKKI felt a little depressed and a little proud.

Why is the gap so big?
But such a legendary man is my man... Even if I only have a small part, it is enough to be proud of him.

Lin Yuan didn’t know what GAKKI-chan was thinking, but he could feel the admiring look a woman gave a man without needing the ability to read minds.

In the past few years, he has experienced many life-and-death moments while filming and suffered a lot, but it was all worth it.

No, it can't even be said to be worth it, but it is too good to be true.

There are so many people in this world who work just as hard but gain less than one ten-thousandth of what Lin Yuan does, yet he has already achieved the life that countless people dream of.

But it is precisely because of this that Lin Yuan repeatedly puts pressure on himself and forces himself to keep moving forward, so as not to let down the second life that God has given him.

For most men, the ultimate pursuit in life is nothing more than: to hold power in the world when awake, and to sleep on the lap of a beautiful woman when drunk.

If you are a little greedier and have higher demands, you can just add one more sentence: to win fame during your lifetime and after your death.

Now Lin Yuan is not far from this step. He is still very young in this life, and he is only 22 years old this year.

He has enough time to realize his dream.

Originally, Lin Yuan shouldn't have been in a hurry. He should have moved forward slowly.

But Lin Yuan always acted very anxious, because he knew that time waits for no one, and his ability to predict the future was constantly being consumed.

Moreover, as his influence in the world grows, the butterfly effect he brings about is very likely to change the course of history.

Perhaps at some point, all his predictions about the future will become invalid.

At that time, he could only rely on the resources he had accumulated and no longer move forward with foresight.

But Lin Yuan now is completely different from when he was reborn more than four years ago.

After going through so many things, his mind has been fully tempered. He is confident that with his current abilities, he can blaze a trail that has never been seen before and will never be repeated.

At this time, accompanied by thunder, heavy rain began to fall.

The ground soon became muddy, with yellow muddy water flowing everywhere.

"Don't worry, these thatched houses are waterproof," said GAKKI.

Living in a tropical area where “afternoon rain” falls every day, the thatched houses of the Xiala villagers must be waterproof.

The waterproofing method is quite simple. There is a hollow wooden support under the thatched house, which slightly raises the entire thatched house to avoid direct contact with the ground. This way, there is no need to worry about mud and water flowing in.

"I'm not worried about our house, I'm worried about them." Lin Yuan walked to the thatched hut and looked at the tent area.

There were still too few thatched huts at that time, but if the crew members squeezed in, most of them could still live in the thatched huts.

The rest could not be arranged, so Lin Yuan just asked Gary to coordinate and have some people stay in the homes of the Xiala villagers, and some people sleep on the bus.

It will only take a few days, and as more thatched huts are delivered every day, each crew member will gradually have one.

However, it was not so easy to get all 300 black workers hired to live in the thatched huts.

At this time, they could only live in tents and endure the dilemma of sewage flowing everywhere during heavy rain.

Although the tents had waterproof cloth on the edges to prevent sewage from flowing directly into the tents, the tents were laid directly on the ground after all, and the wet feeling would still invade them everywhere.

"No, we still have to speed up the construction of the thatched house." Lin Yuan said.

"But Miss Gary also said that the manpower has been used up to the limit and there is no labor to speed up the construction of the thatched house." said GAKKI.

Lin Yuan pointed in the direction of Xiala Village: "Aren't there 500 people there? If they come to help, the speed can be doubled."

"But you know, the villagers of Xiala Village are so lazy, how could they possibly come to help?" Gakki-chan said, "I'm afraid that even if we tempt them with more things, it won't have much effect."

Lin Yuan nodded. It was just as GAKKI said. Although food was attractive, its threshold increased very quickly.

They can work for you for a day just to have instant noodles for the first time.

But if you want to use 30 packets of instant noodles in exchange for them working for you for 30 days, that is almost impossible.

No matter how delicious instant noodles are, their appeal will fade after a few times, and laziness will take over your mind again.

Gary must have tried this, and the lack of results means she failed.

"If food doesn't work, let's trade with them in exchange for something else. I believe they will definitely beg us for help." Lin Yuan said.

"What is that thing? It can actually motivate such lazy Shala villagers to move?" GAKKI asked in confusion.

"What do you think humans fear the most?" Lin Yuan did not answer, but asked back.

"Are you afraid of death?" GAKKI said uncertainly.

"Yes, yes. The desire for survival is the most instinctive emotion of human beings. Aside from a few high-level spiritual needs like the pursuit of ideals, the fear of death can overwhelm all other emotions." Lin Yuan said: "Then tell me, what is the most common cause of death for these Xiala villagers?"

"Of course it's a disease!" The next moment, Gakki-chan immediately knew what Lin Yuan was going to do: "Are you planning to use drugs to lure them into working?"

"Yes, medicine is life. I don't believe that these Xiala villagers don't want to extend their lifespan." Lin Yuan said:
“If we want them to be diligent for their entire lives, I’m afraid medicine won’t be able to do that.

But I still have confidence that we can encourage them to work hard during the one or two months we are filming in Xiala Village."

"I also think this trick will work. When Miss Gary comes back, we will tell her about this immediately." GAKKI said happily: "With the help of so many workers, many of the current difficulties can be solved."

"I think I heard you say my name?"

At this moment, Gary opened the door and walked in.

(End of this chapter)