I am a local in North America

Chapter 23 The Champion!

Without thinking twice, Su Zhenhai quickly answered the phone.

“Mr. Sue? Jerry Sue’s father? I’m Sean Cable, the one I contacted before. I have some good news to tell you…”

The director's clear and cheerful voice came through the phone's receiver.

As the director introduced the scene, the gloom on Su Zhenhai's face instantly disappeared, gradually replaced by unbelievable surprise!

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Only after the other person finished speaking did Mr. Su mechanically repeat:

"He won?...Ari won?...100 million!!!"

Several minutes after the call ended, he remained in the same position, still holding the phone, sitting blankly on the edge of the bed, as if his soul was floating above the crab fishing boat.

At this moment, his wife, Zhuang Xialan, came out of the bathroom, drying her hair. Seeing Su Zhenhai's distraught appearance, her heart tightened.
"What's wrong? Nobody's willing to buy the crab fishing quota anymore? If all else fails, we can wait for the storm to pass and then try to find some king crabs again..."

"It's not a quota..."

Su Zhenhai snapped back to reality, his voice hoarse with excitement:
"It's Ari... his son won! The $100 million prize!!"

Zhuang Xialan was stunned.

She looked at her husband's face, weathered by years of sea voyages, now glowing with an unprecedented rosy radiance.

"You...what did you say?"

"Su Zhenhai, I'm warning you, this is no laughing matter! If you dare to lie to me, I'll really throw you onto the docks tonight and make you sleep with crabs!"

Mr. Su clenched his fist excitedly, his smile beaming as he said:

"It's true! It was the director himself who called! He asked us to send someone to pick him up, and he'll reimburse our airfare!"

"I knew it! Ari can do it!"

"That's such a large sum of money, how many crab fishing seasons would it take us to earn it back?"

Grandma Zhuang rolled her eyes and pointed out:
"That's not what you said before."

"Back then you said that Arui didn't know anything and would definitely go hungry every day. You mustn't cry and withdraw from the competition, lest you lose face in front of the neighbors and affect the future introduction of a wife for him."

"It hasn't been that long, and you're already going back on your word? I should have recorded it for you. I'm not like you; I believed from the beginning that Arui could win."

……

The events happening outside have not yet had any impact on Su Jerry.

On the very night Roland was injured and hospitalized, he followed the direction of the grouse's call and successfully shot a plump grouse.

Before the whistling of the arrow had faded, a series of rapid flapping sounds came from the depths of the snowy forest, followed by silence. Using the light of his flashlight, he searched and found the grouse, still twitching slightly, in the snow.

If this grouse could talk, it would definitely swear a lot.

After all, if the production team were willing to break with convention and simply inform him that he had won and let him leave to return to town, the grouse wouldn't have had to take that arrow tonight.

The long night was quiet in the snowy forest, with only the occasional crackling sound of fire crackling from the campfire.

After finally plucking all the feathers off the grouse, Su Jierui skewered it on a sharpened stick and placed it over the fire to smoke it. The hot oil dripped down, causing the flames to leap up and make an enticing sizzling sound.

While waiting, my mouth watered.

Venison and fish taste alright, but eating them every day without any seasoning is getting nauseous. They are clearly not as delicious as grouse and rabbit.

The firelight illuminated his face. As the temperature inside the shelter rose, melted ice water dripped from the walls, leaving small wet marks on the muddy ground.

The humidity was so high that it made my nose feel uncomfortable, and my breath was filled with cold, sticky moisture.

He was lost in thought when he spoke:
“The production crew came to give me a physical examination during the day. I didn’t know what had happened, but they left in a hurry without even exchanging a few words of conversation.”

"Let's make a bold guess: perhaps another contestant has encountered danger?"

"Hopefully the situation isn't too serious, because the area around Great Slave Lake is not only inhabited by black bears, but also by ferocious wolves and other wild animals. In winter, when it's difficult to find prey, hunger can drive them completely mad and make them quite dangerous."

"If it's just someone slipping and twisting their ankle, or dropping out of the race due to lack of food, then the situation is very favorable for me, and I want to get out of this awful place as soon as possible..."

Counting the time, in another two or three hours, it will be the 101st day of participating in the program.

Even though he had prepared himself mentally, the fact that the competition was really going to continue and he didn't know how much longer he would have to endure it still made Su Jierui feel down.

The feeling was like groping your way through a tunnel with no end in sight. You thought you were about to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you found that it was just the beginning of another period of darkness.

The 18-19 hours of darkness every day, the lack of electricity, internet, and heating, the inability to shower, and the inability to enjoy delicious food—this torturous life was truly unbearable for him. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and after a while, his turbulent emotions calmed down. Su Jierui sighed and said again:
"The sunk costs invested upfront are too high, so withdrawing from the competition is definitely not an option."

"On the bright side, after taxes, you could still have over $700,000 left from a $1 million prize?"

"Based on a 100-day period, that means you can earn more than $7000 a day, which is equivalent to what many people earn in two or three months of work."

"It's worth enduring some hardship now so you'll suffer less later. Keep going, Jerry, you can do it!"

Loneliness amplifies all feelings, whether good or bad.

Living in this godforsaken place, one must learn how to regulate one's emotions, something Su Jerry is already quite adept at.

He muttered to himself for a while, then smelled the aroma of the roasted grouse and smacked his lips.

The satellite phone, which he had kept in his backpack, suddenly rang, breaking the silence of the night.

The sharp, unfamiliar ringing of the bell sounded particularly jarring in the silent shelter, startling Su Jerry so much that he almost jumped up on the spot.

Despite participating in the competition for so long, the production team had never called him before, and the battery had been replaced several times. This was the first time Su Jierui had ever heard the satellite phone ring.

Surprised, Su Jierui quickly got up, grabbed his action camera, and said:
"Besides the routine physical examination, why would the production team contact me proactively? Could it be because they left in such a hurry during the day that they forgot to take the footage I was filming?"

"No matter what, everyone can testify that I did not make the call to withdraw from the competition on my own initiative; they called me themselves."

"It's so pleasant to hear, I haven't heard my phone ring in a long time..."

It was already past 9 p.m. local time.

Director Sean Cable spoke to Jerry Su via satellite phone:
"First of all, I want to congratulate you. You are the only contestant left in this season's competition, and you have successfully completed the challenge of surviving near the Arctic Circle for 100 days. So... congratulations on your victory!"

“I just contacted your parents. They are at Holland Port in the Aleutian Islands. Even if we arrange the earliest flight, they won’t be able to get here for another three days. Therefore, the surprise gift has to be canceled.”

"This is mainly because you've already won, and there are still traces of wolves and black bears near the camp. In addition, there are reportedly quite a few tourists in Yellowknife who have contracted an unknown disease and are running a fever. All of our medical advisors have just taken leave and gone back home, so we'll pick you up tomorrow..."

"!!!"

Overwhelmed with excitement, Su Jierui felt a tingling sensation sweep over his entire body. He was so excited that the hairs on his arms, back, and cheeks stood on end, as if he had been electrocuted. He wanted to jump up and shout to release his emotions.

He barely managed to control his excitement, his voice trembling slightly with extreme joy, as he eagerly asked about the matter he cared about most:
"Do we really have to wait until tomorrow? Can't we do it tonight?"

"I smelled terrible. My head and body were itchy. The smell from being roasted by the fire made even me disgusted with myself."

"Let the helicopter pilots work overtime, I really can't take it anymore."

"..."

Director Sean Cable, on the other end of the phone, told me with a smile:

"Let's wait until tomorrow morning. Take good care of yourself tonight. We can't let any other contestants get injured."

"Flying at night is dangerous. The landing area is surrounded by trees and there are some unseen ferocious animals."

"Tomorrow, I'll arrange a room for you at the hotel, and then I'll have the hairdresser give you a good makeover."

“There’s someone from a company who wants to meet you. Do you know TikTok? They contacted our production team before, wanting to sign this year’s champion to create some shows by cultivating internet celebrities. This might bring you extra income, just like those Hollywood stars.”

"It seems our 'Living Alone in the Wilderness' program is becoming more and more influential, especially in Asia. It's said that with the rise of short video apps, we're starting to accumulate a large number of fans..."

Su Jierui himself is a long-established YouTube creator with hundreds of thousands of followers and is quite well-known in the Asian community on the West Coast.

He was certainly aware of the TikTok platform, which was launched as early as 2017, but not many people around him used the software. Although Su Jierui downloaded it, he did not transfer the videos he shot and produced to the platform.

YouTube also spends money to support certain well-known content creators. Thinking about the possibility of being signed by TikTok, Su Jierui didn't take it too seriously at the moment. The huge joy of winning overshadowed everything else. He just wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Previously, Su Jierui made and posted daily videos online mainly to earn some living expenses, as tuition fees were too expensive in both the United States and Canada.

Some American students go to study in Germany, France, Norway and other countries to save on tuition fees.

The reason why Su Jierui chose to pursue a master's degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, was not because the tuition was cheap. The main reason was that he was tired of the University of Seattle and did not want to be too far from home. In addition, the University of British Columbia provided him with a partial scholarship.

Finally able to make a phone call and chat, Su Jie asked all sorts of questions until the program director fell asleep, and then he reluctantly put away the satellite phone.

Not only did I win the prize money and finally get to leave, but I also get to eat delicious grouse tonight.

While sprinkling salt and wild onions, he unusually wasn't stingy. He ate with a silly grin, planning once again how to use the $100 million prize money. He considered finding a tax planner as soon as possible to help him figure out if he could legally avoid taxes and keep more money in his own hands.

That night, even in my dreams wafted the aroma of grouse and the color of US dollars…

(End of this chapter)