The Villainous Celebrity Wife of the CEO - Chapter 130.2

Soon, the recording of the show came to the last session.

The last task was particularly challenging. This time, all the artists would set off from the camp after sunrise. Their goal was to climb a small volcano about 3000 meters high before sunset.

Of course, this 3,000 meters was only the vertical drop from the top to the foot of the mountain. Taking into account the topography of the journey, they would have to climb for at least a dozen hours non-stop. ‘Volcano Summit’ was a very popular local tourist spot. Many tourists usually choose to take extreme challenges here. After climbing to the top of the volcano, they would set up camp and enjoy the magnificent scenery of the sunrise atop the volcano, and then go down the mountain on a return journey the next day.

At dawn, the group tied up their luggage and headed for the summit with heavy ‘turtle shells’ on their backs.

In addition to the two instructors, they specifically hired a local indigenous guide to orient them about the volcano.

Indonesia had the most volcanoes in the world. It was situated at the junction of three primary tectonic plates and had frequent crustal movements. The subduction of one plate and the lifting of another plate caused the formation of an upward bulge at the junction, forming mountains and islands. Indonesia was not only a country of a thousand islands, but was also a country of volcanoes, with around 400 volcanoes in its territory, and dozens of them on the Island of Sulawesi alone.

Most importantly, the volcano they were climbing today was an active one!

From a distance, a faint white smoke was billowing atop the volcano, gently rushing into the sky. The guide was surprised when he saw it, but he told them, “Safe, Safe” repeatedly in heavily accented English.

“How could it be safe?!” Xiao Xia shrank nervously behind Su Jishi. Her eyes flushed red in fright, and she shook like a slime. Her brain opened wide, and she gave full play to her flights of fancy, saying exaggeratedly, “Sister Su, do you think it will erupt in a little while? The lava will drown us all!”

Su Jishi patiently explained with her: “The kind you’re talking about is called Pliny-style eruption[1].”

Xiao Xia: “P…what?”

Su Jishi: “This volcano has a typical Strombolian-type eruption[2].”

Xiao Xia: “St…What?”

Su Jishi: “The former is what is presented in disaster movies, the kind of lava billowing and burning everything. It is how ancient cities of Pompeii once disappeared. As for the latter, well, it’s periodic. It erupts every once in a while. When it erupts, it spurts very large volcanic ash. The dense ashes cut visibility around a few kilometers. It may be dreadful but not fatal.”

After pondering for a moment, she added, “Of course, if you’re blinded by the volcanic ash and fell headlong into a ditch, that’s another story.”

Xiao Xia: “…” Mom, it’s still so scary!

Su Jishi once inspected several volcanoes in Canada with her teacher, and wrote a thesis on basaltic volcanic rocks. The only difference was the climate, and those volcanoes didn’t have much vegetation cover. Indonesia was different; plants grew extra tall and shaded the sky; birds and animals cried in the forest; and every now and then, small animals would spring out of the meadow and scare them.

Mountain climbing was particularly taxing on one’s strength and will.

Except for Su Jishi, dozens of people on the show crew were exhausted. Compared to the artists, the Follow PDs and the crew following them had it the hardest. The cameramen worked in pairs, carrying cameras weighing more than 20 kilograms and chasing after the artists. They had long been soaked in sweat, and before the sweat on their backs were dried by the sun, new sweat drenched them anew. No wonder someone joked that he was like a salted fish.

“You said it. All of us are salted fish, and only Sister Su is a mermaid…” Qin Qiu didn’t forget to avail himself of every opportunity to flatter.

Yan Changhui was the oldest. He was gripping two walking sticks, but even with a porter helping him with his luggage, he could barely stand straight from the exhaustion: “Su Jin, aren’t you tired?”

Su Jishi was also tired, but she had long been used to this kind of strain, and her in-depth experience in field expeditions made her better at distributing physical strength than others.

She reminded everyone, “This active volcano will keep spewing ash. The higher we go, the more you have to wear masks and cover your mouth and nose. Never ignore the heat.”

Many people mistakenly believed that ‘volcanic ash’ and ‘soot’ were the same substance, when in fact, they were entirely different. Soot dissolved in water and could degrade by itself; while volcanic ash was a pyroclastic material formed by the fragmentation of magma during volcanic eruption. Its diameter was less than 2mm, but the smaller it was, the easier it could be sucked into the lungs, which could cause asthma and other diseases.

Everyone was ‘scared’ by her, and they rushed to take the cloth they prepared in advance to cover their mouth and nose.

Unfortunately, some people did not listen to her advice, and by the evening, their entire nostrils were blackened by volcanic ash.

Originally, they planned to set up tents 500 meters from the lower edge of the crater before sunset and ‘rush to the summit’ to see the sunrise the next morning.Unfortunately, the program group miscalculated everyone’s physical strength. After surviving in the wild in previous days, everyone was incapable of trekking long distances. Once the sun set, several artists immediately began to ‘act shamelessly’, saying that they could no longer continue walking.

The chief director took out an altimeter for a look and discovered that they had just reached the mountainside…

Not only did the artists run out of stamina, but the Follow PD’s also slipped several times. Looking around, each was half-dead on the ground, with bloody blisters on their feet, hands, and shoulders.

The chief director was not the reincarnation of Huang Shiren[3]. After discussing with several program planners, he decided to change the plan and stop there. In due course, the post-production special effects would be done aesthetically, accompanied by a lyrical soundtrack. ‘Giving up halfway’ could also be packaged as ‘taking a step back and chatting about everything under the sun.’

…

T/N – I’m pretty sure I’ve learned the kinds of volcanoes back at school. It’s only now that they registered 😁😁