Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

The tree stick stood in the mud, its shadow casting straight onto the ground.

Bi Fang marked the shadow’s position in the mud, his actions gentle and serious, like an old watchmaker in an alley, using tweezers to pick up small parts, assembling them piece by piece.

If it weren’t for the previous statement, some might truly believe that Bi Fang was repairing a watch.

[Measuring out longitude and latitude, no way, no way, could someone really expect a stick to measure longitude and latitude?]

[A stick to measure longitude and latitude? Is Master Fang kidding?]

[Lying at home, I hurriedly checked my GPS and I was scared to death, thank goodness it’s not me who’s lost () ]

[Longitude and latitude can be measured directly? If that’s possible, I, Fang Shijie, will do a handstand and get diarrhea on the spot, then eat it!]

[Don’t try to swindle food and drinks, why not perform a lock-picking with a toothpick instead?]

Not only the new audience didn’t believe it, but many old fans also held doubtful attitudes.

“That’s too fake, right? How could you measure longitude and latitude with just a stick? Don’t streamers have to follow some basic principles when deceiving people?” A man hanging onto a subway strap couldn’t help but speak out.

The subway was crowded, and the man had been standing there for a while; by chance, he noticed two young girls in front of him watching a live stream, and he curiously glanced over, only to see this scene.

The image on the cell phone showed a man slightly handsomer than he had been at that age, vividly promoting his act, then inserting a stick into the ground and casually scratching a couple of marks, claiming he could measure longitude and latitude with it.

How do you even start with such baseless deception?

It’s only these naive young girls, pretty yet thoughtless, who could believe in such things.

Yang Ziyun looked back and saw a balding, slightly overweight office worker slandering her idol; how could she stand it?

“Why wouldn’t it be possible? Just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean Master Fang can’t, he is the world’s number one survival expert!”

The man scoffed at this claim: “Master Fang? A survival expert? The world’s number one? That’s laughable. Not to mention the titles sound dated, who rated him the world’s number one? Was there a competition?”

He pointed at Yang Ziyun and her classmate: “It’s you young girls who don’t focus on studying properly and spend all day idolizing celebrities and internet famous figures, holding such worthless people up on a pedestal, instead of enriching yourselves by reading more books.”

Yang Ziyun wanted to argue back, but her classmate snatched the initiative: “Uncle, don’t you ever watch the news? So arrogant. Even my grandfather goes online to read the news, couldn’t there be someone who doesn’t even know how to watch the news? No way, no way, right?”

Uncle?

I’m not even thirty yet!

The man choked on a mouthful of frustration.

“Oh, I get it, definitely because uncle has such high pressure from overtime work, and the boss is so fierce, no hope for a promotion, and his wife is cheating while his daughter is dating early, leading to no time to be online! Wow, that’s so sad. Let’s go, Ziyun, don’t stay with him, bad luck is contagious!”

The classmate’s words shot out like bullets, and after speaking, she pulled Yang Ziyun through the crowd to another spot without looking back, leaving behind the stunned office worker.

Yang Ziyun silently gave a thumbs up, her classmate still not placated.

“It’s so infuriating, when Master Fang was hand-to-hand with the wolves, that guy probably didn’t know where he was constipated in some corner.”

“Alright, alright, since he’s so pitiful, let’s be considerate.” Yang Ziyun covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.

Wori.

This uncle could hold back, but the aunt could not!

The man overheard some of what they were saying, feeling hit right where it hurt, and was fuming with anger. How could he swallow this indignity when he had seen the name of the live stream!

The man pulled out his phone, downloaded the Wolf Fang APP, and the first thing he saw upon opening it was Bi Fang’s live broadcast.

Huo, it was even recommended on the homepage!

Can’t anyone see through this kind of scam?

No way, he was really determined today; he wouldn’t get off the subway until he exposed the other party!

“Calculating longitude and latitude is not hard; it’s all about three factors: shadow, direction, and date. Don’t find it unbelievable, what I rely on here is not the stick, but the sun.”

Bi Fang pointed at the sun hanging high in the sky; the weather was good today, the sun had risen above the clouds, and sunlight spread down across the sky, tracing the shadows of trees on the ground.

“From a phenomenological perspective, we can treat the ground as a plane and the sky as a sphere, called the ‘celestial sphere.’ The sun travels along a circular path in the sky, rising in the east and setting in the west.”

“It’s not just the sun; all celestial bodies, whether the moon or the stars, rise in the east and set in the west on this celestial sphere as if they are revolving around an axis. This axis is Earth’s axis of rotation.”

“The position on the celestial sphere to which this axis points is the south/north celestial pole. We determine our position on Earth’s plane by using these celestial bodies for navigation.”

After explaining the principle, Bi Fang continued to mark the shadow he had just made.

“First, we set up a rod on a level ground. Remember, it must be as level as possible so that the data obtained are accurate. Then we continually mark its shadow, and when the shadow is shortest, we record the direction of the shadow at that time, which is due north.”

“Measure the length of the shadow and the rod, calculate the solar elevation angle using trigonometric functions, consider the number of days since the equinoxes and solstices, I set out on the twenty-first, so today must be the twenty-second. Then, using trigonometric interpolation, calculate the latitude of the sun’s direct radiation point for the day, add it, and you can get the local latitude value.”

“Besides, after determining the true north direction, record the time when the sun passes directly south. Because the Capital uses the time of 120 degrees east longitude, with the recorded time and the difference from 12 o’clock, we can figure out the longitude.”

“However, this method of calculation is complex and might not be suitable for everyone. Isn’t there a saying, if you can’t do a math problem, your only option is to write an explanation.”

[Damn, what the heck is this, I don’t understand? Phenomenological? What is phenomenological? ]

[Phenomenology, in physics, is when physical phenomena are not explained by their intrinsic causes but through physical laws derived from generalized experimental facts. Passing by… a science and engineering dude.]

[If you can’t do a big question on a political exam, you can write nonsense; if you can’t do an English essay, you can copy from the reading comprehension; but if you can’t do a big math question, damn it, you can only write an explanation.]

[Algebraist]

[Who would have thought, even though I’ve been stranded in the wilderness, I still have to do math problems?]

Many viewers started to feel overwhelmed upon hearing the string of explanations.

Bi Fang watched the shadow carefully; fortunately, it was still shortening, which meant it was nearing noon, and he hadn’t missed the shortest point. If he had missed it, Bi Fang would have had to wait until night to use Polaris to measure the latitude and longitude.

After several minutes, during the chat between Bi Fang and the audience, the shadow finally reached its shortest point and then began to elongate.

Bi Fang hurriedly marked the spot where the shadow had been shortest.

“Measure the shadow and stick height; the data don’t need to be precise, as long as the reference object remains constant, you can choose some small tree sticks to measure, because what we are looking for is the ratio.”

Then Bi Fang started to write formulas with a tree branch on the nearby soil, when suddenly a few sheets of paper, a pencil, and a short ruler were handed to him.

Bi Fang subconsciously took the paper, pencil, and ruler, then looked up at Etienne in surprise, “Where did you get this from?”

Etienne scratched his head, “I brought my homework, I just left it on the plane, and now there are a few draft papers left.”

[Wow, there’s still this matter of homework?]

[Amazing, he didn’t forget to bring homework even when escaping – clearly a good student.]

Bi Fang was taken aback by this slick move, but having paper and a pencil did make things easier. He sat on a rock and wrote down a string of formulas that looked impressive to his online friends.

[It’s over, if you can’t do math, does that mean you can’t survive?]

[This formula is giving me a headache. Old Fang is actually calculating functions by hand!]

[I never paid this much attention in class, I’m really sorry to my math teacher.]

“It’s okay if everyone doesn’t understand, in real Wilderness Survivalist situations, we rarely need to use this method to confirm latitude and longitude. It’s just that this mission is special, there will be snow the day after tomorrow, so there’s a high demand for time and accuracy.”

“Normally, you can use Polaris to measure at night. Stars are very bright in the wilderness and the method is simple. If there’s a chance tonight, I will teach everyone.”

Bi Fang bent over and struggled with the calculations, occasionally biting on his pencil, as many of the functions were not accurate without a calculator, so he had to settle for approximate values. The audience watched, their heads spinning from the complicated process.

Just as Bi Fang calculated the answers, the paper suddenly darkened.

Strange, why did it get dark?

Etienne looked up.

Lead-colored clouds rolled in from the southeast, the dense cloud layer casting an ominous foreboding.

Etienne suddenly remembered what Elvan had said – there would be a blizzard the day after tomorrow.

But now,

The blizzard had come early!