Free Web NovelChapter 426: Chapter 216: More Than One Million in Earnings! [Update 2]
In a sense, after returning to the camp from the shelter, this long journey is finally at its end, and the subsequent days would be full of harvest.
Participants in this show lead inhuman lives and are constantly at risk of life-threatening situations.
We’re not doing charity here; after investing so much cost and sacrifice to compete for that spot, the ultimate goal for most contestants is to win the final $1 million USD prize.
For Li Younan, the $1 million prize was equally exciting.
Although due to state tax laws, it’s impossible to get the full amount, thanks to some tax treaty policies between China and the United States, he can take home about $800,000 USD.
According to the current exchange rate, that’s roughly over 6 million RMB.
Adding the agreement with TikTok from before, he could get another $1 million reward, meaning this wilderness trip could earn Li Younan a total income of over 7 million RMB.
However, to Younan’s surprise, besides these two income sources, there was an unexpected opportunity—the other party actually took a liking to his shelter and the ceramics inside it.
For Younan, since he was leaving anyway, he couldn’t take those pots and pans, nor the elaborately carved and painted house. At most, he could take one or two pieces of porcelain as collection, but the majority of the items would have to be left in the wilderness for the staff to dismantle.
Unexpectedly, a foreign tycoon showed interest in what he had made.
With the mindset that even a small mosquito is still meat, Younan of course had no reason to refuse, and he readily agreed.
The other party seemed very sincere, offering $200,000 USD for those items, which is not a small sum, though for a foreign tycoon, it’s just a drop in the bucket.
However, Younan was more curious about how the house would be handled—it was understandable to take the ceramics as they could be easily moved, but what about the house?
The other party told him they would send a professional team to transfer his entire house, intact, to the tycoon’s private island.
Upon hearing the words "private island," Li Younan was left speechless, realizing that it was a world completely different from his own.
After handling these affairs, Younan finally boarded a flight back to the United States.
He couldn’t return to China directly yet; he needed to go to the U.S. to fulfill the contract with the show crew and to settle the prize money, before he could return home.
Returning to civilized society, Younan felt as if he had been through an era.
During the long period alone in the wilderness, his mindset underwent a tremendous change; he better understood the harmonious yet conflicting unity between humans and nature, and he increasingly valued the hard-won nature of modern human civilization.
After re-entering civilization, he shot videos to gather material, speaking to the camera: "During my time living in the wilderness, I continuously pondered one question—our ancestors took thousands of years to transition from a life of eating raw meat and drinking blood to today’s civilized society."
"Stretching the timeline, this is a journey for all humanity, and only those who have survived in the wilderness can truly appreciate the grandeur of this process."
"In fact, our wilderness survival also carries many prints of modern society. Take for example our flints, bows and arrows, our high carbon steel hunting knife, axes, saws, etc."
"If a person truly entered the wilderness without any tools, it would absolutely be a disaster."
...
In a capitalist world, people value private property more, and after winning the prize, in a sense, that $1 million USD was already Younan’s private property.
The payment process was very swift, and after staying about a week in the U.S., Younan completed all the procedures, and the post-tax amount of over $840,000 USD was smoothly deposited into his account.
However, to Younan, his earnings didn’t just stop there.
After the prize payment was completed, the program team contacted him to discuss a new collaboration.
Younan arrived at the program team’s business negotiation center and, guided by a lady, walked into the manager’s office of the production team.
The other party warmly invited Younan to take a seat and brought him a cup of coffee, then straightforwardly stated, "Sir, we’ve invited you here to discuss another contract."
While speaking, they handed Younan a contract.
Younan received it with a hint of curiosity and upon seeing a few words on it, his expression showed a bit of surprise—"Supplemental Terms of the Video Copyright Contract."
Without much ado, Younan quickly flipped through the contract while the counterpart smiled calmly, watching him.
Soon, Younan understood the main content of this supplemental contract.
In short, it was another supplemental authorization contract valued at $500,000 USD.
Previously, as participants in the program, they naturally signed a portrait material contract with the program team, where all footage during the show was to be used as official broadcast material.
But the contract also clearly stated that their video footage should only be used within the "Alone in the Wilderness" program and not for other commercial purposes.
Yet this very clause, which seemed sensible to both parties at the time, troubled the current program producers.
At this moment, the show producer slowly began, "Sir, your performance on ’Alone in the Wilderness’ has won the love of fans worldwide, and the quality of your videos is extremely high."
"According to our professional photographers’ evaluations, whether it is the camera setup, the picture layout, or the use of lighting, all have reached a professional level."
"More importantly, the amount of material you’ve provided is enormous. Our ’Alone in the Wilderness’ show can’t use all the material you’ve provided. In fact, we only used about one-tenth of the footage."
"The fans’ demand is high; they want to see the full version."
"So, around the fourth episode, we had an internal meeting to discuss and came up with a new idea: we want to turn your solo life into a collection program, similar to the ’Wilderness Survival’ series, thoroughly and in detail showcasing your solitary wilderness life."
"The material you provided is enough for us to produce 20 episodes, which requires your separate authorization to us. We hope to obtain your authorization for the price of 500,000 USD."
Li Younan touched his chin, feeling a bit surprised.
How could these capitalists be so generous?
Wouldn’t it be enough to directly attach it under the ’Alone in the Wilderness’ program to make a separate collection?
Why go through all the trouble of creating a separate program?
What he didn’t know was that some states in the United States are extremely strict with the content review of TV programs, with a very rigorous review system.
’Alone in the Wilderness’ is competitive in nature. If it’s modified into a collection that only shows one contestant’s life, according to the program’s state law, it’s already violating the program’s filing nature, and forcing it would pose considerable legal risks for the entire program.
Therefore, a separate program must be made.
And if they don’t notify Li Younan and directly use his material, it might lead to Li Younan suing them for illegally using his image rights material.
Facing such accusations in the United States would be a very troublesome matter.
Moreover, the last episode has not been aired yet. After it airs, Li Younan’s popularity will surely reach a peak in a very short time. At that point, releasing the collection program will certainly trigger a new wave of viewership frenzy, and in any case, it’s a sure win, without the need to take such a big risk.
As far as Li Younan is concerned, it feels like he easily gained half a million, so he was very happy and didn’t bother to haggle with the producer—after all, he didn’t know what the market price was and reached an agreement with the manager easily.
A few days later, the supplemental agreement’s 500,000 USD, after tax, about 400,000, was also credited.
With this, all of Li Younan’s goals in the United States had been completely accomplished.
He meticulously counted the gains from this trip; in terms of material wealth, he now had over 1.3 million USD in his account. Coupled with 1 million yuan he would receive after returning to China, his total income was over 10 million yuan.
In addition to the savings in his domestic account, upon returning to China, he would be a bona fide millionaire—this time in cash, not just assets.
Anyone who’s frequently a millionaire knows how valuable being a cash millionaire is.
However, Li Younan wasn’t in a hurry to return; he planned to stay in the United States for a couple more days because he intended to undertake another major thing next—purchasing the chassis for an off-road camper.
Li Younan had considered for a long time that his next plan was to modify an off-road capable camper to traverse Route 318, and next might head to Northern Xinjiang and into the vast and boundless uninhabited areas.
But meanwhile, the vehicle needed to have strong off-road capabilities, enough space, and substantial potential for modification. A regular vehicle chassis obviously couldn’t meet these conditions.
After looking around, the Unimog most fit Li Younan’s requirements.
Of course, he couldn’t just drive the vehicle into extreme terrains recklessly, but whether it was during ’Alone in the Wilderness’ or with his off-road camper, he wouldn’t allow just "barely enough" performance. His personality always required sufficient redundancy.
The Unimog has portal axles front and back, low gears, three differential locks, and a 10-ton winch. Theoretically, except for a few sections too difficult to pass due to the vehicle’s weight, its capability should take it anywhere.
Li Younan planned to buy a Unimog chassis in the United States and ship it back to China for modification with a qualified workshop.
Of course, this process could also be documented through videos.
Speaking of which, he hadn’t posted any videos in a while.
In the following days, Li Younan spent some time at Mercedes-Benz’s sales center in the United States and ordered a high-spec Unimog U5023 chassis.
As for the corresponding cabin, he directly contacted the headquarters in Europe and customized a lightweight, cage-structured aluminum alloy framework cabin.
Due to the customs process, these two items would take at least one to two months to be shipped back to China.
Li Younan wasn’t in a rush, handling the procedures, and then calmly boarded the plane back to China.
With that, his trip abroad had concluded perfectly.
However, the subsequent effects brought by the ’Alone in the Wilderness’ show, especially after the final episode aired upon his return, began to further spread.
