"Quick, swim over there!"
At that moment, a hammerhead shark swam over from afar, smelling a trace of blood.
Jiang Yao panicked a little, and Lu Zhe hurriedly hugged her and whispered in her ear, "Don't be afraid, paddle slowly, swim forward bit by bit, it won't attack people easily if we don't provoke it!"
Jiang Yao nodded, doing as Lu Zhe said, slowly paddling forward.
Sure enough, the hammerhead shark swam past Jiang Yao and Lu Zhe without attacking them.
After the hammerhead shark had swum away, Lu Zhe said, "Swim towards the island!"
"I have no strength left!"
"Let's do this - you hold on to my waist!"
Lu Zhe swam on his back, using the buoyancy of his backpack to help himself. He kicked with his legs and pulled the water downwards with his arms.
Jiang Yao lay on his chest, hugging his waist, slowly swinging her legs.
The posture looked a bit strange, but it saved a lot of effort and the speed was pretty fast.
The two swam towards the island for half an hour before finally reaching the shore!
Part of the small island was sandy beach, part was rocky. Lu Zhe's feet touched the sand and he was overjoyed, "We can walk now..."
"I...I can't walk!"
"What's the situation?"
"It hurts..."
Without another word, Lu Zhe picked Jiang Yao up and brought her ashore, placing her on a rock.
"You're injured?"
Jiang Yao nodded.
"When did you get injured?"
"Um... when you pulled me."
"When I pulled you? When I pulled your ankle?"
Jiang Yao nodded again.
Lu Zhe suddenly remembered that at the time, the raft was about to be taken away by the undercurrent. He had grabbed the rope with one hand and Jiang Yao's ankle with the other, which was why she bled a little.
To be frank, that pull was indeed a bit fierce. It was good she didn't get pulled to the point of crying.
"Minor issue, it should be fine after some rest. But first we need to assess our situation and find a way to meet up with Sister Bing and the others."
When the volcanic island was mentioned, Jiang Yao also became solemn.
Lu Zhe looked up. The volcanic island was about half a nautical mile (about 0.9 km) away.
Straining to look, he could only vaguely see the rocks. There was no sign of people at all.
Lu Zhe felt a little worried!
At that moment, what he was most worried about was not the survival skills of the few girls!
With some tools, food reserves, knowledge about the volcanic island's plants, and a month of survival experience on the deserted island, the girls would have no problem lasting three to five days!
What Lu Zhe worried about the most was that after his and Jiang Yao's accident, the other girls would do something reckless!
Like risking death to enter the whirlpool and save them, or falling into despair and crying until they fainted.
If something like that happened, it would truly be dangerous.
But soon, Lu Zhe made another assumption. If the girls really thought he and Jiang Yao had fallen into the sea, would they disregard everything and jump into the water to save them?
It was possible, but more likely not!
Ning Shu believes in herself, and so does Sister Bing!
More importantly, with a distance of over 100 meters, when the waves are small, they can completely communicate through shouting and whistling.
That way they can ask about each other’s circumstances and convey rational emotions.
They might feel sad, but after feeling sad they would also think about various possible outcomes.
For example, whether Lu Zhe was actually not dead and currently thinking of ways to save himself.
And without any vessel, recklessly jumping into the whirlpool to challenge it would result in nothing but seeking death and causing more trouble for others!
If they could understand this, they should be able to calm down in their grief and seek more rational means of rescue.
“I can’t see them at all!” Jiang Yao stood on a rock, propping herself up on tiptoes to look towards the other side.
Lu Zhe said, “The distance is nearly a kilometer. Even if they were within your field of vision, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to see them. Unless your vision is sharp enough to see a 1mm insect on a wall 5 meters away.”
“Alright, I give up.”
Hearing Lu Zhe’s words, Jiang Yao heaved a long sigh and sat down.
“What should we do now? They must be incredibly anxious.”
“Yes, they must be incredibly anxious.” Lu Zhe thought for a moment.
“So what we should do now is send them a signal to let them know we’re alive!”
“How do we send a signal?”
Lu Zhe pondered, “Start a fire! The thick black smoke produced by the flames during the day might catch their attention. Even if they can’t see the black smoke, they’ll be able to see the firelight at night.”
Jiang Yao said thoughtfully, “If they can’t see the black smoke, can they see the firelight?”
Lu Zhe nodded, very certain as he spoke, “The penetration distance of firelight in the dark is exceptionally far. American astronomy professor Kevin Krisciunas and Don Carona did some tests - the naked human eye, unable to see a person of equal height about a kilometer away during daylight, can see a candle flame 2.6 kilometers away in the pitch dark of night. And the distance between us is shorter. If we light a bonfire, the brightness will definitely be much greater than a candle flame. Sister Bing is nearsighted and originally had good vision as a cop! As long as they look towards the dark sea at night, they’ll definitely be able to see our firelight!”
“Wow, that’s fantastic... But wait!” Jiang Yao started worrying again right away.
“What’s wrong?”
“The firesteel is with the monitor, and that Easy Igniter fire starter is in the supplies with Sister Bing. If we want to start a fire... it looks like we don’t have any handy tools!”
Hearing this, Lu Zhe should have felt very discouraged, but instead of feeling discouraged, his eyes lit up a little. “Speaking of which, both groups can easily start a fire...”
“Yeah, your four loves don’t need to worry! So... what about your Yao Yao?”
Jiang Yao tilted her head and blinked. “Power it with love?”
Lu Zhe smiled. “Don’t mess around. The situation might be better than we imagined! Let’s first take a look at what we have.”
“Okay!”