The morning study time passed, and in the afternoon Sister Bing took several girls to start weaving ropes.
Lu Zhe called his duty girlfriend Jiang Yao to go with him.
He wanted to go to the woods to see if there were any monkey brothers caught in the nets, so he could find out about the whereabouts of the bananas.
Along the way, Jiang Yao kept asking trivial questions:
"Hey, Lu Zhe, do you want a son or a daughter?"
"I'm telling you Yao Yao, I'm only 18 years old. I've only been through one year of my wonderful college life. Do I need to think about being a dad already?"
Jiang Yao nodded: "Well, I knew it, you like girls, because they will be as clean as me!"
Lu Zhe helplessly said: "When did I say I like girls?"
"Then you are like my dad, you also like boys?"
"That's not it either!"
Jiang Yao nodded: "Well, I actually think the same as you, it doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl."
Lu Zhe was a little surprised. Somehow they had reached an agreement on a topic he was not at all prepared to discuss.
Jiang Yao thought for a moment: "But it's not up to the woman to decide. Whether it's a boy or a girl depends entirely on whether the man contributes the X chromosome or the Y chromosome. If you want a son, make sure to give me the X chromosome, then you can't blame me if we have a daughter!"
"I'm not blaming you!"
"I knew I was right about you..."
Lu Zhe realized that unless Jiang Yao wanted to talk about something you wanted to talk about, you would inevitably end up on her frequency.
Just then, Lu Zhe heard a "chirp" sound.
"It looks like a monkey brother got caught in the net. Come on, let's go take a look..."
He took Jiang Yao's hand and came to the trap, only to see a long-nosed monkey hanging from the tree, with tears streaming down its face as it cried out miserably.
Jiang Yao was a little surprised: "This rope isn't that thick either, how come it doesn't bite through the rope and run away?"
"Well, maybe it doesn't like the smell of hot chili peppers."
Lu Zhe put down some tree leaves and released the long-nosed monkey.
It was still sticking out its tongue in pain, constantly chirping.
"Poor thing, what's your name?"
The long-nosed monkey didn't answer, just kept squeaking "gah gah".
"Will it tell us where the bananas are?"
"It will!" As he spoke, Lu Zhe unzipped his pants and peed all over it.
He gave it a good soaking from head to toe.
The monkey was so spicy it hurried to lap up several big gulps.
Then Lu Zhe used his knife to cut the rope: "Go now, my friend!"
The long-nosed monkey did not expect to be paroled.
With a "chirp", it jumped into the tree and ran away.
Jiang Yao stood to the side, red-faced and dumbfounded: "Did you bring me all this way just to show me how you humiliate monkeys?"
"This is not humiliation, it's a transaction!"
"A transaction? You trade a piss for a bunch of bananas?"
"Not just one bunch, a whole banana grove! It now bears my scent, and will inevitably leave a trail as it flees!"
Lu Zhe added 10 more points to his perception, sniffed, and caught a whiff of his own scent not far ahead.
"This way!"
Soon he found a droplet of water on the leaves.
That was his own smell.
"This way..."
"Hey, how do you know?"
"Would you believe me if I said it was metaphysics?"
Of course Jiang Yao didn't believe it, but half an hour later, when they found the long-nosed monkey again, Jiang Yao finally believed it.
It was a banana grove!
A real banana grove, with several trees bearing large bunches of bananas, some green and some red.
Just no yellow ones.
The dark red bananas were short, fat, and plump, emitting an enticing aroma.
And the dead monkey was just sprawled there amidst the banana grove, covered in scratches from head to toe!
It was too obvious a crime scene.
"Clearly, not a suicide, but a murder!" Jiang Yao solemnly analyzed.
"Detective Kogoro agrees!"
"So... who's the murderer? An alien or a lurker?"
"Yao Yao, watching too many horror movies isn't good for you."
Lu Zhe examined the claws of this long-nosed monkey, then the claw marks on its body, and couldn't help frowning: "It was their own kind!"
"Oh my god, they're already primates, so why is there still infighting among their kind?"
"Don't humans have infighting too?"
"Do we? We all get along so well, we all know to work together and care for each other."
"That's because I'm the only guy here. If there was one more, you'd probably hate to kill me."
"Men are all like that!"
"Not all are, but some definitely would be."
"So it was because of this??"
Lu Zhe didn't answer. He actually knew there could be another reason.
That was that it had returned to its tribe, but was already bearing the scent of another male creature.
Perhaps in their eyes, this meant betrayal.
So the monkey king decided to kill this monkey bearing human thoughts.
Lu Zhe nodded at the monkey's corpse: "You led us to the banana grove, but have passed to the netherworld yourself... Don't worry, I won't let you die in vain!"
With that, he buried the monkey corpse in the soil of the banana grove as fertilizer.
Next, what Lu Zhe had to do was first try the bananas here. After all, he had never seen red bananas before, and needed to find out if they were edible, and if so, what they tasted like. These were all questions.
"Let's collect bananas. I'll try them first to see if they're poisonous, then you can try them once I know they're safe."
"Let's try them together. If we live, we live together, if we die, we die together!"
"We still need to be sensible! My physique is better than yours. If I can take it but you croak right away, then I'll be short one favorite concubine."
Jiang Yao stuck out her tongue: "On second thought, never mind."
"Then stop yapping and get on my shoulders quick."
He had Jiang Yao ride on his shoulders and used his paratrooper knife to cut off a large bunch of red bananas.
These bananas were a little shorter than supermarket bananas, and fatter.
The system sent a prompt: "Ding! Discovered Malaysian red banana. Originally from Southeast Asia and Malaysia, edible, sweet and delicious taste, smooth texture..."
Lu Zhe was relieved. He peeled one off, revealing the white flesh with a slight yellowish tinge.
He gave it a sniff, similar to ordinary bananas.
Lu Zhe took a bite.
It was a little raw, with a rough texture, not as good as ordinary bananas.
"Smooth texture my a**! Not as good as plantains!"
"Really?"
Jiang Yao also tried a bite, and also found the taste quite ordinary.
"Maybe it's because they're not ripe yet? Let's look around and see if there are any ripe ones."
"OK!"
The two circled the banana grove again, and indeed found a half-ripe bunch!
It was probably picked by the monkeys.
Compared to the previous bunch, each banana here was fatter, softer when pinched, and the aroma was stronger too.
Peeling one off and taking a bite!
A sweet, soft, glutinous aroma spread through the mouth, so delicious it made Lu Zhe want to cry!
"Damn, now this is a banana!"
"Really?"
Jiang Yao hurriedly peeled one too: "You're right, delicious! It's just there's too few ripe ones!"
Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "The ripe ones are usually eaten by the monkeys first, since this was their territory after all."
"What do we do then?"
Lu Zhe pondered: "Make them find a new place?"
"Are you going to negotiate with them again?"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "No matter how we negotiate, it feels forced to make them leave! Best if they leave on their own!"
Lu Zhe took out a plastic bottle filled with crushed hot chili peppers, and sprinkled it on several banana trees bearing lots of fruit.
As long as they don't touch it with their fingers or accidentally sit on it, it'll be fine!
Once they do touch it, the intense spiciness will burn their fingers and butts. If they then impulsively lick their fingers, they will fall into an inescapable abyss.
After a few times, they won't be able to stay here anymore.
Lu Zhe picked some unripe peppers to take back and let them ripen before eating. Finally, he had found bananas this time instead of coming back empty-handed.
Shen Bing and the other girls were pleasantly surprised to see so many bananas.
Lu Zhe gave them the ripest banana to eat. He received unanimous compliments from the girls!
Looking at the time, it was still early, so he had to make good use of the time!
Lu Zhe began to build a bamboo raft!
And this time, it would be much more difficult than the bamboo rafts he had made before!
He had to consider issues like size, space, buoyancy, load capacity, and tear resistance!
Lu Zhe first took two thick bamboo poles, one horizontal and one vertical tied together, then lined up the bamboo side by side along these two poles.
Two layers, one layer horizontal and one layer vertical.
By the time night fell, the bamboo raft had taken shape.
But Lu Zhe knew this was still far from enough.
Anyway, he would have to wait until tomorrow to continue.
Tang Xiaoguo lifted up the shrimp trap, and there were actually more than 30 shrimp jumping around inside!
Lu Zhe was very happy. He chopped off a section of a coconut tree, extracted starch from it, cooked it into noodle dough, wrapped it around the shrimp meat, and steamed it in a bamboo steamer.
Forty minutes later, the first shrimp dumplings since being stranded on the deserted island were ready!
Lu Zhe gave the first one to Shen Bing, "Bing sister, remember you said shrimp dumplings were your favorite!"
Shen Bing took a bite and nodded satisfactorily.
She was a little touched inside.
She had unintentionally told Lu Zhe she liked to eat shrimp dumplings when she mistakenly thought she was pregnant. It seemed Lu Zhe had taken it to heart.
Shen Bing smiled and said, "Thank you, Lu Zhe. This is really delicious!"
"Is it?"
"Let me try it too!"
"I want one too!"
The few little gluttons all took a shrimp dumpling and put it in their mouths to eat. Everyone gave high praise.
August 16, the 68th day stranded on the deserted island, Tuesday!
Today, Lu Zhe would continue to chop bamboo and build the bamboo raft, while also getting some protein.
The sheep meat they had stored was almost gone these days, and the remaining smoked bacon also showed signs of spoilage, so it was not suitable for eating.
It would be best to kill another sheep or catch another gannet or something.
At eight in the morning, Lu Zhe and Ning Shu entered the bamboo forest to chop thick bamboo.
With these careful girls, Lu Zhe could focus his energy on surviving!
They collected a large amount of bamboo, enough for the entire bamboo raft.
In the afternoon, Lu Zhe and Ning Shu went into the woods again, but this time it was not to chop bamboo.
His goal was to explore the other side of the lake again. Compared to the jungle in the center of the island, there was more likelihood of finding protein near the water source.
Whether it was pythons, crocodiles, various fish, or mammals, in such hot weather, they were most likely to appear near the water.
Bringing home one or a few would solve the lack of protein.