Because the preparations for this sea trip were more thorough, and with the photos of the volcanic island from different angles as a reference, they would not just drift aimlessly.
The sky had darkened completely when they finally found the coral reef.
It was now low tide, and the seawater had receded below many of the reef rocks.
Lu Zhe pulled the bamboo raft ashore and found a flat place among the rocks to camp for the night.
"Let's spend the night here tonight and go scavenging again at dawn tomorrow," he said.
"It's just a pity we didn't find too many skincare products," said Shen Bing.
"Don't worry, little by little," Lu Zhe replied. "There must be some in the other packages."
Shen Bing thought for a moment: "But we also shouldn't get our hopes up too high. Our plane was flying from China to Australia when it crashed, so most of the purchased goods were probably our own stuff!"
"Not many people would have ordered stuff for someone else, I guess," Jiang Yao chimed in.
Ning Shu asked, "Would foreigners order stuff from Pechoin (Chinese skincare brand)?"
Lin Qianqian shook her head: "The chances probably aren't very high!"
Tang Xiaoguo sighed, "Does this mean all we can scavenge is soggy clothes and shoes?"
Shen Bing pondered again for a moment: “Actually, in addition to the excess baggage items, the cargo hold also contained international mail parcels, so there would be more variety in those.”
She then asked Lu Zhe, “Oh right, did you happen to see any mail parcels or the like?”
Lu Zhe thought about it for a moment: “I took the packages from the outer parts first...but it looked like there were some rectangular ones neatly stacked farther inside that I didn't get a good look at.”
“Were there any shipping labels on them?”
Lu Zhe recalled, “Hmm...I only saw a corner taped up with yellow tape, couldn't tell if there were shipping labels.”
Shen Bing nodded, “Hmm, those might contain export goods then.”
Ning Shu asked, “What kinds of things do we export to Australia?”
Lu Zhe thought about it, “Toys, handicrafts, textiles, and electromechanical products!”
When he said that, Ning Shu’s eyes suddenly lit up!
“Electromechanical products!”
“What's that?”
“Generators, transformers, home appliances and communication devices should all fall under the category of electromechanical products,” explained Shen Bing.
“Oh my gosh, if we could find a generator...!” exclaimed Jiang Yao excitedly.
“Best case would be a solar-powered one!” said Lin Qianqian longingly.
“And then if we could also find a mini fridge, TV, stereo, washing machine, we'd be stepping right into modernization!” gushed Tang Xiaoguo happily.
Lu Zhe nodded, “We’d still need to scavenge an excavator before we can start building a modern villa here!”
“Lu Zhe, what do you think the chances are of that?” asked Tang Xiaoguo.
“What do you think?”
“There’s got to be at least one or two useful things!”
“To be honest, after two months of being soaked in seawater, most electromechanical products would probably be considered broken even if we did find any. For us, the usefulness of something like an electric rice cooker or air fryer is nowhere near that of a steamer pot and ladle!” Shen Bing supplemented.
She thought for a moment longer before adding, "And it might not necessarily be electrical products, could just as likely be toys or textiles!"
Shen Bing pondered some more, then said, "Lu Zhe, think you can haul up a crate tomorrow? At least so we know what's inside."
Lu Zhe nodded, "I'll try my best!"
Shen Bing nodded back: "Alright, it's getting late, let's eat something first!"
"But there are still four blind boxes we haven't opened!" said Ning Shu.
"I can't eat until those are opened!" said Jiang Yao excitedly.
"Me neither!" agreed Tang Xiaoguo.
Just then, Lin Qianqian jiggled the little padlock in her hand, "I cracked the code on this one!"
It turned out that among the padlocks on the third batch of suitcases brought up, some had not rusted stuck and Lin Qianqian managed to guess the code by randomly trying some common number combinations.
"520 - must belong to a girl!"
"Hurry, open it and see!"
Everyone grew excited again.
Sure enough, inside were female garments, shoes, sunglasses, sun hats and other such items.
The B-cup bras fit Lin Qianqian nicely, and Shen Bing could wear the shoes.
There were also toiletry items and basic medication!
Next, they finally spotted the long-coveted five packs of Big Eat instant ramen.
“Haha, ramen, braised beef flavor!”
“So considerate, even included the extras I like!”
“Jackpot!”
“There’s even ham sausage!”
“Looks like she wasn't coming to Australia to eat lobster,” Shen Bing remarked as she picked up a small bottle of antihistamine. “This girl was probably allergic to seafood.”
“Quick, try the codes on the other boxes!”
The girls started attempting to crack the padlocks on the remaining suitcases.
With number combinations from 000 to 999, they could usually unlock one within an hour if lucky.
This allowed them to preserve some locks for later use as well.
Shen Bing was very happy too: “Alright girls, you go ahead and keep trying, I’ll make us some food - what would you like?!”
The girls unanimously chorused: “Ramen!”
Indeed, after surviving in the wild for so long, any ordinary city food seemed incredibly precious now.
The once unremarkable ramen had succeeded in whetting all their appetites.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhe took out a dirty plastic bag - the fruit inside had completely rotten and was giving off a sour, putrid smell.
This would have been the most worthless item among the scavenged goods, but to Lu Zhe it was like striking gold.
He picked out a completely mushy rotten mango, washed off what was left of the rotten pulp, and a system prompt popped up in his mind: "Congratulations host for obtaining 1 viable mango seed, +1 potential point!"
Quick, keep digging!
"Ding! Obtained 15 viable apple seeds, +1 potential point!"
"Ding! Obtained 11 viable royal gala pear seeds, +1 potential point!"
...
“Hey, Lu Zhe, what are you doing?” Shen Bing asked.
“Seeds!” Lu Zhe held out his hand. “Who would’ve thought we could still find viable seeds here. We can try planting them on the island in the future.”
Shen Bing marveled, “So these were the most precious items all along, we almost threw them away as trash earlier!”
“All these modern amenities are extremely useful to us. We have to comb through carefully - don't lose the watermelon for the sesame seed!”
Before long, two more suitcases were unlocked. Tang Xiaoguo’s padlock had rusted beyond salvage and was pried open by Lu Zhe.
Most of the items like clothing, shoes, medication and snacks were nothing out of the ordinary...
Then they discovered a tightly sealed package that contained a laptop bag when torn open.
A laptop bag in the cargo hold?