After speaking, Ning Shu stood up, opened her arms towards the blue sky and sea, and shouted at the top of her lungs: "Yoohoo!"
Her sweet shouts were carried away by the wind and waves, but did not carry away the sorrow and worries!
At this moment, Lu Zhe was truly a little moved!
But he understood that playing house was fine, but they absolutely could not truly fall in love!
It would delay their survival, and moreover affect the relationships between the few girls!
Now, there was nothing more precious than working together wholeheartedly!
Ning Shu shouted until she was tired, then sat down next to Lu Zhe again!
"Let me lean on you for a bit!"
Saying so, she shamelessly put her arm around Lu Zhe's arm, and leaned on his shoulder. In a little while she had fallen asleep!
There was a bit of wind on the mountain top, Lu Zhe was afraid she would catch a cold, so he held her in his embrace!
The corners of her mouth curved up slightly, as if she was having a sweet dream!
Lu Zhe smiled, and lightly kissed her hair while she was sleeping!
After a while, he was also a bit tired, so he leaned against a tree, closed his eyes, and soon also fell asleep.
When they woke up, it was already past three o'clock in the afternoon, the sun had already moved westward.
"It's time to go back!"
"I'm so hungry, I wonder if Qianqian and the others have prepared food!"
"We still have some berries here!"
Ning Shu picked a few and ate them: "Let's save the rest for the other partners to try, they haven't eaten them yet!"
"These aren't anything good, they're far worse than the fruits in the city!"
"That's right, Lu Zhe, we got the seeds already, when can we plant fruit?"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "We haven't found stable fresh water resources, nor suitable planting grounds either. We need these conditions in order to cultivate crops!"
"Oh..." Ning Shu sighed regretfully: "Then if they do get planted, how long would it take until we can eat the fruit?"
Lu Zhe stood up: "Strawberries no less than four months, cantaloupes usually within four months, if they grow fast then two and a half months! Watermelons around five or six months!"
"That long?"
"Yes. To survive on a deserted island is not easy, to live with quality of life is even harder! We must prepare for the worst case scenario!"
Ning Shu nodded: "It looks like for the first few months, we'll only be able to curb our cravings with berries and coconut meat!"
Saying so, she threw another blackberry into her mouth.
Lu Zhe smiled: "Don't worry, everything will turn out alright!"
"Mm!"
"Let's go, head back! We'll go back down the mountain the way we came, then circle back to the camp from the other side!"
"We should pick more coconuts along the way!"
"Absolutely necessary, right now we rely entirely on coconuts!"
The two headed back via the original route to where they had first spotted the island, then walked along the beach in the other direction towards the camp!
Following this route to get back to camp meant going around the entire island!
This would be the perfect chance to draw out information about the whole island in their diary!
At five in the afternoon, they arrived at the coconut grove!
Calling it a coconut grove was overstating it, there were only about 20-30 coconut trees!
But this was still worth getting excited about!
There was no rush to climb the trees for coconuts, they only picked up the ones on the ground, and managed to find 8 coconuts with water in them!
Any more would be too heavy to carry back!
Lu Zhe packed them all into his backpack and plastic bags!
Besides the coconuts, there were also some plastic bottles washed up on shore here!
On a deserted island, bottles were important resources, the more the better!
Ning Shu and Lu Zhe chose the clean ones and picked them up!
Suddenly, Ning Shu discovered one bottle, picked it up and looked at it in surprise, "How strange, how did one of our message bottles drift here?"
Lu Zhe took it and examined it as well!
This bottle had a red lid, it was very clean, the branding label seemed to have been torn off!
Indeed, there was a message bottle they had prepared that looked just like this!
Could it be that the message bottle Lin Qianqian had thrown out with the receding tide had circled halfway around the island and drifted over here?
Lu Zhe muttered to himself: "That makes no sense!"
Ning Shu said with certainty: "I was the one who tore off that brand sticker!"
Lu Zhe nodded: "Then let's take it back with us, we can throw it back out at another time!"
"Sounds good!"
The two carried a huge load of coconuts and bottles as they hurried back to camp, and managed to make it back before night fell!
Lin Qianqian, Tang Xiaoguo and Jiang Yao had all been extremely anxious, and looked just about ready to pounce on them when they saw Ning Shu and Lu Zhe return.
"Where were you guys for so long, we were just about worried sick!"
"That's right, we thought some sea monster had captured you!"
"Wow, so many coconuts, where'd you get them?"
Lu Zhe took out his diary and showed everyone the route they had walked.
Ning Shu then recounted everything they had seen and experienced along the way to everyone, focusing most on telling them about the smaller island.
Of course, things like going to the bathroom, injuring her bottom, and pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend with Lu Zhe for a day, Ning Shu kept mum about all of that!
Next, Ning Shu took out the message bottle: "We really must have some fate together, we actually picked up one of your thrown message bottles!"
Lin Qianqian was astonished: "How could that be! Every time we threw them they just got washed right back, we were about to discuss with you guys finding another time to throw them out!"
"What? You didn't throw any out?"
Tang Xiaoguo shrugged her shoulders: "No we didn't!"
Jiang Yao took out their three message bottles: "We're not lying, our three message bottles are all still here!"
"Then...this is a fourth one?"
"What's going on here?"
"There's two that look exactly the same!"
Suddenly, the few realized an extremely terrifying fact!
One of the message bottles...was not theirs!
Could it be...another survivor's?
"Open it and see!"
"The bottles look the same on the outside, but what's inside should be different!"
Ning Shu examined it again, and it dawned upon her: "Wow, you're so right! We used a torn out page from my diary, this one used...tissue paper!"
Lu Zhe nodded: "This isn't the same message bottle as ours, just a coincidence that the same kind of bottle was used!"
Ning Shu immediately became anxious: "Then could this be someone else stranded on a deserted island like us?"
"I'm afraid that is the case!"
"Open it and see!"
Lu Zhe unscrewed the lid, and carefully used a tree branch to fish the tissue paper out!
The moment he unfolded it, everyone's hearts lurched!
It was completely filled in Chinese and English:
"SOS HELP! I am a survivor of CZ125 a China-Australia flight!
I am now stranded on a small island in the Pacific Ocean!
The island is roughly near the Philippines and Indonesia, I'm not very clear! It is quite large, with a dormant volcano, bamboo groves, banana trees!
I am the only survivor, not much food left, I don't know how long I can hold out!
I beg whoever picks up this bottle, please deliver this letter to the Chinese Embassy as soon as possible or send people to rescue me!
Endlessly grateful!
Signed: CZ125 flight attendant - Ruan Bing!"
Ning Shu sighed emotionally: "Damn, so there really is another victim..."
"Same as us!"
"Oh right, didn't you say only the first class cabin was damaged, Lu Zhe?"
"Yes..."
Lu Zhe thought for a bit: "But besides us who else was in first class?"
The other girls looked at each other, before suddenly remembering, "That beautiful flight attendant!"