It is said that this stuff can make sharks convulse, but only a little bit can be collected from one fish. It looks like we'll have to catch quite a few.
Removing the internal organs and poison sacs, the flesh of the pufferfish itself is still very delicious!
Lu Zhe cleaned and gutted this one, and gave it to Lin Qianqian to grill over the fire pot!
Although the fire pot was not big, it could keep being filled with sticks to thoroughly grill a fish!
In a short while, Lu Zhe had caught five pufferfish!
Although they could only be grilled one by one, their bodies were thin, so they cooked through very quickly!
The little fish below gave off a dim, blue glow, brightly colored and varied. As the few friends ate the grilled pufferfish, the fear in their hearts of being stranded at sea was also somewhat settled!
"Lu Zhe, after you finish eating, sleep a while longer!" Ning Shu said caringly.
Tang Xiaoguo also said, "Yeah, you must be exhausted!"
While eating the fish, Lu Zhe carefully adjusted the homemade compass propped on the reef. The compass on the reef was still spinning wildly, and Lu Zhe knew they were still being affected by the unknown magnetic field here.
He perfunctorily responded, "I'm fine!"
"Even if you're fine, you can't be a donkey for us. You're the only guy on the team, if you collapse from exhaustion who will we rely on!" Jiang Yao's complaining voice was full of concern.
Lin Qianqian also said, "Don't worry, just go to sleep, leave this place to us!"
Lu Zhe hadn't slept well all night, and was also feeling tired: "Okay, I'll leave it to you all then!"
He climbed onto the raft, using his backpack as a pillow, but Tang Xiaoguo took the backpack away: "I need something to lean on too!"
Lu Zhe was startled, but she said somewhat petulantly, "I don't have a pillow anymore, so I'll reluctantly let you lay your head on my lap!"
"Is this a privilege?"
"Of course, a huge privilege!"
Lu Zhe felt it would be improper to refuse, and with a sigh, reluctantly lay down!
Before long, he felt Tang Xiaoguo's hands gently massaging his forehead, extremely comfortable!
"I didn't expect you to have this talent?!"
"Stop talking, hurry up and sleep!"
Lu Zhe closed his eyes and gradually fell asleep!
A few hours later, the sun rose from the sea, and the sea breeze had also blown away the thin fog!
Lu Zhe felt he had slept enough and sat up, stretching.
The three girls sleeping beside him were also disturbed and woke up.
"You're awake!" Jiang Yao said with a yawn. It seemed she was the one on watch duty for the second half of the night!
"Slept well, you can rest for a bit now!"
"Lu Zhe, look over there!"
Following the direction Jiang Yao was pointing, Lu Zhe saw an island!
Although their orientation had changed, Lu Zhe could confirm that was the volcanic island!
Indeed, it was larger than he had imagined!
Lu Zhe nodded: "Yesterday we rowed a distance towards the volcanic island, it looks like we drifted with the currents again last night, changing our course. Fortunately we didn't drift out of sight!"
Lin Qianqian observed the direction of the water flow and said, "Lu Zhe, but the distance is still very far, and now we're completely against the current!"
Lu Zhe nodded. He knew the difficulty of rowing over was greater than imagined!
But other than that, there was no other way!
"Relying on one oar isn't enough to row over, we need to make several more paddle oars!"
"But what materials can we use?"
"We'll have to take apart some of the wood on the raft!"
"Hmm..."
Just then, Ning Shu cried out in alarm, "Hey, look in the water..."
Lu Zhe noticed a shark's fin sticking out of the water around them, seeming to be lying in wait for something!
Taking a closer look, there were more than just one!
Probably a dozen or so sharks were circling around the reef, swimming back and forth!
They were a bit restless, seeming to want to swim up onto the shallows, but because the water was too shallow, they couldn't get up at all!
But their purpose was obvious enough, they had already targeted the five people as prey!
"What's going on? There weren't any sharks here yesterday!"
"Yao Yao...you..."
Jiang Yao was startled: "What's wrong with me?"
"You're bleeding!"
Jiang Yao looked down, and saw a streak of deep red blood flowing down her fair leg, the blood strands dissipating into the sea water!
"Crap...it's that time of the month?"
No wonder the sharks were gathered in groups around the reef. It turned out Yao Yao's menstrual blood had flowed into the seawater, attracting the nearby sharks!
Lu Zhe knew sharks had extremely keen sense of smell. Even just a little blood and they could notice it!
And Jiang Yao had probably been bleeding for half the night, most of it seeping through the cracks in the raft into the sea!
It was like the starving wild dogs had smelled delicious meaty bones!
Jiang Yao said in frustration:
"Damn, of all times, it had to come now..."
Lin Qianqian said, "Don't talk, class president, don't you have sanitary pads?"
Ning Shu hurriedly opened a small pack and helped Jiang Yao pad herself.
Then they washed the blood off her legs!
But the sharks smelled the blood and became frenzied again, slapping the water and trying to charge onto the shallows!
The few girls were all scared silly!
And at this time, an even more dangerous thing happened!
Lu Zhe discovered the water level compared to last night had risen considerably!
Last night the water had only come up to their ankles, but now it was already up to their calves!
At this rate, Lu Zhe estimated in another half a day the water would be up to their waists!
By then these sharks would definitely charge over and tear them to pieces!
Lu Zhe understood that the more critical the situation, the more he needed to keep a calm mind!
Only this way could he come up with reasonable countermeasures!
"Everyone don't panic, give me a moment to think of a way!"
Hearing Lu Zhe say this, the girls all quieted down, everyone huddled together, all looking to Lu Zhe.
Lu Zhe let out a long breath: "For now, try to stay as quiet as possible! Don't let any blood or bodily fluids flow into the water!"
Tang Xiaoguo asked, "Can't even go pee?"
"Hold it. If you really can't, use the urine bottle, don't let a single drop leak out!"
"In short, don't let them sense any more of our smells!"
The girls all nodded.
"The water is rising now, but they still need some time before they can swim over here. I need to think of a way to deal with the sharks, so the task of making the paddle oars can only be left to you all! Let's try to leave this place within two hours!"
The four girls looked at each other: "Okay, let's put our heads together!"
While the girls discussed making oars on the raft, Lu Zhe fell deep in thought!
He did have some shark repellent extracted from the pufferfish bodies, but because it was so little, it wasn't suitable for driving away large groups!
For now, he still needed to find another two types of shark repellent!
Just then, the ashes in the fire pot had piled up, and Lu Zhe went to empty out some to add more wood.
As soon as he poured out a bit, wisps of black ash mist floated over the water surface, and the little fish below scattered in fright when they saw the blackness!
Lu Zhe suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
That's right, fish are extremely sensitive to the black ash mist, which is why weak octopus and squid can survive in the ocean by using their ink spray escape method!
He quickly poured out most of the ashes in the pot to cool and bottle them!
Then he added new wood to burn!
This gave him the second thing to drive away sharks!
Lu Zhe noticed there was an orange ragged T-shirt among the gathered clothes.
He remembered from watching Animal World as a child, Zhao had said sharks were extremely sensitive to bright colors!
Especially red, which could make them turn fierce and frenzied!
But orange was an exception!
Also a bright color, sharks seeing orange things would usually flee as far as possible!
This was because sharks feared sea snakes, and the most terrifying sea snake to them was a kind with orange and black banded markings that was highly venomous!
So lifejackets and diving gear were often made orange, largely to avoid shark harassment.
If that was the case...
He could make use of this and turn the shirt into something sharks detested!