The Eighth Day, The Search for a New Island

The roasted frigatebird meat smeared with honey and oyster sauce gave off a tantalizing aroma, though it was a bit hot to handle!

There were also some steaming sweet potatoes!

Lu Zhe gave a puff, then used a dinner knife to cut the thigh, breast, and carcass into five portions, placing them on broad leaves, keeping one portion for himself and dividing the rest among the four girls!

Ning Shu handed her notebook to Lu Zhe and said:

"Here, Jiang Yao gets Monday, I get Tuesday, Lin Qianqian gets Wednesday, Tang Xiaoguo gets Thursday, and Friday through Sunday we share equally!"

"Isn't today supposed to be your day? Why is it still you on Tuesday?"

"Today only counts as practice!"

Lu Zhe nodded: "Oh, so what's the scheduling based on?"

"Age order!"

"Oh??......"

Lu Zhe widened his eyes and gave a look of sudden realization!

All of a sudden, Ning Shu seemed to become aware of something.

Her expression changed: "You nasty Lu Zhe, what are you thinking about!"

As she spoke, she reached out to twist Lu Zhe, while Lu Zhe had a bewildered look: "Hey hey hey, what are you doing?"

"Hmph hmph, let's see if you dare drive recklessly again!"

Lu Zhe looked completely innocent: "When did I ever drive recklessly?!"

Ning Shu enunciated word for word: "I meant our ages!"

Lu Zhe blinked: "If not that, then what?"

"You..."

Ning Shu was so angry she was left speechless: "I'll say it again, girlfriends are allowed, but we can't go beyond holding hands!"

"Not even kissing?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what about last time at..."

Ning Shu glared fiercely!

Lu Zhe held back his laughter: "Okay okay, I won't say anything more, alright?"

The roasted frigatebird meat gave off an irresistible aroma.

Tang Xiaoguo deeply inhaled the scent, "It's hard to imagine that while stranded on a deserted island, we can still eat such fragrant seagull!"

"It's frigatebird!"

"Look look, the chicken legs are so plump!"

"I'll say it again, it's frigatebird!"

"How come its feet are red?"

"This is a red-footed frigatebird, a type of seabird found throughout the islands of the Pacific!"

Lin Qianqian thought for a moment: "I know that in the South China Sea, there is an even rarer blue-footed frigatebird which is a nationally protected second-class animal!"

Tang Xiaoguo said, "Whether it's protected or not, I don't care - it looks easy enough to catch. Hopefully that flight attendant didn't starve to death..."

Lu Zhe shook his head: "It only seems easy for you to catch because I was the one who caught this one. How about you try catching one yourself?"

...

As the companions chatted leisurely, they finished eating a whole frigatebird, five sweet potatoes, and still wanting more, ate some coconut meat for dessert!

Bellies full and thirsts quenched, the few lied down by the fire to rest for a bit!

Because they had taken apart half a raft for firewood, they had ample wood for the fire. Lu Zhe made four campfires to ward off the cold!

No one had the energy left to construct makeshift shelters, so for this night, the five of them just huddled closely together on the sandy grass and fell into deep sleep!

In the morning, sunlight filtered through the tree foliage and shone on Lu Zhe's face!

He stretched lazily, then sat up!

He glanced at his watch—6:30am.

Today was June 17th, the eighth day stranded on this deserted island!

Looking out to sea, waves pounded against the shore, leaving foamy bubbles in their trail!

The coastline in the distance stretched infinitely, but there was still no sight of any rescue team!

The girls had recovered decently overnight, though their arms and legs remained sore.

Ning Shu and Lin Qianqian had prepared breakfast!

Again it was roasted coconut meat and crab-seaweed soup.

The five ate simply to fill their stomachs.

Lu Zhe thought that they should consider exploring the island further—searching for sustainable sources of freshwater and also to continue looking for the missing flight attendant. So he asked if the girls were up for moving about:

"Yao Yao, how's your ankle?"

"Pretty much back to normal, no issue if I don't run or jump!"

Lu Zhe nodded: "Xiaoguo, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Weren't you bitten by a snake before!"

Tang Xiaoguo swung her foot: "Recovered, super flexible!"

"What about you Class Leader Qianqian?"

"I'm always fine!"

"Me too!"

"Then it's settled we'll head out together!"

Jiang Yao happily bounced up to Lu Zhe, "Oh my sweetheart!"

"Hmm?"

"Don't forget, your scheduled girlfriend for today is me!"

Ning Shu interjected, "Hey now, Girlfriend Rule #3, no overly sappy pet names!"

Jiang Yao gave a foxy grin, "Got it Boss! Little Zhe Bro, what's the plan for today?"

Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "Let's explore eastward along the beach this time, both to search for the flight attendant as well as sustainable freshwater resources! We'll head out after breakfast!"

"Great!"

With a plan made, Lu Zhe packed all the supplies into his backpack. Then hacked open coconuts for the girls to work together funneling the juice into bottles he had carved—for easy transport.

Jiang Yao helped Lu Zhe tidy up their larger items. Seeing the campfires, she asked, "What should we do with the fires? Bring them along?"

Lu Zhe shook the emptied TT bottle that used to hold water: "This trip might take us quite far. Carrying fire would be too inconvenient. As long as there's sunlight and seawater, we can still start fires with the TT?"

Jiang Yao nodded: "If we weren't stranded on this deserted island, there's so much about this little thing I wouldn't know it could be used for!"

"Not my first time, eh?"

Lu Zhe explained, "Out in the wilderness, its uses go far beyond just this. It can also serve as a tourniquet, life jacket, water reservoir, cooler bag, animal trap, oxygen cylinder, it can even be made into a slingshot!"

Jiang Yao nodded: "Clearly I'm inexperienced! Looks like in the wild, its intended purpose is the least suitable one!"

"Yao Yao: does this count as reckless driving?"

Jiang Yao pursed her lips, "Of course that doesn't count! Can a girl even be accused of reckless driving?"

In less than half an hour, all preparations were complete. Lu Zhe shouldered his backpack, grabbed his newly-made fish spear, stone axe, put out the campfire, and set off southwest along the beach with the four girls!

As they walked, the group joked around while scavenging for supplies!

"It feels...like we're on a picnic!" said Jiang Yao, clutching Lu Zhe's hand as sea breeze whipped at their faces!

In that moment, she felt she held the entire world!

"Hey, I feel this is way more fun than a picnic, on picnics you can't pick up such interesting stuff!" said Tang Xiaoguo, who had found a toy water gun!

It was rather crude, but still squirted water when filled! The little girl was thrilled, immediately going biubiubiu with the water pistol!

Lin Qianqian picked up an intact glass jar, washed it clean, and happily put it in her bag, "I can pickle vegetables with this!"

"Scavenging can be quite fun sometimes! It's just back in the city, we'd be too embarrassed to do this... Oh look here, what's this!"

Jiang Yao spotted something black—a folded piece of cloth. Shaking it open, she discovered it was a pair of men's sport shorts!

Though somewhat worn, it had no damage!

Normally she would smell clothes like this and walk the other way. But now, she happily ran over, "Little Zhe, try this on!"

Lu Zhe gave a wry smile, "And try it on right this moment?"

"Good point!"

Jiang Yao nodded, "This has been soaking in seawater with some seaweed stuck on too, it's pretty gross. I'll rinse it for you later and hang it out to dry and beat out the salt before you wear it!"

"Sure!"

Jiang Yao neatly folded the shorts and bagged them in plastic!

Tang Xiaoguo sulked jealously as she grumbled, "Look at that, already prioritizing his needs!"

Ning Shu sighed, "I know, right?" Then steered the topic somewhere else:

"When we get back, I'll open a scrap collection point and you all come work for me. We'll reminisce on the tough times here while scavenging the streets every day!"

Tang Xiaoguo affirmed, "Boss, if you dare open shop, I dare show up for work!"

Jiang Yao gave a thumbs up: "Class leader collecting scraps after graduation, wow you're so talented!"