The Beauty Stuck in the Rock

This was the north side of the mountain. Even though it was the north side, there was still sunlight, just slightly weaker than the south side. This was because it was relatively close to the equator, with the sun almost directly overhead!

But by comparison, the temperature of the surface rocks was lower.

Lu Zhe's heart stirred!

Because of the lag in temperature increase of the rocks, it was possible that water droplets in the air would condense, and perhaps mountain spring water would flow down along the cracks in the rocks.

So, as long as he walked along the mountainside, it was highly likely he would find fresh water.

"Come over here!" Lu Zhe called as he walked along, listening intently to the sounds.

Lin Qianqian and Jiang Yao hurried curiously after him.

As Lu Zhe walked along the mountainside, listening carefully as he went, he suddenly stopped after a few steps!

With a grave expression, he said: "It's right here!"

"Huh? I don't hear anything," Jiang Yao said.

"Me neither," Lin Qianqian chimed in.

Lu Zhe knew that because of his enhanced perception, if he focused his hearing, it would become several times stronger. It was normal that they couldn't hear anything.

That faint "drip drip" sound was nearby!

He carefully made his way towards the sound. He discovered a stone cavity of around 30 cm.

At the back of the cavity was a small rocky pit, with water dripping down from above, falling into the pit and forming a pool of clear water!

"Look, there's clear water over there!"

"Is it fresh water?"

Lu Zhe nodded. "It's fresh water!"

"How can you be sure?" Jiang Yao asked suspiciously.

"Look here!"

Lu Zhe crouched down and picked up a dried blade of grass. "If I'm not wrong, this is where a bear comes to drink water. When it sits here to drink, it would flatten the grass like this."

Only then did the two girls notice that the surrounding grass did indeed bear the marks of being pressed down.

"But that hole is so small. How would it be able to stick its head in to drink?"

"With its tongue!"

Lu Zhe pondered, "That bear has the genes of two bear species. The Malayan bear's tongue can reach 30 cm long. From what I saw yesterday, that big fellow's tongue is close to half a meter."

Jiang Yao frowned in confusion. "Perplexing direction of organ evolution."

"The Malayan bear originally used its long tongue to lick out honey and termites. Here it uses it to drink water," Lu Zhe explained.

Jiang Yao wrinkled her nose in distaste. "So hasn't its tongue contaminated all the water in the pit?"

"In theory, yes!"

"We're not going to drink the water here, right?"

Lu Zhe shook his head. "Bears' saliva contains pathogenic bacteria. Unless we're about to die of thirst, or we boil the water, I don't recommend drinking the water in the pit."

"Then what do we do?"

"While the water in the pit is contaminated, don't worry. The water dripping directly from the crack above is clean," Lu Zhe assured.

As he spoke, he unscrewed a bottle cap, stuck it into the hole, and caught the dripping water for two minutes until the cap was full. He carefully took a sip. "Hmm, it's fresh water!"

Lin Qianqian took the half-full cap and drank the rest. "Quite cool and refreshing."

Jiang Yao wanted to stick an empty bottle into the hole to collect more water, but the hole was too narrow for the bottle to stand upright.

"What do we do now? We can't keep using the cap to collect water."

In fact, Lu Zhe could cut the bottle to enable water collection, but they were still on the island and couldn't obtain new bottles. They had to conserve every bottle they had brought.

Also, someone would need to keep guarding here, pouring the collected water, which was rather troublesome.

"Which is the largest bottle you brought?"

"I have a 1L beverage bottle."

"Great. You two wait here for me!"

He decided to make a simple apparatus to channel the dripping water automatically into the beverage bottle.

First he had to find something suitable to use as a conduit, which was easy!

There were plenty of bamboos in the jungle. In under five minutes Lu Zhe found a long, straight bamboo shoot.

But at that moment, he heard Jiang Yao scream!

Had something happened? Why didn't Qianqian make any sound?

He dashed back, only to behold a flabbergasting sight.

"Yao Yao, could you tell me how on earth you got yourself into this situation when I was gone for barely five minutes?"

Lin Qianqian helplessly spread her hands. "Yao Yao insisted on trying to drink the water herself..."

From inside the hole came Jiang Yao's muffled voice. "Think of a way to get me out, quick!"

Yes, the situation was...

Jiang Yao's upper body was stuck in the stone hole, while her lower half stuck out, her toes barely touching the ground.

As it turned out, feeling a little thirsty she had spotted an angle that seemed just right to crawl in and directly reach the dripping water inside. So she had tried to pull it off herself but had gotten stuck halfway in when trying to get out again, and no matter how she struggled she couldn't get herself back out.

Well well...

She should have considered her body type first!

"What do we do?"

After observing for a while, Lu Zhe remarked, "I must say, if this was Guo Er instead, your method might actually have worked. But isn't craning your neck at that angle uncomfortable?"

"Little Zhe, hurry and help me out," came Jiang Yao's muffled plea.

"It's no big issue," Lu Zhe said calmly. In his mind he already had the solution: "Since it's a certain delicate area that's caught, Qianqian, we'll each use one hand to support one side, then both grab her waist with our other hands and pull together. That should pop Yao Yao out."

Hearing Lu Zhe's words, Qianqian immediately cheered up. "I'm really looking forward to this rescue method for Yao Yao!"

From inside the hole Jiang Yao yelled, "Don't let Qianqian touch me!"

"Why not?"

"She was bullying me just now!"

"I...I wasn't!" Lin Qianqian stammered, blushing. In a small voice she said, "I just kissed Yao Yao once, to encourage her!"

From her reaction, are you sure you weren't taking advantage of her predicament?

Lu Zhe rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "Alright alright, stop messing around. Saving the damsel first."

"Oh, fine..."

"Brace yourself, Yao Yao."

Each supporting one side of Jiang Yao, they counted together to three and forcefully yanked her out in one go.

Jiang Yao immediately hid behind Lu Zhe, casting Lin Qianqian resentful looks as if she were some kind of monster.

"Yao Yao, I won't do it again next time, can you forgive me?" Lin pleaded.

Jiang Yao had wanted to get mad, but seeing Qianqian's hand red and scraped from the rocks in her effort to protect Jiang Yao, she reluctantly nodded. "Oh, alright..."

Lin Qianqian smiled gently, her radiant beauty like that of an immortal fairy descended to earth.

In his mind, Lu Zhe thought that only his own wife would warrant such treatment; if anyone else had touched his wife like that, he would fight them to the death!

"Now then, back to business!"

Lu Zhe took out the bamboo shoot.

"What's that for?"

"To channel the water."

So saying, Lu Zhe laid the empty 1L bottle on the ground and split the bamboo shoot down the middle lengthwise. He kept one half and hollowed out the other to remove the bamboo joints/membranes, then inserted the hollow end into the hole near where the water dripped. He positioned the other end facing the mouth of the beverage bottle.

Sure enough, water began dripping onto the bamboo half, flowing down into the bottle! All they had to do was secure it in place.

"Let's go search the area up ahead some more, before coming back to collect the water," Lu Zhe said.