Stranded on a Deserted Island—They All Started Plotting Against Me - Chapter 21 - Chapter 21

The sun was fully risen by now. After standing next to Zhang Liu to watch the sunrise, Anya suddenly spoke up, “Zhang Liu, what should I do today?”

“Huh?” Zhang Liu was caught off guard. He wasn’t sure why she was asking him that.

“Mm, Zhang Liu, you should tell me too, what should I do?” Qin Ruoshuang also chimed in, “After I finished cleaning yesterday, I didn’t know what else to do.”

At this point, Anya and Qin Ruoshuang were already starting to act as though Zhang Liu were in charge.

“Today, how about this… Anya, we’ll go into the forest in the morning. You can pick jabuticaba fruits for food, and I’ll gather the stuff for making fire.”

Starting a fire with bare hands in the wild, for Zhang Liu, was something he had only ever seen in survival videos or heard about as “fire by friction.”

But fire was crucial in the wilderness, and its importance couldn’t be overstated.

So his plan for the day was to try his best to start a fire.

“Okay!” Anya nodded and popped another jabuticaba fruit into her mouth.

These fruits were sweet and fragrant, though there wasn’t much flesh in them. Still, it was enough to satisfy her, at least it wasn’t bland coconut meat.

“Qin Ruoshuang, how are you feeling today?” Zhang Liu didn’t give Qin Ruoshuang a task immediately but instead asked about her condition.

The memory of her pale face and weak body from before had left a psychological impact on him.

“I’m okay. Actually, I generally start feeling bad only when it gets dark and cold,” Qin Ruoshuang smiled, then tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. “You don’t need to worry about me. Just assign me a task.”

“Mm, in that case, you can gather some coconuts that have fallen and leave them over there. Also, use the coconut shells to store fresh water for daily use, okay?” Zhang Liu thought for a moment and hesitated before asking, “Won’t that be too tiring?”

Collecting coconuts sounded easy enough when you said it out loud.

But in practice, it meant Qin Ruoshuang would have to go back and forth between the coconut grove and the cave multiple times, carrying at least a dozen pounds of stuff each trip.

Putting himself in her shoes, Zhang Liu felt like even he would get worn out.

Anya, watching Qin Ruoshuang, also looked worried.

“I’ll try to carry as much as I can,” Qin Ruoshuang nodded, clearly understanding her own limits. Then she turned to Anya, who was standing next to Zhang Liu, and reminded her, “You need to be more careful this time.”

“I told you, it was that snake that ambushed me!” Anya’s pride flared up at being scolded like a child, and she immediately got flustered.

“We’ll meet back up at noon. I’ll test out the fire-making in the cave then.”

Zhang Liu parted ways with Qin Ruoshuang in the coconut grove, giving a wave in farewell.

Anya turned to wave back too.

But then she caught the smile on Qin Ruoshuang’s face turning ever so slightly smug—and immediately felt a wave of annoyance rise inside her.

She stuck her tongue out and made a face at Qin Ruoshuang, then bounced after Zhang Liu with a pout.

At the moment, they’d only found one bottle—an empty Nongfu Spring mineral water bottle—which they’d filled with water and were carrying along.

As for the second bottle, according to Anya, it was not far from where they had found the first one yesterday.

There had been an incident yesterday, which is why they hadn’t gone to retrieve it. This time, retrieving it was also one of their goals.

“Zhang Liu, do you really know how to start a fire by rubbing sticks together?” Anya suddenly asked from behind as she followed him.

“Of course… I don’t.” Zhang Liu carefully watched his step, doing his best to avoid the thick tree roots jutting out from the gravelly ground as he replied, “I’ve only seen it in wilderness survival videos.”

“Ah, so it’s the same as me,” Anya’s tone immediately dropped with a hint of disappointment.

“Well, it’s still better than only knowing the words ‘drill wood to make fire.’ At least I’m upgrading to the plus version of that method.” Zhang Liu shrugged, then reached out to tug a white, beard-like plant from a nearby tree and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

He had repeated this action several times already.

“Zhang Liu, what is this exactly?” Watching Zhang Liu continue to collect supplies, Anya couldn’t help but ask.

“Um… I think it’s called Spanish moss? But it’s also called old man’s beard. According to those videos, this thing is good for starting fires,” Zhang Liu smiled and then pointed to his pocket, which had already bulged up on his thigh. “This should be enough for now.”

“Speaking of which, am I still using your T-shirt to carry the fruits today?” Anya nodded in the direction of the nearby jaboticaba grove and asked, “Is there really no other way?”

“No…” Zhang Liu awkwardly took off the T-shirt he had dried with his body heat last night and handed it to Anya. “It’s already stiff…”

Anya took the shirt from Zhang Liu and looked at his bare upper body. Her face suddenly turned red.

She couldn’t help but notice the double meaning in his words.

He took his clothes off, then said it got stiff…

“What’s wrong?” Zhang Liu asked, seeing she hadn’t pulled her hand back and looked a bit spaced out. “Why are you just standing there?”

“Nothing… it just seems like you smell a bit now,” Anya looked up at Zhang Liu and quickly made up an excuse.

“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it,” Zhang Liu raised his arm and sniffed, the strong scent of sweat made him feel helpless.

Washing in the sea was possible, but the problem was that after washing, it left a sticky and unpleasant feeling on the body, and it needed fresh water to rinse properly.

“Mm…” Anya nodded slightly and then went to pick fruit while holding Zhang Liu’s shirt.

Even though there should still be plenty of time before noon, due to the walking distance, their actual usable time was very limited.

As Anya started working, Zhang Liu naturally didn’t idle either.

He stretched two flexible tree roots, laid them out on the ground, and kept gathering appropriately sized dry branches from the trees or the ground.

After a busy session, Zhang Liu had already packed a nice bundle of wood, along with what seemed to be a perfect tool for testing fire-starting methods with the wood drill.

He then sat down in the shade to rest.

As for Anya, she had already completed her collection work and was heading ahead to look for the mineral water bottle she had left behind.

To prevent the risk of getting lost, she didn’t go through the forest; instead, she took the route around the beach as Zhang Liu had advised.

……

“Hot…” On the other side, in the coconut grove, Qin Ruoshuang, carrying her sixth coconut, walked to the cave and then weakly sat down on a stone slab to rest.

Although she had been pretending to be very capable in front of Zhang Liu, only she knew how weak her body truly was.

Just six coconuts had already drained all her strength.

Once she finished carrying these, she planned to rest properly and store the water, hoping to clean herself up with Anya tonight.

She also had to save some water for Zhang Liu’s cleaning needs.

She looked over at the pile of coconut shells near the waterhole and the few that were already filled with clean water, and couldn’t help but smile.

As a girl, she was very particular about cleanliness.

Especially under the current circumstances—there were some areas that, under normal conditions, needed daily attention.

Before, they just didn’t have the means, but now they finally did.

Standing on tiptoe, Qin Ruoshuang carried two coconut shell bowls of fresh water into the cave and gently climbed up a nearby slope.

She took off her jacket, then unfastened her bra and laid it carefully on a clean stone slab. Taking a deep breath, she tried to psych herself up.

What she was about to do… required a fair bit of mental preparation!