Stranded on a Deserted Island—They All Started Plotting Against Me - Chapter 43 - Chapter 43

Time passed by second by second.

For Anya, whose leg was currently being “rubbed and played with” by Zhang Liu, every second felt like an eternity.

She had hoped, waited, mentally prepared herself for what might come next.

But no matter how long she waited, Zhang Liu made no further moves.

Blushing furiously, Anya finally lifted her head and shot him a glance.

Then, with a determined look in her eyes, she casually parted her other leg.

If Zhang Liu lowered his head, he would immediately see her exquisite, cute black underwear.

Anya had fully steeled herself for what was to come. She was even prepared to clamp down midway through.

After all, her mom had once told her—when a girl wraps her legs around a guy’s waist, he’ll go even harder…

But even after Anya changed positions so provocatively, Zhang Liu remained unfazed. He just kept massaging her soft little foot, brow furrowed in apparent concentration.

“You… don’t just touch my foot…” Anya stammered, wanting to tell Zhang Liu that she had other places…

Her feet could wait—they had all the time in the world.

More importantly, holding her leg up like this for so long was making her muscles sore.

“Classmate Anya, I really didn’t expect this from you!” Zhang Liu finally let out a heavy sigh and put her foot down. Staring at her like a disappointed parent, he scolded, “Even now, you’re still trying to pull something like this!”

“What does now have to do with this?” With no one else around, Anya decided to just speak plainly: “I’m doing this for your sake! This is your one shot at moving up in life!”

Hearing that, Zhang Liu couldn’t help but gasp. He was a bit confused about what Anya was talking about.

Pretending her foot was injured just to slack off—how was that doing it for his own good?

And what did that have to do with moving up in life?

Hadn’t it already been made clear? He would take good care of Anya and Qin Ruoshang on the island. After they escaped in the future, they would give him some money as thanks.

“I’ve carefully squeezed your foot, and you didn’t show any sign of pain at all. That means you’re faking the injury and just trying to slack off, right?” Zhang Liu said firmly, completely missing Anya’s real thoughts. “Classmate Anya! You can say you don’t want to work, but you can’t lie to me. If I have to spend energy taking care of you, then no one will be working!”

Anya just stared blankly, her mouth agape, looking at Zhang Liu who was nagging her like an old lady.

A strange feeling of grievance suddenly welled up inside her.

She suddenly realized a terrifying truth.

Had she been overthinking this whole time? Was it all just her own feelings?

Just as Zhang Liu was emphasizing to Anya that she was not allowed to lie from now on, he suddenly noticed that the girl in front of him started crying.

“Waa waa waa…”

“How dare you say I’m slacking off!”

“And that I’m lying!”

“I was even ready to grab your waist!”

“Wuwuwu…”

“You’re bullying me!”

“Zhang Liu, just keep bullying me!”

“I’ll just be bullied to death by you this lifetime!”

“Give me back my innocence!”

Anya’s crying wasn’t like some beautiful girl crying on the internet, with tears rolling down her cheeks and falling to the ground like pearls.

Instead, her tears and snot flowed together, and she kept kicking wildly, looking like a fierce woman throwing a tantrum.

She cursed while sobbing, and somehow even blew a snot bubble halfway through.

Then, embarrassed, she sniffed hard and sucked it back in.

Zhang Liu was dumbfounded by this scene.

Not because of the snot bubble coming out of her nose, but for several other reasons.

First, he never expected that his earnest advice would cause such a big emotional reaction from Anya. It wasn’t like he was forbidding her from slacking off—he just wanted her not to lie and waste manpower.

Second, Zhang Liu, who always thinks things through carefully, had never made his own sister cry like this, so he had zero experience in comforting a crying girl.

Most importantly, Zhang Liu didn’t understand a word of what Anya was scolding him about.

Hadn’t he just said a couple of things?

If she was unhappy, she could just yell back…

Why was she crying and suddenly talking about innocence?

It was just touching her foot, after all.

His brain went numb in waves, but Zhang Liu turned to look at the sun high overhead and sighed helplessly.

After thinking for a moment, he said to Anya, who was still sniffing hard, “You rest here for a bit. I’ll go pick some fruit to bring back for you.”

With that, he got up and prepared to head toward the jaboticaba grove.

Like coaxing a child, he thought, just use something tasty.

This was the desperate thought in Zhang Liu’s heart.

But Anya immediately stood up and followed behind him, her voice still tinged with tears as she said, “I’ll come with you. I can gather some firewood on the way.”

“Uh…”

Zhang Liu looked at Anya hopping on the spot and didn’t dare say anything for a moment.

Wasn’t she just pretending to have hurt her foot so she could slack off here?

“My foot is fine now because you massaged it!” Anya wiped her cheeks hard with her hands, shaking off all the tears and snot, then casually came up with a barely believable excuse.

After finishing crying, she had roughly sorted out what happened before.

What she had thought was a romantic atmosphere, even something about to happen in broad daylight—

From Zhang Liu’s perspective, it was probably just her faking an injured foot to slack off.

And that’s how the misunderstanding happened.

Now, after working for a while, Anya had calmed down.

While collecting sturdy vines from the trees as Zhang Liu instructed, she refused his suggestion to drink more water to stay hydrated.

Once done, Anya secretly glanced over at Zhang Liu, who was busy gathering fruit.

His handsome profile and focused, meticulous movements made her heart flutter again—though it wasn’t the same kind of impulsive, “I could take the lead” thrill from before.

Thinking it over, Anya realized why she had given in so easily to Zhang Liu’s touch, even going so far as to spread her legs earlier.

It was probably because she had some friction with Qin Ruoshang in the cave, and out of typical girl’s jealousy, she was desperate to win Zhang Liu over as an ally, which changed her mindset.

She rolled the vines into a coil and placed them on the ground, then unscrewed a bottle of Nongfu Spring water and walked over to Zhang Liu, who was using his shirt to bundle jaboticaba fruit. Holding out the bottle, she said, “Here, have some water.”

Shirtless, Zhang Liu turned his head to look at her.

He didn’t answer, didn’t reach out—just stared with a confused expression at this classmate who kept acting hot and cold.

That damn look again!

Resisting the urge to punch him in the face, Anya kept her smile as she asked, “Why aren’t you drinking?”

Honestly? I feel like this water’s laced with toxic soup…

Swallowing hard, Zhang Liu finally reached out, took the bottle, and gulped down the water.

After working most of the afternoon, he was indeed very thirsty.

But since water was limited, he had planned to give priority to Anya—after all, she was a girl and had just inexplicably burst into tears.

Now that she was offering it willingly and emphasizing it, he naturally didn’t refuse.

“You drank it!” Anya suddenly shouted loudly, almost scaring Zhang Liu into spitting out that precious water.

Holding back the urge to spit, he looked at Anya confused, not understanding what she was so jumpy about today.

He saw her tracing circles on the ground with her foot, eyes downcast, and then she mumbled, “Zhang Liu, about earlier… and what happened in the cave… I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

Then she looked up, not waiting for Zhang Liu to say anything, pointed at the water bottle in his hand and added, “If you drink this water, it means you accept my apology! You’re not allowed to be mad anymore!”

After speaking, she grabbed the bundle of vines on the ground and ran toward the cave, not forgetting to stick out her tongue at Zhang Liu as she left.

“Hey… wait up!” Zhang Liu quickly grabbed a few soft yellow fruits he planned to test for poison and stuffed them into his shirt bundle, then hurried after Anya.

As he ran, a smile slowly spread across his face. He still had no idea what just happened today…

But judging by Anya’s current attitude, it seemed like she’d “figured things out.”

Chances were, there wouldn’t be any more fake injuries or attempts to slack off.