Stranded on a Deserted Island—They All Started Plotting Against Me - Chapter 45 - Chapter 45

Not long after setting down the seafood, Zhang Liu and Anya—who had been working around the base of the cave—met up with Qin Ruoshuang, who had returned from rabbit hunting.

Outside, the sky was already darkening, and the three prepared to spend their fourth night in the wilderness.

“What’s wrong?” Anya sat by the fire, taking off her shoes to warm her feet. Seeing Qin Ruoshang approaching, covered in bits of grass and looking disheveled, she asked with curiosity.

She had obviously seen the “grass mats” laid out in the cave, but… was that really necessary?

Zhang Liu, who was handling the seafood, also glanced at Qin Ruoshang with curiosity.

“There were rabbits in the grass over there!” Qin Ruoshuang said regretfully. “But I couldn’t catch them.”

“Rabbits…” Hearing that, Zhang Liu suddenly found the shellfish meat he was sorting through less appealing.

After all, it’s a protein with a strong, meaty flavor!

“Yeah, they’re hard to catch!” Qin Ruoshuang sat down next to Anya, brushing grass off herself as she spoke. “Zhang Liu, are you doing the night watch outside again?”

“Yes. I want to guard the water source. Maybe tomorrow night we’ll finally catch one.” Zhang Liu nodded as he chopped seaweed roots into chunks with the metal shard, dropping them into the giant clam shell they were using as a cooking pot. “If we fail tomorrow night, I’ll head to the plane wreckage the morning after.”

“Good!” Qin Ruoshang nodded slightly.

Although she was a bit worried about Zhang Liu going off alone. But considering how well he had performed here, she didn’t really have the confidence to voice her concerns.

“Oh, right. You two should try this.” Zhang Liu handed them a golden-yellow fruit. “I’m pretty sure this is an eggfruit (canistel). It tastes exactly like the one I tried at a fruit store before, and it looks just like the one in the plant guide.”

The two girls reacted differently to the new fruit.

Qin Ruoshang held it carefully with both hands, clearly curious since she’d never seen such a fruit.

Anya, on the other hand, bit right into it.

“So dry…” she muttered a muffled complaint.

Taking a bite felt like chewing on sweet sand with very little moisture.

When Anya first smelled the fruit’s sweet aroma and bit down hard, she thought it would be like eating a big mango.

But the thin skin was tough and sour, which was one thing.

The flesh inside was especially dry and immediately coated every corner of her mouth like cooked egg yolk, greedily sucking moisture.

“I heard it’s high in vitamin C.” Zhang Liu handed hot water to Anya, then looked at Qin Ruoshang, who was peeling and eating the fruit, and asked, “How do you feel about it?”

No answer…

Because Qin Ruoshuang had taken a big bite too—and just like Anya, her mouth was now glued shut by the dry, sticky pulp.

She chewed hard, trying to stimulate saliva to wash the eggfruit down her throat.

It took a while, but eventually both girls managed to gulp it down. After that, they switched to taking small bites, gradually appreciating the rare fruit’s unique flavor.

Zhang Liu, meanwhile, quietly stared at the fruit in his hand. A thought flashed through his mind—and he fell into deep contemplation.

“What’s wrong?” After finishing the fruit, Qin Ruoshang and Anya looked at the thoughtful Zhang Liu with concern.

“I’m worried about the timing.” Zhang Liu sighed softly and put down the eggfruit, then said to them, “Our original plan was a study tour to the Cook Islands in the Pacific to enjoy the tropical scenery, right?”

“Yes.” Qin Ruoshang’s tone immediately turned serious when Zhang Liu suddenly brought up reality. “Is there a problem?”

“And we had already completed the transfer through Sydney.” Zhang Liu pointed to the ground and said, “In other words, in the worst case, we should now be on some deserted island in the Pacific.”

“Probably.” Anya nodded, then asked, “Zhang Liu, what are you trying to say?”

“In other words, this place must be tropical, so the cold winter we worried about earlier shouldn’t happen, but there may be heavy rainy seasons and dry seasons.”

Frowning and thinking about what he learned in geography, Zhang Liu finally understood the difference between books and reality.

The survival guides only recorded many interesting tips or examples.

They never gave a complete plan.

Nor did they explain how to survive rainy or dry seasons in detail.

“Is the rainy season just a lot of rain?” Qin Ruoshang frowned hearing Zhang Liu.

“Yes, but in this situation without medical or logistical support, it’s impossible to risk getting wet. Right now it’s around November, so it should be the dry season, which is why there’s no problem yet. But around June, it will probably be the rainy season.”

Zhang Liu clicked his tongue and said, “By then, we’ll have to prepare shelters against the rain in advance.”

“We can just hide here.” Anya pointed to the mountain above. “Since this cave is so deep, the rain won’t come in.”

“But what about food?” Qin Ruoshang glanced at Anya and said, “It’s easy to find food now when it’s not raining. What if it keeps raining later?”

“We’ll take it step by step. It’s such a big forest; we can’t all starve.” Zhang Liu shrugged and said, “Let’s eat first.”

Seeing their serious expressions, he realized he might be worrying too much and lowering morale.

So Zhang Liu took the initiative to scoop out two cooked crabs into a small clam shell, then handed one to Anya and one to Qin Ruoshang, who both looked worried. He said, “Classmate Anya, classmate Qin, why don’t you start with the crab?”

“Thank you.” Qin Ruoshang reached out, took the clam shell, and placed it in front of herself, waiting for the crab to cool down.

But Anya wore an annoyed expression and just stared at Zhang Liu, sitting very still as if she didn’t even see the crab placed before her.

“???” Zhang Liu was momentarily confused, then remembered what she’d said about how he should address her. Clearing his throat, he tentatively corrected himself and said again, “Anya, have some crab?”

“Mhm!” The indignation on Anya’s face vanished in an instant. Feeling she had successfully trained Zhang Liu, she happily accepted the crab and lowered her head to start eating.

From time to time, she let out a soft “ts-ha, ts-ha” sound as the hot crab burned her tongue.

Watching Anya’s cute reaction—clearly too fond of the crab to let go despite the heat—Zhang Liu couldn’t help but smile to himself. He turned away and began fishing out several thick pieces of seaweed to cool in his own clam shell.

Behind him, Qin Ruoshuang, fiddling with a crab leg in her hand, glanced at Anya, then studied Zhang Liu. A sour feeling rose in her chest.

Unlike Zhang Liu, who was clueless about the difference between the names “Anya” and “classmate Anya,” Qin Ruoshang clearly understood.

To her ears, it was obvious—Anya didn’t want to eat, so Zhang Liu softened his tone to coax her.

But if she refused to eat, would Zhang Liu call her “Qin Ruoshuang” like that?

Thinking this, she really wanted to say “I’m full” just to test him.

But seeing Anya hurriedly stuffing crab meat into her mouth with a red face, Qin Ruoshang dared not say a word.

What if this girl grabbed her crab and ate it?

Torn by these thoughts, she focused on enjoying the sweet crab meat and quickly forgot about the matter.

Meanwhile, the main course—a big bowl of shellfish meat mixed with seaweed—was evenly served into the three bowls.

Faced with a bowl of warm soup-like food cooled just right for eating, Qin Ruoshang and Anya, their appetites whetted by the crab meat, didn’t even think about the name issue anymore.

They just picked up their bowls and used makeshift chopsticks carved from branches to dig in.

Compared to the two enjoying themselves, Zhang Liu, who left himself only the pieces with shell fragments, had to occasionally spit out bits of shell.

Qin Ruoshang and Anya noticed this and recalled how Zhang Liu had given them all the pure meat pieces on top first.

They exchanged a glance and silently stopped eating.