Picking Out the Little Strawberry Seeds Herself

Under the circumstances, they could only rinse her off with seawater!

And if they brought seawater back in bottles and washed her near camp, they could preserve all the seeds perfectly.

At a loss, Ning Shu asked, "What do we do?"

Lu Zhe said solemnly, "Class monitor, find a few clean bottles and bring back some seawater!"

Then he told Jiang Yao, "Yaoyao, go find a few big, broad leaves. They need to be whole!"

Finally, he gave Lin Qianqian her task. "Qianqian, pick a softer bottle and poke a hole in it with the tip of a pen!

"There's no time to explain. Everyone, do as I say right away!"

Seeing how serious Lu Zhe was, the three girls knew this was no small matter and hurried to follow his instructions!

Tang Xiaoguo sobbed, "What should I do...?"

Lu Zhe pointed at her belly. "Is there more?"

Tang Xiaoguo nodded miserably!

"Can you still squat down?"

Tang Xiaoguo pouted and shook her head!

By then, Jiang Yao had brought over the broad leaves!

Lu Zhe spread them on the sand. "Stand on these and take off everything that got dirty!"

"How am I supposed to take them off?!"

Tang Xiaoguo stamped her feet in distress.

Seeing her predicament, Lu Zhe turned his back. "Can you do it now?"

Well, yes, she could now!

But Tang Xiaoguo, who had once prided herself on being a little fairy, was now a complete mess!

She wished she could turn into a hermit crab, crawl into a shell, then burrow into a hole in the sand and never come out again!

But she had no choice!

The feeling of her belly collapsing forced her to comply!

A few minutes later, she finally completed her epic social-death mission!

Then Ning Shu and Qianqian had the seawater and bottle ready too!

"Pour the seawater into the bottle with the hole, then squeeze it to spray water and help Guo'er clean herself!"

"Oh, okay!" Ning Shu hurried to comply, but halfway through filling it, she asked in confusion, "Why not just let Guo'er wash in the sea?"

Lin Qianqian spotted the crucial point and said quietly, "I think he might be worried about washing away the seeds!"

With a squeeze of the bottle, a jet of seawater hit Tang Xiaoguo, washing off the filth onto the leaves!

The gentle sea breeze carried away the unfriendly smell, and things finally became a little less awkward.

Meanwhile, Lu Zhe washed his hands in the sea and continued preparing the snake meat!

He hung the snakeskin on a branch, pulled out all the snake's innards, and put them in a torn plastic bag!

Then he found the large piece of kelp he had picked up earlier, rolled the pale, fleshy snake inside it, twisted the snakeskin into cord, and tied it tightly section by section. A kelp-and-snake-meat roll was ready!

Finally, he arranged the kelp-wrapped snake in a circle around the fire!

Heat spread evenly into the kelp and snake meat, and before long, the aroma of meat drifted out.

Tang Xiaoguo went to the shore and thoroughly washed herself several times. She was clean now, but her clothes were all soiled!

Qianqian lent her her khaki vest!

But while that covered her top half, she couldn't wear nothing on the bottom!

Tang Xiaoguo kept tugging down the hem of the vest, looking so embarrassed that it was hard to watch.

The girls exchanged looks, none of them knowing what to do!

Just then, a pair of shorts came flying over!

"If you don't mind, wear mine!"

Tang Xiaoguo picked them up in a daze. They were Lu Zhe's athletic shorts!

"A boy's shorts..."

Wait, if he gave me his shorts, what is he wearing?

She looked back at Lu Zhe and saw that he had put on the casual trousers that had held the snake again.

Tang Xiaoguo looked up at Lu Zhe, and an indescribable gratitude welled up in her heart!

Even after seeing me embarrass myself so many times, he still doesn't find me disgusting... Looks like I'm still the most important of all the girls...

She pressed her lips together, sweetness filling her heart!

She quickly put on Lu Zhe's shorts and tightened the drawstring!

Though the vest and shorts were both a little big, they were much more comfortable than her formal dress!

Now that her body was clean again, her mood lifted too!

"Lu Zhe... thank you!" This time, Tang Xiaoguo thanked him sincerely!

However, Lu Zhe's response was:

"Now you can pick out the seeds yourself, right?"

Tang Xiaoguo: "..."

Yes!

Her sincere thanks should have been met with generous understanding, followed by reconciliation, making them friends who could talk about anything!

And then, because the girl didn't mind wearing the boy's shorts, he would develop feelings beyond friendship, and they would embark on a passionate romance!

Wasn't that how all those sweet romantic dramas were written?

And after that, they would be rescued together, graduate together, and take their postgraduate entrance exams together!

With their classmates' blessings, they would enter the halls of marriage!

The bridesmaids would have to be the class monitor, Qianqian, and Jiang Yao!

After all, they shared a revolutionary friendship!

Once married, they wouldn't have children right away. They would spend three years traveling the world, then have two children in the fourth year, a boy and a girl. The boy should be a little better than Lu Zhe, so he would be called Shengzhe. As for the girl, being as cute as her would be enough, and she would be called Aiguo...

That was right!

The instant Tang Xiaoguo put on Lu Zhe's shorts, she had even named their children!

However, that remark from Lu Zhe dragged her romantic fantasies brutally back to reality!

Finding the seeds...

In the end, she had to bear everything that someone her age should never have to bear!

Forget it. I'll just consider it a sacrifice for love!

She walked back to the broad leaves nearby, where a layer of yellow wastewater lay!

Some little black "sesame seeds" floated on it. Were these the strawberry seeds?

She closed her eyes and gathered herself for a while, then picked up a little stick and squatted down!

Pinching her nose with one hand and holding the stick with the other, she picked the "sesame seeds" onto a tissue one by one and wiped them clean!

At last, not a single floating black "sesame seed" remained in sight. Tears streamed down Tang Xiaoguo's face!

It was finally over!

She found another stick, dug a small hole in the beach, and buried the broad leaves along with the wastewater!

An innocent little hermit crab was accidentally buried too, and all she could do was apologize. "Sorry, little hermit crab!"

But when the little hermit crab touched the yellow substance, it didn't flee. Instead, it stretched out its tiny pincers and actually began eating happily!

Tang Xiaoguo screamed in mortification, feeling wrong all over, and immediately developed a psychological aversion to hermit crabs!

Whatever the case, the hardest task was finally done!

She came up to Lu Zhe and shyly handed over the little packet of seeds. "I... I've finished my task!"

Lu Zhe took it and opened it for a look. He estimated there were more than thirty seeds, each wiped spotlessly clean!

He nodded in satisfaction. "Guo'er, well done!"

Ning Shu teased, "That's right. Only the belly of a cute little fairy like Guo'er could store sweet strawberry seeds!"

"Stop it, class monitor..."

Tang Xiaoguo pouted. "I really want to never eat anything with seeds again for the rest of my life!"

By then, the sun had sunk completely below the sea's horizon, and the moon had appeared!