Everyone sleep, I'll keep watch

Ning Shu nodded. "I get it, but why not put it in plastic bottles?"

Lin Qianqian said, "The stones would melt the bottles, wouldn't they?"

Lu Zhe nodded. "We'll use this method to heat the seawater to sixty or seventy degrees, then pour it into plastic bottles. That way, it won't melt them! And once we've poured it into the bottles, we'll have free hand warmers!"

"We have twenty bottles, which means twenty hand warmers! These twenty hand warmers should help us get through the cold night!" Understanding dawned on Lin Qianqian. "What a great idea!"

Jiang Yao praised it too. "Simple, direct, and effective. Most importantly, it's easy to do!"

Ning Shu gave him a thumbs-up. "Lu Zhe, you've really got something!"

Tang Xiaoguo said admiringly, "Why didn't I think of that?"

With the plan settled, they got straight to work!

The sand on the beach was fine and soft, making it easy to dig. Lu Zhe and Ning Shu handled the digging, Tang Xiaoguo gathered stones, and Lin Qianqian put the stones in the fire to heat them!

Jiang Yao collected seawater, then used branches to pick up the heated stones and put them into the drink can!

Hiss...

As soon as a hot stone went into the can, the seawater hissed as it boiled, but after a little swirling, the temperatures quickly equalized, producing hot water at around sixty or seventy degrees!

It was still a little hot to hold, but pouring it into a bottle wouldn't melt the plastic.

In just half an hour, Jiang Yao had made more than ten hot-water bottles!

They buried them in the sand to retain the heat.

Meanwhile, Lu Zhe and Ning Shu had used branches to dig a square sand pit two meters long and two meters wide!

They dried it with fire!

Then they took the broad leaves that had originally covered the ground and stuck them at an angle around the edges, shielding the entire pit!

The hot-water bottles in the pit gave off waves of heat, driving away the midnight chill like radiators!

Tang Xiaoguo lay in the sand pit and said happily, "Wow, so warm and cozy!"

Jiang Yao lay down too, letting her imagination run. "It just feels a bit like... sleeping in a grave! Do you think a native might jump out in the middle of the night and bury us all?"

Tang Xiaoguo screamed in fright. "Aaaah..."

Ning Shu shuddered too. "Yaoyao, could you not tell horror stories in the middle of the night?"

Jiang Yao stuck out her tongue. "How thrilling!"

Tang Xiaoguo shouted, "Thrilling, my ass! You're scaring the pee out of me..."

Just then, Ning Shu noticed another problem. "Four people can only just squeeze into a two-meter-wide sand pit. There's definitely no room for Lu Zhe too, is there?"

Lin Qianqian blushed. "Besides, we're all girls, so sleeping together is fine, but having a boy here makes things a bit difficult!"

Lying at the very edge, Jiang Yao pushed the broad leaves aside and scooted over. "Xiao Zhe, just sleep beside me!"

Squeezed uncomfortably by Jiang Yao, Tang Xiaoguo said, "Yaoyao, stop squashing me!"

Jiang Yao brushed it off. "I'm just concerned about my partner and want him to have somewhere to sleep. Can't you make a little room?"

Tang Xiaoguo snapped, "So you're the only one who cares about people, are you?!"

Jiang Yao smiled. "Of course. Unlike you, who only knows how to make trouble for Xiao Zhe..."

"Yaoyao, you... Oh, come on, Lu Zhe, class monitor, why didn't you dig a bigger pit?"

"Because we don't need one!" Lu Zhe said calmly.

"Why?"

"Because all five of us can't sleep tonight. Someone has to keep watch!"

At the words "keep watch," all four girls exclaimed at once, "Huh?"

"We need to keep watch too?"

"I'm dead tired. Who could possibly stay up..."

"I'm so sleepy. I want to sleep until the mountains lose their ridges, heaven and earth unite, and the world grows old..."

Only Ning Shu spoke seriously. "Do we really need to keep watch?"

Lu Zhe nodded. "This is our first night stranded on a deserted island. If anything unexpected happens in the middle of the night, we need to respond promptly! We also need to tend the fire, add wood, and change everyone's hot water!

"So someone has to keep watch!"

"But everyone's really exhausted..."

"We can either draw lots or take turns. If nobody wants to do it, I'll keep watch!"

Ning Shu thought for a moment, then said with a strong sense of duty, "Lu Zhe... you've worked the hardest today. How could we make you keep watch? If someone has to do it, then as class monitor, I'll take the job!"

Everyone was touched by Ning Shu's willingness to shoulder the responsibility.

Lin Qianqian thought for a moment and said, "You're tired too, class monitor. I haven't really done much since waking up. Let me keep watch!"

Tang Xiaoguo was touched too. "Actually, I'm not that tired either. I'm perfectly capable of keeping watch. Leave tonight to Guo'er!"

Seeing this, Jiang Yao also spoke up. "Stop arguing, everyone. I woke up last and did the least work. If anyone should keep watch, it ought to be me!"

Lu Zhe understood that although the girls were usually noisy and troublesome, when it really mattered, they were sensible and could see the bigger picture!

And with the system's support, hadn't his stamina and constitution already far surpassed what they had been before?

Since that was the case, he shouldn't make them keep watch!

At that thought, Lu Zhe stretched. "It just occurred to me that if a prehistoric python or Godzilla crawled out in the middle of the night, you wouldn't know what to do. So I'll personally keep watch on the first night!"

Tang Xiaoguo pouted. "You're scaring us again!"

Jiang Yao said worriedly, "But you can't go all night without sleeping!"

Lin Qianqian was worried too. "You'll ruin your health."

Lu Zhe smiled. "I'll catch up on sleep when the sun rises. You can take over then!"

Ning Shu thought for a moment. "There's no need to wait that long. I'll get up in four hours and take the second watch. Everyone else can sleep soundly until then!"

Lu Zhe considered it and felt that would work too:

"All right! Get to sleep early, everyone. Rest up for tomorrow's challenges!"

"Then... thanks for the hard work, class monitor and sports representative!"

"Then... off to sleep!"

"Good night!"

"Qianqian, you're hugging me too tightly!"

"Sorry..."

The four girls lay side by side in the sand pit, and before long, gentle snores rose from them!

They were exhausted!

So exhausted that they fell asleep as soon as they lay down.

Lu Zhe sat warming his hands by the fire. Looking at the four young beauties before him, lovely as flowers and jade, he felt a protective urge and a sense of responsibility well up inside him!

I'll add some firewood first!

Lu Zhe snapped a few branches and added them to the fire.

Then he picked up a bottle of hot sand and tucked it inside his clothes, warming his chest.

But it was bound to be a difficult night to get through!

Perfect. I'll use this time to open the system and check its data!

Current data!

Although his body temperature, body fluid percentage, body salt level, protein, fat, and carbohydrates weren't very high, they were all above the safe threshold!

Now let's look at my abilities!

Strength: 15

Speed: 12

Constitution: 13

Stamina: 11

Perception: 10

Accuracy: 10

Swimming: 10

Ten points represented baseline ability, and Potential Points could be used to improve it!

And completing missions wasn't the only way to earn Potential Points. The description was very detailed!