The second day of survival began

Lu Zhe felt as though he had been caught in a staged-accident scam!

"And why was I sleeping in your arms? I haven't even had my first love, and I've already slept with you! No one will marry me now! I don't care, you have to take responsibility!"

Tang Xiaoguo pounded Lu Zhe's chest with her little fists.

"Stop being willful, Guo'er!"

"Who's being willful? You secretly held me while we slept, and now you don't want to take responsibility?"

Jiang Yao sighed. "You passed out from the cold yesterday and almost ended up in serious danger. Everyone used their bodies to keep you warm, and that was how you pulled through. Why are you making trouble the moment you wake up?"

"Ah... yesterday, I..."

"You were trembling all over, like you had the ague!"

"It was that bad?" Tang Xiaoguo recalled the feeling of falling into an icy cavern in her sleep, and the memory still left her shaken!

"Didn't we... didn't we have a fire?"

"A fire?"

At the mention of the fire, Lu Zhe suddenly remembered!

"Right, the fire!"

He hurriedly moved Tang Xiaoguo's head aside, pushed the broad leaves apart, and crawled out!

Tang Xiaoguo shouted, "Could you not be so rough?"

Lu Zhe had no time to spare for Tang Xiaoguo and hurried over to the fire!

Oh no!

The flames were gone. The firewood had burned halfway down to charcoal and ash, with only a thin wisp of bluish smoke slowly rising from it!

See, this was what happened when no one tended the fire.

Lu Zhe hurriedly added branches and blew hard for a while. At last, flames sprang up again!

Lu Zhe broke into a cold sweat. "Ah... that was close!"

Jiang Yao asked, "Xiao Zhe, what happened?"

"The fire almost went out!"

"Huh?"

"But don't worry. I've saved it now!"

Jiang Yao let out a long breath too!

Then Lu Zhe checked his watch:

Six o'clock sharp!

It was now six in the morning on June 11, their second day stranded on the deserted island!

The small difference between the lengths of day and night indicated that they were somewhere between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator!

The huge difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures indicated that an intermittent cold current might flow nearby.

Although the temperature was not very high yet, he believed it would not be long before the island heated up!

Where were the other two girls?

He pushed aside the leaves. Ning Shu was sleeping on her back, while Lin Qianqian lay on her side on Ning Shu's arm, a hand resting on her chest and a leg draped over hers.

She looked utterly dependent on her.

Hearing the noise, Lin Qianqian and Ning Shu woke up too. Both girls rubbed their eyes and sat up in the sand pit!

Lin Qianqian pressed her lips together and said softly, "Morning, everyone..."

Ning Shu stretched. "Ah, lovely weather! Hey, Guo'er, you're all right now!"

Tang Xiaoguo smiled. "The little princess is back at full HP!"

Jiang Yao said approvingly, "Looks like everyone's in pretty good shape!"

Lu Zhe nodded. "Congratulations, everyone. We've successfully made it through our first day on the deserted island!"

After their brief morning greetings, Ning Shu handed each of them a piece of chewing gum, and they began discussing their survival plans for the second day!

Finding fresh water and food, maintaining the fire, building a shelter, making distress signals, collecting seeds, crafting knives...

Every task seemed urgent!

But Lu Zhe believed that, right now, three tasks were the most, most, most, most urgent of all!

First: finding fresh water!

An ordinary person needed around one to two liters of fresh water a day, and even more on a hot tropical island!

They had drunk all the fresh water obtained from the muddy pit yesterday. Now they did not have a single drop on hand, so they had to find enough fresh water before the temperature rose!

Second: maintaining the campfire!

The fire was very important to them!

For one thing, they could cook food over it!

For another, it could provide warmth at night!

Third, if any ships passed by, they could throw plastic items into the fire to produce black smoke and signal them!

However, to keep the campfire going, they needed enough wood. Otherwise, once the fuel ran out, the campfire would go out too!

And now, very few branches and pieces of wood remained.

So collecting enough wood was also a top priority!

Third: setting up distress signals!

Although only a day had passed since the disaster, the people back there surely knew what had happened, and search-and-rescue teams might arrive very soon!

Since they could not use plastic to produce black smoke from the campfire at any moment, they also needed more immediately visible distress signals!

For instance, laying out an "SOS" signal in an open area, or tying a conspicuous flag somewhere high up!

That would make it easier for helicopters and rescue boats to spot them!

If they missed the first search-and-rescue effort, the intensity of the search would drop considerably. By then, doing these things would not be much use.

Finally, Lu Zhe said, "I've decided. We'll have just three tasks this morning: first, finding fresh water and food; second, collecting wood to keep the fire going; third, setting up distress signals!"

With the plan settled, next came putting it into action!

Ning Shu thought for a moment, then nodded. "Should we split into groups, or do everything together?"

Lu Zhe thought for a moment. "We definitely need to split up! To look for things, we'll have to leave camp. Guo'er can't walk long distances right now, and someone has to look after her. Which of you will stay at camp with her?"

Tang Xiaoguo said, "I can walk!"

Lu Zhe shook his head. "No. Your immune system is too weak right now. If anything else goes wrong, there really will be no saving you! Besides, we're short on branches now, and someone needs to watch the fire, so you should stay at camp!"

Lin Qianqian volunteered. "I can stay with Guo'er!"

Jiang Yao nodded. "Then Qianqian and Guo'er will stay at camp, while Lu Zhe, the class monitor, and I go looking for supplies!"

"Okay!"

Ning Shu asked Lu Zhe, "What do you think?"

Lu Zhe nodded. "That works!"

"Then where do we start?"

Lu Zhe pointed toward the beach. "The tide is going out right now. Let's head west along the shore first. We haven't explored that area! Pick up any usable plastic bags, bottles, and cans, as well as edible shellfish, sea snails, and crabs. In short, anything useful we see, we pick up!"

Ning Shu and Jiang Yao made an "OK" gesture in unison!

And so the three said goodbye to Lin Qianqian and Tang Xiaoguo, shouldered their empty backpacks, and headed west together!

The sun had only recently risen, but it was already fully light!

The morning sea breeze was soft and gentle, the sky a deep, deep blue. Nearby, the waves were like snow; in the distance, white clouds were like cotton. Occasionally, unidentified seabirds flew past, letting out "aang, aang" cries that lifted the spirits!

Ning Shu spread her arms. "If our clothes weren't filthy, I'd definitely think we were at a beach summer-camp party!"

Jiang Yao nodded. "Yeah!"

Lu Zhe looked at his shirt and trousers. They were covered in grayish-white sea sand and looked very dirty!

But that was all right. Once he took them off, shook them out, and put them back on, they were much better!

Jiang Yao complained, "Xiao Zhe, boys can just take off their clothes and shake the sand out. What are us girls supposed to do?"

Lu Zhe smiled. "I can turn around and not look!"

Jiang Yao pursed her lips in a smile. "I've got an idea!"

With that, she walked to the water's edge and dove straight into the sea!

The morning seawater was warm and comfortable too. She enjoyed a swim, and the mud and sand on her had long since washed away!

When she emerged from the seawater again, strands of hair clung to her face, and seawater dripped onto her chest, offering tantalizing glimpses, like a little mermaid who had taken human form!