Laying out a distress signal

Mm, with that fragrance unique to girls, it really wasn't that hard to accept!

The girls immediately screamed!

"Aaaaah, what did Lu Zhe just do?"

"He... he ate the gum Yaoyao chewed!"

"Why would he do that?"

"Isn't that disgusting? I really can't look at Lu Zhe the same way anymore!"

"Lu Zhe's gotten so weird!"

The girls let out another round of very abnormal exclamations!

Sure enough, that was the effect!

Lu Zhe had already anticipated it. He said solemnly, "Don't get any ideas. You can't knead two pieces of gum together. To blend them perfectly, you have to chew them!"

The girls cried in unison, "As if we could help getting ideas!"

"I'm doing this entirely for the sake of survival. If you think it's strange for me to do this, then do it yourselves!"

The girls exchanged looks and cried together, "No!"

Lin Qianqian said timidly, "You... aren't planning to chew all our gum, are you?"

Lu Zhe sighed. "Much as I don't want to do this either, there really isn't any other way right now!"

Ning Shu said, "You... are you sure it'll work?"

Lu Zhe nodded. "I'm not sure, but trying is better than doing nothing, right?"

Ning Shu hesitated, then spat out her gum, pinched it between two fingers, and handed it to Lu Zhe. "All right, I... I'll trust you one more time!"

Lu Zhe tossed Ning Shu's gum into his mouth too.

Ning Shu shuddered, her little face instantly turning red.

Seeing that the class monitor and Jiang Yao had both contributed their gum, Tang Xiaoguo handed hers over too. "Here, your reward!"

Lu Zhe's face darkened. "Tang Xiaoguo, take this seriously!"

Tang Xiaoguo pouted. "You're clearly the one being improper, chewing girls' gum!"

"Then you chew it. A girl chewing other girls' gum should be fine, right?"

"No!"

"Come on, be good. Open wide!" As he spoke, Lu Zhe reached to pinch Tang Xiaoguo's little mouth.

"Don't, don't, don't! I was wrong, okay?"

"No. I've decided now. You're doing it!"

Tang Xiaoguo was scared out of her wits. She sat on the ground, frightened to the verge of tears.

Lu Zhe couldn't be bothered to argue with her and tossed Tang Xiaoguo's gum into his mouth to chew.

Perfect!

Then Lin Qianqian spat out her gum too and carefully handed it over. "I hope you won't turn your nose up at me for being a girl!"

"Huh?! What a strange way to put it!" Lu Zhe said quite frankly, "A girl is exactly who I wouldn't turn my nose up at!"

"You're the strange one!"

He tossed Lin Qianqian's gum into his mouth too!

The gum from all five of them made a huge lump. Chewing it took some effort, but he eventually worked it loose, and before long, it had blended together!

The four girls exchanged glances, then all looked at Lu Zhe. None of them could say exactly what they were feeling at that moment!

At last, once he had chewed it enough, Lu Zhe spat out the gum and pinched it into a cone, then carefully placed it on a rock and just as carefully blotted it dry.

Ning Shu frowned. "Will it work?"

"Actually, this is my first attempt too! Success or failure hinges on this!"

Lu Zhe picked up a coconut, found its "head," let out a long breath, and smashed it hard against the gum!

Thump!

The gum disappeared. When he picked the coconut up and looked at the bottom, there was actually nothing left but a white dot-the gum embedded in the coconut!

Lu Zhe dug out the gum, and sure enough, a small hole appeared!

"Haha, it worked!"

Lu Zhe raised it over his mouth, and a stream of coconut water trickled down into it!

Another Potential Point secured!

"Perfect!"

Ning Shu's eyes widened. "It really does work!"

Tang Xiaoguo exclaimed, "That's so unscientific!"

Lin Qianqian said, "Actually, this is a non-Newtonian fluid. There's a scientific basis for it!"

Jiang Yao nodded. "Weird knowledge +1!"

Before the gum could break down into shreds, Lu Zhe opened five coconuts in a row, one for each person, replenishing them with roughly 200 ml of coconut water apiece!

But that only let them drink the coconut water. They still had no way to eat the coconut flesh inside.

Still, it was pretty good.

"We finally got to drink coconut water! I told you, how could you have wilderness survival without drinking coconut water?" Tang Xiaoguo said, delighted.

Jiang Yao said worriedly, "But do we have to use up five pieces of gum every time?"

Ning Shu shook the gum bottle. "There are forty-something pieces left. Probably only enough for a few more goes!"

Tang Xiaoguo said, "Then what about reusing it over and over?"

Lin Qianqian said, "Gum breaks down into shreds if you chew it too long. We wouldn't be able to use it again, would we?"

Lu Zhe nodded. "If we want to survive on this deserted island, we can't rely on gum alone. We need to make reliable tools!"

Ning Shu sighed. "But we don't even have a utility knife!"

"That's okay. If we don't have one, we can make one ourselves!"

Lu Zhe felt it was time to make some tools!

Where should he start?

He looked around and said:

"The fresh water problem is solved for now, and the class monitor gathered some branches, so we just need to keep the fire burning! While the sunlight still isn't too strong, let's gather some rocks nearby. First, we can lay out a distress signal. Second, we can look for sharp rocks to make tools!"

Ning Shu flexed her fingers. "Time to get down to some serious work!"

Lin Qianqian said too, "I'm full of energy!"

Tang Xiaoguo said, "Then what should Yaoyao and I do?"

Ning Shu took out the plastic bag and tipped out some of the mussels and crabs they had gathered. "Since you two can't move around, help us roast some food!"

With that settled, they split up and got to work!

There were plenty of rocks of all sizes on the beach, and before long, they had gathered nearly all the ones nearby!

Lu Zhe arranged the rocks into a huge "SOS," five meters wide and eight meters long!

He believed that if a helicopter searched around the island, it would definitely see this sign!

Just then, Lin Qianqian picked up a filthy tin can filled with rotting seaweed that gave off a fishy stench. She tossed it aside in disgust!

Lu Zhe, however, walked over and picked it up!

"Ding! This can has cookware properties and can be used to make a soup pot! Potential Points +1!"

Curious, he examined it closely again.

The writing on it was all in English. It was probably a canned fruit tin!

The entire can had a capacity of 2.5 L. Like a Red Bull can, it was made of very hard, thick tinplate. The lid had been opened halfway, with part of it still attached to the can!

A few barnacles clung to the outside, and there was filthy seaweed inside!

Once washed clean, it really did seem like it could serve as a soup pot!