News of Another Survivor

With that, Ning Shu stood up, spread her arms toward the blue sky and sea, and shouted herself hoarse, "Yoo-hoo..."

Her sweet cry was carried away by the wind and waves, but they did not carry away her sorrow and troubles!

At that moment, Lu Zhe really was a little moved!

But he understood that playing house was fine, but actually dating was absolutely out of the question!

It would hinder their survival and, even more importantly, affect the relationships between the girls!

Right now, nothing was more precious than working together with one heart!

Once Ning Shu tired herself out shouting, she sat down beside Lu Zhe again!

"Let me borrow your shoulder for a bit!"

As she spoke, she unceremoniously wrapped her arms around Lu Zhe's arm and leaned against his shoulder. Before long, she fell asleep!

There was a bit of wind on the mountaintop. Afraid she would catch a chill, Lu Zhe held her in his arms!

The corners of her lips curved up slightly, as though she were having some sweet dream!

Lu Zhe smiled. Figuring she was asleep, he gently planted a kiss on her hair!

After a while, he felt a little tired too. Leaning against the tree, he closed his eyes and soon fell asleep as well.

By the time they woke up, it was past three in the afternoon, and the sun had already slanted westward.

"It's time to head back!"

"I'm so hungry. I wonder if Qianqian and the others have prepared any food!"

"We still have berries here!"

Ning Shu grabbed a few and ate them. "Let's save the rest for the others to try. They haven't had any yet!"

"These aren't anything special. They're nowhere near as good as the fruit in the city!"

"Oh, right, Lu Zhe, now that we have the seeds, when can we plant some fruit?"

Lu Zhe shook his head. "We haven't found a stable source of fresh water or a suitable place to plant them. We need those conditions before we can grow anything!"

"Oh..." Ning Shu sighed regretfully. "Then, if we do plant them, how long will it take before we can eat the fruit?"

Lu Zhe stood up. "Strawberries will take at least four months. Muskmelons usually take less than four months, or two and a half months if they're quick! Watermelons take around five or six months!"

"That long!"

"Yes. Staying alive on a deserted island isn't easy to begin with. Having any quality of life is even harder! We have to prepare for the worst!"

Ning Shu nodded. "Looks like for the first few months, we'll only have berries and coconut meat to satisfy our cravings!"

As she spoke, she tossed another bramble berry into her mouth.

Lu Zhe smiled. "Don't worry. Everything will get better!"

"Mm!"

"Come on, let's head back! We'll go down the mountain the way we came, then return to camp along the other side!"

"And pick some more coconuts along the way!"

"Definitely. We're relying entirely on coconuts right now!"

The two retraced their steps to the spot where they had first spotted the small island, then followed the beach in the other direction!

Taking this route back to camp would complete a circuit of the island!

They could also map all the information about the island in the diary!

At five in the afternoon, they reached the coconut grove!

They called it a coconut grove, but there were only twenty or thirty coconut trees!

Still, that was already worth getting excited about!

There was no hurry to reach for the coconuts on the trees. Just picking up those on the ground, they found eight coconuts containing water!

They could not carry any more than that!

Lu Zhe packed them all into the backpack and plastic bags!

Besides coconuts, some plastic bottles had also washed ashore here!

On a deserted island, bottles were important supplies-the more, the better!

Ning Shu and Lu Zhe picked up the clean ones!

Suddenly, Ning Shu found a bottle. She picked it up and looked at it. "Strange. How did our message bottle drift all the way here?"

Lu Zhe took it and had a look!

The bottle had a red cap and was very clean. Its label had already been torn off!

That was right. One of the three message bottles they had prepared looked just like this!

Could the message bottle Lin Qianqian had thrown out at low tide have traveled halfway around to this side of the island?

Lu Zhe murmured to himself, "That doesn't make sense!"

Ning Shu said with certainty, "I even tore off the label myself!"

Lu Zhe nodded. "Then let's take it back and throw them out again at a different time!"

"Okay!"

Carrying a great pile of coconuts and bottles, the two hurried toward camp and finally returned before dark!

Lin Qianqian, Tang Xiaoguo, and Jiang Yao had been frantic with worry. When they saw them return, they could barely resist throwing themselves at them!

"You were gone so long! We were worried to death!"

"Yes! We thought a sea monster might have caught you and carried you away!"

"Wow, where did you get so many more coconuts?"

Lu Zhe took the diary and showed it to everyone.

Ning Shu told everyone what they had seen and heard along the way, mainly focusing on the small island.

Of course, Ning Shu kept her lips tightly sealed about going to the toilet, hurting her chrysanthemum, and being Lu Zhe's girlfriend for a day!

Then Ning Shu took out the message bottle. "We really are connected by fate. We found one of the message bottles you threw out!"

Lin Qianqian froze. "How could that be? Every time we threw them out, they washed back in. We were just going to discuss trying again at a different time!"

"What? You didn't get them out?"

Tang Xiaoguo shrugged. "That's right!"

Jiang Yao took out three message bottles. "We're not lying. All three of our message bottles are right here!"

"This... is a fourth one?"

"What's going on?"

"Two of them are exactly alike!"

Suddenly, they all realized something that grew more terrifying the more they thought about it!

One of the message bottles...

Wasn't theirs!

Could it...

Belong to another survivor?

"Open it and see!"

"The bottles look the same on the outside, but what's inside is different!"

Ning Shu took it for another look, and realization immediately dawned on her. "Tsk, tsk, it really is! We used pages torn from my diary, but this one uses... a tissue!"

Lu Zhe nodded. "This isn't our message bottle. They just happened to use the same kind of bottle!"

Ning Shu immediately grew tense. "Then, is this from someone stranded on a deserted island like us?"

"I'm afraid so!"

"Open it and see!"

Lu Zhe unscrewed the cap, inserted a twig, and carefully fished out the tissue!

The instant he unfolded it, all their hearts jolted!

The whole sheet was filled with writing in both Chinese and English:

"SOS! Help! I'm a survivor of flight CZ125 from China to Australia!

I'm now stranded on a small island in the Pacific Ocean!

The island is somewhere near the Philippines and Indonesia. I'm not very sure either! It's very large, with an extinct volcano, a bamboo grove, and banana plants!

I'm the only survivor. I don't have much food left, and I don't know how much longer I can hold on!

Please, whoever is kind enough to find this bottle, deliver this letter to the Chinese embassy or send someone to rescue me as soon as possible!

Thank you so, so much!

Signed: Ruan Bing, flight attendant on flight CZ125!"

Ning Shu marveled, "Holy crap, it really is another survivor..."

"Just like us!"

"Hey, Lu Zhe, didn't you say only the first-class cabin had a hole in it?"

"Yes..."

Lu Zhe thought for a moment. "But who else was in first class besides us?"

The girls exchanged glances, then suddenly exclaimed in realization, "That pretty flight attendant!"