Lightning and thunder crashed directly overhead, and Fu Miaoxue huddled beside Du Lai, shaking uncontrollably.

Even with her hands pressed tightly over her ears, the flashes and booming continued to make her heart and soul tremble.

She was thirsty and hungry, frightened and terrified, and in that moment she couldn’t help wondering whether she really had done something terrible in a past life, and heaven was now punishing her for it.

And right now there was no one to help her. Not even someone to talk to. If Du Lai died here, and she was left alone on the island, Fu Miaoxue was sure she would go mad.

The thunder rolled and rolled, low and heavy……

Its deep vibrations seemed to resonate through the entire island.

Fu Miaoxue lay down beside Du Lai. She nudged him gently every so often, spoke to him in between — but Du Lai never responded. She could only see the deep furrow between his brows, and the faint parting of his lips as he labored to breathe.

She had never cared for a sick person before, and in circumstances like these she had no idea what to do. So she tore off several large leaves from nearby, shook off the water droplets, and spread them over both herself and Du Lai — a sorry attempt at keeping out the cold wind.

It was so cold.

And Du Lai’s body was burning so hot.

Fu Miaoxue held Du Lai close, staring blankly out at the torrential rain, thinking about the tent that had been struck to splinters, about the monkey that had escaped from its cage, and about the berries scattered all over the ground during their fight……

She was so hungry.

She really wanted to go gather those berries……

Would she starve to death here?

There was no butler, no bodyguard, no grandfather. She had nothing now. Could she actually survive?

……

Perhaps her prayers worked. After an hour of suffering through biting wind and bitter rain, it began to ease. The thunder faded into silence.

Fu Miaoxue gently lifted the leaves covering her, heart still pounding, and looked carefully around.

The earlier downpour had softened to a light drizzle, and the wind had gentled considerably.

She stepped out of the shelter, took off her shoes, and boldly climbed up the side of the boulder.

The wet rock was a little slippery, but the surface was uneven enough to find handholds and footholds — not unlike the decorative rockery in her family’s back garden. Getting to the top wasn’t too difficult.

She climbed all the way to the highest point and stood up. From that height she could see the sea and, at the far edge of the sky, a gradually brightening light beginning to emerge.

The rain clouds were finally breaking up.

Fu Miaoxue let out a long, slow breath of relief.

She climbed back down, put her shoes back on. Du Lai still had not woken.

“Du Lai, I’m going to the tent area for a bit, to see if I can pick up any of the berries.”

Whether or not Du Lai could hear her, Fu Miaoxue told him anyway where she was going. Then she balanced a large leaf on top of her head, and headed out into the drizzle.

She had been worried about her sense of direction — whether she’d get lost — but walking along she found she’d worried for nothing. The air carried a persistent smell of something charred and burnt. She followed that smell for a stretch and soon saw black smoke and the glow of fire.

A little farther on, she saw the tent she and Du Lai had built — along with the trees on either side of it — all reduced to charred stumps.

The lightning strikes earlier must have set the trees on fire. Even as the rain weakened, the flames hadn’t gone out and had kept burning until now.

Fu Miaoxue bent down to search the ground for berries. Some had been crushed during the fight, others scorched by the fire. The more she found, the more she hurt inside over the waste. She managed to scavenge a few that were muddy and water-logged, rinsed them in the light rain, and couldn’t hold herself back anymore — she started eating right then and there.

She was too hungry.

She didn’t know what these wild berries were called. Biting into them was somewhere between a jujube and a winter melon — slightly crisp, not very sweet, reasonably refreshing, and decently filling.

Fu Miaoxue ate six or seven in a row before the gnawing hunger finally began to ease, and she started to feel considerably better.

Du Lai was still asleep back at the boulder. She didn’t dare linger outside too long. She quickly gathered more berries.

They were small and round, and she couldn’t hold enough in her arms. Remembering the bamboo tubes Du Lai had propped up in the sand nearby, she went to pull a few out and used them to hold the berries instead.

The tubes had already collected full loads of rainwater.

Fu Miaoxue’s heart leapt with joy. Now they had both food and water.

She picked up the tubes and turned to leave — but then she spotted the branches and wood burning and crackling in the trees.

She paused, foot mid-step……

……

—