Fu Miaoxue cried while biting down on the clam meat he fed her, chewing with tears in her eyes.

It was still a little gritty, but already much better than before.

She swallowed with a sniffle and looked at Du Lai with wounded eyes. “I’m still hungry.”

Du Lai dug out another piece of clam meat, rinsed the grit out in the bamboo tube as before, and fed it to Fu Miaoxue.

He fed her more than a dozen pieces in a row, coaxing the young mistress until she finally stopped crying. A small pile of empty clam shells had accumulated on the ground.

Du Lai watched her eat bite after bite, her cheeks puffed out, and felt he was rather like someone feeding a small animal.

“Are you full yet?” he asked with mild amusement. “Young mistress, my arm is sore, and I haven’t even had a single bite myself.”

Fu Miaoxue licked her lips and rubbed her stomach. “I want two more little crabs.”

“Fine…” Du Lai nodded, full of genuine admiration.

He took out the bamboo tube with the crabs and didn’t open it — just tossed it directly onto the fire. While the crabs were roasting, he used the knife to slice off the octopus’s head, picked up the tentacles, and chewed them down.

The octopus itself had no particular flavor. Having rolled around on the bottom of the birdcage, it had taken on a faint metallic tang. But at least it was something hot to eat. When he swallowed it down, his long-hungry stomach felt its first taste of relief.

Before long, the crabs were done.

More accurately, they had been steamed than roasted. He pulled out the grass plug from the tube opening and scalding water poured out. Du Lai’s fingers moved nimbly to avoid it. He used a stick to tip up the bottom of the bamboo tube and shook it lightly. The bright red crabs inside tumbled out onto the broad leaf he was holding in his other hand.

He gave two to Fu Miaoxue and picked up a one-legged crab for himself to eat.

The crabs were barely palm-sized.

Even the fattest hairy crab yields only a little meat — let alone a tiny crab like this.

Du Lai was considering whether to just crunch the whole thing and be done with it when he glanced over and saw Fu Miaoxue eating her crab with meticulous care——

She snapped off each crab leg one by one, then pried open the shell and slowly picked at the crab meat inside. When she had finished that, she gave a little suck, then started on the crab legs.

Even eating the legs was an elaborate affair. She first cracked the casing with her teeth, then used the sharp tip of a claw — turned around — to pick out the meat inside the leg shell. She had also taken out a half-eaten fruit, squeezed it a little, coaxed out some juice — sweet and sour — and drizzled it over the crab leg. She popped it all in her mouth together, and her expression said it was quite delicious…

Du Lai watched Fu Miaoxue eating with such relish that he couldn’t help swallowing. He reached his hand out toward her: “Give me a fruit too.”

“I only have one left.” Fu Miaoxue passed him the fruit she had already been squeezing.

Du Lai ate his crab the same way she had.

Still barely any meat.

And it was quite tedious to eat this way. The flavor, however, genuinely improved.

He patiently picked at the meat in the crab’s claws, eating as he teased her: “And you managed to make that little thing feel like a five-star Michelin experience.”

Fu Miaoxue had a crab leg in her mouth and replied indistinctly: “Michelin goes up to three stars maximum.”

Du Lai shook his head with a laugh. “Fair enough. Learned something new.”

With food in their stomachs and warmth from the campfire, the two seemed to be thawing toward each other. Their conversation no longer had that edge of constant friction.

After finishing this meal, they worked together to set up the tent. Since it was so late, they couldn’t venture deeper into the jungle, so they gathered branches and leaves from nearby and propped them against the large boulder — enough to shelter them from the wind.

Du Lai used a torch and burned every corner of the cave to drive out insects and do some basic disinfecting.

Fu Miaoxue layered thick broad leaves over the ground, determined to make herself sleep as comfortably as possible.

The campfire blazed warmly.

The two lay on opposite sides of the stone cave, silent.

Against the black expanse of sky above, stars sparkled like scattered jewels, and the Milky Way stretched like a shimmering, graceful ribbon across the heavens — dim and luminous all at once, quiet and romantic.

Du Lai propped his elbow beneath his head and lay on his side, gazing out at the distant starry sky. Slowly, his heart grew quiet.

Thinking of his current circumstances, he felt a sort of absurd, wry disbelief.

If this were two days ago, he never would have believed he could end up stranded on a deserted island — and even less that he’d be stranded on it together with Fu Lisheng’s granddaughter.