“Du Lai.”

Fu Miaoxue called out to him softly.

“Are you asleep?”

Du Lai paused, then rolled over. “What is it?”

Fu Miaoxue turned over too, until they were face to face.

“Tomorrow — if rescue still doesn’t come…” she pressed her lips together and asked quietly, “What do we do?”

Du Lai was quiet for a moment, then said: “We should find water first. Today we’ve nearly used up all the rainwater we collected. This island has dense vegetation, so there must be freshwater sources somewhere. Tomorrow we’ll venture further in.”

Fu Miaoxue asked: “And after we find water?”

“Find food.” Du Lai thought it through. “Food is still not enough. We can’t eat clams and crabs every day. It’d be best if we could catch fish and shrimp. We also need to look for fruits or legumes on the island that could substitute for carbohydrates.”

“But we don’t have fishing rods or nets… how would we catch fish and shrimp?” Fu Miaoxue sighed faintly, rubbing her stomach. “Tonight I didn’t really feel full at all. Those clams and crabs were too lean and too small.”

Du Lai was amused. “You ate more than I did.”

“Can’t waste food. You’re sick and can’t eat much.” She murmured the words and darted a glance at Du Lai. “Are you feeling better? Still running a fever?”

Du Lai reached up and touched his own forehead. The temperature had gone down quite a bit. If he slept through the night, he figured he’d probably be recovered by morning.

“Go to sleep,” he said, rolling over. “You get to sleep early too. Build up your strength — don’t get sick.”

“But I can’t sleep.” She sighed again. “The ground is so cold and hard. And not brushing my teeth at night — I’m so not used to this…”

Du Lai said, eyes closed: “Tomorrow I’ll find you some leaves for cleaning your teeth. Go to sleep.”

“Leaves can clean teeth?”

“Yes. Many plant leaves have cleansing properties. When I was looking for fruits, I spotted a few wild guava trees. Guava leaves can clean your teeth and even prevent bad breath.”

“Did they have fruit? Can we eat it?”

“They did, but it hasn’t ripened yet. Not edible.”

“Du Lai, you know so much…”

“Du Lai, I’m so glad I ran into you. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise…”

“Du Lai, I’ll have my grandfather reward you properly. Don’t disbelieve me — I’ll definitely give you a hundred million.”

“…Du Lai?”

“Du Lai?”

……

Du Lai had already fallen asleep.

Fu Miaoxue watched his back for a while, then closed her eyes too.

……

The next day came with glorious sunshine.

Fu Miaoxue opened her eyes to find Du Lai gone.

She crawled out of the cave and found him tending to the campfire.

After burning through the night, the fire had dwindled. He used a thin branch to rake out the black ash, then added fresh branches and dry grass, repeating yesterday’s process.

Du Lai heard footsteps behind him and said without turning around: “Once we find a water source, we’ll need to figure out how to make some charcoal. Relying on these branches every day means having to get up in the middle of the night to add fuel — otherwise it goes out very easily.”

“You’re going to make charcoal too?” Fu Miaoxue stared at him in wide-eyed surprise.

Du Lai glanced back at her and shook his head. “I know the principle. But I’ve never actually tried it.”

The campfire roared back to life.

Du Lai stood up. “Finding a water source could take a while. You’ll slow me down if you come along. Let’s split up. You go to the beach and look for food. I’ll go find water.”

As long as she was just digging for clams on the beach, Du Lai felt that was a difficulty level Fu Miaoxue could manage.

Fu Miaoxue agreed readily: “Sure, I’ll go find food. When I went to look for a place to use the bathroom before, I saw a small cave. There was a lot of seawater inside it. Maybe we can catch something bigger in there.”

Du Lai nodded. “Be careful. Don’t go where the water is too deep.”

Fu Miaoxue immediately brightened and asked: “You’re so concerned about me — do you like me?”