Annoying or not, she still had to endure the annoyance and eat at the same table.

Eight people sat at the table. Besides their group of four, there was Uncle Zhao, the female tour guide, the burly man from the boat, and a young man beside him.

Most of the dishes on the table were fish, with quite a few vegetables too.

They hadn’t had such a proper meal in a long time.

Tan Xiao clutched his rice bowl and wolfed down food. Teacher Cheng held his wine cup and drank merrily with Uncle Zhao. The burly man and the young man beside him were quiet, just grinning foolishly. The female tour guide served this person food and added water for that one.

Among them, she served Shen Mo food most frequently.

—No helping it, his looks and physique were too appealing.

However, Shen Mo didn’t touch any of the food she served him. Otherwise Bai Youwei wouldn’t have sat quietly until now.

After a round of drinks, Uncle Zhao asked Shen Mo with a smile, “I heard you walked around the island all morning?”

“Mm.” Shen Mo said flatly. “Walking around, and also wanting to see if there were any passing transport ships.”

He didn’t hide it, because on this small island their movements couldn’t be concealed anyway. Also, he wanted to use the question to test the other party’s reaction.

Tan Xiao quickly added on the side, “We walked around for half the day and didn’t see anything!”

Uncle Zhao smiled. “That’s because West Mountain Island’s dock isn’t on our side—it’s in another direction, blocked by mountains. Of course you couldn’t see it.”

The old man’s expression appeared normal, revealing no clues.

Shen Mo asked, “Besides being selected to go to the safety base, is there any other way to contact the people there?”

“Do you have some urgent matter?” Uncle Zhao set down his wine cup, very amiable. “If it’s urgent, you can tell me. Next time I take the boat over, I can pass along a message for you. However, I can only talk to people at the dock. Going any higher up would be difficult.”

The burly man poured Shen Mo a cup of wine. “Brother, what’s your hurry? Anyway, they select a batch of people every week—one week is just about ten people. Our island currently has… well, sixty or seventy people. That’s just three or four more weeks and it’ll definitely be your turn.”

“The island only has sixty or seventy people?” Shen Mo was slightly stunned.

This number was much less than expected. When he and Tan Xiao observed the situation on the island, many places showed signs of habitation.

The burly man said, “There used to be more—at most over three hundred. But later everyone gradually went to the base, didn’t they?”

Tan Xiao asked doubtfully, “Then why have you stayed here all this time?”

“Heh, bad luck.” The burly man smiled. “Every selection, my name’s never there. But I’m not in a hurry either. Life on this island is pretty comfortable. If I went to the base there’d be even more rules. I’m doing fine here.”

At the end, he elbowed his companion beside him. “Right, Xiao Zhang?”

Xiao Zhang pushed him back and laughed, scolding, “Right, your head! Xiao Mei is at the base—I definitely have to go too!”

The burly man laughed heartily and told everyone, “This guy misses his wife!”

Everyone at the table laughed.

The meal was quite enjoyable. Except for Shen Mo, several of the men drank a bit much. Teacher Cheng had poor alcohol tolerance—after a few cups with Uncle Zhao his face turned completely red and he wobbled when walking. Tan Xiao wasn’t much better.

Shen Mo helped Tan Xiao up and had Xiao Zhang on the side help Teacher Cheng back.

The group returned to the hotel rooms. Xiao Zhang set down Teacher Cheng and prepared to leave, when he discovered the door had closed at some point—

Shen Mo, Bai Youwei, and Tan Xiao—all three watched him with complete composure.

Shen Mo asked Bai Youwei, “Sure you want to pick him?”

Bai Youwei smiled and nodded. “Mm, it’s him.”

Xiao Zhang was confused. “What… what’s this about?”

“Be honest!” Tan Xiao completely dropped his drunken act, arrogantly and viciously waving the baseball bat in his hand. “Whatever my big brother says, you do it! Otherwise you’ll regret it!”