Fu Miaoxue was sharp — seeing this, she understood Du Lai’s intent at once. “You’re so clever! The mud can block the wind, and also prevents sparks from flying everywhere and starting a forest fire. Am I right? Is that what it does?”

Du Lai dug up more mud and kept reinforcing the ring. “This kind of mud is mostly decomposed leaf soil, so it’s not ideal. River clay would be much better — higher adhesion. For now, this will have to do.”

Fu Miaoxue nodded repeatedly. “I see, river clay… yes, yes, yes…”

Du Lai gave her an inexplicable look. “You seem very engaged.”

Fu Miaoxue: “Hmm?”

Du Lai said plainly: “You don’t seem anxious at all. You’re in high spirits, and you’ve also…” He paused, scanning his gaze over her, and continued: “…made yourself an outfit of leaves.”

A normal girl in this situation would be utterly at a loss by now, wouldn’t she?

Fu Miaoxue said carelessly: “I’m treating it as a life experience~”

Du Lai asked with suspicion: “You’re not afraid of being stranded here forever? It might be many years before anyone comes to rescue us.”

Fu Miaoxue tilted her head and looked at him. “Will it be?”

Du Lai pressed his lips together, saying neither “yes” nor “no.” He replied: “Some of the more well-known historical cases of people being stranded on deserted islands — they weren’t discovered until years, even more than a decade, later.”

Thinking of this, his chest felt as though a massive boulder had been pressed upon it — suffocating.

He was still young, with so much of his youth ahead of him. Was he really going to be trapped in a place like this for over a decade before he could leave?

Fu Miaoxue said: “If we get rescued in just two or three days, it probably won’t even make the news, right?”

Du Lai was momentarily startled, then nodded. “You’re not wrong…”

And suddenly, his mood lightened.

“You seem very afraid of being stuck here.” Fu Miaoxue stared at him curiously. “Why? Is there someone very important to you on the outside? A wife? Children? Parents?”

“I have no family.” Du Lai didn’t want to discuss this and dusted off his hands, standing up. “I’m going to the beach over there to see if I can find food. You stay here and set up the tent.”

“I’m coming too!” Fu Miaoxue said immediately.

“Suit yourself.” Du Lai turned and walked away.

He would never take orders from her, and he had no expectation of being able to order her around either.

By now the sun was tilting toward the west. There was still a small window of time before full dark. Du Lai wanted to reach the beach as quickly as possible — once night fell, they wouldn’t be able to see anything, and they’d have to spend another night on empty stomachs.

The cumulative effects of hunger were relentless. He had to fill his stomach as soon as possible if he was going to have any foothold on this island.

Fu Miaoxue walked and stopped behind him, now asking what kind of tree this was, now asking whether those fruits over there were edible, then a moment later saying how hungry she was and why weren’t they there yet, or questioning whether he had gone in the wrong direction…

Incomparably noisy.

Du Lai could only marvel at her energy.

At least she still had the strength to chatter. He couldn’t even be bothered to say half a word.

When they finally reached the beach, Du Lai began turning over rocks and digging in the sand.

And so Fu Miaoxue’s questions multiplied further. She was like an elementary school student on an excursion — curious about absolutely everything——

“Why are you turning over rocks?”

“What’s the point of digging in the sand?”

“This thing is really edible?”

“How do you eat it? We don’t have a pot — what do we cook it in?”

Du Lai tuned it all out. He found a crab beneath a rock, pounced at it several times before finally catching it, immediately shoved it into the bamboo tube, and then stuffed a wad of grass in after it.

He packed it in tightly to prevent the crab from escaping.

Fu Miaoxue looked at him with suspicious eyes. “A crab that tiny can’t possibly be worth eating, can it?”