The two of them slept deeply.

So deeply that when Fu Miaoxue kicked down half the tent in the middle of the night — branches and leaves collapsing right on top of them — neither of them even noticed.

The next morning, Du Lai woke to a scene of wreckage. He stayed still for a long moment, slowly piecing together what had happened the day before——

He was on a deserted island.

Stranded together with Fu Lishen’s precious granddaughter.

……

The sky was overcast and grey, as though a heavy rain was imminent.

For Du Lai, this was good news. He just hadn’t found a proper sheltered spot yet.

He sat up, intending to rise and rebuild the tent — but the moment he did, his vision went dark and the world spun violently.

Du Lai quickly sat back down.

He knew something was wrong.

Despite sleeping through the night, the aching weakness in his limbs hadn’t improved at all. His head, especially, felt like a bell being struck — throbbing painfully.

He raised a hand and pressed it to his forehead. It was hot. His heart sank.

Exhaustion and hunger both weakened the body’s immune response, leaving it vulnerable to illness. And that was exactly what had happened to him.

It might have been the sea wind during the night causing a chill, or an infection from a cut made by a leaf — either way, what mattered most right now was replenishing his body’s energy as quickly as possible to boost his resistance.

Du Lai did not want to die. He refused to die here in such a senseless, absurd way.

He crawled to his feet, found the bamboo tubes he’d left out the night before, drank a few quick mouthfuls of water, then picked up a thick branch to use as a walking stick and stumbled off into the jungle.

The noise woke Fu Miaoxue.

She pushed away the branches and leaves, sat up in a daze, and murmured, “How did the tent fall down?”

Then she looked around and spotted Du Lai’s retreating figure, calling out, “Du Lai! Where are you going?! The tent fell down!”

Du Lai only gave a weak wave of his hand with no answer.

The truth was that his voice had gone so hoarse he couldn’t manage actual words.

“Is he going to the bathroom?” Fu Miaoxue muttered quietly to herself. It occurred to her that she also needed to relieve herself.

The young mistress brushed off her skirt and stood up, glancing left and right, and murmured, “He went to the right, so I’ll go to the left……”

……

Along the western edge of the beach was a dense cluster of rocks and reefs.

Even though she knew there was probably no one else on this island besides her and Du Lai, she still wanted to find somewhere out of sight to take care of her personal needs.

After all, relieving oneself in broad daylight in the open — that really was too mortifying.

Fu Miaoxue walked along the reef line for a stretch and suddenly discovered a cave hollowed out of the rock.

This was an unexpected delight!

They had just lost their tent and she’d been fretting over where to sleep that night, and now she had found a cave — how could she not be excited?

But Fu Miaoxue’s excitement lasted less than half a minute.

When she stepped inside, she found it completely flooded with seawater. It had clearly been submerged at high tide, and now that the tide had receded, the cave entrance was exposed, but the seawater had been left trapped inside.

If she actually tried to use this place as shelter, she and Du Lai would likely be drowned in their sleep before the night was through.

Fu Miaoxue was bitterly disappointed.

She took care of her needs and went back in low spirits.

The tent was still collapsed. The water in the bamboo tubes was nearly gone. Fu Miaoxue drank what remained and sat down to wait for Du Lai.

But he still didn’t come back.

She started to wonder if Du Lai was constipated.

They hadn’t eaten a single thing all day yesterday — what exactly would he have to be constipated with?

Fu Miaoxue waited for a while, hunger gnawing at her and making it hard to think. Wanting something to do to take her mind off it, she got up to repair the tent.

She stood the central pole upright, then re-propped the surrounding thinner branches back into place, imitating the way Du Lai had done it yesterday, binding them with the cloth strips.

She worked carefully, and the tent she built seemed sturdier than before.

That realization gave Fu Miaoxue a real sense of accomplishment.

“So this is where my talent lies……” Fu Miaoxue flexed her wrists and decided her next step would be to make the tent wider! Taller! Bigger in every way!

—