The smile on Fu Miaoxue’s face vanished in an instant.

She stared at Du Lai, brow furrowed in displeasure. “You’re half-dead already and you still want to fight me for the top spot? Have you forgotten who my grandfather is?”

Du Lai sipped his hot water, and there was no heat in him now — he spoke evenly. “Fu Lishen is Fu Lishen. You are you. Do you know how to get your bearings at sea? Do you know how to find food? If you encounter a poisonous insect or a snake, do you know how to treat it?”

Fu Miaoxue was stumped by his questions. She thought for a moment, then looked at him. “Do you know?”

Du Lai nodded. “Yes, I do.”

“Well then, there you go,” Fu Miaoxue said. “You know how — so go and do it. Why do you need to fight me for who’s in charge?”

“……” Du Lai had nothing to say to that. After a pause, he asked, “If I know everything, why should I be taking orders from you instead of leading myself?”

“Because my grandfather is Fu Lishen!” Fu Miaoxue stared at him as though he were an idiot. “You’d dare make Fu Lishen’s granddaughter your subordinate? Do you have any idea what’ll happen? If my grandfather ever found out, he’d skin you alive — do you believe me or not?”

Du Lai gave a self-deprecating laugh. “If I let a woman who doesn’t know the first thing about anything give me random orders, I might not even live long enough to see Fu Lishen.”

Fu Miaoxue: “……”

Du Lai’s words cut her deeply.

Fu Miaoxue narrowed her brow and shot back with a frown, “The water you’re drinking right now — I boiled that, didn’t I? How am I someone who doesn’t know anything? Besides, weren’t you just some two-bit magician on the ship? What’s with the attitude? Who do you think you are to be calling yourself my leader?!”

Du Lai continued calmly sipping his hot water. “I won’t follow your orders. That’s final.”

They were at a deadlock.

Both wanted to be in charge.

After a long silence, Fu Miaoxue made another suggestion. “How about we do rock-paper-scissors?”

Du Lai couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Play rock-paper-scissors with a magician? Was she being serious?

Did she know how fast a magician’s hands could move?

“All right, rock-paper-scissors it is.” Du Lai nodded in agreement. Childish as the game was, if it got her to settle down, it was worth one round.

They both put their hands behind their backs and counted off together:

“Rock……

……scissors……

……shoot!”

Fu Miaoxue had thrown rock, and Du Lai had thrown paper.

Fu Miaoxue lost.

“Great, from now on I’m the leader!” Fu Miaoxue announced happily.

Du Lai: “……”

He raised an eyebrow and looked over lazily. “Interesting. So in your family’s version of rock-paper-scissors, the loser wins?”

Fu Miaoxue gave a dignified snort. “I never said the winner gets to be the leader.”

Du Lai was thoroughly speechless. After a beat, he said with cutting sarcasm, “In that case, let’s play two more rounds. Best of three.”

“Why would a grown man be such a sore loser?” Fu Miaoxue refused. “Best of one! I lost, so I’m the leader!”

Du Lai couldn’t help but close his eyes. He felt that if he kept arguing, he’d end up just as ridiculous and unreasonable and utterly impossible to reason with as she was.

Fine……

If she wanted to call herself the leader, let her.

He wasn’t going to listen to her anyway.

That said — he had to admit, this woman was rather remarkable in her own way. Most people stranded on a deserted island would be frightened, panicking, frantic, and lost. She seemed entirely unaffected, and still had the presence of mind to play rock-paper-scissors. Her composure was truly something else.

Du Lai thought back to the image of Fu Miaoxue going at him tooth and nail in that fight, and quietly gave his verdict: How was she anything like a pampered young heiress? She was a bandit through and through.

“Du Lai.” The self-appointed bandit-leader spoke up. “What do you think we should do next? I think we need to get the tent up first. Otherwise, when it gets dark tonight, we’ll be stuck out in the cold wind all over again!”