Bai Wei and his group were all lazy and gluttonous. They were especially cautious with their female colleagues, who were afraid to even go down from the mountaintop. They even had to let their male colleagues do the vegetable washing.

Bai Wei's tenacity was nowhere near that of Wang Xiaoxiao and the others. The main problem was that Bai Wei himself was lazy and loved to eat. He would rather lie down than stand up. Even the rice seedlings he transplanted were only allowed to get wet when it rained and left to dry when it didn't.

Every day, I see mostly male colleagues going up the mountain in groups to pick fresh mushrooms and some wild vegetables that we used to eat.

Apart from that, everything else is bland and watery, and it's even rarer to go to the beach to get smoked fish and dried meat.

However, we already had a clear division of labor: Wang Ping and Wang Xiaoxiao were in one team, Chen Jian and Liu Jiaojiao were in another, and I was in a team with Xu Wei and Xiao Qiang.

The three of us had to split up and go out to find food almost every day. Besides picking fruit, we would also look for nearby freshwater areas.

Xiao Qiang's main task was to find medicinal herbs.

After all this time, we've come to realize more and more that herbs are the real life-saving solution.

Moreover, Xiao Qiang must make full use of all the herbs she knows now.

Unfortunately, we didn't have paper and pen, so we couldn't write down the names of the herbs we found, which made things a bit complicated.

So they could only let Xiao Qiang mark all the clay jars containing herbs, so she could recognize them herself.

Besides collecting seashells along the beach, we also focused on picking up shrimp to supplement our protein intake and sea cucumbers to supplement our nutrition.

Behind the yard we fenced off, Wang Ping also built a pole similar to a clothes rack, where we could use vines to dry all the things we bought.

Moreover, we've been weaving all sorts of basket frames these past few days.

After this period of practice, I can now weave flat baskets from vines and simple branches, which is more convenient for drying shellfish meat and fish liver.

However, after eating fruit for so long, I've gotten a bit tired of it, and I'm not as delighted as I was at the beginning.

Wang Xiaoxiao, sitting behind me, sighed easily as she looked at the short-legged bird and said this.

“We’ve almost run out of oil. I think we should go catch some more wild boars to get more oil. Otherwise, we won’t be able to stand eating this clear soup and water.”

Hearing Wang Xiaoxiao's words, Xu Wei leaned over and chuckled, "I don't think we can't take it, but Bai Wei and the others really can't. Last night I saw them start a fire and put in a pot full of wild vegetable leaves and a few dried fish. They didn't even have salt. I don't know how they've been surviving all this time."

Speaking of salt, we don't have much sea salt left, so we really should go to the beach again in the next couple of days.

As we were discussing this, Chen Jian came out from behind, smiling at me. Brother Wang Ping said, "Should we go out and see if there are any mushrooms nearby? He said he wants to climb a tree to catch some bird eggs and make some soup. Also, didn't Xu Wei say he can make wine? Let's pick more grapes this time. When we went a couple of days ago, I saw that the grapes had already started to fall to the ground. I'm afraid they'll be out of season if we don't eat them soon."

I nodded, turned around and followed Chen Jian, who was carrying a basket and a bottle, and led Xu Wei to the back mountain.

Although Wang Ping's leg had almost fully recovered, he still couldn't handle the long journey, so I left him a gun and asked him to guard the camp.

Chen Jian and I went mushroom picking.

When we arrived at the orchard, the mother monkey was very happy and led her baby monkeys to jump around and help us pick up things.

Xu Wei chuckled: "I think we should give these one or two monkeys a name, otherwise it's disrespectful to just call them monkeys like that."

Chen Jian looked at Xu Wei and chuckled, "So, what does my little sister-in-law want to call me? That's what we'll call her."

Xu Wei blushed deeply at Chen Jian's address of her as "little sister-in-law." She turned to look at me with a shy expression and stammered for a long time before finally saying, "I think this little monkey should go find Little Bean. The big monkey can just call Bean Mom. It's just a nickname, something to play around with."

After saying that, he turned around and took a knife to look for grapes that could be used to make wine.

I turned to Chen Jian and said, "You've got a sharp tongue. If he gets angry if you call him that, I'll beat you to death."

Chen Jian rolled his eyes at me, then leaned in and lectured me: "Brother Sihai, do you know? What girls like most is a sense of security. You're in an ambiguous relationship with Secretary Xiao right now, and you're like this with Clerk Xu. So, you really need to handle this situation well, otherwise, there's a lot of trouble ahead. Let me tell you, if I call him that, he definitely won't be angry. He'll even find it sweeter! Brother Sihai, you seem so composed and calculating in everything, so why are you so hesitant and timid when it comes to women? Have you never been in a relationship before?"

Chen Jian and I have been through thick and thin together during this time, and our relationship is no longer the same as before.

Furthermore, since we were stranded on this deserted island, Chen Jian has never shown me any prejudice; it seems that he has always been on my side from the very beginning.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have handed me his only lighter, even though it was eventually stolen by someone else.

So he's much more reserved when he talks to me now than before.

Seeing Chen Jian expose me, I felt a little embarrassed, so I quickly turned around and pushed him.

"Don't talk nonsense here, hurry up and get busy. We need to get back before dark."

Before I could finish speaking, I suddenly heard Xu Wei shouting in the distance. I was startled and quickly ran over, only to find Xu Wei squatting on the ground looking at something.

It was a lush green leaf, and beneath it were many round things of various colors, each about the size of a thumb.

Xu Wei looked at Chen Jian again and whispered, "Is this edible? I think it's probably edible since it grows next to this orchard, right?"

Chen Jian picked one, broke it in half, put it in his mouth, took a bite, and frowned.

"Why is this so spicy? Oh, and it's also a little sweet. Is this chili pepper?"

I quickly told Chen Jian to spit out what was in his mouth and not to eat anything else.

“We’re not familiar with this place. What if you get poisoned from eating random things? Regardless of whether we can eat them or not, let’s pick some first. Xiao Qiang’s major is in this field, so maybe he knows something. If they’re really edible and spicy, then we’ll have some seasoning for the future.”

Xu Wei was also very happy and quickly filled his small basket with a few fruits. After we finished picking fruits, mushrooms and wild vegetables, we returned to the top of the mountain and found that Xiao Qiang and the others had already prepared a meal.

Xu Wei presented these strange things we had picked to Xiao Qiang as if they were treasures.

Xiao Qiang was excited after just one glance.