I immediately and carefully grasped the tinderbox in my hand, then turned around and, together with Wang Ping, lit the campfire.
After the campfire was lit, heat began to emanate from the surrounding area.
Bai Wei is still dizzy and doesn't know what happened to him.
Wang Ping didn't have time to pay him any attention.
However, Bai Wei is, after all, one of our partners here, and we couldn't just stand by and watch him die here, so I did a simple check-up on him.
Bai Wei's breathing was steady and his complexion was rosy. He was probably only injured by something like the numbing herbs we used before. He should wake up after sleeping for a while.
We pulled Bai Wei to the campfire to keep his body warm, and Wang Ping immediately led the others with lighter injuries to the beach to find food.
It was already dark, and visibility was extremely poor. We had been on empty stomachs for so long, and if we didn't eat something to replenish our energy, I was afraid none of us would make it through this rather cold and dark night.
Meanwhile, the people who had inexplicably appeared were already sitting on the beach. They took out cigarettes from their pockets, lit them, and took a deep drag, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
I haven't smelled cigarette smoke in a long time, and I couldn't help but get excited after asking.
The man in the lead glanced at me, then took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to me.
I lit it, took a deep breath, and felt completely refreshed.
"My surname is He, you can call me Xiao He. I just don't know how you got to this place. Don't you feel you can't leave? How long have you been here? How do you make a living?"
As soon as this man surnamed He spoke, I immediately thought of the man who had gotten angry that night, and since the foreigner kept calling out "He," it must be him.
I glanced at him and felt that his eyes were full of curiosity and scrutiny.
That makes sense. If a normal person were on a deserted island and encountered so many living people like us, it would be inevitable to feel curious.
But I still don't know what they're here for, so there are some things I can say and some things I can't say.
I briefly recounted our experience of arriving here, including how long we've lived here, and the man surnamed He immediately looked surprised.
"You've been stranded on this deserted island for over three months? You're all still alive, that's truly fortunate!"
The group of people with the surname He also quickly gathered around, just as I was a storyteller in a storytelling hall.
They stood before me, listening intently as I told my story.
I felt a little amused, but I couldn't help feeling sad. After all, we didn't choose to come here, and the life we've experienced here is not something we can accept.
But there was no other way; we had to survive in this place. Only by surviving could we hope to leave. So we lived in this inhuman, ghostly state for more than three months.
Looking back now, those few words, spoken so casually, were the result of our three months of living in fear and exhaustion. It's both pitiful and lamentable.
After listening to our stories, Xiao He's face was filled with emotion.
I looked at Xiao He and hesitated for a moment: "Then how did you get here? Judging from your gear, you don't look like you were stranded on this deserted island!"
When Xiao He heard my question, he chuckled, lit another cigarette from his pocket, and then handed one of these cigarettes to me.
I couldn't bring myself to smoke it, because I remembered that Wang Ping also liked to smoke.
I carefully tucked the cigarette behind my ear, but didn't light it.
Xiao He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag: "We also ended up here by accident. We were planning to explore another island where we had a base, but our ship had an accident at sea and we ended up here. Now that I think about it, if we hadn't found a way to leave, we would probably be living like you, as savages."
I knew Xiao He was lying the moment he opened his mouth. If I hadn't happened to save Yang Rui in the woods that day, I might have believed that they had also ended up there by accident.
But I saved Yang Rui and saw the gunshot wound on his body. Moreover, Yang Rui was too badly injured at the time, so I had no way to ask him how he got it.
However, when I was looking for Wang Ping and his group that night, I overheard this man surnamed He arguing with that foreigner named Peter in the woods. This proves that their arrival here was definitely not as he described.
He's hiding something!
However, if you look at it another way, there's nothing wrong with them hiding something.
After all, I had something to hide from them and some things I was wary of, so they certainly wouldn't dare to tell us the truth directly.
I nodded, but Wang Ping was already calling out from behind us to go get something to eat.
Xiao He and his six companions followed us to the campfire.
We've been stranded on this deserted island for so long, we've mastered all the methods of self-survival.
Moreover, because our pot wasn't big enough after we met up with that group of foreigners that day, we had to make another clay pot on the spot.
Xiao He and the others watched as Wang Ping and his group skillfully rinsed the shellfish meat they had collected and threw it into the pot. They then went to the edge of the woods to pick some wild vegetables, and added the sea salt and shrimp powder that Xiao Qiang and the others had brought for them. Their faces showed great curiosity as they watched the refined sea salt and shrimp powder being prepared.
"Have you been surviving on these things all this time since you came here?"
I nodded, and casually broke off two branches from a nearby tree to make chopsticks. I stirred the contents of the pot, and soon the aroma wafted out.
Of course I know that if this kind of thing were in the city, they probably wouldn't dare to eat it at all.
But having been stranded on a deserted island, even though they look well-equipped now, I can guarantee that if they can't leave within a month or even half a month, and they don't have new supplies, their lives won't be much better than ours.
Xiao He's companions were quite adaptable; they all followed my example and broke off tree branches from the side.
Soon, the food in our pot was cooked, and everyone rushed to get the shellfish and fish from the house.
After eating his fill, Wang Ping sat down and extracted some more distilled water.
One of the foreigners in Xiao He's group even took out a tea canister from his pocket and poured out some tea leaves.
The tea was brewing in the pot, and the aroma filled the air, giving me the illusion that we had returned to the city and were now just out camping.
We sipped our tea and gazed at the sky, because there was nothing much to say.
Xiao He and his group were clearly very wary. After they arrived around us, they didn't even communicate. Everyone just exchanged glances, which made me feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Judging from their appearance, it seems unlikely that we'll be able to leave this godforsaken place by borrowing their boat.
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