As the sun began to set, Wang Lun appeared on the beach. Li Ling, who was weaving baskets, noticed him and quickly put down her work to help. She rushed to Wang Lun, who was dragging a large bundle of bamboo—about twenty stalks, with pieces of seaweed attached. This bamboo had been brought back from the bay. Li Ling quickly joined in, each of them pulling a vine. As soon as she lifted it, she felt its weight; although it was all dried bamboo, the quantity was considerable.
Wang Lun and Li Ling worked together to drag the bamboo to the vicinity of the shelter. Wang Lun put down the vines and went straight back to the shelter to sit down. Seeing Wang Lun like this, Li Ling quickly poured him a bowl of water and handed it to him. Wang Lun drank it all in one gulp and said, "I'm going to rest for a while. Call me when we're going to go beachcombing later." Li Ling said, "Okay." Wang Lun went into the shelter and lay down to rest. Seeing that Wang Lun was resting, Li Ling began to weave baskets.
As the sun was about to dip below the horizon, Li Ling, estimating it was about time, quietly picked up her basket and went to the beach to collect seafood. Shortly after Li Ling left, Wang Lun woke up, got up, poured himself a bowl of water, and, seeing Li Ling was gone, looked into the distance and saw her collecting seafood on the beach. He put down his bamboo bowl, picked up his basket, and went over. This time, Li Ling refused to let Wang Lun carry the basket, so he had to carry the collected seafood himself. Perhaps both of them had anticipated this, because they spent an unusually long time collecting seafood that evening, only returning to the shelter in the last rays of the setting sun. However, because they had collected seafood many times in the previous days, they didn't have much left on the beach, about a basketful as usual. Wang Lun used this time to collect the fish baskets, finding only two fish in four baskets: one of the same type as before, and another, a small fish weighing less than a pound. After processing the fish, he put down the baskets again and returned to the campfire.
Wang Lun said, "There are fewer and fewer fish now. I think we should go back tomorrow. How many have we caught?" Li Ling said, "Including the two you just brought back, we have 307." Wang Lun said, "So many? How can we eat them for long?" Li Ling smiled and said, "Of course! If each person catches three fish a day, it can last for fifty days. Not to mention that these fish are mostly over a pound each. With some wild vegetables, it should last for more than two months." Wang Lun said, "Since we have so many fish, let's go back after we finish fishing tomorrow morning." Li Ling said, "Okay, then let's get everything ready tonight." Wang Lun said, "Okay, but we still need to eat dinner first. What do you want for dinner? Fish or seafood?" Li Ling said, "Fish, I heard that eating too much seafood is bad." Wang Lun said, "Okay, then let's cook fish. We'll cook two fresh fish." So, Wang Lun processed the two fish he had just caught from the fish basket, and the water in the pot boiled. It was time to put the fish in. Meanwhile, Li Ling was also busy, taking out all sorts of things to pack together after dinner.
Before long, the boiled fish was ready. This time it was just boiled fish, nothing but water and fish. The two ate it, but felt it was still a little lacking. Wang Lun was about to cook another one when Li Ling stopped him, saying, "No need to cook any more. Eat less tonight." Seeing that Li Ling had said so, Wang Lun decided not to cook any more. He figured he could always cook more later if he got hungry.
Since it's already dark, I won't wash the pots and pans today. I just rinsed them with some sand, and that's fine. I'll wash them tomorrow morning when it's light, and I'll also fetch water to cook breakfast.
Li Ling took out three baskets, two hampers, and one regular basket. The two decided to put all the fish in the hampers and carry them the next day. The two hampers were packed tightly to the brim, and some live fish from the afternoon were put in one of the baskets to dry tonight before packing them in tomorrow. They took out another basket to pack the dried seafood and tools. The basket containing the live fish was used to pack the seafood they had collected that night, which they would process first. The remaining basket was for tomorrow's beachcombing trip; if there was a lot, they could eat it first, and carry the rest back. As for the regular basket, it couldn't hold much, so it was put in the hampers and carried back. After tidying up for a while, Wang Lun, seeing that things were almost done, told Li Ling to go and rest; he would be on night watch for the first half of the night. Li Ling didn't say anything more, quickly washed up, and returned to the shelter to rest. Wang Lun thought for a moment and decided that when he returned tomorrow, he should first build a fence to protect the shelter from any animals that might come and steal his food. Having made up his mind, he stopped thinking about it and focused on processing the harvested seafood.
The other contestants spent the day mostly searching for food and reinforcing their shelter. Some, with some food reserves, started making pottery. Wu Jing and her companion were among them. Since neither of them had chosen a pot, they had been eating roasted or stewed food for the past few days, which was becoming unbearable. So, taking advantage of their food reserves, they started preparing to make pottery the previous night. After returning from hunting yesterday, they went out to gather firewood and dug up some soil. Finding no clay, they dug up a termite nest, getting bitten several times in the process. After dinner, they returned to their cave and began making clay pieces. Both were quite skillful, managing to make three large jars, four large bowls, a pot, and a spoon that Wu Jing had spontaneously devised.
The next day, the two got up early, placed the clay they had prepared the night before in the yard, piled firewood on top, lit a fire, and roasted some food. After eating, Wu Jing went out to gather more firewood, while Zhang Shengnan stayed at the campsite to tend the fire and tidy up the camp. They worked all day, and the fire burned fiercely until evening, when it finally began to die down. They didn't eat dinner, waiting for the pottery to be fired so they could cook meat that night. Around eight o'clock, seeing that the fire had died down and the embers weren't too hot, the two carefully dug through the ashes, revealing the pottery. They were lucky; they successfully made two jars, three bowls, and the spoon. As for the pot, unfortunately, it broke. So they used one of the jars to cook. Finally, on the fifth day, they were able to eat cooked food.
As for the Liu sisters, Liu Ruoxi was so exhausted yesterday that she didn't get up until one or two in the morning, driven by hunger, to relieve Liu Ruoling, who was already yawning. Liu Ruoling, seeing Liu Ruoxi come to relieve her, forgot to tell her that she had left her dinner and went straight to sleep. Liu Ruoxi, after a while of hunger, decided to drink some water to fill her stomach. Opening the pot beside her, she found stewed wild vegetables and meat inside. She heated it up on the campfire and started eating, not caring whether it was salty or not, as long as it was edible. After finishing, she remembered Liu Ruoling, turned around, and saw her fast asleep, smacking her lips, probably dreaming of something delicious. She couldn't help but chuckle.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com