Chapter 13: The Two of Us Will Be Li Chenfeng’s Wives.

In her panic, Lu Xinyao hurriedly put her clothes back on.

Ning Jingjing pushed aside the layers of banana leaves covering her head and asked, “Xinyao, what’s going on; why did it suddenly get so dark?”

Lu Xinyao blushed and stammered, “It’s me… I accidentally knocked over the post; let’s hurry back.”

Back at camp, Lu Xinyao kept her head bowed and did not say a word, and Li Chenfeng noticed her embarrassment and tried to change the subject to relieve the awkwardness.

He had barely regained some goodwill, and he worried that he might have squandered it all again.

“The rain has stopped; I’ll go check the beach to see if we can find anything useful, and since it is Day 3 and the rescue team still hasn’t come, I guess we’ll have to rely on ourselves to survive.”

Ning Jingjing looked confused and asked, “Why? Have we been abandoned?”

“The golden 72-hour rescue window has already passed, and I feel the island’s weather may get worse, so we must come up with countermeasures.”

“I propose we can build our own boat and go back.”

“Jingjing, don’t make things worse; where are we even going to find a boat to return from here?”

“We can build our own ship and, like Luffy, sail the Grand Line to travel the world; yay!”

Li Chenfeng looked dumbfounded and said, “Ning Jingjing, come on; at best we can make a small raft, which might be okay for short distances, but for long trips we’d be shark bait.”

Lu Xinyao looked at Ning Jingjing, shook her head, and said, “That kid is hopeless.”

“Hmph, I was just joking; you two act like you’re joined at the hip, always so quick to rain on my parade.”

At the mention of pants, Lu Xinyao couldn’t help recalling the earlier scene, a blush immediately rose on her fair cheeks, and she kept her head down in silence.

“Okay, okay, just follow my plan: supplies are scarce right now, so for the time being we need to find food and locate an island that can sustain us long-term.”

Ning Jingjing’s head spun at talk of “sustainability” and “development”, and she snapped, “Stop using official-sounding talk; just tell us what we’re supposed to do.”

“Jingjing, Chenfeng means that we should prepare for long-term survival on the island.”

“Oh, I see, why didn’t you just say that?”

“See, you can tell at a glance who is the top student and who is the slacker.”

Ning Jingjing said with a haughty look, “Hmph, don’t flatter yourself.”

“Jingjing, okay, listen to what Chenfeng has to say.”

“I just checked the beach this morning and found that the waves had washed in a lot of trash; we can search for useful items, such as plastic bottles, aluminum cans, iron pots, and other plastics.”

“Okay,” the two of them agreed like obedient little children.

The three split into two parties and searched outward from the beach in front of the shelter until they met up.

Lu Xinyao teamed up with Ning Jingjing while Li Chenfeng went alone, and they began to search.

Most of what lay on the beach was useless marine debris, and bottles were the most common items.

“Xinyao, what do you think of Li Chenfeng as a person?”

“He’s pretty great; he has a good figure and is handsome, but more importantly he is well-educated, talented, and thoughtful.”

“Mm, I agree; if we can’t go back, we’ll just become Li Chenfeng’s wives.”

“Ning Jingjing, what nonsense are you talking; we will definitely be able to go back.”

Lu Xinyao whispered, “Besides, how could the two of us both be Chenfeng’s wives?”

“Okay, 1, 3, and 5 are yours, 2, 4, and 6 are mine, and Sunday will be our day off.”

“Jingjing, what kind of outrageous suggestion is that?”

Ning Jingjing stared into Lu Xinyao’s eyes and said, “Look me in the eye and tell me, don’t you like Li Chenfeng? If you don’t, then he’ll be mine alone.”

“Why would he be only yours?”

“Look, look, you’re flustered, aren’t you? You clearly like him in your heart.”

“So what if I like him? Doesn’t Chenfeng have to agree to this too?”

“Him? I am one of the top ten school beauties at our school; if I became his wife he’d be grinning from ear to ear.”

“Jingjing, aren’t you ashamed? It would be so embarrassing if Chenfeng heard that.”

“Hmph, I’m just brave enough to express what I feel; if you like someone, you should show it freely. Even if he doesn’t like me, I won’t regret it later because I will have tried.”

Lu Xinyao felt somewhat shaken; although Ning Jingjing appeared careless, she actually lived more freely and unrestrainedly, which was better than Lu Xinyao’s habit of not daring to express herself.

“Achoo.”

Li Chenfeng rubbed his nose and said, “Who’s been whispering bad things about me behind my back?”

An hour later, the three of them met up.

“Let’s report what supplies we’ve each found.”

Ning Jingjing emptied a woven plastic bag of trash and said, “We picked up 1 bag of urea, 5 aluminum cans, 23 plastic bottles, a tangled heap of fishing net, and one flip-flop.”

“Not bad; these items are very useful.”

“On my side, I have 30 plastic bottles, a bundle of tangled rope, and 2 large plastic barrels, and nothing else.”

Lu Xinyao smiled encouragingly and said, “Everyone did great; our dream of a wonderful island life has taken another step forward.”

The group trudged back to camp with their hour’s haul, and Li Chenfeng used the break to repair the bath and checked repeatedly to make sure today’s collapse wouldn’t happen again.

The three rested inside the shelter, and Li Chenfeng voiced his thoughts, “This small island is only about the size of 4 football fields, and if the rescue team really hasn’t found us, it will be difficult for us to survive here long-term.”

『Please light a fire before sunset to ward off the cold.』: Preparations before leaving the island … build a wooden raft.

Lu Xinyao thought for a moment, then said seriously, “That’s right; the island is too small and resources are limited, so it is not suitable for long-term habitation.”

“So what should we do now?”

“Or, we could go to another island?”

“Another island?”

“But how would we get there?”

“We can build a raft to paddle across; look, isn’t there a small hill on the opposite coastline? That will be our next destination.”

Lu Xinyao and Ning Jingjing looked in the direction he pointed, and a shaft of sunlight broke through the overcast sky and shone on that island.

“Okay, then let’s give it a name; we’ll call it Sun Island.”

“Then what should we call this island we’re on right now?”

“I think we should call it Storm Island.”

“Then let’s prepare to set off for Sun Island.”

“Yay!”

The more they talked, the more excited they became, as youthful fervor and the thrill of the unknown stirred the three of them.

“Okay, okay, listen to the work plan: during this period I will mainly be responsible for cutting trees and building the raft, and you should search for useful items in safe areas as much as possible.”

“No problem.”

The plastic bag they had planted on the island on Day 1 was blown away by the strong wind and disappeared, as if foreshadowing that the three of them were destined to be tossed about by the storm.