Chapter 5: Drilling Wood to Make Fire.

“Ning Jingjing, what are you thinking?”

“Hmph, who says you only have eyes for Xinyao; you never paid attention to me. My figure isn’t bad either.”

“Not bad, not bad; Young Lady Ning, how could your beauty and grace ever be lacking, right?”

Ning Jingjing said with a haughty expression, “That’s more like it.”

Li Chenfeng thought to himself, (As expected, a woman’s heart is as deep as the sea and truly hard to fathom.)

“Hey, by the way, what did you find to eat?”

Li Chenfeng pointed at the plastic bag on the ground and said, “A bag of dragon-beard seaweed.”

“Dragon-beard seaweed? The kind you put in hot pot?”

“Mm, you also like ordering dragon-beard seaweed when you have hot pot?”

Ning Jingjing nodded eagerly like a little chick pecking rice and said, “It’s one of the must-order dishes.”

“Yay, but we don’t have a lighter, so how are we supposed to start a fire and cook dragon-beard seaweed?”

『Please light a fire before sunset to ward off the cold.』

Exactly; islands generally have large temperature swings between day and night, and even with a grass shelter it certainly isn’t enough. A fire not only keeps body heat and cooks food but also repels wild animals, so a fire is essential for survival in the wild.

“I’ll think of something.”

He found a flat, sharp stone, dug a round pit in front of the shelter, and then gathered stones to place around it because the stones could prevent the fire from spreading and help the embers burn longer.

Then Li Chenfeng and Ning Jingjing collected a lot of dry wood around the camp, big and small, long and short, and before long it was piled into a small mountain.

Li Chenfeng looked at everything before him and said, “Everything’s ready now; we’re just missing a spark.”

After picking up a relatively flat piece of wood and some sticks from the beach and bringing them back to camp, Li Chenfeng began trying to start a fire by drilling wood.

He braced the plank with one foot, pressed the stick against a point on the plank, and rubbed it rapidly up and down with both hands so that the friction between the stick and plank generated enough heat to ignite the falling wood shavings.

Although the task looked simple, it proved to be extremely difficult, and Li Chenfeng’s hands became red from rubbing while the plank remained completely unharmed.

Ning Jingjing watched anxiously and said, “Come on! If you succeed, I’ll reward you with a kiss from this Young Lady.”

“Come on, come on, come on…”

Ning Jingjing was so eager that she almost burst into an on-the-spot cheerleading routine to cheer Li Chenfeng on.

“Hey, auntie, calm down and don’t blow the sparks out with your wind.”

Ning Jingjing pouted and said, “Oh!”

After an hour of effort, Li Chenfeng’s hands were red, blisters had formed at the joints of his palms, and his body was drenched in sweat.

Finally, it worked!

The plank gave off a wisp of blue smoke and the wood shavings caught a few sparks, and Li Chenfeng carefully tipped them onto the dry grass and gently blew on them with his mouth.

The dry grass emitted thick smoke and then burst into flames, so he quickly placed it in the pit, arranged small kindling on top, and planned to add the larger logs once the kindling caught.

『Task complete! Stamina +10! Talent +10!』

“Wow! It finally caught, Chenfeng, you’re amazing!”

“Mwah~”

“Ning Jingjing, what are you doing taking advantage of me?”

“Ah… yuck, so salty.”

Li Chenfeng felt delighted inwardly, (Hehe, you kissed my handsome face, and yet you have the nerve to complain.)

“This is encouragement for you!”

At that moment Lu Xinyao woke up and asked, “Jingjing, Chenfeng, how long have I been asleep?”

Ning Jingjing hurried back to Lu Xinyao’s side and asked, “Xinyao, how are you? Do you feel better after sleeping?”

“Mm, I feel a bit more refreshed.”

“Since you’re awake, let’s cook the dragon-beard seaweed and eat; it’s getting dark.”

Li Chenfeng split open the coconut shell, scooped out the flesh, and divided it between the two of them.

“Mm, it’s my first time eating the flesh of this kind of coconut, and if only we had a chicken we could stew up some Hainan coconut chicken.”

“Xinyao, I agree with that idea!”

Did these two really think they were on vacation?

Li Chenfeng cleaned the eight-treasure porridge cans he had picked up on the beach, filled them with coconut water and the dragon-beard seaweed, and set them to boil over the fire.

All three couldn’t help feeling their mouths water.

“I’m so hungry!”

“Yeah, Jingjing, I’m practically drooling.”

Li Chenfeng used the time to carve several thin twigs into chopsticks.

Ning Jingjing stared at the pot without blinking and said, “The water’s boiling; it’s cooked.”

Li Chenfeng poured all the dragon-beard seaweed from the three cans into the coconut shell.

“Dinner’s ready.”

The three sat by the campfire, eating the crisp, tasty dragon-beard seaweed and watching the sunset paint the sky red.

『Task complete! Stamina +10! Talent +10!』

One bite of the crisp dragon-beard seaweed and one bite of the fragrant coconut flesh finally gave the three their first meal on the island, and a feeling of satisfaction welled up in their hearts.

Li Chenfeng looked at Ning Jingjing and Lu Xinyao happily joking, at the burning campfire beside him, and at the shabby shelter, and he felt as if they were on a camping trip with friends rather than stranded on a deserted island.

Taking advantage of the cool evening, the three of them collected quite a bit of deadwood along the beach.

Li Chenfeng walked a lap around the shelter and, after confirming there were no dangerous animals like snakes or spiders, sat by the fire.

“The temperature drops sharply at night, so try to sleep by the fire.”

Ning Jingjing yawned and said, “I’m tired after a long day and really sleepy; I’ll sleep first.”

“Chenfeng, you had it the hardest today; you should sleep too.”

Bathed in the firelight, Lu Xinyao had a hazy beauty, and with such a beauty at his side Li Chenfeng felt very fortunate that he was not stranded here alone.

“You sleep; I’ll keep watch.”

“Keep watch?”

“Yes, the sea wind will be cold at night; someone has to watch the fire so it doesn’t go out and guard against harmful animal attacks, so you two should sleep.”

Lu Xinyao said with concern, “You can’t do that; how will you manage without sleeping?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll sleep for a while when it’s almost dawn, and then you can take over my shift.”

In fact, Li Chenfeng had just upgraded his Stamina, and his body felt full of energy as if he had been injected with adrenaline; even the blisters on his hands had noticeably diminished and no longer hurt, so he could still handle keeping watch.

“All right then, but if you get sleepy wake me immediately and I’ll take over.”

Li Chenfeng was touched inwardly and gently said, “Okay, sleep.”

Li Chenfeng put a dry stick into the fire, the bonfire crackled and spat sparks, and as he looked at the two sleeping beauties he felt a sense of responsibility and satisfaction.

In the middle of the night the sea wind rustled the nearby branches, and because the shelter had only a roof with no walls Lu Xinyao and Ning Jingjing huddled together, probably because it was too cold.

“I thought the fire would be enough, but it looks like we’ll have to build the walls tomorrow,” he said, and then added several more bundles of wood to give them as much heat as possible.

In the middle of the night Li Chenfeng noticed that Lu Xinyao’s lips had lost their color, so he hurriedly felt her forehead and feet, and the cold sensation made him shiver.

“Senior, wake up!”