The Ship That Made It Back

On the other side of the island, Lu Zhe and Jiang Yao sat in the shelter.

"Yao Yao, we have to sleep now to ensure we have enough energy to face the challenges tomorrow," said Lu Zhe.

Jiang Yao stroked her hair and said, "Is it finally time for just the two of us to sleep together?"

"Yao Yao, that sounds a bit strange," said Lu Zhe.

"Yeah, I think so too, but..." Jiang Yao blinked her big watery eyes at him and said seriously, "I'm quite sensitive to the cold and need a relatively warm embrace. Of course if you're unwilling, I absolutely won't force you. Even if I catch a cold or get sick, I won't blame you."

Lu Zhe sighed, "Every time in the past when you got me to buy you water and snacks, it was like this."

Jiang Yao immediately leaned on him, "Since you've agreed, you can hug me now. Of course, just hugging for now, because it still hurts a bit down there from when you took my first time... We can talk about doing anything more after I've recovered, okay?"

"I didn't agree to anything! And I wasn't thinking about doing anything like that in the first place!" Lu Zhe felt a little helpless. Sometimes, his conversations with Jiang Yao seemed to be on completely different wavelengths.

However, with the cold night air closing in, the best course of action was still for the two of them to huddle together and share body warmth.

"Yao Yao, we should be huddling together, but with the way you're acting right now, me and Xiao Xiao can't handle it," said Lu Zhe.

"In that case..." She took Lu Zhe's hand and placed it on her chest, "This is the biggest thing I can accept right now."

Lu Zhe knew that if he kept talking to Jiang Yao, who knows what else might happen.

"Uh... Okay, my little princess, let's get to sleep!"

"I know I seem a little impatient, but I understand how you feel right now," said Jiang Yao.

"Please be quiet!"

"Got it!"

Early next morning, Lu Zhe woke up from a pleasant dream, "Yao Yao..."

"I didn't expect that you brought insect-repelling herbs. If you'd taken them out earlier, I wouldn't have gotten three mosquito bites," said Jiang Yao.

"Herbs? There were mosquito repelling herbs in our pack?" A thought suddenly occurred to Lu Zhe. "What did you use them for?"

"I rubbed them on my face and body!"

"I see..." Lu Zhe sighed. Fortunately she hadn't eaten them like Tang Xiaoguo had.

"What should we do next?"

Lu Zhe looked across at the opposite shore. He took off his watch and handed it to Jiang Yao, "We need to split up tasks. Every five minutes, throw some pieces of wood and foam into the water to use as floats to calculate the time, location and trajectory as they get sucked into the whirlpool. I'm going to chop bamboo to make a bamboo raft."

"Got it!"

First Lu Zhe checked all the fresh water collection devices he had set up yesterday and obtained a small bottle of fresh water.

Then, holding a saw, he searched the woods for suitable bamboo.

Lu Zhe discovered that although there was bamboo here, the quantity was too small. There were only two or three full-grown bamboo, not enough to make a bamboo raft.

Moreover, there was an issue with the wire saw.

The rust had been worn away, greatly reducing its sharpness and durability. As expected, the reliability of improvised non-professional tools was too low. If he tried to cut wood with it now, it would probably break in no time.

He had to think of another method!

What else could increase buoyancy?

Bottles, foam!

Might as well use them all since he didn't need them for water.

But there was no way to make a raft shape.

After thinking for a while, Lu Zhe came up with a perfect idea!

He tied all the bamboo and wood pieces together with rope to form a 2 meter long, 0.6 meter diameter cylindrical bundle.

Jiang Yao frowned, "This raft is...very thick."

"Let's test the buoyancy of this crude bamboo raft by riding it," said Lu Zhe.

"But I'm not good at riding," replied Jiang Yao.

"Everything has a first time," said Lu Zhe.

Then, Lu Zhe pushed the cylindrical bamboo bundle raft into the shallow water, carried Jiang Yao onto it, and sat down behind her himself.

The bamboo raft held them up, though their knees were still submerged in the water.

"It looks...not bad."

"Mm..."

Then unexpectedly, the raft started spinning and both of them tipped over to the right at the same time!

With a splash, they both fell into the water.

Lu Zhe wiped the water off his face, "The buoyancy is decent, but the biggest problem with this thing is it rolls all over the place in the water."

Jiang Yao poured water out of her ears, "I think it's mischievous."

"Just needs some modifications," said Lu Zhe.

Lu Zhe then bound two pieces of wood horizontally to form wing-like flaps on two sides, and tied lots of foam onto the wings to increase stability.

He tested it again. This time there was no overturning.

He bound all the remaining bottles under the wooden bundle to increase buoyancy.

He tested again. Now only his ankles were submerged in the water. Lifting his feet slightly allowed them to clear the seawater completely.

And so, an airplane-shaped bamboo raft was completed.