Summary of the Voyage

"Sizzle..."

A stench of burnt odor diffused!

Lu Zhe realized for the first time that a dancing crocodile could be so shocking!

Twisting, tumbling, dust flying, stones splashing everywhere!

Thick smoke billowed from its giant, gaping jaws, like the fire-breathing dragons in ancient Greek mythology!

The girls shrieked and scattered to run away.

Lu Zhe was also scared and hugged Ning Shu behind a tree, couldn't help but exclaim: "So scary!"

Next, the crocodile thrashed and rolled, smashing fences and stone walls, scaring Haian Yongqiang to run very far away, with milk spilling all over the ground.

But luckily, the crocodile's stamina was limited!

It couldn’t keep up the intense tumbling for long. Soon, it lay there motionless, with vicious tears brimming in its eyes, still spewing horrible gray smoke from its mouth!

It looked at Lu Zhe with absolute composure!

Lu Zhe took off his belt, cautiously moved closer, looped it around the crocodile's mouth and pulled it tight!

At this moment, Lu Zhe finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat down.

"Safe now..."

He looked up at the tree house: "Qianqian?"

Lin Qianqian shyly peeked out her head: "Here!"

Seeing Lu Zhe had tied up the crocodile's mouth, Shen Bing also came over and angrily gave it a kick: "This guy almost ate the two of us in the middle of the night."

Jiang Yao wondered: "Did it come for the eggs?"

Lu Zhe nodded: "It's possible. It didn't find anything at the monkeys' place, so it came here instead. Luckily it's too big to climb trees, otherwise you girls would’ve been in danger."

Everyone was still unsettled from the shock.

Shen Bing asked: "What happened to Little Ning's leg?"

"She was stung by jellyfish, but luckily it was treated promptly."

Qianqian gently caressed Ning Shu's leg, murmuring: "Lu Zhe must have been worried sick!"

Tang Xiaoguo said helplessly: "You must have been worried sick too!"

"Yeah! By the way, did you two have any troubles, Guo’er and Yao’er?"

"We're fine!"

After some small talk, Lu Zhe said: "I'm starving, do we have anything to eat?"

Shen Bing took out some boiled crocodile eggs, a bottle of lemon juice, a jar of pickled fishy vegetables. They sat next to the crocodile and ate while chatting.

Shen Bing got to the point: "Did you encounter any dangers at sea this time?"

Lu Zhe said: "We didn't really run into trouble at sea, but there were quite a few dangers on that island."

Qianqian said: "Jellyfish?"

Jiang Yao frowned: "Aside from jellyfish, there were also snakes. The place was basically a snake's nest, full of them everywhere!"

As Jiang Yao spoke, she felt uneasy all over.

Tang Xiaoguo said: "I guess there were ten trillion!"

Shen Bing was surprised: "Exaggerating much? Was there even space to stand?"

Tang Xiaoguo nodded solemnly.

Lu Zhe said: "Don't listen to Guo’er’s nonsense, nowhere near that many. You won't step on them if you're careful enough!"

Shen Bing asked: "So was that why you couldn't send Morse code signals?"

Lu Zhe nodded: “Yeah, I could have gone to the beach to send signals at night, but I had to perform surgery on the monitor lizard, so it took up time."

“So you were the one who set off the fireworks?”

Lu Zhe nodded: “That’s right, used up all the nitrate I brought.”

Lin Qianqian nodded: “But it was worth it. You don’t know, last night when we didn’t get any messages from you, Bing and I almost went crazy.”

Shen Bing also said: “That’s right! Once contact was lost, it felt like my heart was hollowed out. You can’t imagine, at that time I thought, if I could trade all the supplies on the island for a sign that you guys were alive, I would do so without any hesitation!"

"Yeah, we're all deeply concerned about each other. Losing contact all of a sudden really could drive someone crazy."

As Lu Zhe spoke, he stuffed a whole crocodile egg into his mouth and chomped.

The girls also resonated deeply with this feeling.

Shen Bing thought for a moment: "So you really didn't run into any trouble at all at sea?"

Jiang Yao said: “Perhaps the sharks were all dormant. Other than slightly higher temperatures, the journey went very smoothly! The shark repellent we prepared with such effort didn’t even come in handy.”

After pondering for a bit, Shen Bing summarized: “So this time, you didn't encounter problems at sea during the journey itself, yet trouble occurred at both the campsite and destination.”

The group looked at each other: “That’s indeed the case!”

Next came the question: This time it was the crocodile that launched a sneak attack. If invaders come again while Shen Bing’s team is away searching the plane wreckage, would they remain so lucky?

Crocodiles, monitor lizards, wild boars, monkeys, or even giant pythons could invade human territory. When that happens, how should they respond?

Ning Shu sighed: “So when we actually go to the plane, security measures at camp must be stringent!”

Seeing the crocodile lying there, Tang Xiaoguo worried: “But how could any security measures stop something so huge barging right in? They’d all be screwed!”

“Unless...” Jiang Yao thought for a moment: “Lu Zhe’s here!”

Indeed, after days together, everyone understood that as long as Lu Zhe’s around, all dangers and difficulties could be resolved!

Ning Shu marveled: “Is this the power of masculinity?”

“Indeed!”

Shen Bing nodded: “Although there’s only one man Lu Zhe on the team, males have a much greater deterrent effect against invaders in nature than females! So we’re usually quite safe with Lu Zhe around. Without him, danger comes along.”

Catching a whiff of Lu Zhe’s scent, Tang Xiaoguo came up with a peculiar idea: “So this is the smell of masculinity? We can try some camphor?”

Shen Bing said: “That works for repelling bugs alright, but has no use scaring away lizards and crocs!”

Qianqian conceived an even stranger idea: “We can save some of Lu Zhe’s bodily fluids and toss it over when dangerous things come, to scare them away!”

Lu Zhe said helplessly: “Chili pepper spray would be more intimidating! Besides, don't invaders still come even when I'm here?”

The girls nodded.

Shen Bing said: “Let's think, are there any other solutions? Otherwise we’d have to give up.”

Lu Zhe pondered: “There are two other options! First, after El Niño passes and spring water cools down, whoever stays behind can hide out at the volcano base for a few days until the seafaring group returns.

Second, if we want to catch ocean currents and monsoons when traveling, all six of us embark together. It may be somewhat troublesome, but we live and die as one family.”

The girls looked at each other!

Qianqian gently brushed back her bangs, and slowly said: “To be honest! When contact was lost, I really felt like I’d lost the whole world!

My most caring boyfriend and girlfriends all gone missing, I don’t know if I could handle experiencing that feeling again without going mad.”

Her words were sincere and touching, even the crocodile lying there shed a moved tear.