Zhang Liu had come to the small rocky hill to gather stones. He remembered that scattered around the massive boulder were plenty of small, square-shaped rocks, including two particularly flat, rectangular slabs. Together, they were perfect for crafting a makeshift stove for cooking.
But then he overheard Qin Ruoshuang's words.
Caught off guard, Zhang Liu felt a bit lost. The thought of abandoning Anya or Qin Ruoshuang had never even crossed his mind. After all, the island's resources, as far as they'd explored, were more than enough to sustain the three of them for a good while. There was no need for some dramatic, life-or-death survival competition.
So why was Qin Ruoshuang bringing this up?
Curious, he glanced at Anya, who shook her head in confusion, signaling she was just as clueless.
Unbeknownst to Qin Ruoshuang, who had her back to Zhang Liu, her words had put her in an awkward spot. She mistook Anya's headshake as a rejection of her comment and smiled, saying, "You're right. With Zhang Liu's gentle personality, there's no way he'd get mad at us."
As she turned around, her eyes met Zhang Liu's bewildered expression.
"Qin Ruoshuang, you okay?" he asked, his face a mix of confusion and concern.
Even with her usual calm demeanor, Qin Ruoshuang was startled by his sudden appearance. "You… you… you…" she stammered, her tongue tied in knots, unable to form a complete sentence.
Anya stepped in to voice the question on her mind. "Zhang Liu, what are you doing here?"
"I'm picking up some stones to grill fish later!" Zhang Liu emerged from behind the rock, holding a large stone slab. "We've got plenty of fish, so I'm going to try boiling some and grilling others on this slab."
His gaze drifted back to Qin Ruoshuang, whose cheeks were now flushed a deep red. Though he tried to ignore the two pink spots faintly visible on her chest, Zhang Liu couldn't help but notice. He reminded himself of the old saying: "Your mouth might say no, but your body's telling the truth."
After a moment's thought, he decided to keep the conversation light. "Qin Ruoshuang, what was going on with you just now?"
As he spoke, he started walking toward the cave with the stone slab in hand. Qin Ruoshuang hurriedly followed, her mind a jumbled mess, unsure of what to say or do.
It was Anya, trailing behind, who answered. "It's about that time you said you didn't have feelings for us and then walked off. Qin Ruoshuang thought you were upset."
"You were worried about Zhang Liu ignoring us this morning too, weren't you?" Qin Ruoshuang shot back, trying to deflect the blame.
Hearing the girls' wild assumptions and back-and-forth, Zhang Liu couldn't help but sigh. He'd almost forgotten about that moment, yet here they were, still hung up on it?
Stopping in his tracks, he turned to face Qin Ruoshuang and Anya. For a long moment, he said nothing, his eyes flickering briefly to the pink spots on Qin Ruoshuang's chest before he turned away again, flustered. With a deep sigh, he addressed the two girls, who stood behind him like nervous quails clutching their fruit. "Let's eat first. We can talk about this after dinner."
Zhang Liu could only shallowly comprehend Qin Ruoshuang and Anya's bizarre ability to worry about romance even when they were hungry. To him, it meant one thing: They're not hungry enough. Or maybe, he thought, I'm so hungry I'm starting to hallucinate…
Fire, a cornerstone of civilization's progress, has proven its worth throughout history. Take, for example, when Liu Bei and Sun Quan teamed up to burn Cao Cao's massive army into disarray. For Zhang Liu, though, fire's utility was far more practical than militaristic.
After moving the fire into the cave, he began preparing dinner. Anya and Qin Ruoshuang stood nearby, watching him work. The windbreak wall Qin Ruoshuang had built earlier now doubled as a barrier to keep the flames in check. Even with the breeze blowing into the cave, they didn't have to worry about the foam board catching fire.
For now, Zhang Liu was focused on boiling water. He placed three pebbles in the fire, heating them until they glowed nearly red, then poured fresh water from a mineral water bottle into a giant clam shell. Using wooden sticks, he carefully transferred the hot pebbles into the shell.
Sizzle… The pebbles instantly cooled, releasing their heat into the water, which began to bubble and roll.
"What are you doing?" Anya asked, standing beside him, her curiosity piqued. To her, it looked like he was just dirtying perfectly good water.
"He's probably boiling water, right?" Qin Ruoshuang guessed, her perspective shaped by her familiarity with the practice, unlike Anya, who was used to drinking cold water in Japan. "Hot stones transfer their heat to the water, making it boil."
"Exactly," Zhang Liu confirmed with a nod. Seeing Anya's lingering confusion, he elaborated. "Before we had fire, we couldn't boil water. Now that we can, I think it's safer to drink boiled water. The puddle we're getting water from has a slightly bitter taste, and I'm not sure if boiling will fix that, but it's better than drinking it raw. Plus, the ash on the pebbles has some anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties."
"Okay…" Anya said reluctantly, eyeing the murky, grayish-white water in the clam shell with mild disgust.
Noticing her hesitation, Zhang Liu smiled. "Don't worry. The water usually clears up after a bit. I'm just testing if this stone-boiling method works."
With that, he moved the still-bubbling clam shell aside and turned to the main event of the evening: fish head boiled in a clam shell, fish tail grilled on a stone slab, and skewers of fish liver and body meat. Cooking the fish head was the simplest task, so he prioritized it, placing the largest clam shell over the fire and pouring in fresh water from another bottle.
Unfortunately, he didn't have enough firewood to maintain two fires for both boiling and grilling. While he was pondering this, Qin Ruoshuang stood up. "I'll go get more water!" she said, grabbing two empty mineral water bottles and climbing down from the cave.
"I'll grab some firewood from below!" Anya added, eager to contribute. She headed to the pile of firewood they'd collected earlier.
Left alone, Zhang Liu's lips curled into a small smile. He began slicing the fish liver and the largest piece of fish meat on a stone slab. The fish head and maw were already simmering in the clam shell.
His plan was to cook and grill simultaneously. Glancing at the fish tail wrapped in seaweed on the ground, then at the setting sun, Zhang Liu felt a wave of warmth and contentment wash over him.
At the base of the cave, Qin Ruoshuang and Anya, fetching water and firewood, exchanged a glance and a smile. None of them realized how much the availability of protein-rich food had lifted their spirits, transforming their earlier gloom into genuine optimism and ease.
Zhang Liu, who had been putting on a brave face all along, felt this shift most deeply.