Lin Chen gave the camera a slightly shy smile, scooted a little closer to the fire, and lowered his head, letting the hot air directly dry his hair.
"But I learned after I grew up that you have to dry yourself off as soon as possible after being in the rain or swimming. Stay somewhere warm, and if you can, make yourself a cup of piping hot ginger tea. That's how you make sure you don't catch a cold."
While drying off, he used his milk pot to boil some sweet and sour berry soup for himself.
He felt the warmth flow down his throat and into his stomach, then spread throughout his limbs. The chill that had settled deep in his body quietly dissipated.
He put on his raincoat, went outside to scoop up half a pot of water, and tossed in the remaining rabbit carcass and the rabbit head to stew.
In the wild, no food can be wasted. Besides, a rabbit's head has a lot of meat on it. As someone from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he'd eaten plenty of them growing up, so he wasn't afraid of it at all.
His only worry was whether a plain-broth rabbit head, cooked without the help of any spicy seasonings, would even be edible.
In his mind, rabbit heads were supposed to be soaked in a spicy, numbing brine.
The fire burned quietly. Every so often, a flare would erupt with a CRACKLE and a POP—an explosion caused by residual moisture heating up in a branch that hadn't completely dried.
Lin Chen listened to the BUBBLE BUBBLE sound from the soup pot and turned to look outside through a gap in the door.
The entire world was covered by a torrential downpour. The sky was as dark as dusk, and streaks of lightning flashed through the air from time to time.
'A storm this heavy probably won't last long, right? This isn't the tropics, after all.'
To his surprise, the rain lasted for an entire day.
The torrential part of it only seemed to last for about an hour, but a light, sparse drizzle continued to fall without end. Looking at the gloomy sky, it showed no signs of clearing up.
'This situation seems a bit grim.'
Lin Chen glanced at the world outside, his expression turning sour as he pulled back into his shelter.
'I can't believe I've run into a rainy season. I specifically checked a few days before the show started filming, and the forecast said it would be sunny. Why the sudden, continuous rain?'
After a full day and night of rain, the soil on the hillside had become exceptionally slick. Moss could be growing all over the mountain. If he ventured out at a time like this, he could easily slip and get injured.
But if he didn't go out, there was no more meat in the shelter to fill his stomach.
Even the berries were down to a small plateful, not even enough for a snack.
He sighed, reluctantly putting on his shell jacket and raincoat. Taking only his Engineer Shovel and the basket he had woven, he gritted his teeth and plunged into the rain.
'Compared to the others, my advantage is that I can wash my body and hair and stay clean. Plus, I have a very warm shelter, so being active in the rain is no big deal.'
The leaf basket he was carrying was already beginning to wither and rot, unable to bear any heavy weight. He needed to weave some more baskets as backups as soon as possible.
As soon as he squeezed through a gap in the fence and left his camp, he was confronted with a 'moat' filled with rainwater and mud.
Seeing the trench filled with water, he didn't get a headache; instead, his eyes lit up.
'I've got it! Isn't this a natural fish tank? It might not keep the salmon alive for too long, but delaying their death by a day or two should be fine, right?'
To test his theory, he didn't kill the salmon today. Instead, he first wove a deeper, larger basket from weeds by the river. Then, he used his Engineer Shovel to fling the live salmon one by one onto the bank, placing them in the basket to transport back to his shelter.
The journey, which normally took half an hour, was stretched to over forty minutes in the muddy, slippery rain.
Although Lin Chen couldn't know the exact time, he knew in his heart that the trip had definitely taken longer than usual.
By the time he reached his shelter, more than half of the twelve salmon in the basket were already dead.
'Thankfully, it's a rainy day. The constant raindrops kept these guys lucky enough to survive.'
Lin Chen picked out the salmon that were still responsive and tossed them one by one into the moat. The fish flicked their tails a few times and quickly vanished beneath the muddy water.
He cleaned the remaining dead fish right where he stood. The rain would wash away any lingering scent, so he didn't have to worry about attracting trouble.
Besides, even if he did attract some unwelcome visitors, he didn't think they could pose much of a threat, given the water-filled moat, the slick mud, and the high fence.
He could even take potshots at them through the gaps in the fence. Who knows, he might get an unexpected prize.
'Eight fish. That's enough to last me three or four days, provided I ration them.'
He carried the cleaned fish meat and trimmings back into the shelter, boiled a bowl of fish soup to warm himself up, and swished some fish slices in it as well.
By now, eating salmon gave him no sense of satisfaction whatsoever. In fact, he had to steel himself and force it down.
Lin Chen checked his firewood supply and sighed.
'If I had known Alaska got so much rain in the fall, I would have gathered more firewood. What I have now probably won't last much longer.'
To conserve fuel, he had to move his cooking time to just before bed, which meant he would have to endure the gnawing pangs of hunger all day long.
The only thing he was grateful for was the parachute reservoir he'd had the foresight to build. By constantly boiling and drinking water, he could manage to get by.
「The rain fell for two full days and two full nights.」
During this time, to ensure the contestants' health and keep the equipment running, the production team was forced to make house calls. They braved the rain and trudged through the muddy forest, visiting the contestants one by one in their hidden shelters.
When Robert, accompanied by a VJ and a female doctor, stepped into Lin Chen's shelter again, his expression was full of regret.
"Did someone drop out?"
"Yes, you guessed right."
Robert nodded and sighed. "Right after we left your camp last time, the Butcher announced he was quitting."
"He didn't have any hunting experience to begin with, and the downpour not only prevented him from getting food but also washed away his shelter. He had no choice but to drop out."
"Also, Ivan and Gleeson have officially withdrawn. They didn't take care of themselves properly after getting soaked, and their shelters weren't built well enough. After two straight days of being exposed to the cold wind, they both came down with colds and fevers."
Lin Chen was in the middle of a routine check-up from the female doctor. Hearing Robert's words, he breathed a small sigh of relief internally.
"So, that means I only have eleven competitors left?"
"Theoretically, yes, but…"
Robert opened his mouth as if to say more, but then stopped himself. In the end, he chose to abide by the rules of the game and didn't reveal any more information.