11: Chapter 11 Lin Fan can start a fire, why can't you?

Inside the Karst Cave halfway up the mountain, flames leaped.

The orange-yellow flames dispelled the damp and cold air, baking the rock walls dry and warm.

Lin Fan sat cross-legged by the campfire, pulled out his tactical straight knife, and sliced the piece of luncheon meat down the middle.

He pierced it with a sharpened wooden stick and slowly roasted it over the fire.

Under the high-temperature roasting, the grease on the surface of the luncheon meat quickly seeped out, and the sizzling and popping sounds echoed in the quiet Karst Cave.

A brown, crispy crust gradually formed, and the rich meaty aroma mixed with the special smell of burning camphor wood drifted straight out along the cool night breeze.

Song Ya was wrapped in that tattered white shirt, her hands clutching tightly at the hem of her clothes, her eyes fixed straight on the roasted meat over the campfire, her throat uncontrollably swallowing wildly.

After drinking half a bottle of water, her body temperature and dehydration symptoms were greatly alleviated.

But the extreme sense of hunger was being magnified exponentially at this moment by that deadly aroma of roasted meat.

Lin Fan did not even look at her, tore open the packaging, broke off a small piece of dark chocolate, and threw it into his mouth.

The bitterness and lingering sweetness of the high-purity cocoa melted on the tip of his tongue, rapidly transforming into calories to combat the cold night on the Deserted Island.

His gaze crossed the leaping flames, through the sparse vines at the cave entrance, and cast condescendingly down toward the beach that had fallen into dead silence below.

The golden characters of the omniscience prompt leaped in the dark.

[Temperature Monitoring: Current ambient temperature is 14°C, expected to drop below 10°C within two hours. Accompanied by a Level 4 sea breeze, the perceived temperature will be close to 5°C.]

[Status Analysis of the Target Group Below: Severe thirst and hunger, mild hypothermia. Precisely defense-broken by the aroma of roasted meat, psychological defense lines crumbling.]

Lin Fan sneered out loud.

Tonight's Deserted Island welcome banquet—those social elites accustomed to red wine and steak—would not be able to survive it.

Under a few rotten coconut trees at the edge of the beach, it was pitch black.

Zhang Tao crawled on all fours on the ground, his hands frantically searching among the rough gravel and rotting vegetation.

Just now, Wang Qiang had vomited all over the place, and the surroundings smelled like a biological weapon leak.

The instinct for survival forced Zhang Tao to stay away from there and crawl alone a dozen meters deeper into the woods.

Suddenly, his fingers touched a round, hard object covered with rough fibers on the surface.

Zhang Tao's movements suddenly paused, and he grabbed it tightly into his arms.

The weight was wrong! The previous dead coconut was light and airy, while this one was extremely heavy, and a clear sloshing of water came from inside when shaken.

It was a top-grade good coconut!

Zhang Tao's eyes glowed with an eerie green light, and his heart raced wildly in his chest.

He groped for a sharp reef fragment by his feet, clamped the coconut tightly between his legs, aimed at the weak spot on the top, and smashed it fiercely to death.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

His skin and flesh were abraded by the rough shell, his hands were already injured at some point, and fresh blood mixed with mud and sand smeared on the coconut shell.

Finally, with a soft click, a coin-sized gap was smashed out of the coconut shell by sheer force!

A juice with a sweet fragrance overflowed. Zhang Tao smelled that life-saving scent, lowered his head impatiently, opened his chapped and bleeding lips, and desperately wanted to press against it.

Just at the moment when his lips were only two centimeters away from the gap, a huge force suddenly came from behind!

"Bang!"

A leather shoe kicked hard against Zhang Tao's lower back.

Zhang Tao was already physically exhausted, and this kick directly sent him lunging forward, heavily slamming face-first into the pile of gravel, biting a mouthful of bloody sand.

Wang Qiang snatched the coconut that had rolled to the ground.

"Finding something good and still wanting to eat it all by yourself? Do you understand the rules of Shengtang!" Wang Qiang lowered his voice and cursed angrily.

He picked up the coconut, his eyes fixed on the leaking gap, and let out heavy wheezes in his throat.

Thirsty. So damn thirsty.

Wang Qiang no longer cared about any bullshit superiors and subordinates, directly shoved the gap into his mouth, and sucked hard and fiercely!

The cool and sweet coconut juice violently poured into his stomach along the esophagus, his parched body was instantly moisturized, and that pleasure that went straight to the crown of his head made Wang Qiang let out a muffled grunt of extreme comfort.

He gulped down three big mouthfuls, finishing off a quarter of the coconut juice in one breath.

Reason quickly returned after the brief quenching of thirst. Wang Qiang abruptly stopped swallowing and moved the coconut away from his mouth.

He quickly wiped the juice overflowing from the corners of his mouth with his sleeve, and even grabbed a handful of sand to smear on his lips, faking the illusion of still being extremely thirsty.

Zhang Tao climbed up from the ground with a bloody face, his eyes fixed dead on the coconut in Wang Qiang's hands.

"Brother Qiang... leave me a sip... I smashed it open with my life... give me a sip..." Zhang Tao's voice trembled, and his knees went weak as he was about to kneel down.

"Shut up!" Wang Qiang kicked Zhang Tao's right shin, warning viciously, "I found this coconut, it has nothing to do with you at all! If you dare to talk nonsense for another half sentence, when we get back to the company, I will fucking kill you!"

After saying that, Wang Qiang turned and ran toward the wind-sheltered reef pile where the main group was located.

Zhang Tao collapsed onto the sandy ground, staring dead at Wang Qiang's back.

He could only emit impotent crying.

Beside the reef pile.

Su Qingxue curled up on the leeward side, and that one-piece swimsuit stained with sand and soil simply could not resist the piercing sea breeze. She hugged her knees tightly with both arms, her body shivering violently out of control.

She lowered her head, taking a look at the waterproof Patek Philippe on her wrist with the faint moonlight.

The second hand on the dial was spinning wildly like it had epilepsy, and the strange strong magnetic field in this sea area had ruthlessly erased even this last standard ruler of civilization, time.

She had no idea what time it was, and could only tightly hold onto the illusory obsession that "rescue will definitely arrive at twelve o'clock," holding on stubbornly in the cold wind.

The aroma of roasted meat drifting from halfway up the mountain was like an invisible awl, stirring her stomach upside down and churning up waves of sour water.

Liu Feifei beside her had long been frozen with purple lips, losing even the strength to act spoiled, and was panting heavily with her mouth open like a dying fish about to expire.

Rapid footsteps approached.

Wang Qiang rushed into the shadow holding the coconut, with a face full of flattering obsequiousness: "President Su! Found it! I found it!"

"I groped around in this broken forest in the dark for more than half an hour, my hands were worn raw, and I finally found an undamaged coconut! I did not dare to have even a single sip, and saved it all for you!"

Su Qingxue raised her head, did not speak, and snatched the coconut away.

There was no presidential demeanor at all, and she did not even look at the mud, sand, and Zhang Tao's fresh blood stained on the coconut shell.

She held it with both hands, pressing her lips seamlessly against that rough gap.

Swallowing violently.

The clear and sweet juice flowed down her throat, just like timely rain after a long drought.

Su Qingxue drank the remaining coconut juice clean in one breath, tilting her head back to pour even the last drop into her mouth.

Liu Feifei on the side stared straight with wide eyes, her hands reaching forward uncontrollably: "President Su... give me a little to drink too... I beg you, just a sip..."

"Gone." Su Qingxue put down the empty coconut shell, wiping away the residual juice from the corners of her mouth with the back of her hand.

Having recovered a little moisture, Su Qingxue's breathing stabilized, and her eyes re-gathered their usual aloofness and majesty.

Looking at Wang Qiang kneeling halfway in front of her, she was full of appreciation. Being able not to steal a sip of water in this ghost place to honor the leader—this was truly a good employee of Shengtang. In contrast, that Lin Fan holding a knife and going crazy up above was simply a hopeless member of the lower rungs of society.

"Wang Qiang, you have done very well. Shengtang never treats contributors unfairly."

Su Qingxue leaned against the reef, her voice regaining some of the certainty she usually had when holding board meetings: "When the rescue team lands tonight and we return to Jiangcheng, the position of Sales Director will be yours. I will personally approve another five hundred thousand bonus for you."

Wang Qiang trembled all over with excitement and slammed his head down in a kowtow: "Thank you, President Su, for cultivating me! From now on, my life belongs to you, President Su!"

Zhang Tao limped back to the camp, just in time to hear this promise of promotion and a raise clearly.

He hid in the dark, his teeth grinding audibly, and the trace of crazy murderous intent in the depths of his eyes grew even stronger.

Time passed ruthlessly amidst the crashing sound of the waves.

The night grew deeper, the level of the sea breeze significantly increased, and blowing against the body felt like razor blades scraping bones.

The temperature officially dropped below ten degrees!

The super-sized pie drawn by Su Qingxue simply could not resist the hypothermia of physiological limits.

Liu Feifei was already delirious from the cold, drilling into Li Bin's arms, trying to extract a pitiful bit of warmth.

Su Qingxue kept rubbing her arms, and the "clattering" sound of her teeth chattering was extremely clear in the dark.

She could not help raising her head once again.

Inside the Karst Cave halfway up the mountain, the firelight remained steady.

One could vaguely see Lin Fan's slender silhouette sitting by the campfire, even leisurely turning the roasting meat.

That comfort and warmth were simply an unattainable realm in the eyes of the crowd suffering from extreme cold and hardship.

Su Qingxue bit her bleeding lips hard.

She did not understand why a bottom-rung working dog earning three thousand yuan a month in internship salary could live more comfortably in this environment than her, a president with a net worth of tens of billions?

An unprecedented sense of frustration and fury completely shattered her last bit of elegance.

"Make a fire..." Su Qingxue's voice trembled as she suddenly turned her head to look at Wang Qiang and Zhang Tao.

"Go make a fire! Wang Qiang, Zhang Tao! Whether you rub wood or smash stones, get a fire started for me right now!"

Wang Qiang was freezing with snot running down, looking completely bewildered: "President Su... in this pitch-dark place, we can not even find a piece of dry wood, what are we supposed to use to make a fire?"

"I do not care what method you use!" Su Qingxue pointed at the firelight halfway up the mountain and shouted hoarsely, "Lin Fan can make fire, why can't you all!"

Her chest heaved violently, and she directly played out the ultimate trump card that was invincible in civilized society.

"Whoever can light a fire for me on this beach, when we return to the company, I will personally reward him with 800,000 yuan in cash! Cashed out immediately!"