48: Chapter 48 The meat...it tastes like roasted meat.

Old Li's expression flickered slightly, and his tightly clenched fists unconsciously loosened a bit.

The others also swallowed hard, quietly taking half a step back.

Su Zhenbang's name indeed held an extremely strong deterrent force.

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That was a financial tycoon who could truly control others' life and death.

Offending Su Qingxue might still allow one to escape Jiangcheng, but offending Su Zhenbang was definitely a dead end.

Su Qingxue took a deep breath, and some color returned to her pale face.

Seizing the opportunity, she straightened her back and scanned the crowd.

"You are very clear about my father's work style. Rescue will definitely come, it is only a matter of time. Now return to your positions and conserve your energy."

The crowd fell into silence; fear temporarily overwhelmed anger, and they did not dare to gamble.

Right at this moment, a burst of extremely abrupt applause sounded in the corner of the rock crevice.

"Clap. Clap. Clap."

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.

Chen Jian stood up from beside the extinguished charcoal ashes and patted the dust off his hands.

He did not look at Su Qingxue, nor did he look at Wang Qiang, but instead scanned the eight corpses on the ground.

"Everyone naturally trusts Old Su's strength."

"But distant water cannot quench near thirst. It takes time for Old Su to send people for search and rescue, it takes time to determine coordinates, and it takes even more time to break through the outer thunderstorm zone."

He raised his foot and kicked Xiao Sun's stiff calf nearby.

"Do you think that, with our current state, we can hold out until the day rescue arrives?"

This question hit the nail on the head.

Old Li's expression turned ugly once again: "Chen Jian, what do you mean?"

"I mean, give up unrealistic fantasies and prepare for long-term survival here."

"First, move these corpses out and throw them into the sea. The temperature is rising, and the decomposition of the corpses will trigger a plague. When that happens, no one will survive."

"Second, this rock crevice can only provide simple shelter from the rain, and its warmth-retention effect is minimal. We must find a leeward, dry shelter before dark."

"Third, collect supplies. Last night's storm must have washed the wreckage of the cruise ship onto the beach, which is our capital for survival. Fresh water, food, medicine, take as much as you can."

"Fourth, prepare dry firewood. You have already seen the fate of having no fire last night. If you still want to live tonight, everyone must hand over a quantitative amount of firewood as an admission ticket."

Clear in logic, it pointed straight to the core of survival.

Wang Lan sat in the corner, lowering her eyes, the corners of her mouth curling into an arc.

Sure enough, as soon as Chen Jian's voice fell, the gazes of the crowd changed.

Old Li was the first to express his stance: "Wang Lan's husband is right. Waiting blindly is waiting for death; I support his proposal."

"I agree too, Brother Chen, how shall we handle things next, you arrange it." The others also hurriedly echoed.

In just a few minutes, the right to speak had undergone a substantial transfer.

Su Qingxue stood in place, her fingers digging fiercely into her palms.

She understood Chen Jian's trick; this man was taking the opportunity to hollow her out.

But she could not refute him, because she didn't know how to find a shelter on a Deserted Island at all, let alone how to make a fire.

Wang Qiang wanted to open his mouth to curse, but was stopped by a glance from Su Qingxue.

"Do as Chen Jian says." Su Qingxue coldly dropped these words, turned around, leaned against the rock wall, and said no more.

Chen Jian nodded and immediately began assigning tasks.

"Old Li, you take a few men to deal with the corpses. Wang Qiang, you take the female colleagues to the edge of the beach to collect supplies, and be careful not to go too far. The remaining male colleagues, come with me to survey the nearby terrain and find a shelter and dry firewood."

The crowd began to move. Although their whole bodies were sore, driven by the desire to survive, they dragged their exhausted bodies out of the rock crevice.

On the island after the storm, the air was filled with a heavy salty and fishy smell.

Slowly, the sunlight pierced through the clouds, and the temperature began to rise rapidly.

Su Qingxue did not move; she, Liu Feifei, Zhao Na, and a few other physically overdrawn women remained in the rock crevice to rest.

The sense of hunger erupted unreservedly at this moment.

From the capsizing of the cruise ship until now, their food intake was pitifully small.

Last night, in order to resist the cold, their bodies had even overdrawn all energy reserves.

"So hungry..." Zhao Na covered her stomach, her stomach emitting an ugly cramping sound.

Liu Feifei licked her chapped lips, looking at the outside sky with empty eyes.

Su Qingxue closed her eyes, trying to alleviate her hunger through sleep.

Right at this moment, an extremely special scent drifted into the rock crevice along the breeze.

That was not the salty fishiness of seawater.

Nor was it the earthy smell of vegetation.

Instead, it was a rich, mellow grease scent with a burnt aroma unique to high-temperature roasting.

That was the ultimate aroma of top-grade beef undergoing the Maillard reaction at high temperature, mixed with black pepper and sea salt.

Everyone in the rock crevice opened their eyes at the same time.

Zhao Na's nose twitched frantically, and saliva overflowed uncontrollably from the corners of her mouth.

"Meat... It's the smell of roasted meat..." Old Li had just finished moving a corpse and walked to the cave entrance, his whole person instantly freezing in place with a dull gaze.

Wang Qiang dropped the broken wooden board in his hand and raised his head following the direction from which the fragrance drifted.

Everyone neatly raised their necks, looking towards the semi-enclosed Karst Cave diagonally above.

The sunlight slanted diagonally onto the platform in front of the Karst Cave.

Lin Fan stood there.

He was wearing a dry black mountaineering jacket, with a straight posture and a rosy complexion, completely without the wretchedness of having experienced the ravages of the storm.

In his hand, he held a wooden stick, upon which was impressively impaled a Tomahawk steak at least two fingers thick and larger than a face.

The surface of the steak was roasted to a charred, crispy brown, and bright grease continuously dripped down along the grain of the meat, smashing onto the campfire below, making a "sizzling" sound and stirring up an even denser wave of white smoke and fragrance.

Song Ya stood behind Lin Fan.

She was wearing an off-white high-necked slim-fit woolen sweater, paired with black high-elasticity yoga trousers.

Her clothes were clean and tidy, outlining her supreme body curves to the fullest.

In her hand, she held a seasoning bottle picked up from the cruise ship wreckage, obediently sprinkling crushed black pepper onto the steak.

Her movements were natural and her expression was gentle.

The two stood together, with the warm and dry Karst Cave behind them and the sizzling, oil-dripping top-grade steak in front of them.

Zhao Na's saliva could no longer be controlled, hanging at the corner of her mouth and dripping down, without her even realizing it.

Old Li's Adam's apple rolled up and down violently.

Wang Qiang's gaze was glued tightly to that steak, his eyeballs wishing they could fly out to take a bite.

That was not ordinary roasted meat.

Tomahawk steak, the top-tier ingredient in the cruise ship's VIP cold storage, cost nearly a thousand yuan a piece just for the materials.

In an upscale Western restaurant in Jiangcheng, this thing paired with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon would cost no less than three thousand.

Now, this thing was held in Lin Fan's hand, treated like a wild barbecue.

The most excessive part was Song Ya.

Standing beside Lin Fan, after finishing sprinkling the crushed black pepper onto the steak, Lin Fan handed her another wooden stick.

Impaled on it were three sea fish with their internal organs hollowed out, roasted to a golden and crispy perfection.

The fish skin burst open, revealing the snow-white and tender fish meat inside, and the speed at which the grease seeped out was visible to the naked eye.

Song Ya took a bite of the tenderest meat on the fish belly, chewed twice, and slightly frowned.

"It's a bit salty."

These three words drifted down, and the eyes of several women in the rock crevice turned red on the spot.

"It's a bit salty."

It's fucking a bit salty.

We can't even gnaw on tree bark here, and you are telling me it's a bit salty?

Zhao Na hated so much that her fingernails embedded into her flesh, yet she squeezed out a cracking smile on her lips and shouted upwards: "Song Ya! Sister Song Ya! Throw a fish down! We were colleagues after all!"

Hearing the voice, Song Ya glanced downward.

Lin Fan used a knife to cut off a piece of steak, handed it to Song Ya's hands, without even raising his head: "Eat yours."

Song Ya obediently lowered her head and didn't look down anymore...