Chapter 180: Searching for People

Thankfully, it was summer, so staying in the seawater didn’t feel too cold. With the help of their life jackets, the boys clung to the edges of the lifeboats, swimming forward steadily.

After nearly two hours of swimming, everyone finally made it to the shore.

Once ashore, the combination of intense exertion and days of hunger left most students utterly exhausted, lying limp on the beach. Though physically drained, their hearts were filled with joy.

Even in summer, wearing wet clothes while exposed to the wind could easily lead to catching a cold. If this island truly was an uninhabited wilderness, getting sick here would mean certain death. Out of consideration, Lei Yin shouted, “If you don’t want to die, take off your wet clothes immediately. Anyone with a lighter, start gathering branches to make a fire.” He then removed his wet T-shirt, though, of course, he left his pants on.

Seeing the group still lying there like lifeless snakes, he stopped trying to persuade them. Instead, he pulled Amy by the hand and headed toward the forest near the beach. There, he gathered branches of various sizes and dry grass.

In a sheltered area, Lei Yin dug a shallow pit and carefully stacked the smaller branches in a crisscross pattern. Taking a lighter he had retrieved from the captain’s cabin, he ignited the dry grass and smaller twigs. Soon, a modest but steady fire was burning.

After instructing Amy to occasionally add more branches to the fire, Lei Yin returned to the beach.

When he saw the others still sprawled on the ground unmoving, he grew angry. Walking into their midst, he shouted, “Listen carefully. This island is most likely uninhabited. If you catch a cold here, there’s no medicine to save you!”

“What did you just say? Are you saying this is a deserted island?” A boy jumped up in alarm.

The others were also startled and immediately sat upright in fright.

“Very likely,” Lei Yin replied. “So far, we haven’t seen any lights at all.”

Hearing this, everyone looked around. Sure enough, all they could see was darkness.

“Is this island really deserted? What are we going to do now?” a girl exclaimed in panic.

“Maybe the island’s inhabitants are all asleep and turned off the lights. It probably isn’t deserted,” someone said, trying to comfort themselves.

Ignoring their chatter, Lei Yin raised his voice again. “I’ll say this one more time: If you don’t want to die, gather some branches and light a fire. Then take off your wet clothes.”

Finally, the students began to move, each heading off to collect dry branches.

Lei Yin scoffed inwardly, thinking how stubborn they were.

Before long, those who had found dry branches started making fires in small groups. However, since most of them had no experience building a fire outdoors, many came over to Lei Yin’s fire pit to borrow some flames.

Lei Yin couldn’t help but feel both annoyed and amused as he watched some students clumsily try to ignite thick logs with a single burning twig. He didn’t bother correcting them; after all, there were plenty of branches around, and they could fumble through it on their own.

The difference between young people and the elderly became apparent at this moment. Despite having gone hungry for three days, the students, driven by their survival instincts, had regained a significant amount of energy. In contrast, the elderly couple looked extremely weak, as though they might collapse at any moment.

At that point, Amy leaned close to Lei Yin and whispered something in his ear.

After hearing her, Lei Yin frowned and shook his head. “No.”

“Please, Lei. They’re really pitiful,” the little girl pleaded anxiously, looking up at him with earnest eyes.

Facing her imploring gaze, Lei Yin thought for a moment before finally nodding reluctantly. Amy immediately hugged him joyfully.

Lei Yin led the elderly couple into the woods. Amy took out a plastic bag from her belongings and handed it to them. Inside were two slices of white bread, which left the elderly pair momentarily stunned.

Lei Yin explained where the bread had come from, then spoke to them apologetically. “You may think I’m selfish, but I absolutely cannot let Amy go hungry. She insisted on giving you these last two slices of bread, and I hope you can keep this a secret.” With that, he placed the bag in their hands and walked out of the woods, pulling the little girl along with him.

The elderly couple stared blankly as they watched Lei Yin and Amy leave.

“Kid, aren’t you afraid of going hungry?” the old man asked.

“No, I’m not. Lei will definitely find a way,” Amy replied confidently.

Lei Yin gave her a teasing look. “You’re something else. Just don’t cry when your stomach starts growling, okay?”

The little girl giggled innocently.

If they were still on the boat, no matter how much Amy begged, Lei Yin wouldn’t have agreed to give up their food. But now that they were on land, he was confident he could find enough to eat, even if the island turned out to be uninhabited.

In survival situations, preventing illness was paramount. To avoid being bitten by poisonous insects, Lei Yin ventured into the forest alone. After some time, he returned with a handful of leaves that resembled tobacco. Using a stone, he crushed the leaves to extract their juice, then applied the liquid to Amy’s exposed skin.

“What is this stuff, Lei?” the little girl asked curiously as she watched him work.

“These leaves have a juice that repels mosquitoes. The smell isn’t great, but can you bear with it?”

Amy nodded obediently.

Her compliance touched Lei Yin, and he gave her a doting kiss on her cheek.

After applying the juice to himself as well, Lei Yin gathered the remaining leaves and approached the other students.

“Crush these leaves and apply the juice to your skin—it’ll protect you from mosquito bites,” he said, repeating the instructions at every campfire he visited. Whether or not they listened was up to them.

Some students were genuinely grateful for Lei Yin’s help. After all, they might have starved to death on the boat if it weren’t for him. However, others harbored resentment. In their minds, their current predicament was entirely Lei Yin’s fault. They believed that if they had stayed on the boat instead of following his suggestion to search for land, they wouldn’t have ended up shipwrecked on this desolate island. To them, Lei Yin was nothing but bad luck.

Lei Yin ignored their glares and returned to his original spot after distributing the mosquito-repelling leaves.

A while later, the elderly couple returned. When they saw Lei Yin, they gave him a small smile. He felt a sense of relief and smiled back. No one else understood the unspoken gratitude behind those smiles.

The next morning, the students proposed searching the island to see if it was inhabited. Lei Yin, however, opposed the idea.

“What’s your problem now?” a male student, who had long been displeased with Lei Yin, shouted angrily.

“Even if you’re going to search, you should wait until we’ve found food and water. In your current condition, how far do you think you can go?” Lei Yin said. Despite their hostility, he still felt a sense of responsibility as their schoolmate and didn’t want them heading to their deaths.

Another student stepped forward to support the disgruntled leader. “That’s why we need to look for people! If there are others on this island, we can be rescued. I don’t want to sit here waiting to die. I support Murai’s[1] proposal.”

Lei Yin shrugged indifferently. “Do whatever you want. I’ve already warned you.”

“Let’s go!” the lead student barked, glaring at Lei Yin before heading into the forest.

Caught in the sway of group mentality, the others hesitated briefly before following. After they left, Lei Yin turned to the sole remaining male student and asked, “Why didn’t you go with them?”

The student, a first-year who had been the first to support Lei Yin’s self-rescue plan on the boat, replied, “Because I think you’re right.”

Lei Yin smiled faintly. “There’s no such thing as an absolutely correct decision. Maybe they’ll find someone after all. Who knows? Anyway, what’s your name?”

“My name is Akiu[2] Mitsuaki, a first-year student in the Law Department at Teikyo University,” said the pale-faced young man as he introduced himself.

“I’m Gennai Masashi. Alright, introductions are over. Let’s quickly find some food and fresh water,” replied Masashi.

“But where do we even start looking for food and water?” Akiu Mitsuaki asked with a worried expression.

Masashi laughed. “It seems like you don’t go to the beach often. Compared to food, I’m more concerned about the water problem.”

He led Akiu to the shallow waters and casually picked up a white scallop, showing it to him. “See this? This is food, and there’s plenty of it. Not just scallops—oysters, clams, and whelks are all edible as long as they’re not poisonous. Of course, if we can catch live fish, that’s even better.”

Akiu began to understand but soon raised another concern. “But they’re raw. Isn’t it unsafe to eat them like this?”

“If you want to eat them raw, I won’t stop you,” Masashi said with a smirk. “But I plan to roast them over the fire before eating.”

Realizing the proximity of the bonfire, Akiu felt a bit foolish under Masashi’s teasing gaze.

“With food sorted, the next challenge is finding enough clean water. For now, you’re responsible for collecting enough shellfish for five people. I’ll go search for water.”

“Understood.”

If it were just him and Amy, Masashi could easily produce enough drinking water for the two of them by distilling seawater. But with the addition of the elderly couple and Akiu Mitsuaki, making five people in total, this method would be too slow. Hence, he had to find another water source. Fortunately, this was an island and not a desert, so finding water shouldn’t be too difficult.

Masashi gently woke Amy and told her, “Little one, I’m going to find drinkable water now. Stay here and wait for me. Don’t wander off, okay?”

The little girl quickly grabbed his hand. “Lei, I want to go too.”

“No, the forest is full of bugs. Aren’t you afraid of them?”

Hearing about the bugs, Amy’s face showed a look of fear.

Masashi continued, “Stay here and wait for me. I’ll be back soon. Don’t go anywhere, alright?”

“Okay,” the little girl finally nodded reluctantly.

Patting her lightly on the cheek, Masashi picked up a signal receiver he had salvaged from the shipwreck. Originally installed on the ship’s roof to receive television signals, Masashi had retrieved it last night to use as a makeshift pot for distilling seawater. Now, it would serve as a container for water.

The beach was teeming with shellfish. Three hours later, Akiu Mitsuaki had collected a large pile of scallops and oysters, enough to feed six or seven people. He wrapped them in his shirt and carried the bundle back to Masashi’s bonfire.

When he got there, Masashi was nowhere to be seen. Only the adorable little girl and the elderly foreign couple were present.

After placing the shellfish near the fire, Akiu asked the little girl, “Has your brother not returned yet?”

Realizing she couldn’t understand Japanese, he turned to the elderly couple, who were staring intently at the shellfish on the ground.

Akiu Mitsuaki knew they were starving—he was too. Without wasting time, he started roasting the shellfish one by one over the fire.

After about ten minutes, the scallops and oysters began to open their shells under the heat, revealing the slowly cooking meat inside. The tantalizing aroma only made Akiu’s hunger worse. The elderly couple’s expressions mirrored his—they could hardly wait to eat.

A few more minutes passed. Deciding the shellfish were ready, Akiu used a twig to pick out the ones that had opened the widest. After letting them cool slightly, he used another small stick to extract the meat and quickly popped it into his mouth.

Seeing his expression, the elderly couple also followed Akiu’s example and extracted the meat from the shells to eat.

Watching the three of them eating while fanning the air with their hands to cool down, Amy couldn’t help but laugh.

Akiu Mitsuaki offered her an open scallop, but she shook her head and didn’t take it.

Thinking she might not want to eat, Akiu demonstrated eating one himself again and then offered her another scallop. But she still shook her head.

The first-year law student was puzzled. Her expression didn’t indicate she hadn’t learned how to eat it, so why wasn’t she eating?

The American woman also found it odd and asked Amy why she wasn’t eating.

When she heard Amy’s response, the American woman was deeply touched. The little girl wanted to wait for Lei Yin to come back before eating.

Looking at Amy’s serious little face, the American woman’s maternal instincts took over, and she hugged the girl tightly.

Seeing the American woman suddenly crying as she held the little girl, Akiu Mitsuaki was even more confused. Were all foreigners this strange?

He didn’t have time to think much as his stomach started growling again, so he quickly grabbed an oyster and started eating.

At that moment, a cacophony of footsteps came from the woods.

Was someone coming? Akiu Mitsuaki stood up and looked over.

Before long, he saw many people walking out of the woods—it was the students who had gone off to search for other people.

Compared to when they left in the morning, they now looked weaker and more exhausted. Many were struggling to walk, leaning on tree trunks for support.

Seeing them like this, Akiu knew they hadn’t found anyone. After all, they had only been gone for the morning, and considering the return trip, they couldn’t have gone very far before exhaustion forced them to come back.

The leading boys at the front spotted Akiu and quickly turned their attention to the elderly couple eating scallops.

“Bastards, hoarding food!” the lead student shouted angrily as he rushed forward.

The other boys, also red-eyed with hunger, followed behind him.

Realizing they had misunderstood, Akiu shouted, “Don’t misunderstand, these scallops—” But before he could finish, the lead student punched him, sending him sprawling to the ground.

“You bastard, hiding food for yourself!” The leader, now delirious from hunger, pounced on Akiu and grabbed his neck.

Meanwhile, the other boys rushed to the fire and seized the scallops.

However, the high temperature of the shells made them scream in pain and drop the scallops.

Others in the woods, realizing there was food, also came running.

In an instant, the students from prestigious Tokyo schools became like a mob, pushing and shoving each other in a frantic attempt to grab the shellfish from the ground. The scene quickly descended into chaos.

Amid the pushing and shoving, the elderly couple was knocked down and trampled.

Amy, who had never seen such madness before, burst into loud cries from fright.

But no one paid attention to her; everyone was caught up in the frenzy for food.

[1] The same Chinese characters for Seimura. I don’t think they’re related so I’ll just use Murai.

[2] Also the same characters for Miyu.