Chapter 6: What Laozi Said
1015 Words
"Still looking? I thought you were different from other men, but it turns out you're all the same," Aimee snorted at Martin.
The next moment, Aimee quickly covered her chest with her hands.
Martin felt awkward, like he'd been caught red-handed.
He hastily averted his gaze.
Luckily, Martin had thick enough skin to brush it off.
Besides, Martin didn't think he'd done anything wrong; he just looked, like any guy would.
"Didn't the ancient texts say, 'The gentle doves coo on the islet in the river, a fair lady is a gentleman's ideal match'? What's wrong with that?" Martin defended himself.
Aimee rolled her eyes, "When did I ever say that?"
Martin scratched his head again, "I guess Laozi didn't say it, but can't I say it now?"
With a few complaints in his heart, Martin coughed lightly to ease the awkwardness.
Aimee glanced at Martin a few times but said nothing more.
This was just a minor incident; Aimee didn't really blame Martin. In fact, she felt something strange towards him.
Shaking his wet hair, Martin turned his gaze to the rolling waves at the seaside. Looking at the coast beneath his feet, he finally understood what had happened and why he woke up in the waves.
"So it was the tide rising, I was careless, I didn't think of this last night!" Martin said with a wry smile.
He felt somewhat relieved inside.
Luckily, he discovered it early; otherwise, if the rising tide had swept him into the deep sea, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"The fire is gone too, what should we do now?" Aimee asked Martin.
At the moment, Aimee truly didn't know what to do next.
From last night's events, Martin knew quite a bit, and unconsciously, she regarded him as her backbone.
"The fire's easy to deal with; the main thing now is finding a safe campsite, food, and water," Martin said very seriously.
A safe campsite, food, and water are crucial. They can't do without any of them.
Martin felt unbearably hungry and thirsty, his whole body dizzy from the lack of food and water.
Aimee stood silently beside him, her expression turning serious as she realized the gravity of the situation.
A moment later, Aimee turned to Martin.
She hoped Martin could come up with a solution.
"Let's wait here for a while. Once the tide recedes, we'll start looking for a safe campsite," Martin said again.
Once the tide recedes, there should be fish, shrimp, and shells on the shore.
This temporarily solves the food problem, leaving only the challenges of finding a campsite and water source.
Aimee nodded, having no objections and decided to follow Martin's lead.
The two of them sat by the shore for about half an hour until the tide finally receded.
Martin surveyed the coasts and pointed left: "Let's head this way!"
It wasn't that Martin found anything on the left coast; it was all based on intuition.
With no other options, they had to rely on intuition.
Although Aimee was curious why Martin chose this side, she didn't express any opinion and followed behind Martin as they headed in the direction of the left coast.
In no time, morning turned to noon.
The sun blazed overhead.
The breezy autumn morning had suddenly turned into a scorching summer day.
Martin and Aimee spent most of the day walking along the coast.
They still hadn't found a safe place to camp.
Apart from the dense forest on the deserted island, the coastline was nearly level with the sea. Although it seemed fine now, it could be submerged as soon as the tide rose.
Thus, these shores were unsafe.
Although they hadn't found a safe campsite, Martin and Aimee had gathered various fish, shrimp, and shells.
These were left by the receding tide and were their only food for now.
Aimee staggered and collapsed onto the sand, scattering the fish, shrimp, and shells she held. Her face was pale.
Martin sat beside Aimee, licking his cracked lips, utterly exhausted.
Although they found fish, shrimp, and shells at the receding tide's edge, they hadn't located a safe campsite for most of the day, which left them extremely frustrated.
But that wasn't the most crucial part.
The key problem was that under the scorching sun, they were almost collapsing from dehydration.
They were now desperate for a water source.
Their thirst had become more urgent than their need for food or anything else.
"Water, I want to drink water!" Aimee murmured weakly.
Looking at the churning sea, Aimee even felt the urge to drink wildly.
Not only Aimee, but Martin also felt this strong impulse.
However, they both knew they couldn't do that because seawater is not drinkable and wouldn't quench their thirst; they knew this basic fact.
If they drank seawater now, it would only hasten their dehydration and collapse.
"If there's no other way, I have a simple and effective, but hard-to-accept solution!" Martin said through gritted teeth.
Hearing Martin's words, Aimee clung to them like a lifeline: "What solution?"
In her urgency, Aimee hadn't paid attention to the latter part of Martin's statement.
"I once saw in a movie that if you're extremely dehydrated and can't find a water source, you can survive using the water from your body!" Martin replied.
"Water from the body?" Aimee murmured weakly.
"What? You mean..." The next moment, Aimee realized what 'water from the body' meant, and she was shocked.
"No, absolutely not, I'd rather die of thirst!" Aimee shook her head vigorously.
'Water from the body' obviously referred to urine.
While Aimee could endure eating insects when hungry, drinking this 'water' was something she absolutely couldn't do.
"In this situation, we have no other choice; to survive, we must choose this method!" Martin said through gritted teeth.
To be honest, he also found it hard to accept this method, but they had no other options and no water source.
If they didn't drink it, they would have no way out but death.
Aimee trembled, clenching her teeth tightly, in a state of frantic struggle.
- Writer
