Day Eighty-Seven: They Have Come (Part Two) — A Special Chapter for the Sleep-Deprived Dork

While I was cooking, they came in to take the knife and went to cut down trees. If they had used only their own stone axes, they probably wouldn't have managed to chop down more than a few trees even by nightfall. With the axe and the knife, however, they could achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Of course, giving them these two items was not solely for that reason. I also wanted to test them. After all, having struggled here for so long and encountered countless fatal dangers, if they had harbored any other intentions after getting the axe, I would have made sure to nip that danger in the bud ahead of time. You must know that I still had three bullets left, though they were completely unaware of that fact. Once they had any ulterior motives, they would definitely make a move after obtaining the axe and the knife.

Yet, if they took the axe and the knife, cut down trees, came back, and ultimately returned the axe to me, I could finally set my mind at ease. Naturally, if they didn't return it, then...

There were quite a few people today, and waiting until evening to prepare food for everyone would make the process rather slow, so I started cooking in advance.

Speaking of which, I really liked the pot they used that day. Although its practicality was rather poor—since their pot was just a large piece of rock with an opening hollowed out into the shape of a spinning top—and making it must have taken a considerable amount of time, it could hold a large quantity of food after all!

The most regrettable thing was that now that they had moved over here, they had no way of transporting this large pot. I would simply have to let them make a new one once they arrived.

I had already finished boiling the third batch of porridge, and the prepared porridge was placed in basins and bowls to cool down. With so many people, cooking porridge would help conserve grain supplies; I only needed to boil two more batches and that would be enough.

In this scorching weather, having a bowl of cool porridge accompanied by piping hot, freshly steamed smoked meat would undoubtedly make for a delicious and grand feast. Soon, these pots of porridge were all ready. Just as I returned to the upper level of the tree house and prepared to lie down for a brief rest, I heard a burst of hurried footsteps. I immediately rushed to the doorway, leaned against the door frame, and looked outside.

It turned out to be Brother Qian. He came rushing over in a panic, shouting as he ran while swinging the axe he held in his hand: "Brother Luo, hurry, hurry up and help out!"

His cry was extremely urgent, and of course, he hadn't noticed me up on the upper level of the tree house; he still assumed I was on the lower level and was running toward the bottom of the tree house...

My heart skipped a beat, and I even drew the pistol tucked behind my back. The moment had finally arrived, after all.

Since I couldn't see any danger behind him yet he was in such a frantic state, it was hard not to feel suspicious. Furthermore, only he had come back, while the other man, Midakang, was nowhere to be seen. Could he be hiding quietly behind the tree house? Would he deliver a fatal blow at a critical moment? There was no way of knowing...

Should I strike first to gain the upper hand? Brother Qian was about to reach the entrance of the tree house! To shoot or not to shoot? Things had already reached this point! What was I still hesitating for? At that very moment, my inner self was torn with indecision.

For the sake of safety, just kill him! Did I really have to wait for them to make the first move? The situation was already this obvious, didn't I understand yet? The others hadn't come at all; the two of them had only come here to kill me! Look at it, right now they must think the weapons are all in their hands, so they were planning to lure you out and finish you off in one fell swoop. It was pathetic that I still hadn't struck first.

As if persuaded by the thoughts swirling in my mind, my right hand gripped the pistol and raised it, while my left hand supported my right. The safety of the pistol had already been disengaged long ago, and my finger slowly tightened on the trigger. Just a tiny bit more pressure, and the bullet in this pistol would pierce into Brother Qian's body in a flash...

"Brother Luo, come out for a moment. The tide has receded at the beach, and there are so many things to pick up..." Amidst my hesitation, Brother Qian had already rushed to the lower level of the tree house. But realizing immediately that I wasn't there, he headed up toward the upper level instead.

On second thought, in the absence of absolute evidence, I truly had no way of shooting Brother Qian directly. Even if he really intended to lure me to the beach where a trap awaited, I was confident I could handle them if that were indeed the case.

"Brother Luo, were you sleeping? Look at how drenched in sweat you are, sorry to wake you up! The tide at the beach has gone out, and we've found plenty of food, but we're troubled by the lack of a suitable container to hold it. I came back specifically hoping you could give us a container!"

"Huh?" His explanation was completely different from what I had imagined. Could what he said actually be the truth? There used to be several containers for holding things, but I had used them all to hold the rice porridge. However, there were still several pieces of broken fishing nets left; I only needed to tie them together with vines, and they could be turned into containers for fish.

As soon as I finished making it, Brother Qian handed the axe back to me, hugged the fishing net, and rushed toward the beach. This caught me completely off guard. From the very beginning, I had firmly believed that he wanted to trick me into going out and then turn against me.

Yet the outcome did not unfold according to my conjecture. Of course, I didn't suffer from persecutory delusions; rather, compared to them, I was entirely alone, and to survive, I had to rely solely upon myself.

Every time I encountered danger, I needed to anticipate all unfavorable possibilities to the best of my ability, preventing myself from falling into a trap from which there would be no redemption.

...

In the end, I decided to go and take a look. After all, the beach was not far from my tree house; going over for a quick glance would immediately reveal whether they were genuinely catching fish or playing a waiting game for me to walk into a trap.

Although the probability of my previous assumption becoming reality had been quite high, this time I must have been genuinely wrong. At the very least, the two of them were indeed searching for food where the seawater had receded. Touching my forehead, I let out a sigh. It was fortunate I hadn't fired my gun this time; if I really had pulled the trigger... then even people who could have originally become friends would have turned into enemies.

However, at the base of the reef where Midakang was searching for food, there were many highly venomous blue-ringed octopuses, which were exceptionally dangerous. I had already encountered them several times. To warn him, I hurried over and mentioned this to both him and Brother Qian. But seeing the half-believing looks on their faces, I didn't say much more, only adding a final warning: "I have personally seen this little blue octopus bite a conger eel, and the conger eel died almost immediately after being bitten."

After I finished speaking, I figured they would still choose to believe my words and would refrain from provoking any of those small blue octopuses.

I had to admit that there is indeed strength in numbers. Brother Qian was using the knife to pry oysters off the rocks, while Midakang was catching fish, shrimp, and crabs... Before long, the fishing net was filled with a large amount of food.

As we were preparing to head back, Brother Qian suddenly spoke up: "The tides here follow a certain pattern; perhaps before long, I'll be able to figure out the exact timing of the low tide."

"Really?" I asked hurriedly.

"Yes!" Brother Qian answered decisively!