Chapter 297 Good To Have Him
“Oh right, you haven’t had any sleep since last night. You should rest for a while. I’ll stay up,” Bai Rong sat up and said to Gu Mingchen.
“You didn’t sleep as well. I can go on without sleep for a few days. You should rest first,” Gu Mingchen replied gently.
“I’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness all this while so you probably need it more than I do. I want to enjoy the sea breeze and the clear sky for a while more,” Bai Rong patted her thighs.
Gu Mingchen stopped insisting as he smiled and looked at the woman lovingly. Putting one hand behind his head, he lay next to her and not on her thighs as he was afraid that he would be too heavy for her.
As Bai Rong admired his manly features, she noticed that Gu Mingchen slept with his lips tightly pursed and looked just like an elegant prince.
At that moment, the woman felt that God was quite kind to her. Even though her life might be shortened and she had experienced many hardships, she was gifted with such a wonderful man.
Gu Mingchen was extremely exhausted. In fact, he had not slept at all after he got separated from Bai Rong. As such, he fell asleep in no time.
Bai Rong gazed at the clear sky and enjoyed that moment of serendipity. After some time, she started feeling sleepy and closed her eyes.
After a while, the woman was awoken by the aroma of grilled fish.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that Gu Mingchen had already grilled dozens of fish.
“So sorry, I fell asleep too,” Bai Rong apologized.
“It’s OK. We didn’t fall off the raft.” Gu Mingchen smiled as he passed the pot to her. “Taste it.”
Bai Rong took a sniff of the fish. It was apparent that the pungent fishy stench was no longer there and replaced by the delicious smell of grilled fish.
She pinched a bit of fish meat and put it into her mouth. “Mmm, it’s so yummy! It tastes very fresh.”
“Seawater is naturally salty and helps to preserve the freshness of the fish. It also contributes to the high mineral content in fish. You should eat more,” Gu Mingchen said as he continued grilling fishes.
As he did not have a spatula, he used the knife to flip the fish.
Bai Rong remained quietly by his side and helped to remove the fish bones.
When Gu Mingchen finished grilling half of the fishes he caught, the woman had already prepared a lot of fish meat.
However, the man did not take any of that but instead, started munching on a whole fish.
“I’ve already removed the bones for the fishes here and they’re ready to be eaten,” Bai Rong reminded him.
“You can have those. I’ll just eat this.”
“But I’ve picked out the bones so that we can eat them effortlessly.”
Gu Mingchen looked towards Bai Rong as she said that.
He knew that the woman really wanted him to eat from that pile of fish meat which she had specially prepared for him. As such, he did exactly that.
A blissful smile appeared on Bai Rong’s face as she watched him eat and Gu Mingchen couldn’t help but smile as well. ”Stop deboning the fishes for me. You should have some yourself too.”
“OK,” Bai Rong replied.
After they finished eating, Gu Mingchen threaded the remaining fishes together and placed them on top of the umbrella. That way, he could dry the fishes as well as use them to block off some sunlight.
Earlier on, he had made some distilled water using the plastic bottles which he had gathered. It was very simple to do so. Using two of the plastic bottles, he filled one bottle with seawater and connected the second bottle to it, before setting them in the sun. That way, as the water evaporated, clean distilled water vapor would be collected in the other bottle.
It was a pity that they did not have access to either ice or fire. Otherwise, the process of making distilled water would be much easier.
Gu Mingchen looked at his setup for making the distilled water, then took a glance at his watch. He realized that the distilled water that he had gathered after five hours was only enough to fill one bottle cap. That was just one mouthful and too little. The required liquid intake for a person per day was at least 1200 ML and what they had was definitely not enough.
“Rong,” Gu Mingchen called out to the woman with an awkward expression.
“What’s the matter?”
“Errr, if you need to release yourself… what we need most now is water,” Gu Mingchen tried to be as subtle as he could.
“Su Xuyan is a commander. He’s in charge of investigating the personal lives of officials and reports directly to the commander-in-chief,” Bai Rong explained.
“I know. I have already suspected that he has other statuses other than being directly under the commander-in-chief. However, he’s very cautious in nature and I can’t seem to find any clues. Also, you don’t have to worry too much about Liu Yan. I’ve already instructed my men to save her right away once they find her. They will do that even if I’m not around.”
“Thank you.” Bai Rong heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that.
“I don’t think the words ‘thank you’ are even needed between us,” Gu Mingchen replied.
“OK. Anyway, you should sleep some more. I won’t doze off this time around. Let’s take turns to stay up,” the woman said as she sat up.
“OK.” Gu Mingchen lay down and shut his eyes while Bai Rong stared blankly at the ocean.
When the man woke up, the sun had already set.
“Are you hungry?” He asked.
Bai Rong merely shook her head. She did not feel like speaking as she was starting to feel thirsty.
The man took a look at the fishes above the umbrella and noticed that they had already dried up.
Gu Mingchen passed the distilled water to Bai Rong, who shook her head in response as she wanted to save as much water as possible.
“Just drink up. It’s gonna rain tonight, so we will have enough water. However, the wind is going to be strong as well and the waves might be rather turbulent. To keep you safe, I’ll tie one of your hands together with the raft and you just try to keep your body as close to the wooden planks as possible yeah?” Gu Mingchen said as he kept the umbrella.
“How do you know it’ll rain?” Bai Rong asked.
As the man pointed towards the sky, she could see that the sky at a distance was already pitch-black.
The woman kept quiet and fear started to set in.
Gu Mingchen attached the umbrella to the bottom of the raft. Then, he put the other items into either the net or the plastic bags and attached them underneath the raft as well. The only items he left on the raft were one pot containing the empty plastic bottles.
As the rope was rather thin, the man was afraid that it would hurt Bai Rong’s wrist. As such, he removed his shirt to use in place of the rope and tied the woman’s hand to the raft. Seeing how attentive Gu Mingchen was to her, Bai Rong was suddenly not scared anymore…
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: You Owe Me, My Love