You Owe Me, My Love
Chapter 301

Chapter 301 Afraid I Would Eat You

She stuttered, “Erm... e-everything in moderation. Too much of a-a good thing will have negativerepercussions as well..."

He chuckled playfully. “Why the stutter? Afraid I'd eat you up?”

Bai Rong had been drawing circles on the sand as a distraction. Yet it did nothing to calm her racingheart. She needed to escape. “Er... I'm turning in for the night. Nights.”

Seeing her attempt to flee, it made him laugh. “Where are you going?”

She chose not to respond.

He added, "Our clothes are still wet. You'll catch a cold if you sleep with it.”

He's right. She could not think of a rebuttal.

Seeing her conflicted expression, he felt like teasing her further. “I mean, we've already seen eachother naked before.” Gu Mingchen was clearly in a good mood.

This made her feel even more awkward. “Fine. I'll make some new clothing and sheets with treesand vines tomorrow.”

Gu Mingchen stopped his teasing. The next moment, he lay flat on the sand. “Look! The sky is full ofstars. I remembered back when I was a child, I loved looking at them. But, you can't really see themanymore now."

Changing the topic worked. Bai Rong was no longer apprehensive. Instead, she joined him. “Due toindustrial pollution, our cities are filled with smog. I guess that's why uninhabited places like theseare considered heaven.”

Gu Mingchen cradled her. His voice earnest. “Promise me. If we are rescued, we'll never leave eachother.”

Her silence made him uneasy, and he turned towards her.

“Alright...” Bai Rong finally uttered.

Satisfied with her response, he planted a kiss on her forehead immediately before he stood up tocut the bamboos.

His abrupt behavior perplexed her. “What are you doing?”

“Making a ladder. This bamboo is around ten meters long. I'll divide it roughly into three parts. Thetwo long ones will be for the sides of the ladder. For the last piece, we can cut it further to make therung of the ladder.” As he explained, he continued marking the holes for the rung to be inserted.After he was done, he divided the last piece of bamboo into seven equal parts, about threecentimeters long, to be inserted into the holes.

This was a relatively tedious process. The size of the holes had to match the diameter of thebamboo inserted into it.

Although she offered to help, Gu Mingchen was afraid that Bai Rong would hurt herself. Hesuggested an alternative. “I can handle this. I'd appreciate it if you could make us two pairs ofchopsticks. This way, we won't get scalded while getting the food from the pot.”

What he said made sense. She replied, “All right.” With the remaining bamboos, she made four pairsof chopsticks and a spatula.

He saw the extra pairs of chopsticks and laughed heartily. “For our non-existential guests?”

She found his comment amusing. Soon she was laughing, too.

Riding on the relaxed atmosphere, he joked. “Or is this for our children? Kinda early for that.”

He looked up to check her reaction. Bai Rong's cheeks had taken on a pink hue. He could not tellwhether it was the fire or her natural blush but, she looked ethereal. He could not peel his eyes offher.

“Nothing like that... I was just making some backups!”

He decided it was enough of teasing. “Oh look! Our crab'’s done.”

Bai Rong tried to use the chopsticks she made to lift the crab out. However, due to her poorworkmanship, it proved to be difficult. She realized craftsmanship was not her forte.

After several tries, she got two crabs out and left them to cool on a piece of leaf. Meanwhile, sheused her dagger to fine-tune her uneven chopsticks.

She smoothed the surface of the chopsticks so that they could align beside each other. Next, shegradually reduced its size as it got nearer to the tip. This was evidently an improved version.

Gu Mingchen called, “You start eating first. Tell me how tastes.”

The crab was cool enough to touch. She broke it in half and drank its juice. There was just the rightamount of salt. It was the best food she had tasted here.

She gestured a thumbs up. “It's delicious! But I'm worried we may not have enough freshwater...”"Don’t worry about that. We have seawater and a pot. That's all we need to make water.Alternatively, we can search for a freshwater source tomorrow morning. Once we've collectedenough, we could store the excess in a pit.”

“All right. But before we set off, let's have breakfast. I'll make a stew using the wild boar meat andbamboos.” She fed him a piece of crab meat as she talked.

“You have it yourself. I can peel mine.” He felt sorry for her hands.

“Then stop whatever you're doing and eat first. I can't finish all these by myself.”

He took a glimpse at his watch before rinsing his hands with seawater. He chose a spot beside her.During the slight pauses in their conversation, they could hear the subtle crackling of firewoodaccompanied by bouts of waves crashing. It helped create a comfortable ambiance. If they weren'tstranded, Bai Rong would have really enjoyed being here.

Meanwhile, Gu Mingchen had eaten a crab to appease her. Inmediately after, he began working onhis ladder again.

Bai Rong, on the other hand, ate two. Afterward, she prepared the abalone into slices before boilingthem in the pot. Everything tasted amazing to her.

Looking at him getting busy again, she offered to feed him another. “Try this.”

“Mmm... Not bad. It tastes fresh out of the sea.”

“I know. It's not an experience we can get with money.” Having said that, she continued feeding himthe abalones. Next, she decided to work on the sea cucumbers.

"Don't you replace their taste similar? Just like shellfish, I can't really taste any difference.”

Gu Mingchen analyzed. “Well, there are still some differences. Scallops have round meat and achewy texture. Oysters are soft. Freshwater mussels are larger and have more areas to bite. Theseare just a few examples. They all have different textures.”

She was awed by his detailed description. “Wow. You sound like a professional food taster.”"Honestly, I've not eaten this much in a long while.”

"Have you forgotten the time you ate near my school? That was an insane amount.”

“Well, today's portion still takes the top spot. I've eaten an entire boar leg, haven't I?”

She laughed at his comment. “I guess so. With the amount left, it could even last us up to a week.Let's cover the remaining three legs in salt and leave it under the sun. This way, it'll not turn bad formonths...” She trailed off in her thoughts.

What months? I don’t even have that much time left.

If she died, he would be here all alone. At that thought, she felt her heart ache.

"Why did you stop?”

She brushed off her negative thoughts before continuing. “I guess we could eat the ribs tomorrow.It'll probably last us the entire day.”

"All right. Before we set off tomorrow, let's wrap the meat up as you suggested. We can add rocksaround it to prevent other predators from getting to it.”