SDIWD - Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Since the main course was coconut crab, Bai Zhen released the dozen or so hermit crabs she had caught earlier, using only a coconut shell to cook a marbled goby soup.
Hua Mu sat sulking for a while, but when she looked up and saw the numerous wounds covering Bai Zhen's body, she found she couldn't stay angry.
She remembered how Bai Zhen had frantically run off to find medicinal herbs when she'd gotten a small cut. Why was she so careless when it came to her own injuries?
After watching for a moment, she finally couldn't resist and nudged Bai Zhen with the tip of her foot.
"Hey."
"What is it, Miss?"
"Didn't you gather some of those medicinal herbs earlier? You should treat your wounds later... In your condition, how could I dare let you carry me on your back?"
Bai Zhen thought she had a good point. "Alright, I'll make lunch first. Miss, have some fish soup."
The marbled goby wasn't large, but its flesh was thick and rich, making for an incredibly delicious soup. Bai Zhen had only added a bit of shredded ginger to remove the fishy taste, yet Hua Mu still felt her cooking skills had improved greatly.
While sipping her fish soup, Hua Mu watched Bai Zhen roast the crab claws. Suddenly, she remembered that she had been knocking down fruit earlier.
That was her original goal!
"Miss?"
Seeing Hua Mu suddenly stand up and run toward the mangrove forest, Bai Zhen quickly followed.
"Miss, what is it?"
Hua Mu was walking slowly, so she simply pulled Bai Zhen along to help her gather the fruit.
"I knocked down some fruit. See if any of it is edible."
Bai Zhen had noticed earlier that the leaves and branches here had fallen in an unusual way, but she hadn't realized it was Hua Mu's handiwork.
"This one looks so cute, it must be edible, right?"
Hua Mu picked up a fruit the size of a loquat. It had a woody, orange-yellow skin and looked quite appealing.
Bai Zhen was startled and quickly knocked the fruit from her hand.
"Miss, you didn't eat this, did you? This is a sea mango. It's highly poisonous."
Hua Mu was startled to hear it was highly poisonous, but then she grew annoyed at the way Bai Zhen was treating her like an idiot.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I was asking you, wasn't I? I wouldn't eat something without knowing what it is."
Bai Zhen realized her tone had been too harsh and had hurt Hua Mu's feelings. "I'm sorry, Miss," she said guiltily. "You... you should wash your hands. The entire tree is poisonous. Please don't go near it."
Hua Mu pouted. After that scare, she didn't dare pick up any more fruit herself and left it to Bai Zhen.
"You're the expert, you know what's what. You pick out the ones that are edible."
Bai Zhen took a look and found that very few were edible. Besides a few beach apples, only the pandanus fruit could be eaten after proper preparation.
After spending all that time knocking them down, Hua Mu saw Bai Zhen select only a handful. Unwilling to give up, she asked, "Is that all?"
Bai Zhen really didn't want to hurt her feelings, but what was inedible was inedible.
"Miss, this is enough."
For a Sentinel, this was the most tactful way of putting it. Hua Mu stomped her foot and went back to eat the coconut crab!
Bai Zhen sighed. After washing the beach apples, she cut open the pandanus fruit and soaked it in the seawater.
Hua Mu sat by the fire hugging her knees, feeling even more dejected. She had hoped to redeem herself a little, but she had only managed to embarrass herself further. Would it be less of a burden for Bai Zhen if she just did nothing at all?
"Miss, would you like a beach apple?" Bai Zhen walked over and held out a few bright red fruits. "These are very tasty."
Hua Mu was not pleased at all. "What about the wild pineapple?"
"The wild pineapple needs to be soaked in saltwater to be tasty. Please have this first."
Hua Mu snorted, but since it was fruit she had gathered herself, she picked one up and took a crunchy bite.
Oh, it was sweet, sour, and crisp. Truly delicious. As expected of fruit she had picked herself.
Seeing Hua Mu's expression relax, Bai Zhen also felt a bit more at ease. As she pulled the roasted crab claws from the fire, she said, "Miss, from now on, just let me handle everything."
Hua Mu usually had impeccable manners, but after half a month of hardship on the island, her ladylike image was long gone. She could even talk with her mouth full now.
"I have my own hands and feet. Why should I have you do it?"
She didn't like hearing that; she felt Bai Zhen was looking down on her.
Bai Zhen actually understood Hua Mu's thoughts to some extent. Although the Sentinel held her Miss on a pedestal, they had been together for five years, so she had some understanding of her personality. Hua Mu might seem delicate, but she was fiercely competitive. In the past, she was the type of person who always strove for perfection. Now, having to rely completely on Bai Zhen for survival probably left her feeling quite dissatisfied.
"Miss, I know you are intelligent and talented. In the past, whatever you did, you were always the best."
Praise from a Sentinel was a rare thing, and Hua Mu felt herself floating on air. "But who knows how many people went easy on me just because my aunt is the Queen," she said modestly.
Bai Zhen knew that wasn't the case at all.
"That's not it. You are serious and hardworking. The Queen herself has praised your intelligence and perseverance, saying that you can succeed at anything you set your mind to."
Oh, say a little more, she loved hearing it.
"Hmph..."
"But you have very little experience in this area, and the wilderness is a complex environment. I'm sure you could do it if you set your mind to it; I'm just afraid you'll get hurt."
Strange, how was this Sentinel getting better and better with her words?
Hua Mu cleared her throat and steadied her racing heart.
"You say such nice things, but you probably just think I'm a nuisance."
"I don't think that at all!"
Seeing the anxious look on Bai Zhen's face, Hua Mu's vanity was greatly satisfied.
That's right. How dare she!
"Hmm... you're not wrong. But you can't just point out my faults. What about you? You act recklessly just because you think you're so tough, always getting yourself covered in injuries... Ahem, it's not that I'm concerned about you. You should know, if you get hurt, I'm the one who suffers in the end."
Bai Zhen was very moved. The Miss had always been considerate of her subordinates.
"I understand."
"Besides, I don't think what you said about me makes any sense. As you said, the only reason I don't know how to do anything is because I'm unfamiliar with it. So I have to learn and practice slowly. Practice makes perfect, right? Am I supposed to improve by doing nothing?"
At that moment, Hua Mu completely forgot they would be leaving soon. She looked like she was rolling up her sleeves, ready to show what she could do.
"But..."
"No buts. I'll be careful from now on, but you can't forbid me from doing anything. What do you take me for?"
Knowing she couldn't win the argument, Bai Zhen said no more. She prepared the steaming hot crab claw and handed it to Hua Mu.
The tender white crab meat seemed to give off a coconut fragrance, and Hua Mu's stomach rumbled.
"Ahem, alright, let's eat the crab. We still have things to do this afternoon."
Coconut crab was so delicious!
After eating and drinking their fill, it was time to prepare to cross the water. Bai Zhen swam out a short distance to observe the extent of the mangrove forest and felt relieved.
It was less than two kilometers away. If she were alone, she could have swum across directly. But Hua Mu didn't have that kind of stamina, so she needed to build a simple raft.
She could source the materials from the mangrove forest, but since she only had a dagger and a military knife, progress would likely be slow.
Fortunately, they hadn't planned on making a round trip in one day and had brought enough fresh water.
Having made up her mind, Bai Zhen was about to swim back to shore when a strange current caught her attention. The water outside the mangrove forest was deeper and not as clear as the water near the coral reef. Debris from the mangroves nurtured a large amount of plankton, which in turn attracted large schools of fish.
A spirit animal's perception of danger is extremely acute. Almost at the exact moment Bai Zhen sensed something was wrong, the spirit animal within her had already reacted.
Bai Zhen plunged into the water and swam rapidly toward the shore. She could sense a bull shark, nearly two meters long, in hot pursuit less than ten meters behind her.
Sharks generally don't attack humans unprovoked, but in murky waters, they can mistake them for threats. Moreover, the scent of blood on her body could easily trigger an aggressive response from the shark.
She had little advantage in the water and didn't want to get entangled with the bull shark. Sharks don't typically eat humans; at most, they take a single bite. Most human fatalities from shark attacks occur because the blood from an initial bite attracts more sharks, and the victim is bitten to death one piece at a time.
This was precisely why Bai Zhen didn't want a confrontation. No matter who got injured, the result would be attracting more sharks.
Hua Mu had felt uneasy ever since Bai Zhen went into the sea to investigate. At first, she thought she was just worried about Bai Zhen's injuries, but then she saw her swimming desperately toward the shore, a large fin in pursuit.
"Bai Zhen!"
The fin was so large that even a young lady like Hua Mu could tell it belonged to something dangerous.
"A shark! You- you have to swim faster, faster!"
She was so anxious she was practically jumping up and down. Knowing she would be of no help, her feet still carried her uncontrollably into the water.
Bai Zhen had calculated her escape route, but when she saw Hua Mu recklessly rushing into the sea, she panicked, and her rhythm was thrown into disarray.
A Sentinel's abilities were closely related to the type of their spirit animal. Bai Zhen's ice wolf, for example, was suited for action in forests and plains, granting her not only enhanced perception but also the ability to accelerate.
But the ice wolf was not adapted for underwater activity, which greatly diminished Bai Zhen's combat effectiveness.
She hadn't encountered any dangerous fish during her activities along the coast these past few days, so she had let her guard down to some extent.
Bai Zhen took a deep breath and suddenly turned back, charging toward the nearly two-meter-long shark.
"Bai Zhen!"
Hua Mu's heart clenched, and she nearly fainted from fear.
"Bai Zhen, Bai Zhen! What are you doing!"
Although bull sharks are smaller than many other shark species, they rank among the most aggressive. As ambush predators, they often hunt prey larger than themselves.
The thought that they still had to cross this water later made Bai Zhen realize she couldn't just leave the shark be. Drawing the dagger from her waist, she met it head-on. The force of the bull shark's charge was astonishing. Bai Zhen narrowly dodged its attack and hooked herself onto its side, clinging to its fin.
Ferocious as they were, sharks were not without weaknesses. Around their snouts was a ring of pores known as the ampullae of Lorenzini, which they used to detect faint electrical currents in the water. Stimulating the tip of a shark's snout could induce a temporary state of paralysis.
But even knowing this weakness, fighting a shark in the water was extremely unwise. Even a highly trained Sentinel like Bai Zhen couldn't expect to escape unscathed. The shark also seemed to sense the danger and began to thrash violently, dragging Bai Zhen along as it sped through the water.
The only saving grace was that bull sharks lack a swim bladder; they rely on air in their stomachs to ascend and descend. For the moment, at least, it didn't drag Bai Zhen into the depths.
Bai Zhen's lung capacity was astonishing. Once she adapted to its speed and figured out its rhythm, she was able to find the right moments to surface for air.
She didn't want to harm it needlessly, both because the blood might attract other sharks and because she didn't want it to suffer a painful death.
After all, they were the ones who had intruded on its territory.
Hua Mu watched the churning sea, her hand clamped over her mouth, having already collapsed weakly at the water's edge.
How could a person possibly fight a shark in the sea!
The churning of the water in the distance grew more violent, then suddenly, everything went still. Crimson blood rapidly stained the seawater. Only then did Hua Mu find the strength to get up, stumbling and splashing her way into the ocean.
After the shipwreck, she had developed a certain fear of the sea, but at this moment, that fear was the furthest thing from her mind.
If Bai Zhen died, then she... she wouldn't be able to survive anyway.
"Bai Zhen, Bai Zhen!"
Hua Mu's frame was too slender. She managed to wade out a short distance, only for a few waves to knock her back. She cried and shouted, but by the time her dress was soaked through, she hadn't made much progress at all.
After killing the shark, Bai Zhen fell into a brief trance. The intense mental focus and extreme physical exertion had brought her to the brink of collapse. In her daze, she thought she heard someone calling her name, like a distant light guiding her.
She couldn't die here!
Bai Zhen's body finally stopped sinking. She turned over and swam toward the shore.
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