Chapter 32 Part 2

The chieftain handed Ji Nuo another peeled coconut. Ji Nuo gave the one he had just opened to Ao’ao, who was looking up intently watching from beside him. The adults were all watching Ji Nuo open the coconut, but when the camera angle dropped to just over a meter high, all the little dumplings were looking at Lu Ao’ao with envy. Lu Ao’ao, mimicking the chieftain’s movements, quickly split the coconut into two halves and slightly raised his little chin. “Do you want some?”

The him of before would naturally have disdained associating with these little brats. But seeing the little fatty’s eyes turn bloodshot with envy, it suddenly felt a bit interesting. No wonder that stinky, smug little fatty loved provoking him so much. As soon as Lu Aotian finished speaking, except for Ruirui, who had already received half a coconut from Peng Li, the other three cubs’ eyes instantly sparkled. The light in the little fatty’s eyes was more complex—desire mixed with unwillingness and jealousy.

Lu Aotian first took a light sip of the coconut water and smacked his lips. “Mm, so sweet~” Then he waved the other small hand holding the remaining half coconut shell, slowly passing it from in front of the little fatty towards Tiantian. “You two girls share it.”

Zhenzhen and Tiantian’s eyes immediately lit up like tiny lightbulbs:

“Thank you, Little Brother Ao’ao!”

“Thank you, Ao’ao gege!”

Lu Aotian slanted a glance at the little dumpling Tiantian, thinking to himself: one who doesn’t know is not guilty. I, the mighty Long Aotian, am magnanimous and won’t quibble with a five-year-old real child…

The little fatty standing nearby, seeing everyone else drinking coconut water except him, and recalling Uncle William’s earlier promise that all the coconuts would be his, was instantly furious, his nostrils flaring wide.

Drinking his coconut water, Lu Aotian said slowly, “You want some too? Go find your uncle. Beg me—it won’t help.” This sentence completely hit the little fatty’s sore spot. Xu Xiaolin instantly turned into a tiny enraged bull calf, spun around, and barreled screaming towards his special forces uncle. “Ahhhh! Open a coconut for me! I want it too! Aren’t you special forces?! Why can that sickly Ji Nuo do it, but you can’t?! You’re useless!”

The bullet comments, cheerful just a moment before over the little fatty’s frustration, instantly stopped when they heard what he was yelling:

[Fists clenched. Wasn’t it him who came over first to brag to Ao’ao that his uncle could get coconuts? And said Ao’ao should beg him?]

[I used to think this kid just needed a harder spanking. Now I feel it’s purely a family education problem, otherwise his emotions couldn’t be this unstable.]

[I agree. Calling people sickly and useless… what six-year-old is exposed to such words? Maybe Xu Chengyi talks this way in front of the kid…]

At the same time, Ji Nuo had practically become an assembly line for opening coconuts—hand one over, one knock, easily split. Once the natives were sure Ji Nuo had completely mastered the technique, they proactively helped the other guests open theirs. Everyone else just waited for the ready-made result. Only William was still trying. Finally, he found a large rock and, with a forceful smash against the spot the natives had indicated, a numbing shock stung his hand, and the coconut finally split. William frowned slightly. He felt the force required wasn’t like some special trick the others mentioned. He’d already witnessed the natives’ strength firsthand. But for that pale, slender young Chinese man, Ji Nuo, to also open them so easily… William mulled it over, still thinking it impossible. He wanted to try another coconut, but then his little employer came wailing and crashed into him.

Soon, every person had an open coconut. As for the crying, screaming little fatty, he was quickly carried off to a corner by William and calmed down. Drinking the coconut water his uncle had personally smashed open, and recalling what Uncle William had told him, the little fatty’s mood lifted again. Looking at Lu Ao’ao, who was surrounded by the other little dumplings, he puffed out his chest once more. Since birth, everyone had told him he was the best child in the world, destined to become the best heir. He detested his cowardly little sister and couldn’t accept how Lu Ao’ao, who looked even weaker than his sister, consistently outperformed him. Dad said everything was because of that sly little celebrity Ji Nuo. Uncle William would deal with them for him; by then, Lu Ao’ao would be his defeated foe!

After everyone finished drinking the coconut water and eating the meat, they felt their basic survival needs were secured for the next few days, which lifted their spirits considerably.

Han Cheng took a carton of milk belonging to Lu Ao’ao from his backpack. He first asked the little one, “Can I use this milk to exchange for one help from Uncle Chieftain?”

Lu Ao’ao was quite satisfied with this gesture. He nodded somewhat haughtily. “Fine.”

Han Cheng curved his lips into a smile, handed the milk to the chieftain, and said in English, “We’ll need you to teach us how to start a fire using the fiber inside coconut husks.” The production team had already briefed the natives, so naturally, they agreed readily.

Prompted by Han Cheng, everyone recalled the things Bai Yong had mentioned at the start. Besides coconut water and meat, the fibrous material inside the husk was also an excellent fuel, useful for starting and maintaining fire. Back then, the guests had naturally taken Bai Yong’s words as gloating—windy talk meant to make the production team’s arrangements sound less outrageous. But now, with this native-led teaching segment, it was clear the “food and shelter” based around the coconut tree wasn’t just hot air from Bai Yong.

The five children had each initially carried one carton of milk in their backpacks. Now it was obvious they were short one carton needed to ask the natives for shelter-building instruction. As the natives prepared for the fire-starting lesson, everyone looked towards Zhenzhen and the little fatty Linlin. Kang Feier proactively took out her daughter’s milk, exchanged a few whispered words with Zhenzhen, and the little dumpling nodded, her eyes bright, agreeing in her milky voice, “Okay! Use milk to trade for a big house!”

Meanwhile, the natives had been drilling for a while, readying the tools for starting a fire with friction. Once the position was fixed, they began rubbing a small stick back and forth in the notched track. After over ten minutes, the natives were drenched in sweat before smoke finally started rising from the groove. Exhausted, the chieftain threw his stick down and said to the camera, “If you have the means, I suggest using a gas stove.”

Amidst the crowd’s laughter, the chieftain accepted a clump of dark brown coconut fiber, carefully transferred the sparks from the groove into it, wrapped the tinder with the flammable coconut fibers, and then carefully and meticulously blew oxygen into it. Soon, more smoke rose from the coconut fiber. Although everyone knew drilling wood could make fire, it was their first time seeing it live. Seeing the flames, they warmly applauded and cheered.

Ruirui’s family’s milk had been exchanged by Peng Li for the coconut-opening technique; the chieftain had given her half after opening it. This time, the fire-starting technique was exchanged by Han Cheng using Ao’ao’s milk. The chieftain held the burning coconut fiber, cradling it like a bouquet, and handed it to Han Cheng. Ji Nuo immediately picked up a very large coconut husk from the ground, helped Han Cheng receive the fire nest, and placed it in an open space nearby to transfer the fire later.

Subsequently, the chieftain gathered some palm leaves and coconut fronds, demonstrating the simplest form of grass weaving. He wove the long, narrow, scale-like leaves along their central axis into dense matting capable of shielding from wind and rain, suitable for tent walls.

“There’s a large bamboo grove in the northwest corner of the island. Plenty of dead bamboo there makes excellent material for the frame. When the time comes, you can whittle some wooden stakes and secure the woven coconut leaves onto the frame, and your shelter will be set up…”

After instructing the guests to a passable degree, the natives departed, singing and dancing, taking the three cartons of milk with them.

The guests, looking at the pile of half-woven leaves on the ground, felt their heads swell enormously. Even for two skilled workers, it would take a long time to weave enough simple shelter walls. But the production team’s intention in giving them a heap of coconuts for free was quite clear: today’s food is prepared for you; focus on building your shelter!

Since Ji Nuo and Han Cheng were the championship group from the first episode, they had the small tent provided by the production team, leaving them with conspicuously more free time. They planned to explore the surroundings to see what useful things they could find. After all, eating only coconut for three days was clearly impractical. They could search for backup plans before the production team started cheating them.

But Bai Yong had long prepared ways to specifically target them. Seeing the family of three about to head back toward the white sand beach, Bai Yong immediately picked up his megaphone and announced in his signature pretentious tone, “Congratulations to the guests for triggering the Coconut Grove Learning Task ahead of schedule and completing it satisfactorily! Considering the guests must live on the island for three days, coconut water alone naturally cannot meet nutritional needs. Therefore, the production team has specially prepared a seawater desalination device.”

Everyone, still busy weaving and the three members of Ji Nuo’s family, stopped their actions. After a dramatic pause, Bai Yong, predictably living up to expectations, laid out his harsh conditions: “Seawater desalination is a concept we learned in middle school. I imagine everyone is quite familiar with the principle. Therefore! To obtain the seawater desalination device provided by the production team, guests must first use their own efforts to produce 100 milliliters of freshwater to exchange with the production team, okay~”

Weng Kai’s fists hardened. “If we can produce 100 milliliters of freshwater ourselves, who needs the production team’s device??”

Chu Chengpeng looked at the coconut shells on the ground and tried to analyze calmly, “The production team shouldn’t issue an impossible challenge. They likely intend us to use what we already have. A hundred milliliters of freshwater must be obtainable. But the process probably won’t be as simple as handing over milk…”

Kang Feier immediately asked William in English if he had any good suggestions. Earlier, it was William who proposed combining the three families’ straw-woven tents into one large one and one small one, separating men and women, to significantly reduce the difficulty of construction. William pointed out after hearing this, “We currently have fire and seawater. Just set up a simple distillation device, and 100 milliliters of freshwater is very easily obtained.”

Weng Kai nodded. “But we currently only have coconut shells, which can’t withstand fire. So, the difficulty in exchanging for the production team’s seawater desalination device lies in finding a suitable heating container.”

However, tasks had priorities. The other three groups clearly had to first finish building their nighttime shelters before worrying about freshwater and obtaining more food types. Thus, the now-idle Ji Nuo family of three naturally had to take the lead. It could be said that Bai Yong had specifically laid out this task for them in advance. He wanted to first blunt the edge of this group, make them toil under the sun on the hot white beach for a whole day, betting that even if they secreted enough sweat to make up 100 milliliters, they wouldn’t be able to distill 100 milliliters of freshwater.

Bai Yong’s confidence stemmed from the fact that the production team’s staff had already circled the small island many times beforehand. Even the trash washed ashore from the sea had been picked over by them, leaving only plastic bottles that couldn’t be heated. Every container the guests could find to boil water would fail the heating test. Unless they dug up clay to make a kiln, that project would be far too massive, and even if they succeeded, there’d be no need to exchange with the production team for a desalination device.

But this wasn’t entirely without a solution. Some small, thick-textured shells, for instance, wouldn’t easily crack from fire. However, using such a tiny container to boil water would make extracting these 100 milliliters of freshwater incredibly painstaking and riddled with mishaps. Thus, as Bai Yong mouthed, “Oh dear, so only Ao’ao’s family has the time? How unfortunate!” he was secretly laughing so hard behind the monitor his gums were showing. Just as he stared at the family of three through the camera lens, smugly thinking this, little friend Lu Ao’ao picked up a white giant clam shell on the beach, wider than his shoulders. The little dumpling held up the giant clam and asked Han Cheng and Ji Nuo, “Is this size okay?”

Bai Yong’s eyes widened. He pressed his face close to the screen for a careful look and instantly felt his blood run backward in fury. Which staff member was so careless as to leave a giant clam shell this big lying around?!

Before Han Cheng could answer, Bai Yong’s megaphone voice boomed in the trio’s ears, “The giant clam is a national first-class protected animal. The island regulations forbid taking giant clams, living or dead. And damaging giant clam shells in any form is not allowed, including heating.” It was clearly a last-minute addendum, simply to prevent them from using the giant clam shell.

Little friend Lu Aotian pursed his lips. After a moment’s thought, his mind worked, and he suddenly pointed towards the sun in the sky.

Han Cheng had originally been reaching out to take the heavy giant clam shell from the child’s hands. Seeing this, thinking the kid was about to mention ball lightning again, Han Cheng stretched out his other hand and gently pressed down the child’s finger pointing at the sun. “That is the sun.”

Lu Aotian: “?” “I know that’s the sun!” he said irritably, shaking off Han Cheng’s hand. He turned his head towards Ji Nuo, his voice noticeably softening. “The sun is so strong now. Can’t we just use the sun’s heat?”