Recollection over, having run through the operation virtually in her mind, she pondered substitutes for the large and small containers.
Got it, the small iron pot could be the large container. For the small container she could use the glass bottle full of snow-water. The mineral-water bottle, being plastic, would melt in high heat and couldn’t be used.
She took out the snow-water, unscrewed the cap, and drank a mouthful, hm? Still a bit cool, its taste crisp and clean.
Quite tasty, she couldn’t resist another mouthful before pouring the snow-water into a mineral-water bottle.
Then she brought the fire basin, briquettes, gun, small iron pot, glass bottle, plastic bag, and cord all out to the deck. Everything was ready, all that remained was the actual work.
She lit a briquette, put it in the fire basin, scooped more than half a pot of seawater, put her hand in the pot, no reaction, so she silently thought, “Gather.”
“Too little material, cannot gather.”
Just as she’d thought. Last map, gathering snow was roughly a 1m × 1m × 1m volume.
This time, gathering seawater, judging by eye, the volume was about the same.
She took her hand out, set the pot on the grate, put the clean glass bottle in the middle of the pot, covered the pot’s mouth with the plastic bag, tied a loop of cord around it, and left the excess bag facing up so the pot’s heat wouldn’t melt it.
Finally she scooped a little seawater onto the bag by hand.
Before long the seawater in the pot boiled. The rising steam met the bag above, slowly condensed into droplets, and dripped one by one into the glass bottle in the middle.
By the time one briquette was used up, the glass bottle held only a third of a serving of drinking water. Ye Yi didn’t open the bag, she kept it out under the blazing sun.
Looking at the clear water in the bottle, it seemed a success, just too slow, and rather wasteful of fuel.
Unless it came to it, she wouldn’t recommend collecting drinking water this way.
Ye Yi glanced at the blazing sun, so hot her head felt about to sweat oil, and quickly ducked into the cabin, lay on the down jacket, pulled the blanket over herself, and rested a while.
Around 4-something in the afternoon, she ate a bit of canned luncheon meat and water to replenish what she’d used.
After eating, the sun outside was no longer so hot. She took out the pork, cut off a small piece, and put it in the fishnet. She tied the pork firmly into the net with cord, carried the net out of the cabin, and got ready to begin her great fishing enterprise.
She carefully lay by the side, lowered the net into the water, slowly brought it near the fish swimming merrily about, and held it still.
She stared hard at the little fish playing in the water. Suddenly one seemed drawn by the pork in the net, slowly approached, bared its sharp teeth, and was about to bite.
Ye Yi quickly pulled the net away so it couldn’t bite. Once it left, she brought the net back beside the school, but the fish swam about and wouldn’t stay.
After watching a good while, at last a long, silvery-white fish stopped, dazed, above the net, just about to swim off. Ye Yi seized the moment and quickly pulled the cords up with both hands.
Before the long white fish could react, it was scooped into the net, trapped, and began thrashing violently.
The cords in Ye Yi’s hands swayed wildly, so she had to use every bit of her strength to pull the fish up fast.
The fish struggled hard, but it was too late, before long Ye Yi had it up on the deck, flopping on the boards.
She bent to pick up the tongs and smashed them down onto the fish’s head until it stopped moving.
She let go of the tongs, lifted the net in front of her, and examined the fish carefully, by its shape it looked like a beltfish.
Its body was silvery-white, its tail a bit black, about a meter long, its teeth very sharp, somewhat like the beltfish she often ate, and somewhat not.
This time she thought of the Gather function first, reached into the net, put her hand on the beltfish. “A longtooth fish detected. Gather?”
“Yes.”
Blue light appeared. Ye Yi touched it with her hand and saw the gathered items: 4 portions of longtooth fish meat and one thin, long fish sinew.
She picked up the sinew and gave it a tug—quite strong, with good elasticity, it would work well as a cord. She stored it and the fish meat in the system Backpack.
This fishing success gave her great confidence and drive. She lay back down and kept fishing.
She didn’t stop until it was nearly dark. She tallied the spoils: 12 portions of longtooth fish, 5 portions of stone croaker, 3 portions of boneless fish, 2 portions of slender fish, plus some fish sinews.
A full haul, one might say. With luck like this every day, surviving 30 days at sea would be no problem at all.
She carried the fire basin and small iron pot back to the cabin, slowly lifted the plastic bag, a wisp of mist drifted out, and the droplets on the bag slid straight into the sea.
The glass bottle held about two-thirds of a serving of drinking water. She brought it to her mouth and took a tiny sip, the taste was passable, with a faint bitterness from the seawater, but within an acceptable range.
Just too little, and rather wasteful of time and fuel.
She could set it out under the sun at the hottest part of each day, collect a little daily, and in the end it would add up. Starting tomorrow, she had to purify seawater every day, little by little, it would accumulate.
For dinner, Ye Yi cooked some fish soup with baby greens, replenishing protein, vitamin C, and water.
Then, like yesterday, she warmed the blanket, filled the three hot-water bottles, and slept under the blanket and down jacket.
Only, this night the wind howled, and Ye Yi slept half-dreaming, now she felt she was flying in the sky, now rocking in a cradle.
Days three and four: get up, eat, purify seawater, fish, eat, sleep. Several days of calm, nothing happening.
On the morning of the fifth day, Ye Yi opened the wristband as usual to check the weather and found that after several clear days, it now showed a storm.
A storm?
She looked up at the clear, windless sky and sea, nothing looked like rain at all.
But the wristband did show storm weather, so Ye Yi chose to trust it and did nothing else first. She gathered and stored all the items left outside into the system Backpack, and the cabin items too.
Just as she stepped out to do a final check of the boat, she saw gulls flying off in flocks over the sea. The deep-blue water felt oppressive, the calm surface holding the stillness before a storm.
The sky slowly darkened, in the distance a great mass of storm clouds drifted slowly toward her, the whole sea giving off a storm-is-coming feeling.
Ye Yi quickly checked the boat all around, made sure there were no problems, then, at ease, stood on the second floor and stretched out her hands to feel the wind’s strength.
Not very strong, but not weak either. She worried a little, could this two-story wooden boat survive this storm?
She’d never lived at sea, all she could do was what she could think of, and leave the rest to luck.
Suddenly she remembered the inflatable life raft by the side and, to be safe, brought it into the cabin, so she could use it to escape if the boat gave out.
Finally she checked all the cabin’s doors and windows, shut them tight, and, holding the life raft, sat quietly in the middle of the cabin, waiting for the storm.
After some unknown length of time, the storm clouds slowly blotted out the sky, and the whole world fell into darkness. Thunder rumbled from above, and lightning flashed white through the clouds.
The seawater beneath the boat turned turbulent, carrying the boat into a rocking. Before long, the sound of rain striking wood came from the boards overhead.
The heavy rain fell without pause. The calm sea, whipped up by the storm in an instant, began to surge up and down.
The boat too began to pitch and roll, now on a crest, now dropping down, like a roller coaster. Ye Yi’s heart nearly leaped out of her chest. She’d long since risen and gripped the window’s edge firmly, swaying with the boat and listening to the waves battering the deck outside.
Now and then she could see enormous waves slam against the glass, afraid the next moment would shatter it, yet she didn’t dare not watch, if anything happened, she could at least notice it first here.
Eyes wide, she stared at the storm outside without daring to relax for a moment.
Never had she so longed for time to pass quickly. Slowly, water seeped through the second-floor boards into the cabin, and water surged in from the front deck too.
This couldn’t go on, the wind and waves were too fierce. Even on the raft, it was less safe than staying on the boat, and the chance of escaping was smaller.
She could only clear the water off the boat first and wait for the storm to leave.
Swaying, Ye Yi put the raft into the system Backpack, took out the rope she’d found on the boat earlier, and, while the waves were down, stepped out of the cabin and shut the door tight behind her.
She’d been out only a moment before her hair and clothes were soaked, nothing to be done. Gritting her teeth against the downpour, squinting, she tied the rope to the railing and the other end firmly around her waist.
Holding the railing, braving the storm, she made for where the water was deepest, bent down, put her hand in it, and silently thought, “Gather.”
“Too little material, cannot gather.”
Furious, Ye Yi cursed, rain blowing into her mouth unable to stop her: “What use is this junk system? You call this too little? The boat’s about to sink, this much water, and it’s still too little?”
The system gave no response.
Ye Yi could only shout in fury, “Gather, gather…”
The system still replied mechanically, “Cannot gather.”
It made her teeth ache with anger, but there was nothing she could do. Suddenly the water at her feet increased. She wiped the rain from her face hard and looked down, eyes wide.
It turned out the boat had sunk lower, so the seawater had increased. Unwilling to give up, she put her hand in the water again. “Seawater detected. Gather?”
Ye Yi immediately chanted happily, “Gather.”
The seawater at her feet instantly vanished clean, and a familiar blue light appeared on the boards.
Ye Yi had no time at all to pick it up. She looked up at the huge wave ahead, about to slam onto the boat, quickly re-tightened the rope at her waist, and, holding the railing, staggered to the very front of the deck.
One hand gripping the railing tight, the other stretched into the air, she prepared to gather the wave with the system the instant it struck, to make sure the boat could weather the storm.
The next second, the enormous wave crashed viciously toward the boat. The moment the system said, “A wave detected…” Ye Yi immediately thought, “Gather.”