DISN – Chapter 26

Deserted Island Survival Notes

By Gu Cheng Huai

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Translator note: I don’t speak Chinese so this has been awkwardly translated using google translate and cleaned up. Original text found here: https://www.sto.cx/book-138000-1.html 

All credit to the original author for this wonderful story.

Please read this translation on https://erzoohobbytranslating.wordpress.com/

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Chapter 26

After completing several 360° rotations on the beach in various strange poses, the mermaid finally settled down on the beach. It stared fiercely at the straw ash and though the fire was long gone, the mermaid still looked quite angry. 

Watching the mermaid’s strange jumps across the beach, she wondered if was related to wild animals fearing fire? 

Not to mention the mermaid was a marine creature, in the sea year round. There would be no way to encounter a natural fire in this environment and it was even less likely that they would ever experience a crystal focusing the sunlight until it caused a fire. For the mermaid, this small spark would likely be extremely scary! No wonder he was afraid after seeing this for the first time. 

However, this was not enough to change Ye Zheng’s mind. Now that she had the option of fire, not even the mermaid would stop her from using it.

She cleared her throat, leaning on her fishbone care, and limped towards the mermaid, who was still staring at the cinders. He looked up as she came close, crawling forward and rubbing her instep. He wrapped a hand around her ankle and looked up at her, no longer afraid of the fire.

Ye Zheng looked down into his wet eyes and felt that whenever this great ocean overlord had a rare moment of weakness, he would come grab her feet. She must seem very tall in his eyes.

She struggled to her knees, keeping her right foot out straight and her left curled under her, and patted the sand covered mermaid. He gently leaned his head against Ye Zheng’s knee, holding her thigh. His hand touched her bare skin and found that she was still trembling, even in the hot weather. 

Ye Zheng felt her abdomen tighten, followed by an uncomfortable rush of liquid under the leaves she had wrapped around her lower waist. 

How was she going to deal with this? It was going to be even worse tomorrow.

Ye Zheng contemplated her fate with a bitter expression, firmly holding the mermaid’s head down when he tried to sniff her thighs. Fortunately, the mermaid knew she was not that strong so he did not struggle very much, laying obediently on her lap and begging Ye Zheng to rub away the sand it had picked up while jumping around.

As she worked, Ye Zheng quickly began to sweat. Her woven leaf hat kept the sun off her face but at such high temperatures, it did nothing for her back. Even the mermaid was feeling hot. As a species used to spending all day in the water, it rarely was on the shore during daylight. It preferred to come play with Ye Zheng at night and only for four or five hours at most.

The mermaid was no doubt feeling uncomfortable and the sand had not been completely cleared away. He raised his body, rubbed Ye Zheng intimately, and then hurried back to the sea. Ye Zheng watched him go and turned her mind back to more important things. Limping slowly, she headed back to the stone nest. 

While the mermaid was gone, Ye Zheng made a small pile of hay under the crystal, studying the small white spots that were out of focus. After a while, her wish was granted and the hay pile burst into flames. 

Ye Zheng was extremely excited, until now she had struggled to figure out how to make a fire. Right now, she had no fuel, so she could not keep the flames going. She would have to make do with the straw.

She stared at her injured leg in frustration, it would be very unwise to try cutting down more straw and leaves while using a cane. It would be better to wait until she could walk independently.

The lack of fuel couldn’t dampen her mood for long, however, and she at least had a little flame. Excited, she buried a few potatoes shallowly in the sand and spread the straw over the top. Next, she pulled over a conch filled with water and waited for the grass to catch fire again.

She wanted hot water and cooked potatoes!

As soon as the blackened conch shell was cool enough, she took a sip of the warm water. It was only ordinary fresh water, but as she drank Ye Zheng felt that all of her pores were opened up. The warm water went from her throat to her stomach and spread to her entire body, like someone was ironing her lower abdomen. 

The feeling of having hot water was really great! Ye Zheng didn’t want to let go of the conch, even when she pulled out her roasted potatoes. She was more and more sure that she needed this crystal to make fire. All she needed was more fuel.

However, the mermaid’s thoughts were very different. The fire was frightening and the crystal was no longer a good thing. When it came to shore again, it tried to take the big crystal away to prevent the fire from happening again.

Fortunately, Ye Zheng figured out his intentions in time. Using a series of body movements and gestures, Ye Zheng finally persuaded him to leave it alone. However, it was a long time before the mermaid finally stopped staring at the crystal in suspicion. 

His compromise was to move the crystal to her side of the stone nest, leaning it against the other wall that Ye Zheng faced when she slept. When they slept, the mermaid, who had always liked to be close to her, now kept himself as far away as possible and did not stay long. Ye Zheng, who had not fallen asleep yet, listened to him slip out in the middle of the night.

It was still afraid of that flash of fire and a little afraid of the crystal itself. 

Ye Zheng listened to the lonely sound of the mermaid crawling away. She knew that if she wanted to make fire a regular part of her life, the mermaid would have to agree. She couldn’t abandon the mermaid just to make a fire, right?

She tried to fiddle with the straw in front of the mermaid. However, before she could get the straw to light, the mermaid would unceremoniously flick his take and sweep away the straw and the crystal. His flicks were so strong that they were starting to create a network of fine cracks along the crystal’s surface, showing how determined he was to avoid the fire. 

Luckily, Ye Zheng’s foot was healing quickly. Her kick had only twisted her foot, not broken it, and though the mermaid was now spending less time on shore, he never forgot to change the medicine for her each day. It seemed that he was digging it out of the mud somewhere in the sea and bringing it to her in hollow sea mussel shells.

In no time at all, Ye Zheng left the crutches and was able to walk slowly with a small limp. 

As soon as her hands were free, Ye Zheng collected as much hay as she could, piling it high inside the stone nest. She worried that there would soon be a rainy period and watched to have enough straw stored. So far she only had enough to fill her sleeping space.

That afternoon, Ye Zheng waited for the mermaid to show up with his clam shell of mud. Finally he arrived. Ye Zheng smiled and waved, bracing herself. As soon as he handed her the shell, she set it aside and carefully pulled the mermaid into a hug.

Then she quickly wrapped both arms and legs around him, pinning him in place and restricting his movement. 

The mermaid looked up at her, baffled, and Ye Zheng soothingly rubbed his neck and spine. “Let’s lie down, okay?”

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t understand, her hand was pressing down his dorsal fin firmly, pressing him to her chest as she leaned back against the stone wall in the shade. 

Ye Zheng then held a piece of straw under the crystal, which was sitting in the sun. The mermaid watched her hands and twisted uneasily, wanting to escape and run away like before. 

But Ye Zheng held him firmly, pressing down on his dorsal fin with her arms. Her determination to hold him down was clear. Of course, if the mermaid really wanted to escape, it would be simple, just break free. However, it would have to risk injuring her. To avoid this, it needed to stay still.

She could feel his dorsal fin spurs, which had grown back quickly, where they were tucked inside the fin. Ye Zheng whispered mildly into his ear, trying to calm him down, and gently patted his neck and upper back. The mermaid grabbed her shoulder tightly with one hand, the other digging restlessly at the sand. He turned his head from her shoulder and stared at the staw under the crystal.

Soon, the piece of hay caught fire. 

Immediately, Ye Zheng felt his muscles go tight and start to shake. But the mermaid did not jump up with his fins displayed, as he had before. Ye Zheng knew that he was worried about hurting her and she hugged him tightly. Then, letting him watch, she picked up the water conch and poured it over the straw. 

“Ssh,” the small flame instantly extinguished.

The mermaid in her arms stopped trembling, the danger was gone. He relaxed, staring at the conch in Ye Zheng’s hand.

“Look,” she said, handing him the conch and gently patting his back. The inner wall of the conch was still wet. “Now you know you can destroy it with water so don’t be so worried, okay?”

The mermaid studied the conch for a long time and then carefully grabbed a small handful of straw. He threw it under the crystal.

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