Chapter 116

Chapter 116: The watch spun once in the air and was caught in one bite by the polar bear.

The great skua had never eaten such a plentiful meal in its life.

So plentiful that it could bite one fish, eat one fish, and throw one fish away and still be full, eating until its throat hurt yet couldn’t finish.

The fish tails flapping almost hit its face, but the great skua still hadn’t recovered from the mountain of fish.

“Wu!” After a moment, as if finally coming to its senses, the great skua’s eyes brightened.

It circled around restlessly, flying around the fishing net nonstop.

“Help yourselves.” Lin Qianyu tossed over two big fish, “Little fox! Xueqiu! Come back.”

At the sound, the Arctic fox suddenly poked its head out of the snow, quickly found the direction, and ran towards her without hesitation.

“Ying!”

When pulling up the net, a lot of water came up with it; the ice surface was wet everywhere, and the snow near the shore had melted by the seawater. Now, the small area near the ice hole looked messy.

Lin Qianyu shook it off; there was still quite a bit of seal meat wrapped inside the innermost part of the net. “Looks like it can still be used one more time.”

But the seal meat soaked for a day and night didn’t look good—its color was much paler, edges bore marks from fish bites, and some fibers fluttered on the edges, now frozen and looking like a sea urchin.

Lin Qianyu dipped some water onto it, and those small raised edges of meat softened immediately.

She went around to the other side, fixed the net again, and lowered it with the heavy load and seal meat back into the ice hole.

The polar bear was eating fish meat with big bites, crunching like it was eating crackers.

“Tangyuan? Why aren’t you eating?” Lin Qianyu held up a smaller fish toward the little snow leopard, but it kept licking its fur nearby and didn’t even glance at the pile of fish heads on the ground.

But from her observations during this time, the little snow leopard still quite liked eating fish meat.

“Aowu!” The little snow leopard curled up its tail in a pitiful manner.

“Got wet?” Lin Qianyu put down the fish and her gloves, which were soaked, and went forward to pick up the little snow leopard.

Without gloves, her fingertips touched the fur, and the wet spots were clearly felt.

Lin Qianyu had a towel in her backpack, but with this much water, wiping wouldn’t dry it much. “Stop licking for now, how about I give you a bath when we get back?”

The little snow leopard paused its licking, licked its lips, and its tail wiggled anxiously.

Suddenly, it quieted down.

“…Pfft.” Lin Qianyu met its pleading eyes and couldn’t help laughing, “Is a bath really that scary?”

“Wu…” The little snow leopard was downcast, ears drooping, looking like a frostbitten furry ball.

Lin Qianyu held it up and coaxed, “Alright, alright, I’ll go get a wet towel to wipe you, no bath.”

“Wu!” The little snow leopard lifted its head, its wet nose rubbed her jaw, then turned its head and pressed against her, rubbing hard. Its ears were squished out of shape but it didn’t notice at all, just snuggling up.

Lin Qianyu patted its head gently, “Good.”

【The little snow leopard is so good at acting cute.】

【Honestly, if I caught the little snow leopard’s gaze, no matter if you don’t bathe again, you’d be my stinky treasure for life!!!】【Nonsense! Cats are very clean animals. Just now, little Tangyuan licked its fur until its tongue went numb, right?】

【It just doesn’t like water. Has it committed a crime?! I’m the one who’s willing to spoil it—any problems, come find me!】

...

After fishing, to prevent the fish from freezing together, Lin Qianyu separated all the fish from the start.

Setting aside those the furballs were eating, there were still quite a few big fish left on the ground.

“I should have saved some wood,” Lin Qianyu sighed as she looked at her empty backpack, then went to find the fire pit she had used all the previous times she came here.

To avoid making a mess by building too many fire pits around.

Although she didn’t build a fire pit each time, every time she built a fire on the ice, it was at the same spot with new wood added.

But now, there was no new wood left.

“I’ll make do with this.” Lin Qianyu broke off a ski pole, then chipped away the snow and ice from the fire pit.

Using the pole to drill for fire, she tore off a small piece of dry towel for kindling. When a small flame appeared, she carefully placed it into the fire pit.

She turned her head, watching closely. The small flame flickered, looking very unstable—like a slight breeze could blow it out.

Luckily, it didn’t go out.

Seeing this, Lin Qianyu threw the other half of the pole onto the fire and hung a bowl of snow over it with her lunchbox, then hung her gloves on both sides to warm them up—otherwise, they’d freeze again soon.

This was the downside of being on a polar island: anything wet left unattended would freeze stiff, making it hard to take off later.

The great skua’s stomach wasn’t big; it hadn’t even finished the last meal before this one came, like dreaming of falling into a school of fish stranded on shore.

It just couldn’t eat anymore—simply no more appetite.

Little Fatty barely managed two fish before giving up, while Little White ate one more small fish than it, but even swallowing that fish almost choked it.

The two big skuas were so full they couldn’t even get up off the ice.

Lin Qianyu was feeding the little snow leopard a small fish and, seeing the skua, poked it with her free hand.

The great skua’s soft belly immediately did a sit-up, “Wu!”

The highest it could go—the back of its head lifted off the ground.

Then it flopped back down with a ‘plop.’

Humans gave me so many delicious fish; what’s wrong with a little poke? Poke away, fine.

The great skua lay back happily, swinging its legs left and right, completely relaxed.

“Here, you eat first.” Lin Qianyu held the fish up to the little snow leopard’s mouth. “I’ll sort out the rest of the fish.”

The little snow leopard bit the fish, “Wu!”

At this time, the fish, though coated with a layer of ice and somewhat stiff, wasn’t completely frozen solid—just hard enough for cutting fish meat perfectly.

This single catch—only a small part of the fish—was already more than enough to fill all the furballs at home.

The rest naturally had to be taken back home for storage.Gut the fish, rinse the internal organs in the sea, roll them in a nearby snow pile, then place them on the ice without sticking, letting them naturally freeze.

Because the fish were processed in the same spot, quite a bit of blood dripped from each fish.

Lin Qianyu threw the cleaned internal organs into the ice hole as well.

Consider it as bait to attract more fish.

By the time she finished cleaning the last fish, the previously frozen ones were mostly solid.

The sky darkened.

Lin Qianyu poured out the water in the lunchbox and tried to light the fire, “Still not very hot, the fire’s too small.”

Luckily, after cooking for a long time, the snow inside had completely melted and warmed up a bit.

When cleaning the fish with the axe, her hands inevitably picked up some fishy smell.

Lin Qianyu squeezed some body wash and carefully scrubbed before rinsing with warm water. “Just a quick rinse for now, I’ll wash properly when I get back.”

As she spoke, the water she was washing with clearly felt colder.

She hurried to dry with a towel, then put on her gloves. “Has the wind picked up?”

She didn’t have a thermometer but felt it was colder than before.

Logically, after being busy so long, she should have been sweating, but sitting down, she didn’t feel warm at all. Instead, the biting cold wind seemed to blow through her clothes and into her bones.

Lin Qianyu fastened the buttons on her gloves. “The weather doesn’t look right. Let’s head back early today.”

“Au wu!” The little snow leopard stepped over the clean fish bones in front of her, stood up, and reached out its paw for a hug.

Lin Qianyu held the snow leopard, her empty backpack stuffed full with frozen fish. “Little Hei, Little Bai, want to go together?”

Little Fatty was still swinging its legs, opened its mouth, and softly called, “Wu...”

Lin Qianyu nodded, “See you next time.”

Great skuas are social animals and prefer to stay with their own kind in groups, so rejection was expected.

Lin Qianyu smiled and waved to them both, “If you want fish, you can always come here to find me.”

“Wu wu!”

—【The rescue station issued an orange alert for heavy snowfall. Guests are reminded not to stray far from the base camp in the coming days and to stay in safe areas. If abnormal weather is noticed, return to shelter immediately.】

【To withdraw from this variety show, please contact the production team within 24 hours of receiving this message; otherwise, it will be assumed you will continue participating.】

【All guests must prioritize their own safety.】

...

The watch kept vibrating.

Inside the room was pitch black, only the watch screen flickering faintly.

It was late at night, and Lin Qianyu was sound asleep.

Even the repeated notifications on the watch failed to wake her.The keen-eared little animals all turned their heads.

The little snow leopard lay curled in Lin Qianyu’s arms, sniffing closely, and shrank its neck when the watch vibrated with a new message.

The Arctic fox woke up too, stretching out on the pillow and then moving closer to see what was happening.

The little spotted seal turned over and went back to sleep.

The polar bear, little snow leopard, and Arctic fox all poked their heads together, three furry heads pressed close, their animal eyes fixed unblinking on the flickering text on the watch.

After a moment, when another message refreshed, the Arctic fox lowered its head, bit the watch strap and tugged; the little snow leopard swatted the watch as it fell onto the wooden bed.

The watch spun once in the air, then the polar bear bit it in one snap.

There was a ‘crack’ sound.

The light went out, and the room fell silent again.

—The next day.

Lin Qianyu stared silently at the cracked watch face full of fractures.

“You mean... it was like this when you woke up?” Su Yuxing fiddled with the watch. All the show’s equipment was standardized; durability was their top priority when choosing gear.

It really shouldn’t have cracked like this.

Lin Qianyu glanced at the little spotted seal. When she woke up in the morning, all the furry ones had gone hunting, even the little snow leopard was out, only the little spotted seal was still banging on the door when she got out of bed.

But being small and weak, it hadn’t managed to open the door by itself.

The little spotted seal thumped the ground with its front paws, “Ah ah ah!”

“I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything!”

【Help—what exactly happened last night?】

【Haha, this little one looks like it’s about to lose it. I swear it wasn’t them.】

【Although I didn’t see what happened last night, I did see when Xue Tuan closed the door.】

【The little spotted seal woke up, and the world had changed.】

Su Yuxing sighed and scratched his head, “The spare watches have all been sent for repairs.”

But as the only electronic device allowing guests to contact the production team, the watch was indispensable.

Su Yuxing thought for a moment and said, “How about this—I’ll apply for you to use a phone, but it can only connect to the island’s wireless network, no outside contact. So you can use the functions the watch has, but if you try to use functions it doesn’t have, an alarm will sound. If you open that, it’ll be seen as cheating and you’ll be disqualified.”

Perhaps thinking this was too strict and unkind, Su Yuxing quickly explained, “This isn’t my call; the online list will automatically mark you off.”

Lin Qianyu didn’t mind and simply said, “Okay.”

As for the watch with the shattered face, Lin Qianyu said, “Use my salary to cover it.”

“No need, normal wear and tear,” Su Yuxing waved it off carelessly, “It’s not a big deal.”

Su Yuxing made a quick adjustment to the watch; the screen still lit up, and the GPS still worked, meaning only the surface was damaged, not the inside. Since they needed some way to contact before a new watch arrived, he said, “Keep this for now. I’ll contact staff to send the phone over.”

“Okay.” Lin Qianyu pressed the watch into her palm, fingertips tracing the cracks.“Ying!” The Arctic fox returned carrying a fresh lemming. Seeing no one at home, it followed the scent and found Su Yuxing’s ice house.

As soon as the door was pushed open, Lin Qianyu came into view first. The fox immediately narrowed its eyes, “Ying!”

The next moment, its gaze landed on the very familiar but severely damaged watch in Lin Qianyu’s hand. The Arctic fox paused, then suddenly took several steps back, clawing at the door to close it.

Sorry.

Wrong place.

Author’s note: No more burning, woo~ Day nine starts tomorrow.

Good night, sleep early, love you all.