The little girl devoured the fish whole, from head to tail, without spitting out a single bone. When she was done, she wiped her mouth and extended a grubby hand toward Ziye, "The sea washed away my backpack, thankfully I had your fish. No thanks are necessary for such a great kindness; I will surely repay you someday. My name is Lingyin, and yours?"

Ziye smiled, "It was just a fish, no trouble. My name is Ziye."

"Eh? You are Ziye?" Lingyin sprang up with a whoosh, scrutinizing her from head to toe, clicking her tongue in admiration, "I have long admired your fame, it echoes in my ears! Seeing your countenance today is such great fortune."

"No need to be so polite, I'm full now." Ziye was amused by her, and even the usually stern instructor couldn't help but chuckle.

Lingyin gave her a thumbs-up. "Good, then I'm off to forage." With that, she dashed into the woods like a gust of wind. As fiery on her departure as she was on arrival.

Seeing her go, Ziye also stood up and said to the instructor, "Thank you for lending me the fire." Then, she too slipped into the adjacent woods.

The forest was in its purest natural state, the canopy dense, making it very cool inside, with almost no light penetrating. She carefully avoided trees with poisonous leaves or thorns. Spotting a towering tree laden with bright red fruits, she asked, "Xiaodou, can that be eaten?"

Xiaodouya possessed an encyclopedia of plants compiled exclusively by the perverse dead one; it could identify almost any flora unless it was exceptionally rare. At this moment, it floated lazily into the air, circled the fruit once, then flew back, landing with a soft thwack on Ziye's head, "Cannot be eaten."

Ziye licked her dry lips and kept walking.

In places like this, the more abundant the seawater, the scarcer the freshwater. Having eaten meat and gnawed on fish, having no water left her mouth constantly sticky. If there were other activities scheduled today, definitely no water meant no chance of success.

Observing the instructors eating their meat and remaining on standby, the probability of further activities was over 80%. The most infuriating thing was that they offered absolutely no dietary advice; one had to figure everything out independently.

Ziye and Xiaodouya walked deeper and deeper until they finally found a tree bearing edible fruit. Unfortunately, it wasn't the season, and there were only two or three slightly reddish ones. Xiaodouya didn't need to be told; it sent out electrical pulses, shoo, shoo, shoo, severing the fruit stems, which Ziye caught below.

Once in her hand, Ziye wiped the fruit on her clothes and bit down. Juice streamed down her chin, and Ziye almost wept with joy.

Having water was bliss!

She ate the fruit in a few bites, then took another to quench her thirst, holding one as she walked back out.

As soon as she stepped out of the woods, a group of girls immediately swarmed her. Likely witnessing her attitude toward Lingyin, they brazenly approached to "beg for food," while a few glared at her disdainfully, "Hmph, attention-seeking fraud!"

Ziye only had one fruit in hand, and seeing the crowd surround her, she suddenly didn't know what to say. Just as she was about to turn back to find more, Lingyin pushed through the crowd, swiftly snatched the fruit from her hand, and didn't eat it right away, merely licking it with her tongue before loudly proclaiming, "This is mine!"

The faces of the girls turned green as they began accusing Lingyin of being immoral. Lingyin stuck out her tongue, "So what? First come, first served."

Ziye found Lingyin to be a fascinating person and smiled at her. Lingyin returned the smile, pulling two dark, round objects from her bag, something resembling a Luo Han Guo, "I just dug up some delicious things. Here, half for you."

Ziye noticed her fingers were covered in dirt, seemingly from digging in the soil, and grew curious. She shook it near her ear; there was no sound.

Lingyin chuckled, pressing one into Ziye's hand, then cracked open the dark outer shell herself. Inside was something tender and white, like an egg, enclosing a clear, translucent glistening substance, at the very center of which was a grub pupa!

The pupa was plump, round, and undeveloped.

"It's delicious, and very nourishing, trust me." Lingyin sucked the entire pupa into her mouth in one go, chewed a few times, and swallowed.

Ziye lacked her boldness. She brought the pupa to her nose to sniff, confirmed there was no strange odor, and that the pupa wasn't moving, before imitating Lingyin, sucking the pupa into her mouth.

"Well? Doesn't it taste good!" Lingyin asked eagerly. Ziye only registered a very peculiar, soft taste in her mouth. Afraid to chew, she swallowed it whole.

Just then, the assembly horn blared, and the Major’s voice boomed like a bell: "All personnel, assemble!"

Seeing this, Lingyin pulled out another one and pressed it into Ziye's hand. "This is for you too. I’m going to wash my hands first." Then she ran off. Ziye looked at the item in her hand, feeling a deep warmth in her heart.

Since enrolling, Lingyin was the only person, aside from Li Chunyu, who had been kind to her.

It would be a lie to say she wasn't moved.

Meanwhile, many had just arrived, lacking food and drink, lying on the sand exhausted like discarded fish. Some who had just caught and were roasting fish wailed upon hearing the assembly horn, "Instructor, give us a chance to live! We can't move without eating!"

The Major maintained a stern face, "Twenty-five hours of swimming plus two hours of rest should have been enough! Look at Comrade Ziye; she made it here in eighteen hours and only slept a few times."

The boys looked at Ziye’s small frame and felt ashamed to press the issue further.

To be outswum by a girl was one thing; for not a single male to have won against her was a matter too humiliating for manhood to utter.

The girls, needing no such pointless pride, simply sat down on the ground and burst into loud sobs, "We really can't move anymore, Instructor, you're bullying us..."

If the girls had stood up to resist, the conclusion would have been simple: Obey orders. But crying made the instructors helpless. Few men in the military knew how to soothe girls, and even fewer had witnessed a mass female cry-in.

The Major frowned deeply and finally relented, "Departure postponed by two hours."

The girls on the beach immediately brightened, giggling and flashing V-signs at the instructors as they happily went back to roasting fish. The instructors smiled darkly, seeing their joy; they certainly wouldn't tell them that the route distance was fixed, and the later the departure, the later their arrival at the designated spot would be. Then they would be climbing mountains and wading through waters in the dead of night, hehe...

The instructors smiled their dark smiles.

Ziye lazily let out a satisfied burp. Having eaten and rested well, she now had one more task: finding freshwater. The few fruits could only offer temporary relief, not quench thirst for a whole day.

Within a one-kilometer radius inland from the coastline, any digging would yield only salt water. Where could she find fresh water? Ziye looked out at the sea; there was only one way: convert seawater into freshwater.

However, she had no equipment, not even a pot.

If she had a pot, she could directly use the most primitive boiling and salting method, separating the salt, and collecting the remaining water to drink. She rummaged through her backpack for a long time but found no usable vessel.

She looked at the girls under the trees; they were all gulping down nutrient solution, tossing the empty bags aside for collection afterward. An idea struck her. With a zing-zing-zing, she ran to borrow a knife from the instructor, sliced a large piece of wild boar leg meat she had stored into small pieces, carried it over to the group of girls, and offered, "Give me your empty nutrient bags after you finish drinking, and I'll give you a piece of meat."