That was not what she meant when she said ‘dear’. Jasper Milton was doing it on purpose.
She refused to answer him. “Let’s get it done as soon as possible. It’ll be bad if it rains tonight.”
Jasper nodded and said thoughtfully, “It’s fine if it rains. It just so happens that we’ve run out of fresh water. Besides, you can have a good rest. Didn’t you say that you were very tired before?”
Her cheeks flushed red.
He wanted to do ‘that’ with her, but since she said she was tired, he refrained from doing so.
She cleared her throat.
“Don’t make fun of me. You should eat more. You have a lot of manual labor waiting for you. If you don’t eat more, you will become lighter and thinner. Then, you will be less important in my heart.” Stella tried to end this topic.
Jasper scratched her nose.
He knew that Stella was shy, so he stopped teasing her.
He resumed his meal.
After eating, Stella Grace went to wash the pot. Jasper first cut the bamboo into two pieces which were 3. 5 meters long. He then dug a hole for about 2 meters before he hit firm soil. He dug for another 50 centimetres, inserted the bamboo in it, and then covered it up with mud. After stepping on it firmly, he filled it with sand again. That way, the dried bamboo would be standing upright.
After washing the dishes, Stella came back and started to help Jasper. She dug a hole similar to his about 1. 2 metres away from his other hole.
Jasper finished his work and took over her work. “Leave this hard work to me. You should make some ropes. The more the better, and the stronger the better, too.”
“Alright.” Stella sat on the ropes weaved under the parasol and drank a big mouthful of water. She found that there were only four bottles of mineral water left.
Jasper finished preparing the bamboo jerky and came over. He took the bottle from Stella’s hand and gulped it down in one shot.
“Jasper, our fresh water might be finished today.” Stella reminded him.
“It’s not a problem. I’ll make more now.” Jasper took out the mineral water bottle that he had made before to extract the distilled water from the sea. He took up a bamboo slice, broke it in the middle and clamped the bottle filled with seawater in the middle. He then placed it five centimetres away from the fire.
“Watch the amount of sea water in the bottle carefully. If there’s too little left, the bottle will burn,” he said.
“I understand.” Stella nodded. She made a rope while keeping watch at the mineral water bottle on the fire.
Jasper split a small hole on the top of the bamboo pole which was 1. 5 meters long and inserted the rope into it first. Then, he wrapped it around the bamboo pole before tying a dead knot. “The meat can now be hung on the pole.”
“Well, I’m done here too.” Stella took down the bamboo pole with a bottle of mineral water.
“Don’t touch it yet. It’s very hot. Put it aside for a while.”
“Okay.” Stella looked into the mineral water bottle. This method of distilling water seemed to be very fast and efficient. There was already two-thirds of water accumulating in the inverted mineral water bottle.
Although the process of making water was very troublesome, at least they weren’t worried that they would thirst to death.
When she was cooling the mineral water bottle, she went to deal with the pork. She pierced a hole in the pork leg with a dagger, put the rope in, and hung it up on the dried rope.
Jasper didn’t continue to cut bamboo. Instead, he took out the fishing net and used the rope to surround the bamboos and make it into the shape of a pocket.
Stella continued to create ropes.
“I’ll put the fishing net at the bottom of the sea and bring it back in around 10 minutes. Take the gun with you for self-defense.” Jasper said.
“Okay, be careful,” Stella said.
Jasper nodded and put a big stone in the fishing net. He then put a rib in the net.
He didn’t take off his clothes and went to the sea with the fishing net in his arms.
Stella poured the distilled water out and made another batch while continuing to weave the ropes.
Eight minutes later, Jasper returned from the sea. He took off his coat and pants, and hung them on the dry rope, revealing his strong chest muscles and eight packs.
She felt that he seemed to be stronger than before.
Jasper looked at her.
She cleared her throat and said, “Do you want to eat fish tonight? We don’t have enough pork and stewed bamboo shoots left.”
“I’ll finish up our little house first. If I have time, I want to dig a pond, and then pour the seawater into it so that I can rear fish and other sea creatures.” Jasper thought.
“You don’t have to rear fish. You catch them every day anyway and we can’t possibly finish it all. I can wash them and dry them so that we could make them last longer.”
“True, there should be fresh fish for us to eat every day anyway. Tomorrow, we will go to the forest to find some fresh plants.” Jasper said and began to cut the bamboo poles.
“Do you know the species of the plants? Are there a lot of plants in the forest that are poisonous?” She did not know much about the species and couldn’t help but worry.
“We used to carry out our missions in the forest, so we didn’t usually bring any food with us. We got our food from where we were staying, and plant experts were with us at that time. Therefore, I know what we can eat and what we can’t. Don’t worry.” Jasper comforted her.
Stella chuckled and said, “I have the feeling that I can eat and drink however I want as long as I stick with you.”
“Goes to show that you should be with me forever,” Jasper said with a smile.
Stella’s eyes flashed and she nodded. “I will follow you for the rest of my life.”
“Silly.” Jasper said dotingly. The smile on his face was blissful, relaxed, and joyous.
He chopped the tree into five meter long logs. He separated the thick ones and the thin ones before tying them in a bunch.
Four hours later, he finally finished tying them up.
Stella made a lot of ropes and she spent those four hours making three bottles of steamed water.
Her belly did not feel well, and she had a bad feeling.
Her menstruation had always been irregular in the past. It would come once in every two or three months, and when it came, the pain would be very severe.
It was about to come now, but there was no sanitary napkin here.
She came up with many ways to solve this problem, including using leaves or ropes to make a temporary tampon.
In ancient times, it seemed that people used charcoal ash, which could absorb water.
“What are you making now?” Jasper came over.
Stella blushed and said, “Some basic necessities.”
“Come here and have a look at our house,” Jasper said. Then, he turned around and walked towards the house.
Stella held Jasper’s hand and found that something was wrong. She spread out his hand and found that it was full of blisters. Some of them were already inflammed.
“You can’t work any more today. Your hands are badly hurt. Are you planning to destroy your hands?” Stella said worriedly.
“Don’t worry. This is because I haven’t worked this hard for some time. In the future, there will be calluses replacing these blisters. If I continue to work, I won’t feel any pain soon.” Jasper comforted her with a smile.
“Continue your work after the blisters have healed. Otherwise, your hands will be ruined. What if you get a fever? There are no hospitals here. Anyway, you are not allowed to work today anymore. Let’s go to the mountains to find some wild vegetables, maybe even some pork and seafood. Then we should be good for over 10 days,” Stella’s heart ached as she blew gently on his palm.
Jasper stared at her. As long as he was with her, no matter how bitter the times were, there would always be a warmth in his heart.
…