The dense forest climbed the slope, winding and deep into about four or five miles. It was Lin Xies new campsite, a valley on the mountain slope that was relatively lower than its surroundings. The south side of the valley was a precipice, leading directly to the beach via a wooded slope. Lin Xie stood at the mouth of the valley, gazing out at the distant sea from the rocky outcropping, estimating that his current position was about 15 or 16 zhang above sea level.

  The island was originally low and short, and Lin Xie didnt expect to have a Tibetan cave on the island either. Fortunately, it hadnt rained for several days, otherwise those broken grass sheds wouldnt be of any use at all. However, good luck will eventually run out, and on the night Lin Xie entered the forest, a heavy rain poured down.

  Lin Xie was awakened by the heavy rain in the middle of the night, and together with everyone else, he took shelter under a large tree with dense foliage. Seeing that the rain showed no signs of letting up, and water continued to seep through the layers of leaves, Lin Xie took off his leather armor and outer garment, handing them over to Su Mei and Xiao Man, telling them to wear the outer garment and use the leather armor as a makeshift canopy.

  Su Meng looked at Lin Xies body, which only had a thin short-sleeved shirt left, and was about to return the jacket to him.

  "You two put these on. This rain wont stop for a while, the whole island will be soaked through, and when it stops, itll be hard to start a fire to warm up; if you get sick, theres no one to take care of you." Lin Mou couldnt help but let the two women wear the jackets, he was worried that they were the weakest physically, and getting sick on the uninhabited island without medical care would be a big trouble. Moreover, Lin Mou also worried about Fu Qinghe, who had been injured and hadnt recovered yet, and had been working hard for several days in a row, actually already quite exhausted. Seeing him wanting to take off his jacket to give it to himself, he stopped him: "At critical moments, we need to rely on Master Fu, my body can hold up."

  Standing there until the rain stopped at dawn, the branches and leaves of the big tree were lush again. Lin Xie stood under it, her thin clothes soaked through by the rainwater. It was a clear autumn in September, not cold but not warm either. However, being drenched in water made Lin Xie shiver all over, feeling much colder than if she had been directly immersed in water.

  The rain stopped, and Chen Enze and the other boys went out to find dry branches. They didnt have much hope at first, but when it started getting light, Hu Qiaozhong and another boy stumbled back, shouting as they walked: "Theres a cave ahead..."

  Lin Mo didnt expect to find a cave on the island, after all, the islands hills were too short, only over 20 zhang (about 90 meters) high. Fu Qinghe couldnt possibly explore the entire island in just three days. At this time, the deserted island was drenched by heavy rain, and it was extremely difficult to find a dry place. When they heard that a cave had been discovered, everyone was overjoyed.

  Its not a cave, but rather a stone hole, located at the intersection of the slope and the cliff. Its very shallow, and along the way, there are only grasses and shrubs. Hu Qiao thought that there might be some dry branches and grasses on the edge of the cliff that the rain couldnt reach, so he crawled over with his hands and feet, and only then did he discover this stone hole. His palms were scratched by thorns, but he didnt feel any pain.

  The cave is not large, about 7 or 8 zhang deep, like a stone hall that can hold 30 to 50 people. The gap in the stone has a thick layer of dry branches and rotten leaves piled up, which keeps them from getting wet by the rain. At this time, no one thinks about starting a fire and sending out smoke, which might attract passing pirates. More than half of the peoples clothes are soaked through by the rainwater, and they urgently need to start a fire to warm themselves up. Using flint and steel to ignite the dry branches and rotten leaves, they sit around the blazing fire, roast hot water and eat dried rations and cured meat, and Lin Xies body gradually recovers.

  This side is more than three or four zhang higher than the valley. Standing at the entrance of the cave, you can see that the small pond that was only two or three mu in size last night has accumulated rainwater and expanded to dozens of times its original size, becoming a lake of over 100 mu in size. However, the terrain at the mouth of the valley slopes downward, unable to hold back the accumulated water. At this time, you can hear the sound of large amounts of water flowing out of the valley. It seems that it wont take half a days work for the lake in front of us to disappear and return to its original small pond appearance.

  As he heard footsteps behind him, Lin Xie turned his head and saw Su Mei. He pointed to the valley entrance and smiled at her, saying: "Building a dam there will allow us to store rainwater and completely solve the islands water source problem - its also relatively simple to implement. The trees in the valley are sturdy and dense, so we can build a bamboo fence to connect them, fill it with soil and rocks, and the dam will be built. At the same time, building the dam will also allow us to deepen the valley, and the labor required is not too much..."

  "Ah, Master Lin also knows about water conservancy..." Su Mei asked.

  "Hmm..." Lin Xie still thought that this method of building dams to store water should be common knowledge, and was surprised by Su Meis reaction. He thought to himself that due to the limitations of knowledge dissemination in this era, what was considered common knowledge in later generations was also a profound question here. Although water control had a history of thousands of years on this land, there were still very few people who truly mastered it.

  "The scholars of Jiangning all say that Lin Gongzis writing is mediocre and his success in the provincial examination was just luck. If they knew about Lin Gongzis noble and just heart, as well as his great talent for dealing with the world, they would never dare to speak like this; Su Mei also used to be shallow-minded, but now she has come specifically to apologize to Lin Gongzi."

  Su Meng spoke sincerely, and what she said was also her true feelings. In the past seven or eight days, Lin Xie had completely overturned the impression he had given her before: where was the weak and incompetent bookworm? He was actually a man worthy of admiration! However, Lin Xie felt ashamed in his heart, smiled and said: "Su Niang spoke too highly of me. Su Niang has been kind to me, but I didnt know whats good for me before, causing Su Niang unnecessary trouble, it should be me who apologizes."

  Su Meng didnt expect Lin Xie to bring up old matters, her pretty face slightly red, saying: "Also blame me..." Not explaining why he should blame her, in his heart thinking that by saying this, he wants to put the past behind him. Remembering his previous infatuation, at that time somewhat feeling annoyed, now wanting to thoroughly put it aside, yet again feeling a bit melancholic.

  Su Meng saw Lin Xies eyes gazing deeply into the valley, seemingly lost in thought about other things, bid farewell and returned, sitting with Xiao Man in the corner of the stone cave. Occasionally glancing at the silhouette of Lin Xies back at the entrance of the cave, she couldnt help but compare him to Ming Yu: Alas, how can I have such disloyal thoughts?

  Fu Qinghe was also exhausted these days, waking up and lying on the haystack to rest his mind. Seeing Lin Xie and Su Mei talking, he pondered about Lin Xies attitude towards Su Mei in the past few days, as if suddenly breaking through emotional barriers within a short period of seven or eight days, and suddenly enlightened. Looking at Su Meis eyes, there was no longer the previous infatuation, but rather a few more appreciative and respectful meanings. To be honest, this made Fu Qinghe somewhat disappointed. The current Lin Xie in front of him was a million times more pleasing to the eye than Chen Mingyu.

  Although Chen Mingyu was known as the number one writer in Jiangdong, Fu Qinghe always looked down on him, but unfortunately Miss liked his article.

  Fu Qinghe was pondering whether to make some small moves after escaping danger to bring Miss Lin and Lin together. In his heart, he thought that writing a good or bad article was useless, and true literary and military achievements could not be achieved by just writing a few articles.

  The heavy rain did not cause too much trouble for everyone and they found a temporary place to take shelter.

  Although there are no beasts on the island, seafood and bird eggs are abundant, and there are many edible forest fruits such as golden cherries and wild vegetables like Tianzi grass and bitter lettuce in the woods. Food and water sources are not a problem; at night, making a fire in a dense valley with thick leaves is also not afraid of attracting passing ships on the sea with flames and smoke.

  During the day, people are sent to the cliff head to keep watch and observe. Lin Tie also explains some jungle survival knowledge to the young men as much as possible. Fu Qinghes physical strength is strong, after resting for three days, he fully recovers and can only explain some simple combat skills to the young men for the time being.

  On the sixth day of entering the dense forest, the cliff head lookout finally saw a boat coming this way, which was already the twelfth day after Lin and others landed on the island.

  Lin Xie and Fu Qinghe climbed up the cliff to take a look, the ship was a three-masted sea boat, similar in shape to the pirate ship that hijacked people on Baishui River at first, but it was too far away to be sure.

  Lin tied up the time to let people notify picking fruit and wild vegetables back. He and Fu Qinghe had discussed it earlier, if there were fewer Ninghai Town soldiers this time, they would kill people and rob ships, having a ship to leave the deserted island would be much more convenient; if the other side was too numerous to deal with, they would hide in the forest and not go out.

  Let Su Mei, Xiao Man and more than a dozen younger boys stay in the valley, Lin Fu and Fu Qinghe, Chen Enze, Hu Qiao Zhong, Hu Qiao Kou and 16 other boys took up arms and bamboo spears to sneak towards the edge of the forest. So far, they have only found this hidden path that can lead to the depths of the forest, and are not worried that the Ninghai Town soldiers will bypass them and find their way here.

  Creep to the edge of the forest, looking at those several thatched cottages standing quietly there, only a few traces were also washed away by the heavy rain six nights ago, the wind blowing the flying grass in front of the empty space. Occasionally, a group of seagulls perched on the frame of the thatched cottage, suddenly flew towards the clear blue sky like a shower of arrows.

  The small bay on the south side of the island is a natural harbor, and most incoming ships will anchor in the bay. Lin Tie led Chen Enze and another agile youth to sneak to the west cliff of the bay first to observe the enemy situation, while Fu Qinghe led Hu Qiaozhong, Hu Qiaoguan and other youths to ambush on the inner side of the forest path.

  The incoming boat was completely unaware of the people crouching in the bushes on the cape, and the people on the boat lowered the sails with all their might, using poles to steady the bow against the reef rocks. Lin Tie and two young men remained motionless, hiding in the bushes, watching as the bow slowly adjusted its direction and sailed into the bay; the closest point of the bow was only about 40 or 50 feet away from them.

  The quietness in front of the thatched hut didnt arouse any suspicion among the people on the boat, until it ran aground and dropped anchor. Then a burly man with a scar across his face stepped onto the bow, facing the direction of the thatched hut and shouting loudly: "Turtle bastards, all come out! No need to hide, its your Uncle Chen who has arrived! Hiding like a dog, not even showing its tail! How did you guys develop this skill? Second Dog, have you been suffocating on the island and producing dumb eggs? Have you found some white and tender egg/children to vent your anger?" As he spoke, he burst into loud laughter again, and the others at the bow of the boat followed suit. Before the boat even came to a stop, two men had already jumped into the shallow water...

  After a while, no one came out of the thatched hut or the woods to respond. It wasnt until then that they felt something was off. They put down the rope ladder and three more people got off the boat. The five of them walked towards the quiet thatched hut with their weapons at the ready.

  "Shall we go and take the boat?" Chen Enze asked in a low voice, leaning on Lin Xies side.

  "Wait a bit longer and be patient, wait for Master Fu to lead those five people into the forest, its not too late for us to make our move then."

  There were two more people on the boat, adjusting the sails with bare feet and their pants rolled up to their knees. Their faces were thin and pale, and their skin was reddened by the sea wind. They didnt have any weapons either. As long as the five people who had gone ashore first walked far away, Lin Xuan was confident that he could take care of these two people on the boat. He patiently lay in the grass, watching the five people who had gone ashore walk into a thatched hut. They probably found the clues left by Fu Qinghe and others in the thatched hut, discussed for a while in front of the hut, and then walked towards the forest. When he saw the five people disappear at the edge of the forest, Lin Xuan said to Chen Enze and two other young men: "Wait for my signal to come over." Holding his waist knife, he crouched down and hid in the grass that was as tall as his waist, quickly running towards the inner side of the bay.

  When the five men disembarked, the rope ladder was not retracted. Lin Tie quickly climbed up to the bow of the ship along the rope ladder. The two people on the boat were collecting ropes at the stern and staring at the edge of the forest on the island, separated by the half-lowered horizontal sail, they didnt see anyone climbing onto the boat.

  The mainsail was half-lowered, and there was still one person tall enough to block the view on both sides. Lin Xie listened to the conversation between the two people at the back of the boat, then gestured for Chen Enze and another boy to sneak over.

  A fierce fight suddenly broke out in the forest, and the birds nesting in the nearby woods fled in terror, shooting into the sky like a rain of arrows, filling the eyes with a dense black shadow.

  The two men at the stern only realized that something was wrong and rushed to the bow to retrieve the anchor and make preparations. The two of them suddenly saw two young men standing at the bow with knives, turned around to go back to the stern to get their weapons, but did not expect Lin Xie to be hiding behind the mainsail. One of them turned around and rushed towards Lin Xies knife, and by the time he reacted to stop his feet, the tip of the knife had already pierced through his back. Lin Xie dropped the oar and held a waist knife against the other mans neck: "If you want to live, honestly lie down." He used ropes to tie him up tightly and threw him into the cabin, locking it. He wanted to seize the ship, but seizing the ship still required someone who knew how to navigate it; otherwise, the vast expanse of several hundred miles at sea would be enough for them to struggle with, so he had to leave a live person who knew how to navigate.

  The sound of fighting in the woods had not yet subsided, Chen Enze and another young man were about to turn over and get off the boat to join the battle, Lin Xie stopped them: "Our responsibility is to take the boat and guard it..." He pulled out the oar knife and held it in his hand, his eyes fixed on the direction of the fighting in the woods.

  Fu Qinghe led the young men to ambush in the woods, with preparedness and a numerical advantage, it was no problem to deal with five people, but he was worried that those young men would be busy and confused in their first battle and suffer casualties; however, they were already rushing over to assist in the battle and couldnt arrive on time.

  At this moment, three people rushed out of the forest, all with colors on their bodies, one with an arrow inserted in his neck, and he was already at the end of his strength. As soon as he ran out of the forest, he fell to the ground and didnt move again.

  Chen Enzes heart tightened, and he didnt expect that there would still be two people who could rush out of the forest. Immediately after, he saw Hu Qizhong, Hu Qiguan and other young men swarm out of the forest, with Fu Qinghe holding a bow closely behind them. What made Lin Xian feel at ease was that only two young mens bamboo spears were cut off, and there were no casualties.

  Only two people ran to the front of the thatched hut and saw Lin Xie and the two young men standing at the bow of the boat, with the rope ladder also being pulled up. They knew they had no chance of escaping onto the boat, so they turned around to kill one person to save themselves. As they turned around, one persons face was hit by an arrow and fell down, while another person was pierced by a bamboo spear array and became riddled with holes - it was also because these young men were not skilled in using spears. When Lin Xie and the two young men got off the boat, that person was still twitching and had not died yet.