However, what I absolutely did not anticipate was that before the storm of blood and violence arrived in spring, I made an unimaginable discovery. Due to this new revelation, our future plunged into a tremendous vortex, filled with turbulent currents and hidden reefs, as if everything was about to be destroyed and shattered...

I managed to crack a few jokes, finally lightening the atmosphere a bit. After that, everyone put on the dried clothes, and together we worked to collect the supplies washed back by the waves. Although we didn't recover much, it was still better than having nothing.

And so, the day passed like this. We returned to the previous cave, looking at the clear pool of spring water. My heart was filled with pain; I thought today I could go look for Peggy. However, the results were not as expected, and the girls did not follow suit. My plan to find Peggy had to be postponed once again.

Nevertheless, I knew that now was not the time for my sorrow. While inspecting the remaining supplies, I discovered a significant issue concerning our survival. All this time, we had relied on my Zippo lighter for starting fires. With this high-quality lighter, we could always avoid being without a fire source. However, I found that the gasoline in my lighter seemed to be running out and had failed to ignite multiple times.

This lighter was a gift from Qianyi years ago. I wondered how she was doing now. Over these days of extreme cold, even though we were nearly at death's door, she might have already passed away. I shook my head, pushing Qianyi out of my thoughts, and continued to think about our fire source problem. Although there were many ways to make a fire in the wild, the most common one was the legendary method of fire drilling. However, in reality, this required skill, patience, and a bit of luck. It wasn't as simple as finding two pieces of wood and immediately starting a fire. While I could learn fire drilling, it was too time-consuming. Spending a significant amount of time making a fire every day was obviously unacceptable.

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So, I thought of another solution—preserving fire. I remembered a type of porous fungus called tinder fungus. After igniting it and sealing it with mud, it could burn slowly for several hours, even longer. When I needed a fire, I only needed to take them out and ignite dry grass and firewood. I thought with the rich variety of flora and fauna on this island, there might be something similar.

Thus, for the past few days, I hunted while keeping an eye out for this type of fungus. The weather gradually warmed, melting the ice and snow, and many places in the forest became muddy. River and stream water levels rose, and many animals and insects that had hidden throughout the winter impatiently reappeared. Although the overall weather was still cold, the forest seemed to be filled with vitality.

What made me even happier was that our harvest had been quite good these days. Firstly, after the ice and snow melted, some animals frozen to death and buried in the snow were exposed. Two days ago, we found one or two, enjoying a delicious meal. However, today, I didn't plan to pick up the corpses of those animals again because, after a few days, they had begun to decompose, and eating them again might lead to poisoning.

Finally, before the sun set, I shot two rabbits with my bow and arrows. Just as I was about to return to the cave, I suddenly saw some fungi by the side of a small river under a big tree. They looked quite similar to the tinder fungus I was looking for. I walked over, intending to take a closer look. However, just as I approached, I suddenly heard very faint voices speaking.