The thunderbolt slithered through the clouds, occasionally striking the sea surface. Amidst the rolling thunder, a gust of wind suddenly carrying the scent of rain burst into the room, scattering the paper filled with words on the table, making Chen Zhou scramble to pick them up in a panic.
As he bent over to press down the parchment, a sudden pain attacked his lower abdomen, followed by a warm sensation uncontrollably trying to escape from his rear. Fortunately, Chen Zhou reacted quickly enough to prevent it from splattering.
"Hiss~"
After closing the window and pressing the paper under a weight on the table, Chen Zhou couldn't help but take a deep breath. He messily pulled out two pieces of tattered canvas, grasped them in his hand, and pushed open the door, jogging in small steps toward the bow of the ship.
That morning, when eating raw fish sashimi, he had had an ominous feeling, and sure enough, he ended up with diarrhea.
Sitting on the head protruding from the ship, the sea breeze swept beneath, chilling him to the bone, giving him goosebumps.
Gazing at the tides swirling on the beach, with nothing else to do, Chen Zhou's thoughts began to wander.
Thinking about the likelihood of sailor excrement in the seawater beneath him was undeniably nauseating.
But having already swum, he could only console himself—"Even without human waste, there are excrements from fish, shrimp, and crabs. We are all part of the Earth, no one should despise anyone else."
"Moreover," he added, "the ocean has so much water, a bit of seasoning is normal and harmless."
Then his thoughts returned to the sudden diarrhea.
Honestly, he had eaten so many kinds of fish, and he didn't recognize any of them. It was purely out of necessity and bravado that led him to swallow them whole in a moment of rashness.
Now, with the pain in his abdomen not subsiding, Chen Zhou felt a bit terrified.
He feared that one of the dead fish might be mixed with something as lethal as a Poisonous Plant, and it wouldn't take long to tear his guts apart, causing him to bleed to death from all orifices.
Thinking of this made Chen Zhou really feel a bit aggrieved.
A dignified man, standing tall with pride, could accept dying in an earthquake, storm, or at the hands of a wild beast or cannibal tribes, but to be poisoned by eating fish just two days into the challenge seems excessively unlucky and humiliating.
Moreover, even if dying from fish poisoning was acceptable, at least it should be from something as exquisite tasting as blowfish, so that when facing King Yama in the underworld, he could proudly declare, "I risked my life for blowfish," earning a reputation as a gourmet.
You wouldn't want to say: "I was bold and ate any fish I didn't recognize and ended up dying from diarrhea."
Such a bizarre situation would even be newsworthy in the modern world.
When squatting, one often cannot help but let their thoughts run wild, and Chen Zhou just happened to have a brain prone to such divergent, jumping thoughts.
Involuntarily recalling before and after details of arriving on the isolated island for the challenge, he replayed the 'life-flashing-before-the-eyes' moment before death.
Just as he was imagining what his body would look like after death, and whether his sudden disappearance would cause any sensation in the real world, Chen Zhou suddenly realized that the pain in his abdomen had vanished.
Much like the many instances of minor abdominal pains caused by digestive issues before, this was just a common diarrhea episode, neither food poisoning nor any incurable mystery illness.
"Turns out it was a false alarm..."
After worrying for so long, Chen Zhou finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Having wiped his butt with the tattered canvas, and before he could feel the sensation of roughness against his skin, sparse raindrops began falling from the sky.
Within a few breaths, the raindrops formed lines, enveloping the entire sailboat with a pitter-patter.
The accumulated water on the deck quickly gathered into small streams, flowing from the stern to the bow.
Pulling up his pants, Chen Zhou hurried back to the quarterdeck.
Passing through the dense rainfall, just within a few dozen steps, his thin cotton underwear was thoroughly drenched.
Every inch of his skin clung to the clammy, wet fabric, feeling sticky and slightly cool.
Passing through the corridor, just then a draught swirled through.
It struck Chen Zhou, making him involuntarily sneeze and feel a chill crawling from within, shivering him to the core.
"Damn it, bad luck strikes even when drinking cool water, and it gets stuck between your teeth."
Cursing his terrible luck internally, Chen Zhou walked towards Robinson's room while stripping off his clothes.
The rain and cold wind were rapidly stripping away his body heat, continuing like this would inevitably lead to a cold.
The raft hasn't been built yet, and the supplies are still unorganized.
The countdown for the storm to destroy the ship ticked away every second, not stopping for a moment because of his sickness. At this critical juncture, no matter what, he couldn't collapse.
After discarding the drenched underwear, he dried off the remaining rainwater on his body with dry clothes, and even after wrapping himself in a thick coat with a fur collar, Chen Zhou still didn't feel warm.
Clearly by the subtropical seashore, he seemingly returned to his hometown in late autumn, shivering even while huddled in the coat.
His brain was still clear, and Chen Zhou quickly realized the crux of the problem.
On one hand, the rain came unexpectedly. The cold wind met the chill rain, robbing his body heat, which couldn't return to normal swiftly.
On the other hand, just having diarrhea, his immunity was at a low point, coinciding with his digestive tract being emptied, leaving no food in his stomach to generate heat, solely relying on burning his meager fat reserves was truly getting a bit tight.
To break free from this situation, the best solution is to make a fire, have a hot meal, drink a cup of hot water, and then, according to the old home remedy, sleep wrapped in covers and sweat it out, that would make the illness better.