Desert Island Survival: A Hundredfold Improvement After Having a Baby?

A reward of 800,000 yuan is enough for a low-level salesperson at Shengtang Group to work themselves to the bone for six or seven years on a normal day.

The saying "A generous reward will surely attract brave men" is an ironclad rule in civilized society.

But at this moment, on this deserted island beach where even the compass has been turned into an electric fan, it has become a huge joke.

The sea wind howled.

The temperature dropped below ten degrees Celsius.

Those urban elites, dressed in thin shirts, pencil skirts, or even one-piece swimsuits, are currently experiencing a form of torture.

Extreme hunger, dehydration, and rapidly losing body temperature pushed everyone to the brink of collapse, causing them to tremble violently.

"Clatter".

A beam of cold, white light shone brightly in the darkness.

Zhang Tao pressed the switch on the tactical flashlight in his hand with trembling hands.

He found this in a pile of broken wreckage while rummaging through dead coconuts by the woods.

The beams of light swayed wildly on the beach, their pale rays illuminating the grotesque faces of people, their skin blue from the cold and their lips a deep purple.

"Brother Qiang...President Su..." Zhang Tao's teeth chattered as he held up a flashlight and leaned forward. "I found a flashlight! It's super bright, I'll light it for you guys so we can get some dry wood to drill..."

Before he could finish speaking, a gust of wind swept in.

Wang Qiang snatched the flashlight away.

"What good is a flashlight!" Wang Qiang hopped around, freezing, his eyes bloodshot. "Can a flashlight be used as a fire? Can it keep you warm?"

He turned and started cursing at the several male colleagues who were sprawled on the ground.

"Eight hundred thousand! President Su has spoken: whoever starts the fire gets the money! Everyone, get moving!"

Wang Qiang handed the flashlight to Li Bin, who was standing next to him.

"You, turn on the light! I refuse to believe this nonsense! Even primitive monkeys could start a fire by rubbing sticks together, and we highly educated people can't even handle a few pieces of broken wood!"

Zhang Tao stood frozen in place.

He had hoped to use the flashlight to make a name for himself in front of President Su, and also to take charge of starting the fire, hoping to snatch the 800,000 yuan prize.

Now that the flashlight is gone, Wang Qiang has abruptly cut off the momentum.

He lowered his head and retreated into the darkness.

Fingers, white from being soaked in seawater, dug themselves into the sand, blood seeping from under their fingernails.

The hatred he felt for Wang Qiang stealing his life-saving coconut, combined with the humiliation he felt at this moment, surged wildly in his depleted chest.

Wang Qiang simply didn't have time to pay attention to a subordinate's emotions.

The lure of 800,000 yuan, coupled with the fear of freezing to death, brought out his final potential.

He found a relatively dry, rotten plank on the edge of the beach to place under his feet, and then found a relatively straight, withered stick.

"Got it!"

Wang Qiang imitated the survival techniques seen in short videos, gripping a dead wooden stick with both hands and pressing it against the wooden board with all his might, rubbing it frantically.

"Sizzle... sizzle... sizzle..."

The rough bark was rubbed together violently.

One minute.

three minutes.

Wang Qiang's breathing became increasingly rapid. His palms were pricked by the barbs on the wooden stick, resulting in several blisters. Blood mixed with sawdust smeared all over his hands.

"Is it smoking?! Li Bin, did you even look carefully? Is it smoking or not?!"

Li Bin held his flashlight firmly against the friction point. In the stark white light, there was only a small clump of bloody wood chips.

Not to mention Mars, there wasn't even a wisp of heat.

"Brother Qiang... there's really no smoke..." Li Bin's voice was weak. "This wood looks dry, but the core is full of salt soaked in seawater. There's no way to rub it..."

"Get out of here! You piece of trash!"

Another director, enraged, shoved Wang Qiang aside.

He was clutching two black stones he had knocked from the pile of rubble, and he was frantically hurling them at a bunch of freshly picked rotten grass leaves.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A few sparks did fly out. But the grass blades had already absorbed all the moisture from the sea breeze, so when the sparks bounced on them, they didn't even leave a charred mark; they died instantly.

It took a good half hour to figure it out.

Five or six men collapsed on the sand, exhausted, gulping down mouthfuls of cold air.

Despair, like a rising tide, completely overwhelmed the rationality of this group of people.

To make fire by rubbing wood together? Or to make fire by striking stones?

Without professional ignition sources and with extremely high humidity, this was even more absurd than building a lithography machine by hand for a group of modern people with no wilderness experience.

"It's over...it's all over...I can't have children..."

Liu Feifei was curled up in the sandpit at Su Qingxue's feet, her delicate makeup long since smeared into a lump of mud.

She couldn't even cry out; all she could manage were heavy, labored breaths.

Su Qingxue leaned against the back of a female subordinate and looked up.

My gaze swept over the rocky slope and fixed intently on the mountainside.

There, the orange flames were steady and dazzling.

The savory aroma of grilled luncheon meat wafted on the wind, relentlessly burrowing into her nostrils and tugging at her churning stomach.

You could even clearly see Lin Fan using a wooden stick to pick up a piece of golden, crispy meat and slowly put it into his mouth.

That stark contrast was like a resounding slap across the face of this multi-billion dollar female CEO.

High and mighty? A queen of capital? While others up there are enjoying barbecues and warming themselves by the fire, she can't even light a fire here!

"One million five hundred thousand."

Su Qingxue squeezed out a few hoarse words.

She struggled to stand up and gave her final instructions to the group of men lying on the ground, who looked like dead fish.

"I'll offer 1.5 million. Whoever can start the fire, I'll cash out the money as soon as I board the plane."

Dead silence.

Apart from the sound of the wind, there was no one else on the beach to respond.

Wang Qiang buried his head in the sand and pretended to be dead.

This isn't about how much money you have; in the face of the laws of physics, even 1.5 million cannot violate the laws of thermodynamics.

Just when the atmosphere reached a freezing point.

At the edge of the main force, in an inconspicuous shadow, a slightly thin figure slowly rose to his feet.

Chen Jian.

The husband of Wang Lan, the female head of the finance department.

This time, Sheng Tang's lavish team building allowed senior executives to bring their families. Chen Jian, as an ordinary structural engineer, was usually seen as a transparent son-in-law by the company's glamorous sales elites.

During the water rush and coconut opening, he stayed at the very back without saying a word.

At that moment, he pushed up his half-rimmed glasses, which were covered in salt stains, and walked across the sand to Su Qingxue.

"Mr. Su, I have a way to start a fire."

Ok?

All eyes instantly fixed on him.

Wang Qiang jumped up from the ground and pointed at Chen Jian's nose, cursing loudly.

"Wang Lan, has your husband's brain been frozen?! ​​I've been rubbing my hands raw and still couldn't get a spark out. What's he doing here, this good-for-nothing draftsman pretending to be? Tell him to get back here, stop getting in my way!"

Chen Jian completely ignored Wang Qiang's barking.

He looked directly at Su Qingxue.

"Conventional friction ignition requires extremely dry igniter and extremely high rotation speed. The energy you just expended was completely wasted from a physics perspective."

Chen Jian's tone was extremely calm, and his analysis was very logical. "Making fire by striking stones also requires high-carbon steel and flint. Even if you break your hands, you still can't ignite seaweed that's soaked with moisture if you take two pieces of broken limestone."

Su Qingxue stared at him: "Can you order?"

"Yes." Chen Jian nodded.

"Alright, the 1.5 million is yours. Get to work now," Su Qingxue commanded.

Chen Jian didn't move.

He held up two fingers and waved them in the air. "President Su, 1.5 million isn't enough. I need 20 million."

The beach was quiet for a moment.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Qiang lost his temper.

He suddenly rushed forward, grabbed Chen Jian by the collar, and spat in Chen Jian's face.

"Twenty million?! Why don't you just rob the printing press?! You're trying to take advantage of President Su's misfortune? Even your wife wouldn't dare talk to President Su like that! Believe me or not, I'll throw you into the sea right now to feed the fish!"

Wang Qiang swung his arm, his knuckles protruding, and aimed straight at Chen Jian's face.

"Stop!" Su Qingxue interrupted Wang Qiang in time.

Twenty million.

Just a day ago, this would have been a mere scrap of paper on Sheng Tang Group's financial statements.

But tonight, this money bought her life, Su Qingxue, to survive the extreme cold.

Severe dehydration and hypothermia had brought her once-proud sanity to the brink of collapse; without even a fire, she wouldn't survive until the helicopter landed.

"Okay, I promise you." Su Qingxue raised her chin, maintaining her superior demeanor. "As long as the fire can be started, after boarding the plane, the 20 million will be transferred to Wang Lan's account in full."

Chen Jian dusted the sand off his collar and loosened his clenched fist.

He turned around and reached out to Li Bin without any hesitation.

"Bring me a flashlight."

Li Bin hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Wang Qiang.

Wang Qiang spat a mouthful of bloody saliva on the ground, turned his head away, and remained silent.

Li Bin then quickly handed over the tactical flashlight.

Chen Jian took the flashlight, but didn't touch the pile of rotten wood on the ground. Instead, he turned around and unscrewed the metal cap at the bottom of the flashlight.

"What are you doing! That's our only source of light!" Zhang Tao limped and struggled, his voice shrill.

Chen Jian didn't even give him a proper look. He turned the flashlight upside down and, with a snap, poured a thick 18650 industrial lithium battery into his palm.

He looked up and surveyed the group of shivering social elites.