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

Old Liu's body gleamed with a bluish-gray waxy sheen in the sunlight.

He lay naked on the sand, a smile on his face that sent chills down your spine.

Xiao Wang's death was even more gruesome.

I don't know when he rolled off the rocks, but the back of his head hit a sharp rock corner, and there was a lot of blood.

His eyes were half-open, looking neither at the sky nor at people.

Lili from the public relations department huddled in the far corner.

She hugged her knees tightly with both hands, curling her whole body into a ball. It was the last instinctive action her body made to keep warm in the last few minutes of her life.

There were two more bodies piled on top of each other, arms and legs intertwined, making it impossible to tell who was on top of whom.

The living stood beside the corpse.

No one spoke.

The waves lapped against the beach.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh~"

Xiao Zhou from the administration department was the first to break down. He let out a shrill, off-key scream, his legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the sand.

"Five people are dead...five people...we're going to die too! We're all going to die in this wretched place!"

This voice is like a fuse.

In an instant, it ignited everyone's passion.

"Help! Someone please save us!"

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die in this godforsaken place!"

"President Su! Didn't you say the rescue would arrive at midnight last night? Where are the people? Where's the plane?!"

A male employee with a face covered in soot rushed up to Su Qingxue, his eyes bloodshot, veins bulging on his neck, and spitting all over her face.

"You lied to us! You lied to us from beginning to end! What kind of bullshit rescue was that! Your fart was louder than your words!"

Su Qingxue took half a step back.

She stared at the face in front of her, so distorted that it was completely unrecognizable.

What's this guy's name again? From the tech department? From logistics?

She couldn't remember.

In a company, someone like that wouldn't even be qualified to enter her office.

But now, this person, whose name she doesn't even deserve to remember, is pointing his finger at her and cursing her in a way she's never heard of in her twenty-plus years of life.

"Everyone, calm down!" Su Qingxue instinctively raised her voice.

The toxic fumes, sea breeze, and dehydration from the whole night ruined most of her voice.

Nobody listened.

The crowd erupted in chaos.

Some people squatted on the ground, clutching their heads and howling, while others clung to the rocks, peering out at the sea.

Some people knelt beside Old Liu's body, pushing the immovable body over and over again, repeating the same phrase over and over, "Old Liu, get up! Don't sleep, the sun is rising..."

Wang Qiang leaned against a large rock, remaining silent.

His head was drooping, his hands were in his pockets, and his shoulders were shaking.

It's not cold.

It's fear.

Last night, someone witnessed him using Lao Liu as a human shield.

Now that he's dead, what if someone brings up old grievances... what if someone holds him responsible for his death...

He'll have to go to jail if he goes back.

He quickly scanned his surroundings.

Everyone's going crazy, nobody cares.

Zhang Tao stood at the edge of the crowd.

His facial expression was very flat.

This calmness isn't composure; it's utter numbness.

Looking at Old Liu's smirking, deadpan face, he had only one thought in his mind: what if he couldn't get back today?

Old Liu's coat.

The gray windbreaker that Lao Liu frantically ripped off last night was blown two meters away by the wind, crumpled into a ball, and thrown on the sand.

Zhang Tao slowly moved over.

She hooked the hem of her clothes with her toes and slowly pulled it to her feet.

He bent down, picked it up, and shook off the sand.

Put it on yourself.

Whether the person is dead or alive, as long as they are warm, that's fine.

Nobody noticed him from beginning to end.

Chen Jian pushed up his glasses, which were covered in salt stains.

He squatted down next to the three corpses and examined them one by one.

His wife, Wang Lan, stood behind him, clutching his clothes tightly, her face completely drained of color.

"How did he die?" Wang Lan asked.

"Old Liu was taking off his clothes abnormally." Chen Jian stood up. "His body temperature dropped below 30 degrees Celsius, and the part of his brain that controls temperature was burned out. He felt like his brain was on fire, so he frantically took off his clothes."

"Xiao Wang fell while having convulsions at night, hitting the back of his head on a sharp rock. He was just unlucky."

"Xiaoli suffered from hypothermia, dehydration, and carbon monoxide poisoning. She was the weakest of the three and was the first to succumb to the combined effects."

He glanced at the pile of ashes from the campfire and his lips twitched violently.

That fire did indeed save most people's lives.

But the price is that when there's no wind, the carbon monoxide concentration from the damp, rotten wood above is enough to kill even the weakest people.

"If we can't get back today," Chen Jian said in a low voice, only speaking to Wang Lan, "people will die."

Su Qingxue leaned against the reef and took three deep breaths.

We must not panic; we absolutely cannot allow the situation to completely collapse at this moment.

Once this group's trust in her crumbles, she will be nothing.

No bodyguards, no assistants, no lawyers.

The only thing she has that's still worth something is her mouth.

At the company, she has handled countless crisis public relations situations.

Public opinion scandals, stock price crashes, executives absconding with funds—every time, it's at the most critical moment that a press conference single-handedly turns the situation around.

The same is true now.

She needs an explanation.

She is someone who can make these people on the verge of collapse choose to believe her again.

It's true that it's not necessary.

It just needs to sound real.

Su Qingxue loosened the rocks and walked step by step to the center of the crowd.

"Quiet down, all of you!"

That shout squeezed out the last bit of moisture from my throat.

Her throat felt like it was being slashed by a razor blade, and the pain made her vision blur.

But it works.

The screams and cries stopped briefly for two seconds.

A dozen pairs of bloodshot eyes turned to her simultaneously.

Su Qingxue straightened up.

Her one-piece swimsuit was so dirty that you couldn't tell it was originally white, and her long hair was tangled into knots on her shoulders.

But the way she stood there was exactly the same as at the board meeting on the 58th floor of the Shengtang Group.

Stand upright with your chin slightly raised and your hands clasped in front of you.

The lessons learned from navigating the capital markets are ingrained in your bones and cannot be burned away.

"Something happened last night. Old Liu and the others... are gone."

She paused for a second.

His gaze swept over everyone present.

"In my capacity as president of Shengtang Group, I promise you that as long as we return alive, Shengtang Group will take full responsibility for the families of Lao Liu, Xiao Wang, Lili, and the other two colleagues."

"The compensation is one million yuan per person. The company will cover all expenses, including children's education, parents' retirement, and mortgage and car loan payments. Not a penny less."

"The same applies to those who are alive."

Su Qingxue looked around and slowed down her speech.

"Everyone here who holds out with me until the rescue arrives and returns to Jiangcheng will receive a cash compensation of 200,000 yuan, plus a lifetime job guarantee from Shengtang Group."

"For those who are injured, the company will cover all medical expenses. For those with psychological trauma, the company will arrange for the best specialists to provide long-term rehabilitation."

"These are not empty promises. Once we get back, everything will be in black and white, witnessed by a lawyer, and signed into the contract clause by clause."