Beauty and the Bodyguard

Yushu shook her head to stop thinking about the mess. She stood up to greet Lin Yi. “Shield Bro, you’re back! Need help?”

Yushu didn’t want to be a leech and just eat without doing anything- she’d help if help were needed.

“You can walk around and see if there’s any glass bottles. Some iron wires work too.” Lin Yi instructed as he tossed the branches onto the sand.

“Oh. What d’you need bottles and wires for?” Yushu asked curiously.

“Glass bottles can be used to magnify the Sun’s light and the wires are for hanging the meat.” Lin Yi explained as he made his way to the dead shark.

Yushu nodded. They did learn stuff like this in biology, but they were never taught to use them in practice. “Couldn’t you twist a stick on wood and use the friction for fire?”

“Yeah, but that’d be a pain.” Lin Yi replied as he cleanly cut open the shark from the middle. He then proceeded to clean the intestines out.

Yushu walked around the beach, not brave enough to wander off too far. She didn’t see any glass bottles, but she did manage to find some rusty metal wires, probably from some fisherman’s boat.

“Shield Bro, looks like you’ll need to use sticks……” Yushu said as she handed the wires to Lin Yi.

“Ah……” Lin Yi smiled bitterly. “Alright, I’ll quickly drill a stick on some wood later- you can help blow at it.”

“Oh, okay.” Yushu nodded. She did remember learning that technique in history class.

The sticks were way too fragile- it must’ve been a long time since it rained here, too, since the sticks were as dry as they got. Lin Yi snapped them right after applying force.

“Lin Yi, do you find that fun?” Elder Jiao’s voice sounded beside Lin Yi’s ear.

“Elder Jiao?” Lin Yi paused before smiling bitterly. “How else am I supposed to start a fire?”

“Just use the Dragon Mastery chant when you drill the stick- your energy will go from your body into the wood!” Elder Jiao said.

“You can do that?” Lin Yi wasn’t expecting a function like this.

“I told you, anything you’re touching can have energy sent to it if needed.” Elder Jiao explained.

“Uh… I know, but what I mean is, you can even do that to sticks?” Lin Yi found it quite hard to believe.

“Don’t you know about the energy conservation law? Energy can be changed into another form- the energy inside you is all-powerful, and it can be converted into any source of energy.” Elder Jiao said with a tint of disdain, a little speechless at Lin Yi’s ignorance.

“Hm?” Lin Yi had no idea the energy inside him was this useful. “Then can I use this energy for fuel when my car’s out of gas?”

“No.” Elder Jiao said crisply. “It’s true that this energy can be turned into energy for the car engine, but you can’t turn it into fuel! You’d probably be able to power the engine if you somehow manage to make contact with it while driving……”

Lin Yi was a bit speechless- He really was thinking too much. Although, he was happy enough with the new information he’d just gotten. He spoke the chant mentally and felt the energy inside him go to the stick……

“Fuu……” The stick burned up all of a sudden, scaring Yushu, who had been blowing at it. It almost seared her hair.

“What the-!!” Yushu dodged to the side as she patted at her chest. “Shield Bro, that scared me! What’s with this fire, where were the signs?”

“What signs?” Lin Yi was pretty shocked himself- the stick just flamed up all of a sudden!

“I read in a history book that smoke always came out of the stick first when cavemen did it… The fire comes slow!” Yushu wiped at the sweat on her forehead. “Well, maybe you were too strong, you’re even better than cavemen!”

“......” Lin Yi didn’t know if that counted as a compliment- what the hell was Yushu even comparing him with?

“Add wood to the fire- I’ll go prepare the shark.” Lin Yi left the fire to Yushu as he walked over the the shark. He quickly cut the shark meat into smaller pieces before dousing it in seawater for a bit, so as to remove the sand and dirt on it. Getting some seawater to seep into the meat would also add some flavor to its bland taste.

Lin Yi then pierced the wire into the meat after washing it. He then walked back to Yushu, who looked up at him. “What do I do now, Shield Bro? I’m done here!”

Lin Yi handed a shark meat skewer to Yushu. “Hold this for a sec.”

He then looked for the two longest branches in the stack before sticking them side by side with the fire between them. He then hung the skewer on them. “There- we’ll just need to wait for a bit. Don’t eat too much though, we don’t have water.”

A while later, the meat started getting some color. A nice aroma started coming out from it, and Yushu gulped in anticipation. “Shield Bro, is it ready now?”

“Yeah, it’s okay if it’s a bit raw. At most you’ll just have some diarrhea.” Lin Yi said as he turned the meat.

“I’ll wait then……” The thought of having to poop made Yushu go pale- there were no toilets here, and there wasn’t even any toilet paper! Pooping here in front of Shield Bro? There was no way she could do something so shameful!

“Ah…..” Lin Yi chuckled as he removed the wires. “It’s ready. You eat the middle part; it’s more cooked there.”

“Okay……” Yushu used some sticks to take out a piece of shark meat before nibbling at it for a test taste- she then gulped it down. Shark bones were big, but Lin Yi had gotten rid of them already- there was only meat left.

“Aahh, it’s so good!” Yushu couldn’t believe it- she didn’t know shark meat could taste this good! “This tastes so much more better than shark fins! How come everyone only eats the fins? They don’t sell the meat in the restaurant, too, do they?”