Owen took a deep whiff of the remaining scent of grilled fish in the air, extremely astonished.
"What did you all eat? It smells so good!"
"I smelled it too, did you folks start a fire?"
The others, who came from fairly well-off families, accurately detected the scent of black pepper in the aroma and, based on their experience, guessed it was the smell of grilled meat.
However, what exactly was grilled remained unknown. The rainforest harbored everything from wild hares to wild fowls.
Shen Xianglin saw their shocked expressions and looked at them in surprise, "Grilled fish. What about you? Did you find water? Didn’t you light a fire at noon?"
"We walked west for half an hour and found a shallow puddle; there wasn’t much freshwater."
Moreover, there wasn’t much to eat around it, not even small fish or shrimp, so they had to quickly gather some plants from the rainforest to fill their stomachs.
One could say they hadn’t had a good lunch, but at least they hadn’t gone hungry and had managed to replenish a bit of energy.
Seeing Owen looking pitiful, Geng Qiuqiu, also a girl, touched her nose and glanced at her companions to seek their opinion. After they subtly nodded to her, she took a Ziploc bag out of her backpack.
"Here, there are two leftover grilled fish. Have some."
She wasn’t exactly being kind; if they really hadn’t eaten enough, they wouldn’t reach their intended destination in the afternoon, and then even resting at night would be an issue.
Luckily, they had caught a few extra fish at noon after watching Tang Shu debone fish with gusto. Back then, they thought the grilled fish wouldn’t last in the hot and humid rainforest until evening and would probably be eaten as an afternoon snack.
Now, it was clear there would be no snacks.
Owen had no idea about Geng Qiuqiu’s secretive snack plans. At the sight of the grilled fish, her eyes suddenly brightened several degrees. The tantalizing aroma of the grilled fish wafted out of the Ziploc bag and straight into her nose, causing her stomach, which was five or six parts full, to start protesting.
"You... didn’t eat enough?"
But how could the plants from the rainforest compare with the deliciously fragrant grilled fish? They weren’t even in the same league, okay!
Those plants weren’t even easy to digest, and Owen’s stomach was already complaining.
"Thanks, guys. From now on, you are my friends!"
She slapped her chest heartily and without any hesitation opened the Ziploc bag, looking at her companions.
"Have some, too. We still have a long way to go."
Austin and the others expressed their thanks, and their attitude toward the group became much friendlier, completely unlike the strangeness of the morning.
The group exchanged looks, not expecting that just a couple of fish would cause such a drastic change in the other party’s attitude. Even Roger, who’d been acting high and mighty, had no sarcastic remarks left to say and his face turned red once again.
As they divided the grilled fish, Yin Dong sighed, "Their character... So different from ours—both their strengths and weaknesses coexist."
As a fitness coach, he had encountered many foreigners and dealt with quite a few, so he naturally knew about their hot tempers and unwillingness to back down during a quarrel.
"Speaking of which, isn’t their clear distinction between love and hate kind of cute?"
The others were startled by his comment, pondered the word "cute," and then looked at the five burly people across from them, instantly shivering.
"Can you please talk normally? You’re freaking people out."
Cute, indeed—such a term better suited them.