Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 291: Chapter 196: A Storm is Brewing

She tossed the dying ray, now too weak to struggle, into the bamboo basket and placed it under a tree. Wrapping her arms around a coconut palm, she pushed off the trunk with her toes and scrambled up with incredible speed, reaching the top in the blink of an eye.

The coconut palms by the beach were very productive. Almost every treetop had more than ten coconuts hanging from it. In just the past two days, she had spotted at least two high-yielding trees with no fewer than twenty coconuts each.

Based on their consumption over the past few days, they had only emptied two or three trees. For the entire grove of coconut palms on the beach, it was just a drop in the bucket.

When she returned to the shelter with the heavy basket on her back and a string of coconuts in her hand, she found that the fire had already gone out.

She reached out and held her hand over the embers. They were still warm. It seemed the fire had gone out less than half an hour ago.

’Asleep already?’

She put down the bamboo basket. She had originally wanted to show off to Lin, but she hadn’t expected him to already be asleep.

On second thought, they had gotten up at the crack of dawn to climb the mountain and pick chili peppers. Then, Lin had spent a long time cooking. After eating, he had immediately rushed off to work on the wooden house.

When he finally got back to the shelter, he didn’t even sit down before pulling her to the creek to bathe, and then he’d quietly gone to catch fish and make dinner.

After going through that whole routine, even the most energetic person would probably be exhausted. It was perfectly normal for him to go to bed early.

Forget him—even Erica herself was starting to feel her eyelids grow heavy.

’Alright, time for bed. We’ll get up early tomorrow to roast the fish!’

She quietly removed the wooden fence, placed the coconuts she’d picked and the bamboo basket with the ray inside, and then her slender figure deftly slipped into the cave.

Before putting the wooden fence back in place, she remembered to take off the camera and wave goodbye to her viewers.

"Goodnight, everyone. It’s been a long day. See you in the morning~"

Placing the camera in a corner facing the fence, she didn’t turn on her Hat Lamp for fear of waking Lin Chen. In the darkness, she felt her way, crawling deeper into the cave bit by bit.

"Oof!"

She hadn’t crawled more than a couple of feet before she bumped her forehead on the earthen ceiling, the pain making her suck in a sharp breath.

Reaching up to feel around, she realized that the space right next to her right shoulder was the newly expanded area she had dug out that afternoon.

She subconsciously leaned in the opposite direction and reached out a hand, trying to find roughly where Lin Chen was sleeping. It wouldn’t do to accidentally hit him.

About a dozen centimeters from her feet, her hand touched a pair of distinctly masculine calves, their muscles exceptionally firm.

Further forward.

Her supporting right hand probed ahead, afraid she might hit the earthen wall at any moment.

Once her hands found the earthen walls on either side at the end of the cave, she pressed herself tightly against one.

It was still early and she didn’t want to sleep just yet, so she decided to interact with the viewers in her stream for a bit to pass the time.

Her voice was very quiet, so quiet that only she and the camera on her collar could hear it.

As she chatted away, time slipped by silently. Her eyelids gradually grew heavy, as if filled with lead, and kept trying to close.

"Sorry... everyone... I... think... I have to sleep."

She forced herself to wave at the camera, then set it aside facing the entrance, and leaned against the earthen wall, slowly sliding down to lie on the moss.

...

BOOM!

A deafening clap of thunder echoed across the sky.

A cold draft blew in through the cracks in the wooden fence, and the temperature inside the cave instantly dropped by several degrees.

Feeling a chill, Lin Chen rolled over, instinctively snuggling closer to the warm spot beside him.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

As if realizing something, he slowly opened his eyes.

In the darkness, a blurry silhouette was right before his eyes. He could even feel warm breath on his face.

He blinked a few times as his senses slowly returned.

If he remembered correctly, the widened cave should have been more than enough for two people to lie down comfortably. ’Why the hell is this girl squeezing up against me?’

Lin Chen sat up quietly. He was about to scoot back a bit when his back hit the wall.

It was only then that he discovered Erica’s leg was brazenly draped over his.

’Unbelievable!’

He fumbled for the Hat Lamp by the wall, set the brightness to its lowest setting, and turned it on, pointing it toward the wooden fence.

CLICK.

A faint light illuminated the cave’s interior.

Just as he’d expected, there was enough space for another person on Erica’s side, yet she was clinging to him like a sloth.

WHOOSH~

A few more gusts of cold wind surged through the cracks in the wooden fence.

Lin Chen shivered involuntarily and put on the jacket he had been using as a cushion.

’Weird. Why is it so cold? Is it raining again?’

He peered outside through the cracks in the wooden fence. He couldn’t hear any rain, but he could hear the wind howling and the rustling of leaves.

He tapped his watch, and the screen lit up.

The stream was quiet. The numbers in the top-left corner were frozen at 4:23.

He had gone to sleep a little after eight last night, which meant he’d slept for nearly eight hours.

After a moment’s thought, he quietly removed the wooden fence, made a gap just big enough for him to squeeze through, and then put it back in place.

WHOOSH~

Outside the cave, the cold wind howled. The feels-like temperature was plummeting, and goosebumps broke out all over his arms.

"Hiss... It’s a bit cold. Something feels off about this weather. Don’t tell me a storm’s coming."

’It wasn’t this windy when it rained a couple of days ago, and the storm before that... I don’t remember the wind being this strong either.’

’The temperature in Panama is relatively stable. While the day-night temperature difference is greater by the sea, it shouldn’t be a drop of seven or eight degrees.’

’During the day, with the sun out, the feels-like temperature can reach around thirty degrees, while the air temperature is about twenty-five. At night, it usually just drops by five degrees from that.’

’But now, he felt a distinct chill. The feels-like temperature must have dropped below fifteen degrees, maybe even close to ten.’

’This was obviously not normal.’

’What now?’

He sat on the step at the cave entrance, his brow furrowed. He looked up at the dark, oppressive sky and felt an inexplicable weight on his spirits.

If a rainstorm was coming, it probably wouldn’t pass quickly. He was worried that the unfinished wooden house might be blown over.

If he went to work on it now, he would be risking getting caught in a downpour at any moment.