Chapter 299 - 199: The Frenzied Tide Stirred Up by the Storm (Part 2)

Chapter 299: Chapter 199: The Frenzied Tide Stirred Up by the Storm (Part 2)

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Lin Chen’s eyes bulged. He stared at the banana leaf in her hand as if he’d seen a ghost.

’You freaking hid it *there*??’

’So American TV shows really are based on real life. I can’t underestimate how people think over here. It’s a mindset an Easterner just can’t relate to.’

"Hahaha, Lin, you’re so much fun. So you were just pretending to be calm earlier."

Erica didn’t seem to find her own actions strange at all. She stared with great interest at Lin Chen’s slightly panicked eyes and the faint blush that had crept onto his cheeks.

She was like a victor who had just won a war, waving at him with a grin. She tilted her chin up and walked toward the cellar.

"Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. Just wait for your grilled fish~"

’Dammit, I lost again!’

Lin Chen clenched his fists. Watching Erica swagger triumphantly toward the cellar, hips swaying, he made a silent vow.

’Next time, I definitely won’t let this girl play me for a fool again!’

It might have seemed like he was calm just now, but in reality, he didn’t dare let his gaze wander where it shouldn’t.

’In my current state, I’ll never win against her. I need to adjust my mindset, and fast.’

[Attaboy, Lin! As long as you don’t turn around, we’re still friends!]

[So good, so good! That was a great angle just now. I take back what I said before, Erica’s body really is amazing.]

[Why did Lin suddenly seem like a different person? He actually dared to face Erica directly. A little weird.]

[What’s so weird about it? If you ask me, she’s showing off her figure so openly, so we should appreciate it just as openly!]

[Even though I’m an Erica fan, I have to admit, the view is better over here.]

[Erica isn’t interested in winning the challenge anyway. I say you two should just live together. That way, we can see a beautiful woman every day.]

[No way, absolutely not. What’s the deal with two people living together? Even if he won the championship, he’d get flamed to death. Who could prove it was all Lin’s own skill?]

[I agree. The show is called Wild Survival, not Wild Roommates. Occasional contact with other contestants creates new highlights, but staying together all the time goes against the show’s original purpose.]

All sorts of comments continued to flash across the screen of his watch.

Lin Chen glanced over them quickly but said nothing, silently getting to work on the bamboo tubes.

While he was busy reinforcing the bamboo house, the aroma of grilling fish began to waft up from the cellar pit, faintly mixed with a subtle, foul smell.

"Looks like she’s grilling it with the skin on. Not bad. This might be something to look forward to."

He had deliberately revealed that stingrays excrete through their skin earlier. His goal was to see if Erica would choose to skin it or grill it directly.

To grill a fish well, you absolutely can’t remove the skin. It not only shields the meat from the open flame, preventing it from charring too quickly, but also creates an insulating effect that keeps too much moisture from evaporating.

Although stingrays excrete through their skin, they live their entire lives in the sea, so they are constantly cleansing their bodies.

As long as it’s freshly caught, there’s basically no need to worry about whether it’s clean or not. You just eat it.

This stuff is like large intestines. No matter how well you wash them, they still have a certain smell. That’s the result of being steeped in it for years and years.

It might smell a little off, but it tastes amazing.

He was referring to the large intestines.

As for how stingray skin would taste, he couldn’t say for sure.

Another ten minutes passed.

Erica walked up holding two skewers of half-moon-shaped fish wings with a very strange pattern.

"Here, grilled fish wings. Have a taste."

He reached out and took one. Now that it was closer, he realized the pattern on the stingray wings was very similar to the veins of a banana leaf, composed of countless straight lines about the thickness of a finger.

But from what he knew, fin was supposed to have a texture like glass noodles. The wing in his hand only had the markings of a fin, while its cross-section was as white and tender as fish meat.

The skin on the surface was grilled to a captivating caramelized brown, and a glistening layer of fish oil was clearly visible between the skin and the meat.

It now smelled just like regular grilled fish, without that foul, public-toilet-like odor.

"It looks like you did a pretty good job grilling this."

Lin Chen shot her a surprised glance. He had expected the girl to keep teasing him, but she had come up fully dressed.

Noticing his gaze on her, Erica’s lips curved into a smile.

Seeing that expression, Lin Chen’s heart skipped a beat. ’Oh, crap,’ he thought, alarm bells blaring in his mind.

"What, are you disappointed I put clothes on? You finally worked up the courage, only to have nothing to look at. Or should I take them off now?"

As she spoke, she lifted the corner of her collar, revealing a fair, delicate shoulder, and even deliberately gave him a wink.

Lin Chen swallowed, then took a small bite of the piping-hot fish wing, letting the soft, tender meat and rich gelatin melt on his tongue.

"If you want to show off your figure, that’s fine too. My viewers in the livestream have been complaining that I didn’t let them look earlier. They’re giving me a hard time about it."

"Is that so?"

Erica’s smile didn’t fade, but she pulled her jacket properly back on.

"I don’t know them, so why should I show them anything? But you’re my idol. If you said you wanted to see..."

"I don’t want to see," Lin Chen blurted out. "Who knows how long this storm will last. It’s important to stay warm. Don’t go walking around in your swimsuit all the time for no reason."

"Hurry up and eat. The grilled fish won’t be as good once it gets cold, and the ammonia smell from the skin might get stronger."