Chapter 466 - 300: Why Didn’t You Say So Earlier

Chapter 466: Chapter 300: Why Didn’t You Say So Earlier

All that effort, just for a single spark?

She hadn’t seen Erica start a fire when watching the show. They were living in the cave Lin Chen had left behind, and the embers were preserved from that time. They just had to rekindle it every day, so they didn’t need to go through the trouble of starting a fire from scratch.

A moment ago, she’d even thought that if Erica could do it, it couldn’t be that hard for her.

But after watching Lin Chen’s series of high-intensity maneuvers, she silently swallowed.

Sometimes, you just had to admit that there were real physiological differences between men and women in certain areas.

If it were her, she probably wouldn’t have been able to get this far.

Lin Chen carefully turned the piece of wood over, gently tapping it onto the surface of the moss. Then, he cradled the clump of dry moss in his palms as if it were a baby.

He kept his head at a distance and blew gently, causing the spark to brighten and spread to the surrounding charcoal dust.

One spark gradually became two, then four, and then a small cluster.

The wisp of thin smoke thickened, and a distinct smell of charring drifted up.

He blew again, this time a little closer.

"WHOOSH~"

The moment the spark flared again, a tiny flame suddenly flickered to life.

He deftly tucked it under the prepared pile of kindling. The fire spread rapidly to the surrounding tinder materials. The weak flame grew at a visible rate, becoming a palm-sized blaze in just a dozen breaths.

"Here, you try it. We’ve secured a fire source now, so it doesn’t matter even if you fail. It won’t stop us from eating."

Marcia took the bow drill and suddenly turned to the girl prying open oysters nearby. "Erica, can you make fire this way?"

"Of course I can. But my previous job was as a forest guide, not a survivalist. I didn’t need anything this troublesome. It’s enough to know the technique; there’s no need to practice it specifically. It’s more convenient to carry a lighter or a fire steel. You can try it if you’re interested."

Marcia nodded, her motivation to try suddenly soaring.

Just as she stood up, mimicked Lin Chen’s earlier process to get ready, and was about to start drilling, Lin Chen cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered something in her ear.

Marcia’s eyes instantly lit up. She gave him a grateful look, rolled up her sleeves, and, full of energy, began moving the bow drill back and forth.

Erica, who was looking down and prying open an oyster shell, appeared very focused. But if you looked closely, her small, delicate earlobes had already turned red. She had obviously guessed what Lin Chen had whispered.

’I really want to punch that busybody,’ she thought, ’but I have to admit, with a thick-skinned guy like him acting as a go-between, my relationship with Marcia has indeed improved a lot in just half a day.’

On the surface, the two of them didn’t seem much different from how they were at the start, but only they knew the actual change that had occurred.

Before today, she would have never had the patience to explain so much about wilderness survival to Marcia, nor would she have gone to dig up oysters for her just because she said she wanted to eat them grilled.

If Lin Chen hadn’t acted as a social lubricant, their relationship might have become even worse than before.

For that alone, she was genuinely grateful to him.

The huge oyster shells were quickly dealt with thanks to her proficient skills, a technique she had honed back when she was making oyster sauce.

Although she really wanted to see how Marcia was doing with the drill, she forced herself to suppress her curiosity. She grabbed a sea urchin from the side, cut it open with scissors, and started cleaning out the undigested seaweed residue packed inside.

She knew that if she stared, it would definitely put immense pressure on Marcia, and her chances of success might even decrease.

Making fire by friction was a very difficult technique, especially for women. If the first attempt failed, it would be hard to summon the courage for a second try.

A full five minutes passed.

By the time she was processing the third sea urchin, she could hear distinct panting from beside her.

She couldn’t resist sneaking a peek. Marcia’s high-collared, tight-fitting sweater was already soaked through, her cheeks were flushed, and she was gritting her teeth, struggling to move the bow drill quickly.

No matter how hard she drilled, the wood below showed no signs of catching. The pile of wood dust was even larger than when Lin Chen had done it, yet it still retained its original color.

"Stop for a moment."

She couldn’t watch anymore. Seeing that Lin Chen had no intention of stopping Marcia and was instead smiling at her, she instantly understood his intentions.

"You’re running out of stamina. Also, there’s a problem with how you’re applying force. You’re wasting too much energy for very little efficiency, and your speed isn’t high enough. That’s why the temperature can’t reach the ignition point to create a spark."

She walked over, touched the thick layer of wood dust, and nodded. "Feel this. The dust is hot. It’s just missing that last little bit of temperature."

After calming down, Marcia also realized there was a problem with her technique.

Lin Chen had produced a spark so quickly, but for her, it felt like she had been drilling for centuries with no reaction at all. That was the biggest problem.

The moment she let go of the bow drill, she felt her right hand start to cramp slightly, an aching numbness that bordered on throbbing pain.

Erica took the bow drill from her, poured the wood dust onto the dry moss below, and reset the spindle in the notch.

"Watch closely. The key to making fire by friction is speed. Pushing harder doesn’t make you faster. Quite the opposite, the harder you push, the stiffer your movements become, and you can’t build up speed. He can do it that way because he’s a man. He has natural strength and can succeed with brute force. We women have to use technique."

"You’ve been drilling for a while now, so you should have a feel for the bow. Building on that, what you need to do is use as little force as possible to speed up its back-and-forth movement. The bowstring will automatically accelerate the spindle."

"Once you understand this principle, you’ll realize that no matter how much force you use, you can’t increase the spindle’s rotation speed. Most of it is just wasted. You only need to focus on how to accelerate the back-and-forth movement of the bow."

After speaking, she held the bow in a completely different way than Lin Chen had.

Lin Chen used the web of his hand, a normal bow grip. Her grip was the complete opposite, with the web of her hand on the outside of the bow and her four fingers looped on the inside.

After stepping on the fireboard with her left foot, she squatted down. Her fingers holding the bow weren’t tense; she maintained a loose grip, just enough to ensure the bow wouldn’t fall.

Then, her wrist began to sway gently from side to side, driving the bow back and forth.

As the speed gradually increased, her forearm also began to move in a slight arc.

Her movements were very small, and the bow traveled only a short distance. With each stroke, the bowstring only moved forward or backward about a third of its length.

It was this type of small-range, high-frequency movement that produced an exceptionally high-speed friction.

The spindle spun into a blur under her hand. In just a few dozen seconds, the accumulating wood dust had already started to turn black.

She didn’t continue. She casually blew away the blackened dust and shook out her slightly aching forearm.

"See how it’s done?"

Marcia’s jaw dropped in shock. She never imagined that the method Erica demonstrated would be even easier and more efficient than Lin Chen’s. She nodded instinctively, then turned to look at Lin Chen beside her.

Lin Chen also wore a shocked expression. He pointed at Erica. "You have such a good fire-starting technique, why didn’t you tell me sooner? You were just waiting to watch me make a fool of myself, weren’t you?"

"You never asked," Erica said, spreading her hands innocently. "As long as you can make a fire, does the method really matter? Besides, with your sharp mind, I figured you’d think of this method sooner or later. Discovering it yourself leaves a deeper impression than being taught."

"Oh, thank you so much!"

"You’re welcome~"

Facing Erica’s innocent, clear gaze, Lin Chen felt like a complete idiot. Including their time in Panama, he had used the brute-force version of the bow drill method in front of her several times.

’This was the international version of showing off to an expert!’

’How on earth did she manage to not only resist correcting me but also watch with such interest?’

’Damn it, how embarrassing!’

After a short ten-minute break, Marcia, far from being discouraged, was filled with fighting spirit thanks to Erica’s personal guidance.

This time, it took her just over a minute to successfully create an ember in the wood dust.

Following the subsequent steps Lin Chen had demonstrated, she carefully sprinkled the glowing ember onto the thick pile of wood dust below. She blew on it, breath by breath, until a flame appeared, at which point she let out a long sigh of relief and casually tossed the dry moss into the fire pit.

"Amazing! As expected... Your learning ability is really strong. A normal person would have a hard time succeeding without trying seven, eight, or even a dozen times."

"Haha, it wasn’t that hard after all."

Marcia laughed freely and suddenly grabbed Erica’s hand.

"It’s all because Erica is a good teacher! It wasn’t a wasted trip coming all this way. This fire-starting experience alone made the journey worthwhile!"

Erica was completely caught off guard by the sudden hand-holding. She froze on the spot, instinctively wanting to pull her hand back. But when she saw the camera with its glowing green light on Marcia’s chest, her reason forcibly suppressed her instinct.

"It’s... it’s nothing. It’s what I should do. I’m so glad you’re enjoying this wilderness survival experience."

Though the words were perfectly ordinary, she found them exceptionally difficult to say this time.

Lin Chen smiled faintly. Knowing that Erica might have trouble if this continued, he immediately took the ingredients, seasonings, and a small saucepan from his backpack.

"Now that the fire’s started, it’s time to start cooking. First, I’m going to make a garlic sauce. It’s not just for the oysters; it goes well with any seafood, some vegetables, or even staple foods. You could say it’s one of the most common all-purpose sauces in our Great Xia."

Marcia was a CEO, after all, and her perception was far sharper than an ordinary person’s. She immediately let go of Erica’s hand, sat back down inside the lean-to, and began to watch Lin Chen’s every move with rapt attention.

As she moved away, Erica visibly relaxed.