Ling Shuying had been working since early morning.
Lately, she had an endless supply of energy.
The terribly rotten bed in the bedroom was kicked to pieces by her and moved out of the house bit by bit, like ants relocating their colony.
Sleeping in the living room indefinitely wasn’t a sustainable solution.
The windows and doors needed repairs, and the chimney had to be cleared out.
After clearing out the excess furniture and sweeping away the dust and debris on the floor, she finally began to ponder.
She had taken down the bedroom door, and the room had no windows.
The house’s door lock was rusted shut and completely useless.
She considered making glass.
Looking at the beach, a model formed in her mind.
Manufacturing glass herself would be slightly complicated and time-consuming, but it wasn’t impossible.
She grinned; she loved a challenge.
With Qing Ling’s assistance, she gathered a substantial amount of materials within half a day.
There were some common seaweeds from which she could extract sodium carbonate.
The sand covering the ground was the primary material for making glass, and the natural limestone could be ground into quicklime.
She scooped up the seaweed and laid it out on the kitchen shelves to dry.
It would take a few days for the seaweed to completely dry out.
Ling Shuying then dug up some soil from the forest.
Using the dimensions of the window, she mixed the soil with seawater and straw to create a simple mold, leaving it in the kitchen to dry in the shade.
In just a few days, once the seaweed and the mold were dry, she could start manufacturing glass.
There was still some time before sunset.
She drank a coconut—GLUG GLUG GLUG—took a short break, and then started pulling weeds.
The area around the wooden cabin was originally supposed to be an open clearing, but after being uninhabited for so long, it had become a paradise for weeds.
Weeding was exhausting work, requiring her to constantly bend over and pull with all her might.
These weeds were deeply rooted; an average person would struggle to pull up even one.
However, ever since she merged with Qing Ling, Ling Shuying’s strength had become frighteningly great.
She didn’t feel tired, only that the tough stems dug into her hands.
In no time at all, she had cleared a small open patch.
“Qing Ling, we are truly amazing,” Ling Shuying said proudly, looking at the cleared space in front of the door.
But after all, she had only cleared a small fraction.
Human strength was too limited.
She promised herself that in a little while, she would make something to eradicate all these weeds in one fell swoop.
The next day, she went to the stream to wash her face and into the forest to pick mushrooms, just as she always did.
Although the mushrooms were savory and delicious, eating them for every meal wasn’t a sustainable plan.
She wanted to eat something else.
Could she cultivate Earth on this island and plant some algal crops?
Earth was a type of nutrient soil developed by the Green Algae Institute team.
It allowed marine algae to grow on land and accelerated the growth rate and yield of terrestrial algae.
As a top scholar at the Green Algae Institute and an expert in giant algae research, Ling Shuying had participated in the research and design of Earth, so she knew its production process.
HD-231, OP-364, and OP-546X were all her proudest creations—high-yield algal food sources.
Unfortunately, they had all been confiscated by the patrol team.
She wondered what would happen if she cultivated them on the island.
Hope gradually ignited in her eyes.
She had no laboratory, no materials, and no instruments, but she had Qing Ling, a computing powerhouse capable of building models.
Perhaps, with her own two hands, she could truly create a miniature supply ecosystem on the island.
There would be a water source, a vegetable patch, a house, the ocean, the stars, the forest, and the companionship of Qing Ling.
It would be perfect if she had a laboratory too, but that was a distant goal.
For now, she had to solve her food problem first.
Over the next few days, Ling Shuying wandered around the island, collecting raw materials to cultivate Earth and searching for anything edible.
The island was very small.
Walking for a single day, she made it from the wooden cabin to the opposite end of the island.
She slept in a tree at that far end and watched the sunrise by the sea early the next morning.
The sun rose slowly in the due east.
Only after admiring the magnificent star did she leisurely make her way back.
Because the island was so small, there shouldn’t be any large beasts, nor were there any traces of other humans.
It was absolutely perfect.
If there wasn’t an Abyssal Vortex nearby, an island like this would definitely be packed with people from the City State.
Ling Shuying hummed a little tune as she walked.
She relished the fact that it belonged entirely to her now.
It was her island.
During these few days, Ling Shuying gathered many raw materials for cultivating Earth and discovered a variety of other foods.
She found sweet potatoes, taro, Mist Lotuses, sea pineapples, and Perilla leaves.
Now she had fruit, wild vegetables, and staple foods.
She wove a bundle out of banana leaves, hoisted it onto her shoulder, and walked home beaming with joy, looking just like a farmer after a bumper harvest.
She could finally improve her diet.
That night, she sat cross-legged by the fireplace in the house.
The chimney had already been cleared out.
She had covered the bedroom window with leaves and pressed the door against it.
The main door was locked with a strand of wild sea chain algae, but still feeling uneasy, she moved the sofa over to block it.
The sea chain algae was a mutated species with a chain-like structure.
Silicon dioxide and iron elements were deposited within its cell walls, forming metallized fibers that made it fifteen percent stronger than steel wire and far more flexible. This story is hosted at NovelPing.
It was an unexpected harvest from Ling Shuying’s strolls along the beach.
She didn’t know what had severed it, but the cut was clean, and it had washed ashore with the waves.
She figured it didn’t matter what had cut it.
The ocean held countless mysteries, and finding something so useful was simply good luck.
The room was warm and cozy.
The sweet potatoes buried in the fireplace ash gradually gave off a mouth-watering aroma.
The wind was completely blocked outside, and the door stood as immovable as a mountain.
She felt a profound sense of security.
She brushed the ash off a sweet potato and peeled back a corner.
The inside was a brilliant, golden yellow, neither too soft nor too hard.
The edges were slightly burnt, but it didn’t affect the taste.
Steam rose from the sweet potato, drifting up toward the ceiling.
The firelight flickered across Ling Shuying’s face, dancing in the dimly lit room.
HUFF, HUFF.
She blew on the piping hot food and took small, careful bites.
“Qing Ling, I’m treating you to a roasted sweet potato!” Ling Shuying smiled foolishly, talking to her companion.
It was sweet, glutinous, and perfectly cooked.
She felt pure bliss.
A fresh lemon scent wafted from the study.
When she left the house a couple of days ago, Ling Shuying had placed quite a few lemons in the room.
Now that she was back, the stale, musty odor had completely dissipated.
She decided she would sleep in the study tonight.
Gazing into the pitch-black room, she finished her sweet potato, pocketed two Mist Lotuses, and gathered the banana leaves from the corner.
She pulled a burning torch from the fireplace and entered the study.
There was a candlestick on the desk holding half a candle.
She lit it, and a small flame flared to life.
There were also a few notebooks on the desk, densely packed with words, but the writing was messy and illegible.
Ling Shuying had no interest in the notebooks for now.
She glanced at the nearby bookshelf and pulled down an antique-looking book titled “Sea of Dreams.” It was a science fiction novel written by an author before “The Great Submergence.” The story was set in what people of that era believed to be the future, detailing a scenario where all surface water ascended into space without any warning, causing humanity to lose its oceans and face an existential crisis.
The prose was elegant and the plot was thrilling, yet it failed to stir any emotions within her.
She was already living in the past’s future.
Unfortunately, the oceans hadn’t ascended into space; instead, they had swallowed the continents.
She shook her head helplessly, knowing that the current state of humanity was beyond the wildest imagination of any sci-fi author.
She reflected that the seaweed was almost dry and the kiln was already built.
Tomorrow, she would start making glass.
Blowing out the candle, she slowly lay down, surrounded by a sea of books.
As the scent of extinguished wax drifted through the air, Ling Shuying gradually fell asleep.