◎Wood Shortage◎
【Visitor Reception Card: Permanent use item. One invitation opportunity per day, customizable time. Only usable on friends.】
After confirming the use, the item card merged with the game panel, and a new feature appeared in the friends section, 【Invite】.
Yan Lan’s friends list was so short she could count them on one hand. So once again, she had to drag Shi Yuanyuan out for a test.
She sent the invitation, but he didn’t respond immediately, seems he was busy.
Just then, the water on the stove came to a boil. She closed the panel, took two packs of instant noodles from the cabinet, tore them open, added the noodles first, then the seasoning.
She had obtained a set of bowls and chopsticks earlier. She took two out, rinsed them with water, and placed them on the dining table, the larger one in front of herself, and the smaller one pushed over to Xueqiu.
Xueqiu stared with his beady little eyes, cunningly comparing the bowls in front of him. Noticing they were different, he started chirping “Jii jii jii jii~” nonstop, his little paws waving wildly, making his round little body bounce up and down.
Although they couldn’t communicate verbally, after spending time together, Yan Lan could easily understand what he meant.
She didn’t expect the little guy to be this clever. She let out a soft laugh and comforted him, “Be good~ This is the only bowl I have. Once you finish, I’ll give you more.”
Only then did Xueqiu stop his chattering. He tapped the rim of the bowl, urging Yan Lan to feed him quickly.
Yan Lan picked up the pot with one hand and a pair of chopsticks with the other, then walked to the dining table.
Xueqiu stared fixedly at the chopsticks, afraid she might give him even a little less. The moment his bowl was full, he couldn’t wait to start slurping it down.
Yan Lan couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth. The way he ate, like a starving ghost reincarnated, made it look like she had been mistreating him.
After serving herself a bowl, she sat down on the sofa across from him.
The noodles were cooked just right, springy and chewy, with a rich and flavorful broth. With one bite, the light fragrance of wheat instantly melted in her mouth.
On this bitterly cold winter day, there was nothing more comforting than eating a bowl of steaming hot noodles. She quickly finished her instant noodles, even drinking down all the soup.
The warm noodle soup settled in her stomach, filling her with warmth.
Across from her, Xueqiu had long since disappeared. By now, after finishing his noodles, he had picked up his bowl and flown over to the kitchen counter, where he was busily helping himself to more food in a very practiced manner.
Yan Lan watched with a look of exasperation. Having such strong learning ability didn’t seem to be entirely a good thing.
Just then, a rhythmic knocking came from the RV door.
Yan Lan paused, thinking she had misheard. It had already been six days, and she had never seen a single living person other than herself.
She shook her head and went back to watching Xueqiu.
“Thump, thump, thump!”
The knocking continued. A spark of realization flashed through Yan Lan’s mind. She quickly got up and went to open the door.
As the door opened, a familiar yet unfamiliar face appeared before her. He seemed very cold, hugging his arms to his chest and stomping his feet in place.
“Oh my, Yuanyuan, come in quickly!” Yan Lan hurriedly invited him in. It turned out the visitor had been teleported right to her door, if not for the knocking, she would have completely forgotten about this.
“Wow, it’s really warm in here.” Shi Yuanyuan stepped inside without delay.
Yan Lan closed the door and led him to the dining table to sit down, then handed him one of her hand warmers.
Shi Yuanyuan stretched out his stiff hands and pressed them tightly against the metal walls of the warmer. He couldn’t help but inhale the fragrant aroma in the air. “It smells so good!”
Yan Lan glanced over at Xueqiu, who was practically about to tip the whole pot over his head, and said to Shi Yuanyuan, “I just had some instant noodles. Would you like some?”
Shi Yuanyuan’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. With a conflicted expression, he refused. “No… no need. I just ate, haha.”
Yan Lan gave him a knowing look but didn’t insist. She made a mental note to add a pack of instant noodles to his next share.
Just then, Xueqiu finished serving himself another bowl of noodles and came flying over with it.
Shi Yuanyuan was staring straight at him. He saw this soft, adorable little creature flying while carrying a bowl bigger than its own body, moving cautiously as if worried the broth might spill.
His mouth fell open in shock, and it took him a long time to snap out of it. “Wh-what is that?”
“This is a little spirit I found in the snow. I call him Xueqiu,” Yan Lan introduced them. “Xueqiu, this is Shi Yuanyuan. He’s our business partner.”
She had meant for Xueqiu to say hello, but the little glutton only spared him a single glance before lowering his head and continuing to slurp his noodles.
Yan Lan gave an awkward smile. “Sorry about that… he’s a bit of a foodie.”
Shi Yuanyuan still hadn’t fully recovered. “Haha… it’s fine. That counts as meeting him.”
Yan Lan noticed his pale face and bluish lips and couldn’t help asking, “Are you still cold?”
Shi Yuanyuan quickly shook his head. “No, no, no. This place is way better than my off-road vehicle. At least you have the heater on, it’s warm.”
Yan Lan felt a pang in her heart. If Shi Yuanyuan was living like this, how miserable must the other players be?
She found some paper and a pen, sketched a simple charcoal brazier on the table, then walked over to the crafting table and threw in two pieces of wood. After a brief sound of sawing, a wooden charcoal brazier was produced.
She placed the brazier under the dining table, took out several pieces of charcoal, and lit them.
The charcoal fire burned bright red, and the temperature inside the RV rose by several degrees.
Shi Yuanyuan had watched Yan Lan’s entire process, utterly amazed. “So that’s how all that charcoal and toilet paper are made?”
Yan Lan nodded. “Yeah.”
Shi Yuanyuan couldn’t help but give her a thumbs-up. “Awesome!”
Yan Lan: “Just stay here with me this morning. It’ll be easier to communicate, and you’ll save resources.”
Shi Yuanyuan was deeply grateful. “Thank you.”
Whenever he got busy selling charcoal, he couldn’t focus on driving anyway. Since he wasn’t going to collect treasure chests, he might as well stay with Yan Lan, besides, it was really warm here.
“Xueqiu, after you finish eating, go drive. We’re about to set off~” Yan Lan instructed as Xueqiu drained the last drop of soup from his bowl.
Shi Yuanyuan, who had been stretching his frozen hands over the charcoal fire to warm them, was startled again. “He can drive too?!”
Speaking of that, Yan Lan shot a glance at Xueqiu’s back and said coolly, “He can do a lot of things.”
Like leaving her stranded on the highway just so he could drive!
Xueqiu’s back suddenly felt a bit chilly. He put down his bowl and zipped over to the driver’s seat. Moments later, the RV was cruising along smoothly.
Yan Lan pressed her palms together and looked at Shi Yuanyuan. “Well then, let’s get to work~”
Shi Yuanyuan’s hands were already toasty warm. “Alright, I’ll keep selling charcoal.”
Yesterday’s charcoal had sold out completely, leaving no stock. They would have to produce and sell in real time.
Shi Yuanyuan was in charge of communicating with players, while Yan Lan worked at the crafting table.
Once they started working, the initial awkwardness between them faded, and they even began chatting about everyday things.
Shi Yuanyuan: “Yan Lan, which city were you in before the game started?”
Yan Lan: “City B.”
Shi Yuanyuan exclaimed, “Wow, we’re pretty close! I was in City A, right next door.”
“Yeah, that is quite close.”
She just didn’t know if they’d ever be able to go back.
“Were you living with your parents?”
“No, I’m an orphan. I grew up in an orphanage.”
Shi Yuanyuan paused for a moment, then glanced at her a bit guiltily. Seeing that Yan Lan’s expression remained calm, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Ah, I was pretty much an orphan too, growing up. Except I had a cousin.”
“My cousin is really handsome…”
Once Shi Yuanyuan started talking about his cousin, he chattered on nonstop, until a player came online to message him.
Since they were both right there, there was no need to transfer supplies back and forth. Yan Lan would produce the charcoal, and Shi Yuanyuan would sell it directly.
“Yan Lan, someone says they only have 5 pieces of wood left. Can they get a discount?”
Yan Lan didn’t stop what she was doing. “Then set the price to the lowest limit.”
Earlier, she had been charging 10 pieces of wood to gather upgrade materials, so she had set the price to the maximum.
Now, the upgrade was no longer so urgent, and wood was in short supply, lowering the price was fine.
Shi Yuanyuan nodded. “Alright, I’ll set it to 5 pieces of wood then.”
After half an hour of selling like that, he asked again, “A lot of people don’t have wood anymore. They want to trade upgrade materials instead. What should we do?”
Yan Lan frowned, stopped working, and turned to ask, “How many pieces of wood have we traded for today?”
Shi Yuanyuan checked. “Exactly 500.”
“That little?”
“Yeah, not even a fifth of yesterday’s total.”
To motivate everyone to gather wood, Shi Yuanyuan had even made an enthusiastic announcement in the group chat: “Buying wood in bulk! 5 pieces of wood for 1 piece of charcoal.”
Soon, a player replied: “We can’t even get that much even with the price drop. You have no idea, I only collected 2 pieces of wood all morning.”
“Exactly. It’s all buried under the snow where you can’t see it. None of us have x-ray vision.”
“The treasure chest detector can find chests, but it can’t detect wood. All the wood I got today came from breaking down chests, just enough for one piece of charcoal.”
“Shit, are we really going to freeze to death in the next few days?”
“Please, no! This is only day three!”
Another player refused to give up and asked, “Shi Yuanyuan, do you really have no wood left? Didn’t you trade for a lot the past few days?”
Shi Yuanyuan: “We really don’t.”
“The Jin Gang! Right, isn’t the Jin Gang still selling charcoal? Go stock up while you can.”
Jiang Tiantian appeared right on cue: “Sorry, our last batch of charcoal just sold out. But we still have some toilet paper in stock. First come, first served~”
“Huh? Who would’ve thought the most overlooked thing, wood, would become the rarest? If I’d known, I would’ve picked up more during the beginner phase.”
“Right. Back then, there was a piece of wood every few kilometers. I thought it was useless. Now it’s too late for regrets.”
Shi Yuanyuan closed the panel and sighed.
Not counting the 3,000 pieces of charcoal they needed to sell today, they only had 1,000 pieces of wood left on hand. Add what they had traded for today, and it still wouldn’t be enough for tomorrow morning’s sales.
He asked, “What are we going to do? People won’t make it through without charcoal.”
Yan Lan’s mood was a bit low too. “There’s always a way.”
The 3,000 pieces of charcoal were produced in four hours. Production was fast, but selling was even faster. Shi Yuanyuan finished his morning’s work soon after.
In the end, Yan Lan transferred 50 pieces of wood to him. “This is for you. If, and I mean if.”
“If in the end there’s really no wood left to trade, keep this for yourself.”
Everyone is selfish. If you can’t protect everyone, then do your utmost to protect the ones who matter most to you.