The next day, Huai Yu woke up once again to the sound of the broadcast.
The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon, its morning light spilling across the ground and piercing through the framework she had assembled the day before, casting long, slanting shadows.
The wisterias were obedient, their bare branches adorned with only a few leaves. The only thing that caught the eye was a cluster of wisteria flowers swaying in the wind at the doorway.
Huai Yu held a packet of nutrient solution between her lips, slurping it down expressionlessly. After three consecutive days of consuming this, the taste had gone from tolerable to somewhat unpalatable, and now it was downright unpleasant.
She would have to eat this for a month…
Wait!
Suddenly, she skillfully knelt down, then scurried back into the underground tunnel. While sipping the nutrient solution, she counted—
“One packet, two packets, three packets…”
Twenty-six packets remained.
When it was distributed, they said it was a month’s supply… but she had consumed one packet the day before yesterday and two yesterday! And now, early in the morning, she already felt hungry. Could it be…
That it would only last half a month?
Sunlight filtered through the holes in the foundation bricks into the tunnel, faint patches of light reflecting on the maroon sleeping bag. The soybeans huddled silently in their spot. Clearly, with her current abilities, even if she managed to accelerate their growth, they wouldn’t yield many beans.
Without even calculating, she knew that at most, they would produce forty pounds.
And now, forget about farming—she hadn’t even finished building her house!
Plop.
The nutrient solution packet, now completely drained, fell to the ground, and her mood plummeted along with it.
Because of this realization, Huai Yu puffed out her cheeks as she went to Zone 22 to break off branches—Qiangwei Gongguan Area 1 covered a total of 600 acres, divided into 37 zones.
Zone 22 was a small hill, meticulously cleared by the Mutant Plant Defense Army, leaving only a few sparse tree stumps sprouting here and there.
Huai Yu came here to break off a relatively thin branch to use for sealing the roof of her house later.
Standing atop the small hill and looking into the distance, the nearest Defense Army outpost was quite far away. If measured according to the divisions of the Rose Corridor, it would likely be beyond Zone 60.
In truth, she had been unlucky that night. The area where the Rose Corridor had experienced unusual activity happened to be near the intersection of Zones 37 and 38. As a result, the Mutation Value detectors there were placed unusually close.
Zone 38 belonged to the allocated land of Qiangwei Gongguan Area 2.
But for now, Huai Yu knew nothing about this and had no interest in caring. All she wanted was to finish building her house before the leaves completely withered.
…
Once the main framework was completed, the remaining tasks were all trivial.
For example, what Huai Yu was doing now was using a long, thin, and sharp wooden spike to skillfully pry open the stem of a tung tree leaf she had picked the day before, creating a Y-shaped fork.
She then wedged this fork into the framework of the house—though the leaves were not large enough, making it a bit of a stretch, she secured them one by one and bound them with even thinner vines. After layering several rows, the structure became sturdy and airtight.
The only problem was that tung tree leaves weren’t particularly waterproof, but there were no other alternatives nearby.
After all, Huacheng had four distinct seasons, with frequent snowfall in winter. In such an environment, plant leaves tended not to be too broad to avoid frost damage.
The work wasn’t difficult, but it was tedious. Fortunately, she had nothing else to do now, so she could patiently take it step by step, building the house solidly.
However, after using half of the leaves, she still felt it wouldn’t be safe in heavy rain.
But it didn’t matter—she was clever enough to have thought of a backup plan yesterday.
Or at least she should have. Even if she hadn’t, there was still time to think of one now!
Lost in thought, Huai Yu remembered the maroon sleeping bag in the tunnel, and suddenly, inspiration struck!
She rummaged through the pile of leaves and gathered the twelve pine cones from the Huashan pine she had obtained yesterday.
Huashan pines take over a decade or two to bear pine cones, and the giant pine tree Huai Yu had encountered towered into the clouds, its age unknown.
The pine cones she had collected were exceptionally large.
With diameters close to 10 centimeters and lengths of about 20 centimeters, Huai Yu couldn’t help but marvel at how well-fed the squirrels must be.
But these were meant to be traded, so she reluctantly picked out a slightly smaller one and carefully peeled off the scales, extracting the pine nuts inside.
To her surprise, a single large pine cone yielded over a hundred pine nuts! So rich!
What a generous pine tree!
The only issue was that, whether due to the variety or years of exposure to wind, sun, and rain, these pine nuts lacked the rich fragrance of Korean pine nuts and even the subtle, distinct aroma of Huashan pine nuts.
They were also a bit astringent.
After eating two, Huai Yu lost interest and sighed once again—
“How did I know so much before? I could even taste several varieties of pine nuts… I was so rich!”
But now, she didn’t even have a proper place to live. The contrast was too stark—clearly, the world had wronged her!
She grumbled a little but reminded herself that her current life was more important. A big bed and a manservant were still distant dreams.
Though not as delicious as she remembered, these were still pine nuts. Considering that each person was now rationed only half a kilogram of soybeans, they were undoubtedly somewhat precious.
Huai Yu picked up thin vines and tied them one by one, quickly stringing together a long chain of eleven large pine cones.
To trade them, dragging them on the ground wouldn’t do, so after some thought, she slung the string over her shoulder.
Waterproof roof, here I come!
She walked away cheerfully.
…
Meanwhile, far away at the Mutant Plant Defense Army outpost in Zone 69.
Located near the Rose Corridor, which had diligently guarded Huacheng’s Wasteland defense line since its appearance, the outpost rarely saw visitors despite its military presence.
But now, the guard at the entrance looked into the distance and saw a girl slowly approaching, carrying something strange on her back…
Guard: …
He picked up the walkie-talkie to report. By the time someone came out to investigate, the girl had already reached the entrance.
Only then did the guard realize she was carrying a large string of pine cones.
The Defense Army soldier who came out to check was also taken aback:
“Little girl, is that you?”
Huai Yu was exhausted from the walk. She waved her hand, too breathless to speak, panting heavily and looking disheveled.
After all, the pine cones were quite large—each weighed nearly half a kilogram, and with eleven of them, the total was at least five kilograms.
Walking from District 37 to District 69 was at least over three kilometers… It truly exhausted her.
When she finally caught her breath, she looked at the familiar Defense Army soldier frowning at her and hesitantly asked:
“That night, a brother said it was their captain who asked him to bring me a sleeping bag… Was that you?”
After a moment of thought, she added: “Captain brother.”