“Brother, you’re back.” Seeing the man in the doorway, Xiaoye stood up happily.
“Mm.” Lin Yiyan answered with a single flat word, standing at the door without coming in.
“Brother, this is Sister Ye, she’s awake.” Xiaoye took Ye Yi’s hand and introduced her excitedly. “Sister Ye, this is my brother, Lin Yiyan.”
Remembering Xiaoye had said her brother saved her, it must be the man before her—Ye Yi quickly thanked him. “Thank you for saving me.”
“You already paid.” Lin Yiyan answered quietly. He didn’t save people for free, if not for the fresh water found on her boat, he wouldn’t have saved her even if she’d died right in front of him.
“What payment?” Ye Yi was baffled. When had she paid? She had no idea.
Seeing Ye Yi’s confusion, Lin Yiyan rarely bothered to explain. “The fresh water on your boat was the payment for saving you. Your boat will be repaired by tomorrow, and then you can go.”
With that, ignoring her reaction, he turned and left.
Ye Yi was still baffled. When had her boat had fresh water? Could it be the waves she’d gathered?
Hearing her brother’s cold words, Xiaoye opened her mouth helplessly and mumbled an explanation, “My brother’s maybe in a bad mood. Sister Ye, don’t mind him. He said before it’d take a few days to fix the boat, how is it ready tomorrow? Let me go ask him.”
Since her brother had said to let Sister Ye leave, he definitely wouldn’t take her in. And she couldn’t very well bring it up herself, it was already hard enough for her brother to feed just her.
Ye Yi smiled and said, “It’s fine. Sorry to trouble you.”
She understood this, no one wanted a stranger suddenly appearing in their home. Being saved at all, she was already grateful.
Besides, living alone was more at ease, she didn’t have to hide anything and could use her ability whenever she liked. Here, everything was inconvenient, and she constantly feared slipping up somewhere.
Seeing Ye Yi didn’t seem angry, Xiaoye pushed the door open and went out, at ease, off to find her brother, wherever he was.
Watching her leave, Ye Yi let out a breath, leaned against the wooden door, and opened the wristband to check the situation.
It showed it was now Day 7, 6:05 p.m. The storm had begun on the fifth day, so two days had passed.
The Random Teammate’s name had also changed from “Unknown” to one that read Gu Qiu, by the name, it felt like a girl.
Auto-locate had activated too. She must have fainted and been judged by the mysterious consciousness as in danger. But two days had passed and no Random Teammate had come to save her, it seemed the hope of one coming was slim.
Disappointed, she turned off auto-locate. So not everyone would go and rescue others.
The Gathering-and-Crafting System’s experience had reached Lv2 (45.6/80), only 34.4 short of leveling up.
Beyond that, no more information. She closed the wristband, took out mineral water from the system Backpack, and drank a few mouthfuls to ease her sore throat.
After drinking, she stood at the window looking out. By now the sky had darkened, a few huts had firelight in them here and there, but most were pitch-black, nothing visible.
Ye Yi observed a while, saw nothing, then lay back down in the bedding she’d risen from and closed her eyes to rest.
That storm had done real harm to her body.
Before long she drifted off. Half-asleep, she felt someone come in and instantly came fully awake. She opened her eyes for a careful look, it was Xiaoye.
She closed her eyes again, pretended to sleep and rolled over, pricked up her ears to secretly watch what Xiaoye was doing, and, to be safe, even took out the gun, focusing on the soft sounds of Xiaoye moving things.
Before long there was no more sound from Xiaoye’s side. Ye Yi waited quietly, then carefully opened her eyes, glanced at Xiaoye sleeping not far off, and slowly closed them to space out.
After a long while, she fell asleep again.
In a blink it was Day 8. When Ye Yi woke, there was no one in the room, and the floor had been restored to yesterday’s cleanliness.
She lifted her wrist and first opened the wristband to check the info:
Only to find that the Season now read Summer, she clearly remembered it showed Spring yesterday, so how had it become Summer today?
The temperature had also reached 30°C, humidity little changed. 30°C in the morning, by noon wouldn’t it be sweltering enough to kill?
It wouldn’t hit forty-something degrees, would it?
Before she could think it through, footsteps came from the door. Ye Yi quickly turned off the wristband, pretended she’d just woken, met the eyes of Xiaoye pushing open the door, and did her best to ignore her wildly pounding heart.
Xiaoye hadn’t noticed, had she?
Looking at Ye Yi sitting up, Xiaoye froze for a moment, then greeted her with a smile. “Sister Ye, you’re up.”
“Mm.” Ye Yi answered calmly, straining to recall whether she’d turned off the wristband before Xiaoye came in.
“Perfect timing, my brother’s already sailed your boat back.” Thinking of the boat parked beside the hut, Xiaoye looked at Ye Yi enviously. She’d love to have a boat that big too.
Then she could go out fishing on her own.
“Where is it?” Ye Yi quickly asked. She wanted very much to get back to her own boat, a few more scares like this and she felt she’d be frightened to death.
Xiaoye turned to look outside and answered, “At the door.”
Ye Yi quickly folded up her bedding, and as she stood she suddenly noticed Xiaoye was wearing very little today. Puzzled, she asked, “Xiaoye, why are you wearing so little today?”
“Sister Ye, did you forget? Today’s Summer Scorch, of course you dress light.” Xiaoye looked at Ye Yi strangely. Had Sister Ye’s brain been fried? How could she not even know this?
Ye Yi reacted quickly and explained, “Ah, right, almost forgot. My head’s been dizzy these past days, a bit muddled.”
She couldn’t help smacking herself inwardly. Serves you right for asking so much. Remember rule one: observe more, say less.
With that, not caring whether Xiaoye believed her, she went outside to check on her boat.
Once out, she spotted her familiar boat at a glance, walked over quickly, and looked it over. No major problems, mainly the deck boards had been a bit damaged but were already patched, though she didn’t know how sturdy the repair was.
Happily she climbed aboard and did a round. The damaged spots in the cabin had also been patched with some unknown material.
The boat was fixed, and she should be off, she missed fish soup and grilled meat. But the repair fee + lodging + meals had to be paid to Xiaoye. She crouched, pretended to take from the boat: a bottle of sea salt, a dozen-odd candies, a flashlight.
Carrying these, she went up to the hut and handed them to Xiaoye, who took them blankly and looked at Ye Yi, dazed. “Sister Ye, what are these?”
“You don’t recognize them?” Ye Yi frowned. How could Xiaoye not know these? Surely this map couldn’t lack such things?
“Never seen them.” Xiaoye answered obediently, staring curiously at the items. This green, round thing, so pretty.
Thinking she was about to leave and probably wouldn’t run into these people again, Ye Yi thought a bit and asked Xiaoye, “Do you know what era this is now?”
“What does ‘era’ mean?”
Ye Yi’s heart sank. She didn’t even know what an era was? She rephrased. “Do you know what the date is now?”
“Sea Star, 25th century, year 103, the third Summer Scorch.” Xiaoye said it all in one breath, then glanced worriedly at Ye Yi. Sister Ye seemed to have forgotten a lot, how would she live in the sea like this?
From the first words, Ye Yi was dumbfounded. Well, the mysterious consciousness had sent her to who-knew-where again.
Finally she asked, “Is there any land here?”
“There is, only it’s very far from us. Sister Ye, are you going there?”
“No, just curious. I’ve heard of land but never seen it, wanted to ask whether your sea has any.” Ye Yi fudged it. She only needed to survive 30 days in this map, if land were close she might go find it, but if too far there was no point.
She picked up a candy, tore the wrapper, popped it in her mouth, then tore open a second and handed it to Xiaoye.
Xiaoye carefully took the candy from her palm, put it in her mouth, and instantly her eyes crinkled with a smile. “So sweet.”
What food was this, how was it this sweet?
“It’s candy. You can only eat one every two days, eat too many and worms will grow in your teeth and eat them.” Ye Yi put on her scaring-children airs, and, seeing Xiaoye reluctant to spit it out, laughed.
Then she picked up the glass bottle of sea salt, shook it, and said, “This is sea salt. Sprinkle it on sea fish to make them keep longer, it has some other uses too, but you probably wouldn’t follow if I explained. Just remember this one thing.”
Xiaoye nodded, half-understanding.
Finally Ye Yi picked up the flashlight and pressed the switch. Light shone out, startling Xiaoye, what weird thing was this?
Ye Yi turned it off and explained, “This is a flashlight, for light. Turn it on when it’s dark and you can see clearly. Consider these my lodging, boat-repair, and meal fees. I should be going now. If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”
With that, she prepared to board and leave.
Xiaoye didn’t quite follow Ye Yi’s words, only vaguely understood these things were all hers now. Seeing Ye Yi about to leave, she quickly grabbed her hand and said reluctantly, “Sister Ye, do you really have to go? Isn’t it good to stay here?”
“I have other things to do, I can’t stay here forever.” Ye Yi answered firmly. She was used to being alone, and there was a clear generation gap between her and the people here. A day or two was fine, but over time they might take her for a monster, so leaving was better.
She pulled her hand free, boarded, picked up the oar she hadn’t touched once since entering the map, and began rowing away.
Fortunately, back on Blue Star she’d learned most of these survival skills, rowing a boat was a trifle to her.
Rowing away from the rows of huts, she looked back once before leaving. Xiaoye still stood where she’d been, watching her, and waved goodbye.
The instant she turned back, she thought she saw someone standing in the doorway of the outermost hut, staring hard at her, giving her the sense of being marked.
When she looked again, there was nothing. Uncertain, she thought it was probably just her eyes.