Huaiyu returned to the small tree house holding a flashlight. It was already 9:30 on her watch.
The room was a mess, with all the items she bought from the trading market scattered around, looking like a junkyard under the beam of the flashlight.
The tree vine net bag she had brought back from the mountain was still lying on the ground, and the water bottle only had half its content left. In the center of the room, the embers of the fire pit were cold and lifeless.
"Today was so tiring!"
But time was tight, and she couldn't rest yet. She went outside, gathered a pile of branches and leaves, and started the fire again.
The warm firelight flickered, and she put down the grass curtain door she had made, finally feeling relaxed.
But after lying on the grass pile for a short while, Huaiyu got back up.
She had three baskets, one used for storage. The new salt and sugar, her own soybeans, the peanuts and yam donated by the field mice, were all carefully wrapped in leaves and placed inside.
In the large waterproof storage bag, she packed her newly bought down jacket, sports pants, underwear, and brand-new sports shoes.
"Ah, it's so spacious, it seems like I can store so much!" She looked at the bag with increasing excitement, almost eager to head to the mountain tomorrow to collect two baskets of wild vegetables and fill up the house.
But... looking at the pile of dry straw on one side of the tree house, she had to suppress her urgent feeling.
After the wild vegetables, there would be another batch, but if she didn't finish building the toilet before the heavy rain, her grain stocks would be in big trouble!
Priorities were important.
She sighed, then arranged the cups and bowls on the simple washstand where she kept her toothbrush and toothpaste, soap and detergent beside them, and casually placed the iron pot, which she wouldn't need for now.
One of the baskets was filled with three plastic bags, and another was kept as a backup, placed alongside the multi-functional shovel, ready to be grabbed for her next trip to the mountain.
But right now!
Her most pressing task was weaving grass curtains!
The small pile of them she started weaving last night was lying by her bed. Her skills were practically nonexistent; she was simply braiding three strands together, then interweaving them up and down, making a somewhat rough grass curtain.
The curtain wasn't smooth at all, and the broken ends of the dry grass were sticking out awkwardly. It looked clumsy.
At least the more she did it, the better she became, and she figured it would still work.
She had gone to the trading market earlier today and was even more certain that Captain Zhou hadn't told her the real price when he exchanged the waterproof tarpaulin for her.
She had to spend the limited credits wisely. The toilet could be covered with grass curtains to block the rain; if she got more credits later, she could slowly trade for more things.
The firelight flickered, and the temperature in the house slowly rose. With the stacking skills she had developed yesterday, Huaiyu's weaving speed increased today…
The night deepened.
...
The next morning, Huaiyu woke up to the broadcast, though she had only gone to bed at 1:00 AM, so getting up was a real struggle.
She lifted the grass curtain, and the wind blew in, carrying the damp moisture, which she could feel even without listening to the broadcast.
Although the broadcast predicted heavy rain in two days, Huaiyu felt that the weather didn't look too good for tomorrow either.
She grabbed her multi-functional shovel and rope, quickly washed up, and hurriedly grabbed a bag of nutrition liquid before heading up the mountain.
Building materials were expensive right now, so she needed to see the relatives on the mountain for the necessary framework to build the shelter and toilet.
This time, Huaiyu was already familiar with the way, and the Rose Corridor had gradually become more polite, automatically clearing the way without her needing to say anything.
She didn't go too far—mountains were high, deep, and vast, and today she needed to do physical labor, so it was best to gather materials nearby.
After all, it took her over half an hour to walk from District 37 to District 8!
Luckily, the mountains were filled with trees, especially the newly grown small trees.
They were about as thick as a girl's wrist, just the right size to bear weight, and Huaiyu could drag them. Many of the trees hadn't yet sprouted leaves, so their weight was reduced.
She picked up her multi-functional shovel, secured the elastic ropes on several surrounding trees to prevent them from falling in the wrong direction, and began chopping and sawing.
The process was hard for a frail girl like her, and the two hours of exhausting labor finally resulted in a stack of eight evenly sized tree trunks at her feet.
Although the trunks weren't thick, the branches and twigs stretched out with a considerable diameter. She tied them together with rope and, using some tree vines, dragged them back.
It would have been easier to let the tree vines take root and grow, but Huaiyu was afraid the defense soldiers might come by.
Her tree house was completely covered with layers of tree leaves and waterproof tarps, and the wisteria branches were doing well—the side shoots had paused, and the roots were spreading underneath the soil.
In time, they would break through the ground on the other side and grow sturdy trunks.
But that was normal growth, and even if the defense soldiers came, they wouldn't notice.
Not to mention, the leaves she used to cover the roof had already dried and shriveled into yellowish brown; within two days, they would dry up completely.
Of course, even after drying, they would still stay on the roof, providing insulation and heat resistance.
But with this method, no one would suspect that fresh wutong leaves were available in early spring.
However, if she were to cover the corridor and toilet this way, the difference between live and dead trunks would be significant.
Moreover, she didn't have enough credits to boldly ask for more waterproof tarps to cover everything.
After thinking it over, she decided to bear the effort—it would be tough, but she'd manage for now.
Huaiyu kept telling herself that as she dragged the tree trunks, huffing and puffing.
The trunks were so large that when she reached the Rose Corridor, she had to untie each one and drag them one by one.
The branches and twigs tangled with the vines of the corridor, causing the flowers to twitch unhappily.
Huaiyu was afraid they might trigger an alarm, so she softly pleaded…
Dragging the trunks was so hard she almost wanted to cry.
"Why is it so difficult?!"
She used to live a life of unimaginable wealth, but now, she had hit rock bottom and had to live like this.
By the time she dragged the tree trunks back to the tree house, she raised her wrist, realizing it was already 12:00.
But she still couldn't rest.
Huaiyu wiped the sweat off her forehead and face with a towel, then lit the fire again, setting up the pot to boil a large batch of water.
When the water started boiling, bubbles rising, she couldn't help but think that if she threw in a pack of instant noodles, it would be the best meal in the world.
She stared at the empty pot, her craving growing stronger, but there was nothing to eat.
The only food she had left were the seeds she had reserved and the remaining nutrition liquid.
Her eyes lifted to the pine cone hanging from the tree vine in the center of the tree house, which was camouflaged as a chandelier.
Forget it.
With a frustrated sigh, she looked down and threw the salt and sugar she bought yesterday into the pot.