Chapter 69: After the Rain Disaster…

It’s Sister Rain!

Yan Yu’s face lit up with a broad smile.

The woman across from her also looked happy to see her. Just as she was about to speak, she saw Yan Yu’s messy hair suddenly get pulled straight to one side by the wind.

Sister Rain’s thin face trembled as the fierce wind lashed against her.

Her slightly open mouth quickly shut as she tried her best to keep her facial muscles stable to avoid any distortion…

Yan Yu: …

She vaguely remembered saying last time that it was windy, but wasn’t this a bit too much?

She gestured for her to wait a moment.

Yan Yu understood and quickly nodded.

Then, through the screen, she watched as Sister Rain skillfully bundled up black plastic bags, tied them tightly with tape, and stuffed them one by one into the window frames that had no glass. As she worked, she used her hands to hold them in place, but when she ran out of hands, she had to bite the tape, struggling to seal the gaps.

Once the last bundle was in place, she swiftly stuck tape over it in a crisscross pattern.

Finally, her hair could settle down…

Spitting out the tape, Sister Rain happily greeted her, “Little sister, I’m so happy to see you again. Last time, really, thank you!”

Yan Yu replied, “No need to thank me. As long as the medicine worked, that’s what matters. I was worried it might take too long to be effective.” She thought to herself: the real lifesavers were probably the stove, the hot food, and the warm water.

“It was very effective. Not long after drinking it, I started sweating.” She hesitated, then admitted sheepishly, “I felt better by the fourth boil of the herbs.” But to avoid waste, she continued boiling and drinking the decoction four more times until the liquid almost lost its color.

“Why is it so windy over there, Sister?” Yan Yu asked curiously.

“The rain has stopped!” As she shared this good news, there was no joy in her expression—only a hint of bitterness. “But… the wind hasn’t stopped. It’s been blowing fiercely all the time…”

Yan Yu: Yeah, she had just seen that firsthand.

What could she even say?

Any words of comfort felt powerless in the face of such extreme weather.

“I originally planned to head inland once I recovered, but with these strong winds, it’s too dangerous to go outside.

Luckily, I live in a high place, and the building is solid. For now, it’s holding up. It’s just… the windows can’t withstand it. They keep… well, you saw.”

The woman seemed much more resilient than before. People’s toughness was truly remarkable—when pushed to their limits, they could tap into hidden potential.

“Good thing you had plastic bags,” Yan Yu remarked.

The woman smiled at that. “Yeah! I couldn’t think of anything else to block the drafty windows. Thankfully, I bought a lot of plastic bags before, planning to wrap my belongings to keep them from getting damp.

And the duct tape that was restocked recently really saved me. Otherwise, even if I stuffed plastic bags in, the wind would’ve blown them out in no time.”

“Little sister, do you have any charcoal this time?” she asked hopefully.

Yan Yu looked a bit embarrassed. “We’ve been on the move constantly. We just settled down today and plan to rest for a few days. We haven’t had time to make any yet.”

Seeing the woman’s slight disappointment, she quickly added, “But we’re in the mountains now, and there’s plenty of firewood. I’ll ask my dad to gather some for you.”

“No need, it’s fine. I’ll wait until next time.” The woman pulled out her bag of charcoal to show her, smiling. “I still have some left. It should last until our next trade.”

Yan Yu thought: I must remember to restock Sister Rain next time.

She suddenly recalled that she had just sold a good amount of deadwood and tree roots. “Sister, I just realized the platform offers a high price for trees. Even dead branches and roots can be sold! Hehe, I accidentally sold a bunch just now. If you want to trade for firewood, you might have to wait a bit—I’d have to go farther out to collect it.”

She explained the platform’s additional requirements for selling trees.

The woman suddenly understood. “So that’s why. It must be because they’ve been soaked. The wooden items I sold before weren’t worth much.”

Compared to charcoal, firewood wasn’t a big issue for her. Now that the rain had stopped, there was one advantage to the strong wind—it dried things extremely fast…

“Your environment is so convenient. You sell one thing and gain two—super profitable.”

Yan Yu grinned. “So, Sister, if you see anything you want on my shelf, just let me know.”

“Let me think… I remember you had fabric and clothes on your shelf, right?”

Yan Yu flipped through her notebook, found the page listing her inventory, and quickly read out the items.

The woman let out a long sigh. “Then I want fabric—rough cloth, right? I’ll trade for that. And cotton-padded clothes, blankets, and cotton shoes. Ah—just thinking about them makes me feel warm.”

Although she already had a blanket from Yan Yu’s place, it was old. The cotton inside was compressed and nowhere near as warm as a new one.

But there was a problem—how to trade for them.

The rough cloth was affordable.

But a cotton-padded quilt cost 196, and the padded clothes cost 198. According to the platform’s trade rules, she needed items of equivalent value, or the trade wouldn’t go through.

She considered trading water, but Yan Yu had just found a fresh water source.

So… she felt broke.

She had to temporarily give up on the expensive items and just trade for the rough cloth and cotton shoes.

The rough cloth was 15, and the cotton shoes were 18.8.

The platform made it easy to measure item value.

As long as the difference wasn’t too big, the trade would be fine.

Yan Yu exchanged two jars of fruit preserves—the woman had bought out her entire stock last time, and this time there were only four jars available.

They split them evenly.

“Oh, Sister, I saved some rice and braised pork for you,” Yan Yu said, quickly bringing out a bowl she had kept warm.

The woman’s heart felt even warmer. “Then what do you want in exchange? I have… how about a self-heating hotpot? It’s spicy hotpot—with meat and vegetables. The taste is pretty good.”

Yan Yu seriously considered it. “No, I’ll trade for sausages instead.”

She thought: A hotpot? And a spicy one at that? The smell would be way too strong! No matter when they ate it, they’d become the center of attention.

And she didn’t need a self-heating feature—unlike Sister Rain, she had no trouble starting a fire.

Sausages were perfect. They were cheap and could be traded in bulk.

Especially the starch-filled ones—sprinkle some seasoning on them and grill them, and they’d smell amazing.

She didn’t get enough last time, so this time, she planned to have her dad grill them for her.

A bowl of braised pork and rice got her 12 sausages—not bad.

Uncle Yan used the leftover skewers from their grilled snake meat to skewer the sausages, slicing them with a knife.

As Yan Yu chatted with the woman, she brought up the nickname “Sister Rain,” making the woman burst into laughter.

“That’s great! Then what should I call you? How about… Drought—Baby?”

She laughed so hard at her own joke that she nearly choked, hastily drinking water to swallow it down.

Yan Yu: …

Her face went completely dark.

She didn’t want to continue this conversation, so she asked, “Sister, what are you planning to do with the rough cloth?”

Sister Rain paused, then said, “I want to make a sail. I’ve been observing—the wind shifts unpredictably, but each time it changes direction, there’s a brief moment when it weakens. If I have a sail, I can travel farther whenever the wind is favorable.”

Of course, most of the time would still be spent waiting. And if she couldn’t find a place to dock while drifting on the water, it would be extremely dangerous.