Chapter 13: Like a Dream, Check-in Successful, Obtained Chinese Cabbage

The Rain Pavilion was not even a purely wooden structure.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi both reached out to touch the smooth pillars, unable to believe that such a pavilion had suddenly appeared in this place, especially one that looked so well-built.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?”

“It feels like a dream, but ever since we got the Shell, a lot of things have felt like dreams,” Bai Xi said as she walked into the pavilion, touching this and looking at that. She turned back to speak to Bai Yu, “Even if it really is a dream, I feel happy.”

Bai Yu was also touching every corner of the pavilion.

Although it was hard to believe, it was just as Bai Xi said: what did it matter if it was a dream? Even if she could only live such a good life in a dream, she felt just as happy as Bai Xi.

After the initial joy, she felt she could ask for a bit more: “It’s a pity this is just a Rain Pavilion with all four sides open to the wind. If we could get a house, we could sleep inside.”

“Yeah, it’s a pity we’re illiterate¹,” Bai Xi said, looking at Bai Miao.

Bai Miao nodded seriously: “Illiterate.”

Hearing her two younger sisters’ words, Bai Yu also laughed: “That’s right, what a pity we’re illiterate.”

So no matter what they received, it was fine. Even a Rain Pavilion was good.

Bai Yu looked around and gestured as she spoke: “Since we have this Rain Pavilion, we don’t have to waste energy building a woodshed. Later, we’ll go into the Dimensional Forest to find some long, thin branches, then bind them together with vines and hang them around the Rain Pavilion. This pavilion will become a place where rain can’t get in, perfect for stacking firewood.”

This was much easier than building a woodshed from scratch with their bare hands.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi discussed it and got straight to work. They soon took Bai Miao back to the Dimensional Forest, brought back a batch of long, thin branches, and sat in the Rain Pavilion to weave screens.

The Rain Pavilion happened to have protruding corners on all sides. The two of them quickly wove a screen, moved a large stone over, stepped on it, and used vines to lash the wooden screen up. A screen that could block wind and rain was finished.

They followed the same pattern for the remaining three sides, making screens out of the long branches and hanging them up.

Since they didn’t have much else to do on the island, they spent the entire day on this task. Soon, the drafty Rain Pavilion was transformed into a woodshed where firewood could be stored.

As for the thick logs they had moved over earlier that morning, they used sharp stones to break them into sections and stored them temporarily in the “woodshed” to keep them from getting soaked by rain.

While the two were busy, Bai Miao helped for a while before being sent off to play on her own.

Once the thick logs were all stored in the Rain Pavilion, Bai Xi went to the boat to fetch supplies. Bai Yu looked over at Bai Miao, who was squatting not far away scratching the ground with a twig. She walked over and leaned down to talk to her: “What is Miao Miao drawing?”

Bai Miao squatted and shuffled to the side, pointing at the characters on the ground and looking up boastfully: “Eldest Sister’s name. I know how to write it now!”

“My name?” Bai Yu was puzzled.

“Yes,” Bai Miao pointed at the characters on the ground. “Bai, Yu. This is Eldest Sister’s name.”

“How do you know how to write Eldest Sister’s name?” Bai Yu crouched down in surprise. She knew how to write “Bai” because the character was simple and everyone in the Bai family could write it, but she didn’t recognize the character for “Yu.”

“Rain Pavilion,” Bai Miao pointed at the pavilion behind them, which was now almost unrecognizable from its original appearance.

Bai Yu looked back but didn’t see any characters on the pavilion. Suddenly, a realization struck her: “Miao Miao, do you still remember those two characters from the card earlier?”

“Uh-huh,” Bai Miao nodded and repeated, “Rain Pavilion.”

“Then… do you know how to write the character for ‘Pavilion’?” Bai Yu asked again.

Bai Miao gripped the twig in her hand and wrote “Pavilion” in the empty space nearby.

Bai Yu couldn’t tell if she had written it correctly, but she vaguely remembered the shape of the two characters on the card, and they didn’t seem any different from what her youngest sister had written.

The Construction Card had only existed for a short time before disappearing. The characters on it had already begun to fade from her mind, yet she hadn’t expected her youngest sister to remember them perfectly.

Her youngest sister was so clever that she should have been happy, but now that they were on this island… even if they weren’t on the island, it seemed she would just be a bit more clever than most.

Bai Xi came up with the supplies. After hearing the explanation from Bai Yu and seeing the characters on the ground, she happily picked up Bai Miao: “Miao Miao, you’re so smart! You actually learned to write Eldest Sister’s name. When characters appear on a card again, see if my name is there and remember it for me too, okay?”

“Okay,” Bai Miao nodded solemnly. “I have to remember Second Sister’s name too!”

Bai Yu got up to start the fire and cook.

While the porridge was cooking, she sat nearby listening to the laughter and conversation of Bai Xi and Bai Miao. It wasn’t until Bai Miao was laughing so hard she could barely breathe that Bai Yu called her over. She gently patted Bai Miao’s back while talking to Bai Xi.

“Did you bring the soy sauce we drew earlier?”

“No, how are we supposed to eat soy sauce?” Bai Xi had never eaten soy sauce before. “I heard people on the shore say that soy sauce can be used for cooking dishes, but we don’t have any vegetables to cook.”

“Tomorrow we’ll find a suitable spot and try casting the net. There must be plenty of fish and shrimp in the sea,” Bai Yu soothed Bai Miao. “By then the ground should be dry. We’ll walk around and see if we can find drinkable water. There are trees here, so there should be water.”

They didn’t understand many things, but they all knew that seawater wasn’t drinkable. The water they drank on the boat had all been filled from the Forest Plane.

However, the time they could spend in the Forest Plane was limited. If they were truly going to stay here, they had to find a water source on the island.

“Boil fish with soy sauce?” Bai Xi swallowed hard. “I think it would taste very good.”

“We’ll just try boiling it directly; the taste won’t be too bad,” Bai Yu stirred the porridge in the pot. “Xiao Xi, add some salt. It’ll be ready to eat after simmering a bit longer.”

Bai Xi opened the jar, took out the paper packet containing salt, opened it, and carefully poured a little salt into the pot.

Nestled in Bai Yu’s arms, Bai Miao watched Bai Xi’s movements. She looked down and lifted the object hanging around her neck: “Check-in successful?”

Having finished pouring the salt, Bai Xi immediately asked upon hearing her: “Oh right, is there another chance to check in today?”

Hearing the question and knowing she could operate the Shell, Bai Miao immediately grabbed it and pressed the button. Sure enough, there were still unused check-in attempts.

[Check-in successful. Obtained 10 heads of Chinese Cabbage.]

As the voice from the Shell faded, ten heads of cabbage tumbled down from the air.

These were truly massive cabbages. Given Bai Miao’s small stature, she would have struggled to carry even one. When the ten cabbages appeared, not just Bai Miao, but even Bai Yu and Bai Xi could not help but let out gasps of “Wow!” in amazement.

Coming back to her senses, Bai Xi picked up a cabbage and stood it upright in front of Bai Miao. “Goodness, this cabbage is so big. It’s larger than Miao Miao when she curls up.”

“Let me try, let me try!” Bai Miao immediately scrambled out of Bai Yu’s arms, walked to the side, and crouched down to hug one. “Second Sister, compare us.”

Bai Xi carried her cabbage over and placed it next to her. “Eldest Sister, look. Isn’t Miao Miao smaller than this cabbage?”

Bai Miao tucked her head in and spoke in a muffled voice, “Eldest Sister, am I really smaller than the cabbage?”

“You are, you’re definitely smaller,” Bai Yu said with a smile. She reached out to measure, first checking the height of the cabbage and then moving her hand over to Bai Miao to show the difference. She held up two fingers. “There’s a gap this big.”

Bai Miao looked up, and seeing the width Bai Yu indicated, she was overjoyed. “Wow! I’m so much smaller than a cabbage!”

Bai Xi gave the cabbage in her arms a little bounce. “That’s right, because you’re still so little.”

Bai Miao nodded solemnly. “I’m still little.”

The three of them laughed and chatted until Bai Yu noticed the porridge pot was boiling over.

“Eldest Sister, add some water to the porridge and tear in some cabbage leaves. Now that we finally have fresh vegetables, we can’t just eat plain white porridge.”

“Alright, cabbage cooks quickly with just a quick blanch,” Bai Yu said, picking up a water skin to add water to the casserole pot. She called out to Bai Xi, “Tear off two leaves and rinse them with water, otherwise they’ll be covered in sand.”

The cabbage was enormous. Even just two leaves could be torn into many pieces, more than enough for the three of them.

Once water was added to the casserole pot, the boiling subsided. After the cabbage leaves were tossed in, the mixture began to roll slowly again.

Just before it could boil over a second time, the fire beneath was gradually extinguished. Only then did Bai Yu use a ladle to serve bowls of cabbage porridge.

Even though it was just a bit of cabbage, the flavor of the porridge became quite good, with a hint of saltiness complemented by the fresh sweetness of the vegetable.

Bai Xi, however, was not entirely satisfied as she ate. “Let’s cast the net tomorrow. This porridge would taste even better if we could add the fresh flavor of fish or shrimp.”

“Mhm. We can also salt some cabbage and dried fish while we’re at it.”

The seaside was slightly chilly. A gust of wind blew past, carrying away the ashes from the fire.

Bai Yu turned her head just as a gust hit her full in the face, sending her hair flying wildly. She tried but failed to keep her eyes open, so she turned back to shield the stove. “When we cook tomorrow, let’s move the stove near the Rain Pavilion. It can block the wind. Otherwise, when the wind blows while we’re cooking, sparks will fly everywhere, which isn’t good.”

Bai Xi had a different idea. “We have firewood stored at the Rain Pavilion. Wouldn’t it be worse if sparks flew over there? It’s better here. There’s nothing flammable around, so the sparks will be blown out by the wind before they can reach the woods.”

Bai Yu turned back again to feel the whistling wind.

“Then let’s build a larger stone hearth. With the wind blowing directly like this, the fire burns too fiercely and wastes wood.”

Bai Xi also felt how strong the wind was getting.

She looked around and pointed to a slightly recessed spot nearby. “Eldest Sister, how about there? We can just stack a ring of stones around it, and the wind won’t reach it.”

“That works,” Bai Yu nodded, suddenly shivering. “Let’s take the casserole pot and go over there now. This wind is just too strong.”

Bai Xi nodded repeatedly.

A short while later, the three of them moved their dining spot to the hollow. Although there was still a breeze, it wasn’t as sharp as before, finally allowing them to enjoy their meal properly.

Bai Miao lowered her head, busily pressing the Shell.

“There are no more check-in attempts for today. What does Miao Miao want?”

Bai Miao’s hair was blown loose by the wind, plastered across her face. She struggled to speak, “Shell… ptooey, ptooey… make the wind go away… ptooey…”

“It’s alright, we’ll hide from it,” Bai Yu said, reaching out to tidy Bai Miao’s hair. After smoothing it down, she untied the hair ribbon and tied it again. “Is the wind gone now?”

With her face clear of hair, Bai Miao felt much better. She stopped fussing with the Shell and set it down, her two hands resting obediently at her sides. “Okay.”

Translator’s Notes