Chapter 20: Fishing with Bare Hands; Second Aunt’s Scissors Haven’t Been Returned

“Forty-five coins left.”

“One coin for five tubes. Let’s buy thirty coins’ worth first, so one hundred and fifty tubes. We need to save some for the horse… carpet fare back and forth.”

The situation in this plane was beyond expectations. Although they had only bought sewing thread so far, and the meat here made them too afraid to even touch it, they would eventually need copper coins if they had other needs later.

And what they could do now was make fire starters.

Empty tubes could be bought at a rate of five for one copper coin. Bai Xi counted out thirty copper coins and exchanged them for one hundred and fifty empty tubes to be filled with grass fragments.

The return journey still required riding the flying carpet.

Fortunately, having gained experience this time, Bai Yu and Bai Xi kept their expressions steady. They even had the mental space to listen to the other people sitting on the carpet.

Everyone was talking about meat.

Everyone held meat of vibrant, multicolored hues. When certain words were mentioned, they always ended with the same phonetic sound, allowing them to guess that it meant “XX meat.” The different colors of meat came from different animals.

As for the snacks in Qiqi’s hands, part was jerky and part was preserved fruit. Although the fruit and meat of this world were strange, the preparation methods were largely the same.

Perhaps because their gazes were too focused, Qiqi’s mother kindly offered to share, but the three of them shook their heads in unison.

It wasn’t that they had never eaten unpleasant things. Living on a boat, there were times when special circumstances prevented them from going ashore, or they couldn’t bear to throw away dead fish, so they occasionally ate smelly fish.

But according to Bai Miao’s description, the taste of this stuff was like smelly fish gone sour after being soaked in water for several days. They could not accept it under any circumstances.

Another reason was that they currently did not lack food.

Their current food sources were more plentiful than when they were inland. They could obtain food through the Shell check-in, catch fish and shrimp by casting nets in the ocean, and occasionally catch wild game in the Forest Plane. Normally, they couldn’t even finish it all and had to salt or air-dry it for storage. This strangely colored meat and preserved fruit were truly hard for them to stomach.

The flying carpet landed, and the passengers stood up to leave.

Qiqi’s mother also took Qiqi and bid them farewell.

The area for flammable grass was in another direction. From the village… or rather, from this side of the village, one could see another large patch of flammable grass, but only the grass was visible, nothing else.

However, when the three of them crossed a certain boundary line, the village completely vanished from sight. In its place was a vast grassland of flammable grass, just as they had seen at the very beginning when they thought it was simply a great prairie.

“It’s a good thing we hide in a secluded spot every time we come and go.”

“When we were outside just now, we couldn’t see the situation inside either.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Bai Yu said, carrying Bai Miao as they walked deeper. “We have to be even more careful from now on.”

“Then we’ll keep using the old spot,” Bai Xi said, looking at some withered grass nearby. “Are we still gathering flammable grass today?”

“Let’s come back tomorrow. There’s still some flammable grass on the island that should be dry by now. We can crush and pack it today,” Bai Yu said, a hint of joy appearing in her eyes. “Once this batch of flammable grass is packed and sold, we’ll be able to get one hundred and fifty copper coins.”

“Let’s buy a pot then, a bigger one,” Bai Xi said, swallowing hard as she thought of the pheasant they had stewed before. “A bigger pot can stew a whole chicken.”

Thinking of the taste of the pheasant, Bai Yu nodded: “Alright, let’s save up to buy a pot.”

As they spoke, the three reached the hidden spot. After confirming no one was around, they returned to the island together.

Just as they stepped back onto the island, rainwater pelted down from above, landing directly on them.

Their previous trips had all been on dry days, so they hadn’t expected it to be raining upon their sudden return. Bai Yu hurriedly picked up Bai Miao and ran toward the Rain Pavilion, finally ducking into a corner before they were completely soaked.

“The sky was still blue when we left this morning. How can it be raining so hard in such a short time?”

“Weather by the sea is unpredictable,” Bai Xi said, looking at the distant sky. “The sky over there is still blue, but it’s raining right here on us.”

Bai Yu also saw the blue sky in the distance. She took a handkerchief from her bag to wipe the rain from Bai Miao’s face. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly looked in another direction: “Oh no, the grass we put out to dry this morning is soaked.”

“It was almost dry,” Bai Xi said, standing on her tiptoes. “It’s too late now. We don’t even know how long it’s been raining before we got back.”

Bai Yu sighed: “I didn’t expect the seaside weather to be so fickle. If I’d known, we shouldn’t have left it out to dry in the morning.”

“Yeah, drying it in the afternoon would have been enough. We would have been here in the afternoon and could have noticed when the sky turned dark,” Bai Xi muttered, cursing at the sky that was dark only above them. “Stupid heavens, couldn’t you have waited for us?”

This curse seemed to wake the heavens up, as the rain suddenly became even heavier.

Bai Xi trembled all over, pressing her palms together and apologizing in a low voice: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have cursed you. I was wrong, I won’t do it again.”

The heavy rain continued for a while longer before the dark clouds gradually dispersed, revealing a clear, azure sky.

A stray dark cloud in the distance happened to block the sun, and sunlight pierced through the cloud to fall upon the island, adding a touch of dreamlike color to the entire place.

Soon, the water falling from the Rain Pavilion slowed to a steady drip-drip.

Bai Xi looked back at the Rain Pavilion behind her: “Thank goodness for this Rain Pavilion. Otherwise, the firewood we worked so hard to collect would have gotten wet. Who knows how long it would take to dry.”

They had anticipated that rain might come and had placed the firewood inside ahead of time, but they hadn’t expected the heavy rain to arrive so suddenly, causing the flammable grass left out to dry to be soaked.

“Fortunately, we didn’t put out all the flammable grass.”

Since they didn’t have enough wooden mats for drying, they had only put out a portion of the grass. The rest was hanging inside the Rain Pavilion along with the leftover cabbage.

Once the rain stopped completely, Bai Xi stepped quickly out of the Rain Pavilion and ran to the small kitchen area to check the situation. After a look around, she said happily: “Eldest Sister, it didn’t get wet! The stove underneath is still fine, we can start a fire right away.”

Bai Yu and Bai Miao approached shortly after.

Bai Yu touched the inner ceiling of the small kitchen. “Good, it’s dry in here too.”

This showed they had been thoughtful enough in some of their arrangements.

“Let’s build another shed. Later, we can spread out the cabbage and Flammable Grass inside it. That way, even if it rains while we aren’t here, they won’t be affected.”

“We need to weave more mats too.”

“Clothes need to be sewn.”

“The Flammable Grass that got wet from the rain needs to be sorted out.”

There were only three people on the island, but there was no shortage of tasks. They were busy with plenty of work to do. Once Bai Yu and Bai Xi determined their next steps, they began tackling them one by one.

During this time, Bai Miao wasn’t idle either. She helped here and there, handing over items and moving stones, bustling about like a little spinning top¹.

Several times, Bai Yu wanted to ask if she was tired, but every time she looked at her, the girl had a smile on her face. She knew then that Miao Miao was likely quite happy.

Thinking back to when they were on the boat, Bai Yu and Bai Xi had to go into the water to work, leaving Bai Miao alone on the boat. Although it wasn’t tiring, it couldn’t have been very comfortable for her.

After all, staying on a boat by oneself was bound to be boring.

“Miao Miao, help me bring over a bundle of vines.”

“Okay.”

Bai Miao answered obediently, her short legs trotting over to the Rain Pavilion to fetch the vines.

A moment later, she went to press down on the Flammable Grass drying on the wooden mats, which had nearly been blown away by the wind.

After a period of busy work, Bai Yu took Bai Miao to the Forest Plane. When they returned, she was carrying a wild rabbit that had accidentally fallen into a trap.

“When we have time later, we need to make the traps over there bigger. I saw footprints of some large animals near the traps,” Bai Yu said hurriedly upon her return. “If we can’t catch them, we’ll have to stay far away from that area when we move back and forth.”

Their range of activity in the Forest Plane wasn’t as large as the Grassland… the new Plane. They mostly moved around the initial landing spot and the water’s edge. Originally, there had never been footprints of large animals, but now that they had suddenly appeared, it would be very dangerous if they encountered one by accident.

“Let’s use the hoe; digging will be faster with it,” Bai Xi said. “It’s just a pity we don’t know which wild vegetables or mushrooms are edible. Otherwise, we could add a lot more to our meals.”

They had thought about picking wild vegetables in the Forest Plane several times, but every time they looked at those completely unfamiliar plants, they didn’t dare take the risk. If any of those vegetables turned out to be poisonous, eating them would cause serious trouble.

It wasn’t just the vegetables; they also didn’t dare eat certain wild creatures they didn’t recognize that fell into the traps, fearing they might be toxic. They could only skin them, chop them up, and throw them into the sea from a high point to feed the marine life.

Wild rabbits, however, were safe to eat.

Bai Yu prepared the rabbit she had brought back and threw it into the Casserole Pot to boil. The seasoning was still just the basic salt and soy sauce.

The taste of wild rabbit was different from wild chicken. By comparison, the chicken was more fragrant, but for the three of them who rarely ate land animals, this pot of rabbit meat was still delicious.

After dinner, Bai Xi returned to the cabin first, sitting on the deck to sew sleeves.

The sky wasn’t too dark yet. After Bai Yu and Bai Miao finished tidying up above, they also returned to the boat, chatting while doing seemingly mundane tasks.

“We haven’t returned Second Aunt’s scissors to her.” Bai Yu set the scissors down and organized the fabric scraps left over from Bai Xi’s clothes-making.

“We’ll find a chance in the future. There should be one. When that time comes, we’ll buy a new pair of scissors to pay her back,” Bai Xi said, her head lowered as she focused on sewing the sleeves. “Do you think they sell scissors in the Flying Carpet Plane?”

“I almost forgot, we need to buy a kitchen knife too,” Bai Yu said, rolling up the fabric in her hands. “We can’t keep using scissors to cut meat and fish. That pair is getting a bit rusty. I wonder if the Flying Carpet Plane will have whetstones?”

“There should… be some, right?” Bai Xi wasn’t sure.

“There should be,” Bai Yu nodded. Turning her head, she saw Bai Miao leaning halfway over the side of the boat and immediately reached out to grab her. “Miao Miao!”

“Fish.” Bai Miao raised her hand, struggling to lift a large fish out of the water.

“My goodness, you caught a big fish with your bare hands?!” Bai Yu was shocked. She quickly helped her haul the fish in, then looked back at the water, her surprise deepening. “In such shallow water, how did this fish get here?”

Translator’s Notes