Chapter 42: Too Young to Understand What She Meant

After handing over the full responsibility of collecting rent to Shell, the three sisters truly didn’t interfere anymore, and they didn’t even seem inclined to go out.

After all, they still had several other places they could go. As for the situation outside this Plane, a glance with the naked eye mostly revealed dilapidated surroundings. Going out might also expose them to unknown risks, so it was better to just stay put.

However, this New Plane wasn’t without its benefits. At least the existence of the flush toilet significantly boosted their sense of well-being, making even daily bathroom trips feel much more pleasant.

As for things like sofas and beds, they had previously moved a complete set to the island. So, even on the island, they could enjoy the comfort of soft sofas. The simple pleasure of experiencing the sofa didn’t require them to go to the New Plane.

Moreover, after several upgrades, the house on the island was vastly different from before, becoming cleaner and more beautiful.

But the biggest change was the pool by the front door.

The original pool was usable for swimming, but only allowed the youngest, Bai Miao, to swim a few laps back and forth. Now, after being upgraded and enlarged, both Bai Yu and Bai Xi could swim in it.

“Eldest Sister, Eldest Sister,” Bai Miao called out from the pool.

“What is it?” Bai Yu walked to the balcony and looked down. “What’s up?”

“Eldest Sister, come play,” Bai Miao said, floating in the pool and waving.

“Wait a bit. Eldest Sister needs to move the cabinets inside first,” Bai Yu said, wiggling her fingers. “You play with Second Sister. If you can’t float, just paddle around.”

“Oh,” Bai Miao replied, sinking slightly before expertly moving her arms and swimming back and forth rapidly, showing no sign of struggle at all.

Bai Xi leaned against the pool’s edge, watching Bai Miao swim back and forth, and remarked with feeling, “With swimming skills that proficient, there’s no way she couldn’t float.”

Having said that, she laughed, stepped into the water, quickly moved her arms, and shouted, “Miao Miao, I’m coming to catch you!”

Bai Miao immediately let out a high-pitched scream, “Ahhhhhh!”

“Almost got you!”

“No, no!”

Bai Xi and Bai Miao chased each other playfully for several laps. During another turn, Bai Xi stretched out her arm and grabbed Bai Miao, tickling her under the arms. “Got you!”

“Hahahaha,” Bai Miao burst into laughter from Bai Xi’s tickling. After laughing, she turned her head. “Second Sister, you run, I’ll chase you now!”

“Alright, try if you can catch me then.”

The two of them started chasing and laughing again.

After moving the cabinets, Bai Yu heard the noise and came to the balcony again, smiling as she watched the two playing.

After watching for a while, she looked up at the dark, heavy sky, leaned on the railing, and called down, “Xiao Xi, the sky’s getting heavy. Drain the pool water. We’ll refill it with fresh water after the rain.”

“Okay.”

After Bai Xi agreed, Bai Yu didn’t idle either. She went upstairs to the drying platform to bring the clothes and dried vegetables hanging outside into the house.

The building now had three floors, but the three sisters still slept together. So, apart from their bedroom, the other rooms were empty, perfect for storing food from the Check-in that they couldn’t finish immediately, along with some salted fish, game, and the like.

By the time she finished gathering these things, rain was pouring down outside with a loud patter.

She walked to the balcony again for a look and, seeing that Bai Xi and Bai Miao were no longer outside, knew they had gone inside. She then went down to the second floor and, sure enough, saw the two had already changed clothes and were drying their hair.

She walked over, took the towel from Bai Miao’s hand, and began carefully drying her hair bit by bit.

“The weather on this island, really. When Miao Miao and I first got in the water, the sky was still clear. In such a short time, it’s raining, and so heavily too,” Bai Xi grumbled. “Good thing we have a place to live now. Otherwise, such heavy rain would be quite troublesome.”

“The rain on the island does come suddenly, but back when we were inland, sometimes the rain would come just as abruptly,” Bai Yu said, lowering her head to smooth Bai Miao’s hair. “When it rained, we’d just stay in the cabin.”

“But now we don’t have to worry about the cabin taking on water!” Bai Xi said with a laugh. “Really, we got so used to living on the boat before, never thinking there was anything bad about it. We even thought, isn’t living on a boat and living on land pretty much the same? But after staying on land for so long now, I really don’t want to go back to sleeping on the boat. No wonder so many inland fishermen tried every possible way to buy a house on land.”

Actually, their current boat didn’t need to worry about taking on water either.

But their old boat was just a small vessel, with the cabin sandwiched between the bow and stern. Even with partitions, when heavy rain fell outside, it was relatively easy for water to seep in.

Every time that happened, they would be in a frantic rush.

With rain outside, they couldn’t go out, and they had to protect the bedding in the cabin. They’d end up hugging the bedding, squatting in the middle of the cabin, trying to keep it dry while also figuring out how to bail the water that had gotten in back out.

Although most of the time, not too much water got into the cabin, if not dealt with promptly, it could easily make the cabin damp. Later, when they spread out the bedding, it would get wet again.

Faced with the choice between not sleeping well and getting the bedding wet, they could only choose the former. After all, wet bedding easily caused the cotton inside to become damp and moldy. Once good bedding was ruined, they’d have to spend a lot of silver to buy new ones.

Bai Yu was still drying Bai Miao’s hair, but her mind wandered a bit, listening to the pitter-patter of rain outside.

“For the first time, I think this sound of rain is actually kind of nice.”

Bai Xi listened carefully, her eyes lighting up. “It really is! This rain sounds so nice, especially… especially when we’re staying inside the house, completely dry. The sound of rain outside becomes especially pleasant.”

Bai Yu chuckled.

Bai Xi tossed down the towel in her hand, got up, and walked to a spot near the balcony where she was completely sheltered from the rain. She gazed into the distance for a good while before saying, “Eldest Sister, it’s all misty up ahead, so beautiful.”

Bai Yu was about to speak when she felt a slight movement under her hands. Bai Miao was struggling, wanting to go see the beautiful scenery Bai Xi mentioned. She let go, and as Bai Miao ran to Bai Xi’s side, she followed, continuing to dry her hair.

Meanwhile, Bai Xi and Bai Miao were earnestly admiring the misty scene in the distance.

But soon, their conversation shifted from the misty mountains to birds suddenly startled somewhere, tree branches under the mist, and tender twigs being pounded down again and again by the raindrops.

After Bai Yu had mostly dried Bai Miao’s hair, she placed the towel on a nearby rack, picked up Bai Xi’s towel, walked behind Bai Xi, placed it over her head, and began drying her hair bit by bit.

“Eldest Sister—” Bai Xi turned her head.

“Keep talking,” Bai Yu said, gently turning Bai Xi’s head back forward. “So then, what else? I’ve been listening the whole time.”

Bai Miao bounced beside them. “Eldest Sister, our Rain Pavilion is so pretty too! The rain falls on it and just bounces right off!”

Bai Yu simply looked up and saw the Rain Pavilion Bai Miao mentioned. After watching for a moment, she indeed noticed water droplets hitting the pavilion’s roof and bouncing off. Droplet after droplet fell, then tumbled from the edges, like little figures jumping down one by one.

“Miao Miao is so clever, noticing even that.”

“Eldest Sister, also…”

Bai Miao chattered on about her discoveries. As Bai Yu helped dry Bai Xi’s hair, she listened and indeed saw many interesting scenes she herself hadn’t paid much attention to.

Bai Xi hadn’t noticed many of those scenes either and soon started chiming in, sentence by sentence with Bai Miao.

The rain lasted for quite a while. By the time Bai Yu finished drying Bai Xi’s hair as well, the downpour had gradually lessened.

If they were still on their old small boat during such heavy rain, the cabin would have been affected to some degree. But now, they were in a house completely sheltered from the rain, enjoying the island’s rainy scenery.

The rain had lightened, but outside was still damp. They weren’t in a hurry to go out anyway, so they simply went to the Magic Plane.

Their arrival point in the Magic Plane was also inside the house on this plane. The house wasn’t as small as it had been initially. After several upgrades, the little stone hut here had transformed into a spacious, two-story stone house.

However, they didn’t sleep here, so there were no beds or bedding in the rooms, only a few simply crafted chairs—all purchased in the Magic Plane.

Besides the chairs, there were just some inexpensive daily items.

It wasn’t raining on this plane either, but they didn’t go outside. Instead, they opened a concealed window, one that allowed ventilation but couldn’t be seen from the outside.

“There are a lot of Flying Carpets today too,” Bai Xi said, looking at the sky through the window.

“It’s market day today,” Bai Yu calculated the time and turned to speak to Bai Miao. “Miao Miao, will Qiqi go to the market today?”

“Qiqi isn’t going,” Bai Miao shook her head. “She said she needs to practice magic properly, to become powerful. Later, she wants to take her mother to the market on a Flying Carpet. When we learn magic, can we make carpets fly?”

Bai Yu picked her up so she could look overhead and said, “It should be possible, but it will take a lot of time. We’ve only just started learning; we can’t make carpets fly yet.”

“Then we’ll work hard and do our best,” Bai Miao clenched her fist. “When the time comes, I’ll make the carpet fly and take Eldest Sister and Second Sister to the market.”

“Alright, we’ll wait for you then.”

Bai Yu actually wasn’t sure if it was truly possible. Although they could now barely understand the languages of both the Magic Plane and the White Mist Plane, they were still far from a deep understanding. They didn’t know how to practice magic to increase the magic within their bodies, nor how to manipulate Spiritual Qi. Currently, they were just getting physically stronger under the dual influence of magic and Spiritual Qi.

Moreover, they weren’t actually natives of the Magic Plane or the White Mist Plane. Perhaps they would never become powerful enough to control a carpet.

But she didn’t want her Youngest Sister to lose heart.

“We’ll take it slowly, bit by bit. It’s like reading and recognizing characters—you have to learn them one by one,” Bai Yu said softly. “Isn’t that right, Miao Miao?”

Bai Miao nodded solemnly. “Mhm.”

Bai Xi gently tugged Bai Yu’s sleeve and whispered in her ear, “But when Miao Miao reads and recognizes characters, it’s not like us learning one by one. She understands them all at a glance.”

Bai Yu looked at her, then at Bai Miao in her arms.

After a long moment, she whispered back to Bai Xi, “It’s alright. Even though she sees and understands quickly, she doesn’t know what the things she understands actually mean.”

Bai Xi placed her hand on Bai Miao’s head. “The shortcoming lies in her being too young.”