Chapter 44: Contents of the Book, This Wild Vegetable is Said to be Delicious

“How many more are inside?”

“I can’t get an exact count by feel, but there should be quite a few left. This bookstore was fairly large before the cataclysm.”

“This is enough for today. Any more and we won’t be able to carry it back. Let’s block this spot with stones for now so we can come back next time. Come on out, we’re heading back.”

“Alright,” the person inside the bookstore crawled out, looking at the pile of books outside with a touch of joy. “With all these books, we can trade for plenty of food. I wonder what we’ll get. I hope it’s not just pickles and salted fish again.”

“Even if it’s just those two, it’s fine. At least they have salt, and the things traded to us won’t be spoiled.”

“True enough.”

As they spoke, each person picked up two large bundles of books and headed toward the skyscraper.

They lived on a relatively high floor. Without elevators, they had no choice but to climb up level by level. Even so, they didn’t hesitate, entering the building and heading straight up.

Once they had climbed high enough, they saw someone keeping watch at the stairwell.

Seeing them return, the lookout immediately broke into a smile. “I’ve got good news. The Room Card has new stock: Fire Sticks and firewood.”

“Fire Sticks?”

“They look like matches, something to start a fire with. We originally thought that since you were looking for books, we’d all share the fire from our lighters after trading for food. We didn’t expect the Room Card to stock new items. Besides Fire Sticks, there’s dry firewood. If everyone’s okay with it, we could gather and cook in one pot to save on wood.”

“Does anyone have any objections?”

“If you guys can go down together to scavenge, we can certainly eat together. Saving firewood benefits everyone.”

As they spoke, the group carrying the books reached their floor.

The people who came out at the sound of their voices couldn’t help but feel happy when they saw the haul of books.

…

“This should be enough, right?”

Bai Xi looked at the temporary fish holding area on the boat. The fish they had just caught were jumping and splashing, looking exceptionally fresh.

“Even though thirty households live below us and each has many people, they seem quite frugal. They probably won’t trade for too many ingredients,” Bai Yu said, standing by the side. “But we can’t keep coming out to fish all the time. Let’s set a schedule. Maybe trade once a day?”

“Once a day works. That way we don’t have to watch it constantly.” Bai Xi watched the fish tank for a while longer, eventually scooping out a fish she wasn’t sure was edible and tossing it back into the sea.

Having lived on the water for years, they understood most fish well and could tell at a glance if something was edible. However, in the ocean, there were always species they didn’t recognize. Fearing they might get sick, they didn’t dare take risks.

Besides, they weren’t lacking food right now.

As they spoke, the transaction information on the rental panel in front of them lit up.

Someone wanted to trade books for pickles.

The pickles were sitting nearby. Bai Yu reached out and tapped the screen. The pickles beside her disappeared, replaced by two books appearing in the panel.

Once that transaction was complete, someone else wanted to trade for salted fish.

After another trade, the ingredient slot on the panel became empty.

Bai Yu reached into the fish tank and randomly scooped out a fish.

…

“Holy crap!”

“A live fish! My god, this is incredible! They can actually send over a fish that’s still jumping!”

“Quick, put this fish in the bathroom to keep it alive.”

“This is a sea fish; it won’t survive in fresh water.”

“It’s fine, keep it alive as long as possible. There are so many of us, we’ll eat it fast anyway. Let’s see what else there is.”

“Another fish.”

“Did we hit a sea fish nest today? It’s all fish. Just bring a bucket to catch them.”

“Still fish. This time it’s a ribbonfish.”

“Ribbonfish can be kept a bit longer. Put it aside.”

“This one requires quite a few books. Looks like this piece of meat is pretty big.”

“Looks like pork.”

…

“Great, we finally traded away that wild boar meat. I’m so tired of eating cured pork,” Bai Xi said, letting out a long sigh of relief as she looked at the successful new transaction. “I want to eat fresh wild chicken.”

“Once these trades are done, we’ll go to the Forest Plane to see if we can catch some wild chickens,” Bai Yu continued, placing fish into the transaction slot. “We’re much stronger than before. Not just wild chickens, even if we run into a wild boar, we’ll be fine.”

“If we run into another wild boar, let’s just trade it all to them. We’ll only keep a small portion,” Bai Xi said, happy that the wild boar meat had found a new outlet. She looked at Bai Miao, who was head down, carefully flipping through a book. “Miao Miao, are there any books about wild vegetables in the Forest Plane?”

Just as she spoke, Bai Miao pulled out a book and showed Bai Xi the cover. “Wild Vegetables!”

“There really is one?” Bai Xi said, getting even more excited at the sight of the bright, colorful cover. “It’s even a color book! Won’t that make it really easy for us to spot which wild vegetables are edible?”

“Miao Miao, you have a good memory. Go sit over there and read. Once you’re done, we’ll head to the Forest Plane and look for some of these vegetables.” Bai Yu used her foot to hook a small stool nearby, letting Bai Miao sit down to read.

Bai Miao always listened to her sisters. She immediately took the book and sat down to study it.

The script of the New Plane was similar to their own world. After a period of systematic learning, Bai Miao had learned many characters. As she read, she didn’t just memorize the appearance of the vegetables in the pictures, but also memorized the text. Whether she understood it or not, she figured it was always better to remember it.

While Bai Miao was reading, Bai Yu and Bai Xi continued to trade away the fish they had just caught.

Once they had finished scooping them all out, they closed the transaction interface.

By this time, a pile of books had accumulated in front of them. Unfortunately, this trade only yielded books and no seeds.

Fortunately, the books did contain the information they wanted. Once they went to the Forest Plane, they could find plenty of edible wild vegetables there, so the lack of seeds wasn’t a problem for now.

Meanwhile, on the other side, everyone who had been trading for food saw the notification that the transaction window had closed.

They didn’t know when it would open again, but even the items they had just traded for were enough to make them happy.

“With all this fish, meat, and vegetables, we have enough to eat for several days.”

“Let’s save the ribbonfish, salted fish, cured meat, and pickles for later. We should eat the fresh fish first. I wonder what the situation is on the other side of the trade. It feels like they have a bit of a food shortage too, except for the fresh fish.”

“Whatever their situation is, at least we got fresh food. That’s enough.”

“True. But I feel like no matter what, the other side is better off than we are. In that case, we need to find seeds as soon as possible for them to plant. Maybe then we can get fresh rice or flour.”

“Makes sense. Let’s organize another trip to find seeds tomorrow. We’ll take any seeds we can find.”

“Yeah, those small packets of vegetable seeds should be easier to find. Also potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn. Those are all easy to grow.”

…

“Eldest Sister, this book actually teaches how to plant corn.”

“Really?” Bai Yu immediately looked at the book in Bai Xi’s hand. After skimming it for a bit, she said, “This is great. With this, we can try planting corn. Maybe in a few months, we’ll be able to eat fresh corn.”

They had obtained corn through the Check-in system, receiving it every so often, so they had eaten quite a bit of it.

As for planting it, they had thought about it before, but since the three sisters had lived on a boat since they were young, they knew a lot about the water but were completely ignorant about farming. They wanted to plant things but had no idea where to start.

Now that they had the content from the book, perhaps they truly could succeed in planting the corn.

On the way back, all three of them carefully read the section on planting corn. Once they returned, they first stripped all the corn kernels and placed them in a basket to dry in the sun. The book noted that dried corn had a higher germination rate.

However, since there were only two ears of corn left, they quickly spread them out flat.

After that, they did not remain idle. They immediately headed to the Forest Plane to search for the edible wild vegetables described in the book.

This time, they came with clear goals in mind. They soon discovered that many of the wild grasses they had seen numerous times in this forest were actually edible vegetables.

Bai Miao had a good memory and remembered the appearance of every edible vegetable perfectly. Every few steps, she could pull up a cluster.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi followed behind her, looking at the vegetables in their hands while listening to Bai Miao explain the specific details of each plant. By becoming familiar with them this way, they were eventually able to find edible vegetables on their own.

No one had visited this forest for years. Previously, when they came here, they had focused entirely on game and timber, completely ignoring the wild vegetables in the woods. Coming here now with the knowledge from the book was like stepping into a treasure trove. It didn’t take long before they had found a whole basket of vegetables.

“How can there be so many? Are all of these really edible?” Bai Xi found another cluster. “It feels like almost every vegetable we encounter here is edible. Even if we didn’t know anything, we could just pick them at random.”

Bai Yu laughed and pointed at the plants they had left behind, saying, “That’s not entirely true. These ones aren’t edible. Right, Miao Miao?”

“Mm,” Bai Miao said, a serious expression appearing on her small face as she pointed at the plants on the ground. “This one causes diarrhea. That one can’t be eaten; it makes you feel very sick. Second Sister, anything we don’t pick shouldn’t be eaten.”

“I know, I’ll listen to Miao Miao,” Bai Xi nodded solemnly. “Let’s keep going. Miao Miao, which other vegetables can we pick?”

Carrying her small basket on her back, Bai Miao turned and continued walking forward.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi looked at each other, both smiling silently.

“Miao Miao has grown up quite a bit,” Bai Yu said softly.

“She’s almost four, she’s not that small,” Bai Xi said as she caught up to Bai Miao. “But she really is different than before. It might be because she has people to talk to now. In the past, she spent a lot of time alone on the boat.”

Although the three sisters had relied on each other back then as well, Bai Yu and Bai Xi had to provide for the family. Whenever they had time, they were in the water, and there were many daily chores to do. They had very little time to speak with Bai Miao.

Things were different now. Even though they were still busy, the three sisters spent more time talking together. This allowed Bai Miao, who could only speak a few words at a time before coming here, to gradually speak to them in long sentences.

Over there, Bai Miao spotted another patch of wild vegetables and turned back with a smile. “Eldest Sister, Second Sister, this one, this one! The book says this vegetable is delicious!”

“A delicious vegetable? We’re coming!”

“Wait, let’s get over there and see what they look like growing in the ground first.”