Chapter 55: Caution Above All, We’ve Been on the Water All These Days

“Eldest Sister, we caught another wild boar in our trap!”

“How big?” Bai Yu asked.

“Not very big, probably less than a hundred pounds,” Bai Xi said, having developed a decent sense for estimating weight. “But it fell in pretty deep and got skewered. It was still struggling when we left. Should we wait two more days, or just go handle it now?”

Bai Yu didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she turned her head to glance at the map.

Four days had passed since they left the island. Along the way, they had passed several small islands that could be surveyed at a single glance, and they hadn’t encountered a single person. Their next stop was an island marked as slightly larger on the map.

Based on the distance, however, it would take at least two days to reach that destination.

The sky hadn’t turned completely dark yet, but it wasn’t far from their usual time to rest for the night. After a moment’s thought, Bai Yu chose to drop the anchor, bringing the boat to a halt as much as possible at their current position.

Otherwise, once the waves picked up at night, the boat would simply drift wherever the water took it.

“Xiao Xi, keep an eye on the boat. If another vessel happens to come by, find a way to keep them calm and don’t let anyone board. I’ll go deal with the wild boar,” Bai Yu said. Being the oldest, she wasn’t necessarily the strongest, but she was better at processing things like wild boars. “We’re having wild boar meat tonight.”

“Cut a large pig’s trotter,” Bai Xi suggested. “We’ll stew it for dinner.”

“Alright.” Bai Yu nodded, taking the nearby Bai Miao by the hand and leading her into the Forest Plane.

The trap in the Forest Plane was the same one as before. They had no idea how many wild animals had fallen into it by now.

Bai Yu approached with Bai Miao in her arms. When they got close, she sat Bai Miao down on a nearby tree stump. Gripping a heavy axe, she approached the trap and, catching the wild boar off guard, slammed the axe into its head.

The wild boar quickly went silent.

Bai Yu bent over and reached down, grabbing the pig’s legs to haul it out of the trap. She then dragged it toward the walled enclosure, not forgetting to pick up Bai Miao along the way.

There was pig blood in the trap, and as the scent of blood spread, other wild animals might be drawn to the area.

Once inside the walls, Bai Yu didn’t go far. She used the axe to butcher the boar on the spot. She put some of the meat into the trading interface and tied the rest with vines to hang in the house by the wall. Finally, she carried two pig’s trotters toward the nearby kitchen.

Previously, their primary living space had been on the island. Since deciding to move here, they had built a bathing pool in addition to the basic housing.

The pool was still lined with skins from the Magic Plane, but this pool was connected to a nearby stream. They could change the water in the pool at any time after bathing.

The only problem was the abundance of fallen leaves.

Even if there weren’t any directly overhead, many leaves were blown in by the wind.

Bai Yu used a homemade vine net to scoop the leaves out of the pool. As she stepped in to bathe, she was already considering building a shed over the pool when she had time. That would at least keep the water cleaner.

After a quick bath, Bai Yu changed into clean clothes and called out to Bai Miao, “Miao Miao, we’re going back to the boat.”

“Is Second Sister making the trotters?” Bai Miao was more concerned with what they were eating next.

“Yes, we’ll go back and swap your Second Sister in so she can cook them for you,” Bai Yu said with a smile, taking her hand. “But while she’s cooking, you can stay on the boat if you like.”

The Transit Pass was in Bai Miao’s possession, but that didn’t mean she had to stay in the Plane the whole time. She could move back and forth whenever she wanted.

Bai Miao tugged at Bai Yu’s hand and whispered, “The trotters Second Sister makes are very fragrant.”

Bai Yu understood her meaning instantly and laughed. “Then stay here with your Second Sister later. But remember, don’t eat too much. Last time you overate, your stomach was upset all night.”

Bai Miao pouted her lips and quickly chirped, “Okay!”

Once they reached the boat, she ran off to find Bai Xi, and the two of them headed back into the Forest Plane together.

Watching them leave, Bai Yu smiled and returned to the control room. She pulled a chair over to sit by the door, keeping an eye on the path ahead while also watching for any boats that might appear to the left or right.

The closer they got to inhabited islands, the higher the chance of encountering other boats on the water. Even though she was very strong now, she had to be prepared for anything.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly.

A thick, meaty aroma drifted on the wind.

Bai Xi’s current culinary skills were incomparable to when she started. With recipes and seasonings, the dishes she made were now perfect in color, aroma, and taste. Today’s stewed trotters were no exception. They were tender and silky without being greasy at all, pairing perfectly with rice.

While Bai Yu kept telling Bai Miao to eat slowly and not too much, she ended up eating until she was quite stuffed herself.

Even so, half a pot of stewed trotters remained.

The three of them let out synchronized burps of satisfaction.

“So delicious! It’s just as good as the books describe,” Bai Xi sighed, leaning back against her chair. “But today’s stew was good because of my skill. With my cooking, I could easily open a restaurant.”

“Yes, Xiao Xi is the best. Even just by reading books, you can make such delicious food.” Bai Yu was not stingy with her praise.

Bai Miao sat kicking her legs, pulling up her shirt to reveal a round, bulging belly.

Bai Yu laughed and reached out to give it a gentle pat. “Miao Miao has a big watermelon hidden in her belly.”

“Watermelon!” Bai Miao’s eyes widened with delight. “When can we eat the watermelons we planted?”

“The ones we planted are still small. We have to wait for them to grow bigger, until they’re even bigger than Miao Miao’s belly, then we can eat them,” Bai Yu said, feeling a bit of a craving herself. “I wonder if the watermelons we grow will be tasty. I’ve only eaten watermelon once, when I was very, very little.”

“Is watermelon really as sweet as the books say?” Bai Xi asked curiously.

When Bai Yu was that young, Bai Xi didn’t have many memories yet.

Bai Yu thought about it seriously before finally shaking her head. “It wasn’t very sweet, and the color wasn’t as red as the pictures in the books. The inside was whitish with a faint sweetness, but it was very juicy. One bite and the juice splashed everywhere.”

As she spoke, she looked at the two of them and shared an embarrassing story from her past. “I remember because the juice splashed out, I thought I had wasted such a good watermelon, and I cried my eyes out in sadness.”

“What happened after that?”

Bai Xi and Bai Miao both looked at her with curiosity.

Bai Yu continued to smile. “After that, I didn’t dare take big bites. I only took tiny little nibbles. I made a small slice of watermelon last a long time. Looking back now, that slice probably wasn’t even that good, and it was nothing like what’s described in the books. But I didn’t know any better then. Because it was my first time eating it, I thought watermelon was incredibly precious and couldn’t bear to waste any.”

This was the sum of all her childhood memories regarding watermelons.

For a long time, she had even wondered how watermelons grew. But because she had lived on the water since she was a child, she didn’t understand the growth patterns of even the most common crops, let alone watermelons. Back then, her fantasies of watermelons involved them floating and growing on the water, just like duckweed.

It wasn’t until they traded for books from the New Plane that she learned how watermelons actually grew.

Thinking of this, Bai Yu recounted the story again under the night sea breeze.

Bai Xi and Bai Miao now knew a lot about how crops were planted, so they couldn’t understand why she would think that way and instinctively questioned her.

“How could a watermelon possibly grow on water?”

“Watermelons are annual trailing vines, they have to grow in the ground.”

“You two are smarter than Eldest Sister, so you won’t think watermelons grow in the water,” Bai Yu praised them again. “Once this batch of watermelons grows, we can send a few over to Nancy and the others. There are no watermelons in the Magic Plane, so they should enjoy eating sweet watermelons.”

“They like eating potatoes too,” Bai Xi chimed in. “However, the soil conditions over in the Magic Plane aren’t very good. It’s not suitable for planting ordinary potatoes. Even if they grow, they contain magic elements, which makes them taste a bit strange.”

“Yes, things from the Magic Plane really don’t taste that great,” Bai Yu said, suddenly remembering something. “Right, the warm grass fluff for making warm cloth that we asked Nancy to find a few days ago should have arrived. We need to make a trip there tomorrow.”

While organizing their various belongings this time, they realized that the bedsheets and bedding they were currently using were already very old, so they planned to replace the whole set.

However, the fabric obtained through Check-in was limited, and most of it had been used by Bai Xi to make clothes. Since bedsheets and bedding didn’t require high-quality materials, they thought about trading for some in the Magic Plane.

As for the warm grass fluff, it was a type of grass fluff commonly used in the Magic Plane for insulation.

That kind of grass was called Warm-Warm Grass, which was similar to Flammable Grass, but Warm-Warm Grass didn’t undergo any changes when it came into contact with magic elements. Therefore, whether for people with magic or people without magic, it could be used to make quilts for warmth.

The temperature on the islands at sea didn’t vary much throughout the four seasons. Consequently, since they had settled on the island, they had been using their original bedsheets and bedding, sometimes even just covering themselves with a thin layer of double-layered cloth.

If it hadn’t been for leaving the island this time, they wouldn’t have thought about replacing it with Warm-Warm Grass.

“Going to the Magic Plane has to be done during the day. After Miao Miao and I arrive there tomorrow, Miao Miao will come back and stay on the boat,” Bai Yu instructed. “That way, if anything happens, Miao Miao, you can immediately take your Second Sister to the Magic Plane. When an accident occurs, you must prioritize saving your lives.”

“It should be fine, right? We’ve been on the water all these days and haven’t encountered a single ship,” Bai Xi felt that there was a high probability they wouldn’t encounter any other ships tomorrow either.

“It’s better to be safe, we are at sea after all,” Bai Yu frowned. “When those people came to our island last time, they mentioned something about a Sea Ban¹. They even said the Sea Ban might lead to the appearance of Pirates. Although it was just a passing remark, it’s always right to be careful.”

Bai Xi nodded. “Don’t worry, Eldest Sister. If we really encounter trouble that’s hard to solve, I’ll grab Miao Miao, hide in a corner, and immediately go to the Magic Plane.”

Translator’s Notes