Clang, clang, clang.
Amidst the sound of hammering.
In the safety house inside the cave, Yu Hong let out a breath, taking two steps back to look at his makeshift fixture.
He had firmly secured the stolen stove along with its chimney against the cave wall.
"This will do for now."
He set down the hammer and glanced back at the door that was still undergoing reinforcement.
The timer displayed: 9 days, 5 hours, and 42 minutes remaining.
After finishing these tasks, he exited the cave, eyeing the stuttering girl who was tying a large bundle of wild vegetables outside.
The smoke chimney incident had just passed, but the emotions from that moment still left a deep mark in his heart.
Even now, recalling the recent events left him frightened and uneasy.
This feeling only increased his desire for a completely secure little house of his own; a place where he could rest peacefully.
Having such a place would empower him to explore this incredibly dangerous world safely.
With his thoughts drawn back, Yu Hong picked up the recently used wooden pole with steel nails.
A few of the nails had bent from the hammering, but that wasn't the main issue; the key point was the three pieces of reinforced white stone.
The first piece had turned completely black, losing its jade-like texture.
"It seems it’s completely used up."
Yu Hong reached out to detach the black stone and replaced it with a new one.
He still had one piece of reinforced bright stone left, which should be enough.
However, since reinforcement could only proceed one at a time, he couldn’t reinforce other items until the wooden door was completed.
Thus, he had to conserve the four pieces of reinforced bright stone as much as possible.
"Based on previous usage, one piece of reinforced bright stone can disperse shadows three times. This means one piece is equivalent to thirty normal bright stones!"
If this comparison could be spread, then perhaps he could trade reinforced bright stones for supplies and benefit from the price difference without worrying about resource shortages.
Lost in his thoughts, Yu Hong began to consider his future plans and arrangements.
Time flew by, and soon dusk fell.
The stuttering girl had finished preparing a bag and filled a new water barrel.
The two of them returned to the house in Baiqiu Village with their belongings.
Having just come back from the cave, it was clean and tidy inside, the air fresher than before.
In contrast, the old house was dirty and dark, filled with the musty smell of mold.
Yu Hong couldn’t stand being there any longer.
There were no words exchanged that night.
Over the next few days, unable to reinforce items, Yu Hong and the stuttering girl scoured for firewood to stockpile inside the cave.
Now that there was a door, it could shield them from wind and rain and allow some storage for firewood.
Then came the preparation for filtering water.
According to the girl’s words, the water outside was filthy, drinking it directly would cause strange illnesses, hence it must be filtered.
The extra filters could only be bought in town.
So, they had to make a trip to town.
"Going to town is over thirty miles. I don’t think I can manage it."
Yu Hong was well aware of his own physical limits.
If he pushed himself, he might bear it, but with the potential for knee injury, extreme fatigue, and new ailments, his reaction times to danger would suffer immensely.
On the slopes outside the cave, the stuttering girl nodded while digging in the dirt.
"There’s another… way."
"What way?" Yu Hong sat down to rest upon the stone at the cave’s entrance, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Post… office," the girl replied, commencing to explain with pauses.
Speaking was laborious, so she resorted to drawing with a charcoal stick on the stone.
Yet, as her literacy was limited, she could only write while gesturing.
"You can buy for others at the post office. So why can't I find you guys to buy for me?" Yu Hong asked.
"Filters… can’t buy… without… qualification."
The girl answered.
Qualification? What qualification? Yu Hong wanted to ask further but noticed a figure in the distance, Doctor Xu, approaching with a fabric bag on his back.
"Yiyi, the surge period is coming soon; we need to head to town!"
She had an unpleasant expression, a strip of white bandage wrapped around her right arm, likely from an injury she sustained in recent days.
"Oh!" the stuttering girl replied loudly.
Doctor Xu glanced at Yu Hong, ignoring him as she went back to Baiqiu Village with the girl to gather items needed for trading.
Before long, the two had tallied up all the bright stones.
"Why is it not even half?!" Doctor Xu was shocked.
Usually, every time they went to trade, the stuttering girl could gather more than double this amount, but now…
"This meager stuff won’t buy much food! Besides, Yiyi, you have to feed two people!" she couldn’t help but ask.
"Too… busy."
Yiyi sheepishly shrugged, rubbing her hands together.
"What are you busy with? Building that fool’s safety house for Yu Hong?" Doctor Xu suddenly fumed.
"I’ve told him before, no matter how thick the boards are, they can’t stop shadows and bugs! The safety house you are building is a complete waste of effort!"
"It’s okay. I trust him!" The stuttering girl patted her chest confidently.
"You’re going to get yourself killed!" Doctor Xu shot back angrily, "If you can’t eat enough, you won't have energy and will easily fall ill. I went to see the post office yesterday, and the postman is nowhere to be found! There's no way to buy any medicine; many essential supplies depend on him. We have to conserve our food and seasoning to avoid running out later!"
"No, I won’t!" The stuttering girl shook her head.
She had received a piece of reinforced bright stone from Yu Hong.
Although she promised him she wouldn’t tell anyone, she felt in her heart that he was different from the others.
"You, you!!" Doctor Xu wished she could rush over to beat Yu Hong to death.
Yet, seeing the girl’s expression, her anger was trapped inside.
With their belongings, the two could only step by step out of the village and along the old road into the distance.
On the other side, Yu Hong had readied the safety house in the cave, checking all the sealing mechanisms, confirming that everything was fine before starting to paint.
Waterproofing was essential, and the cave's inner walls needed to be painted too; otherwise, once they started living there, the temperature differences would cause moisture to condense and mold to form.
After confirming everything, he didn’t return to Baiqiu Village but curled up in the cave with the candles and blankets, preparing to try and spend the night there.
With a sigh.
Slowly, night fell.
The winds outside the cave howled, and the temperature dropped to a slightly chilly level.
Inside the cave, Yu Hong sat cross-legged on a large plank, lit a candle, and quietly began calculating how many supplies he’d need to safely tide over the upcoming surge period.
"The last surge lasted five days; following the increasing trend, let’s estimate six days. That means at least twelve candles."
"Then I need to prepare six days’ worth of food and drink. As for the reinforced bright stone, I can't make any more for now; I have to wait until the wooden door is finished."
"When the wooden door finishes, there are still three days until the surge period. Instead of gambling on the safety of the reinforced wooden door, it’s better to take extra precautions myself."
Beside the candle, Yu Hong calculated while quietly listening to the wind outside.
Soon, rustling sounds began again.
The wave of black insects arrived once more.
Fortunately, the large swarm could only enter through the designated opening inside, and their speed was slow.
As they entered the door, they were illuminated by the candlelight and soon dissipated completely.
Yu Hong observed for a moment, ensuring there were no issues, before finally feeling at ease.
He checked the candle's consumption rate and believed everything was fine, putting the steel nail wooden pole beside him, lying down on the blanket, and slowly dozing off.
Before long, dawn broke.
The stuttering girl returned with Doctor Xu, bringing half as much as the last time.
The stuttering girl calculated that it would only be enough for them to eat for five days.
So, after pondering, Yu Hong decided to let the stuttering girl simulate drawing more complicated patterns on the reinforced bright stone.
Then they'd test the effects and see if it was feasible to sell.
In the meantime, to prepare for any emergencies, he also began helping the stuttering girl gather wild vegetables.
Days passed by.
The two of them started stockpiling water again, while Yu Hong periodically checked the wooden door’s progress inside the cave.
Before long, the timer on the wooden door approached its end.
To observe the changes in the door closely, on the final day, Yu Hong intentionally asked the stuttering girl to borrow some food from Doctor Xu, thus distracting her.
He then arrived at the safety house in the cave, patiently awaiting the countdown to conclude.
With a rumble.
Inside the cave, Yu Hong sat on the ground, eyes fixed on the wooden door that hadn’t changed at all from twelve days ago.
He was determined to closely observe how the black markings on the door would complete the reinforcement process.
More importantly, he intended to seamlessly continue reinforcing other things to avoid wasting the time allotted for the black markings.
The wooden door, now painted a yellow-black hue, was displaying numbers that only Yu Hong could see.
0 days, 0 hours, and 1 minute.
In the final minute, only a little time remained to complete the reinforcement of the door.
In this last minute, Yu Hong wouldn’t dare even blink, fixated on watching the last changes.
One second.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Suddenly, Yu Hong's vision blurred for a moment.
When his sight cleared, the wooden door had transformed into a much thicker and denser door.
The new door’s surface had intricate wave-like textures, with the ventilation openings covered with sturdy metal mesh, ensuring both density and breathability.
At the center was a specially designed observation window through which the outside scenery was visible.
The once loose and dilapidated connections of the wooden door to the cave were now reinforced with a full circle of dense screws, making it look considerably sturdier.
Yu Hong stood up, stepped forward, and touched the wooden door.
Knock, knock, knock.
He tapped it with his fingers; it was thick, hard, and resilient.
"Not the same kind of wood as before."
He was completely surprised that the reinforcement had even changed the very material itself.
"And they’ve added quite a bit more material."
Yu Hong stroked the thick breathable mesh at the bottom.
Then he opened the observation window above.
He reached out to touch the edges but found no splinter or roughness at all.
"Impressive!"
With that thought, he quickly turned to check the surrounding walls.
Originally, his plan was to reinforce the wooden door and then the surrounding stone walls, but now, due to a lack of food, he decided to first attempt reinforcing other items.
"First… this."
Yu Hong withdrew his hand from the door, returning to the stove, and picked up a piece of lizard jerky.
"Can food be reinforced?"
The thought flashed through his mind.
Immediately, the jerky in his hand began to show a number on its surface: 3 hours.
"Three hours?" Yu Hong mused.
He quickly shoved the jerky back and grabbed the entire pouch instead.
"And now?"
On the outside of the cloth bag, a new number gradually appeared: 1 day, 8 hours, and 4 minutes.
The numbers were quite precise, with both zeros and whole numbers.
"Let’s see the effect."
Yu Hong decided to confirm the reinforcement.
A day’s worth of time was manageable for him.
(End of this chapter)