A huge thanks to Shari for the kofi! Enjoy!!

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Day 24 of Survival: A Peaceful Day.

Wednesday.

The typhoon struck the players’ island first thing in the morning.

Nan Liujing was still in bed when, through his drowsiness, he heard a thunderous “BOOM,” startling him awake instantly. 

He bolted out of bed and saw Nian Gao spring out of his cozy nest like a little spring, yelping and tucking his tail between his legs as he scurried under the bed.

Hei Tang jumped down from the top of the wardrobe, standing with her fur bristling and her back arched to shield them.

Before Nan Liujing could even get out of bed, another loud crash followed. They watched in horror as a rock the size of a washbasin smashed through the roof, then immediately afterward cracked the floor on the west side of the farmhouse with a “thud!”

Nan Liujing looked up at the roof, where a large hole had been torn open; the sound of howling wind and pounding rain immediately poured in clearly through the gap.

Large raindrops pelted into the room with a patter-patter, and the wind howled as if a giant dragon were roaring.

The indoor temperature, which had been kept slightly warm by the lingering heat from the fireplace, plummeted rapidly, and it grew cold in the blink of an eye. Nan Liujing shivered, opened his mouth to speak, but before any words came out, he sneezed instead.

Hei Tang charged ahead toward the west side of the farmhouse, circling the rock left and right. In less than a few seconds, the stone was soaked, and the water even spread out across the surrounding floor. 

Cats hate water the most; right now, they didn’t dare go around it or step on it. Nian Gao was still hiding under the bed, pressed against the foot of the bed, shivering so hard that the whole bed shook with him.

Nan Liujing sighed: “What kind of life do I have…”

He’d just said he hoped nothing would fall from the sky, and his wish came true first thing in the morning.

Good wishes don’t come true, but bad ones do.

He got up to tuck the culprit into his backpack, then found a plastic bucket to place where the leak was to catch the rain. 

He couldn’t just leave the water stains around either; Nan Liujing was worried they’d soak the floor and ruin it. 

The ragged clothes he had brought back from Mulberry Village finally came in handy; no matter what they’d originally been, they were now being put to use as rags.

It took five minutes to quickly patch up the leak, and Nan Liujing looked up at the huge hole in the roof. It would be nearly impossible to fix this hole from inside the house, so he’d leave it for now.

He tossed the rags aside, and Nan Liujing yawned as he headed to the bathroom to wash up. By the time he came back out, his mind was completely clear, and with his face still damp, he went to the closet to find something to wear.

It’s gotten much colder today, and he’d have to go out in a little while, so naturally, he’d wear as many layers as possible.

Nan Liujing first put on his thermal underwear, followed by a knit sweater, thick jeans, and a down jacket—since it wasn’t practical for working and the temperature hadn’t dropped below freezing yet, he settled for a windbreaker as his outer layer.

He then pulled on thick cotton socks, slipped into waterproof rain boots, and finally donned the full-body raincoat—essential for dumping a body on a rainy night. 

Fully geared up, Nan Liujing strode quickly toward the door. No sooner had he cracked the door open a little than a gale roared in, slamming against the door. Nan Liujing felt as if he’d been hit by a runaway car and nearly fell to the ground along with the door. 

Fortunately, weighing over 160 jin, he immediately dropped into a horse stance to steady himself and held his ground.

The wind, carrying raindrops, lashed violently against his face shield, and before long, he could no longer see a thing.

Nan Liujing muttered a curse under his breath, hurried outside to close the door, and wiped his face vigorously with his hand. Looking out, he almost thought he’d stepped into the end of the world.

It was already past 6:00 a.m. By this time on a normal day, it would have been light out, but now it was still gloomy, with dark clouds thick on the horizon. For the first time, Nan Liujing realized that wind had a color and a shape. It raged wildly across the sky and earth, whipping up waves over ten zhang high that crashed ferociously against the shore.

If it weren’t for the small island Nan Liujing had expanded—raising its elevation by several meters and increasing its area severalfold—the seawater would have already reached his feet by now.

The sky was filled with uprooted trees, rocks of varying sizes, and fish and shrimp—whether alive or dead—swirling through the air. No one knew where the wind had swept them up from, but every so often they would plummet down with a clatter, like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, crashing onto his island.

A few rocks had also landed outside the buildings protected by the typhoon guardrails; there were even impact marks on the guardrails themselves. Fortunately, the typhoon barriers were sturdy and hadn’t been breached.

Nan Liujing gathered his composure and strode quickly toward the farm fields.

The wind and rain were so fierce that he had to shield his face with his arm, taking one step forward and three steps back as he trudged against the elements. A distance of just five meters—which normally took only a few steps—took him over a minute to cover today.

Outside the typhoon guardrails surrounding the farm fields lay quite a few pieces of wood and rocks as well. Nan Liujing carefully navigated around these obstacles, entered through a small gate in the fence, and finally caught sight of the farm field.

Surrounded on all sides by a fence several meters high, the conditions inside the farm field were actually quite manageable. Although the wind was still strong, it wasn’t enough to blow a person backward, and aside from raindrops, nothing else was coming in to hit them. The crops grew quietly, breathing in the moist air, spreading their branches and leaves in the heavy rain, and swaying back and forth in the wind.

Nan Liujing breathed a sigh of relief, belatedly realizing he wouldn’t have to water the plants today, which made him a little happy.

In such terrible weather, every minute he could spend less time outside was a blessing.

Both the Chinese cabbage and the pumpkins were ready for harvest today, so Nan Liujing quickly picked the pumpkins and then went to pull up the Chinese cabbage.

He wrapped both arms around the cabbage and gave it a twist to the side, pulling the entire head out of the ground. Nan Liujing stripped off the outermost few layers of wrinkled, old leaves—which he set aside to feed the animals later—leaving a large head of cabbage with its leaves tightly packed together, quite heavy.

Nan Liujing successfully harvested 40 pumpkins and 100 Chinese cabbages. With 110 empty spots now available in the fields, Nan Liujing left them untouched, planning to wait until the typhoon had passed before planting.

Otherwise, the seeds would be blown away by the typhoon as soon as they were planted—what would be the point of planting them then?

There were still 10 soybeans, 10 sweet potatoes, 10 wheat plants, and 5 eggplants growing in the field. Nan Liujing wondered if he could pray that no reckless obstacles would fall from the sky and ruin his crops.

Leaving the field, Nan Liujing ran back toward the animal shed, braving the wind.

Hei Tang and Nian Gao were both hiding inside the farmhouse and hadn’t come out to tend the animals, so the animals were all staying inside the animal shed as well. When Nan Liujing ran into the animal shed, he found that all his animals—regardless of species or size—were huddled together in one corner, restlessly making soft, anxious sounds.

In the corner diagonally opposite the animals, the wall had been smashed open by a rock that had fallen from the sky—though this rock was much smaller than the one that had struck the farmhouse, about the size of a palm. In addition, there were four or five holes of various sizes scattered throughout the shed, turning the roof into a sieve.

As a result, it was as if it were raining heavily outside and drizzling inside. Fortunately, the animal shed had no floor—just a compacted earthen floor—so the rainwater would seep down after sitting for a while.

Although the animals were startled, none of them were injured. There were also signs that the feed troughs and water troughs had been disturbed; it seemed that even though they were frightened, they hadn’t skipped a meal.

So it wasn’t a big deal.

Nan Liujing breathed a sigh of relief. Standing at the doorway, he shook the rain off his clothes, then went inside to wander around, first collecting the eggs the chickens had laid, then milking the cows. Today it was time to shear the two black-faced sheep again. Nan Liujing held the sheep down and snipped away, successfully harvesting 2 units of wool.

Then he combed and petted each one in turn, and even brought out Chinese cabbage leaves and rapeseed cakes to feed them, skillfully boosting their affection levels.

This routine proved highly effective; in fact, the White Feather chickens were already laying one-star eggs. Although the price hadn’t gone up by much, the taste had improved significantly.

After tending to the animals, Nan Liujing grabbed a pitchfork and shoveled out the hay on the ground—which had been soiled by animal droppings and then drenched by the rain- and replaced it with fresh hay. He took care to avoid a few spots where the roof was leaking as he spread the hay on the ground, and only then did he leave the animal shed.

After that, Nan Liujing didn’t go anywhere else; he grabbed the letter from the mailbox and ran back to the farmhouse, deciding not to go out for the rest of the day.

In the bathroom, he took off his soggy raincoat and hung it up to dry. Right next to it stood the apple tree that had originally been planted to the left of the farmhouse. To prevent the little sapling from suffering any mishaps during the typhoon, Nan Liujing had dug it up—root and all—the day before, placed it back in the oak barrel, and moved it into the shower stall for shelter.

After all, this little sapling had originally been planted in an oak barrel and drifted to his island that way, so putting it back there shouldn’t make much difference. It just meant the countdown overhead had paused.

But with seventy or eighty years left on that countdown, pausing it for a day or two wouldn’t make much of a difference.

After washing his face again in the bathroom, Nan Liujing stepped out feeling refreshed, ready to eat breakfast.

While he was out working, Nian Gao and Hei Tang had already quickly adapted to their new surroundings. Hei Tang was crouched next to a plastic bucket, stretching out its paws to catch the ripples formed by raindrops hitting the water’s surface. Nian Gao stood nearby, eager to join in, its mouth open as it tried to catch the raindrops falling from the sky.

The two of them were already fully engrossed in play.

Nan Liujing tore open two packets of pet biscuits, then took out a few portions of slightly stale baked fish and crab meat he’d dug out of the warehouse the night before. He lit the fireplace to reheat them, tore them into pieces, and scattered them into the pet food bowls: “Nian Gao, Hei Tang, stop playing—come eat breakfast.”

“Ying!”

At the mention of breakfast, the little fox cub’s ears twitched; he immediately forgot about his new toy, turned around, and happily scampered over.

Hei Tang also strolled over at a leisurely pace. When she reached Nan Liujing’s side, she demurely tilted her body and rubbed against him twice, the tip of her tail circling his calf before moving on: “Meow~.”

Nan Liujing quickly bent down and gave it a quick pat: “You’re welcome~.”

The two little ones gathered around the food bowl and began munching away, while Nan Liujing started preparing his own breakfast.

Since he hadn’t finished the leftovers from the appreciation banquet, he had “air potatoes” for breakfast that morning—an appetizer consisting of potato chips filled with potato soup and deep-fried, seasoned with seaweed and oysters; rum-braised spiny lobster, served with a sweet-and-sour sauce made from mango and passion fruit; butter-seared flounder dusted with flour, with a dipping sauce made from wine and morel mushrooms spread over the golden-brown fish; French herb-crusted lamb chops, paired with creamy mashed potatoes, served as the main course; a large bowl of salmon pasta salad to cleanse the palate.

After finishing this massive spread, Nan Liujing had absolutely no need for any starchy sides—he was so full he was practically about to slide under the table.

Finally, summoning superhuman willpower, he gritted his teeth and ate one more slice of chocolate mille-feuille before strolling away from the table with a full belly.

The good news was that this meal had taught him the recipes for both the French herb-crusted lamb chops and the chocolate mille-feuille—all his hard work had finally paid off.

Once the fire was lit in the fireplace, its warm glow dispelled the chill in the room. Hei Tang, having eaten her fill, leisurely licked her fur clean by the hearth before settling down contentedly, purring softly.

Nian Gao was still diligently licking his bowl, his little head buried in it, making a clatter-clatter sound as he licked.

Nan Liujing came over to the fireplace holding a cup of strong green tea. He had originally intended to sit down, but his stomach was so full it was really uncomfortable, so he stood behind the sofa, leaning his elbows on the backrest, sipping his tea as he pulled out today’s newspaper.

First, he looked at the *Heart of the Rising Sun Daily*.

【Heart of the Rising Sun Daily】

Year 213 of the Age of Catastrophe, Day of Peace.

Heart of the Rising Sun Publishing House.

Issue No. 71.

【Weather Forecast】

Today’s Weather: Typhoon.

Temperature: 10°C–16°C.

Extremely strong winds.

Tomorrow’s Weather: Sunny.

Temperature: 14°C–18°C.

【Today’s Top Stories】

The Storm Business Alliance revealed that the *Great Whale*, a massive vessel it had invested in and operated, has lost contact while on its return journey. Over the past few days, under the command of Captain Sergei, it successfully completed its exploration mission along a mysterious route and acquired a large amount of supplies from three mysterious islands. However, the “Great Whale,” which was supposed to return smoothly, has yet to be heard from, and neither the Storm Business Alliance nor the Steam Association has been able to locate the vessel. Consequently, the Storm Business Alliance has sought assistance from the astrological witches of the Witches’ Roundtable. This newspaper will continue to follow the story……

Supervised by the Pickle Queen Lilith Babaloa and manufactured by the Alchemy Association, the pickle processing machine has passed multiple rounds of testing and is now officially on the market! Simply place the container and ingredients into the processing machine, and after a short while, delicious pickles will be automatically prepared. All pickle recipes used by the processing machine are provided by the Pickle Queen, so the taste is guaranteed. The first 100 customers to purchase the machine will also receive a copy of *Salt, Sugar, and Vinegar* autographed by the Pickle Queen herself! 

【Limited-Time Offer】

Fashion Alliance: Premium Snow Boots 15,000 Sol

Harvest Association: “Harvest No. 12” Wheat Seeds 230 Sol 

Iris Garden: Wine 650 Sol 

(20% discount for members of this newspaper) 

【Postcard Raffle】

First Prize (1 winner): Steamship (provided by the Steam Association) 

Second Prize (10 winners): Elixir of Life (Large) x3 (provided by the Witches’ Roundtable) 

Third Prize (100 winners): Christmas Rose Seeds x25 (provided by the Iris Garden) 

Participation Prize (unlimited): Oak Barrels x10 (provided by the Friendship Grocery Store) 

The postcard raffle is open to members only.

Simply fill out the postcard included with this issue correctly to enter the raffle.

There is no cost to mail in the postcard.

Thank you to all the associations for their generous sponsorship of this newspaper!】

“It really has gotten colder—and quite drastically.” Yesterday’s low was still above 20°C, but today even the high didn’t reach 20.

Although the typhoon will have passed by tomorrow and temperatures will rise slightly, they won’t quite return to where they were. Nan Liujing took a close look at the weather forecast, then glanced at the fireplace in front of him, surveyed the all-wood farmhouse, and finally looked up at the large hole in the roof where rain was leaking in.

He set aside the newspaper and his large teacup for the moment and turned to rummage through the wardrobe.

The clothes and bedding he’d found earlier in Mulberry Village had been drying outside for several days; finally, yesterday, the last trace of mustiness had disappeared. Nan Liujing brought them inside, replaced the mattress with a new one as soon as he could, and spread freshly washed and dried sheets on top. The rest were neatly folded and put away in the wardrobe.

Last night wasn’t very cold, so he’d just covered himself with a coral fleece blanket, but now that the temperature was dropping into the single digits, Nan Liujing pulled a thick cotton quilt out of the wardrobe, slipped a duvet cover over it, and placed it on the bed.

He also replaced the pillow with a goose-down one and slipped it into a pillowcase that carried the delicate scent of laundry detergent beads.

After tidying up his little bed, Nan Liujing took out the newspaper again and carefully examined the news article about the pickle processing machine.

The article also listed the price and stated that it was available at all stores under the Alchemy Association, with a uniform price of 800,000 Sol—no discounts.

No specific address was listed, but Nan Liujing had the address of an alchemy shop in Goldfinch City called “Hand of Glory,” which was also affiliated with the Alchemy Association. So he simply wrote a check, slipped it into an envelope along with his purchase request text message, and prepared to mail it out along with the raffle postcard.

There was also today’s limited-time offer on wheat seeds—he couldn’t miss that either—so he decided to start with a small purchase of 100.

As for the news about the mysterious disappearance of the great ship *Great Whale*, Nan Liujing still had vivid memories of that vessel and its captain. The first issue of the *Heart of the Rising Sun Daily* he’d received had reported on their departure for the return voyage; he’d assumed the ship had long since arrived home safely, but it turned out it had gone missing more than twenty days later.

He remembered that Captain Sergei had scattered three nautical charts depicting a mysterious island across the ocean at the time; he had no idea what, if anything, had come of that incident.

His player’s intuition told him there must be a clue to a hidden quest within this story, but unfortunately, that was as far as it went.

All Nan Liujing could do was make a note of this news item and wait for more clues to surface in the future.

Next up was the *Impermanent Sea Daily*.

Naturally, the first thing Nan Liujing looked for was a follow-up report on Phantom Thief 39. Unfortunately, this issue of the newspaper contained no new information about the master thief. Instead, that inept “famous detective” made another appearance, deducing that Phantom Thief 39 must be a young man between the ages of 22 and 28 because his handwriting was “not at all steady” and he “could draw the ‘V’ sign—a simple sketch that only young people would draw.”

Surprisingly, his reasoning was actually adopted by the Tribunal Squad, who began combing the entire Impermanent Sea waters to screen all adult males aged 22 to 28. The reporter believes this will be a protracted battle.

Nan Liujing found this news even funnier than the four-panel comic strip in the newspaper’s centerfold.

This issue’s food column featured a recipe for egg tarts, and Nan Liujing happily added another recipe to his collection—though he already had nearly thirty recipes sitting in his cooking section, half of which he owed to the appreciation banquet on Goldfinch Island.

However, these recipes he’d mastered still accounted for less than one percent of the recipe catalog in his cooking feature, and there were still plenty of empty slots waiting for Nan Liujing to unlock.

Today’s agriculture and animal husbandry column covered how to raise alpacas. Nan Liujing had no immediate use for this knowledge, but he still read through it carefully to commit it to memory. What if he needed it someday?

After finishing the newspaper, it was already 8:30—the low tide should have come and gone long ago.

But when Nan Liujing opened the window and glanced outside, he didn’t have the slightest courage to go out, let alone search the entire beach for supplies.

Are you kidding me? The waves in the nearby waters were already over ten meters high—he could see them even from inside the farmhouse. Going out to the beach in this hellish weather? He wasn’t about to push himself to the limit just for a few supplies.

Having given up on going out, all Nan Liujing could do was tackle some indoor chores.

He had to do some work; otherwise, he’d feel unbearably restless.

So, Nan Liujing took this opportunity to give the place a thorough cleaning.

He swept the floor, mopped it, dusted the furniture with a feather duster, and then disinfected the entire farmhouse using a clear solution made from a mixture of wood ash and water.

The plastic bucket placed under the hole in the roof filled up with rainwater, so Nan Liujing carried it to the bathroom to empty it once. Half an hour later, he went to empty it again.

The wind was howling, and the rain was pouring down; outside, it wasn’t just raining anymore—it was as if the heavens were splashing water down from above.

Nan Liujing was at his wits’ end, so he dug out the hammer—which he’d never used since opening the treasure chest—from the five-drawer chest. Grabbing a wooden plank and some nails, he climbed up onto wooden crates and barrels, clinking and clanking away for quite a while as he held a nail between his teeth, finally plugging the hole from the inside.

But his skills were limited; he couldn’t seal it from the inside, and rainwater still seeped in steadily through the cracks in the wooden boards. Still, at least he managed to extend the time between having to empty the water from half an hour to two hours.

After tidying up the farmhouse inside and out three times, Nan Liujing finally finished digesting his breakfast.

Feeling a huge weight lifted off his shoulders, he slumped onto the sofa and chose the more interesting option between reading a book and browsing the forum.

He pulled out a travelogue titled *Journey Through Heaven and Sea* written by an adventurer and began leafing through it slowly.

Meanwhile, on the forum Nan Liujing hadn’t checked, a heart-stopping rollercoaster ride was unfolding.

Messages were flooding the group chat at breakneck speed.

Li Shechu: It’s dropping! It’s dropping again! It’s down to 63,000! 

Zhao He: This is dropping way too fast. It’s not even 9 o’clock yet—how could so many people have died?

Xu Jia: The numbers just took a sudden nosedive—it’s probably because the tide has started.

Li Shechu: Huh? Are you saying thousands of people went out at this hour to scavenge supplies on the beach? No way! Given the current situation, is it really worth risking their lives for such a pittance?

Xu Jia: It might be a pittance to you, but for some players, the loot from the low tide is their only source of income.

It’s true—even though it’s already the 24th day of the survival game, some players are still barely scraping by. They may have never been able to adapt to this game, or they may be unable to go out to sea due to physical or psychological factors. Others sold their nautical charts to others for supplies right from the start and have since spent nearly all of their supplies.

In any case, these players have long since depleted their island’s native resources. To get enough to eat, they must scavenge supplies left behind by the receding tide and trade them for food with other players in the trading zone.

For Li Shechu, a few planks of wood and scraps of canvas are merely a fraction of his materials, but for these players, they represent tomorrow’s bread and water.

Venturing to the coast during a typhoon certainly involves great risk, but if they don’t go, they’ll go hungry tomorrow.

Some of them may have already gone hungry for several days, because by now, all the players’ nautical charts are nearly exhausted. Without other means of going out to sea, they’ve likely already reached the point where they’re living off their reserves and can no longer obtain food continuously from resource islands.

Food prices in the trading area have also risen; they can’t be exchanged for just a few basic materials anymore.

Li Shechu: …But, sigh. Since things are this tough, why not write a letter asking the committee for help?

Zhao He: There must be some people who can’t write letters, right?

Li Shechu: Huh? Who wouldn’t be able to write a letter?

Zhang Zihan: Plenty of people. For example, people who aren’t very good with tablets—they probably haven’t even seen Brother Xu Jia’s posts on the forum. Then there are the illiterate—they can’t read, so they don’t understand the posts and have no idea what’s going on.

There are also those who didn’t believe in so-called typhoon information to begin with, as well as those who, swayed by these people, remain half-convinced and are unwilling to spend resources writing letters.

Not to mention how other paid mail services charge, but with Nan Liujing, the requirement is that you provide your own stationery. If you can afford the postage, we’ll mail it for free; if you can’t, you’ll need to pay for one set of basic materials.

This includes stationery, pens, and envelopes—you’ll have to figure out how to get these yourself.

There are indeed some players who are reluctant to part with their supplies.

And right at this very moment, these people are paying an even greater price for it.

Li Shechu: It’s down to 61,000! Help! Please, don’t let it drop any further!

Zhao He: The rate of decline has slowed down; the worst of the downturn must have passed.

Li Shechu: Oh my God! I really want to post on the forum. Tell those who can’t even get enough to eat not to go out—I’d even feed them for a whole day, damn it!

Xu Jia: Don’t do anything stupid. How many people can you actually help?

Zhang Zihan: That’s awesome. If you dare to post that, you’ll go bankrupt the very next second. Whether they have supplies or not, everyone on the forum will definitely swarm all over you. When that happens, I’ll push the Leshan Giant Buddha off the cliff for you, and you can go sit on top of it.

Li Shechu: …I was just saying. Kid, you make it sound so scary.

Zhao He: There are a lot of videos of disaster victims on the forum.

As soon as Li Shechu heard this, he immediately closed the group chat and went to the forum to look for posts.

Posts like this were really easy to find—there were seventeen or eighteen just on the front page.

Li Shechu randomly clicked on one and saw that the original poster had uploaded a video with the caption: “Terrifying… Is this the end of the world?”

When he played the video, it showed a player holding a tablet and filming from outside a makeshift shelter.

The footage was blurred by the rain, but thick wooden planks were still visible at the edge of the frame, indicating that this player had installed typhoon guardrails on their makeshift shelter to ensure its safety—and their own.

But other structures on the island weren’t so lucky.

In the video, a building first had its thatched roof blown off by the wind; just a few seconds later, a tree crashed into it, snapping a beam. The player behind the camera gasped and muttered, “It’s over, my shelter… it’s over…”

At the end of the video, the entire building was blown apart by the gale; several planks were swept away by the wind, while the rest collapsed on the spot, turning into a pile of rubble.