Chapter 10: Knelt Down

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Knelt Down

The Rose Corridor remained completely still. No movement naturally meant no refusal.

Huai Yu carefully raised her fingers, avoiding the long, steel-needle-like thorns, and slowly selected three flowers to snap off. It took quite a bit of effort, but since she had built a house all by herself, what was wrong with wanting things to be a little more refined?

The three roses she picked featured full pink blooms as well as plump, budding flowers. Their green leaves had serrated edges, and their tender stems still bore thorns of various lengths. But their beauty was undeniable.

Happily, she arranged the flowers in her makeshift "vase"—a hollow brick—and placed it diagonally above her maroon sleeping bag. At the doorway, the wisteria gently swayed, mirroring the slight rustling of the large pinecones overhead. All her hard work felt incredibly worthwhile. However, the room was still quite crude.

Huai Yu clapped her hands and cheered herself up. Next, she was going to make herself a mattress!

Long yellow thatch grass grew everywhere. Though not densely packed, it was abundant and easily accessible. Having withered through autumn and weathered the winter snow, the grass was bone-dry by spring—making it the natural, perfect material for a mattress. Even without a knife, a gentle bend was all it took to snap the main stem with a crisp CRACK. One by one, whenever she gathered a small handful, she tied them up and tossed them outside her treehouse.

While walking back and forth wasn’t the most efficient method, it at least allowed her to stretch her stiff back. When it came to finding ways to ease physical labor, Huai Yu considered herself somewhat of an expert.

It was a pity she didn’t have a watch, and the broadcasts only announced the time in the mornings. She could only estimate the hour based on the sun’s angle. By the time the sun turned a deep orange, hovering just above the distant mountain peaks, Huai Yu stretched luxuriously, groaning as she worked the stiffness out of her back. She carried her final bundle of dry grass back, deciding that the first phase of her mattress project was officially complete.

Next, while there was still daylight, she planned to weave the mattress! Otherwise, if she just scattered the dry grass on the ground, she would wake up to find it pushed out in all directions.

However, she quickly revised this plan. Weaving a mattress was an advanced skill she clearly lacked; after a few attempts, her creations simply fell apart. But it didn’t matter. What she lacked in craftsmanship, she could make up for in sheer volume.

Her non-stop harvesting from morning to evening had yielded a sizable pile of dry grass in the clearing before her door. No matter how she arranged it, there would definitely be enough for a mattress. Huai Yu measured the length of the stalks, finding them to be a good 1.2 or 1.3 meters long. Satisfied, she turned her attention back to the gray bricks.

For a 1.2-meter-wide bed, she stacked two layers of gray bricks as a base, then built a small perimeter wall to create a recessed sleeping area. It looked exactly like an embedded bed frame. The only regret was the lack of a soft headboard, but it was still more than good enough.

The gray bricks were large, heavy, and notably taller than standard red bricks. Even without cement, laying them down as a low wall made them sturdy enough that they wouldn’t shift easily. She didn’t have to worry about them toppling over and crushing her in the middle of the night. With a two-layer elevated base, she also wouldn’t have to worry about her bed getting soaked if a sudden downpour caused water to seep into the room.

She laid the dry grass horizontally inside the frame, smoothing it out. Since she had gathered so much, she added an extra thick layer.

Wow! By the time the grass was level with the top of the bricks, Huai Yu couldn’t resist diving straight in.

So comfortable! So liberating! Although it was only 1.2 meters wide, compared to her restrictive sleeping bag, this bed was absolute heaven!

After all, even in a sleeping bag, lying directly on the cold, hard ground was incredibly uncomfortable; the bag just took the edge off. It was just a pity she didn’t have a quilt, so she still had to lay her sleeping bag out over the grass. Still, free from the frigid, unyielding floor, she was sure to sleep exceptionally well tonight!

Since gathering the dry grass had been no easy feat, she bundled up the large unused portion while there was still light left, storing it safely inside her little room. With bundles of grass stacked neatly against the wall, wasn’t this its own kind of wealth?

Perhaps because it was going to rain, the night sky looked heavy and overcast, completely devoid of moonlight and stars. Kneeling on her grass mattress, Huai Yu slurped down a pouch of nutrient fluid with a loud GULP, then expertly wriggled into her sleeping bag.

Tomorrow... As sleepiness washed over her, she forced herself to think about her basic necessities. Shelter was secured. Next up was food and clothing. First of all, she hadn’t properly brushed her teeth or washed up in days. She cringed at the thought of her usually refined self being so unkempt. However, the daily physical labor had been so exhausting that now that she finally relaxed, her thoughts faded after barely two passes, and she fell into a deep slumber.

Outside, the spring breeze swaggered by, bringing with it a vibrant sense of life.

However, despite her grand ambitions the night before, Huai Yu woke up the next morning feeling completely lost.

She had barely managed to build a house, but expecting her to weave cloth and make clothes... that was truly asking too much of her. But her current clothes were mere rags. Since she had no change of clothes, she couldn’t even take a bath after sweating buckets every day! It was pure agony! Was a genius like her really not worthy of having a few nice outfits?

As for food, she still had her nutrient fluids. Even if they wouldn’t last a whole month, surviving another half-month wouldn’t be an issue. Since she wouldn’t starve, that wasn’t an immediate priority.

"Should I visit the trading market?" she wondered, feeling torn. Then she looked down at her tattered clothes, highly doubting that the bus would even let her on board.

After some thought, she could only cast her gaze far into the distance toward the base of the Sixty-Ninth District. Since she had successfully traded for a waterproof tarp, was it possible... she could also trade for a couple of outfits? But it was only early spring. Even in the massive mountains, there probably wasn’t anything edible yet. What could she possibly use to trade?

She sat on the grass, resting her chin in her hands as she pondered. A moment later, Huai Yu remembered an even more critical issue that nearly made her jump out of her skin.

"That’s right! Girls... get periods every month, don’t they? And it’s not like they give advance warning! Help! Help! Help!" she thought in panic.

She shot up from the ground, staring gravely toward Sanqing Mountain. It seemed that a treasure hunt up the mountain could brook no delay!

Glancing at the layers of roses swaying in the wind, Huai Yu let out a sigh. "It’s all well and good that you’re pretty, but it’s not like you grow fruit I can eat..."

The resentment in her words was so heavy that the Rose Corridor actually froze in its swaying. The very next second, its vines began to thrash wildly. Huai Yu immediately stared in panic at the Mutant Value detector in front of her!

Then, with a heavy THUD, she dropped straight to her knees. "I was just grumbling because I’m exhausted from work! I’m sorry! I’m begging you!"

She gave a sincere, deep bow, burying her head low.

The next moment, however, her eyes locked with a pair of beady, dark little eyes peeking out from the ground.