There was no one guarding the construction site, and no lights were on—it was pitch black.
If Teacher Lu (Lu Qingyuan) hadn't stopped the car, Chu Yian might not have noticed they were about to pass it by.
They parked the car by the roadside and turned on their phone flashlights to walk in.
The concrete mixer and other heavy equipment had already been hauled away. Cement bags, sand, gravel, and red bricks were left behind because they weren't worth much.
Teacher Lu frowned slightly, as if facing a big problem. "Are these materials still usable?"
Every time, the NPCs playing successful professionals always ran into their own blind spots of knowledge.
"If we want to renovate the basement, these are exactly the things we need."
Since the Black Mist incident, Chu Yian had learned quite a bit in the game—like how to drive a tractor with one hand, or how to mix top-quality cement mortar.
"There's still some space in the car. What else can we take back now?"
"Hmm... cement, probably."
Chu Yian pointed at the stacked bags of cement nearby. These were easier to carry, though still heavy.
She felt the weight a little, but Teacher Lu picked up a bag with one hand.
They filled the last bit of space in the car and headed back.
It was already 3 a.m.
They only dared go out at night due to the heat, which meant they still hadn't rested yet.
The pineapple juice they made earlier was all gone, so Chu Yian took some chilled well water to cool a watermelon. She cut it in half, and the cold, sweet watermelon refreshed their tired bodies before they continued working.
Teacher Lu carried cement, and Chu Yian carried the lighter bricks.
They made three trips back and forth, filling the courtyard with building materials.
Game Day 7, 7 a.m.
The weather was growing hotter, and both of their energy supplies were nearly depleted.
Chu Yian fetched a bucket of water from the well, showered with cool water, then collapsed straight onto the sofa. Neither she nor Teacher Lu exchanged any words and both fell asleep immediately.
She was awakened by hunger at 3 p.m.
Teacher Lu was still sleeping, but at her movement, he woke up as well.
"Teacher Lu, what do you want to eat?"
Chu Yian turned to ask, thinking he had also been woken by hunger.
"Anything's fine."
Their generators only powered the refrigerator and the cooking appliances now. They used about 6 liters of diesel daily. Chu Yian had bought diesel twice, totaling 2,000 liters, more than enough for the coming days.
She moved the cooking area to the basement and pulled out some chicken, lamb, potatoes, onions, and green beans from the fridge.
The rice cooker prepared the rice.
Chicken was cooked with potatoes and green beans as braised chicken stew.
Lamb was sliced and stir-fried with onions, cumin, and various spices.
Soon, the basement filled with the aroma of food.
Unfortunately, the dining area was very basic—no table, just cardboard boxes used to hold the bowls. It was clear they desperately needed a table.
Not just a table—
Although Chu Yian had already worked on the basement, there was still a lot left to finish.
According to Teacher Lu, tonight's workload would still be heavy. After eating, they should rest well to have energy for the night's work.
Chu Yian finished her meal and went upstairs, opening the treasure chest during a break to pull out a treasure.
[A small hand-cranked fan that blows wind]
[Note: To be returned at the end of this game round]
[Item Description: Hoo hoo, the wind speed isn't very fast, but it's hand-cranked and doesn't use electricity~]
It was a pink fan shaped like a cartoon pig.
At the back was a winding key shaped like a pig's tail.
Chu Yian looked at the pig fan, and the pig fan seemed to look back at her.
For some reason, she felt like this fan was the treasure chest mocking her.
Wasting her time—she might as well take a nap in the basement.
8:00 p.m.
They got up one after another.
All the basement lights were turned on, illuminating the space brightly.
The basement was emptied again.
The flame-retardant boards made their debut.
They lined the entire perimeter and ceiling of the basement with flame-retardant boards.
This alone took almost the entire night.
By daytime, they moved the beds down to sleep.
Meal times changed from three times during the day to twice daily—once at night, once before dawn.
Game Day 8
Under their design, the storage area was demolished and moved to the innermost part of the house to prevent dampness from spoiling the vegetables Chu Yian stored.
They built a stove platform out of bricks so Chu Yian wouldn't have to squat on the floor while cooking. The dining table from upstairs was also moved downstairs.
Besides this, they built two rudimentary beds out of bricks.
Each bed frame was the size of a single bed, raised about 15 cm off the floor.
This was mainly to give both of them a place to sleep while keeping moisture away from the ground.
After finishing the beds, they planned to build a partition in the middle to provide privacy, as they were male and female.
However, they only managed to build half a meter of the wall before running out of bricks.
Game Day 9, 3 a.m.
They went out again.
This time, they only made two trips before dawn.
The length of nighttime was shrinking. It had started with darkness at 7 p.m. and dawn at 6 a.m., but now it was 9 p.m. dark and 4:30 a.m. light.
Not only was night shrinking, the temperature was rising. Even the coolest nights were no lower than 20°C.
They lived in the suburbs, but the usual frog croaks at night and bird songs in the day were almost gone.
All these signs indicated things were getting worse.
Back at the rental, Teacher Lu unloaded everything from the car, and as usual, Chu Yian fetched two buckets of water from the well for their daily water use.
But this time, the rope was fully extended, yet the water level was still just short of the rope's end.
"Teacher Lu, the water rope isn't long enough anymore."
It wasn't that the rope was too short—it was that the groundwater was decreasing.
Teacher Lu frowned as he looked at the well.
"How many cases of bottled water have you stocked?"
"Around sixteen cases."
Each case held 24 bottles of 550 ml mineral water, totaling 384 bottles—meaning they could drink about 17 bottles per day on average.
Chu Yian thought her water stockpile was enough for drinking.
But her "use" only accounted for drinking water.
What about other daily uses—washing dishes, vegetables, clothes, showering, flushing the toilet...?
"We need a water storage tank."
Teacher Lu looked at the bricks they had just brought back. Making a partition wall was less important than building a water tank. They needed to spend resources where it mattered most.
"Preferably 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 1 meter high."
If the well dried up, they had to ensure the storage tank held enough water to last at least a week.