CHAPTER 358: CHAPTER 337: PREPARATION

Yao Wei knew about the small umbrella.

She had seen it before on television, in a cheesy drama. At a critical moment, the male lead suddenly said he hadn’t bought a small umbrella, and the female lead said she had brought one, then took it out.

Of course, the subsequent scene wasn’t shown in detail.

But Yao Wei, with her strong logical reasoning ability, quickly traced it back to a movie she had watched before and found traces of the small umbrella, thereby understanding its use.

At the time, Lu Xi’an was a bit speechless. Since when did this woman’s research skills become so strong?!

But to be honest, he was also quite enthusiastic about discussing this topic with Yao Wei for quite a while.

Perhaps two people who care about each other easily get engrossed in these things...

"Do you need my help?"

Yao Wei suddenly asked.

Lu Xi’an kissed Yao Wei and said, "We have work to do tomorrow, so there’s no rush."

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Hmm, let’s wait until we find the small umbrella."

Lu Xi’an was taken aback and couldn’t help but turn to look at Yao Wei again.

Yao Wei asked, "Do you still want to watch TV?"

Lu Xi’an pulled himself together, looked away, and continued to gaze at the screen, "Yes. Let’s watch TV properly."

"Hmm."

Yao Wei responded and lay side by side with Lu Xi’an.

Their shoulders and arms touching, hands clasped together, holding the Fungus Stone as usual. Lu Xi’an fell asleep first. Yao Wei turned off the TV and said, "Gou, turn off the lights."

Nothing more was said through the night.

The next day, after waking up, they carried on as usual: freshening up, working out, and then making breakfast.

However, after these daily routines, what followed was different from usual.

They didn’t find ways to entertain themselves or go searching for food—after all, their wanderings around the mountain had already built up some food reserves.

They took tools from the car, cutting wood, shaping, assembling... all to manually craft their small boat.

The hull of this small boat didn’t need to be large, just big enough to hold them both, like the boat of Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong.

For the two of them, who were Type A Neo-Humans with extraordinary strength, it wasn’t a difficult task.

In addition to their previous experience with making masts, they were now quite adept at it.

It only took them a day to almost finish the hull, with the mast already raised.

Next, they needed to wait for the sail materials from Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong.

That day, the east wind still blew, and Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong were out at sea early in the morning, sailing eastward against the current.

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei, while working out, glanced at them briefly and didn’t pay much attention.

Considering the headwind journey, preparing on East Island, and gathering cargo, it would likely take quite some time, and one round trip seemed improbable that day.

Therefore, they didn’t hope to see them back by evening.

And the situation was just as they expected. When night fell and the moon was high, Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong’s boat had not arrived.

Even another day, or two days later, when the east wind had died, their boat still hadn’t appeared on the sea.

This made Lu Xi’an somewhat worried, and on the fourth day, he asked Yao Wei, "Do you think something might have happened to them?"

Yao Wei thought for a moment and said, "They probably haven’t; it’s not their first time at sea, after all this time."

"True." Lu Xi’an nodded.

Then Yao Wei added, "But there might be unexpected circumstances, you never know."

Lu Xi’an: "..."

But fortunately, things didn’t develop in an unforeseeable direction; Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong did arrive.

After Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei finished talking, they saw a small boat appear on the horizon, slowly drawing near.

They immediately descended halfway down the hill, waiting patiently on the eastern shore.

After quite a while, they finally saw the sailboat approaching with the wind.

However, the load on the boat was heavy, making the hull sink deeply into the water, and even with the tailwind, the speed was much slower than before.

By the time the boat reached the shore, some more time had passed.

Hu Xiaodong eagerly got off the boat and quickly said to Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei, "We brought food, seeds, and sailcloth, a full boatload. Please take a look."

The sail’s canvas was enormous, covering the water barrels filled with food. Hu Dong struggled to lift it open.

Judging by the canvas’s appearance, it seemed to have been processed already. The material was the same as the sail on the boat of Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong; getting wet was no longer an issue. It only needed some trimming, mounting on the mast, and a bit of fine-tuning before it could be used.

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei took hold of the sail and examined it—when the canvas fell into their hands, it seemed to become lighter. They held it effortlessly, unlike Hu Dong’s struggle.

Hu Xiaodong explained, "We’ve already completed this sail, modeled it after the one on our boat. You both can rest assured."

"We weren’t sure how big your boat would be, so we made this sail a bit bigger than necessary. We initially wanted to make it even larger, but materials were really limited, and we couldn’t. We’re truly sorry."

Lu Xi’an inspected it and smiled, saying, "Why are you apologizing? I’m not blaming you. This size is perfect. Thank you."

He then turned his attention to the food and seeds.

On the boat of Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong, there were still four barrels, but now one was filled with barley, another with sweet potatoes, one with potatoes, and the last with potato seeds.

After confirming these items, Lu Xi’an asked, "Why did it take you so long this trip?"

Hu Xiaodong, worried that Lu Xi’an might be angry, quickly explained, "Sorry, sorry, it’s our fault!"

"We just wanted to make sure everything was settled before bringing it to you two, but we didn’t realize it’d take so long. We’ve kept you waiting."

"We didn’t mean to delay, it’s just that processing the canvas took a lot of time. We needed to find suitable fabric, cut it, and apply waterproof treatment..."

Lu Xi’an interjected, seeing how cautiously Hu Xiaodong spoke, "Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t blaming you."

"I was just confirming the time you need for the round trip and handling items, to see if you could make another trip before the tide recedes."

Upon hearing this, Hu Xiaodong breathed a silent sigh of relief, then looked at Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei with wide eyes, asking, "You two want... to get more items?"

Lu Xi’an nodded, "Yes, that’s right."

He pointed at the four barrels that were still on the boat, saying, "If it’s not an issue, I hope you can make another trip with these."

Hu Xiaodong nodded repeatedly, saying, "No problem! It’s not an issue at all! It’s only been five days; the tide won’t recede for at least another five days."

"Last time, we were delayed by making the sail. This time, we won’t be working on sails, so five days is more than enough for a round trip."

Lu Xi’an asked once more, "Do you need a rest today?"

Hu Xiaodong looked at Lu Xi’an cautiously, answering, "Can we rest? If we don’t take a break, we might run out of strength halfway."

Lu Xi’an said, "Then rest if you need to. Take a break today, and set off tomorrow. Use today’s time to teach us how to operate the boat."

Hu Xiaodong nodded, "No problem."

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei each grabbed two barrels, saying, "You can rest here for a while; we’ll be back shortly."

Saying this, they carried the barrels back to the mountaintop.

After transferring the contents of the barrels into their own barrels, Yao Wei carried the empty barrels, and Lu Xi’an raised their newly made boat above his head, returning with Yao Wei to the East Coast.

This act of effortlessly raising a wooden boat with one hand startled Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong once again.

After putting the boat down, Lu Xi’an used a small blade to trim the sail slightly, then mounted it onto the mast, pushed the boat into the water to test it, and seeing no issues, asked Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong to teach him boat handling.

Both he and Yao Wei learned quickly, possibly thanks to the strengthened attributes of Neo-Humans with Type A enhancements.

In any case, it didn’t take long for them to grasp all the essentials of boat handling. Due to time constraints, they decided not to follow Hu Xiaodong to explore the large ship mentioned on East Island.

—They feared their inexperience might delay them, preventing timely round trips.

They reckoned they had plenty of time and preferred to wait for the next tide to reconsider.

In the following days, apart from eating, exercising, and daily routines, they focused on practicing boat handling.

They mastered this skill completely in just two days.

In the meantime, two days were enough for Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong to return to East Island and bring back four full barrels of food and seeds to Caiyang Mountain.

This time, Lu Xi’an instructed Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong to leave the barrels behind, saying that next time, when the tide comes, they should bring water lamps directly.

Though somewhat reluctant, Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong eventually agreed. After resting, they departed with an empty boat.

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei returned to the mountaintop and repeatedly attempted to contact Institute 923. They finally got through, asking Luo Ping to prepare and come here, bringing extra barrels.

So Luo Ping brought several barrels, along with Chai Xin, Liu Hua, and Tang Er, timing their arrival with the tide’s retreat. They regrouped with Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei briefly, taking away more than half the barley, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and potato seeds.

They had also brought various vegetables from their base, as well as eggs.

Additionally, they brought a bag of rice, a bag of millet, and two large barrels of corn.

In this way, Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei’s supplies were sufficient once again, alleviating worries about food and drink.

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei arranged a plentiful seafood meal for Luo Ping and the others and duly saw them off after the feast.

Once separated, their days consisted of practicing boat handling, alongside daily routines and workouts, waiting for the tide to return. When they spotted Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong’s boat on the horizon, they filled up the father and son’s barrels with water and waited on the East Coast.

Next, they would follow Hu Xiaodong and Hu Dong, sailing towards East Island.