Night of Despair

Watching the stutterer neatly store the dried goods before picking up the small barrel and heading outside,

Yu Hong hurriedly followed him, needing to learn where to find water.

The two walked out of the house, and to Yu Hong's surprise, the stutterer didn't go to the well to draw water but instead headed down an old highway.

After about ten minutes,

they found a lower-lying, dilapidated well by the roadside.

The well was shallow, and with the help of light, one could see only a puddle of dark yellow, stinky water at the bottom.

Without saying a word, the stutterer secured the barrel with a rope and lowered it to scoop up water.

"Why not fetch water from the well in the village?" Yu Hong couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

"That... not... drinkable!" the stutterer answered earnestly.

She looked up at Yu Hong as she scooped water, then said,

"From now on, water, comes, from, here!" pointing at the well in front of her.

Yu Hong nodded silently, his mood growing heavier as he watched the stinky water being slowly drawn from the well.

He helped the stutterer seal the barrel to prevent spillage.

They didn't return home but started looking for something in the nearby bushes.

"Must, eat... grass!" the stutterer instructed him.

"Otherwise, sick! Will, die!" she gestured as she explained.

Yu Hong nodded and began to carefully learn which plants she was digging up.

This was extremely valuable knowledge, as eating the wrong thing could lead to poisoning or diarrhea, which in such harsh conditions could mean weakness and death.

After a while of gathering, each of them carried a large bundle back to the house.

The stutterer placed the grass at the window to dry.

Yu Hong carefully recorded the lessons learned using a charcoal pencil, focusing only on the essentials in a simplified form, as long as he could understand it himself.

His recording medium was a piece of newspaper the stutterer had given him earlier.

"Can the dried meat and mushrooms only be bought far away?" Yu Hong took notes and then asked, looking up.

"Can... grow, self," the stutterer struggled to reply, "But, not, worth it!"

Yu Hong nodded, noting this down.

He was about to continue asking questions, but suddenly, a small notebook was handed to him.

The notebook had a white cover with a cartoon mouse on the front, messily titled, "Survival Essentials Handbook—Lin Yiyi."

Yu Hong fell silent for a moment, looking up to see the stutterer holding the notebook and smiling at him with her big yellow teeth.

"Thank you." He took the notebook and started to flip through it.

It meticulously recorded how to fetch water, buy food, identify common wild plants, and where to find them.

The content wasn't much, but it was detailed.

Moreover, it included several villagers from Baiqiu Village that could be contacted, along with their contact information.

Old Yu was listed as the person who made dried meat, Doctor Xu was responsible for medical treatment, and someone named Jenny handled leatherwork and candle making. There were also other villagers' residences marked, but no names were written, clearly indicating unfamiliarity.

Lastly, there was a place called the "post office," located in a forest north of Baiqiu Village.

"What is the post office for?" Yu Hong asked.

"Contact, cities, towns, import, goods, salt... sugar... send, letters..." the stutterer spoke strenuously.

She gestured animatedly with her hands and feet.

"You... must, master... a craft, to, trade, for resources...."

"I understand. I understand all this, but I feel the most crucial issue we must address first is safety," Yu Hong said seriously.

"When you were not here, two Disguisers have already caused trouble... it's too dangerous..."

He rapidly pondered in his mind how to utilize his unique Black Mark to achieve maximum safety.

"No... way..." the stutterer clearly understood this point as well and lowered her head sadly.

"Shadow... nothing can block them. Bugs, as long as there is a crack, can infiltrate."

"They can go through walls!" she gestured.

Through walls??

Yu Hong silently observed the walls of the house, lost in thought.

'This place is too crude, too poorly protected... filled with gaps and holes.' He remembered that the black bugs had come through gaps in the doors and windows, which suggested that they might not be able to go through walls.

He asked the stutterer, and she confirmed his thoughts.

Then, after a careful examination of the house, he quickly concluded that its protection was extremely poor.

"I plan to live alone elsewhere," he whispered. Being alone meant not worrying about Disguisers if no one opened the door.

The stutterer was taken aback.

She had saved many people before, but those people always desired to stay with her a few more days, learn some basic skills before leaving.

But this man in front of her... this man called Yu Hong, had just woken up, his body barely recovered, and he was already thinking of living alone?

Strange.

Strange man.

The stutterer blinked.

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Scared, but your house is too unsafe," Yu Hong said, probably gleaning the essential info from the notebook.

"The main threats are monster bugs and shadows. Though shadows can pass through walls and ignore barriers, they can be scattered with luminous stones.

The monster bugs, on the other hand, can be blocked by doors and walls, as long as you plug the cracks at crucial times. So, with enough luminous stones and a well-sealed house, basic safety can be ensured, right?"

Yu Hong calmly analyzed.

His serious and solemn expression left Stutterer staring in shock.

"Do you want to try? Block the gaps with something, narrow the holes and see if the insects can get in? If they can, how big does the gap need to be, and then make a ventilated screen based on that," Yu Hong asked.

"Also, how exactly is the luminous stone made? Can you teach me?" he asked earnestly.

Stutterer looked at him, unconsciously nodding dumbly.

At that moment, she felt she saw a figure in the depths of her memory that was extremely familiar and dearly missed.

After discussing, they immediately began to prepare.

Stutterer rummaged for tools—hammers, saws, scrap wood, axes, long nails, a bit of everything.

Yu Hong, still weak from a severe illness, and having just recovered from a fever, directed Stutterer to work.

He noticed that Stutterer was very strong, much stronger than his normal state. Her physical constitution was also robust; she had been sleeping on the floor these past few days while he occupied the bed and yet she hadn't fallen ill.

According to the notebook, the black insects had been officially named Blood Tide.

Despite being black insects, why they were named Blood Tide was a mystery, but that wasn't Yu Hong's concern. He just wanted to understand as much as possible about the insects and shadows.

The two were busy the entire day, seemingly because Yu Hong's health had improved a lot, no shadows disturbed them.

By night, the Blood Tide insects also hadn't attacked.

According to Stutterer, Blood Tide usually came every three to five days. Only with sufficient light could all insects be repelled.

Blood Tide relied on light, shadows feared luminous stones.

This was the survival rule that people here relied upon.

The next day, the two continued according to Yu Hong's idea, sawing wood strips, making movable seals, and completely sealing the remaining gaps in doors and windows.

Movable seals could be opened during the day and lowered at night.

The seals were simple, merely Yu Hong's attempt. The more he heard about the dangers and troubles here from Stutterer, the more he wanted to create a stronghold that could guarantee his basic safety, or rather, a safe house.

And Stutterer's house was far from up to the mark.

Not to mention shadows and insects, even the mold stuck in the corners of the house and the dirty, stale air would shorten the lifespan of anyone living there long-term.

Furthermore, there was also the problem of the water source...

He felt that if he kept drinking that dirty water, he probably wouldn't live long either…

In the evening.

Inside the house, Stutterer and Yu Hong stood together, Stutterer holding a candle high in her right hand, its light flickering and dispersing the vast darkness around them.

Hiss...

The crisp sound of crawling insects kept coming from outside the doors and windows, but due to the seal stopping the gaps, the remaining air gap was much smaller than before.

These black bugs could not squeeze in.

"It works!" Yu Hong's face lit with joy; he hadn't expected his casual experiment to actually work.

Stutterer too was smiling goofily, happy.

Because she noticed no black insects coming in, and even if there were a few that slipped through, they were quickly melted by the candlelight.

This way, the candle burned slower, and she wouldn't have to keep buying them from the candle store, sparing her from spending much in this area.

It also made her life much easier.

Just when the two felt successful.

Crack, crack...

Suddenly, a faint gnawing sound came from the outside of the wooden seal.

Whether it was the planks at the gaps or the wooden doors and windows, they all started making the same gnawing noises.

"That's not right! If the insects can't get in, they seem to start gnawing at the doors and windows!!" Yu Hong reacted instantly.

He picked up a wooden stick in his hand, rushed to the wooden door, and forcibly pushed upward, lifting the bottom seal.

Crash!

A muffled sound, and a large number of black bugs squeezed in like a tide, rushing towards the two.

Hiss.

The black bugs rushed into the candlelight, quickly melting, vaporizing, and vanishing into nothing.

The candle also began to burn down faster.

In the bright yellow candlelight, Yu Hong watched this scene, his previous joy slowly fading.

"If they can't get in, they'll gnaw on the house's exterior walls?"

He finally understood why Stutterer's house, despite knowing about the black bugs, had never been sealed by her parents in the past.

"A failure... then?" Stutterer asked cautiously from behind.

"Not a complete failure," Yu Hong shook his head.

A night without words.

Early the next day.

Yu Hong left the village and went to the woods below the hills.

He wandered around the trees in the woods, occasionally knocking with a hammer.

Stutterer, having nothing to do, began to gather some herbs and ink-making plants she recognized.

Her survival relied on trading luminous stones marked with symbols.

According to her, the marked luminous stones worked better than ordinary ones.

The sunlight was lovely, and as Stutterer gathered, she looked up from time to time at Yu Hong, who was making inexplicable movements.

"What... are you, doing?" After watching for a while, she couldn't help but speak up.

"I'm selecting wood and picking a site to build my own safe house," Yu Hong replied.

"You, build, a house yourself?" Stutterer couldn't understand.

Could a house built by oneself really be stronger than one made of stone bricks?