"How else would we explain it? Just say the plants have evolved!" Ren Yuanyang replied with a smile.
Lu Jiamei nodded slightly and climbed onto the roof of the shipping container.
"Qin Haonan, over here!" Lu Jiamei shouted in the direction of the splashing water.
Hearing her call, Qin Haonan immediately rowed his small boat over.
Lu Jiamei seemed to be holding a lantern, making her position very conspicuous.
"Sister Mei, does the boss have any orders?" Qin Haonan asked hurriedly as he got closer.
"Not at the moment, but he asked me to bring you a light," Lu Jiamei said, handing over the transparent jar in her hand.
"A light?" Qin Haonan took the jar in surprise. Looking closely, he realized there was actually a cactus inside.
And the cactus was emitting a glow, just like a small light bulb!
"How is this cactus glowing?" Qin Haonan’s eyes widened as he asked with curiosity.
"This is a Fluorescent Cactus. It naturally glows..." Lu Jiamei explained.
"There’s such a magical plant!" Qin Haonan found it incredibly novel.
"Take it. Just be a little careful when you use it. We’re stuck in this spot, so it’s best not to do anything that makes us seem too out of the ordinary," Lu Jiamei instructed.
Qin Haonan was taken aback for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, I understand!"
"You can stop patrolling for now. Tie your tow rope to the speedboat. You rest for the first half of the night and take watch for the second," Lu Jiamei continued.
This time, Qin Haonan didn’t refuse. "Okay, Sister Mei, I’ll tie the rope and then get some rest!"
Lu Jiamei nodded slightly and walked back to the speedboat.
Using the light from the Fluorescent Cactus, Qin Haonan tied the tow rope to the speedboat. He then deliberately put some distance between his boat and the speedboat before heading back inside his boat’s canopy.
The canopy was sealed well enough that no light could be seen from the outside.
Looking at the glow from the Fluorescent Cactus, Qin Haonan felt a sense of warmth. After bailing out a little of the water that had seeped in, he found a spot, lay down, and was soon snoring.
After Xin Wan finished tidying up, Ren Yuanyang picked up his phone. It was time for his daily check-in on the outside world.
The regional channel was as lively as ever.
"Can anyone help me? I can’t hold on much longer! I’m so hungry and tired!"
"We’re all in the same boat. We’re all just trying to save our own skins; nobody can help anyone else."
"I think I just saw a body in the water..."
"Dude upstairs, what are you thinking? You can’t lose your humanity!"
"Humanity? Only the living have the right to talk about that!"
"It’s just two-legged sheep! If you process it, it’s no different from any other animal!"
"You’re a real animal!"
"As long as I can survive, what does it matter if I become an animal?"
"Forget it. I’d rather just die."
"Don’t say that, man. Hold on a little longer. I believe Heaven is merciful!"
"Yeah, we’ve already survived in this endless rain for three months. That’s a miracle in itself! It means Heaven has definitely left us a chance to survive. Don’t give up!"
"You guys are full of shit! If Heaven was so merciful, it wouldn’t have sent this torrential rain! This is definitely to purify Blue Star! It’s nature’s punishment against us!"
"Maybe we’re the real parasites on Blue Star? Our very existence just makes the environment worse!"
Seeing the discussion on the regional channel, Lu Jiamei and Xin Wan felt increasingly fortunate to have met Ren Yuanyang.
They never wanted to go back to their old days of drifting at sea, and they especially never wanted to feel the pangs of hunger again.
"Boss, at our current rate of consumption, the rice will be gone in three days, tops!" Xin Wan brought up the food issue again.
Ren Yuanyang nodded slightly. "Three days should be enough. But just in case, let’s use more of the meat. Break out the compressed biscuits and instant noodles to supplement things."
"Okay, I understand!" Xin Wan nodded in acknowledgment.
Lu Jiamei paused, then asked, "Boss, I thought you said the rice would be mature in a couple of days!"
"Just about. It never hurts to be prepared," Ren Yuanyang replied.
Xin Wan, standing to the side, looked at them quizzically. She spent most of her time on the speedboat. The last time she’d even been inside the shipping container was to help build the small pond, and she hadn’t been in for the past two days. Naturally, she knew nothing about the state of the rice paddies.
"Boss, is it really that fast?" Xin Wan couldn’t help but ask.
Lu Jiamei glanced at Ren Yuanyang and grinned. "See, Boss? It’s not just me saying you’re fast. Xin Wan thinks you’re fast, too!"
Ren Yuanyang spread his hands. "I spent two or three days strengthening the rice to shorten its growth cycle! Now, it can mature in five days."
"Five days!" Xin Wan couldn’t help but exclaim.
Lu Jiamei said happily, "A new harvest every five days! We really won’t have to worry about food anymore!"
Ren Yuanyang nodded. "But we can’t just eat rice. It would be best if we could find some vegetables."
"Didn’t we already get potatoes?" Lu Jiamei said.
"Potatoes count as a staple, not a vegetable," Ren Yuanyang shook his head.
Lu Jiamei shrugged. "Fair enough. But it’s not like we can find any other vegetables right now."
Xin Wan was a little speechless. "If other survivors heard you complaining about only having staple foods and no vegetables, they’d probably curse you to death!"
Other survivors were so desperate they were considering eating corpses, yet Ren Yuanyang wasn’t satisfied with just rice and fish—he wanted vegetables too!
’The gap between people really is immense!’
Just then, a message on the regional channel caught Ren Yuanyang’s attention.
"Is it just me, or does the water seem a little rough today?"
"Not for me. Everything feels normal."
"The guy above must have a boat, right?"
"How’d you know?"
"If you were on a plank or a raft, you wouldn’t be saying that!"
"No way, is the water really getting rough?"
"It definitely seems to be rocking more than before!"
"Is this world even trying to let us live?"
"What do you mean, ’not let you live’? Heaven gave you more than three months to find a boat. If you couldn’t find one, you can’t blame anyone else!"
"Fuck, easy for you to say. Where the hell was I supposed to look?"
"Then I guess you’re just unlucky. I happened to find a small boat!"
"Was there no one on the boat?"
"Of course not!"
"With all this rain, shouldn’t the boat have sunk?"
"It actually didn’t. The cabin is full of water, but it’s still floating on the surface!"
"How is that possible? You’ve got to be kidding!"
"To the guy above, he might not be kidding. Some small pleasure boats are made of fiberglass. Even if they fill up with water, they’ll still float. A lot of the boats in parks are made of this material!"
"You know, now that you mention it, my boat does look like a park boat!"
"You’re way too lucky, man! Practically the chosen one!"
Seeing this, Ren Yuanyang spoke up. "Have you guys felt the water getting choppier?"
Lu Jiamei and Xin Wan immediately shook their heads. On the speedboat, they really couldn’t feel such slight changes.
And the shipping container was too heavy to be affected by minor waves.
But seeing how certain some survivors on the regional channel were, Ren Yuanyang’s brow furrowed.
’If a storm is really brewing, survival is about to get a lot harder!’

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