Chapter 25

Shen Xin lacked the materials to craft an upgraded fishing rod, and Jing Yan couldn’t find a way to get to the mainland.

The two could only head back to the town first.

There was quite a distance between North Mountain Cave and the town.

After knocking out the forty-second slime, Shen Xin asked hesitantly, “I feel like the slimes have gotten stronger… Am I mistaken?”

Jing Yan also felt something was off, saying, “I think they have indeed gotten stronger. Perhaps it’s because we cleared the first level, and now the monsters outside have been upgraded?”

“Probably.”

The two parted in the small town. The flower-viewing festival’s venue had been cleared, so Shen Xin returned to her farm.

She first put away the items she’d collected today into their respective chests, then tossed the copper ore into the furnace, and finally moved the newly acquired seed analyzer out.

The seed analyzer was very easy to use. The instrument had two storage chests, one on top of the other. The upper chest could hold up to ninety-nine packets of random seeds, and every three minutes, it would identify a seed packet’s type, which it would then store in the lower chest.

Shen Xin placed all forty-one packets of random seeds from her storage into the upper chest. While they were being analyzed, she watered the remaining plants that hadn’t been watered earlier in the morning.

After finishing her tasks, she crafted new beehive boxes from some timber, arranging them neatly in rows of three by three with one unit of space between each hive, and plowed the land around them to plant thirty flowers for spring.

All of the flowers would bloom five days later.

Shen Xin watered again, feeling inexplicably more tired than usual.

“That’s strange. Maybe I’m just tired from defeating the boss today?” She sat down for a while and only managed to stand up after eating a few strawberries.

She took out the seeds that had been identified: potatoes, blueberries, taro, corn… Every packet contained something different.

Potatoes, cabbage, and melons were the only types that could be planted in spring, but there weren’t many, only five or six packets. Shen Xin wanted to plant them, but the bone-deep exhaustion made her feel unable to do so.

“What’s wrong?” She felt more uncomfortable by the minute, and finally, she could only crawl into bed to sleep.

Day 19 of spring.

【 Congratulations, player! Your Farmer level has increased by 1, and the probability of obtaining high-quality crops has tripled. 】

【 Yesterday, the commission for the sale of your items was settled, and you received the following: 】

【 Small Health Potion × 1, Wood × 5, and 5 silver coins and 11 copper coins. 】

Shen Xin woke up, feeling that something was off. She’d never been this exhausted before!

Normally, even if she worked until midnight, she’d wake up the next day feeling as fresh as a newborn baby, with not a trace of yesterday’s fatigue remaining.

But today, she suspected that someone had dragged her onto a highway and run over her ten times with a steamroller! Why did her entire body ache and hurt? This wasn’t reasonable.

Struggling to crawl out of bed, Shen Xin opened the door to see those more than two hundred patches of land in her field that needed to be watered.

She felt like she was hallucinating; the fields appeared to have expanded before her eyes, and she didn’t even have the strength to fetch water.

“Could it be that I’ve been afflicted with a debuff?” Shen Xin opened her Character Manual, checking the Status window but finding nothing abnormal.

Reluctantly, she picked the matured beans and eggplants from the field, then decided she couldn’t move anymore.

It just so happened that she had acquired a sofa yesterday, so Shen Xin carelessly tossed it into her house, not bothering whether it matched the interior or not. She flopped onto it without wanting to move.

“I wish I could just lie here all day…”

When Jing Yan arrived, Xiao Feng and the carpenter had already spent a good half of the day repairing the animal shelter. He knocked on the door, and after a while, Shen Xin leisurely opened it.

As soon as they saw each other, both parties noticed the clear signs of exhaustion on the other’s face.

“What a coincidence. Were you also flattened by a steamroller last night?”

Shen Xin didn’t have the energy to bicker and simply led him into the living room. Jing Yan saw the sofa and lay down, complaining lazily, “I don’t want to move… What do I do?”

Shen Xin pushed him away. “Get up, I want to sit too.”

Jing Yan shifted over, but as soon as Shen Xin sat down, Jing Yan leaned over and pressed himself against her.

“Don’t crush me; you’re heavy.”

“I can’t move anymore. If you shift your center of gravity toward me, we’ll balance out.”

And so, they leaned against each other in a “human” shape.

“What do we do?” Shen Xin asked weakly. “I don’t feel like cooking…”

“It’s fine,” Jing Yan replied equally weakly. “I don’t feel like eating…”

“At this rate, we’ll starve to death.”

“But eating will kill us from exhaustion.”

“You’re right.”

“Shh, quiet. Too tired.”

Silence.

“I don’t know why, but just reading this exchange has made me tired too.”

“That sofa looks so comfortable, I want one.”

“Wake up, wake up! Do you think you lack a sofa? No, you lack someone to lie on the sofa with you.”

[Thank you, dear sis, for reminding me. I’m not worthy. I’m outta here.]

[What happened? I was gone for a minute, and two big shots had already taken their romance from dating to cohabitation?!]

[I’ve called my boyfriend over at light speed to lie down with me on the sofa!]

Some fans took screenshots of this scene and posted it on social media platforms.

#Paradise’s dating game is real!

For a while now, the conversation surrounding Paradise had been centered around “survival,” Mingyue, and Zhou Yi. The joke of a romance subplot was brought up once again, quickly catching the attention of some.

It was early morning when the two flopped onto the sofa, and Shen Xin’s sofa happened to be right next to the window.

The golden sunlight was cleanly divided by the window frame and doorframe into geometric shapes, shining diagonally onto the sofa and its occupants. Combined with the fact that Shen Xin and Jing Yan looked incredibly comfortable as they lay sprawled on the sofa, this scene exuded an air of tranquility.

Thus, the thread’s topic slowly deviated from the original, spreading from the gaming section to the relationship section.

#The sofa is ready—where do I pick up my partner?

#How I want to spend my weekends with my boyfriend (or girlfriend)!

Within half an hour, a mass of photos mimicking Shen Xin and Jing Yan’s poses began appearing under the thread.

This was Paradise‘s third time making it to the hot searches—but this time, the developers weren’t in a position to celebrate.

“What’s going on with these two?” Zhong Suwen asked the tech personnel, “How did they become like this?”

The technician explained, “Director, you said you wanted to increase the difficulty for these two players, so we adjusted the parameters for their accounts layer by layer. However, after analyzing the data, only the highest difficulty setting could cause them to experience obstacles.”

Zhong Suwen stared in disbelief.

“Quick, pull it back!” Zhong Suwen held his forehead in his hand. “This is too obvious. Our game is set to release in mid-July, and with so many negative reviews, what if potential customers see and decide they don’t want to buy?”

People had already started reacting to the question of why the game was so exhausting. Some even said that they had to work during the day, so if the game was going to be this tiring, they wouldn’t consider purchasing it.

How dare they?

What’s more, this operation was initially meant to sicken Shen Xin and Jing Yan, but now, it had inadvertently added fuel to their rising popularity.

Zhong Suwen blamed the technician, who felt bitter inside. The one who asked for the difficulty to be increased was also the director, yet the one who blamed him for doing so was also the director. Being a corporate slave was no easy task.

“Hey, big shot, the animal shelter is almost fixed.” Seeing the door slightly ajar, Xiao Feng knocked twice before entering, only to see the two slumped together on the sofa.

“Sorry for interrupting!” Xiao Feng quickly closed the door and backed out.

“What is it?” Shen Xin sat up, shaking off sleep. As soon as she did, Jing Yan fell back onto the sofa.

“Hm?” The two had fallen asleep unconsciously, and Shen Xin stretched her fingers as she woke. “I feel… less tired? How about you?”

Jing Yan sat up as well and rubbed his stomach. “Hungry.”

“I’ll go make breakfast.” Shen Xin remembered that someone had come to find her just now. “Xiao Feng? Where are you going?”

Xiao Feng stopped, turning back to give Shen Xin an awkward smile. “I-I’m going to fix the animal shelter. It’s almost done, so I just came to tell you.”

“That was fast.” Shen Xin was a bit surprised; she thought it would take until this afternoon.

“Yep, by the way, let me explain how to use the animal shelter while I’m here.”

Seeing that Shen Xin didn’t seem upset, Xiao Feng secretly let out a sigh of relief.

“The small animal shelters can raise chickens, ducks, and rabbits, while the large ones can accommodate cows, sheep, and pigs.”

“Each shelter can hold ten animals, regardless of species.”

“Just like with the granaries, feed storage is built into the roof.”

Shen Xin looked at the two beautiful shelters, their dark red roofs adorned with exquisite windows, sturdy and solid…

Indeed, her humble abode was the ugliest structure on the farm. Both the granaries and the shelters far surpassed her dwelling in aesthetics.

Shen Xin returned to the farm, cooked two dishes, and ate them with Jing Yan. Just as Xiao Feng finished repairing the animal shelter, Shen Xin handed him one of the dishes to take home.

Xiao Feng, flattered by this gesture, asked Shen Xin, “Do you know how to repair the workshop?”

“No, I haven’t learned how yet.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Shen Xin then said, “But that’s fine. I’ll ask you to repair the storehouse in a few days.”

Xiao Feng thanked her again.

Under Jing Yan’s urging, Shen Xin contacted the old carpenter to reserve a time to repair the workshop.

The workshop wasn’t large, but it had intricate designs. The old carpenter would come tomorrow and wouldn’t finish until the twenty-fourth.

“I’m going out to buy some chicks. What about you?” Shen Xin asked Jing Yan, who was following her.

Jing Yan had plans of his own. “I haven’t figured out how to cross the lake full of piranhas yet, so I’ll go hunt some monsters on the island today.”

With that, the two parted ways.

Shen Xin went to town. After counting her money, she found she could only afford three chick purchases.

“You can buy one male and one female. Later, leave some of their eggs in the animal shelter, and the hens will hatch the chicks three days later.” The owner of the poultry shop was nothing like Old He; he was quite kind and even offered advice to his customers.

Shen Xin thought this was a good idea—why spend extra money on chicks when she could have them hatched for free?

In the end, she purchased one male and one female chick, along with a female duckling.

After acquiring the animals, Shen Xin still needed feed.

“Feeding your animals won’t be a problem.” The shopkeeper took Shen Xin to a shelf. “Here, this scythe costs one silver coin and can be used to harvest grass from the wilderness, the short, tender kind. If you have your own field, you can harvest grass with a scythe, which has a chance of giving you animal feed.”

Shen Xin asked, “Do all animals eat the same feed?”

“That’s right,” the shopkeeper responded. “Do you have a barn? Every day, put one unit of feed into the trough, and it will last your animals for a whole day.”

“Thank you.”

Shen Xin bought her items and returned home. After settling in her new animals, she discovered that the little ones all wanted to run out.

Shen Xin noticed that they were heading straight for her farmland. She quickly locked the chicks and ducklings behind the door and threatened them, “You good-for-nothings, how dare you try to destroy my crops! Just wait until tomorrow when I stew you all up.”

After locking the door, Shen Xin still wasn’t at ease.

What if they ran out again when she opened the door next time?

Shen Xin took out a large amount of wood from the storehouse and constructed a three-sided fence around the small barn’s entrance. Upon opening the door once more, the chicks and ducklings indeed ran out, but this time, they could only play within the confines of that small space and couldn’t cause trouble in the fields.

“That’s better.” Shen Xin tossed some copper ore into the furnace, then grabbed her scythe and went out to harvest feed.