By the time Zhuang Xiao and the others arrived at the North Plaza, the wind had already picked up.

The sky was thick with dark clouds, and it looked like the rain could fall at any moment.

Huo Xiao stuffed some of the wheat ears from Zhuang Xiao’s sack into his own before the two of them hurried home.

Even so, the long distance and the headwind made the journey incredibly exhausting for Zhuang Xiao.

When they reached the front of their house, she dropped all pretenses and plopped down on the ground without a care for appearances.

Huo Xiao opened the door, carried his own sack inside first, then came back for Zhuang Xiao’s.

Rubbing her aching shoulders, Zhuang Xiao got up and followed him inside.

After setting the sacks in place, Huo Xiao went to the storage room and brought out three folding buckets, which he set in the courtyard.

The house had always been tidied by Huo Xiao, so Zhuang Xiao hadn’t noticed they had such things. “You’re going to collect water?”

Huo Xiao nodded. “Yeah. I even bought some water purifiers from Old Yu last time—been waiting for it to rain.”

Well then. When it came to planning ahead, her brain still needed time to adjust to life in the wasteland.

The sky grew darker and darker. The oppressive clouds seemed to press down from above.

Suddenly, a clap of thunder rumbled out of nowhere.

Then, fat raindrops pelted down from the sky, quickly turning into a torrential downpour that swallowed up everything in misty sheets of rain.

The wind stopped. The thunder faded. Only the sound of rushing rain remained.

Listening to the rain outside, Zhuang Xiao thought to herself: I wonder if everyone at the wheat collection site made it back.

At that moment, more than a dozen trucks were racing down the road from the wheat fields in the pouring rain. The people inside sat tense, eyes wide with fear and panic.

They were still only halfway to the shantytown.

Being caught out in the wild in this kind of storm, drenched to the bone, and managing to survive—only the heavens could bless someone enough for that.

Now, everyone began to regret being greedy for a little extra gain.

Sometimes, people’s joys and sorrows really aren’t connected.

Back home, Zhuang Xiao was crouching in the kitchen, watching Huo Xiao cook noodles. Her joy was practically overflowing.

Finally, a proper meal!

Fresh river shrimp and noodles.

She had just checked the plant she brought back earlier. It had sprouted some fresh leaves the size of her palm. After testing, four of the leaves were edible.

They were now lying on the kitchen counter.

The translucent shrimp, paired with the vibrant green leaves—the sight alone made one drool.

The first bite: smooth, chewy noodles combined with the freshness of shrimp. It was heavenly.

Never before had a simple bowl of noodles tasted this good.

Afterwards, the two of them enjoyed some sweet and tangy nightshade berries.

Zhuang Xiao patted her full belly and sighed with contentment: This is how life should be!

But who knew how long the rain would last?

After the meal, Huo Xiao inspected the house to check for leaks or seepage.

There was no sign of the rain letting up.

Zhuang Xiao’s injured arm had healed remarkably fast—by yesterday it had already scabbed over.

So, today’s training had to resume.

Indoors.

Huo Xiao dumped out the sack of wheat ears and began testing each one while occasionally glancing at Zhuang Xiao’s training.

“Beep—moderate radiation mutation, edible.”

“Hit.”

“Beep—high radiation mutation, inedible.”

“Missed.”

…

Weirdly enough, Zhuang Xiao’s accuracy seemed to be perfectly in sync with the test results in Huo Xiao’s hand.

If she hit the target, the wheat grain was edible. If she missed, it wasn’t.

Huo Xiao stared at the wheat in his hand, then at Zhuang Xiao practicing enthusiastically nearby, momentarily speechless.

In the end, the results came in.

Zhuang Xiao had a 60% hit rate, with a 30% chance of hitting the center rings. Huo Xiao found that among their one-plus sacks of wheat, 40% were edible.

For comparison, the average yield of edible grains from the wheat collection zone was around 15%.

Their yield was a whole 25% higher than the average.

Still, compared to the sack Zhuang Xiao brought back the other day—70% edible—Huo Xiao suspected that his contribution had dragged the average down.

After testing the wheat, Huo Xiao returned to his room to work.

He still hadn’t finished the crossbow he promised Zhuang Xiao, and the rainy day was perfect for getting it done.

Zhuang Xiao practiced target shooting for two hours, then quietly did a 20-minute horse stance.

Training that kind of skill was never something you could rush. She figured being able to hold it for 20 minutes already made her pretty impressive.

Once her training was done, she sat in the living room and started weaving her straw mat.

She had just begun. If she kept relying on scraps of evening time, summer would end before she finished her mat.

By evening, the downpour showed no signs of letting up.

Dinner returned to the usual green porridge.

Since lunch had been so satisfying, Zhuang Xiao didn’t feel the slightest bit grumpy about eating green porridge for dinner. She happily downed a bowl in one gulp.

Just as she was getting ready to continue working on her mat, she received a message from Yan Ming:

“Sis, are you guys okay over there? A lot of places here are flooded.”

He even attached a photo.

Zhuang Xiao took a closer look—the courtyard looked familiar. It seemed like it might be Yan Ming’s house.

She zoomed in on the image and handed her watch to Huo Xiao. “This is Yan Ming’s house, right?”

Huo Xiao glanced at it and nodded. “Yeah, it is.”

“The area their family lives in is part of the old district, a low-lying area. Back when it was first built, no one even considered drainage. It always floods during heavy rain.”

“But their place is still considered pretty lucky.”

“This is lucky?” Zhuang Xiao exclaimed. “It looks like a freaking Water Kingdom!”

Huo Xiao didn’t quite get what a “Water Kingdom” was supposed to mean, but he roughly understood her point and nodded.

So… this was normal.

Zhuang Xiao thought for a moment, sent Yan Ming a message saying they were fine, and gave the boy a few extra warnings.

After reading her reply, the two brothers finally relaxed.

After all, they were the ones who had helped expand that house. If anything happened, they’d never be able to justify the hefty amount of points Huo Xiao had paid them.

---

The Next Day

The rain didn’t stop until 2 p.m.

By then, half the shantytown was submerged in water.

As the saying goes: A blessing in disguise.

The residents’ gloomy mood over the flooding didn’t last long—because they were soon distracted by the thunderous croaking of frogs echoing from the surrounding fields and wetlands.