Chapter 310 Our Future Life
Bai Rong was starting to regret her willfulness just now. They should not have stayed here. If they had gone to the bamboo house earlier, it would have been safer because it was surrounded by trees that could act as a windbreak.
But it’s too late for them to go to the bamboo house now.
If we go now, we’d be lost in the woods, especially now that it’s dark. We also can’t bring a torch. Even if we can, it’d be easily extinguished by the strong wind. And once it starts to rain, it’ll be completely unusable. Besides, with the muddy road in the rain, the parasol they have would be a burden to carry.
“Sorry, I should’ve listened to you,” Bai Rong apologized.
“It’s not too late to listen to me now.” Gu Mingchen smiled. “Go to bed and stay there until I come back.”
Obeying his instruction, she climbed up to the bed. They used to bring the bamboo ladder onto the bed. But Gu Mingchen was worried that she would come down to look for him, so he put the ladder on the ground and left quickly.
Bai Rong curled up in bed as she waited for her menstrual cramps to stop.
The wind outside whipped up into a frenzy, stirring the leaves and filling her ears with the sound of the rustling leaves.
Putting her arms around herself, she realized that the wind blowing in through the leaves was stronger than she expected.
After fifteen minutes of the huffing wind, it started to rain cats and dogs, pitter-pattered on the wooden planks.
She could even feel the humidity of the rain seeping through the leaves.
What is he doing outside? Did he use the parasol? Is he drenched? Is he in danger?
Thousands of thoughts raced through her mind. She did not have a watch with her. For Bai Rong, it felt like ages in the little shack without Gu Mingchen. The more she waited, the more anxious she felt.
The rain outside did not seem to be stopping any time soon as the pitter-patter and the rustling leaves got louder at each passing moment.
“Gu Mingchen! Gu Mingchen!” she shouted, her voice drowning in the heavy rain.
I want to go down to find him, but I’m also worried I might cause him more trouble. But what if something has happened to him and there’s no one there to save him? If something bad happens to him, I’d blame myself for the rest of my life.
With such thoughts in her mind, she pushed the leaves aside and she was met with a violent gust of wind.
Most of the leaves could no longer withstand the harsh wind and split into two.
The storm continued to brew, barging rudely into the shack.
Bai Rong could not even open her eyes. She squinted and vaguely saw something moving in front of her.
But it was too dark and the rain was too heavy. She could not see clearly what was in front of her. “Gu Mingchen! Gu Mingchen!”
Thud!
Taken aback, she saw an object blocking her view and the rain was gone instantly and the wind became weaker.
“Gu Mingchen!” she hollered again.
“Rong.” It was Gu Mingchen.
Upon hearing his voice, she heaved a sigh of relief and asked, “Where did you go? You’ve been out for so long.”
Gu Mingchen raised the torch in his hand, and their surroundings lit up.
Looking down from the bed, she saw that he was soaked to the skin, and there was a piece of fence made with bamboo poles tied together with a rope. “You went to make this?”
He put the ladder against the bed and let her down. “It’s too windy. I don’t think the leaves are strong enough to shield us for long in this weather. Besides, it’s not convenient for us to move in and out of the entrance. Anyway, you must be hungry by now. Go ahead and eat first.”
Holding his arm, she asked, “How long before you’re done? You’re already soaking wet.”
“If I put the bamboo in this way, the force exerted on the roof would be too strong. So, I need to use the big tree to support it. Don’t worry. It’ll be done in about half an hour. You can heat up the chicken soup first and wait for me to eat it together.”
“Okay. Then, I’ll heat up the soup first and we’ll eat together later.” She went to the space under the shack.
Previously, they did not cook underneath the shack, so they only had some stones laying around the campfire.
Bai Rong gathered some stones and started setting up a campfire. She arranged them around the campfire to prevent the spread of fire. Then, she chose two big stones of the same height to use as a makeshift stand for the pots. Before she started cooking, she stacked the rest of the stones around the fire to block the wind.
While on the other side, Gu Mingchen took a piece of wooden plank from the bottom of the house and sandwiched it between the bamboo poles and the tree trunk.
Later, he proceeded to climb onto the bed and adjusted the bamboo roof on top of them to make the roof and the fence below adjoined to one another. After he finished his work, he went down to Bai Rong.
When she saw him coming, she handed him a bamboo bowl filled with chicken drumsticks and apologized, “I’m sorry.”
“I’m the one who should be apologizing. I should’ve taken the weather into account when I was building this shack. If I’ve done these things earlier, I wouldn’t be rushing to finish them off just now.” Gu Mingchen took the bowl and sat down on the stone that Bai Rong had placed for him.
Spreading a large piece of fallen leaf on the ground, she said, “You should take off your clothes. I’ll dry them for you.”
“No hurry. Eat first. It’s been twelve hours since you said that you’re hungry.”
“It’s fine. I’m so hungry that I don’t feel hungry anymore. I can still spare ten minutes to dry your clothes before I eat. If you catch a cold, there’s no one else to protect me.”
He thought for a while before nodding silently and remove his clothes, passing them over to Bai Rong.
She proceeded to lay the clothes on the stack of stones around the fire and put an empty pot out in the rain.
Then, she finally sat down beside Gu Mingchen and enjoyed her meal.
After simmering the soup for quite a while, the flavor of the ingredients has seeped into the soup. And with the tasty mushrooms, this chicken soup is out of the world. Yum!
After she finished off the bowl of soup in her hand, she went over to the pile of clothes and turned them over, hoping that they could dry faster.
In the end, Gu Mingchen drank three bowls of chicken soup and Bai Rong had two.
With that, a big bowl of chicken soup was gone.
As she started cleaning up, she took a pair of “potholders” made with woven strings and removed the remaining pot of soup from the fire.
After that, she retrieved the pot that had been placed outside and it was now filled with rainwater. She put it on the stand over the fire and added some firewood.
“We used to lack water supply and I was worried about it constantly. Now that there’s ample water, I can’t store it all at once.” Bai Rong sighed.
Gu Mingchen smiled in response. “Are my clothes dry yet?”
Stretching out her arms to touch the clothes, she could feel that they had completely dried up. On a cool rainy day like this, they felt particularly warm.
She handed them to him. “Take off your pants, too. If you feel cold, sit in front of the fire.”
“Mm,” Gu Mingchen hummed a response and unbuckled his belt.
He did it so naturally that she felt a little embarrassed. “Can you turn around?”
As soon as he faced the other side, she quickly put on a new sanitary pad and threw the old one into the fire with her face blushing. She then took his pants and laid them on the stone.
As she was smoothing down the pants, she felt his blazing gaze on her. Feeling unease, she tried to avert his thoughts and asked, “What time is it?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s 7.15 P.M.”
She found a rock to sit on and exclaimed, “How time flies.”
Gu Mingchen looked at the water in the pot. “Actually, I’ve thought about living on this island with you forever. I’d make a wooden house. In order to ward off wild animals, it has to be a two-story house. We’d have three rooms upstairs: one for us, one for our kids, and one for food and ingredients.”
