Day 89, Drizzle (Part Two)

When they saw the scars covering my body, they were all stunned, their eyes filled with disbelief.

Yet as I told them, it was really just a stroke of luck and amounted to nothing at all.

By the afternoon, the rain grew even heavier, with a relentless pattering sound echoing without a pause. A new problem soon arose: their roof started leaking. Because it was a temporary structure, it was far from sturdy. With rain this torrential, having only a few leaks was already a remarkably good outcome.

However, Brother Qian declared that the leaking spots had to be fixed as soon as possible, otherwise the "flooring" they had laid down would run into trouble sooner rather than later. With that, they charged back out into the pelting rain. It was not that I didn't want to go, but rather that they repeatedly urged me to stay behind and tidy up.

I knew very well that this was just out of a sense of embarrassment on their part; after all, I had long since had my own tree house, and besides, there were enough of them already—having too many hands would be of little use. The reason their tree house was leaking was simply that the thatch mats on the roof had not been laid out evenly. All that was needed was to rearrange those few uneven mats and cover them with a layer of leaves and branches to barely hold back the heavy downpour.

After cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks used for holding food, I busied myself once again. For no other reason than to filter the salt; there was still far too much sand and debris mixed in. If used for cooking, the texture would undoubtedly be dreadful. Filtering it was therefore a necessity, and the moment I obtained those salt crystals, I had already figured out how to handle them.

I added some more water to the basin. Because the salt had been touched by rain the day before, most of it had already dissolved into the water, but some remained undissolved. So, after adding more water, I began to stir, continuing for a full ten minutes until not a single crystal was visible, save for the insoluble impurities settled at the bottom.

I had hardly touched the carton of cigarettes retrieved from the ship, so all nine packs remained intact. I fetched one pack and dismantled the filters from ten cigarettes. After tearing them all apart, I rolled and rubbed them together into a single clump. Then, I firmly stuffed this clump into the spout of a funnel made from a plastic bottle, completing a simple filtering device.

The cigarette filters served their purpose admirably, trapping the sand and other tiny grit so that nothing could pass through. Pouring the water from the basin into the funnel time and again, I collected the dissolved salt water into separate plastic bottles through the filtration process...

In total, I collected two bottles of water. It was a complete success; all the sand was caught in the funnel without a single grain escaping. This water no longer needed to be sun-dried; it could simply be added directly while cooking.

I no longer cared whether this saltwater contained other substances harmful to the body. Facing our current predicament, under no circumstances would I ever choose to eat that bland, tasteless food again.

"Finally done, whew!" Just as I finished up everything, they returned. It seemed they had successfully stopped the roof from leaking. Rushing over to the campfire as a group, they began drying their wet clothes and trousers.

"Brother Luo, what is this?" Brother Qian asked, looking up and noticing the saltwater in my hand.

"Saltwater. I dried it myself. It was mixed with a lot of sand and rubbish, so I added some water to filter it."

"Oh, you dried this? Does the salt you made have any weird taste?" Hearing that I had made salt, Brother Qian immediately grew interested and asked eagerly.

"I don't know what kind of weird taste you're talking about, but the salt I made doesn't have any strange taste at all. I've eaten it several times already!" I had never encountered any peculiar flavor in the salt; I had made some last time too, and although the quantity was small, I hadn't noticed anything off about it at all.

"That's wonderful! Next time we can go together and make more. The salt we boiled before had an overwhelmingly heavy strange taste."

...

After a brief chat, night began to fall. On rainy days, darkness descended much earlier. Having fixed the roof, they did not venture out again. Utterly exhausted, they laid out their grass mats and stretched out to lie down.

Mida Kang, however, rather irritated me. Without a word, he casually picked up the half-pack of cigarettes I had left on the table, lit one with the campfire, and began to smoke. "Sssss, hoo..." He looked utterly content, and upon seeing this, the others also asked him for one and lit up.

This was terribly impolite. Even among close acquaintances, one ought to ask first, yet he did so without a word, simply picking them up and smoking. It was far too presumptuous.

Brother Qian initially wanted one too, but catching a glimpse of me watching, he immediately barked, "These cigarettes belong to Brother Luo. Did he say you could have them? What do you think you're doing? Can't you even bother to ask Brother Luo first?" He openly scolded them in a loud voice.

Of course, aside from Ye Qingchen, who looked over in immediate fright, the others showed no reaction whatsoever, simply basking in the hazy smoke-filled atmosphere. Mida Kang’s returning glance even carried a trace of defiance rather than gratitude.

"Brother Luo, I didn't expect you to still have cigarettes. These fellows went ahead and smoked your cigarettes on their own accord. You aren't angry, are you, Brother Luo?" True to his slick nature, Brother Qian phrased it in such a way that I could hardly reply that I was angry. Clearly, he was trying to back me into a corner.

"It's nothing, it's nothing," I replied, waving my hand.

"Good then. Those of you who smoked Brother Luo's cigarettes, hurry up and thank him." With that, he reached out, snatched the cigarette right out of Mida Kang's hand, and handed the remaining cigarettes back to me.

"No need, no need, Brother Qian, don't keep passing them back and forth. I still have more here, just let the brothers smoke these for now." Having said that, I observed their posture while smoking. Evidently, apart from Mida Kang, everyone else held their cigarettes in a very awkward manner; it looked like their very first time smoking.

Especially Ye Qingchen, who coughed violently every couple of puffs, each cough forced and heavy, clearly choking on the smoke. Ying Yuefeng and "One-Thirty" fared no better; both were choked up initially until they hit upon a clever workaround: inhaling and immediately blowing the smoke back out... that way, they wouldn't choke.

It seemed they weren't smoking these because they genuinely enjoyed it, but rather to taste a slice of home... Yet Mida Kang's expression continued to provoke a strong sense of aversion in me. With his half-smile and the rings of smoke he blew, he certainly put on an air, but something about him remained problematic—he was simply far too presumptuous.

Still, I shoved the remaining cigarettes back to Brother Qian, telling them that I actually had more and they could always come to me if it wasn't enough. At the same time, I advised them to touch the stuff as little as possible; once the addiction took hold and the cigarettes ran out, the resulting misery would only be all the greater.

As for myself, the smoking habit I had never managed to kick back in civilized society was shed the moment I arrived here, and even with cigarettes constantly within arm's reach, I hadn't touched a single one...