[Chapter 13 Winter Village is contracted by me, Laura]

Laura wants to provide all-round help, not only to provide all kinds of building materials so that David and his friends can build better houses; she even ordered a large number of daily necessities, clothes, shoes, and socks, all kinds of seasonings, and even some weapons and ammunition, not only guns, but also some cold weapons made by modern technology.

“…”

The three men sat in a row on a log, listening to Laura holding a small notebook and introducing all kinds of supplies. The three men were a little confused.

“Is this all I can remember for now?” Laura, who finally finished speaking, took a big sip of water, paused for a moment, and asked: “Is there anything missing?”

“This… I didn’t expect… you bought so many things in such a short time?” Then he thought that the Crawford family had money and connections, and these things sounded a lot, but in fact they were nothing at all, including the batch of weapons, which was not a big deal for the Crawford family.

“It’s just an order, and the items will be delivered in the next period of time.” Laura suddenly pinched her brows: “Fortunately, I didn’t order too many building materials.”

She just knew that there were restrictions on what she could carry. If she had followed her original idea, she would have ordered a large amount of building stones. In that case, would she have to keep moving bricks back and forth?

Now it’s just moving some cement powder, glass windows, waterproof boards and the like, which is not too troublesome.

The rest, such as clothes and weapons, are easier to move, and they can just run back and forth a few more times.

“By the way, can you buy some extra books?” Fording waited until Laura finished speaking before proposing his own idea: “Books for learning English.”

He had learned English from Mark Watney for a while, but he was just getting started. He felt that if there were books, he would be able to learn the language faster, so that he would not need David to be a translator when communicating with Laura and Mark in the future.

“This is simple…”

Laura agreed to Fording’s request very happily. Unexpectedly, David suddenly thought of something and wanted some books.

“Oh? What kind of books do you need?”

Fording wanted to learn English, so Laura only needed to buy various English textbooks from basic to advanced levels, and she could even prepare some teaching videos. Anyway, she was going to set up a generator in Winter Village to facilitate the use of electronic products here.

“I don’t know what kind of books I need, so you can help me prepare them.” David thought about it and found that he didn’t know what kind of books he should say: “Books that record the various histories of your world should meet my needs.”

“Oh, there are quite a lot of contents.” Laura understood what David meant. It seemed that the village chief wanted to refer to the “advanced experience” of her world to learn how to better govern the village: “I will help you pick a few books first. If you have any questions after reading them, I will help you find the corresponding books.”

“Okay.”

Laura’s suggestion was very reasonable, and David didn’t think there was anything wrong with it, so he nodded in agreement.

In fact, the most fundamental purpose of asking Laura for books was to take the opportunity to make some “things” reasonable, such as knowing Chinese, or having some “earth-like” thoughts from time to time. These things could not be truly hidden as they spent more time together.

The best way is to have a reasonable explanation. It is logical to know these things by learning about the earth. Of course, if the relationship is really good enough, it seems that it is not impossible to tell the other party that you traveled from the earth to this world.

David didn’t think about whether to say it or not, so he made two preparations.

After watching Laura write a few words in the notebook, he stood up and prepared to go back.

“Leaving now?”

“Of course, I don’t want to live with you before the house is built.” Although Laura is not a spoiled lady, she will not deliberately make herself suffer in her daily life when she is not on an adventure trip: “But I will come here often, see you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow.”

Similar scenes became the norm for the next period of time. With the modern tools and materials sent by Laura, the construction speed of the new residence was greatly improved.

Soon, several people laid the foundations of four wooden houses, and then built the basic framework of the wooden houses. Because David and Fording have excellent strength and physical fitness, Mark and Laura have good hands-on ability, they just completed the construction of the wooden houses at the same time as the first batch of potatoes were harvested.

The four wooden houses were all designed as one-room buildings, and all had fireplaces for heating. Although the beds, tables, chairs, and cabinets were made by a few laymen and looked a bit crude, it didn’t matter if the things they made themselves looked a bit bad.

Looking at the four brand new wooden houses around them, eating the potatoes they had just harvested (enough potatoes had been left as new seeds to be replanted), and eating the food and drinks that Laura had brought, the four people began to celebrate.

“Celebrate the birth of Winter Village!”

Previously, it was only a pioneering camp, but now it has a real place to live and farmland has been reclaimed, which can be considered a real village.

During the construction of the house, Mark and Laura made some furniture, including a rectangular table, which was convenient for several people to eat together.

The four people sat on both sides of the square table, enjoying the joy after the work. After

harvesting a lot of potatoes and having a strong and warm place to live, David was very happy to see the Winter Village gradually getting on the right track.

The other people also had their own joy: Fording had a suitable place to live in seclusion, and even lived in seclusion in this world, which made it more convenient for him to visit his family frequently.

Mark Watney didn’t have to worry about starving to death or dying on the desolate Mars because of a sudden damage to a facility at the base. Now he spent more time in Winter Village and went to the Mars base every day to check the situation.

Laura’s thoughts were more complicated. She found a place where she could take risks. She felt that there were many things in this world worth exploring.

At the same time, she felt that Winter Village was a good place and could be used as a new home.

After taking a sip of the wine brought by Laura, David looked at the four wooden houses on the east side of the village and began to think about what to do next?

During this period, his understanding of the Holy Light did not deepen, but sufficient physical labor and combat skills training allowed his physical fitness to continue to improve.

With the various weapons brought by Laura, his combat effectiveness is now much stronger than before.

Perhaps, we can go to the forest in the north to see if possible. It is best to completely solve the threat of the wolf pack – there is always such an enemy threatening the village not far away, which makes him very uncomfortable.

After expressing his thoughts, Fording also agreed.

The housing problem has been solved, and the food problem has basically been solved. Next, it is indeed necessary to deal with the foreign enemies.

“What about Mark? What are you going to do next?”

With the help of textbooks, Fording’s English level has improved rapidly, and he can already communicate with everyone in basic daily life.

“Taking care of the potato fields and learning Holy Light knowledge every day… There is really not much to do.” Mark has been learning Holy Light knowledge. Even if Fording’s English level is not enough to give advanced explanations, it is enough to ask David many basic questions.

However, no matter how hard he tries, the Holy Light has no intention of responding to him. Compared with David who mastered the Holy Light on the first try, Mark seems to be weak. Even though Fording explained that Mark’s current situation was normal and David’s was a special case, and he could not be used as a reference at all, he was still a little depressed.

There was no progress in the Holy Light, and the problem of food and accommodation was solved. Max wondered what he would do next? Was he really going to stay here for a few years?

“Maybe, I can pick up the previous plan again and try it out.” After thinking for a while, Mark gave his answer.

“What plan?” David looked at Mark and thought of what he had done in the original plot. Could it be that Mark wanted to grow potatoes on Mars again?

“Growing potatoes on Mars! I really want to see if my idea can succeed.” For a botanist, this is undoubtedly a very tempting topic – for Mark Watney today, growing potatoes on Mars is no longer a survival issue, but a simple scientific research project.

At the same time, he was also thinking that if he could successfully contact the space agency, growing potatoes would also better explain how he persisted on Mars until rescue came – he was not prepared to tell anyone about the Winter Village.

“It sounds like an interesting plan.” After a period of contact, Laura and Mark became familiar with each other. When she heard that Mark was going to grow potatoes on Mars, she also felt that Mark’s idea was very constructive. It was a pity that she could not witness the process with her own eyes.

At the same time, after this period of contact, Laura also knew why Mark had such a reaction when he heard her name. In Mark’s words, in his world, Laura-Crawford was a world-famous archaeologist!

Unexpectedly, she was a global celebrity in “another earth”, which surprised Laura and made her a little happy at the same time. She was proud of it in front of David and Fording for a whole day.

This made David, who knew the truth, speechless and forced himself not to reveal the “truth”.

“Where is Laura?”

“Are you going to the forest to eliminate those wolves?” Laura took a bite of potatoes. She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but she felt that these potatoes tasted better than those in her world: “I’m going to go to the forest with you to take a look.”

It was not convenient to run too far for the time being, so it was also good to explore the situation around Winter Village and increase some experience in exploring the primitive forest.

“Oh, by the way! To celebrate the completion of the new home, I have prepared gifts for you!” Before David could ask any more questions, Laura suddenly pointed to the box that had been placed on the table: “One for each person, no need to fight over it!”

(End of this chapter)