Chapter 42 The rain keeps falling! The atmosphere is a bit tense! Who ordered the ginger milk curd? (Another world...)
Having barely survived the scorching heat that could turn people into dried salted fish, the residents of the small restaurant hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath when the rainy season of the cursed land arrived with a fierce determination to drown them all!
At first, it was just a light drizzle, gentle and lingering, somewhat like the poetic image of apricot blossoms in the damp rain. Lin Yue: Not at all! My underwear is so wet it's practically growing mushrooms! But soon, the rain, like a wild horse, turned into a torrential downpour!
Large raindrops pelted down on the rooftops, the ground, and... the faces of the residents of the luxurious makeshift sheds that hadn't yet been fully reinforced.
"Damn it! Is this rain free?! Is God's tap broken?!" Lin Yue stood in the muddy yard, using a huge banana leaf he had picked up from somewhere as an umbrella, watching the rain pour down like a waterfall, and let out a wail from the depths of his soul.
The continuous rain has brought severe challenges to the daily life and various projects of the small restaurant.
First, there were infrastructure projects. Fence reinforcement was forced to stop, newly reclaimed farmland was instantly turned into a vast expanse of water, and newly planted crop seedlings were on the verge of collapse under the scouring of the rain.
The luxurious sheds, which had been initially upgraded with red bricks and cement, were much better than the old thatched sheds, but they still seemed somewhat inadequate in the face of this intensity of rainstorm, with leaks in the roofs and water seeping from the corners of the walls occurring frequently.
Secondly, there's the matter of daily life. Firewood became extremely precious because most of the firewood piled outdoors was soaked, and it took a long time to start a fire.
Drying clothes became a luxury, as everyone's clothes had a damp, musty smell that never seemed to dry.
Food preservation also became a major problem. Potatoes were relatively easy to preserve, but the meat that they had managed to hunt would quickly rot and spoil if it was not smoked or cured in time, and they had not yet mastered these techniques.
The entire restaurant was shrouded in a damp, cold, and oppressive atmosphere, with a slight stench of feet, because everyone's clothes and shoes were constantly wet...
"No! This can't go on!" Lin Yue saw that everyone was almost driven crazy by the rainy season and knew that he had to do something.
He immediately organized all the people who were still able to move and launched a vigorous self-rescue campaign during the rainy season!
First priority: Drainage!
Lin Yue directed Gray, Amu, and some able-bodied refugees to brave the heavy rain and dig drainage ditches around the small restaurant and along the edges of the farmland to drain the floodwater as quickly as possible and save their houses and crops!
The work was extremely arduous. The rain blurred visibility, the soil was slippery and muddy, and shovels would sink into the mud as soon as they were dug in. But everyone gritted their teeth and struggled to wield their tools in the rain.
Second priority: Reinforce!
Lin Yue, along with Shi Quan and several quick-witted refugees, went from house to house checking for leaks in the roofs and walls.
Repair the leaks immediately upon discovering the problem! Using thatch, animal hides, and even the last few rags contributed by Lin Yue, he tried everything he could to plug the leaks, and with that, his T-shirt finally met its end!
Those workers' sheds, especially those inhabited by the elderly, women, and children, are the focus of special attention!
Third priority: Reserves!
Lin Yue instructed Mia and Aunt Lia to organize the women to move all the available firewood indoors or to a sheltered location. At the same time, they also moved as much food as possible to higher, drier storage cellars.
He also tried to teach people how to preserve small amounts of meat by smoking. Although the effect was so-so, mainly because the smoke was too much and almost turned the small restaurant into a large barbecue site, it was better than nothing.
In this battle against the rain, everyone's potential seemed to be unleashed. They divided the work, helped each other, and although they were soaked, cold, and hungry, their eyes were filled with resilience and unity.
However, just as everyone was working together to fight the natural disaster, some disharmonious factors began to quietly emerge.
The first thing to be noticed was Gray's abnormality.
Since the start of the rainy season, Gray had become increasingly restless. He often stood alone in the rain, gazing eastward—the direction of the Valley of Tears, the direction from which they had previously discovered traces of the elves.
Unconsciously, he would mutter ancient-sounding words that neither Lin Yue nor the system could fully understand. These words had peculiar pronunciations, as if from a distant era, filled with sorrow and… a certain sense of mission?
[System Notification: Partner 'Grey' has been detected to be extremely emotionally unstable. His speech appears to be some kind of lost ancient Elvish language or Guardian's secret language. Attempting to decipher it... extremely difficult to decipher...]
What worried Lin Yue even more was that Gray's fighting instincts seemed to have been completely aroused by the continuous rain and some unknown sensation! His vigilance towards his surroundings reached an unprecedented level!
The slightest movement, such as the wind blowing or Xiaofen accidentally knocking over a pottery jar, could instantly put him into battle mode, his eyes turning cold and filled with murderous intent!
Several times, he almost mistook Amu for an enemy and stabbed him with a spear! Now Amu is so scared that he avoids Gray whenever he sees him.
"What's wrong with Gray...?" Lin Yue looked at Gray, who stood like a statue in the rain, his heart filled with worry and confusion. "Could it be that this rainy season... triggers some kind of passive skill of his? Or... is there something in the forest to the east calling to him?"
Besides Gray's unusual behavior, some discontent has begun to emerge among the refugees.
The persistent rain brought outdoor work to a near standstill, leaving most people huddled in makeshift, damp sheds, doing nothing. No work meant no work points. No work points meant less food.
Although Lin Yue initiated the minimum living allowance system during the rainy season, ensuring that everyone could receive at least a bowl of thin potato porridge every day, those who were used to the principle of "more work, more pay" still felt panicked and dissatisfied with this feeling of going back to the pre-liberation era.
Some troublemakers who had always liked to stir up trouble, especially the remnants of those guys who had been hung from crooked trees, as well as some newly emerged, self-important individuals, began whispering and spreading discordant rumors:
"It's been raining for almost half a month! If it keeps raining, all the crops in the fields will rot! We'll all starve to death!"
"I think we must have angered some deity! Otherwise, why would this rain keep falling?"
"If you ask me, it's all that shorty's fault!" A weasel-faced fellow lowered his voice and secretly pointed at the stone fist clanging in the blacksmith's shop. "Look at him! He's always there hammering and banging away, with sparks flying everywhere! Maybe it's the evil fire in his furnace that angered the rain god!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Those are dwarves! They don't look like good people at all! They might even be a jinx!"
These rumors spread like a plague among the refugees. Some who already harbored resentment towards Shi Quan, this outsider, were further inflamed, their eyes filled with hostility and resentment as they looked at him.
Stone Fist naturally sensed the unfriendly stares. Although he had a bad temper, he wasn't stupid. He simply snorted coldly and pounded the hammer even harder, expressing his disdain and... a hint of barely perceptible dejection through his actions.
Seeing the tense atmosphere, Lin Yue knew he couldn't let things continue like this.
"These guys! Are they just bored and have nothing better to do?! How dare they be so racist?!" Lin Yue was furious. "I finally managed to persuade Uncle Stone Fist... no, I mean, to be our technical consultant! If you guys drive him away, who will work for us blacksmiths in the future?!"
He decided that he had to teach these troublemakers a lesson! At the same time, he also had to find a way to calm everyone down.
First, we need to appease them.
Lin Yue knew that this damp and chilly weather was most likely to make people feel down and overthink. He had to find something for everyone to do to distract them, and also... warm them up.
I recalled a plant tuber I had collected in the mountains before. The system identified it as similar to ginger on Earth, slightly spicy, and with a warming effect.
"I've got it!" Lin Yue's eyes lit up. "Let's make an otherworldly version of ginger soup!"
He immediately organized Mia and several quick-witted women to clean the otherworldly ginger, slice it, and then boil it in a large pot. To enhance the flavor and energy, he also added some sweet tree sap, similar to brown sugar, that he had collected earlier.
Soon, a spicy and sweet-smelling, steaming hot ginger tea was ready. Although it was only enough to make one pot to soothe emotions, it was not a daily supply!
Lin Yue had a bowl distributed to each refugee.
As everyone drank this bowl of hot, sweet, and slightly spicy ginger tea, they felt a warm current flow from their throats to their stomachs, and their chill and gloom seemed to be dispelled.
"It's delicious! This water...it makes me feel warm all over!"
"Yes! It even tastes a little sweet! How refreshing!"
Smiles finally appeared on the faces of the refugees.
For Gray, a key person requiring special care, Lin Yue adopted a more advanced dietary therapy approach.
He noticed that when Gray was restless and muttering to himself, he would occasionally utter a few words that he could vaguely understand, words that seemed to be related to food.
For example, things like "roasted...stone lizard meat...", "fragrant...grass seed paste...", "dried...mammoth meat strips..." Lin Yue: Mammoth?! What tribe did this guy belong to before?!
Lin Yue keenly grasped this information. Although he couldn't obtain stone lizards and mammoths, he could try to mimic the taste of those foods using the ingredients he had!
For example, he would mix fragrant pine needles with a newly discovered herb with a slightly numbing taste to marinate rabbit or bird meat, and then bake it on a stone slab to try to recreate the flavor of the roasted meat with special spices.
Alternatively, he would boil potatoes until they were soft, mash them into a puree, add stir-fried wild vegetables and a small amount of minced meat, and sprinkle on a little bit of crushed, roasted nuts to make a flavorful and uniquely aromatic wild vegetable, minced meat, and potato puree.
Every time Lin Yue made these special dishes, he would serve them to Gray.
Gray was initially resistant, but when he smelled those familiar or rather, familiar scents, his eyes would become hazy and...soft.
He would silently eat the food, and although he remained taciturn, his anxiety was indeed relieved to some extent.
[System Notification: By simulating the specific food flavors remembered by the target, the emotions of the companion 'Grey' have been successfully soothed. The therapeutic effect is beginning to show.]
Mia and several other observant women noticed Lin Yue's actions and Gray's changes.
Although they didn't understand the underlying principles, they were all very surprised and impressed by Lin Yue's method of healing people's hearts with food.
The seeds of dietary therapy were thus sown quietly and unknowingly.
After calming the internal emotions, the next step is to deal with those troublemakers.
Lin Yue directly dragged out the few who had instigated the most trouble and gave them a serious reprimand in front of all the refugees.
"I know everyone's in a bad mood on rainy days! And food is scarce! But! That's no reason for you to talk nonsense and sow discord!"
Lin Yue pointed at the group of men and said sternly, “Uncle Shi Quan is a distinguished guest of our Lin Family Restaurant! It was he who, despite his injuries, tirelessly forged the first batch of ironware for us! This allowed us to eat meat and build stronger houses! Not only are you ungrateful, but you also dare to speak ill of him behind his back and blame the natural disaster on him?!”
"Let me tell you! This rainy season is a natural phenomenon in the Cursed Land! It happens every year! It has absolutely nothing to do with Uncle Stone Fist! If anyone dares to talk nonsense or incite trouble again, don't blame me for being impolite!"
He paused, then pointed to the makeshift sheds next to him, which were already partially completed and reinforced with red bricks and cement: "Look at these houses! Without Uncle Shi Quan's skills and the iron tools he forged, could we have built them? Would you even have a relatively safe and dry place to sleep now?!"
"And another thing! Don't forget the rules of our Lin's Restaurant! To get food and shelter, you must work! Those who idle all day and try to sow discord are not welcome here!"
Those who were named turned pale with fright and repeatedly admitted their mistakes, a typical case of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
To further solidify Stone Fist's positive image, Lin Yue publicly announced that, in recognition of Uncle Stone Fist's outstanding contributions to ironware making, his meals would be upgraded to a deluxe PPPPlus level! He'd have meat every day! And... once the wheat ripened, the first barrel of beer would be served to him first!
This special treatment immediately drew envious and resentful glances from all the refugees, especially the men! It also made them realize how important it was to have skills in this small group!
An internal crisis triggered by the rainy season was temporarily resolved thanks to Lin Yue's combination of persuasion and pressure.
Right now, his biggest headache is still Gray.
What secrets does this taciturn man hold? What does his growing anxiety and unease signify?
An even bigger storm seems to be brewing.
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Author's note: Lin Yue (hands on hips): Good heavens, if it rains again I'm going to become a "trendy person"!
Gray (suddenly raising his spear): Who? The enemy? Where?
Lin Yue (facepalm): Well, another one's gone mad!
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