Extra:...

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

My name is Wu Xie. I am currently on a deserted farmland, which is also an island in the middle of Taihu Lake. It’s seven o’clock in the morning.

In the distance, the sun had risen from the lake. There was a faint mist on the water that seemed to glow with warm colors under the sunlight. The sparkling reflections on the distant water started to turn from orange to gold.

My clothes were wrapped tight around me, and my lips were purple with the cold. I had squatted on the mound all night. I wanted to set up a safe hiding place for myself, but I couldn’t make it happen. In addition, I found that even after I meditated all night, there was nothing I could do.

To sum it up, the situation was different from what I had expected.

There were no trees or shrubs here. The only thing that was growing were various kinds of weeds and grasses that were of no use to me, but they were taller than the crocodile. In other words, once the crocodile climbed into the grass, I couldn’t determine its location.

I started to wonder whether Black Glasses had planted these weeds.

The reeds by the lake in the distance were the best materials. The little crocodile had been basking and relaxing in the sun all day long yesterday— looking kind of cute and stupid— but I was completely defenseless and afraid to approach at all.

After the sun went down, the crocodile returned to the water. It should have swum away, but I didn’t have any lighting equipment with me to tell for sure. I couldn’t light a torch any time I wanted, and without the sun, I couldn’t make a dry ignitor. The bonfire had also gone out in the middle of the night.

It was during this time that I ate my last sweet potato to keep out the cold. Now I was squatting on the mound, unable to feel my body temperature as tiredness and powerlessness fought a constant battle with my spirit. I was so hungry that I was dizzy, and I felt like things were evolving towards the situation I feared the most—death.

What was even more terrifying was that my desire to pass the test had completely turned into the desire to strangle Black Glasses to death.

No. It should be said that even from the beginning, I didn’t want to pass the exam at all. How did he trick me into coming to this island?

“You need to accurately judge how long you can live and how long you can keep your spirit.” Black Glasses’ voice rang in my ears.

Fine. Let’s do it your way for now. I tried to judge how tired I was.

When I was still young, I often stayed in internet cafes all night long, and would head straight to breakfast before sitting down in the back row of the classroom and falling asleep.

Even without sleep, I knew that I could maintain about eighty percent of my energy until the next evening, as long as I could eat.

Not eating would definitely affect my attention span.

I had no other choice. The biggest problem I have right now isn’t even food. It’s that I’m thirsty.

The sun continued to rise higher in the sky. I would definitely cry if it was a rainy day, but fortunately, the gods had mercy on me.

I waited until my body began to feel warm before slowly standing up and starting to move. Joint pain and muscle numbness indicated that my body had already started to go downhill. I was a little dizzy, which was probably an indicator that my blood sugar was low.

After slowly recovering, I picked up a reed tube and sucked the dew from it. I did that about a dozen more times before finally feeling like my thirst was alleviated.

I thought of the legend of inhaling wind and drinking dew (1), and suddenly did a Lu Dongbin (2) action, but I felt bored after doing it. It appeared my low blood sugar had also reduced my self-control.

I started to pull the weeds by the portion of the mound that was sheltered by the wind, and managed to clear a semicircular area. I left the reeds, the hay, and the weeds out in the sun to dry before going to the lake to collect some rocks.

I felt a kind of farmers’ pleasure. The hazy fields all around me seemed as if they came from a pastel painting, and I wondered if it was an illusion.

After spending a long time collecting the rocks, I dried them and then spread them out on the semicircular area I had cleared. I then stepped on the soil, lit the hay, burned the layer of vegetation to ash, and then covered it with another layer of stones. After that, I started spreading the hay and reed leaves upwards.

By about one in the afternoon, I had made a soft bed. The downside was that this bed would absorb moisture and become damp at night, so I would need a bonfire big enough to prevent that from happening.

There were no woods here, so the reed poles wouldn’t last long. I needed a charcoal stove that could keep me warm for a long time. I needed water and clay.

When I returned to the shore, I found that the crocodile had appeared again, but something was wrong this time. Now when I looked, there were three crocodiles. At least two more had appeared at some point, and they were a bit fatter.

There aren’t any keepers here? Hey, this is Taihu Lake, not the Nile River! I muttered to myself, “The people around here are really generous and carefree.”

<Master Black Glasses Sequel: Wu Xie’s Island Adventure 2><Table of Contents><Master Black Glasses Sequel: Wu Xie’s Island Adventure 4>

*****

TN Notes:

(1) Taoism believes that fairies don’t need to eat or drink, and they just need to inhale wind and drink dew.

(2) Lü Dongbin (796 CE-1016 CE) was a Chinese scholar and poet during the Tang Dynasty who has been elevated to the status of an immortal in the Chinese cultural sphere, worshipped especially by the Taoists. Here’s the wiki link

*****

Translated by: Tiffany X

Edited by: merebear226

Like this:Like Loading...

Related