Upon hearing the system’s prompt, Ji Shuyu felt a stir in her heart—a hundred points. This was far better than the scattered seashells and conchs she had collected before.
She immediately turned to look in the direction the system had indicated. At the base of a reef covered in barnacles and seaweed, there seemed to be an inconspicuous crevice. Stepping carefully over the slippery rocks, she crouched down and reached inside. Her fingers soon brushed against a slightly rough object. With a firm tug, she pulled out an irregularly shaped fragment about the size of her palm—the hundred-year coral fragment.
It felt cool to the touch, with a peculiar texture—somewhere between stone and the smooth warmth of jade. Along its naturally broken edges, tiny crystalline points seemed to glimmer. Ji Shuyu examined it closely, sensing something unusual about it. It felt entirely different from ordinary dead coral reefs. Was something like this really worth only a hundred points?
As she pondered, the system urged her again. So impatient? Ji Shuyu looked at the hundred-year coral fragment in her hand and chose not to exchange it. This was the first time the system had ever rushed her, which made her suspect that the coral fragment must be extraordinary. She had always been sensitive to such things and could naturally detect the difference.
The system, seemingly intrigued by her hesitation, fell silent after she declined the exchange. Ji Shuyu tossed the coral fragment into her storage space and turned to leave. Her harvest for the day had been quite fruitful—the assorted items she collected added up to over a hundred points. Her total points now stood at 3,110.
She decided to use the smaller portion of her points to exchange for a high-end water filtration system from the points store. The island had no clean water supply, and they had to fetch well water daily. Ji Shuyu was nearly driven mad by the turbid water. Although He Yuan always filtered it for her with a simple device, it still wasn’t enough for someone with her level of cleanliness. She had OCD!
After browsing the points store for a long time, she had settled on the high-end water filtration system, which cost 100 points. It wasn’t that she minded the expense—she was just figuring out how to retrieve it without raising suspicion. This outing provided the perfect excuse.
Lost in thought, she turned and saw He Yuan striding toward her, a military canteen in his hand. “Zhao Qiang said there was an emergency assembly, but it turned out to be a false alarm,” He Yuan explained as he reached her. He naturally took the small bag of shells from her hand. “You collected so many?”
“Yes, the shells here are especially beautiful,” Ji Shuyu replied with a smile. She had never seen such a vibrant blue sea before, and everything felt new and exciting to her.
He Yuan reached out and ruffled her hair, then pulled some snacks from his pocket and handed them to her. “As long as you’re happy here. I was worried you wouldn’t be used to life on the island.” Initially, Ji Shuyu had been reluctant to come precisely because everything on the island seemed so rundown. Although efforts were underway to improve conditions, it still couldn’t compare to the cities. Moreover, in just a year, a storm would hit. 1966 was going to be a turning point.
“By the way, He Yuan, is there a supply and marketing cooperative here? Or someplace where I can buy things? I need to get a few items.”
At her question, He Yuan frowned slightly but replied gently, “There is one, but it’s very small and has limited supplies. Mostly daily necessities like oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, needles, and thread. Plus, many items require ration coupons.”
Hearing this, Ji Shuyu nodded. “Can I go take a look?” She needed a plausible reason to produce the water filtration system. A trip to the supply and marketing cooperative would allow her to claim she had bought the raw materials and assembled it herself.
He Yuan usually didn’t ask too many questions, but she still needed to put on a bit of an act.
“Alright, let’s go take a look then.”
He Yuan took her hand and used a clean handkerchief to wipe the sand off her fingers. This man seemed born with an innate ability to love others.
Ji Shuyu felt relieved inwardly, but her expression remained neutral. “That’s great.”
Waves crashed against the reef, splashing water onto the hem of Ji Shuyu’s trousers.
After resting briefly at the military camp with He Yuan, he took her to the supply and marketing cooperative.
“The director of the island’s supply and marketing cooperative is surnamed Wang. He’s an honest and straightforward person. If there’s anything you want to buy, just let him know. But don’t be disappointed if they really don’t have it.”
“If it’s something they don’t have, I can ask someone to bring it from outside for you.”
“From outside the island?” Ji Shuyu asked, puzzled. He Yuan explained:
“Every month, there are ships traveling between the island and the mainland. I can ask the crew to help bring things back.”
“But it might take some time—probably about half a month to arrive.”
So sometimes he’d ask them to bring a lot of things at once.
He Yuan knew that Ji Shuyu had lived a comfortable life in the city before. Now that she was on the island, he was always worried she wouldn’t adjust.
As they talked, they arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative.
Unfortunately, today wasn’t their lucky day—Director Wang had just stepped out when they arrived.
Only one female shop assistant was inside.
“What do you want to buy?”
The shop assistant was holding a handful of sunflower seeds and reading a comic book, not even bothering to look up.
Ji Shuyu didn’t mind her attitude and simply glanced at the items on the shelves.
He Yuan’s expression remained neutral as he said calmly, “We’re just looking around.”
Only then did the shop assistant lift her eyelids to glance at them. When she noticed He Yuan’s military uniform, her demeanor noticeably softened.
She spat the sunflower seed shells into a paper basket at the corner of the table, put down her comic book, and stood up. “Everything’s on the shelves over there. Let me know when you’ve decided.”
The supply and marketing cooperative was indeed quite small—less than ten meters deep, with two rows of shelves packed tightly on either side.
The upper level of the left shelf held several rows of glass bottles containing soy sauce, vinegar, and kerosene.
The lower level had packs of salt and a few bars of yellowish soap, their labels already faded.
The right shelf was even more cluttered: needles and thread were stored in tin boxes, next to a few bolts of coarse fabric in dull colors. At the very bottom were piled enamel mugs and aluminum lunchboxes.
Ji Shuyu pretended to examine the items carefully—she needed to find something that could be loosely connected to a water filter as a raw material.
Suddenly, her gaze swept over a corner of the shelf and paused on a stack of gray filter cloth.
It was a coarse fabric used by fishermen to filter impurities from seawater. Though it was far from a high-end filtration system, it was at least somewhat related.
“Comrade, how much is this filter cloth?” Ji Shuyu pointed at the cloth and asked.
The shop assistant quoted the price impatiently: “Twenty cents per foot, and you need a coupon.”
He Yuan pulled fabric ration coupons and money from his pocket and handed them over. “We’ll take two feet.”
The shop assistant took the items, slowly tore off the cloth, wrapped it up, and muttered under her breath, “Who even wants this stuff besides fishermen…”
Ji Shuyu took the filter cloth and stuffed it into her cloth bag. With this, she now had an excuse to take out the water filtration system.
She then casually glanced at the other shelves and deliberately asked, “Do you have any finer gauze? I’d like to use it for filtering drinking water.”
“No.”
The shop assistant shook her head bluntly, a hint of disdain flashing in her eyes. “The well water on the island doesn’t need to be that finicky. Just boil it and it’s fine.”
“You must be new to the island, right? You seem a bit pampered.”
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