A Night of Desperation

Chapter 10: Operation (2)

After placing the enhanced glowstones, Yu Hong walked into the cave again. At the top and on both sides of the ground, he found corresponding indentations.

These were spots he had prepared for placing the enhanced glowstones later, with the goal of ensuring the absolute safety of the entire safe house.

Over the past few days, he had relied on Little Stutterer’s help for food, and now he had collected seven enhanced glowstones.

His stockpile was quite plentiful.

The black insect blood tides, which had once been a major concern, no longer worried him. The eerie shadows that occasionally appeared also stopped showing up.

According to Little Stutterer, they were in a safe period, which generally lasted about a month, before suddenly erupting into a high-intensity period.

At that time, both the blood tides and the eerie shadows would become significantly stronger.

‘No wonder Dr. Xu is so upset with me. I’ve become a burden, delaying the progress of Little Stutterer, who should be gathering supplies now. This will cause her to run low on resources and get into danger.’

Yu Hong thought to himself.

But he didn’t mind it.

Because Dr. Xu didn’t know what he was truly capable of. Not to mention, the effect of the enhanced glowstones was enough to ensure Little Stutterer’s safety when facing the eerie shadows.

At least, they worked much better than the regular glowstones.

Regular glowstones could only be used once, but enhanced glowstones could be used multiple times.

However, it was unclear how many times they could be used. He would have to find a chance to test it later.

Thinking about this, Yu Hong snapped back to reality, closing the wooden door and standing alone in the cave.

Once the door was shut, the cave grew dim, with only the striped ventilation hole letting in bright golden rays.

Yu Hong stood with his back against the door, extending his hand.

His arm, darker than before, still couldn’t hide the clear black mark on the back of his hand.

Soon, a large black number appeared on the door: 12 days.

“Do you want to reinforce the wooden door?”

A faint sound reached his ears.

Yu Hong’s expression became serious, and he took a deep breath.

‘Yes!’

He responded strongly in his mind.

Immediately, a black line flowed from the black mark on his hand, entering the wooden door, disappearing without a trace.

Then, the number on the door changed, from 12 to 11 days and 23 hours, 59 minutes.

The numbers flickered, faintly glowing, extremely mysterious.

“Countdown!?” Yu Hong was surprised to notice this for the first time.

When he had used the enhanced glowstones before, he had always tried to avoid Little Stutterer and hadn’t paid attention to the process.

Now, it seemed that this black mark even had a countdown function, which was very convenient.

‘Alright, now we just need to wait.’

Yu Hong sighed in relief. So far, the strengthening of the black mark hadn’t caused him any negative side effects. The worst he had felt was a bit of mental fatigue after use, but a short rest was enough to recover.

Twelve days.

By then, he would be able to assess the effect of the reinforced wooden door.

He was quite eager.

After watching the wooden door for a while, Yu Hong picked up a piece of rubble from the cave, trying to activate the black mark again.

But nothing happened.

He wasn’t surprised.

He had tried before to see if he could strengthen two objects at once.

But now it seemed that either it never worked, or perhaps he hadn’t yet met some special condition.

Yu Hong wasn’t in a hurry.

His main priority was to finish the safe house. After that, he would have plenty of time to study the black mark.

Little Stutterer had gone out and wouldn’t be back tonight. So, Yu Hong rested for a while in the cave, then stored the enhanced glowstones in various corners and headed back to Baqiu Village.

Soon, he returned to the house, familiar with the path.

After closing the door and placing the enhanced glowstones in their designated spots, he drank some filtered water to soothe his throat.

The filthy, foul-smelling filtered water hadn’t upset his stomach. That was truly a miracle.

Yu Hong finished his preparations, took a piece of dried meat, and sat by the bed, slowly nibbling on it.

The dried meat was very tough, unlike any meat he had eaten before. It was thin and black in color.

According to Little Stutterer, it was lizard meat.

Yu Hong didn’t mind; at least he could tolerate it more than the other two types of dried meat: rat and cockroach.

As nightfall approached, Yu Hong lit a candle and placed it beside him on the nightstand, ensuring the candlelight illuminated the ventilation holes in the door and windows.

Then he closed his eyes and rested quietly.

A peaceful night.

The next morning, Yu Hong went to the village road to wait.

His phone had long since run out of power, so he had to use the shadow of the sun on the ground to estimate the time with a simple sundial.

After waiting for about an hour or so, two figures appeared at the end of the road, carrying large bags.

As they got closer, Yu Hong recognized them as Little Stutterer and Dr. Xu.

He hurried over to help Little Stutterer with the heavy bag on her back.

“Thank you for your hard work,” he said quietly.

“Safe house, how… is it?” Little Stutterer asked with an expectant look on her face.

Before they left yesterday, she had checked the progress and thought it was almost done.

“It’s done. The door is completely finished!” Yu Hong said seriously, nodding and smiling.

He was in a good mood.

“I bought waterproof paint!” Little Stutterer signed clumsily. “I’ll… paint it for you.”

Waterproof paint?

Yu Hong froze. Right, he had forgotten to apply the waterproofing. Otherwise, the wooden door he had worked so hard to build would soon rot from the moisture.

After all, he wasn’t a professional carpenter—he knew some basic skills but had overlooked key steps.

Luckily, Little Stutterer had remembered to take care of it.

“That’s right! I didn’t even think about the waterproofing!” Yu Hong slapped his hand to his forehead in realization. “Good thing you remembered, or all that effort on the door would have been wasted!”

“The paint’s half used up. I traded it for three-quarters of the dried meat,” Dr. Xu said with a cold look in her eyes.

“Since the door’s done, when will you move out?” she asked next.

“Soon, very soon!” Yu Hong nodded. “Dr. Xu seems to misunderstand me. Just wait, soon I’ll be able to help Little Stutterer live a better life.”

Little Stutterer had helped him a lot, and he kept that in mind. As for the secret of the black mark, he was now sure it was something only he possessed.

At least, neither Little Stutterer nor Dr. Xu had it. He had asked Little Stutterer, and no one she had met had ever heard of such a special ability.

So, he felt much more confident now.

‘Here we go again, another guy who just talks big.’

Dr. Xu shot him a disgusted look, turned, and walked away.

She had seen people saved by Little Stutterer before. They would wake up, learn something briefly, and leave.

None of them stayed longer than five days.

But Yu Hong… he had been there for almost a month, twenty days, and still hadn’t left!

Not only was he not leaving, but he wasn’t helping with the work either! This had caused Little Stutterer to spend even more time digging wild vegetables and painting glowstones, while they were eating less food.

Food had been scarce, and now with two people eating, they had to ration it more.

“I trust you!” Little Stutterer said earnestly, getting closer to Yu Hong.

“Mm! Thank you!” Yu Hong nodded, watching Dr. Xu leave.

The two returned to the house, where they sorted through the items they had brought back.

A large bag of glowstones, minus the paint, had been exchanged for only half a pound of dried meat and one pound of dried mushrooms.

Mixed with the wild vegetables, they would need to eat this for at least three to five days.

In the house, the two of them sorted the dried meat into bags, adding charcoal to absorb moisture and tying them up to avoid opening them frequently.

“By the way, what’s the strength of the eerie shadows and blood tides during the high period? Can you explain in more detail?” Yu Hong asked while sorting the meat.

“They’re strong,” Little Stutterer nodded. “The eerie shadows can appear at any time. The blood tides will come every day, along with the eerie shadows.”

“Ten glowstones are needed to deal with one eerie shadow.” Little Stutterer began to explain the dangers of the high period in detail.

As she explained in her broken sentences, Yu Hong gradually understood more about the high period’s dangers.

Especially the eerie shadows. For them, even after drawing the symbols, the regular glowstones were only effective if ten were used to drive one away.

Little Stutterer’s glowstones were naturally better than others, which was why they always sold for a good price.

But in the high period, even her glowstones needed ten to deal with one eerie shadow. Other people’s glowstones would be much less effective.

Yu Hong also asked about the candle usage.

The answer made his heart sink.

During the high period, one large candle was used up every night. The consumption was huge. Of course, they could burn firewood, but they always needed a light source to block the blood tides.

After learning the specific details, Yu Hong calculated the remaining time for the high period, looking at the old calendar on the table. Only fifteen days left.

The wooden door would be reinforced in twelve days. If the reinforcement didn’t work well, things might get complicated.

His heart sank slightly.

“Where do you buy the candles?” he asked.

“Uncle Wang,” Little Stutterer pointed to a distant spot on the simple map she had drawn.

“He’s from the old village,” she added.

“How long does the high period usually last?”

“It used to be one day. Later, it became five days,” Little Stutterer replied.

“Will it last longer?” Yu Hong frowned.

“Yes!” Little Stutterer nodded vigorously.

“I understand,” Yu Hong knew he needed to hurry.

In the coming days, he began to speed up the construction of his safe house. Although the door was done, the internal structures were not fully set up.

The chimney, for example, had to be prepared in advance if he wanted to use fire inside.

This wasn’t too difficult, as he had seen houses with chimneys before.

He just needed to take the chimney pipes from those houses.

However, as Little Stutterer had warned, he should avoid going inside those buildings.

While he could take the doorboards from outside, entering the dark areas could mean encountering eerie shadows.

But with the enhanced glowstones, he didn’t worry too much.

One enhanced glowstone could handle several eerie shadows, which was much better than regular glowstones.

Even so, the thought of the eerie shadow’s terrifying presence made Yu Hong uneasy. He really didn’t want to get too close to it.

(End of Chapter)