This Haibao (Sea Treasure Beast) was able to follow her wooden box up from the depths, so it was likely that it could see other boxes as well.
The more Jiang Lai thought about it, the brighter her eyes became, and the more eagerly she looked at Haibao.
Could this be her very own little treasure-hunting beast?
“Tata, tatata.”
Seeing the look in Jiang Lai’s eyes, Haibao instinctively took a few steps back.
But in the end, its foodie nature won out over everything else.
Haibao grabbed the fishing line in its mouth and jumped back into the water.
A long time passed—so long that Jiang Lai started to wonder if Haibao had just gone home—when the fishing rod finally reacted.
After what happened just now, Haibao probably realized how difficult it had been for Jiang Lai to pull it up last time.
This time, it was much more considerate, nudging the box up with its head instead of stubbornly clinging to it.
When she pulled the box onto the raft, Jiang Lai was overjoyed.
It was actually a silver chest!
This was her first time fishing up a silver chest.
Jiang Lai tossed an apple to her little helper Haibao, then got ready to open the chest herself.
But Haibao, after getting the apple, just hugged it with its little fins and stayed right by the chest, not leaving at all.
“Don’t tell me it’s…”
Jiang Lai looked at Haibao’s behavior and found it all too familiar…
[Strawberries *1 basket, Watermelon *1, Oranges *10, Cookware Set *1]
Just as she thought.
Jiang Lai understood, feeling a bit helpless.
“Are there a lot of treasure chests at the bottom of the sea? Are you deliberately picking the ones with food for me?”
“Tatata, tatata, tata.”
Hearing Jiang Lai’s words, Haibao looked extremely aggrieved.
It scrunched up its little face and tried to explain itself.
Turns out, even at the bottom of the sea, Haibao rarely saw these kinds of chests.
It just had a special sensitivity to food and could usually follow the scent of something tasty to find the chests.
Even when it found a chest before, it couldn’t open it—just hugged it and sniffed, then had to let go, frustrated.
This time, it just happened to be hugging the chest and sniffing when it got fished up.
When Jiang Lai asked it to find a special chest, it had worked really hard to find such a shiny one.
“Tata?”
You don’t like it?
“Tatata?”
If you don’t like it, can I have it?
Only then did Jiang Lai realize she’d misunderstood Haibao. It wasn’t that it only picked what it liked; it was that Haibao could only find chests with food inside.
Jiang Lai patted Haibao on the head.
“Sorry, Haibao, you’re the best. I really like what’s in this chest.”
Could she say she didn’t like it?
If she said she didn’t, this little guy would probably take the whole chest away in the next second.
Jiang Lai stuffed an orange into Haibao’s arms.
Then she took two strawberries and popped them into Haibao’s mouth.
“This is your reward.”
Haibao smacked its lips, feeling that this was the best thing it had ever eaten—better than any little fish, shrimp, or turtle in the sea!
It swallowed the strawberries whole, then looked longingly at the watermelon.
What was that? It had never eaten one before.
Jiang Lai couldn’t help but laugh and coaxed it:
“With your little short arms, you can’t carry too many things at once.
Go home and eat these first. I promise I’ll save you a piece of watermelon for next time, okay?”
Haibao tilted its head and thought for a moment, then agreed.
“Tatata, tata, tata.”
Mom said there’s going to be a big wind on the sea tonight, so I can’t stay out too long. I’m going home now.
Haibao slapped its tail on the raft as a farewell, then jumped back into the sea with its apple and orange.
Jiang Lai watched as Haibao disappeared completely beneath the waves before she started sorting through the chest’s contents.
She put the apples, oranges, watermelon, and strawberries into her homemade wooden box and stored it in her backpack.
She shared a compartment with the box that held sweet potatoes and potatoes.
Jiang Lai had already tested it—using wooden boxes as storage containers meant each slot could hold many boxes, which was the most space-efficient way to use her backpack.
The boxes she made herself used fewer materials than the ones she fished up, saving resources.
She dismantled both the wooden box and the silver chest.
The exchange rate for silver to bronze was 1:10.
That is, ten units of silver could be exchanged for 100 units of bronze and 500 units of wood.
But Jiang Lai didn’t exchange them.
Now that her workbench had been upgraded, she figured she might have other uses for the silver later.
In the end, only the cookware set was left on the raft.
A wok, a spatula, four plates, four bowls, four pairs of chopsticks, and four small soup spoons.
It was actually quite a complete set.
With her upgraded workbench, Jiang Lai could have made similar items herself.
But she’d been so busy, she hadn’t had time to think about when she’d finally get to eat a hot meal.
Jiang Lai looked around her raft, considering whether she could build a kitchen.
Maybe the intermediate workbench could build a simple house.
Jiang Lai carefully searched through the workbench’s functions.
Sure enough, she found “house construction” in the function area.
She input her desired kitchen size and style, then got a price.
[Wood *150, Iron Nails *75]
That was even more expensive than upgrading her residence from level one to level two!
Looking at the numbers on the screen,
Jiang Lai suddenly felt she didn’t need a kitchen that badly after all.
Roasting sweet potatoes and potatoes over the fire pit was pretty nice, too.
Even though she’d gotten rich overnight, after seeing the materials needed to upgrade to a level-four residence,
Jiang Lai’s excitement had already cooled down.
The road ahead was long—she’d have to tighten her belt.
Building a house was really a luxury for her right now.
But…
Jiang Lai suddenly thought of the cabin Li Haibo was selling.
If building a house was so expensive, what about building a boat cabin?
Her curiosity piqued, Jiang Lai quickly entered the specs for the cabin she wanted to make.
Remembering how Haibao had said there’d be strong winds tonight,
Jiang Lai made sure to design the edges so the cabin would fit snugly onto the sides of the boat.
The top of the cabin was arched, making it more stable and secure in wind and snow.
As for the entrance, Jiang Lai designed it with a hinged door and a hook inside to latch it.
There was a peephole on the door, about the size of a coin.
Normally it would be plugged with wood, but if she needed to check outside or let in air, she could just remove the plug—very convenient.
As for the size,
Jiang Lai thought about it: the width matched the boat, but the length was only about 1.2 meters.
That was much shorter than Li Haibo’s simple cabin.
You couldn’t stretch out inside; you’d have to curl up.
But Jiang Lai had her reasons.
The smaller the space, the warmer it would be. With the space small and lined with warm clothes, curling up inside would keep her both warm and safe.
Besides, everyone would be upgrading eventually. This cabin was just for the transition—if it was too big, it would use too many materials and lose its purpose.
You had to admit, Jiang Lai had thought this through very carefully.
(End of chapter)”
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