Li Haibo’s business was up and running again, but it didn’t affect Jiang Lai’s sales at all.
Her cabins took ten minutes each to make, and with so many orders coming in, Jiang Lai was already struggling to keep up.
She had no intention of lowering her prices, either. You get what you pay for—players have their own brains and eyes, and they’ll naturally make the choices that suit them best.
But this situation left Chang Fa fuming.
Back when they were selling torches, as the salesman, Chang Fa had been the one harassed the most by the pirate crew.
He wished nothing more than for Li Haibo to have a run of bad luck.
“How can he sell such shoddy stuff? That’s just putting people’s lives at risk for profit!”
“Jiang Lai, is it really going to be windy tonight?”
Qi Jingxing’s focus was a bit different. He’d picked up on what Jiang Lai had said earlier in the public chat.
“There might be strong winds. I know a little about meteorology,” Jiang Lai replied, making up an excuse based on what Haibao had told her.
Even Haijia had warned Haibao to head back early because of the wind, so it must be something serious.
“If that’s true, the players who bought Li Haibo’s cabins are in trouble. We should remind everyone again,” Qi Jingxing said, a bit worried.
Jiang Lai had noticed since the torch-selling days that Qi Jingxing was always eager to help others and give back to the community.
In their old lives, Jiang Lai would have genuinely respected and admired someone with such a big heart and broad perspective.
But now, in this survival game where everyone was struggling just to stay alive, having that kind of mindset was a bit… saintly.
Jiang Lai had already announced in her advertisements that it would be windy tonight.
Whether people took it to heart was up to them.
In this survival-of-the-fittest game, Jiang Lai felt it was fine to give reminders or help if there was something in it for her, but most of the time, she believed in respecting other people’s choices and letting go of the urge to save everyone.
“I’m in direct competition with Li Haibo right now, so it’s not really convenient for me to say anything. If you want to warn people, go ahead,” she said.
Sure enough, Qi Jingxing and Chang Fa went to the public chat and repeated the warning about the strong winds tonight, also mentioning the potential safety hazards with Li Haibo’s cabins.
If the wind blew them away, losing the upgrade materials would be the least of their worries—there was a real risk of the people inside being swept away too.
Qi Jingxing genuinely wanted to help, but Chang Fa just didn’t want Li Haibo to have it easy.
“Is the wind really going to be that strong?”
“Guess it’s true—trying to save a little money isn’t worth it.”
“Don’t listen to their nonsense! Everyone knows those two are in cahoots with Jiang Lai. This is just slander and malicious competition!”
“Yeah, it’s been windy every night lately. We’ve all felt it. There’s no way the wind could blow away a cabin this big.”
Li Haibo, whose business was booming, was furious to see Qi Jingxing and Chang Fa stirring things up again.
But he’d already used up all ten of his advertising posts, so he could only send his lackeys out to argue on his behalf.
Slander? He could do that too.
“Bet you didn’t know—Jiang Lai’s cabins are super heavy. If you’ve got stuff on your boat, don’t buy hers, or you might just sink in your sleep.”
Of course, this was nonsense. The intermediate workbench designs were well thought out, and as long as you didn’t pile hundreds of pounds of rocks on board, you’d be fine.
But most people didn’t know that. Seeing how refined Jiang Lai’s cabins looked, some couldn’t help but wonder.
“They’re barely over a meter long—nowhere near enough to stretch out in. Spending the night curled up in there must be miserable. And she dares to charge so much?”
That part was true, but Jiang Lai hadn’t made them small to save on materials—it was for warmth.
“You’re the ones talking nonsense!”
Chang Fa and Qi Jingxing hadn’t expected that people could twist things so much, even when Jiang Lai’s cabins were clearly superior.
But once players got a bad impression, it was hard to change their minds.
And since Jiang Lai’s cabins were more expensive to begin with, Li Haibo’s business soon overtook hers.
As for the wind…
It had been windy and rainy for days, and everyone felt they had a pretty good handle on the weather at sea.
If it really got bad, they figured they could just put the cabin in their backpack and tough it out with a torch.
On the fifth day of the extreme cold, the steadily dropping survival numbers didn’t really alarm anyone.
Most people still clung to the hope that they’d be lucky.
After all, most people were still alive—surely they wouldn’t be the unlucky ones.
Everyone thought that way.
“Sorry, we didn’t expect… to mess up your business,” Qi Jingxing and Chang Fa apologized to Jiang Lai in their private group.
Having never been burned by society, both of them felt guilty and confused.
Why wouldn’t people listen to good advice? Why did they trust Li Haibo’s misleading claims instead?
Why did they ignore how good Jiang Lai’s cabins were, just to save a little money and buy inferior products?
Jiang Lai shook her head.
She’d already anticipated all this when Qi Jingxing and Chang Fa decided to warn everyone.
She might have just graduated college, but she wasn’t lacking in real-world experience.
She and her sister had lost their parents young. The two of them, still children, managed to hold onto their inheritance and grow up safely, which was no small feat—only they knew how hard it had been.
Without her parents’ protection, Jiang Lai had seen the darker side of human nature from an early age.
She knew very well that everyone had their own value judgments and would make the choices that benefited themselves most.
So she didn’t keep reminding the other players.
Nor did she stop Qi Jingxing and Chang Fa from trying.
Call her selfish or cold if you want.
She just didn’t think she had the power to save others.
All she could do was take care of herself, keep leveling up, and be ready to protect her sister when the month was up.
“It’s fine, really. Don’t worry about it,” Jiang Lai reassured the two dejected young men.
She wasn’t just being polite—her business really wasn’t affected.
Her orders were already booked up until midnight.
She had no plans to pull another all-nighter.
Earning resources was important, but two nights in a row without sleep was just too much.
With that in mind, Jiang Lai posted a message in the chat:
“Only taking six more orders tonight—first come, first served.
Also, after the extreme cold passes, you can try recycling your cabin from your backpack for some materials back.”
(End of chapter)”
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