Stardew Valley of Gensokyo

Even Aya Shameimaru, who was far away in the Youkai Mountain, was thought of by Akina Sawa.

As for the shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei...

Wait a minute? Reimu!

Akina Sawa also suddenly looked up; he had come up with an unbelievable idea.

Time travel!

If it were that priestess, she might even be able to do something like turning back time!

Akina Ze wasn't greedy. If he could really turn back time, he would only want to go back a few hours to prevent all of this from happening.

There is no time to lose, make a decision immediately.

Akina Sawa threw Nikua, whom he was holding, onto the bed, grabbed a thick coat from the clothes rack, and hurriedly left.

Nikua, tossed onto the bed, sat up, rubbed her sleepy eyes, glanced at the wide-open door, and slammed it shut with her little feet. She then curled up in the blankets, enjoying the lingering warmth of the heating as she drifted off to sleep again.

It's cold, so getting some sleep is important.

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In the living room of Hakurei Shrine.

After hearing the gist of the matter, Reimu Hakurei leaned on one hand and said those words to Akina Sawa, who had come from afar and was still covered in a layer of snow, which froze his heart.

"Oyster"

"How could that be? You're a priestess!"

Hearing this, Akina Ze panicked. His last hope had been dashed, but he still tried to struggle on desperately.

"I already said it won't work, and besides, a shrine maiden isn't omnipotent; a god is more like it. But as you can see, there are no gods here," Reimu Hakurei said weakly, waving her hands.

Winter was still long, and the shrine's food supplies were dwindling. In this season of high food prices, she needed to speak and move as little as possible to avoid wasting energy, as unnecessary energy expenditure was a major enemy.

"And this was entirely your fault, wasn't it? Who would risk their own livelihood? It's unimaginable."

Reimu Hakurei could never have imagined that someone would use their precious food to smoke something so ethereal.

If it were her, no. If it were her, she might actually smoke.

Because Reimu Hakurei always felt that she was very lucky, even if she accidentally stepped into a hole while walking along a dark river at night, a fish would jump up from somewhere and land on her foot instead of her falling into the water.

But now that it has happened, there are no "what ifs" in life.

Akina Sawa also lost all the crops she had planted that year.

Although Reimu Hakurei felt it was a pity, pity is not the same as pitying.

Reimu Hakurei's regret lies in the loss of food. The food grown in the land of Gensokyo disappeared before fulfilling its purpose, which is truly a pity.

What's lost is lost forever; focus on the present.

Reimu Hakurei stood up, patted her skirt, and opened the door. The cold wind blew into the one-bedroom apartment without hesitation.

"Want some roasted sweet potatoes? I just made some," Reimu Hakurei said, turning to Sawa Akina.

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He strolled to the front of the courtyard.

Inside the stone lantern placed to the left of the torii gate, there was a clump of wood ash that was still radiating heat.

Reimu Hakurei gently cleaned away the dust, revealing two or three small roasted sweet potatoes inside.

"Here, have one."

Ignoring the layer of hot ash still covering the sweet potato, Reimu Hakurei casually pulled one out and tossed it into Zeya Akina's hand.

"Hey, it's a little hot!"

The freshly roasted sweet potatoes were still radiating heat, and even though Akina Zeya's hands were frozen by the cold wind, he could still feel the intense heat.

"The sweet potatoes made this way are really delicious. I used to always have other people make them for me, this is the first time I've ever done it myself."

Reimu Hakurei's words didn't convey any particular feeling; if one had to describe them, they were like the tone of winter—quiet yet cold.

Akina Ze also glanced at the stone lantern on the right. He could still see some dust left over from before, but there was very little of it left.

"Then wouldn't I be the first person to taste your roasted sweet potato?"

Skillfully peeling back the charred layer of the sweet potato skin, Akina Ze took a big bite. Mmm~, indeed sweet and delicious.

"It's just roasting sweet potatoes, there's no skill involved. Besides, I only roast them because sweet potatoes are cheapest in winter, which saves me the cost of a meal's worth of rice."

"Besides, rice is very expensive! It's shameful for someone like you to waste food like this!" Reimu Hakurei glared at Zeya Akina.

The heat emanating from the freshly roasted sweet potatoes seemed to rouse the previously listless shrine maiden.

"I'm such an idiot," Akina Sawa sighed without responding.

In the cold winter, only the sweet potatoes roasted by the shaman's own hands can bring warmth.

Shaking his head, Akina Ze then buried himself in the sweet potatoes.

The small sweet potatoes were very hot and scalding, but Akina Ze still ate them in big mouthfuls.

"Hey, you! Be careful not to burn your mouth!" Reimu Hakurei couldn't stand it anymore.

Actually, she was worried that Akina Ze would finish his sweet potatoes quickly and then come to her for more.

That truly shows that the shrine maiden's household had no surplus food, not even sweet potatoes.

Although Akina Ze seems completely unconcerned about the popularity of sweet potatoes, that's just an appearance.

This thing is really hot!

But we've already eaten such a delicious meal (in my opinion), wouldn't it be lame to stop now?

Driven by some inexplicable insistence, Akina Sawa continued to eat heartily.

and many more! ?

Like a steaming hot sweet potato, it slightly thawed Akina Sawa's frozen brain.

Another idea suddenly popped into Akina Zeya's head, one that seemed less far-fetched than the previous one.

The reason we can't plant crops in winter is because the temperature is too low; the crops will freeze to death.

But if you have a normal temperature environment for farming, plus your own maxed-out farming skills...

Crops can grow safely regardless of the temperature outside.

It seems that getting through this winter safely won't be too difficult?

This reignited Akina Sawa's passion, like a fire rising from his heart.

The cold winter wind didn't seem so cold on my face anymore, and I couldn't even feel the warmth in my mouth.

Akina Sawa also looked at Reimu Hakurei with eager eyes as she ate the charred sweet potato skin in small bites.

"What are you doing?" Reimu Hakurei, feeling uneasy under such scrutiny, nervously smoothed her hair with her right hand.

It was just a sweet potato, was it really that big of a deal...?

"Thank you so much, Reimu!"

Akina Ze also roared, lowered his head, and swallowed the remaining sweet potato, skin and all, in one gulp...

Chapter 3: The Scarlet Devil Mansion Under Reconstruction

On the farmland of Akina Sawaya's family, there stands a strange building of odd shape, which we'll tentatively call a 'wooden shed'.

Against the backdrop of thick, white snow, the building became even more conspicuous, and could now be used as a coordinate point for the Tengu clan to determine their location.

The tengu flying in the air can tell that it has reached the lowest level of architectural aesthetics in the human village as soon as it sees this building, and the tengu mother no longer has to worry about the little tengu getting lost in the snow.

In reality, Akina Sawa no longer had time to care about the inexplicable fame his building had gained in Gensokyo.

This building, jokingly referred to as the "lowest-end," is a "greenhouse" painstakingly constructed using the finest timber, piece by piece. It can be said that this greenhouse was the first of its kind in Gensokyo.

However, this "greenhouse" is far from meeting Akina Sawaya's requirements; even the system, which has already stacked many layers of buffs, did not recognize it as a greenhouse.

There are two main problems causing this. One is that the greenhouse is not airtight. The snowflakes drifting in through the corner gaps are ample proof of this.

However, this problem is solvable compared to the other problem.

Another problem is the difficulty that Akina Sawa is still struggling to solve.

Ultimately, what provides the temperature in a greenhouse?

Akina Ze's first thought was to light a fire in the shed to raise the temperature.

However, this was also the first method to be proven to be unfeasible.

The black area near the vent of the greenhouse says it all.

Although the initial plan was to proceed steadily in the predetermined direction.

But as the oxygen inside the greenhouse was gradually depleted by the fire, the wood began to burn incompletely, and a thick plume of black smoke slowly rose.

As everyone can see, the final result was that Akina Zeya's face and clothes were covered in black soot, and part of the greenhouse was also blackened by the soot.

When the simple and crude method of lighting a campfire didn't work, Akina Sawa came up with another idea.

Thinking back to the summer when I went through so much trouble to get the air conditioner Q-Taro from the kappa, it seems that in addition to cooling, it also has the function of heating.

However, after leaving it in the greenhouse for a while, Akina Ze found that he couldn't handle it.

It's not that the greenhouses can't withstand the strain, but rather that our wallets can't.

Electricity prices in winter are several times higher than in summer, and power outages are frequent.

It is obvious that the current power transmitted from the Kappa Power Station is limited and cannot support the continuous operation of the air conditioner Q-Taro.

This situation is serious. Leaving aside whether our wallets can withstand the pressure of rising electricity prices, the fatal flaw is simply that it can't sustain the operation of the Q-Taro air conditioner.

Plant seedlings need a stable environment. If the temperature suddenly drops below zero, even seedlings with many buffs will not escape freezing to death.

One solution after another was conceived and then rejected, and Akina Sawa found himself trapped in a quagmire of thought, constantly struggling...

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Meanwhile, Marisa Kirisame brought Alice to the shore of Lake Misty.

The fishermen's simple boats, which used to be plain, were painted red, which, according to Marisa, was for good luck.

Although Alice found the bright red boat a little strange and scary, she still obediently sat on it and had a happy winter outing!

Marisa picked up a broom with a large wooden oar already attached to its stern and pushed it towards the shore. A ripple spread from the shore, and the small boat officially set sail.

"To be honest, I'm a little curious," Alice said softly as she sat at the stern of the boat, her thickly gloved hands covering her face to ward off the stronger, water-laden wind blowing from the lake. "Marisa, where did you get so much red paint?"

Upon hearing this, Marisa untied the rope binding a large number of tools and said without any attempt to hide her feelings, "Isn't the Scarlet Devil Mansion under reconstruction recently? I saw some paint lying on the ground that nobody wanted, so I just grabbed it."

"So that's how it is..." Alice was a little confused. She thought that the fact that the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was willing to lend paint to Marisa meant that the widespread rumors that Marisa was on the Scarlet Devil Mansion's number one blacklist were probably false.

Lake Fog is exceptionally tranquil in winter. Falling snowflakes land on the lake's surface without causing any ripples, like a leaf swaying in the wind—no, they are even more subtle than a leaf.

Alice leaned her shoulder against the eaves of the boat, quietly watching the snowflakes continuously melt into the lake. The small boat beneath her seemed to fare no better, also melting into the lake and creating negligible ripples.

Seeing these scenes, Alice suddenly became interested. She glanced at Marisa, who was busy processing tools, and waved her right hand. Several almost invisible flashes of light appeared in the air.

The little doll beside it received the command, and although it didn't seem to want to get wet, it still crashed headfirst into the lake at its owner's command.

Splash! A splash of water suddenly erupted, but Alice, who was prepared, manipulated Shanghai to raise a parasol and catch all the water.

However, Marisa, who was focused on dealing with her tools, wasn't so lucky; almost all the water splashed onto the hat she was wearing.

They look a bit like water droplets gathered on a lotus leaf, rolling around round and smooth, with water occasionally dripping down, which looks rather comical.

Alice laughed when she saw that her prank had succeeded. She vaguely remembered that the last time she laughed was when she was performing a puppet show for children at the autumn festival.

Although she was soaked, Marisa wasn't annoyed. She calmly took off her hat and pulled out something that radiated heat and light from her bosom.

"What is this?" Alice leaned closer, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"Hehe, you'll find out soon enough," Marisa teased, then lightly tapped Alice's forehead as a retaliation for what had just happened.

"Ugh~" Alice covered her forehead with both hands. Although Marisa's strength was not great, her fingers were icy cold, which chilled her.

As Marisa moved, the glowing, strange object gradually revealed its true form: a soft, mushroom-like object.

“I collected this from the forest, and based on my years of experience picking mushrooms, I’m certain that the true form of this unknown otherworldly creature is a mushroom. I’ve already given it a nice name: the Great Sun Mushroom,” Marisa said, putting the piece of remains into her hat.