Stardew Valley of Gensokyo

Wait, a chimney?

In an instant, Akina Sawa also caught the fleeting inspiration.

Yes! I can build a chimney to vent the black smoke from burning firewood, and that will create a greenhouse, right?

Immediately, Akina Ze could no longer sit still and rushed from under the eaves into the greenhouse.

Ignore the scene inside the greenhouse, which appears to be covered in black.

Although he had never built a chimney before, as the saying goes, when inspiration strikes, it's unstoppable.

Looking at the wet mud on the ground, Akina Zeya immediately envisioned a brand new 3D design of a chimney.

"It's just playing in the mud, anyone can do that."

Muttering something, Akina Sawa squatted down and pressed the ground to test its firmness before taking out a shovel from his belt.

All you need to do is dig a pit near the greenhouse wall to store the wood, secure the pit with stones, then use sticky, wet mud to form a round mound of earth around the stones, and finally insert a hollow pipe inside. A chimney should be ready. Akina Sawa thought this should work.

So the question is, where can we find suitable materials for making flue pipes?

Akina Sawa also paced back and forth a few steps, looking towards the riverbank in the distance.

It was a forest made up of individual trees, with branches intertwined in the summer, so that no sunlight could reach underneath.

In winter, you can get a good view of the trees growing inside.

At a glance, you can see many trees that grow exceptionally straight and thick.

“Isn’t this a ready-made chimney?” Akina Ze’s eyes lit up.

Moreover, it's currently winter, and all the leaves on the trees have fallen, leaving only bare branches connecting to the trunk, which will save a lot of effort in the cleanup work.

Akina Sawa then picked up his axe and headed towards the river...

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

It sounded like metal blocks being struck together.

Akina Ze, panting heavily, gripped his axe and chopped at the tree trunk, a thin layer of snow covering his head.

These were the few snowflakes that had accumulated on the branches, which drifted down as the vibrations caused them to fall.

"How come this wood is as hard as iron..."

I don't know if it's because of the cold winter or some other reason, but cutting down trees in winter is not as easy as in summer, although it's not much easier in summer either.

Although the axe handle was made of wood, which should theoretically provide good shock absorption, Akina Ze still felt a slight pain in his thumb and forefinger, and felt like he was about to lose his grip every time he chopped.

"Hey, what are you doing?" a clear, melodious voice suddenly rang out.

Akina Sawa also looked up.

Shameimaru Aya was flying in the air, her ruffled skirt swaying in the air.

It seems they were attracted by the sound of Akina Sawaya chopping down trees.

"As you can see, I'm cutting down trees."

Akina Ze also showed off the axe in his hand in the air.

Upon hearing this, Aya Shameimaru immediately lost interest. "Tsk, when I heard that thumping sound, I thought some mysterious, gigantic humanoid creature had appeared again."

"I think it's probably not..." Akina Sawa seemed to recall something from the past.

However, Aya Shameimaru, who was facing away from the sun, seemed to be enveloped in a layer of holy light, and her brown eyes almost appeared as pale gold.

It was probably because the sunlight was too bright. Akina Ze lowered his head and touched his nose, no longer looking up at her.

Having found nothing of the major event he was looking for, Aya Shameimaru flapped her wings and prepared to leave.

"In that case, I'll take my leave."

"Wait a moment," Akina Ze called out to her, looking up as well.

"Is there anything else?"

Aya Shameimaru was somewhat puzzled.

Just now, in the instant that Akina Sawa lowered his head, under the sunlight, he clearly saw that the edges of Aya Shameimaru's wings shimmered with a metallic luster.

Actually, I have a request.

"What request?"

Aya Shameimaru asked curiously.

"I beg you, I want to borrow your wings! This is my lifelong request!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Akina Ze knelt down on the ground with a whoosh, forming a standard taxi seat.

"Hey! What are you saying?!"

A plume of steam rose above his head, and Aya Shameimaru's face flushed red. Her pale brown eyes appeared unusually small in their wide-open sockets.

"Please lend it to me, Miss Wenwen!"

Akina Ze remained unmoved and repeated his request while lying on the ground.

"You, you, do you really know what you're saying?!"

Damn it! It's just a human being!

Aya Shameimaru turned around and covered her flushed face with her hands.

"Huh? I just wanted to borrow Miss Wenwen's wings to cut down trees. Look, the tree trunks are very hard in winter, right?"

Akina Sawa, who was lying on the ground, also carefully raised his head, wanting to see Shameimaru Aya's expression, but only saw his back.

However, even though it was just a glimpse of her back, the luster of Aya Shameimaru's jet-black wings under the sunlight strengthened Akina Sawa's resolve to borrow those wings as well.

After all, those wings must be quite sharp, right?

"Huh...? What are you saying...?" Aya Shameimaru's voice suddenly became unusually calm.

Although his tone was calm, Akina Ze seemed to sense the deep tranquility of the ocean and the quietness of the heart rate monitor gradually approaching a line.

Under the sunlight, Aya Shameimaru's figure suddenly flickered, as if she had disappeared in that instant.

Akina Sawa was about to continue making his request.

But suddenly everything went black, as if the power had gone out, and my consciousness was cut off...

The waves surge ceaselessly...

"Hey! Hey! Wake up!" A slightly disdainful voice rang in my ear, and I felt something touching my right leg.

Akina Zeya, who dreamt of spring, gradually woke up.

Although he was awake, the things in front of him made him feel like he was still dreaming.

All that could be seen were tree trunks, their branches already trimmed, lying straight on the soil to the left.

There was obvious mud on the hem of his right trousers, and there was also a noticeable mud stain on the top of the black leather shoe on Aya Shameimaru's left foot.

Akina Ze shook his head, trying to shake off the lingering sleepiness in his mind.

Looking at the trees on the left, he could barely suppress the smile on his face.

Although they didn't know what had happened, suddenly they had not only the materials to build a chimney, but also the wood to burn.

Akina Ze also felt he had made a profit, and he chose to ignore the stain on the right leg of his trousers.

"Hmph, I only woke you up because I was worried you'd freeze to death sleeping on the ground," Aya Shameimaru turned her head away. "Besides, I don't want my newspaper to publish such boring news as a villager freezing to death on the street. So, I'm leaving."

"and many more!"

Akina Sawa also fell to the ground once again.

"Tsk! What else do you want..." Although Aya Shameimaru was quite unhappy, she still turned around. "Just say it!"

"Please, Lord Wenwen, hollow out the middle of the tree trunk for me. This is my lifelong request! I beg you!"

"You've gone too far! I'm not your servant! And you've made way too many requests in your life!"

"Of course, I won't let you work for nothing, Miss Wenwen," Qiu Mingze chuckled as he stood up, wiped his right hand, and stretched it behind his back, actually taking out a purple item from his backpack.

Black sesame seeds adorn the bread, and the cracked top reveals snow-white fibers inside. A milky aroma wafts through the air, while the bottom of the bread displays a mysterious purple color.

"what is this?"

Seeing that Akina Sawa had also taken out a strange object that emitted a captivating fragrance, Aya Shameimaru couldn't suppress her curiosity.

"I call it 'Poppy Seed Rice Cake.' It's made with poppies, wheat, sugar, and some other things. It's really delicious!" Akina Ze leaned closer to the cake in his hand and took a small sip.

An expression of ecstasy immediately appeared on Akina Zeya's face.

"Is this weird thing really that delicious?"

Looking at Akina Zeya's expression and smelling the aroma wafting from the purple pastries, Shameimaru Aya swallowed hard.

"It's for you, Miss Wenwen."

To be honest, Akina Sawa was also a little pained. This was the last [Poppy Seed Rice Cake]; the others had all been ruined by Nikua. He had originally planned to save them for himself to eat slowly...

Reluctantly turning his head, Akina Ze handed over the pastries.

Suddenly, I felt a fleeting dampness on my fingertips.

Akina Sawa also turned around and saw that Aya Shameimaru was half-covering her lips, while the pastry in her hand had disappeared.

"Well...you...why didn't you just do this sooner? Why all this talk about a lifetime...please, ha...haha!" Aya Shameimaru stammered.

“Ha, hahahahaha!”

Akina Ze also laughed, and quietly rubbed his right hand against the back of his clothes.

That's not hygienic.

Chapter Six Wind

"That should complete the task, right?"

Jumping off the greenhouse roof, watching the black smoke billowing from the oak chimney, Aya Shameimaru patted the ash off her hands.

However, that guy probably just saw me as a laborer.

Upon thinking of Akina Sawaya, Shameimaru Aya's expression immediately turned unpleasant.

As one of the top reporters in Gensokyo, I'm actually working as a construction worker here. If that guy Himekaidouka sees me like this, I'll definitely use it as material for the "Hanako no Nimatsu" newspaper.

Moreover, the reports in the "Hua Guozi Nianbao" newspaper are all old stories, full of the atmosphere of the times. If I were to appear in the same newspaper as those kinds of things, who knows, one day a child who has read the newspaper might point at me on the street and say: Look! The old lady from the newspaper has appeared!

Then she was surrounded by a large group of children who clapped and sang, "Grandma! Grandma! Grandma!"

Moreover, Ji Haitangguo has recently picked up a camera, and she might be squatting nearby, secretly chuckling as she looks at the photos she took of herself doing woodworking with a dirty face.

The thought of this sent shivers down Aya Shameimaru's spine, and she immediately looked around warily, afraid of seeing that hateful twin tails.

"Eh? What are you doing huddled up here, Aya?" Akina asked curiously as she walked out of the greenhouse and saw Aya Shameimaru huddled in a corner looking rather nervous.

Could it be that the smoke made him stupid? That's impossible, right? This wood is top-quality firewood, with clear grain on every piece, and it smells like fragrant wood. Even if it burns into smoke, it's oak smoke, which must be good smoke. How could it make someone stupid?

"When I was chopping wood just now, did you see a short girl with pigtails? Lately, she's been secretly following me."

Instead of answering Akina Sawaya's question, Aya Shameimaru gestured with her hands up and down to indicate Himekaidouka's height.

Twin tails? Does Xiaoling count?

Upon hearing this, Akina Sawa immediately thought of Motoori Kosuzu, who served as the signboard girl for Suzuna-an in the village.

Her deep orange twin ponytails always attracted a lot of attention, especially when Akina Ze was in the store looking at books about agriculture and farming, which made him spend several days reading a book that wasn't very thick.

However, judging from the fact that she often secretly follows Aya Shameimaru, it shouldn't be her.

Besides, our Xiaoling has a proper job, how could she possibly follow behind this guy who's good for nothing but running fast?

Thinking of this, Akina Sawa also shook his head.

"Phew, at least I didn't see it." Aya Shameimaru, who seemed to have misunderstood, breathed a sigh of relief, walked out from the corner, and casually brushed off the leaves hanging on her clothes.

"No, I meant to say that I was just knocked unconscious by you, so I didn't see anything."

“Uh…” Aya Shameimaru blinked.

Akina Ze also blinked.