Quick Travel: Save the poor little villain

Chapter 2888 Town Infrastructure Construction in Full Swing 07

Huo Zhaoye walked towards the wooden ladder, intending to go up and take a look. He had just reached the ladder, but before he could even step on it...

"despair."

The sound of shoes stepping on the wooden planks came from the second floor.

Immediately afterwards, a dim yellow light appeared above the stairwell. The light was not bright; it was the light of a portable kerosene lamp. As the light and shadow flickered, Jin Chen slowly walked down the stairs, holding the lamp.

He was dressed in white clothes, with the cuffs rolled up, revealing his fair wrists and totems. He carried a lantern in one hand and some things that looked like wooden pieces in the other.

The light shone up from below, casting a half-light and half-shadow on her face. Hearing the noise below, Jin Chen looked up and met Huo Zhaoye's gaze as he stood at the bottom of the stairs.

Jin Chen stopped, standing three steps away, and tilted his head slightly. "Lord Huo?"

Huo Zhaoye looked at him, and the little worry in his heart was relieved, but was immediately replaced by new doubts.

"Why didn't you close the door when you were inside?" Huo Zhaoye asked, his tone slightly reproachful but not harsh. "And you didn't even turn on the lights? It's so dark, what if you fell?"

Jin Chen, carrying a lantern, slowly walked down the last three steps and stood in front of Huo Zhaoye.

The two were very close, and Huo Zhaoye could clearly see that his eyes, illuminated by the light, appeared darker than they did during the day.

"The door was open for ventilation, and the light... I was working upstairs, so we didn't need it."

His gaze fell on Huo Zhaoye's face, and he suddenly curled his lips slightly, the curve of which was somewhat blurred in the flickering lamplight.

"I'm waiting for you," Jin Chen said.

Huo Zhaoye's expression changed slightly, and his heart skipped a beat.

"……wait for me?"

Jin Chen, however, seemed not to notice his change and raised the thing he was holding in his other hand.

“I’m preparing teaching materials for the next class,” Jin Chen said naturally, raising the hand holding the lamp slightly to illuminate the subtle changes in Huo Zhaoye’s expression.

He stepped aside, gesturing towards the upstairs, "Would Lord Huo like to come up and take a look?"

She effortlessly steered the conversation away from the topic.

It felt like being scratched through something; it was itchy, but you couldn't scratch it, and the mark remained.

So that's what they were waiting for.

Huo Zhaoye stared at him for two seconds, then brushed the sweaty stray hairs from his forehead and raised his eyebrows.

“Sure,” he said. “Let’s see what new gadgets our teacher Jin has come up with this time.”

Jin Chen, carrying the lantern, turned around and went upstairs again, with Huo Zhaoye following behind him.

The attic was low, and they had to stoop slightly to get up. It was filled with some odds and ends, but a section in the middle had been cleared out and covered with an old canvas. Various tools and materials were scattered on it, and some half-finished items were placed on the old low table.

Jin Chen placed the portable lamp on the corner of the table, illuminating this small area.

Huo Zhaoye leaned over to take a look.

On the table were several strangely shaped objects that he had never seen before.

"What is this?" Huo Zhaoye reached out to touch the rotating part and examine it closely.

"wind vane."

Jin Chen sat down next to him and pointed to something that looked like a small windmill, "Simple ones, and this one too."

He picked up the graduated disc again. "Is it a rain gauge, or a hygrometer? It can make simple predictions of air pressure changes. Although it's not very accurate, it's sufficient."

Huo Zhaoye was a little stunned as he listened, fiddling with the small weather vane in his hand and looking at the other items.

"Why...are you doing all this?"

Jin Chen looked at him, the light dancing in his light-colored pupils.

"Which way the wind blows, how strong the wind is, and when the weather will change are not random."

There's an old saying: "You have to rely on the heavens for your livelihood." If you want to live a better life on this land and avoid unexpected troubles, it's important to learn how to read the heavens.

He gently flicked the cross on the weathervane with his fingertip, and the wooden blades turned an extremely slow angle in the almost windless room.

Jin Chen stood with her back to the sparse starlight outside the window, facing Huo Zhaoye and the warm lamp.

Huo Zhaoye looked at him, then at the small leaf spinning in his hand, and remained silent for a moment. He had never imagined that this thing could be learned and used for prediction.

In fact, these things were not unusual in the old century.

In much earlier times, farmers and fishermen also knew how to observe clouds to understand the weather and read the wind to determine direction.

Even now, some large bases that have preserved many traces of civilization may have similar or even more advanced meteorological observation methods.

But here, in the remote town of Heping North, while most people are still struggling for their next meal and fighting off mutated monsters, no one knows what these things are about to do.

"You can... do this?"

If we could really know the weather changes in advance... that would be of great significance to Beizhen!

They can gain an advantage in farming, fishing, drying and storing crops, and even in the face of sandstorms or floods.

“We can give it a try,” Jin Chen said. “Start with something simple. Place it in a high place, like the top of a lookout tower. Record the wind direction and the swing of the pointer on this disc at a fixed time every day. Observe for a few days, record it, and see how accurate it is. Children can learn this too.”

Jin Chen explained in detail the principles and usage of each simple instrument, using language that was as simple and easy to understand as possible.

Huo Zhaoye sat on the small wooden stool that Jin Chen had brought him, leaning slightly forward with his arms on his knees, his eyes fixed on the things in Jin Chen's hands, occasionally asking a question or two.

Huo Zhaoye listened intently, finding the person before him truly amazing, as if his mind contained countless strange and useful pieces of knowledge that he himself did not know.

The light cast their shadows close together on the sloping roof of the attic.

Time passes unconsciously.

Huo Zhaoye was fiddling with a small balancing blade in his hand, which was used to demonstrate wind direction, when the voice explaining next to him suddenly stopped.

He turned his head in confusion.

The hand lamp still shone warmly, sitting in the center of the table.

Jin Chen lay on her side on the edge of the table, which was covered with small parts and wood chips, her face turned toward Huo Zhaoye. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was soft and long. She had fallen asleep.

Huo Zhaoye looked at him, not moving for a moment.

The light shone from the side, half of Jin Chen's face was in shadow, while the other half was tinged with orange. Her eyelashes covered her eyelids, and a few strands of black hair softly fell across her forehead and temples.

Huo Zhaoye stared at him for a while, his Adam's apple bobbing. He looked away, then looked back, only to remember that he should wake him up.

Sleeping like this on my stomach will definitely strain my neck tomorrow.

Huo Zhaoye reached out and shook Jin Chen's arm, which was resting on the table.

"Hey," Huo Zhaoye said in a low voice, "Teacher Jin, go to your room to sleep. It's not comfortable lying here."

Jin Chen's eyelashes trembled as he touched her, and she slowly opened her eyes.

But his light brown eyes were unfocused, hazy, and his gaze was scattered on Huo Zhaoye's face. After looking at him for a while, he grabbed Huo Zhaoye's hand that was still on his arm, pulled it over, and placed it under his cheek as he lay on his side, then closed his eyes again.

Huo Zhaoye: "..."

His palm was pressed against Jin Chen's cheek, his breath moist and warm, brushing against the inside of his wrist again and again.

Huo Zhaoye felt as if his entire arm, from his palm to his shoulder, was going numb, as if he were being electrocuted.

My heart was beating a little fast, and my face felt a little hot, but luckily the lighting was dim, so I couldn't see clearly.

He sat there stiffly, his arm still in the position used as a pillow, not daring to move.

Time passed by minute by minute.

Huo Zhaoye looked at Jin Chen's sleeping profile again, waited for a while until Jin Chen's breathing slowed down and she was sleeping soundly.

He removed the pieces of wood and tools that Jin Chen was still loosely holding from his hand and placed them on the table, then slowly withdrew his hand from under Jin Chen's cheek.

Jin Chen frowned slightly in his sleep, but did not wake up.

Huo Zhaoye stood up, stretched his slightly numb arms and legs, looked down at the person sleeping soundly on the table, and then looked at the low, stuffy attic.

He bent down, used a little force, and lifted the person up horizontally.

Jin Chen was a bit heavier than she looked, but still within Huo Zhaoye's comfort range. She seemed to feel herself being lifted off the ground, and stirred in her sleep, resting her head against Huo Zhaoye's neck.

Huo Zhaoye's body tensed up, then slowly relaxed. He steadied himself and carefully walked down the narrow wooden stairs to the bottom of the stairs.

Using the moonlight streaming in through the window, he entered Jin Chen's room, gently placed him on the bed, and pulled the thin blanket over him.

Huo Zhaoye stood by the bed and looked at him for a while, then suddenly felt that it seemed a little hotter than usual tonight.

As he turned to leave, his wrist was grabbed.