Chapter 73: Taking Blessings for Granted?

"You can build up your tolerance! Don’t worry. With me here to practice with you, your tolerance for alcohol will improve in no time." Su Yue patted her ample chest and grinned at Lin Li.

"No, thanks. I’m fine practicing anything else, but building up my tolerance is out of the question. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t drink at all!

That stuff doesn’t suit my taste at all. If it weren’t for this social engagement today, I wouldn’t have touched it!" Lin Li shook his head, rejecting Su Yue’s offer to help him practice drinking.

"You! You really don’t know how good you have it. If it were anyone else, they’d be jumping for joy if I offered to help them practice drinking." Seeing Lin Li reject her offer, Su Yue pouted.

"Alright, I gotta go. My head’s getting a little dizzy. I need to get home, take a shower, and go to bed." The wind was making his drunkenness surge, and all Lin Li wanted was to get home. He was in no mood to keep bickering with Su Yue about building up his tolerance.

"Okay, you should hurry home then!" Through the phone screen, Su Yue could see Lin Li’s body swaying slightly, and she nodded.

Just as Lin Li was about to end the video call, he heard Su Yue say one more thing.

"Lin Li, do you have any clothes drying on your balcony? If you do, bring them in as soon as you get home. I just saw the weather forecast; it says there’s a thunderstorm tonight."

No sooner had Su Yue’s voice faded than a strong gust of wind slammed into Lin Li. Immediately after, a brilliant, silver-white flash of lightning streaked across the sky.

"RUMBLE..."

After the brilliant, silver-white flash of lightning, a deafening clap of thunder exploded across the sky.

"Got it," Lin Li said to Su Yue, then hung up the video call.

He glanced up at the pitch-black sky in the distance and saw brilliant, silver-white bolts of lightning flashing repeatedly.

"RUMBLE..."

"WHOOSH..."

"RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE..."

The intermittent rumbles of thunder, combined with the rustling of branches shaking violently in the gale, echoed throughout the entire residential complex.

"DRIP, DRIP..."

Raindrops fell from the sky, first one by one, then quickly becoming a steady stream.

By the time Lin Li ran into the building’s corridor, the light drizzle had turned into a torrential downpour. A hazy curtain of rain enveloped the entire residential complex.

"Good thing I ran fast, or I would’ve been a drowned rat... Those clothes on the balcony are done for now."

Standing at the entrance of the corridor, Lin Li looked at the hazy curtain of rain outside, muttered to himself, and then turned to walk towards the elevator.

...

"CLICK."

Lin Li flipped on the lights in his apartment. He had just taken off his shoes and put them in the shoe cabinet when an earth-shattering clap of thunder suddenly boomed, making him jump. Immediately after, the lights in his apartment went out.

"What’s going on?"

Lin Li stared blankly at the pitch-black room. He then checked his apartment’s wiring and found nothing wrong.

Then he opened the neighborhood residents’ WeChat group and saw many residents asking about the power outage.

Soon, Ms. Wang from the residents’ committee appeared and posted a notice.

"Everyone, please be patient. Due to the thunderstorm, there’s been a circuit failure in our area. The power company has already dispatched staff for emergency repairs. The power should be restored shortly."

’I was planning on taking a hot shower and going to sleep! Great, now I have to wait...’ Lin Li muttered, annoyed.

He then went to the balcony to bring his rain-soaked clothes inside. After he was done, he returned to the living room. Just as he sat down on the sofa, intending to play on his phone for a while, there was a knock at the door.

"KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK..."

’The whole complex has no power, it’s pitch-black... who could be knocking on the door?’

"CLICK."

Lin Li went to the entryway, reached out, and opened the door. He found his beautiful female neighbor from next door standing there.

Xia Qing was holding her phone with the flashlight on. When she saw Lin Li open the door and that his apartment was also pitch-dark, she realized it wasn’t just her apartment that had lost power.

"Xia Qing, what’s up?"

"Lin Li, the power suddenly went out. I’m clueless when it comes to circuits, so I thought I’d come over and ask if you know how to fix it."

"This power outage isn’t an isolated case, and it’s not a problem with our complex. There’s a fault in the external power lines...

Ms. Wang from the residents’ committee just said in the WeChat group that the power company has sent people to make repairs. The power should be back on in a little while."

"Oh, so that’s what it is! At first, I thought a fuse in my apartment had blown!"

"Xia Qing, are you not in the residents’ WeChat group?"

Xia Qing nodded. Lin Li thought for a moment and said to her, "Let’s add each other on WeChat. I’ll send your contact info to Ms. Wang from the residents’ committee and have her add you to the group chat.

The residents’ committee sometimes posts news in the group. Since you live here now, it’s easy to miss important notices if you’re not in the chat."

"Okay, thank you for the trouble." Xia Qing said as she opened her WeChat and they added each other as friends.

After that, she went back home to wait for the power to be restored. After closing the door, Lin Li immediately forwarded Xia Qing’s WeChat contact to Ms. Wang from the residents’ committee, asking her to add Xia Qing and invite her to the residents’ group chat.

"Alright, I’ll add Miss Xia to the residents’ group chat right away," Ms. Wang replied after receiving Lin Li’s message.

After taking care of the matter with Xia Qing, Lin Li went back to the living room and lay down on the sofa.

"RUMBLE..."

"WHOOSH..."

"SPLASH..."

The sounds of thunder, wind, and rain beating against the windowpanes echoed continuously, filling the pitch-black living room with a cacophony of noise.

Suddenly, Lin Li had an idea. Instead of wasting time waiting for the power to come back on, he could use this time to go to the Mysterious Small Island and plant the fruit tree saplings he had bought that afternoon.

As the thought crossed his mind, a faint golden Spiritual Light flashed over Lin Li’s body as he lay on the sofa, and then he vanished from the pitch-black living room.

...

On the five-hundred-square-meter Mysterious Small Island, which was enveloped in a vast white mist, a figure appeared out of thin air on the grass.

Having arrived on the Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li scrambled up from the grass and walked quickly over to two large, full bags.

He left the bag full of various vegetable seeds for now, deciding to first deal with the other bag, which was filled with fruit tree saplings.

Lin Li had spent quite a while at the Flower and Bird Market in the East District earlier today and had bought several types of fruit tree saplings.

He had peach, pear, apple, loquat, cherry, lychee, orange, and bayberry trees. There were eight types of saplings in total, two of each, for a grand total of sixteen trees.

...