Chapter 18

Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW

Chapter 18: Bonfire Feast on the Island

The celebration in the lake, filled with songs, dances, and games, lasted about an hour. As the sun grew hotter, everyone gradually came ashore to cool off and rest on Heart of the Lake Island.

Luo Yu and her friends still sat on the grassy slope, recently having soft cushions brought to them by a Serving Robot. They were tired from sitting and could lie back comfortably.

While they watched the celebration, they had tried all the various snacks offered by the little mechanical birds, and now they felt full and relaxed, leaning against the cushions and chatting idly. A gentle breeze passed by, causing the shadows of the trees above them to sway playfully.

Zhu Huai had played in the water with some locals for a long time. She just got back to shore, laughing and chatting with a few new friends, while wiping her wet hair with a soft towel.

“Wow, you all look very comfortable! Have you eaten yet?” Zhu Huai asked, noticing them lying under the trees with drinks on the table. “Playing in the water made me so hungry!”

“We haven’t done much else but snack. There’s also a main course menu here; if you’re hungry, just order something,” Luo Yu replied, waving to a nearby Serving Robot. Zhu Huai plopped down next to her, checked the menu, and ordered a deep-sea energy meal.

After the Serving Robot left, Zhu Huai excitedly recounted the games she had just participated in: “The people I played with were about my height, and when I asked, wow, they were all only fifteen or sixteen! They said their moms and grandmas were also here. Is summer solstice usually a family outing?”

Luo Yu glanced at Mo Chuan. They had known Mo Chuan the longest since arriving, but she often seemed to be alone.

Mo Chuan smiled slightly. “That’s usually the case. Last year, I spent the summer solstice here with my mom and my daughter, but they’re not here this year.” She fiddled with her wristband, revealing a semi-transparent screen in front of the three of them, displaying a picture of a little girl. “This is my daughter; she’s twelve. She chose to study tropical vegetation this semester. Last month, she went to the rainforest for research with her teacher and classmates. Since it was a long journey, it was better for a parent to go along, so my mom went with her.”

After saying this, she scrolled to show a few photos of them together. “So during this time, it’s just me and my grandma at home. She likes to host her friends for parties every summer solstice and doesn’t care much for celebrations like this.”

As Mo Chuan spoke, the Serving Robot quietly brought Zhu Huai her meal. After hearing the explanation, Zhu Huai held the meal box and said, “So you and your daughter are both with your grandma right now? That’s great; I grew up with my grandma too.”

“Do you want to reunite with your family soon?” Mo Chuan asked.

Zhu Huai took a bite of her fish and said after finishing, “My mom and grandma passed away; I have no family.”

“I remember you mentioned having a father and a brother,” Ying Zhao turned to her, “I think I read that in some documents.”

“That’s just blood relation,” Zhu Huai replied, focusing on her meal. “They don’t count as family.”

“What about you?” Mo Chuan turned to Ying Zhao. “Do you miss home?”

Ying Zhao shook her head. “I’m an orphan; I only had a foster mother who passed away three years ago.” After taking a sip of fruit wine, she tilted her head in thought. “Among us three, it seems like only Sister Fish has a real family, right?” Ying Zhao turned to Luo Yu. “I see you apply for family visits every month.”

“Me? I…” Luo Yu held her glass and gazed at the sky, suddenly spotting a large unidentified flying object slowly emerging from the thick clouds at the mountain’s edge. She pointed and exclaimed, “Look, what’s that?”

They all looked up in the direction she pointed and gasped at the sight of a disc-shaped spaceship gliding by. Mo Chuan, noticing their shock, chuckled and said, “Don’t worry; that’s the transport aircraft delivering supplies for tonight’s bonfire feast.”

Zhu Huai stared at the spaceship in disbelief. “Such a big transport plane! How many supplies could that possibly carry? Are they going to set this whole Heart of the Lake Island on fire?”

Mo Chuan laughed at her reaction. “It’s not just for us; there are thousands of celebration sites across the Ponsuo Tribe today, so they dispatched this model to distribute materials according to the actual number of attendees.”

“If they deliver one by one, won’t that be inefficient?”

“Not really; it uses clouds as a medium, and the movement speed is incredibly fast.”

As expected, just after Mo Chuan finished speaking, they saw the transport aircraft drop supplies into a large circular delivery area on Heart of the Lake Island, then return to the previous cloud, disappearing entirely—all within three minutes.

This diversion made it clear to Mo Chuan that Luo Yu didn’t want to discuss family matters further, so she changed the subject and told them about the origin of the evening’s bonfire feast:

“We have four major seasonal festivals each year, the oldest in history. In ancient times, they were called seasonal sacrifice rituals, where people used fire to offer many crops and livestock to the gods. As society evolved, we gradually stopped sacrificing in this way; the rituals turned into celebrations. However, the custom of singing and dancing around the bonfire was retained. The original bonfire sacrifice has slowly transformed into the bonfire feast.”

After chatting under the shade of the trees for a while, Zhu Huai finished eating. The Serving Robot came to collect her meal box and refill the drinks for everyone. It was a warm, tranquil afternoon, with gentle leaves swaying above them. They lay on the soft cushions, unaware of drifting off to sleep. They woke up just before dusk.

The sun was no longer scorching; the earth still retained some warmth, making it the perfect time for boating. When they woke, they noticed several bamboo rafts drifting on the lake, and laughter floated over from a distance.

Mo Chuan requested two bamboo rafts and took the three of them out on the lake. From the rafts, they looked back at Heart of the Lake Island, which was lush and green—another beautiful sight.

They didn’t return to shore until the sun had set. The massive bonfire tower in the center of Heart of the Lake Island had already been constructed by engineering robots, just waiting for the moon to reach its designated position so that the organizer could light the fire and officially start the feast.

After watching the lighting ceremony, everyone sat down around the large bonfire for a feast of barbecued goods. As the banquet neared its end, someone started drumming and playing music, prompting everyone to rise, coming together around the bonfire to sing, dance, and play games. Throughout the night, Heart of the Lake Island was filled with joyous laughter and cheer.

Luo Yu and her friends also immersed themselves in the atmosphere, experiencing a world of joy, freedom, and primal innocence like never before.

This day’s summer solstice bonfire feast ended promptly at midnight, and the robots that had been on standby came forward to clean up.

Mo Chuan used the same aircraft to take the three of them back to the ninth cliff dwelling. She said goodnight at the entrance and left leisurely.

The three of them rare to sleep late that day, and the next morning, Luo Yu suddenly woke up, feeling that her face had been in the sun for a long time. Turning to look at the clock, she realized it was exactly eleven o’clock. Seeing the time, she nearly sprang out of bed; the next round of live broadcasting would start at noon.

She quickly got dressed and, upon opening the door, saw Ying Zhao emerging from her room. The two of them stood in their doorways, gazing across the spacious lounge at each other. “We need to hurry to the hangar!”

Zhu Huai was still asleep, so they knocked on her door for a while until she calmly opened it. “There’s still an hour; don’t rush.”

The three of them didn’t eat breakfast in the cave villa but headed directly towards the hangar. The hangar robot was already at the door to greet them. As they walked inside, they asked the hangar robot to help arrange some food.

Entering through the hangar door, they saw that the outer cabin of the Shan Hai Jing looked brand new. Those four engineering assistant robots had indeed spent the whole day yesterday restoring it.

After glancing at the exterior, they rushed into the operation room, where the recovery panel lay quietly on the maintenance station, showing no signs of issues.

Zhu Huai quickly conducted another inspection and then shook her head at the other two, indicating that there was really nothing more they could do, and they would have to wait until the noon broadcast started to manually shut down the process if any overflow occurred.

At that moment, the hangar robot brought in an engineering assistant robot with their meals and delivered a message: “Professor Mo Chuan and the elders from the assembly hall will be arriving here in about twenty minutes.”

This had been previously discussed with Mo Chuan; they would broadcast today’s content in an exhibition hall within the mountains beside the hangar. If there was no overflow, they would watch the broadcast in a small group from there. If overflow occurred, they would urgently shut down the recovery panel’s broadcast process.

Not only did Luo Yu not want the broadcast content seen by others from different timelines, but the elders from the assembly hall also preferred that the live broadcast from the future not appear widely in their local sky.

The three of them quickly ate a little food in the operation room, prepared the recovery equipment, and then Luo Yu and Ying Zhao headed to the exhibition hall to join everyone in watching the broadcast. They could also check the large windows of the hall to see if there was any overflow happening outside.

Meanwhile, Zhu Huai remained in the operation room, ready to manually shut down the process at any moment. They all wore communication headsets from the time capsule to stay in touch in real-time.

At eleven forty-five, five stealth aircraft descended one after another onto the helipad near the Shan Hai Jing hangar. The first aircraft delivered Mo Chuan, along with several silver-haired elderly ladies. The following aircraft also brought in a group of elders, some of whom they had seen in the assembly hall, while others were new faces. Among them was a familiar figure—the head of the Biological Research Station, Ao Ci.

Luo Yu and Ying Zhao approached to greet everyone and walked toward the mountains, taking an elevator to a large exhibition hall.

At eleven fifty-five, everyone in the exhibition hall settled in, wearing semantic translation goggles and headsets. No one spoke, and a solemn silence enveloped the hall.

At noon sharp, the projection wall at the front of the hall flickered and then displayed two large characters: Han Dynasty.

As those characters appeared, the voice they had heard by the riverside last time echoed again: “Hello everyone! Today’s historical live broadcast theme is ‘When Military Technology Was Applied in the Han Dynasty’. We will shift the timeline to the second year of Emperor Wu of Han, during the Yuan Shou era.”

Luo Yu and Ying Zhao stood by the exhibition hall’s floor-to-ceiling windows, intently watching outside. While the host spoke, there was still no sign of an overflow in the sky, leading them to believe that the broadcast was stable. But just as the opening statement concluded, the sky outside flickered and soon showed a scene of war with gleaming weapons and armored horses.