Hua Mu couldn’t be bothered to argue with her any longer. She pointed to the breakfast portion she had set aside for Bai Zhen and said, “This is for you. After you eat, we need to divide our things. I’ll factor this in.”

“Miss… uh, I don’t need anything. You can have it all.”

“I don’t want your charity. Hurry up and eat. If you don’t, I’ll throw it away.”

“I’ll eat, I’ll eat! Please don’t throw it away.”

She could eat as much breakfast as the Young Lady made; it would be such a waste to throw it out.

Sentinels were naturally fast eaters, but this time she practically inhaled her food, as if afraid it would fly away. Hua Mu watched, speechless. “Slow down. I put so much effort into making this. It’s a waste for you to eat it so carelessly.”

Bai Zhen glanced at her sheepishly, then turned her back and began to chew slowly and deliberately.

Hua Mu felt like she was at her wit’s end. This fool was a top-tier executor but completely incapable of taking care of herself. She was probably what you’d call a high-achiever with low life skills.

Seeing that she had slowed down, Hua Mu relaxed and began to plan how to divide their belongings. She had already given it a lot of thought before bed last night, but she hadn’t worked out the finer details. The large items were obviously indivisible, like the shelter, the bamboo bed, the toilet, and so on. But the smaller things had to be clearly separated, especially the food. She would no longer take advantage of Bai Zhen as a matter of course.

She needed to make Bai Zhen realize that she was no longer her “Young Lady.”

Bai Zhen drank the last drop of clam soup, dawdled while washing the cookware, and finally had to face a fully prepared Hua Mu.

“Finished eating? Good. Let’s get down to business.”

“You-you can speak.”

Hua Mu took a branch and drew a few lines in the sand between them, dividing it into four sections.

“The things we have right now fall into four main categories. First, the structures. The bamboo shelter and bed count as one, plus the toilet and shower room, making three structures in total. These are hard to divide. We both put in the work, you more than me. As for the bed, we’ll split it as we discussed last night. For the other two, you have priority use.”

“Priority use?”

“It means if we both want to use them at the same time, you can go first.”

Bai Zhen quickly waved her hands. “I-I’m fine. I can use them anytime.”

That was true. With only two of them, it wasn’t like they would be fighting over them every time. Hua Mu decided there was no need to get hung up on it and nodded. “Alright, then. In any case, I’ll use them when you’re not.”

Bai Zhen nodded helplessly.

“Second, the tools. You salvaged most of these, but I helped make some of them, especially the cookware, which I put a lot of effort into. Fortunately, there are plenty of these, so we can divide them equally. There will be enough for each of us.”

Bai Zhen had no objections.

“Third, the items you brought to the island, like the military knife, watch, needles, and the pistol. Those are all yours.”

“Mi—cough, cough. No, I don’t need these. You-you need something for self-defense.”

The moment Bai Zhen heard Hua Mu wanted to return the gun, she panicked and shook her head repeatedly.

Hua Mu raised a hand to stop her. “Let me finish. I really can’t be without the gun and the watch, so I’ll trade you something else for them. I told you, we can trade things. Wasn’t I making you underwear last night? I’ll trade you that set for one pistol and twenty bullets. Is that okay?”

Bai Zhen’s expression was conflicted. She desperately wanted to say that the Young Lady could have whatever she wanted without any need for a trade, but seeing Hua Mu’s serious expression, she could only swallow her words.

“O-Okay.”

Hua Mu nodded in satisfaction. “You don’t seem to use the watch much. I need it, so I’ll trade you for it too. Let’s use… let’s use my necklace. Although the necklace isn’t very useful on the island, it’s very important to me. I’ll give it to you as collateral for now, and I’ll trade you something else for it when I have it.”

Bai Zhen’s face was a mask of misery. “I can’t take this, Miss. That was a gift from Her Majesty.”

Annoyed, Hua Mu lightly tapped the back of Bai Zhen’s hand with the branch. “I told you not to call me Miss. We’re not master and servant anymore.”

“But…”

“No buts. Of course something my aunt gave me is important. If you think it’s useless, then after we’re done dividing things, you can come and trade it for something of mine that you need.”

Seeing that Hua Mu was dead set on severing their ties, Bai Zhen realized that anything she said would be a waste of breath. She finally nodded in resignation.

“Fourth is food and water. These are things that were originally on the island, so we’ll each rely on our own abilities. As for the food we’ve already stockpiled, you can take all the wild boar meat and honey. I’ll take some of the dried fish and preserved fruit. I made most of the sauces, but you caught a lot of the ingredients, so you can take some. We’ll split the spices equally… Oh, right. From now on, we’ll also gather our own firewood.”

Between Bai Zhen and Hua Mu, Hua Mu had always been the one to take the lead. After a night and a morning of confusion, Bai Zhen finally realized she was powerless to change anything.

The Young Lady no longer needed her as a guard, nor would she accept any gestures of goodwill from her in that capacity.

Bai Zhen was not a person without her own opinions. As a Sentinel, a lack of initiative during solo missions would be a terrible disaster. But in front of Hua Mu, she rarely engaged that part of herself. Prioritizing Hua Mu’s safety and Hua Mu’s will were her two highest operational principles.

But now, those two principles were in conflict. She had to start thinking from her own perspective to resolve the current contradiction.

The Sentinel finally became a Sentinel again, and not just a guard. And once she broke free from the limitations of being a guard, she felt her mind clear up—there were many loopholes she could exploit.

Bai Zhen furrowed her brow and nodded. “I agree with your proposal, but…”

She seemed a little nervous, pursing her lips and remaining silent for a long moment.

“But what? You can raise any objections you have.”

Hua Mu was quite curious to see just how far this fool would go in her death throes.

Bai Zhen looked very tense, her face gradually turning beet red, but she finally managed to get the words out.

“But you can’t stop me from calling you Young Lady… I-I know you don’t need me as your guard anymore, and I know we’re no longer master and servant. That means… you no longer have the right to interfere with what I call you, right? This is… this is my freedom.”

Hua Mu was once again stunned by Bai Zhen.

Although she said it with little confidence, Hua Mu found that she couldn’t refute it at all. It was an obvious loophole, so it was only natural that it would be discovered. She just… hadn’t expected Bai Zhen to not only find it so quickly but also have the courage to say it out loud.

Indeed, if they were truly to be equals, she would have no right to interfere with what Bai Zhen did from now on.

Hua Mu didn’t know whether to be annoyed or pleased.

Just how attached was this person to calling her Young Lady? She finally awakens a bit of independent consciousness, only to use it on something like this?

“…It’s your freedom. Call me whatever you want. But! I also have the right not to answer.”

A hint of joy appeared on Bai Zhen’s face. “As long as you don’t stop me from calling you that, it’s fine.”

With Hua Mu’s determination and Bai Zhen’s efficiency, the two of them had everything divided and organized in less than half a day. “Divided” really just meant shifting things around, piling their respective belongings in separate areas. Hua Mu traded shrimp paste for the watch and honey, and their life of a divided household officially began.

For Hua Mu, obtaining food was no longer the most difficult task. Whether it was fishing or picking fruit, she could manage it on her own. It just took her much more time than Bai Zhen, and she couldn’t carry as much.

All in all, the time she had to spend on gathering food more than doubled.

Then there was gathering firewood, preparing food, maintaining tools, and so on. Her life became incredibly full… or rather, busy. Despite being busy, Hua Mu still managed to save up a small stockpile of food after a few days. There were frequent showers on the island, so she had to plan for them.

Bai Zhen, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be taking life seriously at all. She could clearly travel much faster, yet she always trailed slowly behind Hua Mu. She ate whatever was convenient, barely preparing it beyond adding a little salt. And yet, she could eat a lot of such simple food, which Hua Mu considered a waste.

Back when they were eating together, she had been much more particular about her food. Why was she so careless when eating alone? What a waste of her shrimp paste!

The first downpour after their separation arrived under these circumstances.

In the past few months, they hadn’t encountered a storm as severe as the one they faced when they went north, but they had experienced several heavy rainstorms and had gotten through them without any major incidents.

Bai Zhen had considered this when choosing the location, building the bamboo shelter on slightly higher ground, flanked by cliffs on two sides, so it wouldn’t normally be flooded. They had both continued to work on the shelter, and the bamboo walls and closable door could withstand a certain amount of wind and rain.

Bai Zhen had some ability to read the weather, so she had reinforced the shelter in advance and carefully checked the waterproof tarp. As a result, it wasn’t leaking too much inside.

However, this downpour was by no means small, and Hua Mu was faintly worried about the shelter’s safety.

“Bai Zhen, how long do you think this rain will last?”

The heavy rain showed no signs of letting up the entire morning. Hua Mu looked at the pots and pans on the bamboo bed catching the leaks, her heart heavy with worry.

Although she had felt more lost during the days Bai Zhen was unconscious and had done almost everything by herself, she had had plenty of food stored up back then and hadn’t spent much time foraging. But these past few days, she had truly felt the difficulty of survival. Even with some food saved, she felt it was far from enough.

And she didn’t know how much fruit the storm would ruin. Just sitting here made her heart ache.

“It will probably last until nightfall. Miss, are you hungry?”

With nothing to do, they had each maintained their daily tools, but by now, that was done too. Under the same roof, there seemed to be nothing else to do but talk.

“I’m fine. I have food, you don’t need to worry about me.”

Of course, Bai Zhen knew Hua Mu had emergency rations. Watching Hua Mu’s efforts these past few days, she felt a pang of heartache, but at the same time, she was surprised to find that Hua Mu could indeed live well even without her.