Su Li offered thirty gold coins. The fisherman was so delighted he could barely close his mouth and signed on the spot.
Moving things.
Su Li moored the Acorn in the shallows fifty paces from the house and secured it with a stone anchor.
The things unloaded from the ship covered the ground: a toolbox, bags of vegetable seeds, golden vinewood in a cultivation case, two folding travel chairs, and that little wooden sign carved with "Seventeen Copper Coins."
The first day was spent repairing the roof. More than a dozen tiles were shattered, so Su Li picked up stone slabs from the foot of the mountain and cut them into replacements.
The second day was spent repairing the stove. The bricks in the old firebox were cracked, so he tore it down and rebuilt it, making it a full size larger than before.
The third day was spent repairing the dock. Three of the original wooden pilings had rotted away in the water. He replaced them with iron stakes driven half a meter deep into the mud beneath the sea.
Elonore handled the interior. The constant-temperature array was etched into the seams between the stone bricks in the corner, with copper wires running through hidden channels so nothing showed from the outside. She turned the soil for the vegetable patch herself. Four planter boxes were brought down from the ship and placed along the south side of the yard, their salt-mist protection circuits connected.
A week later, the house was livable.
Su Li stood at the doorway and looked around. The stone walls were clean, and a pot of unknown yellow flowers sat on the windowsill—Elonore had transplanted them from the roadside. The planter boxes stood in a row in the yard, while the golden vinewood had been planted