On the first day, Winn and the others were able to come back because it was a special situation.
Normally, they could only return home at night.
When they came back, Paige prepared a late-night snack for them.
Because they had to make snacks at night, the two chefs agreed that one of them would stay overnight each day, and the other one could go home after dinner.
Even though there were rooms in the villa to rest, nothing is as comfortable as sleeping in your own home.
During the day, they trained, and at night, they were pulled by Paige to fight.
Winn and Uziel thought the two of them wouldn't last long.
But slowly, they noticed that after fighting with Paige, the pain and fatigue from the day's training got much better by the next day.
Also, their mental state the next day was great, even better than having a full night's sleep.
The instructors praised them, saying they were in excellent condition and recovering amazingly.
Then, the training was made even harder, as the instructors wanted to push their limits.
They got so tired that they could barely drive home at night.
Winn and Uziel looked at each other — only they knew the real reason.
At first, Winn and Uziel took turns every other day.
But after the harsh training, they were almost knocked out.
Without Paige's help, they wouldn't have recovered well enough for the next day's training.
So after getting over the initial embarrassment, the three of them started a life without shame or awkwardness.
Paige was thrilled to discover that living creatures could enter her space.
She put two chickens in a basket and placed them in the space, watching nervously.
They lived.
The fish also stayed alive, swimming around actively after being put in the water inside the space.
Paige was overjoyed. Whether or not her planting efforts worked out, her livestock plans were definitely going to succeed.
So she told the butler to keep buying lots of bricks and cement. She was preparing to build walls in the space.
She wanted to raise a few of each kind of animal. That way, she would have a constant supply of meat.
She thought about cows and sheep needing grass. It wasn't realistic to cut grass by herself.
So she decided to set aside a large area, cover it with soil, and spread pasture seeds.
Since she didn't have pasture seeds yet, she would go to the mountain to find wild grass they liked to eat and plant that first.
As for the walls she built yesterday, she took them into her space that same night.
She arranged them into four walls, each one meter by one meter. But she didn't coat them with tree sap yet. If planting worked, she planned to expand the area anyway.
The soil dumped inside didn't leak out.
Because Paige only watered them until the soil was half wet, the water didn't leak.
After all, the seeds were only in the top layer. It didn't matter if there was water underneath or not.
Paige spread vegetable seeds, radish seeds, and even threw a couple of sweet potatoes into one of the holes.
If these could sprout and mature, her next step would be to plant rice and wheat.
Then, she'd plant fruit trees.
She wanted to be self-sufficient.
Right now, the biggest problem was that there was no wind or sunlight in the space.
She didn't know if the plants could grow, if they would pollinate on their own, or produce flowers and fruit.
As for the animals, she didn't know how long they could live, or whether they could reproduce normally.
Everything was unknown, but Paige felt she had plenty of patience.
She had plenty of time and plenty of space.
Paige calmly started building her small ranch.
She set aside four acres of land for raising cows and sheep. She built four walls and added a water trough along one of them.
When the time came to add water, all the animals could drink on their own.
The other three rows were planned to be used for cow sheds, sheep pens, and other rooms.
However, Paige wasn't very sure how to do it exactly, so she planned to ask professionals later.
Should each animal get its own room or should they stay together in a shared space?
Or maybe there should be a parent-child room arrangement?
The open space in the middle would be used to grow grass. That way, if she's too busy to feed them, they still won't go hungry. The space was large enough that it could count as semi-free range.
Since cows and sheep are big and tall, Paige built the fence two meters high to make sure they couldn't escape.
Pig pens and chicken coops were also being planned.
Because cows and sheep needed the grass first, their area was arranged earlier. Pig and chicken pens could be used right away once built, so there was no rush.
Besides, baby chicks and piglets wouldn't be available until spring. Even if she finished the pens now, they'd still be empty.
Every day, Paige watched the seeds in the soil to see if they had sprouted.
Even if they hadn't sprouted, it was fine. Maybe the weather wasn't right. It was still snowing outside after all.
If it failed this time, she'd try again in spring.
If it worked this time, it would mean her space really could grow plants.
And not just that—it meant there were no seasonal limits.
What did that mean? It meant that if she worked hard, she could grow food all year round. She would never be short of food again.
The more she thought about it, the more excited she got, and the harder she worked.
Especially on the third day, when she found that some vegetable seeds had sprouted.
Even though it was just a little bit, Paige saw that small white sprout.
Hahaha, it was true—her space was full of life.
It was the old soil and seeds that weren't good, not her.
While Paige was busy building her perfect space, Winn, Uziel, and Paige were training hard and seriously.
As for the common people, life was slowly returning to normal. And with that, new problems began to appear.
As the New Year approached, people wanted to visit both their relatives in the city and those outside the city.
Visiting family was a New Year tradition, and there were also supplies to bring.
With the city gate closed, the city's supplies came only from the military.
As New Year's got closer, the supplies couldn't meet everyone's needs.
People didn't dare complain openly, but they talked a lot in private.
Because of this, the higher-ups held several meetings.
Half a month passed, and there was still no movement from the PN Soldiers.
There's a saying: a thief can prepare for a thousand days, but people can't defend for a thousand days.
Keeping the city gate closed forever wasn't a solution either.
So they extended the defense line outward, and every day spies went out to observe the area.
Defense shifted from open to secret, with a loose outside and a tight inside.
Even though the city looked peaceful, the outside world was far from calm.
In cities taken over by the PN Soldiers, life was incredibly hard for the people.
Because the city gate was closed and information couldn't get in, the people inside the city didn't know what was happening outside. They thought things were still like before.
If they knew the real situation, they definitely wouldn't want to go out.
Many of the relatives they wanted to visit might not even be alive anymore.
After many discussions and plans, the city gate finally opened on the day of the Winter Solstice.
The people cheered with joy. They couldn't wait to share their happiness and fear from this time with their relatives outside the city.
But since it was the Winter Solstice, they still wanted to celebrate properly, so visiting relatives would wait a bit.
Because of the holiday, the army also increased supplies so that the people could enjoy the festival.