I climbed to the rooftop in one breath without stopping.

The soil was ready, but there were no vegetable trays or flowerpots. I nailed the remaining wooden boards into long rectangular boxes and placed them on the wooden rack. Then I poured in the soil, planted the seedlings, and watered them. I repeated the process—once a bucket of mud was used up, I went to dig more.

Two hours later, I finally finished planting all the vegetable seedlings and flowers. More than half of the wooden boards in my room had been used up.

When Kane arrived, I was moving the remaining wooden boards outside. My hands had turned red...