Chapter 13: Alexi the Weaver

In the small restaurant, the spider spirit sitting opposite Jiang You...ah, no, the cicada Alexi placed her hands on her knees stiffly and twisted a few times in her chair restlessly.

Alexi had little experience dealing with liches, and she didn't know whether this seemingly scary skeleton was easy to get along with... But the amiable wolf lady just now had solemnly vouched for the lich and said a lot of good things. Alexi just hoped that everything she said was true... Although, she didn't have much choice now.

"Well... let's start the interview directly. Can you tell me what skills you have?" The Lich Boss looked at her for a moment, cleared his throat, and spoke first.

"I can weave," Alexi answered decisively. This was her forte. "Although all weavers are skilled at weaving, my craftsmanship is definitely among the top three in the village! The cloth I weave is both soft and strong, with the warp and weft threads fitting perfectly together, without a single thread missing! I heard you need a lot of gauze every day? I can make it for you!"

"That's true..." Jiang You glanced at the wooden box holding the tofu, "but the gauze can be reused. I don't have that much demand right now... With all due respect, the Discipline Sect's reputation for customs doesn't seem very suitable for waiters."

"Indeed," Alexi said with a wry smile. "This is a curse our clan was born with. We have almost no resistance to magic. If our sanity is lost, our instincts will take over, transforming us into half-human, half-spider monsters. According to the elders in our clan, frequent exposure to new things in the outside world may gradually weaken our rational defenses. Only by constantly restraining ourselves with precepts and honing ourselves can we maintain our sanity."

She paused and lowered her voice: "But I have reservations about this statement."

Jiang You's eyes flickered: "...Can you tell me more?"

"That's right." Alexi took a deep breath. "I've always felt that simply avoiding the outside world and suppressing our desires and instincts isn't the best way to solve our problems. Resistance to the outside world is like alcohol tolerance; the more you practice, the better. On the contrary, the more you avoid it, the more at a loss you'll become when things get tough.

"I still remember my grandmother telling me stories from her childhood when I was little. Back then, they were allowed to drink a little on certain days and go for walks on moonlit nights... But in my generation, everything is strictly restricted, with ever-increasing restrictions... Strangely enough, the number of people going insane and transforming into demonic spiders is increasing, not decreasing. The elders of the clan say this is because the external environment is getting worse and the magical fluctuations are becoming more intense, requiring us to strictly adhere to the rules, but I don't think that's the case."

"So, you left your tribe's village and came to the town to find a new way to survive?" Jiang You guessed.

"Yes and no," Alexi said with a wry smile. "I had some disputes with the elders. Initially, I simply approached them in a friendly manner, hoping to discuss the matter. Unexpectedly, they treated me as a rebel and expelled me from the village. They offered my husband a choice: to wander the world with me or abandon me and our child and stay in the village... and he chose to stay.

"I had no other choice. I didn't have much money, so I had to take my children to the city to look for work."

"Ah, this is too cruel!" Jiang You imagined the scene and couldn't help feeling a little indignant.

Alexi shook her head. "I don't blame my husband. His choice is understandable. In our tribe, only women can transform into demon spiders. Once we lose control, we often follow our instincts and treat our husbands as food. He was afraid that I would not obey the commandments and embark on a path of losing control, and eventually devour him. And since I have given birth to only daughters, the tribe naturally does not want to keep them as time bombs."

Jiangyou scratched his skull, feeling a little distressed.

Alexi's story always reminded her of the persecuted women throughout history. As a woman, she wanted to help the Spider Lady, but her physique made her unsuitable for waitressing. Takumiu didn't want his shop to be so prosperous only to have a half-human, half-spider monster suddenly appear and devour all the customers.

...This scene is a bit scary just thinking about it.

The restaurant industry wasn't easy, with strange and demanding customers everywhere. Some simply disagreed with their tastes, while others took out their frustrations on even more vulnerable workers. While Jiangyou didn't tolerate such rude customers, he didn't want them to end up in the spider's maw.

Perhaps due to her long brink of death in her previous life, and her inexplicable transformation into a living skeleton in this one, Takuya's outlook on life and death is somewhat off, reeking of a Cappicornian philosophy of "life is fine, death is fine too." She barely cares about her own life or death anymore, let alone the lives of strangers who might be causing trouble. But if word got out about the killer spider in her shop, it would undoubtedly affect her business.

——As for the success or failure of the store’s business, Jiangyou takes this more seriously than life and death.

"I feel like the best job for you would be quietly producing products in an independent workshop," Jiang You said. "It would be completely backstage work, without having to meet customers directly, so naturally you wouldn't be stimulated."

Alexi nodded sympathetically. "But all the tailor shops in town need to communicate with customers, and no one is willing to accept me..."

"How about a different approach?" Jiang You asked, "Is there any poison in your family? Do you know how to cook?"

"No, we don't secrete toxins." Alexi thought for a moment and replied, "As for food, I can make some home-cooked meals, and my little daughter keeps bees and makes honey..." She said nervously, "That should count."

Jiang You's eyes lit up: "This is good!"

Suddenly she had an idea: "Can you use a millstone?"

Alexi nodded, "Yes, I've used it in the village, and I'm quite strong."

"Then you can help me make tofu and vermicelli." Jiang You clapped his bony claws and said happily, "However, the large workshop next door isn't finished yet, so I can only rent you a house on this street for now so you can live there and learn how to make tofu and vermicelli. Once the large workshop is built, you can raise bees and make tofu here... How about this idea?"

Alexi's eyes instantly lit up with tears: "Great! This is a great idea!"