Country (2)

"When people are well-fed and warm, they think of lust and desire. You must understand this saying, right? Animals don't reproduce all year round." Mi sneered. "El thought he had endured the pain of childbirth, but he didn't know that there is much more suffering in the world. When there is surplus food, some people are no longer willing to go out hunting. These people slowly come up with excuses to embezzle the wealth. Those who honestly go hunting become laborers, and those who use their brains become the enjoyers."

"Does the one who uses their mind control others, while the one who uses their strength is at the mercy of others?"

"Don't make exploitation sound so nice. Besides, whether they're mental laborers or manual laborers, they all have a common object of oppression—women. Mental laborers are better off; they have enough assets to help women raise children and can attract more women. Why? Because women know that raising children requires help, and more capable help. Those manual laborers also need to pass on their genes; they also need women. If they don't have any, they'll make a fuss, they'll steal, they'll take. Why is it that for thousands of years, those who have been sold off are either women or defenseless children?" Mi didn't know what she was saying. In animal groups, there's only one leader among the females. In humans, women have husbands, mothers-in-law, leaders, and husbands' ties above them, with other people standing on top of each other endlessly.

“You—” Joe looked at her worriedly, “Didn’t you say that the law had already banned human trafficking back then?”

"Ha, forbidden! Do you think the law can prohibit something that doesn't exist?" Mi suddenly felt powerless. She didn't want to continue the conversation and could only turn and walk away.

When El woke up, Joe told El what Mi had said. El remained silent for a long time before saying, "In her memory, I saw that the trafficking of women and children still exists on Earth. Imprisonment, rape, and evil are everywhere. Even though the law has clearly prohibited it, many people still disregard the law. Joe, you know that the law has two functions: deterrence and punishment. Something that is prohibited by law is something that will happen in real life."

Mi wandered in the Witch Forest for an unknown amount of time until she stopped again in front of the valley. She told herself, "Whatever it is, witch or human, I have to get out, I have to go back. I have to control myself and not argue with El anymore." Mi suppressed the turmoil in her heart and made up her mind before walking back to the center of the forest.

"You," El knew Mi wasn't feeling well, "would you like to rest some more?"

“No need,” Mi shook her head, a sense of urgency rising in her heart. She said, “Since you say that the shaman is the link between divinity and humanity, then please tell me what humanity is.”

"Human nature is formed over a long period of time, and what humanity and people have in common is growth," El explained. "Most early humans lived like animals, relying on their inherited divinity. A small group of exceptionally intelligent humans learned to cooperate; they stored food, made tools, and so on, and gradually formed tribes and nations."

“With a state comes a ruling class, I understand.”

“The ruling class—every country has a ruling class. You put it very well,” El praised. “Whether it’s a tribe or a country, there are rulers. With rulers comes power, and with power comes class division. With class division, naturally some people are at the top and some are at the bottom. But is this situation stable?”

“It’s stable for a period of time,” Mi said after thinking for a moment. “I’ve told you before that the laws of human nations are constantly changing, and the rules of nations are constantly being revised.”

“Yes, it’s about self-correction. People can reflect on themselves and make corrections. That’s what makes people so precious, and it’s the shining point of humanity.” El paused for a while before saying, “Mi, that’s humanity.”

Looking at El before her, who had experienced countless worlds, how could El still be so naive? She couldn't help but say, "Do you know what caused these changes? I think it's rebellion," Mi paused, then changed her words, "It's fighting. Fighting will still happen within a country. The seemingly solid pyramid you see has increasing pressure as you go down. Those at the top can't see the suffering of those below, and they're even stingy with their leftovers; those at the bottom, however, can see those at the top enjoying themselves, and they want those too. So war is inevitable. There are no eternal countries; no matter how powerful an empire is, it will eventually collapse."

"If you can only get something by force, why beg from others?"

“Yes, when a country seizes resources from outside, when the upper class plunders the lower class, and the lower class is unwilling to be taken from, war never ends. This is why the rules are constantly being revised.” Mi said with some sadness, “Why are there so few instances of resistance from women?”

“That’s because women are born to need help,” Al said gently. “Pregnancy, childbirth, and raising children bring women not only physical weakness, but also help; they are born to need help.”

"Is that why?" Mi didn't believe it. "There will never be a shortage of female warriors."

There's a saying among humans—"A mother's love makes her strong." This doesn't mean that a woman becomes strong simply by becoming a mother, but rather that she pushes herself to the limit for her child, becoming stronger while nurturing her child, and weakening more quickly as the child grows up.

“Let’s not talk about that,” Mi said, changing the subject as he recalled El’s experience. “Why does war never end?”

"When a rule ceases to be effective, war begins, until a new rule replaces the old one, and the nation is stabilized again."

"Are the new rules necessarily better than the old ones?" Mi wondered. She only noticed that the supervision was being strengthened and the control was becoming increasingly powerful.

“If a rule is accepted by the majority of society, then that rule is good,” El said after thinking for a moment. “Do you remember when we discussed women’s inheritance rights on Earth? Eastern women also want to have inheritance rights, but why haven’t they succeeded?”

“Because laws made for only a minority cannot be enforced. Society as a whole tacitly accepts male inheritance rights. Families with only daughters will have their property coveted, and they will use various methods to squander it. The law can protect women's inheritance rights, but it cannot guarantee that a wife's property will not be swallowed up by her husband's family.” Mi paused for a while before continuing, “For a father, it is far better for his property to be inherited by his son than by his son-in-law, and for a man, having a son is the easiest thing.”

"In terms of numbers, there are not many fewer women in the East than men, and not many more women in the West than men. So why are Eastern women unable to acquire property?"

“It’s not just about property, it’s about inheritance rights. Daughters can’t inherit their father’s property, and they also lose their status and voice.” Mi thought for a while before saying, “In the East, only paternal bloodlines matter. Even if a daughter is one’s own, the children she gives birth to are considered someone else’s bloodline. It’s as if once you’re a woman, you automatically become an outsider in the family. There’s a saying in our area, ‘Girls are outgoing.’ Why are girls outgoing? Because the family she was born into doesn’t acknowledge her, doesn’t accept her, and only wants to marry her off. Even though the children are all born to women, the children that women raise with their own flesh and blood don’t acknowledge their bloodline.”

“You also said that women in the East and West were initially of equal status,” El tried to explain. “A country maintains stability through rules, that is, through laws to ensure the normal operation of a country, not through bloodlines. Women were also at the bottom of the social hierarchy, yet the laws differed so greatly. You have to understand that laws are also made by people, so why is that?”

“That’s because laws are made by those in power. Whoever holds power will make laws that benefit them,” Mi said after thinking for a moment. “Inheritance rights are not just about property, but also about status and power. The West has always had queens, which has ensured the stability of women’s inheritance rights.”

"Is there no queen in the East?"

“Yes, but—” Mi gave a strange laugh, as if she had thought of something amusing: “Joe must know that our only empress seized the throne from her son. Her power came from her husband, not from inheritance. Even though she gained supreme power, she still didn’t pass the throne to her daughter. When she died, there wasn’t a single word on her tombstone, because she was neither a daughter, nor a wife, nor a mother, and none of the words that could appear on an epitaph would suit her.”

"Men don't acknowledge women's blood, so why don't women acknowledge women's blood either?" El looked at Mi. "I saw 'women helping women' on your witch's headband."

“That’s because,” Mi paused for a long time before continuing, “you’ve talked about rules. With a stable structure and appropriate rules, a country will be stable. Western women are in the same position, their interests are aligned, so they will naturally unite.”

"Is the status of women in the East different?"

“In the West, women in a family have equal status. A mother is a mother, and a daughter is a daughter. Their interests are aligned, and their goals are also aligned: to protect their rights as women. The East is different,” Mi paused for a long time before continuing, “I’ve mentioned before that the East practices monogamy with multiple concubines. When there are many women in a family, conflicts naturally arise, and that’s when the differences emerge. The wife gains power and can manage her husband’s concubines, naturally elevating her status, while the concubines are naturally inferior. As women, who would willingly be inferior? So they start trying to please their husbands, relying on men to gain more attention and power. Some concubines even gain more power than the mistress. You can ask Joe to tell you the story of Li Si’er.”

"The East is divided into two countries within a single nation, with men and women ruling different worlds respectively."

“Ah, I see.” Mi paused for a moment. “But the status of these two countries is different. Women are like colonies of men.”

“You said that the colonies have become independent, and the East is now a monogamous society where women have the same status.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I feel that Eastern women are copying the path of Western women.” Mi continued to shake her head. “But that won’t work. Even if more and more women in the East are unwilling to get married and have fewer and fewer children, the whole society still blames women.”

“Child, that takes time.” El gently comforted Mi, then asked, “Since there has been an empress in the East, once there is a first, there will be a second. You know people always imitate, especially those at the pinnacle of power.”

"This only empress ever recorded in history books united the entire society in a force of fear and distrust of women. Daughters were stripped of their inheritance rights from the day they were born, husbands began to fear their wives' families, and sons began to fear their mothers' families." Mi's voice began to choke. "At first it was only status and property, then freedom, and finally even the loss of one's own autonomy. Women were expected to obey the three obediences and four virtues: obedience to their fathers at home, obedience to their husbands after marriage, and obedience to their sons after their husbands' deaths. A woman's fate was entirely in the hands of men." Mi raised her head and looked at El: "I told you, Eastern women are at the very bottom of society. If this is a change brought about by witchcraft, how can I accept being a witch?" Mi stopped speaking, staring at the clouds above, wondering what was there, and what was the purpose of this repeated restarting of the evolutionary process.