Ai Yuanyuan thought he already had a thick skin.
But when she faced Chi You, who was full of curiosity, and the bear beside her who was covering its face, she still felt that she wasn't thick-skinned enough.
Moreover, the ball of light in her mind was urging her: "Go down, they are all your allies!"
Chi You laughed loudly. The woman's eyes widened, and she exclaimed with a laugh, "You want to be a 'king' in a tree? How strange!" She walked around the tree once and said, "I've never seen a 'king' in a tree before!"
She opened her arms confidently and said, "I heard from Nuwa that you would give us food? Where is the food?"
Ai Cao chuckled dryly: "Who is Nuwa? I don't know her."
Chi You frowned. She waved her hand, and the women behind her, who were also adorned with many silver ornaments, stepped forward and stood under the tree.
Chi You shouted, "Eh—"
The women took the long swords off their backs. The swords, except for the hilts, were also inlaid and hung with many ornate silver ornaments.
The women gripped their long knives, aiming them at different points on the tree trunk, holding their breath and waiting intently.
Chi You continued shouting: "You—"
The women took a step back and raised their long knives high.
Ai Cao quickly called out, "Wait!"
Chi You's cheerful voice came even faster: "Hey!"
The women swung their long knives forcefully at the tree trunk. Leaving notches in the trunk, the women then used their knives to slice off the outermost layer of hard bark.
Chi You slapped the bear on the head: "Iron Eater, go and gnaw the tree down!"
The bear's face showed a clear expression of resistance.
It said, "No."
Chi You patted the bear's head again: "Oh, you can talk now, so you dare to rebel?" She triumphantly lifted the hem of her clothes, took out a dried, plump bamboo rat from the cloth bag at her waist, held the bamboo rat by its tail, and dangled it in front of the bear's nose.
Chi You asked, "Do you want to eat?"
The bear struggled to nod.
Chi You then pointed to the white fibers exposed on the tree trunk: "If you gnaw through this tree, I'll give you this to eat."
Artemisia said, "...I'll come down."
She nimbly slid down the tree trunk, and just before she reached the ground, she quickly kicked the trunk, landing a little distance away from the group of people.
The bear cast a grateful glance at the mugwort with its small black eyes.
Chi You laughed as he stuffed the bamboo rat back into his pocket and strode over to Ai Cao. She was much taller than Jiang Ai was now, with broad and thick shoulders, and stood with her legs apart like a giant.
Chi You took a few steps forward, and Ai Cao took a few steps back. Even though she was outnumbered, Ai Cao carefully adjusted her position in the forest to avoid leading them into the territory of the Jiang tribe.
Chi You stopped walking. She crossed her arms and asked, "Your sister is quite lovable. Shi Tie has even learned to talk since he saw you."
She affectionately tugged at a tuft of fur on the bear's chest and pulled it close to her. She gave the bear a gentle push, making it sit down—and then she nestled comfortably in its lap.
Ai Cao asked, "Did Nuwa send you... to find me?"
She thought about it again and again, but still didn't say the words "seek refuge with".
Chi You smiled and nodded. She raised her hand and touched the bear's chin, saying, "I heard that you eat meat twice a day, every meal?"
Ai Cao shook her head: "No meals are included, but there are plenty of prey around, so you can hunt for yourself."
Chi You raised his eyebrows and asked loudly, "Sister, this is not what we agreed on before!" She held up a finger and seriously bargained with her, "At least one meal must be included!"
Ai Cao looked at the women standing behind Chi You and asked, "How much do you eat in one meal?"
Chi You, beaming with joy, stood up from the bear's embrace and hugged her: "Not much!"
"If I give you food, you'll fight for me?" Ai Cao continued to ask.
"Of course!" Chi You said with a smile, "We are all skilled fighters! Look, the Iron-Eating Beast has killed quite a few people!"
Ai Cao glanced at the bear that looked both threatening and harmless, pitifully working for a dried bamboo rat. She took a deep breath and said, "I need to discuss this with my clansmen."
Chi You plopped down, muttering, "Why isn't he the clan leader yet—" Seeing that Ai Cao was still standing, she impatiently waved her away, "Sister, hurry up, we haven't eaten anything today!"
Artemisia glanced at her and the bear beside her, then quickly ran out of the woods.
The women who had been waiting for her outside the woods, their expressions tense, finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Jiang Ai.
Artemisia quickly told them about the women and bear she had encountered in the woods.
The Jiang women exchanged a few words and then quickly returned to their tribe to discuss the matter with the tribe chief.
The chieftain listened to their words in silence, then stood in front of the huge rock for a long time.
The chieftain said, "The Mother Goddess said that we can accept them."
So the women and men of the Jiang tribe were urgently summoned back. They were to prepare a feast to welcome their new companions—tonight would be a new grand celebration.
The women erected a huge campfire frame, while the men staggered back and forth between the food storage and the fire, anxiously preparing food.
Amidst the chaos, the little boy surnamed Ji looked around blankly.
He was looking for Jiang Ai.
Without Jiang Ai, he wouldn't know what he should do.
Artemisia is heading into the woods once again, to guide the women and bears with her mother.
They stepped over the fallen tree trunks overlapping at the edge of the forest and followed the teeth marks of wild beasts on the trunks to find Chi You directing bears to gnaw on the trees.
With tears in his eyes, Xiong put down the tree trunk that had broken in two.
Chi You tapped the bear's head with a bamboo rat: "This tree isn't gnawed neatly enough! Gnaw on another one!" She stuffed the dried bamboo rat into the bear's mouth, and the bear's eyes stopped tearing. It obediently lay down on a new tree and opened its mouth to gnaw on the bark.
Ai Cao spoke dryly, "Chi You?"
Chi You turned around like a gust of wind and blew right up to the mugwort.
She chuckled and rubbed Ai Cao's head, then smiled at the woman behind her and asked, "Is this your mother? You two look so alike!"
Then, even Jiang Ai's mother, who had been frowning, started to laugh. The two women held hands intimately, hooked their arms around each other's backs, and began to talk. One was talking about how difficult it was to raise a bear, and the other about how difficult it was to raise a daughter.
The two women felt an instant connection and swore an oath to their respective mother goddesses, thus becoming sworn sisters.
Artemisia and the bear stare at each other.
From the bear's eyes, Ai Cao subtly sensed a sense of shared suffering.
The bear struck up a conversation with her, asking, "Can I have a rabbit tonight?"
Ai Cao thought about the food supplies and said cautiously, "It should be enough for you to eat two rabbits."
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