Xia Moli remained silent for a while.
“No,” she said. “I feel that… she doesn’t have a pale, thin, and slender appearance, so I feel… naturally closer to her.”
Ai Cao shrugged: "Isn't that enough?"
She said with a smile, "See, you can't give a concrete reason either. —Hey, don't look at me like that. If you hadn't been so hesitant just now, I would have found your expression more convincing, wouldn't you say?"
Xia Moli puffed out her cheeks like a child.
She clenched her fist, completely transforming the worm inside into a tiny cocoon, and put it in her pocket.
Then, she stood in front of Ai Cao, stood on tiptoe, and pinched her face. Ai Cao giggled and dodged back a couple of times, but in the end, Xia Moli pinched her nose, making her yelp a few times before obediently sitting up and letting her pinch her face.
Xia Moli didn't hit hard, but the pain that the mugwort made was so realistic that she tugged at it a few times, hesitated, and then relaxed her strength.
Ai Cao seized the opportunity and, smiling, pinched Xia Moli's cheek as well.
They stared at each other for two seconds, frozen in place.
Xia Moli said, "That's a bit childish, Mugwort."
Artemisia said, "Aren't you pulling my face too, Jasmine?"
Xia Moli was silent for a moment, then said, "I'll count to three, two, one, and we'll let go together."
The mugwort said, "Okay."
"Three...two...one!"
Ai Cao loosened her grip—but Xia Moli didn't. Ai Cao opened her eyes wide, filled with accusation, but finally gave in and Xia Moli gave her face a few hard rubs.
Xia Moli was satisfied with the massage, so she let go and sat down.
She thought for a moment, then suddenly sighed: "What should we do next?"
"What do you mean, 'what to do'?" Ai Cao asked. "Which aspect are you referring to?"
“You, me,” Xia Moli said, “and the women of this world.”
“I have a plan,” said Ai Cao. “Do you want to hear it?”
"...You've already said all that, and you're still asking me if I want to hear it?" Xia Moli glared at her. "Speak up."
Ai Cao smiled: "I want all the women in this world to come back." She spoke each word slowly but forcefully, "using the men of this world as nourishment for their return, to create a world where only women exist."
This sounded a bit like a fantasy, but Xia Moli thought about it carefully for a while, and based on what Ai Cao had said, she continued to ask:
"Would the world be better if it only had women than only men?"
Ai Cao laughed, "Of course!" She described her imagined beautiful vision to Xia Moli, "You see, men call women, but women rarely call men, right?"
Xia Moli pondered for a moment and said, "Not necessarily. Some women, even if they just pass by and see a handsome man, will still want to approach him."
She gave an example of mugwort: "I don't know if we come from the same world, but I'm talking about the women I've observed."
"They like cats, so they will also like men who own cats; they will like men who sell things in places they often shop; when they pursue men, they will wholeheartedly give them their best things... If they don't have a man, they will pursue women who are like men and treat them as men."
"Is a woman like that acceptable?" Xia Moli asked.
Ai Cao thought for a while and said, "I know the women you're talking about. But I know many more women."
"They...though they did not use themselves as firewood to warm others, they still braved the wind and snow to forge a path; their voices, though as faint as fireflies, could still illuminate the earth."
“They said there was another way of life here. They did it, and so more women followed that path.”
Ai Cao lowered her eyelashes, smiled, and whispered, "...I like them like this."
“Besides,” Ai Cao’s tone lightened considerably, “since this world with only men is destined to be destroyed anyway, why not let the women give it a try?”
"Is the world going to be destroyed?" Xia Moli asked in surprise. "I thought..."
“After all, it’s just men, and the ‘Eve’ in the story didn’t give birth to a child before she died.” Ai Cao added to the previous story without a care in the world, “When men go mad and destroy themselves, the world suffers.”
Xia Moli pondered in silence for a long time.
“Then let’s do it this way,” Xia Moli said. “We’ll pave this path for them.”
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
