The mugwort opened its eyes.
She sat on a grassy field. Above her was a clear sky, and around her was a clear stream. Further away were tall trees and distant mountains.
Purely natural and pollution-free.
A beautiful afternoon.
The mugwort twitched its nose and sniffed the clean air.
The system asked, "What's wrong?"
Ai Cao shrugged and said, "I smelled too much ash in the last world." Even if it was ash from burning bats, she still found it a bit too pungent.
The system chuckled: "Then let's treat this world as a vacation."
Artemisia didn't respond. She stretched and stood up, brushing the grass clippings off her pants. Perhaps to match her short hair, she wasn't wearing clothing similar to the female lead's, but rather a style of clothing reminiscent of the Hu people.
The kind with a top and pants.
Ai Cao glanced at her tightly rolled-up trouser legs and was fairly satisfied with her outfit.
She looked around and only saw a courtyard not far away. She asked, "Is the female lead in that courtyard?"
The system said, "Yes, she's in the yard."
Ai Cao raised an eyebrow and asked, "I'm just going to knock on the door like that? Doesn't she have any wariness towards strangers?"
Despite her words, she still walked to the courtyard gate. Ai Cao raised her hand and knocked on the door, calling out, "Hello—is anyone home—"
A very light, cheerful sound of footsteps came from behind.
The door in front of her slowly opened. Ai Cao looked down and saw only a fair-skinned little girl standing there.
The little girl was about seven or eight years old, and her face hadn't fully developed yet. She wore faded old clothes and had her hair tied in two round buns.
"My family isn't well-off," Ai Cao thought.
The little girl blinked her clear, black-and-white eyes and asked, "Sister, who are you looking for?"
System introduction: "She is the female protagonist of this world, Song Tang."
The pine tree wasn't even half the height of the mugwort. She was still completely a child, curious only about the world, utterly unaware of the dangers that lay within.
Ai Cao thought for a moment, then squatted down and asked, "I'm hungry. Can I come and work for you to eat?"
Her stomach growled at just the right moment.
Song Tang blinked and tilted her head to look at her: "Okay."
She placed the mugwort inside the door, carefully closed it herself, and then walked further inside with the mugwort.
Ai Cao glanced around the courtyard. Flowers of various colors bloomed together, completely disregarding the fact that it was a shady corner where they couldn't get any sunlight. They walked through the path under the trees and into the kitchen.
Songtang dragged over a small stool, stepped on it, and lifted the lid of the pot on the stove.
A whole, tender fish was stewing in the pot.
She skillfully picked up a spoon, scooped up some soup, tasted it, and then served Ai Cao a large bowl of milky white soup.
Ai Cao took the bowl. The soup was still a little hot, so she only took a small sip before continuing to watch Song Tang. Song Tang ladled out another bowl of fish soup and put the lid back on. She hopped off the stool, extinguished the fire in the stove, and wiped the stool clean.
Artemisia stood silently to the side, watching her.
After Songtang finished her work, she picked up the new bowl of fish soup. She blew away the film on top of the soup and carefully took a sip.
Ai Cao asked, "Do you usually live alone like this?"
Song Tang blinked: "Yeah... ah!" She smiled a little embarrassedly, "I forgot to sit down and eat, wait a moment."
She placed the bowl on the table next to the stove, then dragged a new small stool from the woodpile and placed it on the table along with the one she used to stand on.
Songtang said, "Come sit down too."
Ai Cao looked at the two low stools and agreed.
She sat on the stool, which was about the same height as when she squatted down. But she still sat on that low stool and drank soup with Song Tang.
The soup was quickly emptied.
Ai Cao put down her bowl and said, "I'm full, thank you."
Song Tang tilted her head: "Don't you eat fish?"
She held the bowl of soup, which was only half-eaten, and asked expectantly.
Ai Cao shook her head. She had already seen the stewed fish that was overcooked. If she also took some of the fish, Song Tang wouldn't have enough to eat.
Protecting cubs is common sense.
Seeing her insistence, Songtang didn't say anything more. She quietly and carefully sipped the fish soup.
Ai Cao asked the system, "What time is it now?"
The system was silent for a moment, then said, "The daytime when the female lead picked up the male lead."
Tonight, the gears of fate will begin to turn.
Mugwort will choose to smash this gear with a single punch.
Ai Cao asked Song Tang, "Can I stay here?" She stretched out her arm to show Song Tang the muscles on her arm, "I'm strong, I can help you carry firewood."
Songtang quietly took another sip of fish soup and said, "But I already promised." Her eyes crinkled, and she chuckled softly. "My name is Songtang. What's your sister?"
"I am mugwort." Mugwort smiled.
Song Tang smiled with her eyes crinkling, and said, "I noticed that you were dressed as a man, so you probably don't want to be constantly reminded of your female identity... so I just called you by your name?"
“Okay,” Ai Cao replied. “But it’s fine if you call me sister, I like being a woman.”
She touched her short hair and said, "I didn't cut my hair short because I wanted to be a man."
Songtang tilted her head and said softly, "I've only ever seen men with short hair before." She fiddled with her hair bun. "Then I'm a woman with long hair, and you're a woman with short hair, sister."
This isn't entirely an ancient society, so men here can have short hair. Ai Cao's short hair just happened to be there.
“I’ll still call you Mugwort, so that whether you want to be a man or a woman, you’ll always be Mugwort,” Songtang said.
The mugwort silently curved its lips.
“This is my family’s villa, so there’s only one main house and two side rooms.” Songtang finished her fish soup and said, “I’ll stay in the main house, and Aicao will stay in one of the side rooms, is that alright?”
She spoke softer: "But there's a lot of clutter in the side room... it might need to be cleaned before it can be used."
Ai Cao shook her head: "It's nothing."
She accompanied Songtang through lunch, which consisted only of fish soup, in the kitchen, and then cleaned all the tableware and kitchen utensils.
With nothing left to do in the kitchen, Songtang led Aicao to visit the two side rooms in turn.
One side room contained a bed piled high with bedding and clothes, while the other side room was entirely used to store daily necessities and firewood.
After discussing it with Songtang, Aicao and Songtang worked together to remove the extra items from the bed and tidied up the side room a bit.
As the two sat down on the clean bed, the sky outside the window was already painted a beautiful rose color by the sunset. It was time for dinner.
A man dressed in black, reeking of blood, suddenly barged in.
Songtang gasped softly. She nervously covered her mouth and hid behind the artemisia.
The man clutched his chest, which was oozing blood, and cautiously looked around the room.
He paused, startled, when he saw the mugwort protecting the pine tree. He muttered, "I didn't expect there to be pursuers here..." He coughed twice, then turned and rushed towards the window he had come from. Just as he stepped on the window frame, the mugwort grabbed a stool from beside him and hurled it at him.
It hit the man squarely on the back of the head.
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