January 30
Morning sunlight slipped through a gap in the half-drawn curtains and fell straight across Takashiro Xiangzi's sleeping face.
Her brows furrowed. Slowly, she opened her eyes, her vision still blurry, as though veiled by a thin mist.
Still half-asleep, she could barely make out the ceiling overhead. Even the wallpaper patterns on the wall looked like distorted faces.
Xiangzi lifted a hand to rub her eyes, only to find her fingers slightly damp. The sticky, tacky feeling made her skin wrinkle unpleasantly, and her eyes felt even more uncomfortable because of it.
"What time is it now...?"
Still groggy, she unwillingly fished out her phone. The lit screen read 7:40.
Good. She hadn't overslept.
Then she flopped right back onto the bed.
She was going to rest for another ten minutes...
Lying lazily against the soft pillow, Xiangzi's thoughts churned as she savored the memories of last night.
Last night... last night...
The memories rose and fell in her mind, leaving her unsure where to begin. All she knew was this:
The feeling had been unforgettable.
"Beautiful things should be stored properly in your memory," she muttered to herself, "and taken out every now and then to be appreciated."
Smiling to herself, Xiangzi got out of bed. Unable to find her underclothes, she had no choice but to wrap herself in a sleeping robe and step barefoot onto the chilly wooden floor.
She tucked the blankets more securely around Huaxiu and Miranda. Then she went off to cool herself down a little.
"Time to get up..."
She drew the curtains apart and opened the window. Standing there, she spread her arms and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, which carried with it the faint scent of citrus.
"A beautiful morning—mmph!"
She wrapped herself in her clothes and headed into the bathroom. The mirror reflected her appearance back at her.
What a mess.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Xiangzi scooped up some water from the half-full bucket nearby and splashed the cold water over her body. Her skin immediately erupted in goosebumps.
Cold!!
All the hot water they had stored the night before had been used up. The thermos was bone dry; not a single drop remained. She was too lazy to heat any more—besides, it would make too much noise. What if she woke the two girls who were still sleeping?
So she endured the cold and gave herself a quick wash to get rid of the sticky, clammy feeling. Worried she might catch a chill, she hurriedly dried herself with a clean towel.
Once she had more or less dealt with basic hygiene, she took the kettle out into the hall. The electric kettle had a high enough wattage that it would be done in ten minutes or so.
But that hot water wasn't for her. It was for the two sleeping beauties.
As for herself, she wasn't planning to use it.
Next she intended to head out, but before that, there were still a few things on today's to-do list.
Her task list was as follows:
Steal morning kisses from the two sleeping beauties. (Done)
Clean up the battlefield afterward. (Done)
Preserve the "evidence" with scissors for collection. (Done)
At last, she found her missing clothes. Why were some of them stuffed over by Huaxiu's side? And why had Miranda stolen a few too? Were they dividing her up between themselves or something?
Her expression complicated, she walked out of the bedroom.
Meanwhile, Huaxiu and Miranda were still fast asleep. Xiangzi couldn't bear to wake them. Let them sleep peacefully a while longer.
After getting dressed, she had only just stepped out of the room when she ran into Brent, fully dressed and drinking tea in the living room. She had probably been woken up by the sound of the kettle heating.
"Xiangzi, why are you up so early?"
Brent was clearly asking a question she already knew the answer to.
"What else? It's almost time. I'm not going out today. You take the scavenging team down the mountain. I'll stay behind and help everyone cut timber and set up greenhouse sheds on the back plot. Didn't we find all those seeds the other day? It's time we actually started doing some farming."
Brent sucked in a breath through her teeth.
The way she looked at Takashiro Xiangzi was like she was staring at some kind of monster.
After all the noise last night, after all that commotion, Xiangzi was acting as though nothing had happened and was even planning to work today. Was Takashiro Xiangzi made of iron?
"You really don't need to rest the whole morning?" Brent asked. "Ye Ling and I can handle the work. That fox has been working fast these past few days. You can trust her."
"I'm fine. But with the way you're looking at me... don't tell me you actually heard something last night?"
"No! I'm not the kind of person who listens at doors. But I do know what happened!"
Brent hurriedly defended herself. She did not want "pervert" attached to her name.
"I figured as much. Still—where's Doris? I can't find her anywhere. The way that little one acts around Miranda is... a bit worrying."
"Miss Doris went to bathe. What's wrong? Don't tell me you've got your eye on my second young lady too?"
Brent laughed as she said it, speaking to Xiangzi with a familiarity that really did make them sound like family.
Family indeed.
If this were some noble household in ancient times, Brent would have been the sort of loyal maid who'd inevitably end up being "eaten clean" alongside her mistress.
"I'll feel better if I check on her. The bathroom is the perfect place for accidents, after all."
At Brent's reminder, though, Doris's voice called out before Xiangzi could move.
"Xiangzi-jie, I'm not a child anymore. Miranda-jie's life belongs to her. I don't have the right to interfere in the life of the sister I love most."
Before the girl herself appeared, her voice arrived first.
Doris came hurrying out of the bath, standing on tiptoe as she padded forward in little steps. Her still-wet red hair steamed faintly, as brilliant as flame.
There wasn't any trace of abnormality on her face.
"That's a relief. Then can I call you my little sister-in-law now?"
"Of course you can. But if you ever toy with my sister's feelings—if you hurt her—I'll... I'll..."
Halfway through her threat, Doris clenched her fist and thumped Xiangzi on the shoulder.
"You can rest easy. I'm not that kind of rotten scumbag. Since we're family now, then we stick together, through thick and thin."
"You'd better mean that."
"I do."
That happily resolved ending made for a pretty excellent start to the day.
Outside in the snowy yard, Ye Ling—wearing a specially made safety helmet—was doing the work of foreman.
With the handheld radios Xiangzi had gotten, things were much more convenient. Xiangzi herself had originally led the work team for a while, but a call from Huaxiu had summoned her back, and so Ye Ling had taken over.
Well, "foreman" sounded nice, but in reality it just meant labor supervisor. And being supervisor didn't mean she got to stand around with a whip like some plantation overseer in old films. She still had to work too.
The whole morning passed quickly in logging labor. A small fire had sweet potatoes and potatoes roasting on top of it. The warm food eased everyone's weariness.
That little settlement at the foot of the mountain—barely worthy of being called a village—had already been picked clean by Xiangzi's group. Even the large wooden furniture had been hauled back to camp. After all, the shelter's original buildings had only been a very small visitor center and an inn, with very little useful furniture to begin with.
Everyone had simply taken whatever they needed.
Next, Xiangzi had decided to send a team into Inawashiro Town to scout and gather more supplies.
And they still had to stay wary of the Holy Disciple Organization and any small wandering clusters of infected.
These past few days, on their way down the mountain to collect supplies, they had already started seeing more infected animals roaming about again.
Xiangzi was already planning to upgrade some of the team's equipment.
But at that moment, she was busy dealing with two newly awakened beauties.
"Huaxiu, Miranda, you both worked hard last night. Eat a little first and replenish yourselves."
After rummaging through a lot of books, consulting the system, and spending quite a few resources, Xiangzi had prepared several nourishing dishes.
"And whose fault is it that I'm practically dried out?!" Miranda protested.
"Like you have room to talk—you little vixen. Didn't you leave me a complete mess too?"
Now Xiangzi was personally feeding the two princesses who were still lazing in bed. Every now and then, they would feed her a bite in return.
The room was steeped in the fragrance of blooming lilies.
But then the walkie-talkie at the bedside crackled, shattering the warm atmosphere.
It was Ye Ling. Xiangzi answered at once.
"What is it, Ye Ling?"
"Xiangzi-jie, over in the east woods beyond the wall, we found a strange tree. It's infected. It almost snatched one of the workers away with its vines!"
Ye Ling's voice was urgent enough that she stopped bothering with her clumsy Japanese altogether and lapsed straight into her dialect. Thankfully, Xiangzi was fluent enough in both Chinese and Japanese to understand her, or else she would have been left staring blankly while Ye Ling repeated herself.
"I'm coming right away. Stabilize the situation and pull everyone back. The main body of that thing can't move!"
"Got it! Hurry!"
Xiangzi said her goodbyes to the two bedridden girls, grabbed the walkie-talkie, and ran out, refusing everyone else who tried to follow her.
She hadn't taken any visible weapon with her.
That was because everything she needed was already stored in her space.
As she raced alone toward the scene, the radio carried the chaos from Ye Ling's side—cries for help, shouting, panic.
Ye Ling hadn't brought any heavy firepower this time. All she had on her were the greatsword Xiangzi had given her and an M9 pistol with two magazines. She probably didn't even have a molotov on her.
These past few peaceful days had lulled people into feeling safe. Ye Ling, too, had let her guard down.
She had gotten used to taking only what was convenient, and that was exactly why they were now facing an infected enemy with insufficient firepower.
Trouble.
However, less than two minutes later, Xiangzi arrived six hundred meters from home at the site of the disturbance.
Dark smoke was already billowing up there. Even from this distance, the smell of scorching and burning was thick in the air. It seemed they had gone with fire after all.
And sure enough, just as Xiangzi was about to reach them, Ye Ling's voice came over the radio again—this time with good news.
"Xiangzi-jie, we dumped the leftover fuel on it. Guess you made the trip for nothing."
"As long as you're all safe, that's enough. I'm already here. Leave the rest to me."
"Understood."
Xiangzi breathed out in relief. Her stride slowed, and her pounding heart gradually steadied. On the map she could see that Ye Ling's location was now wrapped in dense smoke.
From afar, the tree was already engulfed in roaring flames. The blaze charred it black, burning its body to pieces. Sap hissed and burst from the trunk like moisture in a frying pan. The infected vines, driven to frenzy, lashed out in all directions seeking something—anything—to smother the fire.
Who knew a conifer could sprout so many vine-like appendages?
For one absurd moment, Xiangzi even wondered if flaming pine needles might come flying next.
She thought back to the other infected life-forms they had encountered and could easily imagine it.
But the thing was already in its final throes. Whatever desperate tricks it tried at the end didn't matter much.
Time to finish it.
"Ye Ling, get back! Let's see how it likes this!"
Xiangzi hurled several fragmentation grenades toward the burning infected tree. A series of booming blasts followed, and the already weakened trunk shattered into several broken lengths of ruined wood.
Its flailing, clawing mass of vines was blown apart.
When the dust settled, the matter was over.
Xiangzi's expression remained calm as she addressed the others below.
"Head back for now. Logging is canceled for today. Use the wood we already have at the base to build the sheds first. Split more firewood too—we need stockpiles of fuel, or else winter will catch us short. I'll be checking the forest for infected organisms over the next few days. Don't worry. Until the search is complete, I won't send anyone somewhere dangerous."
But the response from the workers below was nothing like what Xiangzi had expected.
Some faces had clearly brightened the moment they heard her words. While the work they were doing now was all for their own survival, who wouldn't prefer lighter duties if they could get them?
After all, the boss herself had said so. Entirely reasonable. Entirely legal.
Just as some of them were turning to leave, however, they realized the others hadn't moved.
"You're not going?" one of them asked the person beside her.
"You go on ahead if you want. I've got something to say to Miss Takashiro."
The woman's tone was openly disdainful. The one who'd been about to leave looked embarrassed and awkwardly shuffled back into the group.
What now? she thought.
A few figures stepped forward from the crowd—some tall, some short, some stout, some thin.
The thin ones were men; the robust ones were women.
As for the sturdier men? Those had already gone out with old hunter Saito. Xiangzi had originally intended to send Brent too, but once she thought of the two girls still lying in bed, she quickly changed her mind. Leaving the house without any security at all would have been a terrible idea.
Among the group, Miho—whom Xiangzi had appointed as the new overseer—was the first to speak.
"Boss, I don't think there's any need to go that far. We can still work in the safe outer area of the forest."
With someone else stepping up first, the rest gained courage and started chiming in one after another. More or less, all of them were saying the same thing:
Please let us work.
"Right. It was just an accident. There's no need to make everyone stop for the entire day over something that only happened once. None of us want to sit around eating your food for free."
One of the younger women spoke with a hatchet still in hand, eyes bright as she addressed Xiangzi.
Were these really the same broken, half-dead refugees from just a short while ago?
The promise of food and shelter had stirred them back to life. In only a few days, their will to work had been rekindled.
Xiangzi couldn't help feeling moved.
A month ago, these same people probably weren't anything like this.
Back then, they would have slacked off whenever they could, dragged every task out as long as possible, done whatever they could to avoid effort.
Now, what drove them?
Perhaps, in part, it was responsibility beginning to grow in them—but that alone didn't explain it.
More likely, it was fear for their own survival.
The camp's timber was mostly going into fortifications. There wasn't enough set aside as fuel for daily use. That meant heating and cooking could both become a serious problem.
Right now, the most important resource in the camp was fuel.
And of all the possible fuels, timber was by far the main one. They didn't have much oil or anything else.
So logging simply could not stop.
Still—it was good.
If they were willing to work for the camp, to think for the sake of the camp, then that made them the sort Xiangzi could trust more and more.
That thought made her genuinely happy, and a faint smile appeared on her lips before even she realized it.
She didn't know just how captivating she looked when she smiled like that.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 25
After Maxing Out Every Class 25
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin