Bao Si

"The moon shall rise, the sun shall set; bows of mulberry and quivers of reed shall surely bring the end of Zhou!"

This was a prophecy.

It was the final nail in the coffin of the Western Zhou, which was already on its last legs.

The deposed Crown Prince, Ji Yijiu, allied with the Marquis of Shen and the Quanrong to invade Haojing. Zongzhou fell. Those barbarian soldiers, seeing such a prosperous city for the first time, looted gold and grain everywhere.

They even paid a friendly visit to the tombs of the ancestral Zhou kings on the Plain of Zhou.

Qingnu was practically in tears!

She hadn't even thought about raiding those tombs yet, and who knew how many treasures were inside? All of it went to the Quanrong.

In the royal palace, Ji Gongnie was dead.

Bao Si held a short dagger, her eyes misty with tears as she looked at the young woman in green standing before her.

"Auntie Qing!"

She looked at Qingnu, and the dagger slipped from her trembling hand.

Qingnu crouched beside Ji Gongnie, poked him, and whispered, "Is he really dead?"

"Stupid snake, can you even fake a death like that?"

Hongluan flapped its wings, glancing back at the rampaging Quanrong soldiers outside the palace chamber, and urged, "Hurry up! Those guys are coming this way."

"The organization has decided—you go lure them away!" Qingnu immediately requested of Hongluan.

Hongluan: "..."

"If you don't find me some good fruit as a reward, I'll peck you to death, you stupid snake!"

After Hongluan left, Qingnu scurried over to Bao Si's side.

"Auntie Qing, I'm sorry..." Bao Si lowered her head.

"What does this have to do with you? Why are you apologizing?"

Qingnu tilted her head, then raised a hand to ruffle Bao Si's hair, soothing her. "I'm here now. Come with me?"

"If I had listened to your advice back then and never entered the palace, perhaps none of this would have happened today."

Qingnu tilted her head again. "What kind of logic is that?"

Bao Si was an abandoned infant Qingnu had saved outside Haojing years ago. It just so happened that a couple who made bows were being pursued, so she saved them as well. The 'snake girl' didn't know how to nurse a child, so she entrusted Bao Si to the two of them.

The family went to the State of Bao to live.

When Qingnu learned they had named the child Bao Si, she had already foreseen all of this.

Later, the State of Bao was defeated and had no choice but to offer up Bao Si.

Did she have a choice?

No!

In actual history, there were no beacon fires used to toy with the marquises.

It was simply that after Bao Si entered the palace, she became increasingly favored, leading Ji Gongnie to consider deposing the Crown Prince and the Queen. But the original Queen was no pushover; Ji Yijiu fled immediately and called upon his grandfather to seek justice.

His grandfather was quite the helpful sort, coming straight to have a heart-to-heart with his son-in-law.

The Quanrong soldiers outside chased the bird through half the palace. By the time they converged on the chamber, there was only the dead Ji Gongnie. Qingnu, Bao Si, and even the bird they had been chasing were gone.

Qingnu led Bao Si all the way east until they reached a valley with quite beautiful scenery.

"It's decided! We'll make our home here!" the snake girl declared with a grand wave of her hand.

News didn't travel well in the small valley. By the time more news from the outside reached them, over a decade had passed. Ji Yijiu, supported by the Marquis of Shen and the Marquis of Jin, had defeated Ji Yuchen of Zongzhou and become the legitimate ruler of the realm.

Leading an army to kill one's father was hardly a boost to one's reputation.

Ji Yijiu, whose rise to power was not exactly honorable, couldn't control the marquises in the Fenghao region. He never dared to fight his way back to Zongzhou in his entire life. Instead, he sent the horse-breeding Qin people to clash with the rampaging Quanrong and other marquises there.

One wins the Plain of Zhou, another loses a handful of yellow earth.

When Bao Si heard this news, she remained silent for a long time, then burst into loud laughter.

"Stupid snake, she hasn't... gone mad, has she?" Hongluan whispered, perched on Qingnu's shoulder.

Qingnu poked Hongluan's head and said, "How is this madness? She's finally seen through it all!"

But Bao Si's health began to deteriorate. A year after the news arrived, she fell completely ill. Leaning against the bed, she looked at Qingnu. "Auntie Qing... after I die... can you bury me with my parents?"

Qingnu's heart, which had tightened at the first half of the sentence, relaxed at the second.

"I thought you'd want to be buried with Ji Gongnie."

Hearing this, Bao Si gave a helpless smile and shook her head. "I hate him."

"You should hate him," Qingnu muttered. She patted Bao Si's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I promise."

The State of Bao had long since been destroyed. Finding the grave of a commoner couple was quite difficult, but it didn't matter—Qingnu had nothing but time.

If she couldn't find it in one year, she would find it in ten, or a hundred!

On the former lands of the State of Bao, Qingnu carried her pack and looked up at the sun. She cursed, "Thieving Heavens! Exaggeration, do you understand exaggeration?! You really made me look for this long! Windswept and sun-drenched, with nothing to eat—I'm starving..."

"If I'd known, I should have eaten that old man's green ox when we passed Hangu Pass!"

"Stupid snake, it's your own fault for not remembering the way!" Hongluan sat on her shoulder, preening its feathers and scolding the snake.

"Didn't you used to visit Bao Si every other day back then? How do you not know the way!" Qingnu asked, hands on her hips.

Hongluan tilted its head, its tiny beady eyes filled with immense confusion. It countered, "Are you serious? It's been over a hundred years! This place is so desolate now; even the most skilled bird couldn't find the way!"

Qingnu stopped walking and clenched her fists.

She pulled a turtle shell directly from her bag. The patterns on the shell were worn, clearly showing its age.

"Brother Turtle, I must trouble you to come out of retirement once more!"

Qingnu picked up a few stones, put them inside, and performed a divination.

She hadn't expected the divination skills she learned from Jiang Ziya to come in handy after hundreds of years! With the passionate sponsorship of Brother Turtle, Qingnu finally found the grave of Bao Si's parents.

Calling it a grave was generous; it was just a patch of desolate land. The mound had long been leveled by a century of time. Who could have imagined that beneath this unremarkable yellow earth lay the couple who had raised Bao Si—the woman now branded by the Zhou Emperor and the world's marquises as the 'femme fatale' who brought down the nation?

Qingnu opened Bao Si's grave and moved her here for burial.

"Over a hundred years just for a promise. Truly a stupid snake."

Watching Qingnu fill in the earth, Hongluan sighed. It landed on Qingnu's shoulder. "However, I do admire this about you, stupid snake!"

As it spoke, it raised a wing and patted Qingnu's cheek.

"You little brat of a bird!" Qingnu muttered, shaking her shoulder to knock Hongluan off.

"Go on, go fetch some offerings~"

Hongluan: "?"

'The green bird flies and roams the four directions, carrying the five grains to settle the soul.'

Stalks of rice, heavy with grain, were scattered across the newly raised mound. Qingnu didn't care for the burial rituals of this era, but she understood one thing: in this vast world, eating was the most important thing. Covering the path of departure with rice, she hoped the next life would be spent in a time of peace.

"Have a safe journey."

The snake girl murmured a prayer and turned toward the east.

As they walked east, Qingnu suddenly asked, "Should I have bowed?"

"Give it a rest! If you bowed, what if their whole family's grave exploded?" Hongluan rolled its eyes.

Qingnu nodded. "True. By the way... where did you find such good rice?"

Hongluan replied, "I stole it..."

Qingnu: "..."