Winter arrived exceptionally early this year. The children of Nange Town were already bundled in thick clothes, heading into the mountains in groups to gather firewood.
Meanwhile, four-year-old Berry hadn’t stored enough food for the winter yet. She had to sneak into the dangerous forest to search for berries before the cold snap hit.
The leaves in the forest had long since turned yellow. Berry trudged along the leaf-strewn path, her short boots making a rhythmic rustling sound that echoed through the silence. Her small, tender hands pushed aside a thicket of bushes, and her round, watery eyes reflected a vast expanse of grayish-brown stalks, each topped with pure white flowers.
A bright light erupted on the little girl’s dirty face. She rushed forward in a few quick steps, whipped a pair of shiny large scissors out of her small satchel, and stood on her tiptoes to get to work nimbly.
This was a type of wild cotton called Fluffseed. Only witches could harvest it; to ordinary people, it appeared as nothing more than plain, unremarkable wild flowers.
Blankets made from Fluffseed were light and warm. Berry had made one for herself last year, but unfortunately, it had been stolen by the annoying Alan.
That hateful little fat boy was always bullying her.
Berry was quick and agile. Before long, she was puffing as she dragged a sack full of Fluffseed back. Next, she needed to find Scarletberries to fill her belly.
Eating a single Scarletberry could keep a person from needing to eat for three days and could also enhance magical power. They were very popular among noble young ladies.
Berry planned to pick a basketful to bring back and sell at the market tomorrow morning. With that money, she could buy shelf-stable bread to survive the winter.
Berry ran back and forth in the familiar forest like a busy little bee, and soon she had a full harvest. She cradled a basket of Scarletberries in her skirt, her small face flushed red with happiness.
“One, two, three, four, five, six.” Berry counted quietly under her breath, her eyes shining as she slurped back drool. Once she sold these, she was going to buy a fragrant roasted chicken!
It had been so long since she had eaten meat.
“Twenty Scarletberries can be exchanged for fifty Starstones, and fifty Starstones can buy—”
“Huh?”
The little girl’s voice stopped abruptly. Her gaze was drawn to a faint glow deep within the bushes. Her intuition told her that it might be a Magic Plant.
Magic Plants were scarce in a poor and backward place like Nange Town. Encountering one was entirely a matter of luck.
Small witches with meager resources could only increase their magic power through two paths: practicing spells or brewing Magic Potions. Consuming Magic Plants or collecting Energy Gems were the fastest shortcuts to improvement.
A little witch’s intuition was always terrifyingly accurate. Berry had once sworn to become the greatest witch in the world. As a little witch with grand ambitions, she naturally wouldn’t let any opportunity pass by.
Berry nervously lightened her breathing and quietly pulled down the hood of her cloak. She mumbled a spell, and a magic broom, sensing the summon, came flying stumbling toward her side.
Berry patted the broom with satisfaction. She had just eaten a Scarletberry, and now she had enough magic power to support a thirty-minute flight.
The little witch lifted her short legs and sat on it, her cloak fluttering as her small hands gripped the broom handle: “Whish, fly!”
The flying broom rose slowly into the air and wiggled its way into the bushes. Berry finally saw what the light source was.
It was a berry that looked very similar to a red Scarletberry, but it glowed with a pearly, translucent white light. Berry had only ever seen glowing fruit in magic books.
The white Scarletberry hung from the tree, and a faint, sweet scent wafted into her nose. Before she knew it, the little witch’s mouth was watering.
Berry reached out a delicate fingertip. As soon as she touched the fruit, a strange warmth inexplicably spread through her entire body. The surrounding air suddenly distorted—the situation was clearly abnormal.
The little witch snapped out of it and cried out in panic, “Whish, run!”
Whish jerked into action, summoning the speed of an old man’s hundred-meter sprint, and shakily turned around.
Unfortunately, it was too late. A blinding light swallowed both the girl and the broom. Berry felt herself being swept into a tide, spinning head over heels. The scent of the forest vanished, followed immediately by the weightless sensation of falling from a great height.
At the same time, in the adjacent modern world, in a warehouse of an abandoned factory in Haicang Village.
“Damn it, which grandson called the cops? Can’t handle a fight, can you?”
“Don’t run that way! The police car is parked there. Scale the wall while there aren’t many of them!”
“Holy crap, who the hell kicked me in the chaos!”
A speeding police car screeched to a halt at the warehouse entrance. The rusted iron gates couldn’t withstand an old policeman’s kick and swung open with a loud clang. The lead officer bellowed with a voice full of authority:
“Police! Where do you think you brats are going? Stand still and don’t move!”
About twenty teenagers involved in the brawl were rounded up and taken to the police cars. It wasn’t until the tail ends of the cars disappeared and the sirens faded that two survivors crawled out from the hidden tall grass.
“My god, that scared me to death. If I got sent back in for a second time, my dad would definitely beat me to death. Good thing we slipped away fast.” Zhang Mai patted his chest with lingering fear, then turned to Feng Ci with a flattering smile. “By the way, Brother Feng, how did you know someone called the police?”
“I heard the sirens.” In the confusion of the scene, everyone else had been busy “exchanging martial arts,” but Feng Ci was used to multitasking and heard them, so he slipped away early.
The two of them walked to the main road to catch a taxi home. City A was a place where peak hours didn’t exist—it was congested no matter the time.
Feng Ci was stuck in the taxi for half an hour. The warm air from the heater made his head throb painfully; it had been a long time since he’d had a fever.
He hadn’t been sick for years, but once a sickness came, it hit hard. Feng Ci gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to fall asleep in the car.
With great difficulty, he got out of the car and reached home. He didn’t collapse into bed immediately, using his last shred of will to go to the living room and pour himself a glass of ice-cold lemon water.
The burning sensation in his internal organs finally receded a little.
Feng Ci weakly wiped his mouth and turned to head back to his bedroom to play dead.
“Waaaaah!”
A string of sudden, high-pitched childish screams broke the silence. Feng Ci’s hazy eyes snapped into clarity. He quickly scanned his surroundings and, sensing something wrong, looked up.
His pupils shrank.
A black shadow was falling rapidly from the ceiling. Before Feng Ci could even react, he felt a weight slam into his chest. With a muffled groan, he fell flat on his back.
Thud!
Ow, it hurts.
The massive impact made Berry see stars. The little girl was tearing up from the pain; her bottom felt as if it were crawling with tiny, stinging ants.
After clutching her bottom for a while to let the pain subside, Berry shook her head and pushed back the hood of her cloak, revealing a round little face. she looked around in astonishment and alarm.
Where was this?
The little witch had never seen such a magnificent, clean, and tidy house. There was a glittering crystal chandelier overhead, strangely shaped chairs, a black box that could sing, and the air smelled sweet yet peculiar.
Could she have accidentally stumbled into an evil dark wizard’s lair?
She had heard that dark wizards loved to skin children for fun. Berry’s little face turned pale with fear, and for a moment, she froze in place, not daring to move.
At that moment, Whish, who had nearly snapped in two, did a “carp skip” and stood upright on the floor, hopping around with a clack-clack-clack sound that successfully caught Berry’s attention.
The little witch held back her tears and made a shushing gesture at it, her milky voice kept very low:
“Whish, be quiet! This is a dark wizard’s home. If he finds us, it’ll be terrible! You’ll be turned into kindling, and I’ll become an extra course for his meal.”
Whish froze, then immediately turned and hopped away.
“Oh, wait for me!” Berry braced her hands on the ground to stand up, but she sensed something wrong when she touched something soft and warm. She looked down beneath her, and in an instant, her pupils suffered a seismic shock.
Oh, sweet biscuits, she was sitting on a person!
Are… are they dead?
Berry scrambled off Feng Ci’s body and curled up in a corner like a little cat clutching her broom, her heart pounding wildly.
The little thing had run too fast to see Feng Ci’s face. Once her heartbeat steadied a bit, she tapped the broom in her arms. “Whish, go see if that person is dead.”
Whish: ?
The 1.2-meter-tall broom suddenly shrunk to the size of a pencil and zipped away.
“…” Berry huffed. “Why are you so cowardly?”
Sigh, in critical moments, she still had to rely on herself.
Berry quietly gripped the hem of her skirt, steeled her face, took a deep breath, and crawled forward at a snail’s pace on the ground. From behind, she looked like a little black mushroom.
Berry moved two steps and rested for one until she reached him. Her nostrils flared slightly as her small hands cleared away the Fluffseed that had fallen on Feng Ci’s head and face.
Before long, the teenager’s sharp-featured, fair, and handsome face was revealed in its entirety.
Berry blinked and placed a finger by Feng Ci’s nose to check. Her heart finally settled.
Good, he was still breathing.
Whish: Clack-clack?
Berry: “He’s not dead, he just fainted.”
Whish: Clack-clack-clack?
Berry shook her head, her gaze full of pity. “He’s as handsome as Brother Lesta. He definitely isn’t a wicked, ugly dark wizard. He must be a groom forcibly kidnapped by a dark wizard. How pitiful.”
Whish: o.o
Berry touched the small satchel at her waist. Great, it wasn’t lost. She buried her head in the satchel, rummaging around for a long time before pulling out a bottle filled with a dark green liquid.
She held it high with both hands. “Now, the great little witch is going to save the poor dark wizard’s groom!”
As the dawn light broke, soft sunlight filtered through the screen window, spreading casually across the floor.
Bathed in the morning light, Feng Ci woke from a nightmare. He opened his eyes dizzily and breathed a massive sigh of relief when he saw his familiar ceiling.
He had a terrible nightmare last night. He dreamed he was being chased by someone trying to feed him feces.
No matter how much he ran in the dream, that person pursued him relentlessly. He could still clearly smell the foul stench that had been forced into his mouth; he felt like hitting his head against a block of tofu to end it all.
Feng Ci’s eyes moved sluggishly. Just as he wanted to sit up, he suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.
His whole body felt as if it had been run over by a truck, especially his back and the back of his head. Feng Ci reached his right hand back and felt a large lump on his skull.
He was startled; the lump was quite big and hurt at the slightest touch.
What happened yesterday?
Feng Ci sat up, wincing in pain, and looked around blankly. Only then did he realize he was actually lying on the floor.
Last night, he and Zhang Mai had gone to the warehouse to fight those idiots from No. 5 Middle School, then the police came, he and Zhang Mai ran, he took a taxi home, and then…
Then he was delirious from the fever, and after getting home, he was knocked out by something.
Feng Ci fell silent. The next second, he jumped up like a spring. Oh no, someone had broken into his house last night.
He had been ambushed by a thief!
Feng Ci dragged his aching body and strode toward the bedroom.
After only a few steps, he suddenly felt something tugging at his pant leg. He looked down; it was a child.
She was wearing a gray linen dress, draped in a pitch-black cloak, and dusty short boots on her feet. She was staring straight at him with wide, watery blue eyes.
Feng Ci looked as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight, staring wide-eyed at the strange child in his home. “Who are you?”
“…A thief?”
Without a word, Berry jumped up and gave him a punch.
Feng Ci: ?