Crack.

In the courtyard, Xiao Mo was chopping firewood without pause.

Under the eaves of the ramshackle wooden hut, a little white snake watched the eleven-year-old boy intently.

This was already her third day here.

In those three days, the boy named Xiao Mo had caught rats for her to eat every single day.

Every day he changed her dressing.

The little white snake did not understand why he was so good to her.

She was only a snake.

And he was a human...

Another half month went by.

The little white snake felt her wounds had healed about as much as they were going to.

She bit through the cloth wrapped around her body. The flesh had grown back whole; only the scales had yet to come in, and they looked a little ugly.

Still, it was nothing to worry about.

Time to head back, or Xiaoqing will worry about me.

But the little white snake felt she could not simply slip away without a word.

She had to wait for him to come home and say goodbye.

At dusk, the setting sun sank to the rim of the sky, and the afterglow stained the whole world red.

A little cowherd came riding his big black ox, plodding slowly home.

After tying the big black ox outside the gate, the boy walked into the courtyard and called out, "Little Bai, I'm back!"

The little white snake came down from the roof beam and slithered over to Xiao Mo's side. She flicked her tongue, then turned herself around and showed him her wound.

"Huh? Your wound's healed?" Looking at Little Bai's injury, the scales still weren't grown in, but it was close enough.

The little white snake nodded, her head turning toward that mountain in the distance.

"You want to leave?" Xiao Mo felt he understood what Little Bai meant.

The little white snake nodded again.

"All right, then." A flicker of disappointment crossed Xiao Mo's eyes, and then, in the innocent voice of an eleven-year-old, he said, "Off you go. Be careful from now on, and don't get hurt again."

"Hissss~"

The little white snake flicked her tongue, as if agreeing to what Xiao Mo said, and slithered out of the courtyard.

Outside the gate, the little white snake twisted around and looked back at the boy.

Seeing Little Bai turn, the boy waved and shouted, "Little Bai, don't get hurt anymore!"

"Hisss..."

The little white snake wagged her tail, waving goodbye the way a human waves a hand, then burrowed into the grass and disappeared.

"Ah..."

Once the little white snake had gone, Xiao Mo let out a sigh.

How am I supposed to help her become a dragon?

Parting like this, I may never see her again.

And forcing her to stay is even more out of the question.

Never mind what ordained chance she could find at the side of an ordinary man like me—

If she wants to leave and I hold her back anyway, all I'll do is turn a good karmic bond into a bad one.

"Do what I can and leave the rest to heaven's will. That's all I can do."

Xiao Mo put his thoughts aside and walked back into the hut.

Well, that's how it stands. Books first.

The village chief was an old xiucai who taught the village children their letters and reading.

Xiao Mo meant to go see him the next day.

"Sister!"

After the little white snake returned to the cave in the mountains, a little green snake caught sight of her sister, slithered over in delight, and twined herself around her.

"Sister, where have you been for the past month?" Xiaoqing flicked her tongue and gazed at her sister with worry. "I've been searching for you for ages. I was so afraid something had happened to you."

"A while back I went hunting rats, and a hawk set its eye on me. I barely got away, but I took some injuries, and a human saved me," Little Bai said briefly. "He even gave your sister a name."

"A name?" Xiaoqing tilted her head.

"That's right." The little white snake nodded. "He said I'm white as snow, so he named me Bai Ruxue. How about it—doesn't it sound nice? One of these days I'll take you to meet him and have him name you too."

"Oh, Sister..." Xiaoqing said helplessly. "Not one human is any good. People come up the mountain to catch snakes all the time. Have you forgotten?"

"But Xiaoqing, I don't think you can lump everything together. Look—no two snakes are the same; you're green, I'm white. How much less so with humans? There are bad people in this world, and good ones too."

"Hmph!" Xiaoqing turned her head away. "Humans are all bad!"

"But he saved me."

"Bad all the same!"

"But he saved me."

"Sister...!" Xiaoqing was so vexed her tail thumped against the rock.

"All right, all right." Little Bai's tail patted the tip of Xiaoqing's tail. "Xiaoqing, trust me. He really is a good person, and he saved your sister's life. Your sister still has a debt of gratitude to repay."

"But Sister, you're a snake. How are you going to repay him?"

"Emmm..." The little white snake thought it over seriously.

Suddenly her eyes lit up. "I've got it!"

"Got what?"

"Well..." The little white snake lifted her little tail and wiggled it this way and that, like a little girl wagging a finger. "Starting today, your sister is going to cultivate properly and reach human form as soon as she can, and then repay her benefactor..."

"You want to study?"

In the small courtyard, old Village Chief Wang Can looked at Xiao Mo.

On the stone table lay the medicinal herbs Wang Can had gathered on the mountain that day.

"Yes, Village Chief." Xiao Mo raised his head, his eyes brimming with a hunger for knowledge. "I want to study!"

"You're just a little kid—what do you need books for?"

Just then, the village chief's wife came out.

"What good does studying do? Look at my old man—read books his whole life, and he's still nothing but a xiucai. How much money has it brought in? My brother-in-law works a forge in town; next year I'll send you over to apprentice with him. Learn one decent trade and you'll never go hungry."

"Mother, I want to study too~" The nine-year-old girl chimed in from her mother's side.

"Go on, go on. Girls need books even less. Marrying into a good family, that's the proper thing for you. Whatever you do, don't grow up like your mother, married off to a useless, sour-faced xiucai. Understand?"

"Ohh." The little girl nodded, half comprehending.

Xiao Mo and the village chief: "..."

From the memories of this world's "Xiao Mo," Xiao Mo knew the village chief's family situation.

The village chief was fifty-three. His wife, Chen Hong, was ten years younger than he was.

The two had a child late in life, a daughter named Wang Yan, now nine.

Though Aunt Chen had always held the village chief in contempt, she had never left him, and she kept the household in perfect order.

"If he can study, let him study. And if nothing comes of it, knowing a few characters is worth something too."

The village chief sighed and said to Xiao Mo:

"Mo'er, don't pay any mind to your Aunt Chen's nonsense. Starting tomorrow, come listen to lessons at the village schoolroom. But the children from our village and the two next to it have all paid their coin and meat, so I can't put you inside with them. You'll have to listen from outside. Would that be all right?"

Xiao Mo's heart leaped, and he said at once, "Thank you, Village Chief."

"Hmph. Books, books—books will starve a man to death."

Aunt Chen pursed her lips and led her daughter into the house.

"Don't listen to your Aunt Chen's nonsense," the village chief said under his breath. "Look at me—has your village chief starved to death yet?"

"..." Xiao Mo's brow twitched. He very much wanted to say, "If not for Aunt Chen, you'd have starved to death long ago."

But Xiao Mo nodded earnestly all the same. "The village chief is right!"