Grant me a child.

Huami and Sesshomaru temporarily stayed in the half-demon village.

Lacking a house, Huami reached an agreement with the village head, Granny Yu: she would help look after the village, and in return, Granny Yu would lend them a dwelling.

Sesshomaru remained unconscious, and Huami did not trust the other half-demons to come near. Although her great demon bloodline did not affect them, she had to be cautious, setting up three layers of protective barriers inside and outside the house.

After their long, arduous journey, the two demons finally settled down.

The half-demon village was more peaceful than she had imagined. There were no quarrels or noise; the villagers followed the ancient routine of working at sunrise and resting at sunset, though some nocturnal half-demons preferred to venture out at night. Overall, most half-demons lived much like humans.

As winter approached, the half-demons began storing food. Huami even helped hunt an adult wild boar spirit. That day, after she killed the boar that had wandered into the village, the half-demons erupted in cheers.

"A gift from the Mountain God!"
"Long live the Mountain God!"

That evening, everyone shared the roasted boar. To be honest, the meat of an adult wild boar was terrible; it was extremely tough and stringy. Humans could hardly chew it, but half-demons could. Huami tried a little—it was truly awful. Without seasonings, it was gamey and, being a male boar, quite foul-smelling.

In short: fishy and rank.

However, the half-demons in the village ate it with great joy; meat helped them endure the winter. Even those half-demons with some fighting ability lived lives not much better than humans—at best, they could eat their fill. The boar meat alone was enough to make them happy, and many even offered their own meager food to Huami.

Perhaps out of pity, Huami patted Hua, who was burying her face in the food. "If you see wild scallions or ginger in the wild, you can bring some back."

The little half-demon was currently like Huami’s little shadow, following her everywhere. "What is ginger? And scallions?" Hua asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

"They are spices."

"What are spices?" Not just Hua, but the other half-demons also crowded around, curious.

As for spices, Huami had used plenty when she was a princess. Come to think of it, the food she had eaten in the city was different from modern times, but it wasn't bad, so she had always assumed she had been reborn into an alternate-history era. As for being "alternate," it certainly was—it was so alternate that she had ended up in the world of *Inuyasha*. Huami felt a subtle pang in her heart.

Nobles used expensive spices, but the commoners of this era barely had enough to eat, let alone half-demons, who were rejected by both races. Few could even read, let alone know about spices.

Unable to explain what spices were, Huami thought for a moment and said, "If you come across any plants with strange scents, you can pick them and bring them to me."

The little ones exchanged glances and cheered. "The Mountain God has given us a task!"
"We will definitely find seasonings!"
"Can I bring the Mountain God flowers?"

The little ones buzzed around Huami. It was a bit noisy, but Huami didn't dislike it.

Over the next few days, every morning, Huami’s house was filled with plants of strange scents and shapes. Truth be told, the little ones had good taste; some of the flowers were truly beautiful. Huami brought them inside and saw Sesshomaru lying motionless on his fur tail, looking so peaceful that she felt compelled to offer him flowers. Following her whim, she arranged them in a circle around him.

Coupled with Sesshomaru’s serene posture while sleeping, it looked remarkably peaceful and tranquil.

Huami also playfully placed Sesshomaru’s hands over his stomach. The pose was even more fitting. He looked exactly like... well, Sleeping Beauty!

"Hahahaha!" If she didn't have a camera, Huami would have definitely taken a photo for posterity.

The news that Lady Huami liked flowers spread through the village like wildfire. Now, not only the children but many adult half-demons remembered to bring her flowers when they returned from hunting. As a result, during this time, Huami treated Sesshomaru like a dress-up doll. After opening this new door to a world of fun, she changed the floral arrangements around him every day.

Until one day, some well-meaning soul brought her a foul-smelling corpse flower. It stank to high heaven; even Huami, who didn't need to breathe through her nose, was nearly knocked unconscious by the stench. Looking at the meter-wide, giant stinking flower, Huami expressionlessly used her tail to push it away and declared that the flower-giving activity was over.

"Does Lady Huami not like the stinky flower?" the skunk half-demon asked with teary eyes. "My brother and I carried it back from the valley."

One second she was ready to destroy the world in anger, but the next, seeing the battered and bruised skunk, Huami wanted to slap herself. She was such a terrible snake!

"No, that’s—well—winter is coming, and it’s a waste of time to bring flowers. Everyone should save their energy to store more food," Huami explained frantically. "I like it, I really do."

The simple-minded skunk let out a sigh of relief and said happily, "Then I will bring flowers for the Mountain God again next spring!"

Huami agreed with a guilty conscience. Seeing the child's happy expression, she couldn't help but sigh again: she really was a horrible person.

The flower-gathering journey wasn't entirely fruitless. They hadn't found ginger, but they had found some wild scallions that had already bloomed. Huami transplanted them next to the wooden hut.

The temperature dropped, and while there was still greenery in the mountains, most of the shrubs had withered and turned yellow. The children in the village no longer ventured outside the valley, spending their days drying radishes, cabbage, sweet potatoes, and potatoes in the sun. It was fortunate that this was an alternate world; otherwise, where would one find potatoes in the Warring States period? Usually, even white radishes were rare and only eaten by nobles, while commoners ate other root vegetables resembling radishes.

...

A month passed in a blink, and Huami seemed to have completely integrated into the half-demon tribe. She would hang on the roof to sunbathe during the day, occasionally go out to hunt for a treat, and most of the time coil herself up like a mosquito coil to sleep. At night, she would nestle beside Sesshomaru.

Whether it was because winter was approaching or because she had become a demon, the thing Huami was most passionate about now was sleeping.

One morning, she woke up feeling the cold. She raised her head and looked at Sesshomaru, whom she had circled. Although he had transformed into human form, Sesshomaru’s attire was not the armor and plum-patterned *hitatare* from the manga, but rather a more casual, pure white robe.

Seeing a beautiful man sleeping in the morning made her mood improve for the whole day. It had to be said that as long as he didn't speak, Sesshomaru’s appearance was truly a feast for the eyes.

He remained in a deep slumber, wrapped in his fluffy tail, but his *yoki* (demon power) had begun to calm down; it seemed he would wake up before long. Using her *yoki* to check his condition and confirming he was fine, Huami yawned, moved her tail away from him, and shoved two pieces of dry wood into the nearly extinguished fire.

The fire reignited, and the temperature in the room rose immediately.

"I’m really going to freeze to death," she muttered, reaching out to pull aside the straw curtain on the window, only to see the world outside blanketed in white.

It was snowing.

"Lady Huami—Lady Huami—"

Early in the morning, Hua appeared, holding some fruits in her arms. Huami used her snake tail to lift the straw curtain hanging over the door to let her in. As soon as she felt the warmth, the snow on Hua melted. She shook her big tail on the floor and placed the fruits on a plate. "The village head told me to give these to Lady Huami. There isn't much food in winter, so if Lady Huami is bored, you can eat some tree fruit."

Huami stared at the seven or eight decent-looking fruits on the plate, realizing that this was likely food they had stored in the autumn. She used her snake tail to nudge the plate back into Hua’s arms. "Take them back. It doesn't matter if I don't eat all winter."

If she were truly hungry, she could just find some demons; there was no need to take food from children.

"Does Lady Huami think it's too little?" Hua looked disappointed, her ears drooping.

Coaxing children was truly exhausting work. Huami patted her head. "Keep the food for yourselves."

Seeing that Huami truly wouldn't accept it, Hua picked up the fruits in disappointment but immediately invited her, "Then would Lady Huami like to soak in the hot spring with us? The mountain spring has opened."

A hot spring?

Huami’s eyes lit up instantly. Although demons could clean their bodies using *yoki*, she still retained her human habits.

"I'm going!"

Humming a happy tune, Huami was filled with anticipation for the hot spring.

Besides her and Hua, there were a few human women. Compared to the worship and adoration the half-demons felt for her, humans only felt fear toward a great demon like her. So, despite being in the village for so long, Huami hadn't really spoken much to the humans who lived there.

The winter snow covered the mountains, and the nighttime temperature could drop to minus twenty or thirty degrees. Even in the afternoon when the sun was out, the temperature was only three or four degrees. Snakes did not like to go out on such cold days.

As her cold body soaked into the warm water, Huami let out a pleasurable sigh. With a linen cloth on her head, her pale complexion flushed a rosy red. It was a natural sulfur spring, carrying a faint scent of sulfur, and it was so comfortable that her tail scales stood on end in delight.

Her overly striking and aloof appearance made the villagers hesitant to approach her—they acted as if they were preparing to worship her at any moment. Only the innocent children were willing to buzz around her. When Huami sank into the water, the few women who had come to soak with her seemed particularly nervous.

*Should I just come alone next time?* Huami thought to herself. *I could even stretch out my tail.*

"Mountain—Mountain God—" one of the women soaking with her suddenly spoke in a low voice, her words laced with fear yet tinged with faint expectation.

Huami opened her eyes to look at her. Her good memory allowed her to instantly recall who she was: Cai, the wife of the wolf half-demon. Come to think of it, that wolf half-demon had once given her a wolf tooth.

"What is it?" She tried to smile, but because her face was so intense and cold, her smile inexplicably made people feel pressured.

As expected, the woman was startled, and Huami immediately stopped smiling. She understood that feeling; it was like seeing Sesshomaru smile—the first reaction wasn't that it was beautiful, but to touch one's neck to see if it was still attached.

Returning to her usual indifferent posture, the woman was visibly relieved.

Huami: *Damn it.*

The woman hesitated for a long time, then closed her eyes and shouted, "Mountain God, can you grant me a child?"

Huami: "???"

*I'm only a child myself!*