The Artist Amongst the Stars

Yujia's meals of that day went somewhere along the lines of this. For breakfast, she had a small bowl of plain porridge. For lunch, she had a nice bowl filled with air— delicious. And for dinner, it seemed like she would be served air again. 

Briefly, Yujia considered the possibility of using Mimi to hunt for some small game so that they could roast it over the fire Zixu had started. Soon enough, however, with some basic reasoning, she deducted that neither of them had a knife on them, which would make the entire idea of turning dead rabbit into rabbit stew a difficult idea. 

She even went as far to ask Zixu, "Do you know how to skin animals?"

But he only responded with a shake of his head and an odd stare. Out of context, it must've sounded very strange, so Yujia quickly followed with explaining her motives when she asked that question. 

After that idea quickly came and left her head, Yujia went back to the idea of the river. Perhaps she could catch some fish for dinner. Except, the thought of getting anywhere near that river was very unpleasant. Once it came to the problem of how she would catch fish, Yujia wasn't quite sure either. She had no equipment, such as fishing nets or fishing poles, to allow her to catch the fish. 

Thus, the idea of fishing seemed impossible as well. 

Yujia really wasn't quite sure if a single bowl of porridge could sustain her for the whole day, but apparently since she was still very much alive, it seemed to work. The only downside to her lack of two meals was that her stomach was eating itself. She was also, for the most part, severely dehydrated. 

Nevertheless, Yujia dismissed all those thoughts. This was the first time that she had ever experienced any hardship like this, and she shouldn't complain about it. Millions of others out there were in much worse conditions than her, so she was always in a better place than someone else, right?

This bit of positivity kept her filled for a while. 

After a few more minutes though, Yujia couldn't help but think about her favorite foods. What food would she want to have the most right now? Maybe some fried chicken and a drink of Coke. Or a bag of wasabi peas. Or even instant noodles, spicy ramen in particular, sounded pretty great right now. Dim sum, Peking duck, egg tarts, sunflower seeds… 

Yujia craved a lot of modern foods right now. 

She came to the conclusion that when one's stomach was empty, one's brain could only think about food. 

She didn't know if she was being under the influence of hunger right now, or if she genuinely missed some of these modern foods, but she did feel a sudden boost of motivation to cook. She was never that great at cooking, but on the few occasions in which she tried following a recipe, she was at least skilled enough to not form a lump of inedible burnt mass. 

Maybe she should switch professions from Artist Yang to Chef Yang. 

And if being a chef meant that she would know exactly how to turn the little rabbit Mimi was gnawing on right now into a wonderful plate of braised rabbit, with a bit of garlic, olive oil, and salt, Yujia would willingly switch professions anytime. 

The more Yujia thought about it, the more she spun herself into a career-crisis. As a chef, she could at least cook. As an artist, what could she do right now? Offer to paint Mimi a little pretty painting? 

At least Mimi caught a rabbit to eat and could keep himself full. 

Yujia, who was sitting with her hands curled around her legs the entire time, glanced over at Zixu, who leaned against a tree. She questioned with pure curiosity, "Are you not hungry?"

"Not particularly," he replied while playing with a twig in his finger, "I've only missed two meals. I've missed more in a row before." His voice trailed off with his words. 

"Ah," 

Yujia glanced back down. She then dropped down to the grass, staring up at the now-dark sky.

Her eyes were greeted with the sight of countless stars.

This sight took her breath away. She had never seen so many stars before. The city lights and dust always hid the stars from the sky. And after transmigrating, she never paid enough attention to the sky to just look up at it and stare for a few moments. Or maybe it was because the stars were dimmed out too under the light from the capital's lanterns.

Now, however, she couldn't even count the stars— there were just far too many. She could only bathe her eyes in the light they shone. They twinkled in enchanting glimmers, each one its own little dot, its own little entity, in the sky. With the last bits of purple light fading in the horizon, the dark blue backdrop with its scattered silver stars gave Yujia a sensation she couldn't quite describe. 

She always thought of the sky as just pure darkness. Night, to her, even seemed a little bit terrifying at times, with the darkness simply being a part of the endless unknown. Yet with the stars illuminating the sky above her, Yujia could see why there was no need to fear the night. 

It would be an understatement to say that the stars took her breath away. And having her entire view filled with the sight of stars, stars, and stars, Yujia could only feel herself being carried away into the stars. The light and beauty of them pulled her in, beckoning for her to walk amongst them and to fall asleep, buried in a sea of stardust. 

Zixu watched her silent marveling. In a quiet voice— almost as if he didn't wish to break the serenity of the starlight either— he stated, "You seem so entranced by the stars."

Yujia blinked, then answered, "I… haven't seen them like this before."

"Have you never looked up at the sky?"

"When I was younger, I did," Yujia closed her eyes, exhaling deeply. "But there came a time far enough in my life that I stopped. I guess I just forgot. Or maybe I saw no point in looking, when I could see no stars."

"No stars?" Zixu echoed, "How so? Even though tonight does have more stars than usual, you could see a similar sight on some days in the capital."

Yujia sat back up, staring straight at Zixu through the light cast on him from the fire. "You want to hear a story?" she suddenly proposed, a crooked smile spreading on her lips. 

"I've told you so many; it's only natural that you owe me one, right?" he replied, his voice soft. 

"Alright then." 

She stared into the fire, the memories flashing through her. But at least this time, they weren't bleak memories that twisted her heart and shriveled her hope. Instead, she felt that they were more like memories bursting out of her, memories she had kept for so long that she was sick of keeping them to herself, memories that she wanted to tell someone. 

"It's a long story," she sighed, "so be patient with me."