Chapter 19: Seeing the World, Who Knew a Carpet Could Fly?

“Qiqi!”

“Miao Miao!”

The two children ran toward each other and shared a big hug before walking off hand-in-hand in a certain direction.

They chattered away in languages they weren’t entirely familiar with.

At least, that was how it sounded to Bai Yu and Bai Xi, but to Bai Miao, she and Qiqi were already friends who could communicate smoothly.

The trip to the market had been agreed upon yesterday. Qiqi said she needed to tell her family, so they arranged to go together today.

This Grassland seemed vast. Bai Yu and Bai Xi didn’t know how long it would take to walk to the market, so they had specifically put on their best shoes. They hadn’t expected that after walking only a short distance, Qiqi would grab Bai Miao and start running.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi hurriedly followed.

As far as the eye could see, the surroundings were all grass, but at a certain moment, the grassland before them suddenly vanished.

Bai Yu caught Bai Xi, who was about to dash forward subconsciously.

Not far away, Qiqi was holding Bai Miao’s hand, looking up and talking to an adult. After listening, the adult looked up at Bai Yu and Bai Xi.

She offered a gentle smile.

Bai Yu held Bai Xi’s hand and walked over, returning the smile.

“You came from the Flammable Grass?”

“Yes.”

“To think you came from the Flammable Grass…”

The woman spoke in an unfamiliar language. Bai Yu and Bai Xi could only guess the meaning. Judging by her expression alone, the fact that they had come from that grassland clearly surprised her.

However, that surprise soon turned into a look of slight sympathy.

After a brief greeting, she looked down to speak with Qiqi.

Bai Miao returned to her sisters’ side and took their hands. “Qiqi told her mom that we don’t have something, I don’t know what it is, but many adults have it. As long as you have that thing, you can’t go pick Flammable Grass. It’s just like the Fire Stick; it’ll catch fire.”

Although Bai Miao didn’t quite understand, Bai Yu managed to grasp the meaning. “In other words, that Fire Stick that can catch fire has something special on it, just like many adults here. That thing makes the Flammable Grass burn, but we don’t have it on us.”

“Yes, I guess so.” Either way, Bai Miao didn’t fully understand.

When she spoke with Qiqi, she could only make sense of things that existed in both planes. If a concept didn’t exist in both, she couldn’t understand it, and could only learn the pronunciation from Qiqi.

But even when that word was spoken aloud, Bai Yu and Bai Xi still had no idea what it meant.

Fortunately, the other party understood that they intended to sell Fire Starters at the market.

As they spoke, Qiqi’s mother called out, still using the “Miao Miao” sound: “Let’s go.”

The three hurried to follow.

They thought they were heading straight to the market, but after walking only a short distance, Qiqi and her mother sat down on a large carpet and gestured for the three of them to sit as well.

“Are they selling things here?”

The three followed and sat down carefully, looking left and right in an attempt to find a buyer.

No buyer appeared. Instead, someone walked along the edge of the carpet, collecting copper coins from each person, two coins per head.

Qiqi’s mother was quick. She lifted Miao Miao and placed her in Bai Yu’s arms, then pulled Qiqi into her own lap, handing over two copper coins first.

“If you hold them, you don’t have to pay,” Bai Yu held Bai Miao tightly, her heart racing as she tried to steady herself. “Xiao Xi, give them four.”

Bai Xi took four copper coins from her bag and placed them in the collector’s hand.

After paying, she gripped Bai Yu’s arm and whispered, “Why do we have to pay before we’ve even sold anything? I can’t understand a word. The way they’re talking now is different from what we learned from Qiqi.”

“It’s okay, Qiqi’s mother did the same,” Bai Yu clenched her fist. “If… if anything happens… we’ll just go back.”

“Okay.” Bai Xi pressed close to Bai Yu.

The collector made a round, taking money from everyone, and then said something to the person at the very front.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi’s eyes were fixed intently on the person in front.

Suddenly, they snapped back to reality when they realized their line of sight was wrong.

“Eldest Sister!”

“Don’t be afraid, hold onto me tight,” Bai Yu’s fist clenched even harder, and she tightened her grip on Bai Miao. “It’s okay, nothing will happen, everyone is here.”

Bai Xi’s voice trembled, though she still didn’t dare speak loudly. “Eldest Sister, the carpet… is the carpet flying?”

Bai Yu forced herself to answer, “It’s flying.”

The carpet continued to fly.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi felt the wind rushing against their faces, their minds still unable to process the situation. They had thought they were sitting on a carpet to sell goods; who would have thought the carpet could actually fly?

A carpet! It was a carpet that was flying!!!

Good heavens, something felt wrong. This was a carpet, just a carpet!

Compared to the shock and confusion of the other two, Bai Miao was quite composed.

The carpet wasn’t moving very fast, and the wind wasn’t too strong. After recovering from the initial shock while sitting in Bai Yu’s lap, she began chatting with Qiqi.

After knowing each other for several days, Qiqi had also learned some of Bai Miao’s words. Thus, the two of them spoke in a mix of languages, jumping between this world’s tongue and the other’s.

Not only were Bai Yu and Bai Xi completely lost, but Qiqi’s mother was also baffled.

She asked several times, “What are you saying?”

This allowed Bai Yu and Bai Xi to successfully learn that specific phrase.

At the same time, the two gradually regained their senses, realizing that the carpet they were sitting on was the carriage of this plane. It was just that the “horse” of this plane was the person sitting at the very front, and they were riding a carriage driven by someone flying through the sky.

“It’s fine.”

“Yes, it’s fine. It’s just a flying carriage.”

The two linked arms to give each other courage, trying their best to adapt to this “new carriage.”

Fortunately, the speed of this “carriage” was indeed not fast. Once the initial shock wore off, the two gradually grew accustomed to it. Aside from gripping each other tightly to avoid falling off, they finally had the presence of mind to observe their surroundings.

They had originally thought this was a Grassland Plane, but now it seemed that this plane had almost nothing to do with grasslands. Aside from that vast stretch of Flammable Grass, there were many houses and residences nearby, and many people as well.

Aside from their own flying carpet, there were many other carpets flying in the sky near and far. Some were packed with people just like theirs, while others carried only one or two passengers.

The closer they got to the market, the more flying carpets filled the sky.

The carpet flew to the edge of the market and descended slowly.

Once they reached the ground, everyone stood up and stepped off the carpet. After exchanging a few words with the person “driving” the carpet, they headed toward the market.

The three sisters could not understand the language. Fearing they might not be able to find their way back due to the communication barrier, they did not dare to wander off. They followed closely behind Qiqi and her mother, heading with them to sell the fire starters.

Qiqi was the primary one selling the fire starters. According to her, adults were unable to touch the Flammable Grass. Only very young children could harvest it and process it into fire starters.

The three sisters set up their stall right next to Qiqi, spreading their goods out and waiting for customers to approach.

The items sold much faster than they had imagined.

Not long after they had laid everything out, people began coming over to buy. Each person bought three or five at a time, and before long, all the fire starters at both stalls were completely sold out.

This wave of sales added fifty-four coins to the three sisters’ savings.

Qiqi’s mother timed her return perfectly. Seeing that they had finished selling everything, she smilingly invited them to browse the market and buy some things together.

People surged back and forth through the market. Bai Yu picked up Bai Miao and followed behind Qiqi’s mother as they walked forward.

The items in the market looked bizarre. There was meat that looked very strange, food that appeared pitch black, and a man standing to the side drinking something that was actually purple.

By comparison, the fabrics and ready-made clothes were relatively normal, looking similar to what they were currently wearing.

It was fortunate they were similar, otherwise, their presence here might have attracted too much attention.

Qiqi’s mother bought a piece of blue meat for twenty copper coins per catty. The price was expensive, but the reason the three sisters didn’t buy any certainly wasn’t just the price. Blue meat simply did not inspire any desire to eat it.

Using a small wooden jar she carried with her, Qiqi’s mother bought ten coins’ worth of water. The liquid was blue.

It was slightly better than purple, but the blue water still didn’t look like it would taste very good.

Fortunately, the salt was a normal white color.

However, they currently had salt on hand, so they didn’t need to buy any for the time being. They could come back to buy salt whenever they ran out, provided they hadn’t obtained more through a Check-in.

They had long been accustomed to living on the water. On the rare occasions they went ashore, they would only buy daily necessities and wouldn’t spend money on anything extra.

For this trip, besides thread for sewing clothes, they had originally intended to buy some fresh meat. But seeing the multicolored meats on the stalls, they truly had no desire to purchase any, so they simply acted as if the thought of buying meat had never crossed their minds.

At least the fabric here was normal.

Although the colors were rich and varied, they were able to find the shades they wanted.

Bai Xi took out five copper coins and carefully selected several spools of thread that matched the color of their fabric. This would be enough not only for making the clothes this time but also for any future repairs if the clothes got damaged.

As they were about to leave the shop, she saw needles for sale nearby and spent another two copper coins to buy a pack.

“Our current needles are all rusty, and there’s no whetstone on the boat. These new needles will be perfect for making the clothes,” Bai Xi said as she led the way out of the shop. She saw Qiqi’s mother buying snacks for her daughter nearby and spoke to Bai Miao, who was being carried by Bai Yu. “Miao Miao, do you want some?”

Bai Miao looked at the nearby stall, her face scrunched up in thought for a long time. Finally, she squeezed out a question: “Will it taste good?”

Bai Yu and Bai Xi were speechless.

Their little sister shared their exact sentiments.

The three of them simply stayed put, watching the others buy snacks. Only after the purchase was finished did they step forward to follow them to the next shop.

“Miao Miao.”

Little Qiqi was happy to share. After buying the snacks, she came back and gave a piece to Miao Miao.

Looking at the bright green food in Qiqi’s hand, Bai Miao steeled herself and took a bite. The moment it entered her mouth, she turned her head away and pressed her face hard against Bai Yu’s shoulder.

Bai Yu reached out her hand, quietly placing it near the girl’s mouth.

Bai Miao immediately spat the food out, then turned back and acted as if she had eaten it, chatting smilingly with Qiqi.

When Qiqi tried to share more, Bai Miao waved her hands repeatedly. She firmly used the language of this plane to tell Qiqi to eat it herself. She finally managed to persuade Qiqi, letting out a sigh of relief.

It was the first time Bai Yu and Bai Xi had seen Bai Miao act like this, and they both suppressed their laughter.

Once Qiqi and her mother were a short distance away, Bai Yu whispered in a voice only the three of them could hear, “What did it taste like?”

Bai Miao scrunched her face for a long time before finally coming up with a description: “Like a stinky fish that went sour, and then was left to sit in water for a very long time.”

Bai Xi shuddered. “My god, that sounds unbearable just hearing it.”

Bai Yu quickly handed the unfinished portion Bai Miao had spat into her hand to Bai Xi. “Hide this well.”