Yue Liuyi made a full circuit of the farmer’s market, like a wary fish circling reed beds under pale light.

Pollution had salted Dreamwood Star’s soil, and fields lay like scars, barren of grain or greens.

So the market sold hydroponics or imports, prices climbing like winter frost, almost nosing up to meat.

She emptied her pockets like shaking leaves from a branch, and only then bought a week for two.

The cost bit like wind, but those long-term stalls stood like stones, their quality basically sure.

The northern black market tempted like a dark river, cheap and swift, but laced with poison.

It would stain LittleSnow’s recovery like ink blooming in water.

She hefted a brimming basket and headed home step by step, her feet rowing through the city’s gray tide.

At the far rim, factories woke like iron beasts, and huge chimneys exhaled tar-black clouds.

Smoke spread like storm surf and drowned the city, until even the road blurred into ash.

Yet this was Dreamwood Star’s only lifeline in recent years.

With no tight environmental laws, soot-heavy firms paid light taxes, and compensation was a drop for a burning forest.

So even now, some heavy-polluters still roosted on Dreamwood Star, offering rare jobs like winter bread.

Worry settled like fog before she spoke. "At this rate, the land won’t heal."

Murmuring, she set a small lantern in her mind: when time allowed, she’d visit Dreamwood University and see an old friend.

That friend had said the Eternal Tear could save Dreamwood Star, like rain for cracked earth.

She’d ask how to use it, then choose, like weighing seeds before a season.

She was still thinking when a gloomy voice slid into her ear like a cold draft.

"Heh, girl, that’s a lot of greens you’ve got," the voice oozed from the shade like damp moss.

"Huh?!" Her breath snagged like a caught thread as she spun.

She looked up and found herself ringed by men, like reeds hemming a pond.

Rags hung off them like molted bark, and their hair shone with grease like old oil.

They were the sort that squat in shadowed alleys, like rats that learned to grin.

"Those greens look tasty. Share some with your brothers," one drawled, stick twirling like a lazy viper.

They brandished their clubs and wrung their knuckles till they cracked like dry twigs in a fire.

They’d tailed her from the market like crows shadowing a lamb.

They chose a dead, dim alley, a gourd of darkness no one would notice.

On any other day, she’d have spotted them like weeds in wheat.

But worries from the market churned her mind like silted water, and they seized the opening like wolves.

"Ha! Scared? Relax, we’re not here for your looks..."

Their laughter skittered like broken glass, hungry for the thrill of control.

Her nerves trembled like a bowstring, but her voice held. "W-what if I say... I won’t give you any?"

"Hah? Got guts? Then don’t blame us—we’ll just take it!"

Greed broke like a dam, and they rushed her in a single wave.

They lunged with claws, leaving their sticks to dangle like lazy snakes.

They were sure bare hands could fold this small girl like paper.

They weren’t wrong about muscle and speed; she couldn’t match even one.

But she had a river coiled in her palm.

"Cascade!" she cried, like thunder cracking a low cloud.

Yue Liuyi wielded magic, and a water column as thick as a truck dropped like a falling river.

In a blink, the surge filled the alley like a sudden monsoon.

The thugs stared, faces blank as wet paper, and flailed against the current.

The torrent wrapped their bodies and swept them out together like driftwood.

"A-a mage?!" their cries scattered like startled crows.

"Help!" The call tore like cloth in the flood.

"If you’re smart, don’t block the road," she said, her words cutting like a clean blade.

She knit her brow and wore a fierce mask, a tiger painted on silk.

Water raged wall to wall, yet not a drop kissed her hem, like rain spared by an unseen umbrella.

She stepped through the flood like a lake-spirit walking on glass, small and sovereign.

"Crap, we poked a real one!" someone yelped, fear rising like smoke.

"Brothers, fall back!" another bawled, legs shaking like reeds.

They scrambled on hands and heels like crabs in surf, fleeing without a glance back.

Relief cooled her chest like shade after noon, and she exhaled, "Phew... seriously..."

She shook her head and let the chase go, like dropping a stone back to the river.

They weren’t demons, just alley rats, and hauling them in would be a bog of trouble.

Making breakfast for LittleSnow mattered most, a small flame to keep the house warm.

A small joy budded like spring. "Mm... this morning, we can finally eat a proper meal."