Chapter 2: Feeding a Human Infant
Now that they had a child, advancing their mission suddenly became difficult.
One chose the least populated nearby village as their destination. He was well aware that he and Two could easily be perceived as abnormal, so in a place with few people, any problems that arose would be minor.
And if a serious problem did occur, they could simply move elsewhere.
Before they even arrived, the baby had already cried many times on the way.
“Why is it crying?” One asked Two.
Since One flatly refused to take it, Two had no choice but to carry the baby the entire way. He was forced to consult his own slow-to-query database.
“It’s hungry again,” Two told One.
Then, Two skillfully transferred some energy to the infant with his fingertip.
But a human infant could not possibly survive on alien energy alone. Exasperated, One made the infant fall into a deep sleep. A sleeping infant, however, had an extremely faint presence.
Without using his detection function, One couldn’t sense the baby’s condition.
Thus, after the infant had been quiet for a few minutes, he asked Two, “Is it dead?”
Two placed a finger under the infant’s nose. “Not yet.”
Along the way, the roles of One and Two were reversed, and their topic of conversation shifted from the Charara to the infant.
“Is it dead?”
“Not yet.”
…
When they reached the edge of the village, they rehearsed a few times before finally walking in.
One knocked on the door of the first house. He was a little nervous, terrified that his disguise would be seen through. But when the door opened, he relaxed slightly.
The door was opened by an old woman who was squinting. Even without using his analytical function, One could tell that her physical faculties were failing and she wouldn’t be able to clearly perceive anything unusual about them.
“Who is it?” the old woman asked, squinting even harder.
“Hello, we need help,” One said nervously. “Our child is hungry.”
The old woman fumbled as she reached out her hands, and Two hesitantly passed the infant to her. The old woman looked exceedingly fragile. Two was worried this foundling would be dropped and killed, forcing him and One to continue their search for a new child.
As the old woman took the infant, Two couldn’t help but remind her, “Be careful.”
The old woman looked up, trying her best to focus on Two. “A boy, too?”
She muttered to herself, “Two men?”
One tensed up, but the old woman just shook her head and turned around with the baby. She was old, old enough to take many things in stride.
She simply shook her head and said, “The world outside…”
The old woman placed the infant on the bed, then unwrapped the swaddling clothes to check its condition. “Too skinny.”
“A foundling?” the old woman asked as plainly as if chatting about daily trifles. “A lot of girls get thrown away right after they’re born.”
“You two can’t have children, so raising her well is a good deed. Living a good life is what matters most.”
The old woman cut up her own clean bedsheet, changed the baby’s diaper, and re-swaddled her. “Take the child to the house with the big red gate in the village. Their baby was just born a few months ago; they’ll have milk for yours.”
“What’s the child’s name?” the old woman asked finally.
One could already tell the old woman meant no harm, so he answered honestly, “We just found her. We haven’t named her yet.”
The old woman nodded, said nothing more, and only reminded them, “The man of that house isn’t a very good person. You’d best bring them something.”
After leaving, One and Two headed into the village.
Two couldn’t help but ask, “Can we name her Three?”
“No,” One refused. “I’ve searched the data. Many human girls’ names have ‘Flower’ in them.”
“A name expresses one’s wishes for the child,” One shared the data with Two.
“Wishes?” Two stared at the baby. “That human just said she was too skinny. I wish she would get a little fatter.”
One was a decisive leader who didn’t waste time on pointless matters, so he quickly made a decision. “Then let’s call her Pang Hua.”
The newly named infant suddenly seemed different in Two’s eyes. Without a name, she was just like any other baby, but with a name, she was now his.
One followed the old woman’s advice. He went to the river outside the village and caught two large carp, then knocked on the big red gate.
Before the gate opened, One could already hear the loud wails of an infant.
Two was startled. He looked down at the skinny Pang Hua in his arms and felt a sense of relief. “Good thing the one we found cries quietly.” Her quiet cries were more convenient for their operations and less likely to attract attention.
A man’s grumbling voice came from the courtyard as someone came to open the gate. “Who’s the blind fool?”
It was a question, but One didn’t know how to answer, so he prudently remained silent.
The gate opened. A red-faced man looked up at One. “Who’re you lookin’ for!”
One presented the large carp at the opportune moment. “Hello, we need your help. Our child is hungry.”
On account of the large carp, the man grumbled and let them in. The sound of the baby crying in the house stopped, and a sturdy-looking woman came out holding an infant.
She heard what was happening, promptly handed her own baby to One, and took Pang Hua.
“This child is so skinny,” the woman muttered, then carried Pang Hua inside.
Pang Hua had been hungry for a long time. The moment she entered the house and smelled the scent of milk, she eagerly pressed her face forward and began to suckle.
The woman lovingly stroked Pang Hua’s small face. “Poor thing…”
Outside, the man had already put the two carp away. Seeing his wife feeding another child, he slowly began to feel it was unfair. “That’s enough, that’s enough.”
He roughly tried to take Pang Hua from his wife’s arms. Sensing danger, Pang Hua began to eat with even more vigor.
The woman held Pang Hua tightly, dodging the man’s hand. “I have plenty of milk, what’s wrong with giving the child a little?”
The man scolded her angrily. “Plenty of milk? Isn’t all that milk for my son! Giving it to this worthless girl is a waste!”
The woman stubbornly argued back, “The milk should be for our own child, yes, but Zhao Dagang, you think about it! Since the baby was born, have you cooked me a single meal? Have I eaten even one of your family’s eggs? The milk is my own, I’ll give it to whoever I want!”
Zhao Dagang grew furious, his face turning redder as the smell of alcohol wafted from his mouth. He was desperate to throw out this girl who was taking advantage of his family, but the woman dodged again, shielding Pang Hua in her arms.
Zhao Dagang slapped the woman across the face. A bright red palm print instantly appeared on her cheek.
But she was tough. Her body didn’t shake or tremble; she didn’t yield an inch. Zhao Dagang could only storm out, cursing under his breath.
In the courtyard, One stood stiffly holding the woman’s baby. This child was bigger than Pang Hua and was now poking One’s chest with great interest.
The baby was at the drooling stage, and saliva dripped down, smearing all over One’s clothes.
Two kept his distance; he disliked such sticky secretions.
Seeing Zhao Dagang come out, One immediately raised his arms and offered the baby. “Please take your child.”
Zhao Dagang spat on the ground, didn’t even glance at the child, and walked straight away.
When the woman came out again, the red palm print on her face had begun to fade, replaced by the slightly raised shape of a hand. Pang Hua was sleeping peacefully in her arms.
Two took the baby and reported to One in a low voice, “She probably won’t die today.”
One thanked the woman. “Thank you.”
The woman, holding her own child, waved her hand dismissively. “It’s nothing.” But she was quite concerned about Pang Hua. “What will you do now? A baby can’t go without milk.”
One and Two were in a bind.
One felt this village was rather nice. The people here weren’t very clever and hadn’t seen through their disguise. So he made a decision. “We’d like to settle down nearby. Could we trouble you to help feed our child for the time being?”
The woman agreed immediately. “No problem.” She was very easygoing. “Feeding one is the same as feeding two.”
The woman led them to find an empty house. On the way, Two couldn’t help but look at the red mark on her face and quietly ask One, “Don’t humans like reproduction and procreation?”
“Why does he treat someone who has undertaken the task of reproduction this way?”
One didn’t understand either, but he could sense the woman was injured. He secretly used his energy to completely heal her pain.
Under the woman’s guidance, they found an abandoned, empty house in the village, and just like that, One and Two settled in.
When Pang Hua woke up and started whimpering again, they went back to the house to ask for the woman’s help with feeding. Of course, this time they brought another two large carp.
But when they arrived, the woman was busy in the kitchen.
“Wait a moment,” the woman said. “I haven’t finished cooking. I need to eat before I’ll have any milk.”
For a human who had recently reproduced but was not treated gently by her companion, One and Two felt it was unfair.
“Let me,” One said. “Just tell me what to do.”
The woman wasn’t coy and taught One how to bring the porridge to a boil. Her own baby was on the bed, fenced into a corner with quilts, playing with his fingers alone. Two held Pang Hua and watched the other child.
Suddenly, he remembered what the woman had said.
“Feeding one is the same as feeding two.”
Then, he placed Pang Hua down next to the other baby.
Two muttered, “Watching one is the same as watching two.”
One had already learned most of what he needed in the kitchen. He was far more intelligent than Two and could easily extrapolate from one example. He was now asking the woman, “The method for making porridge, can it also be used to make fish?”
And so, he also learned to make fish soup.
Now, One was cooking in the kitchen, and Two was in the room watching the two babies.
The woman, who hadn’t rested for a single day in the four-plus months since giving birth, was left standing idly in the courtyard. She was a bit stunned. Idle for the first time, she didn’t know what to do.
But she was a person of limited cleverness—her intellect didn’t even match Two’s—and she was better at accepting her current situation than thinking about the future.
So, she grabbed a small stool and sat down, cheerfully and comfortably, in the sunlight.