The Witch in the Woods: The Transmigration of Hazel-Anne Davis-Chapter 386: All For One

It had taken a while, but the children were finally asleep.

Not all at once... it was never that easy...but close enough.

The youngest girl had been the last holdout, stubborn as her fathers and louder than everyone else around her, her small fist was wrapped around the edge of Yizhen’s sash like it was a rope to keep him close.

She was only willing to let go after three stories, two glasses of water, and a bribe of cookies in the morning.

Shadow stretched across the threshold of her room once she drifted to sleep, a dark line of muscle, death, and comfort, his tail flicking whenever linens rustled as if he could scold dreams into behaving.

In the next room, lamplight turned everything gold and quiet. It was almost like a breath of relief when the world quieted, the children when to sleep and Xinying and her men could just be.

Mingyu and Deming sat at the low table, their heads bent over the last two scrolls that refused to leave them alone.

They spoke soft, not because the children would wake, but because quiet felt like respect in this hour.

Longzi stood near the balcony screen with his arms folded, watching shadows like they might ask for a fight and he might be kind enough to grant it.

Yizhen sprawled on the couch with a bowl of peeled pears, stealing bites from his own work and from anyone who forgot to guard their plate.

Yaozu leaned his shoulder to the window frame, his gaze landing on Xinying, leaving, and then returning in a steady tide that said I’m here even when he didn’t move.

Xinying sat where she always ended up at this time of night: cross-legged on the rug, her hair down, two pins stabbed through the knot like lazy soldiers on patrol.

She wasn’t doing anything. For once, that was the point.

She watched her family doing the small, useless things that meant the big things were finished.

She watched the door out of habit. She watched Shadow out of habit. She watched Yaozu because habit had grown into preference and then into a kind of home. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Yizhen tossed a slice of pear in the air. It was snatched into Longzi’s palm instead of Yizhen’s mouth. Longzi ate it without comment. Yizhen looked personally betrayed.

"Thief," he accused.

"You didn’t call it," Longzi said.

"That’s not a rule."

"It is now."

Mingyu didn’t look up. "Don’t make me invent a law about fruit."

"I already wrote it," Deming said, deadpan, not looking up either.

"Traitor," Yizhen muttered at him, then brightened, patted the couch beside him, and mouthed at Xinying, come here, save me.

She started to stand.

Hattie stepped out of the air between them like the room had been keeping a chair empty on purpose.

"Evening," she said, as if she’d used the front gate and knocked politely.

Red lipstick, a grin that promised both trouble and dessert, her hair pinned up in two pig-tails with bright red ribbons hanging down from them. They paired well with her black and red Lolita dress with the little maid apron.

She was still wearing her black knee-high socks with her black Mary Jane shoes.

It surprised Xinying that no matter how many years passed, no matter what world she was in, Hattie was always true to who she was.

Lollypop and all.

Xinying couldn’t hold back the smile on her face as Hattie took the room in at a glance—the men, the lamps, the tray, the hush—and then found Xinying as easily as a needle finds thread.

The men were all on their feet, ready to meet the unknown threat. Only Yaozu breathed out a small sigh as he recognized the woman in front of them.

When Xinying waved her hand, the others returned to their places.

"Oh, good," Hattie said, smiling brightly. "You’re not busy."

Yizhen covered the pear bowl with both hands like a man shielding treasure. Longzi shifted a thumb’s width on the floorboards; that counted as welcome. Deming finally looked up and sighed in the way he did when a story he was trying to copy now had a lively footnote. Mingyu sat back, measuring, and then unmeasuring because measuring was useless when Xinying had made a silent command.

They were to play nice with this girl who barely looked like she was 18.

Yaozu didn’t move. His eyes cut to the children’s door and back, a question Hattie could answer without being asked.

"Sleeping," Hattie said. "I checked. Your hellhound gave me a look about my shoes."

Shadow huffed, which might have been agreement or might have been a dream. He didn’t get up.

Xinying smiled and patted the space on the rug in front of her. "Sit," she told Hattie. "If you’re going to appear, you may as well make yourself comfortable."

Hattie dropped down with a happy thump and stole a pear slice without asking who had peeled it. "How’s my girl?" she asked, eyes bright. "How’s married life? How many husbands now? Same five? You’re not collecting them like Pokémon, are you?’d be proud if you were."

"Same five," Xinying said.

"Boring," Hattie huffed, but the smile on her face said that she wasn’t upset about that. "Are you happy? Did you finally fine the one place in the universe where you belong?"

Xinying didn’t glance around the room for her answer. She let it live in her face. "Yes."

Hattie absorbed that with a small, satisfied nod. She flicked her gaze to the balcony, to the scrolls, to the wolf, to the half-open door where the sound of a child’s breath floated like a thread. "Then there is only one other question," she said, her voice gentler. "Do you want to go back?"

The room held still. Even Yizhen stopped trying to do magic tricks with fruit.

Xinying shook her head. "No."

Hattie’s eyes flickered, and that was the only sign she had expected this. "Because?"

"Because this is my home," Xinying said simply. "I know where the floorboard squeaks. I know how the winter light falls in the south corridors and where the summer shade is worth standing in. I know where Mingyu hides when he wants to pretend he’s alone. I know how Deming takes his tea and how Longzi likes his knives and how Yizhen pretends he doesn’t care about boys who sleep under bridges but buys them shoes and lies about it. I know how to shut Yaozu up," she added, and that earned her a small sound from the window. "I know where every laugh comes from at dinner before it arrives. Why would I go back?"

Hattie’s grin softened. "Good answer." She slid her gaze toward the door again, where four small shapes slept under woven quilts. "So what’s biting you, pet? I didn’t just pop in for no reason. A wish called me..."

Xinying’s fingers toyed with one hairpin and then let it go. "I don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t change," she said. "I don’t want to watch them age while I stay the same. I don’t want to bury husbands. I don’t want to bury children."

She looked down at her hands. "I am happy. I want to stay happy without making them pay for it."

Deming’s quill had stopped moving even though there was no ink to dry.

Mingyu was very still, the stillness he used when a blade passed very close and he decided not to flinch.

Longzi’s arms stayed folded; something eased around his eyes anyway.

Yizhen lay back on the couch like a man allowing serious things to exist for a minute. Yaozu’s breath didn’t change. That was how Xinying knew his whole attention had narrowed to her mouth.

Hattie popped the last bit of pear into her mouth and wiped her fingers on her skirt. "Simple fix," she said. "Make a wish."

Yizhen lifted his head. "That’s it?"

"That’s it," Hattie said cheerfully. "I’m a busy woman. Do you want paperwork?"

"No," Deming and Yizhen said together, one appalled, one terrified.

Mingyu’s mouth tipped; he hid it with a knuckle. "Explain the price," he requested, because he could not help being emperor even in rooms where the law was a person in a red mouth.

Hattie spread her hands. "It’s a tidy little string."

She looked at Xinying. "Wish that your husbands live as long as you do. Wish that your children live as long as you do. Wish that none of you age past your favorite face. You will be what you are for as long as you want. The catch? If one of you is killed, all of you are killed."