Half-asleep, she opened one eye. She did not see the snake shedding in the corner, only saw piece after piece of tattered snake skin. Song Xu jolted awake and hurried out to look.
At the cave entrance hung down a section of tail, letting her easily find where the snake was. He had climbed back onto the pile of huge rocks, his designated spot for basking in the sun.
The snake who had finished shedding could be said, without exaggeration, to be a brand-new factory-made snake. The dark red base color and black patterns on his body were glossy and lustrous. At a glance, you could tell the texture would definitely be delicate and wonderful, without the slightest flaw. Even the upper body in his half-beast form looked like porcelain washed with water, and his hair looked as if it had received a hair mask treatment.
Sparkling.
When the snake saw her, he seemed a bit closer than usual. He slithered over, lowered his upper body, and lay above the cave entrance, mouth and nose hidden behind his arm, only revealing a pair of eyes looking down at her.
“Good morning, basking in the sun?” Song Xu greeted him with a traditional piece of nonsense small talk, and conveniently stretched.
Wumu opened his mouth, and spoke: “Song… Xu.”
Song Xu had once introduced her name to him, and had introduced it many times, practically brainwashing him. Because it could not be accurately translated into the meaning of their written language, she had directly used transliteration. Now Wumu was simply imitating her pronunciation to call out her name.
Suddenly hearing this big snake who did not like to talk call her name, Song Xu covered her mouth with one hand, so moved she looked like an old mother hearing a baby call “mom” for the first time.
“My god… you can call my name now!”
Seeing her overly excited reaction, the snake cautiously buried his face a bit further behind his arm, but at the same time, the tip of his hanging tail was still trembling.
After being moved enough, Song Xu looked at him with gratification, her tone sweet and sticky. “Baby, you called my name, but I still don’t know what your name is?”
Her baby did not answer her, shrank back to bask in the sun. Song Xu did not mind either, happily ate a bit of stored food, then cleaned the cave.
These past few days while the snake was shedding, the corner of the cave that belonged to him had become a complete mess. Everywhere was damp debris and moss. If left alone, bacteria would grow, mold would form, and things would rot. It had to be taken out and replaced with fresh ones.
Song Xu, who consciously felt she was changing the bedding for the snake, was just like the vast number of poop-scoopers making a nest for their pets—full of enthusiasm. Of course, before cleaning, the first thing she needed to do was tidy up those shed skins.
She had searched around before and did not find any snake skins he had left previously. They were probably cleaned up by him himself. So these fresh snake skins were rare souvenirs.
Fresh snake skin still felt soft. Overall it was white, with a faint hint of yellow, semi-transparent.
If used to make clothes, it would only be see-through clothing, which was probably not suitable. Beastmen had their own fur to serve as clothes, and did not really need other clothing. But it could be used as a raincoat. Blocking rain would be very suitable.
Song Xu picked up another piece of snake skin that was neither too big nor too small, and planned it out. This piece could be used to make the door of her new tree hollow, creating a transparent glass-window effect with better lighting.
Song Xu naturally treated these snake skins as her own possessions, collected them all, and prepared to use them later. She also considered for three seconds whether the snake would mind. In the end, she felt that the snake would not care about his old clothes.
Song Xu’s modern-person consciousness was dominant, and the assisting memories of the original body were also very simple—a “country squirrel” with little experience. So she did not know that things shed from beastmen’s bodies, such as shells, teeth, and skin, were not items casually given to other beastmen. They belonged to their “private items.”
Some beastmen would give a portion of what they shed to children or mates. Others would destroy them. Wumu belonged to the latter type. He would dispose of his snake skins.
But this time, he had not had time to handle them. By the time he wanted to deal with them, he discovered they had already all been tidied up by Song Xu.
Wumu: Does she really want them?
He watched Song Xu rubbing and kneading his snake skin, slowly thinking. His tail unconsciously tightened little by little, just short of tying himself into a knot.
Coincidentally, the next day was a gloomy, rainy day. It was raining outside but there was no thunder. Song Xu happily put on the simple raincoat she had made and prepared to go out to test the effect of the raincoat.
And Wumu just quietly watched her wrap his skin around herself and run into the rain.
Song Xu felt that this snakeskin raincoat was unexpectedly easy to use, much better than all the tree-leaf rain gear she had previously tried so hard to make.
Usually, as long as it rained, she could only stay inside the stone cave and not go out. As a small animal, the feeling of being soaked by rain was too uncomfortable. Now that she had a raincoat, it was very convenient. As long as the rain was not too heavy, she could go out.
The rain had started in the latter half of last night, drizzling continuously. At this moment, the forest was like a box filled with water and oxygen. You could wring water out even from stepping on the moss, the thick layer of moss like a quilt that had soaked up its fill of water.
In the dark and damp areas near tree roots, many fungi could be found. Song Xu boldly picked them and brought them back. Recently, she had discovered a new method to tell whether mushrooms were edible.
She just needed to bring them back and place them in front of Snake Snake, pretend to feed him. If they were not edible, he would use his tail to slap her leg, showing a rejecting attitude. If they were edible but he did not want to eat them, he would only turn his head away, but his tail would not move. It was so fun!
Without realizing it, Song Xu walked farther and farther, leaving her usual activity range.
Her habitual range of activity was centered on the stone cave, expanding toward the direction where there were marshlands and rivers. But the direction she was walking today was the one she had first fled toward in panic when she was chased by the lion.
Just as she was about to turn back, Song Xu saw a shadow swaying in the distant woods. Sensing a strange smell, that scent instantly made her understand—it was an unfamiliar beastman.
To beastmen, the scent of beastmen and ordinary animals was completely different. Any beastman had an innate perception of this.
Song Xu immediately leaped onto a tall tree branch and secretly observed the newcomer.
In this forest occupied by the big snake, there were only ordinary animals and no other beastmen. When Song Xu realized that the shadow was a beastman, she was very surprised.
She was not nervous. The big snake had not come over to defend his territory, which meant that the one who came was a beastman about as weak as herself, not too dangerous.
Song Xu thought proudly: Although squirrels are not good at fighting fierce beasts, climbing trees and escaping are super good!
That beastman approached. Song Xu looked at the two long horns on her head and the four nimble hooves. She could not tell whether she was a long-horned sheep or a long-horned antelope. The original body had never seen a beastman with this kind of beast form.
The long-horned beastman discovered her in the tree and looked up. She quickly transformed into beastman form. It was a somewhat older female beastman, not very tall, slightly thin.
The two of them observed each other, one in the tree and one beneath it.
“You’re the female that Shiyou mentioned, the one who ran into Wumu’s forest? You’re still alive?” the long-horned beastman spoke first.
Song Xu squatted in the tree and did reading comprehension based on her words.
The beastman below knew that lion beastman from the ferocious beast tribe, so she might also be from the ferocious beast tribe.
Second, she said “Wumu’s forest.” Could Snake Snake be called Wumu?
Lastly, she found it strange that Song Xu was still alive, which meant that in her mind, Song Xu would be killed by Wumu. Since Wumu was so dangerous in her perception, yet she still dared to enter this forest, and did not look particularly afraid, it meant that she not only knew Wumu, but might also be quite familiar with him.
“Hi!” Song Xu smiled and waved. “My name is Song Xu, my beast form is a squirrel. I live pretty well in Wumu’s forest. What about you? What’s your name? Where are you from, and what are you here for?”
Hearing her enthusiastic greeting, the long-horned beastman was stunned for a moment. Beastmen were probably quite straightforward. Seeing Song Xu introduce herself, she directly said, “I’m Xuan Jiao from the ferocious beast tribe. I came to see whether Wumu has completely beastified.”
She noticed the snake skin draped over Song Xu’s body. That was clearly Wumu’s snake skin, and it was very fresh, filled with his scent. She was very curious and very surprised. “Did you become Wumu’s female, so he didn’t kill you?”
“Why do you think Wumu would kill me?” Song Xu did not care about her guess. Instead, she cared more about the latter question. Why did Snake Snake seem like a very cruel snake in this Xuan Jiao’s words?
Xuan Jiao’s tone was matter-of-fact. “Wumu never communicated with people in the tribe since he was young, and he would even attack other beastmen. Now he is a half-beastman who is about to completely beastify. Any beastman who gets close to him will be very dangerous.”
Song Xu: Didn’t feel any danger?
When half-beastmen completely beastified and lost their rationality, falling into wild beasts, because they were more destructive than ordinary wild beasts and would linger around tribes posing threats, the beastmen in tribes would kill such completely beastified half-beastmen. This was something all beastmen acknowledged, and it had always been done this way.
This forest was relatively close to the ferocious beast tribe. Since Wumu came to this forest, the ferocious beast tribe would send someone over from time to time to confirm Wumu’s condition.
Xuan Jiao had once received help from Wumu’s mother, Heisen, and was relatively familiar with the mother and son. Her beast form was herbivorous and posed no threat to Wumu. Wumu would not drive her away nor pay attention to her, so each time it was her who came from afar to take a look and confirm Wumu’s state.
Song Xu’s eyes turned. “Oh… I see. Then go back. Wumu is doing fine. He’s still far from completely beastifying.”
Xuan Jiao did not quite believe it. After all, the last time she came to check, the way Wumu looked at her had already become unfamiliar, on the verge of losing his rationality.
“I need to go see for myself.”
Seeing that she did not believe her and had changed back into beast form, running through the forest toward the direction of the stone cave, Song Xu also grabbed onto vines and followed.
When they arrived near the stone cave, Xuan Jiao stopped and looked toward the cave. Hesitating, she raised her head and said to Song Xu, “Can you make Wumu come out?”
Song Xu tilted her head. “Are you sure you want me to call him out?”
Xuan Jiao said, “If you can call him out, it means he hasn’t lost his rationality yet. Then I’ll believe you.”
“Alright.” Song Xu suddenly, without any warning, let out a sharp scream. “Ahhhhhh, help!!”
The snake who was resting inside the stone cave heard the familiar squirrel scream and immediately raised his head. When the highly aggressive big snake appeared in view and kept getting closer, Xuan Jiao turned in fear and ran.
Song Xu watched her fleeing figure and shrugged. “You’re the one who told me to call him.”
She did not like the ferocious beast tribe, and she did not like this “supervisor” either.
“Our Snake Snake is not a bad snake.”
Wumu glanced at Xuan Jiao, who had disappeared into the forest, did not chase after her, and instead looked at Song Xu with confusion.
Song Xu cupped her face and gave him a big smile. “Baby, how did you really come out when I called you!”
