Song Xu pushed a big stone back. One side of the stone was sunken downward, like a natural water vat. She used a hard wooden stick as a lever and pushed the big stone to the side of the stone cave, to store rainwater.
After the start of summer, sudden heavy rains often came. Rainwater was abundant, and small puddles were everywhere in the forest. Recently, Song Xu had been looking for containers that could store water.
She had tried to make stone bowls, but tools harder than stone were not easy to find, and carving stone bowls progressed slowly. Therefore, the stone bowl she usually used was still the one she had found in the ebony cave, used both for cooking soup and for boiling water.
Having failed at making stone bowls, Song Xu made rapid progress on the path of making wooden bowls. She had already hollowed out a wooden bowl, a wooden basin, and a small wooden bucket—the three-piece set—just a bit ugly, not very round, and full of rough burrs.
Besides that, she also found some fruit shells. The fruit shells, about half the size of a human skull, were ones she had rummaged out of piles of rotting fallen leaves. The pale yellow shells had some cracks on them. Unfortunately, the shells were a bit thin and couldn’t be burned, so they could only be used as water dippers, cups, and the like.
They were probably last year’s fruit shells. Song Xu climbed up the tree to take a look. On the crown of the tree hung heavy fruits that were still green, and at the bottoms of the fruits were flowers that had not completely withered yet.
She tasted one fruit. The sour and bitter astringent flavor made all the hair on her body stand on end. She truly couldn’t take a second bite and could only regretfully throw away that unlucky green fruit.
She made a mark around the tree, leaving a sign. It couldn’t be eaten now; she would come back to try again after it matured. At that time, she could also collect another batch of fruit shells to use for holding things.
In the past, Song Xu didn’t have a collecting habit, because in daily life she lacked nothing. But now, influenced by her squirrel beast form, she had become especially fond of collecting all kinds of things.
Also because of the beast form’s influence, her tastes had undergone a huge change. She preferred eating fruits, tender leaves, and plant seeds and the like, and liked meat far less than before… of course, also because simply cooked meat was really too unpleasant to eat, incomparable to modern sweet-and-sour ribs or braised pork with all kinds of seasonings.
Without seasonings, when meat could only be roasted or boiled, most animals’ meat carried an inescapable gamey smell. Some even tasted bitter. The texture was dry and tough. Only fish and eggs were still relatively tasty.
Song Xu spent most of her day running around outside. She liked to combine work with play: when fetching water, she would first play with stones for a while, and then discovered that big stone that looked like a water vat.
When collecting vines to use as rope, she ended up setting the rope aside and first used thick vines to make a swing.
There were simply too many vines in the forest. Every single one was extremely tough. Even using a beast-tooth knife to cut them required grinding away for quite a while. Most vines were wrapped around tree trunks and canopies, while another portion hung down in the air, like hanging spider webs.
She braided several vines together and tied a knot at the bottom, and a big swing was finished. Sitting on it and swinging back and forth, she could even swing up to the tree canopy. It was more thrilling than an amusement park roller coaster.
When the swing moved, this whole area echoed with her excited shrieks.
Not far away, Wumu was frightened by her at first. But very quickly, just like how he had once grown accustomed to her various strange behaviors in the stone cave, he also quickly grew used to her yelling while swinging on vines in the forest. Only occasionally would he go over to take a look.
Many of Song Xu’s behaviors were things Wumu couldn’t understand. So even though the other party was very weak, he would still, like a small animal, cautiously observe her from a distance that was neither too near nor too far.
While searching for food, Song Xu would also suddenly start playing.
She liked to look for food near the marshlands, where it wasn’t completely shaded by big trees, and sunlight could pour down without restraint. With sufficient temperature, light, and water, the grass around the marshlands would grow from waist-high little shorties into towering human-height giants in just a few days.
Song Xu rummaged through these wild grasses for grass stalks. Stalks as thick as fingers—after peeling off the outer green leaves, the tender white section inside was sweet. In this season, they were also full of juice, making them tasty little snacks.
Within the unremarkable wild grass grew a large number of wildflowers. Golden wildflowers attracted countless bees busily at work. Pluck a wildflower and taste it—it was a bit like wild chrysanthemum, bitter. Chew a little longer, and the nectar deep inside the flower core would be squeezed out and transferred to the tongue, bringing a faint trace of sweetness.
While finding food in the grass, Song Xu also plucked many wild grasses and wildflowers. She was weaving a wild-grass flower hat that could be used to block the sun.
The grass rustled loudly under her feet, and from deep within the grass came the sound of her humming. It wasn’t only her singing here. There were also some insects in the grass and on nearby trees. Compared to Song Xu’s humming, these insects were screeching heart-rendingly, reaching a noisy level.
Summer insects were the noisiest.
Song Xu chewed on a grass stalk and put the half-finished flower-and-grass hat on her own head. Unfortunately, without a mirror she couldn’t look at it, so she took it off and continued weaving wildflowers into it.
“La la la… la la… hm hm hm… hm…”
After finishing the heavy grass hat, Song Xu grabbed it and ran to the shade of a tree by the marsh. On a large tree leaning diagonally over the water in a Consort Drunk on Wine posture was coiled a thick, long big snake. He had not long finished eating and was currently resting in his beast form.
Song Xu ran over and leaned against the tree trunk, saying, “Look, a flower hat!”
Wumu didn’t react. During his post-meal rest time, he basically didn’t like to move. Song Xu, just like every owner with zero awareness, wanted to stick to her precious baby anytime, anywhere. She forcibly tugged at the big snake’s tail. “Look! Look! Hurry and look!”
The big snake originally had his head propped on a nearby tree branch. After being harassed, he slid forward along the tree trunk, almost swimming up toward the treetop, putting a bit more distance between himself and Song Xu.
Song Xu didn’t care about that at all. How could a single tree stop her? Squirrels were the best at climbing trees!
She jumped onto the trunk, ignoring the fact that it was about to droop into the water, and came to the big snake’s head. She took the flower hat off her own head and put it onto the snake’s head.
“I’m putting a hat on you, hahaha!”
The big snake only moved his head slightly, and the hat on top immediately fell off. Song Xu hurriedly grabbed it back. “Ai, you can’t wear a hat like this. I’ll make you a flower wreath.”
After saying that, she ran off again.
The wildflowers in the previous patch of grass had already been mostly ravaged by her, so she walked to another patch of wild grass. This side was farther from the tree where the big snake was resting. Because not long ago the big snake had hunted by the water and scared away the grazing hoofed animals, they were slowly walking back now and were all grazing over here.
Song Xu coexisted harmoniously with them, only occasionally snatching away pretty wildflowers that were about to be eaten. She braided a large flower wreath. This time, the wildflower colors she used were richer than the colors on her grass hat, and there were also pale purple and sky blue.
In the end, this flower wreath was, of course, forcibly slipped onto the big snake’s neck by Song Xu.
With the wreath stuck around his neck while in beast form, even a big snake that looked very scary became comical and cute. If he turned into his half-beastman form, he would be a big beauty wearing a flower wreath and looking a bit silly. Because he looked unaccustomed to the wreath around his neck, yet didn’t take it off, instead treating it as if it didn’t exist.
Song Xu had long discovered that when Snake didn’t sense malice or threat, he simply wouldn’t resist. No matter what she did to him, he would only blankly stare at her. If he got annoyed, he would only dodge away.
She had previously seen other snake owners’ snakes bite people when they were unhappy, but this snake—big as he was—wouldn’t bite at all. His temperament could be said to be super good. She bullied the weak with impunity, and every time she saw Snake being annoyed, hissing unhappily yet helpless, she became delighted beyond measure.
Now that the weather was getting hot, Snake also didn’t always hide in the stone cave. After eating, the time he spent resting outside became longer, and the time he went out to bask also increased.
He was accustomed to staying near the giant stone, but Song Xu loved going to the farther marshlands. She also wanted Snake to accompany her, so she tried every possible way to lure him to go sleep by the marsh.
The methods included, but were not limited to, nagging in his ear until he couldn’t sleep peacefully, hugging his head and dragging him forward with all her strength, shouting to him from far away, “Look, there’s a big branch here, come play!” and so on.
The most effective method was her shouting for help on the way to the marsh. The louder and more frightened she sounded, the faster Snake came. His moving speed and the speed at which he usually lay lazily were two extremes, so fast that one couldn’t clearly see his slithering trajectory.
When she used “help” to trick the snake to halfway there, what followed was rolling on the ground and pulling and dragging. In the end, she could successfully trick the snake to the water’s edge.
After this happened many times, the big snake also knew what kind of trick she was pulling. The half-beastman with the cool, aloof beauty appearance from the waist up twisted his tail, expressionless, coldly staring at her. His gaze was extremely oppressive, and he slowly spat out words:
“You…”
“…bad.”
Hearing his halting condemnation, Song Xu suddenly burst into loud laughter. “Yes, yes, I’m bad, I’m so bad! Sorry, I’m too bad!”
After several times, she no longer needed to deliberately shout for help to trick him out. When she tugged his tail and said they should go play by the water, Wumu would follow her out. About five or six times out of ten, she would get her wish.
The remaining times, when Wumu really didn’t want to go out, he would hide in the small hiding cave inside the stone cave. No matter how Song Xu pestered him, he would pretend not to hear.
Song Xu felt that she seemed to be taming him.
“What’s your name? Still not willing to tell me today?” Song Xu poked the scales on the snake’s tail and asked.
In the distance, the firelight from the campfire flickered. She still lit a campfire every night, but now that it was hot, Song Xu was getting farther and farther away from the fire. In the past two days, she had simply moved over to Snake’s side.
She went to bed too early at night and couldn’t fall asleep, so she began tormenting her roommate.
The questions she asked the most were all about Wumu—his name, his age, what he liked, his past life. Actually, Song Xu had already heard his name before from the mouth of that uninvited guest, but she just wanted to hear Snake say it himself.
Wumu didn’t like talking, and he had forgotten how to say many words. For a long time, he also hadn’t had anyone to talk to, and even less desire to talk.
After Song Xu appeared, his desire to speak would occasionally become very strong—for example, when she disturbed him, he very much wanted to say something.
Song Xu was amused by his “you bad” that he had held in for a long time before finally squeezing out, and she also noticed that his vocabulary might be too limited and that he didn’t know how to express himself. At this moment, she lay on his tail and proactively proposed, “Let me teach you to talk. Let’s practice speaking!”
A transmigrator teaching a native beastman language—truly one who dared to teach, and one who dared to learn.
