Wumu had not slept pressed up against Song Xu for the first time, but it was the first time lying together in beastman form. One person sticking against his body, fitting tightly with no gaps, was completely different from the feeling of a fluffy little squirrel sticking against his abdomen—foreign, strange.
“Such a weird feeling,” Song Xu muttered.
Growing up, aside from sleeping with her mother before the age of five, she had never slept together with anyone else.
During the day, when she had shamelessly said things about a partner, her goal had only been to legally raise a snake. Now that she was really putting on this posture, she finally realized what kind of weight and meaning the word “partner” carried.
Since she had thought of this, she couldn’t help but think of another problem.
Young people who had only vaguely learned certain half-covered physiological knowledge naturally had curiosity about it. She subconsciously glanced toward Wumu’s snake tail.
Basically every segment had been touched before. If following human anatomy, the position would be…
If following snake anatomy, then it should be even lower down…
As a cloud-raised reptile snake-lover enthusiast, Song Xu had watched far more snake snake breeding videos than human ones. Mainly because the internet’s cleanup had been very successful, there was nowhere to watch human ones.
When she had watched those little baby snakes’ reproduction videos before, she never thought there might come a day they would be useful. Strange yet useful knowledge increased.
Song Xu suddenly choked on her saliva and coughed half to death.
Wumu had no idea what the little squirrel on his chest was thinking. He only heard her coughing and coughing, then suddenly letting out a giggle.
What was she laughing about? Did she think of something tasty? She usually laughed like this when she found something good to eat.
His chest was filled to the brim. The person who had just giggled fell asleep in the blink of an eye. Wumu did not fall asleep.
He unconsciously wanted to curl his tail. Just as he lifted it, he was kicked by the person sleeping soundly.
Song Xu woke up before dawn and discovered that Wumu had carried out the “hold tight” request from before bed extremely thoroughly. She was completely tied into a bundle. Wumu was only one step away from using his tail to wrap her and himself into a ball of yarn. Apart from her fingers, the soles of her feet, and her head, she couldn’t move anything else.
Given the strength with which Wumu could easily strangle a wild boar using his tail, the force he was using to bind her now could be considered extremely light. But even so, it was still more than Song Xu could bear. She felt as if she had practiced fighting and boxing all night, her whole body was sore.
Supporting her waist as she crawled out from the tangled snake tails, Song Xu kept groaning, “Your sleeping posture is way too bad.”
She decided that from now on she would not sleep together with the snake anymore. Being tied up like this every day, who could take that?
However, Wumu seemed to have found amusement in it and insisted on sleeping with her. For this, he even gave up his own corner padded with moss and wood shavings, chasing Song Xu to the other side of the cave.
Song Xu lay in her grass nest, and he would place his upper body into the nest, with his snake tail casually spread around.
Song Xu was unwilling to turn into beastman form and be wrapped by him. When it was time to sleep, she would turn into a squirrel, forcing Wumu to even urge her out loud: “…Change.”
Song Xu was amused by him: “Hahaha!”
Which pet owner has never shouted “change” at their own little pet baby! Now snake snake was also a kindred spirit.
“Hey, I’m not changing, I’ll stay a squirrel. Hey, I’m just playing!”
Wumu held the little squirrel under the armpits and lifted her up, shaking her once in midair. The squirrel spread her two little paws: “Shaking me is useless, hehe, I’m not changing.”
Wumu: “……”
The simple beastman couldn’t figure out why he sometimes wanted to hold his partner against his chest and nestle her there, yet at other times his teeth itched with the urge to stuff her into his mouth.
° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
The sun after a heavy rain was especially intense, shining and heating twice as hard. Song Xu sat in the grassy area by the marsh stripping grass stems for a while, feeling like she was about to be roasted dizzy.
She staggered over with a big handful of grass into the shade of a tree. “I can’t take it anymore, it’s so hot!”
Lying on a rock in the shade, feet soaking in the water, hands slowly stripping the grass stems she had pulled, she said to the big snake coiled around the tree, “I’ll eat a bit of snacks first. When the sun sets, we’ll go look for food that can really fill our stomachs.”
By evening, the little sun’s power had been turned down. The wind blew from the water surface into the grass, and it immediately became cool. Song Xu casually found something to eat to fill her stomach, then started pulling grass again.
She declared with absolute confidence, “I’m going to weave a grass mat to lay in the stone cave. In weather this hot, how comfortable would it be to sleep on a grass mat.”
Combining her theoretical knowledge with the original body’s limited practical experience, Song Xu successfully… twisted out a grass rope. But how do you weave a grass rope into a grass mat?
Song Xu held a rolled-up bundle of grass rope. Before she figured out how to weave a mat, she first developed another use for the rope. Carrying the rope, she ran straight toward the sleeping big snake, rubbing her hands together eagerly. “It’s time to let you also experience what it feels like to be tightly tied up!”
Wumu was sleeping peacefully. When he woke up and realized it was dark, he naturally stretched his muscles. Only faint snapping sounds were heard as the grass ropes tied around him broke one after another.
Song Xu, who had just been smugly admiring her own handiwork, dropped to her knees with a thud. Picking up the grass ropes that had snapped into countless pieces, she wailed in grief, “My whole afternoon’s results… gone, wuu.”
Later, while fumbling around trying to weave a grass mat, she kept sighing. “Shouldn’t have used grass rope. Using vines would’ve been so much better. Vines can’t be pulled apart.”
She really did drag back a vine, openly measuring it against Wumu’s tail and trying to wrap his tail up.
Wumu classified her behavior as playing. Twisting grass rope, weaving mats, playing with vines—all of it was playing.
Although usually only underage little beastmen liked to play, Wumu had already gotten used to Song Xu being a strange beastman.
Seeing that Song Xu had almost finished wrapping, Wumu very considerately tensed his tail and—snap—pulled the vine wrapped around it into several pieces.
Song Xu: “I admit defeat. I’m not playing anymore.” She slunk off to continue playing with her grass mat.
She stopped “playing,” but snake snake instead felt a bit of regret. After a while, his tail intentionally or unintentionally swept over those broken vines. Unfortunately, Song Xu was busy fussing with her grass mat and didn’t see his movements.
After researching for several days, Song Xu actually managed to figure out a method and wove a crooked, misshapen grass mat. Even if it wasn’t pretty, the result was already enough to make her proud.
“This grass mat is for you to sleep on. It’s more comfortable than moss, right?” Song Xu swept out the old moss and replaced it with the grass mat she had made for Wumu.
He hadn’t expected that the thing she had been working on all this time was meant for him. Wumu slowly swayed his tail and, following her intention, slithered onto the grass mat and coiled up.
Song Xu looked pleased. “Very good. You lie right here and don’t move. Properly feel how comfortable the grass mat is.”
Then she turned around and flopped into her own grass nest on the other side, letting out a comfortable sigh. Sleeping alone was still more comfortable.
With eyes half-closed and drowsy, she felt something tickle her foot. Opening one eye to look, she saw the tip of a snake tail resting on her foot.
Looking at Wumu again, he was still lying on the grass mat on the other side of the stone cave. Thanks to his long body, after coiling part of himself up, the remaining tail could still stretch out and reach her.
Wumu looked quiet and still, lying on the big stone, his gaze toward this side faint. But the tip of his tail was like a little snake head, occasionally lifting up and then—pat—landing on the top of Song Xu’s foot, pat-pat lightly tapping for a while, and even poking her foot once.
Tempted by the small movements, Song Xu lay at the edge of her grass nest and suddenly spread her toes, clamping onto that round little section of snake tail.
The snake tail instantly tensed and withdrew, then after a moment swam back again, once more resting on Song Xu’s foot.
Song Xu stepped on the tail tip and didn’t let go. That section of tail instead advanced rather than retreating, sliding upward along her sole, winding forward, and wrapping around her ankle like putting an anklet on her.
Looking at the tail coiled around her foot, Song Xu fell silent for a moment, then shouted, “You’re really good at this!”
Snake snake looked at her in confusion. His tail, just as confused, swayed: good at what? Good at hunting?
Seeing the genuine confusion on his face, Song Xu said, “Do you even know how, or not?”
Wumu: Know what?
Song Xu tactically cleared her throat and lifted her bound foot. “It’s so hot in the stone cave. Let’s go out for a walk.”
She was just finding an excuse to go out, walk around, and catch some breeze. Sleeping too much during the day made it a bit hard to fall asleep at night.
The nighttime forest had a small breeze blowing, comfortable and cool.
Song Xu had been thinking of just walking around nearby, but once they entered the forest, Wumu glanced at her and quickly swam ahead to lead the way. He seemed to have a destination in mind, advancing in a fixed direction, which instead left Song Xu confused. She hurried to catch up and asked, “Where are we going?”
Wumu opened his mouth, wanting to speak: “……”
Song Xu answered first answered, “To look for food? You’re hungry, right?”
Wumu opened his mouth again: “……”
Song Xu answered first again, “You also think it’s hot and want to go bathe, right?”
Wumu’s hand moved, covering Song Xu’s mouth. Then, with difficulty restraining language, he expressed his meaning: “…glow.”
Song Xu: “What glow? Oh, I get it—you’re taking me to see the stars, right!”
Wumu stretched one arm across her stomach, lifted her up, and rapidly threaded through the forest. His speed was like a high-speed train. Song Xu only felt the dark tree trunks on both sides flashing past.
They entered the depths of the forest. The ground here was soft, entirely layers of fallen leaves forming humus. Hanging vines were more numerous and denser. Some parasitic plants grew on tree trunks and vines, and long aerial roots dangled from the vines.
Song Xu seemed to smell the fragrance of some kind of orchid, and in the dark, fragrant depths, there were specks of faint blue light.
The arrival of the big snake startled the creatures dwelling here. Song Xu saw those faint blue lights flutter up, then land on other vines. They were actually butterflies with glowing wings.
“Glow.” After arriving here, Wumu once again repeated what he had said.
While Song Xu was shocked by the beautiful scenery, she was also shocked by snake snake’s actions. “You brought me to see glowing butterflies. You’re really good at this.”
Before, when Song Xu had caught glowing little bugs for him to see, she seemed to like them. Suddenly remembering that there were more glowing insects here, the pure-minded snake snake only wanted to tell her this. He still didn’t understand what she meant by saying he was “good at it.”
