The beastman world was vast and sparsely populated. The probability of encountering other beastmen was far lower than Song Xu had imagined. Ever since meeting those baboon beastmen, they had not run into any other beastmen for quite some time.
They walked along the road, and the feeling of spring became more and more obvious with each passing day. In the warm and humid weather, even the nights were no longer so cold.
Song Xu failed to find yellow-flower trees again on the road and had to look for new food sources. At night, she leaned against the big snake and rambled on about a whole bunch of nonsense. All around, only her voice could be heard, while Wumu lay quietly. She stopped abruptly and did not speak for a long time.
Wumu turned back, lifting his head in confusion to look at her.
“Although I really like snakes,” Song Xu said as she lay on him and tugged at the grass on the ground, “I still want you to be able to talk to me.”
When she had first met Wumu, she had secretly thought that it would be better if this big snake always stayed in snake form. Later, she could not remember when it started, but she began to feel that the half-human, half-snake semi-beastman form was even cuter, completely betraying the aesthetic standards she had always held in her heart. She went from “How can humans be as cute as snakes?” to “How can snakes compare to snake beauties?”
“Ever since you started hibernating, you haven’t talked to me anymore. I feel…” a little lonely.
Although she did not finish the sentence, the squirrel was still struck by her own sudden, painful melancholy and rolled around kicking on top of the big snake. Of course, by the next morning, she had already forgotten about it.
After a few days, Wumu suddenly stopped at the edge of a forest and did not move forward. Normally, Song Xu decided their route. This was the first time Wumu had actively stopped.
At the edge of the forest was a large stretch of grass growing by the water. The low-lying terrain meant that the grass was soaked in a thin layer of water. At the boundary between the forest and the grassy wetland, there was a stone cave. It was not as spacious or clean as their previous one. The entrance to this cave was small, sloping downward, and the inside was dim and damp.
Wumu swam into the cave and did not come back out.
“Wumu?” Song Xu squatted at the cave entrance and looked inside, somewhat unsure whether Wumu wanted to rest here for a few days, or was planning to settle down here long-term.
In the dimness, Wumu’s eyes glowed faintly. No matter how she called, she couldn’t get him to come out, so she had no choice but to follow him into the cave. After looking around at the interior, she felt that if they were going to live here long-term, she would probably have to find a way to improve the living conditions.
Wumu stayed here for two days. Song Xu then realized that he was about to shed his skin. The shedding after coming out of hibernation had arrived late. Presumably, once he finished shedding this time, he would be able to eat. Song Xu finally didn’t have to worry about snake-snake starving himself to death anymore.
Only, this time, Wumu’s shedding looked especially difficult.
He rolled around inside the damp cave. A thin layer of white skin clung tightly to his body and simply would not come off. Song Xu wanted to help, but his rare bouts of violent, restless twisting made it impossible for her to get close. It was even worse than the first time she had ever seen him shed.
Song Xu had no way to stay inside the narrow little cave. She could only squat at the cave entrance and watch the black-and-red patterned snake thrash around inside. The bad part was that after night fell, it started to rain and thunder. The moment thunder sounded, Song Xu immediately shrank her head.
She was soaked half-wet by the rain, shivering as she looked at the gradually quieting Wumu inside the cave, then at the relentless thunder outside. Feeling that the thunder was more terrifying, she darted straight into the cave.
The white snake skin peeling off Wumu’s body was in tatters, not in one complete piece, looking as if it had been violently torn away. He was resting. When he saw Song Xu slip inside, he lifted his upper body, dragging the scattered bits of partially shed skin and headed outward.
Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Streaks of lightning lit up the area again and again, making the outside of the cave countless times brighter than the inside. Song Xu hugged her head and tugged at the ears on top of her head. Seeing the big snake crawling out, she also longingly wanted to follow. After taking a few steps, she was frightened into squatting on the spot by the booming thunder. By the time she steadied herself, Wumu had already completely left the cave.
He swam into the grassy wetland, submerging his entire body in the shallow water. As he rolled, the newly sprouted, oily-green spring grass was flattened beneath his body. His long tail tightly gripped those grasses, using the stems and leaves to rub against the snake skin on his body.
Tonight’s thunder was too loud. Raindrops pounded onto the water, and the shallow water became deeper. Amid such thunder and rain, the big snake rolled and struggled in the flooded grassland. If Song Xu could see it, she would discover that during Wumu’s shedding, for a brief moment, his upper body underwent a transformation.
The ferocious snake face turned into a human face. The black scales became a head of black hair. Below the neck, broad shoulders bulged out. The dark-red snake body turned into a waist densely covered with black patterns. Only the snake tail remained a snake tail.
However, this change was not stable. That shape appeared for an instant under the suddenly brightened sky, then returned to snake form.
When he rolled in the meadow, sometimes a pair of fair hands would appear, suddenly clenching the grass stems. The arched shoulders and back would, after one roll, turn back into a snake body covered in scales.
After a long time, the thunder gradually faded, and the heavy rain stopped. Song Xu, dirty and disheveled, came out of the cave and saw a section of snake tail hidden in the grass pile, unmoving, with unshed snake skin still on it.
She was startled and hurried over. Before she got close, she suddenly saw an arm extend from the grass pile, grab the piece of snake skin on the tail, and neatly tear it off in one motion.
The wet snake skin fell to the side. That hand then began tearing off the remaining skin.
How can you use your hands to tear skin when shedding, snake-snake! Oh, it’s snake-snake tearing it himself. Then pretend I didn’t say anything.
Song Xu jumped into the water, excitedly pushing aside the grass, and saw the snake tail twisted into many arcs pressing against the grass. It was the long-missed semi-beastman form of Wumu.
His body was soaked in the water. His hair clung to his chest like countless small snakes, floating in the water. The skin on his face and body was astonishingly pale, making the newly added snake markings on his neck stand out strikingly.
When he appeared from the grass like this, Song Xu was stunned. The thunder in the sky was nearing its end, giving a dull, hoarse rumble. Although it was light and muffled, it still frightened the squirrel into reflexively pouncing onto snake-snake.
Wumu caught her. His hands were cold and wet. His broad palm wrapped around her, pressing her against his chest.
“Song… Xu.”
It was snake-snake’s voice. The squirrel’s tail squeezed out through the gaps between his fingers, dangling in midair and swaying excitedly.
“Aw aw aw aw! Aw aw ah-woo-woo-woo! Sss sss sss sss sss!”
Wumu lifted her up to look at her. Why was it that after he could speak, she instead could only make strange noises?
“Song Xu… speak,” Wumu urged.
Song Xu grabbed Wumu’s hair, overwhelmingly moved. “Oh my god, you actually still remember me!”
Wumu had indeed forgotten who she was for a period of time. He had even forgotten who he himself was, only remembering that the surrounding aura felt familiar. Later, she spoke beside him every day, especially noisily, and he slowly remembered again.
He also remembered that if he did not talk to her for a long time, she would gnaw on his tail.
