A low, deep wolf howl echoed across the grassland. One after another, other wolves lifted their heads and followed with long howls in response, the sound lasting for several minutes.
“The arrival of spring signals that the wolf pack has entered breeding season. They grow restless and howl at the moon. The full moon stimulates the primal savagery within wolves’ bodies, making them impulsive and irritable.” Song Xu explained in a serious, documentary-narration tone, just as the wolves’ howling was nearing its end.
Lying on the grass at some distance away, among the pack that had just finished howling, a young wolf-tribe beastman couldn’t help shouting, “It’s not like what you said at all. Our howling has nothing to do with the moon!”
Song Xu gave an oh. “Then what are you doing?”
That wolf said angrily, “Of course we’re greeting our clansmen. And the moon doesn’t make us impulsive or irritable either!”
Song Xu clapped her hands. “Look, look—aren’t you worked up right now? You’re irritable!”
The young wolf-tribe beastman was so angered by her that he let out a series of low whines. Anyone who has kept a dog would know—when a dog is angry, it sounds quite similar.
The wolf-tribe beastman who had spoken was warned by the head wolf with a “wang-wu” sound and stopped talking, though he was still so angry that he pawed at the dirt in place.
Seeing that the other side had gone silent, Song Xu boredly flopped back onto Wumu.
At this moment, Song Xu and Wumu, and the wolf tribe, were staying at some distance from each other. They had maintained this distance while traveling through the wolves’ territory for an entire day.
Aside from that initial face-to-face encounter, the two sides had not fought afterward. The wolf tribe was wary of Wumu’s strength, and Song Xu had also held back the big snake who was throwing out harsh words.
The other side had many wolves. If they really fought, both sides would suffer losses. She didn’t want to see the big snake get injured, especially not over this kind of matter.
Song Xu and Wumu continued forward, clearly unwilling to detour and leave immediately, so the wolf pack followed behind them, preparing to keep watch until they passed through this territory and left.
And so it became like this: Song Xu and Wumu walking in front, the wolf pack following behind. When night came and it was time to rest, Song Xu and Wumu would find a place to coil up and lie down, and the wolves would lie in a heap some distance away.
With such a group of wolves following behind, of course Song Xu couldn’t fall asleep. With a single turn of her head, she could see more than a dozen pairs of green-glowing eyes in the grass, brightly staring this way. Late at night, it was rather frightening.
Not only were their eyes bright, they also howled. The tiny bit of drowsiness Song Xu had managed to gather was all howled away by them.
That was how the earlier round of long-distance arguing happened. During the day, they had already had several small quarrels, all started by Song Xu deliberately saying something loudly, and the young wolves in the pack, unable to hold back, would respond and retort.
If judged by combat power, a little squirrel couldn’t beat any single wolf. But when it came to verbal sparring, this whole pack of wolves combined couldn’t outtalk one Song Xu.
Before the clansmen were angered into losing their rationality, the steady head wolf would always interrupt in time, preventing the situation from escalating. Song Xu also knew to stop while she was ahead. Only then could they barely coexist.
As for the only benefit, it might be that, because of the threat posed by a group of wolfmen, Snake Snake Wumu had maintained his half-beastman form for an entire day, and still hadn’t changed back to his beast form.
During the day while walking, Snake Snake swam behind Song Xu, separating her from the wolf pack behind. Now that they were resting, Song Xu was lying on his tail, and he still had his head raised, watching the wolves over there.
From the wolves’ perspective, a huge snake staring at them all night long, red eyes glowing in the darkness, probably wasn’t a very pleasant sight either. No wonder none of the wolves slept at night, and instead had to sing in groups to bolster their courage.
Song Xu thought to herself, they aren’t going to just stare at each other all night, are they?
She dozed for a bit, then woke up and saw that Wumu was maintaining the same posture as before, not moving at all, like a petrified snake. Then she looked at the opposite side—good grief, more than a dozen wolf heads above the swaying wild grass were likewise standing perfectly still.
“Ahem.” Song Xu cleared her throat. “Wumu, if you’re not sleeping, I’ll tell you a story.”
Wumu’s head tilted slightly downward. He glanced at her twice, then turned back toward the wolf pack. His expression looked indifferent, but the tip of his tail had already coiled around her foot and patted it—that was his way of agreeing.
Song Xu said, “This story is called ‘O Sheep Sheep and X Big Wolf.’ It says, on the Green Green Grassland, there lived a group of sheep-tribe beastmen, and also a family of three wolf-tribe beastmen…”
The place was open and the sound carried far. The distant wolves couldn’t avoid hearing it even if they didn’t want to. As they listened, some wolf-tribe beastmen couldn’t help whispering to their companions, “This Gray Tai is way too stupid. He can’t even catch a sheep. Catching sheep is so easy!”
“Yeah. Even if he catches them, can’t he just eat them directly? Why does he always have to light a fire, boil water, and cook them first?”
“Isn’t it tastier when it’s cooked?”
“I kind of want to eat sheep.” A wolf-tribe beastman who felt hungry stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.
During the day, in order to keep an eye on the dangerous half-beastman, they had followed behind them, watching that squirrel beastman happily gnaw flowers and chew grass until she was full. The snake didn’t need to eat every day, but they had only hurriedly caught a few rabbits to eat, and none of them had managed to eat their fill.
Another wolf said, “I don’t like eating sheep. That smell is strong and weird. I don’t like it.”
A companion who liked eating sheep was dissatisfied. “We all eat sheep. Sheep are so delicious. What’s weird about them?”
On the opposite side, Song Xu suddenly jumped up to voice her support: “That’s right! Sheep are so delicious. Do you even know how to eat sheep?!”
“Cumin lamb, scallion-stir-fried lamb, lamb-stuffed flatbread… have you ever eaten them?!”
“In this world, nobody understands how to eat lamb better than me!”
Her words landed with resounding force, leaving all the wolf-tribe beastmen stunned. The beastman who had been criticized by both his companions and an enemy was even more bewildered.
Why? Why was a squirrel beastman so worked up about him not eating sheep?
After a long while, a wolf-tribe beastman finally asked, “Then how should lamb be eaten?”
Song Xu’s expression changed, and she giggled. “I’m not telling you.”
The wolf tribe’s side erupted into a round of angry howling. Gray dust flew everywhere. The head wolf, Lingfeng, opened his mouth to remind them to stay alert, but the moment he opened it, he was forced to swallow a mouthful of dust. His composure immediately broke. He roared at his clansmen, telling them all to quiet down and forbidding them from speaking to that squirrel anymore.
In the latter half of the night, when drowsiness was at its peak, Song Xu dozed again. When she woke up, she looked at the opposite wolf pack and saw that several pairs of green eyes seemed to have narrowed into slits—they were probably sleepy.
And the big snake was still staring at the wolf pack. As long as there was a threat nearby, he absolutely would not relax, unlike Song Xu, who could still doze off thanks to his protection.
It was all because this bunch of stubborn wolves loved to cause trouble. Thinking of this, Song Xu saw that Wumu wasn’t sleepy either, so she poked his waist with her finger and stood up. “Let’s continue moving forward right now.”
Wumu looked at the still pitch-black sky in confusion and pressed Song Xu back down. “Dark. Sleep.”
“Sleep my ass. If we’re not sleeping, then nobody gets to sleep!” Song Xu suddenly shouted, startling the entire wolf pack awake.
“Oh, we’re going to travel at night. Aren’t you following us? Then hurry up and stop sleeping—keep up,” Song Xu reminded.
The head wolf got up and followed. The few wolves behind him who had almost fallen asleep could only stand up as well, shaking their ears as they followed.
Wumu’s tail swayed through the grass, preventing anything dangerous from hiding within it. In front of them was a clump of grass about a meter tall. Song Xu took two steps back for a running start, leapt over it, landed, and didn’t touch the clump at all.
“Nice! Perfect!” Song Xu treated all the various-sized clumps of grass along the way as obstacles to be cleared, jumping over one after another, feeling especially like she was participating in a hurdles race at a sports meet.
The bundle of supplies was hanging on the snake’s body. Song Xu herself only carried her beast-tooth dagger, so she felt light and unburdened. After jumping around for a while, she felt tired and returned to Snake Snake’s side.
“I feel like my hand is missing something,” Song Xu suddenly said.
Wumu was puzzled. “Missing what?” He didn’t remember her holding anything.
Song Xu spread open her palm. “This hand should be holding something.”
Wumu snapped off a flower from beside them and placed it into her hand. “Hold. Eat.”
Song Xu tossed the flower away and grabbed his hand instead. “You’re so dumb!”
Wumu lowered his head to look at their hands swaying between them. The little squirrel’s hand was warm, and slightly damp, different from his. Holding it for a while even made his own hand become warm.
But Song Xu didn’t have the patience to keep holding hands. Very quickly, she was drawn by little bugs and little flowers by the roadside and pulled her hand away to look. Wumu felt his hand rapidly cool down again. When Song Xu walked back to his side, he initiatively went to take her hand.
Song Xu noticed and deliberately hid her hand behind her back, not letting him hold it.
Hearing the giggling sounds coming from her mouth, Wumu knew she was doing it on purpose. The little squirrel was very good most of the time, and only very nasty a small portion of the time.
When the sun came out, Song Xu turned her head to look at the wolf pack. One look, then another. In a short span of time, she looked several times, making Wumu also turn to look back.
Their frequent attention made the wolf pack grow wary and confused as well, each one’s ears standing straight up.
Finally, Song Xu, who had stirred up the tense atmosphere, whistled toward the wolf pack. “Hey, beauty at the back! I saw you and the wolf beside you hooking tails together. I saw it several times. Are you two dating?”
Even the wolf pack collectively turned their heads to look at those two companions.
Walking was extremely boring. When Song Xu saw them entangled and dating, she wanted to find some topic to chat about.
“Your partner isn’t as good-looking as you. His fur is a bit bald.” Among this group of wolves, that wolf had the least and baldest fur.
The wolf-tribe female beastman with thick, lush fur didn’t speak. The bald wolf beside her couldn’t help defending himself. “I just shed my winter coat. It’ll grow back soon! It’s normal that Mihua likes me. You being with a half-beastman is what’s not normal!”
Song Xu: “Tch. What’s wrong with half-beastmen? Is your tail longer than Wumu’s? Is your tail more flexible than his!”
Comparing tail length, wolves definitely couldn’t compete with snakes. That wolf grew anxious and blurted out without thinking, “But I have more fur than him!”
Song Xu: “Wumu even has more hair than you!”
The bald wolf fumed. “I’m a beastman. How can a half-beastman compare with me!”
Song Xu: “Wumu is more powerful than you. He can catch any prey!”
The bald wolf: “Half-beastmen can’t compare to beastmen in anything!”
Song Xu also got angry and blurted out, “Wumu even has two koukou, more than you! Can you beat that?!”
The moment she shouted it, Song Xu realized something was wrong. Seeing Wumu’s strange look beside her, she dryly laughed. “We won, hahaha.”
After a long while, an amazed voice from the wolf pack’s pretty older sister drifted over. “That’s way too terrifying. She’s really amazing.”
Song Xu, lowering her head and playing with her fingers: That’s enough, sis. Don’t say anymore.
