“If you can stay here a little longer, when it’s shedding season, I’ll give you all the wool I comb off to line your nest!” the little sheep Qingzao promised generously.
“That probably won’t work.” Song Xu said. “We’ll be leaving in a couple of days.”
Wumu had spent the past few days in an unstable state between beast form and half-beastman form, and now he was gradually beginning to stabilize, no longer falling into daily stupor. Since both of them were well-rested, it was time to leave.
They had only known Song Xu for a few days, but Qingzao was already very reluctant to part with her. Compared to the other half-beastman, Cangji, she was lonelier and liked sticking around Song Xu even more. Cangji would usually go home to help his mother with work, or go exploring on the plains by himself, but as long as Qingzao had time, she would come find Song Xu.
Hearing that she was leaving, the little sheep’s ears immediately drooped.
“Maybe I’ll come back someday. When I pass by here again, I’ll come look for you.” Song Xu comforted her.
The little sheep’s ears quietly perked up a little, looking a bit more spirited. Qingzao bleated twice, earnestly reminding her, “Then you must come early, you must come early.”
“If you come too late, I’m afraid you won’t be able to find me.”
“Why wouldn’t I be able to find you? Aren’t you staying here all the time?” Song Xu asked, puzzled.
“Of course not.” Qingzao replied with a calm expression. “I’m a half-beastman. I’ve already reached adulthood. From now on, every year, there’s a chance I’ll completely lose my beastman form and turn into an ordinary little sheep. Many half-beastmen in our tribe were like this before. They slowly changed into another form and could never change back, and then they followed passing herds of horses, cattle, and sheep away. I’ll be like that in the future too.”
Other children, when born, might look like beastman children, or might be fully beast-form cubs, but half-beastmen were basically born in a half-human, half-beast form.
When Qingzao was little, children her age would sometimes, because of insufficient control, reveal a bit of beast traits while in beastman form.
Back then, Qingzao felt she was no different from anyone else. Later, as everyone gradually grew up, the other children were all able to freely control transforming into full beastman form, but she still couldn’t become a complete beastman.
By the time she reached adulthood and there was no longer any hope of fully becoming a beastman, Qingzao knew that in the future she would lose her memories of relatives and friends, leave this place forever, and instead of finding a partner like the others and continuing to live and multiply here.
“Actually, I think that wouldn’t be so bad.” Qingzao still wore a naive and simple expression, even showing a hint of anticipation. “If I become an ordinary little sheep, I’ll still eat the tenderest grass on the hillside, run around on the grassland, and by then I’ll be just like the sheep in the wild herds. I’ll be the same as everyone else, and I won’t be lonely anymore.”
The tribe never drove away or harmed half-beastmen, but they also didn’t grow close to them. If they got too close, they would only be reluctant to part later. So before she had even completely turned into an ordinary beast, she already had no friends.
“Oh no! If by the time you come back I’ve already become a little sheep, how will you recognize me among the flock? Then we’ll miss each other!” Qingzao suddenly thought of this crucial problem and abruptly bounced twice on the spot, as if she had already imagined the scene of her friend failing to recognize her and leaving.
For once, the chatty squirrel didn’t interrupt while Qingzao was talking, but remained silent for a long time.
Seeing Qingzao hopping about anxiously, Song Xu grabbed her. “Don’t worry, I have a way.”
She reached into the animal-skin bag she carried and pulled out a handful of colorful feathers. These were souvenirs she had collected along the way, from rivers and marshes, various watersides, big trees, and abandoned bird nests. Feathers shed by different kinds of birds, brilliantly colored and mixed together, dazzling to the eye.
“I’ll string these together and tie them into a necklace for you to wear around your neck. That way, if I ever see a little sheep wearing a colorful feather necklace on the road, I’ll know it’s you.”
“Necklace? Like the necklace on your waist? Okay, okay, then I’ll have a necklace just like you too!” The little sheep was overjoyed, bleating nonstop. Truly bouncing three feet into the air.
“So the question is, what kind of string should we use to tie the feathers so they’ll be sturdy?” Song Xu pondered.
A burst of clip-clopping hoofbeats sounded as the little horse Cangji ran over from afar. “Qingzao, what are you doing? Why are you jumping so high?”
As he spoke, he noticed that their new friend Song Xu’s gaze was fixed on his… butt? He didn’t understand why, but nervously took two steps back.
Song Xu broke into a cheerful smile. “Horse tail hair will work.”
Horse tail hair is a good material for making bowstrings for silk-and-bamboo instruments. If several strands are braided together to make a necklace, it should be sturdy enough.
Cangji contributed his own horse tail hair, because friends help each other. He had eaten the sweet honeycomb his new friend gave him a couple of days ago—what was a little horse tail hair in comparison? Besides, his little companion Qingzao was also staring at him.
After being busy for quite a while, Song Xu finally made a beautiful rainbow-feather necklace for the little sheep, a purely handmade private custom piece. When the necklace was hung around her neck, red, blue, yellow, and emerald-green feathers fell against the white wool, making it even more gorgeous.
As the one who contributed materials, Cangji also received a necklace, though it was a bit smaller than Qingzao’s. When Song Xu handed it to him, Cangji held it in his hand, too embarrassed to put it on. By the time they were heading back toward the tribe, he had quietly hung it around his neck.
Having friends was, for them, the happiest thing of all.
The wonderful gifts diluted the sadness of an impending farewell. After saying goodbye to their friends, Song Xu turned back and happened to meet Wumu, who had woken up early and come to look for her. There was a rustling in the grass, and suddenly a snake head popped out. Before Song Xu could see clearly, she already knew it was him. She instantly broke into a smile and rushed over, saying nothing, first giving his scales a vigorous rub.
“Let’s leave tomorrow!”
After a night of rain, the grass leaves were all beaded with water droplets. Luckily it cleared up in the morning, and once the sun came out, these droplets would disappear in less than half a day.
On the distant hillside were two figures, one of them bouncing up and down. Song Xu waved to them, then set off together with Wumu toward the deeper mountains.
She did not show reluctance about parting, just as when they left the original stone cave.
What followed was a journey of crossing mountains and ridges. They no longer encountered any clustered tribes.
Great mountains were different from plains and forests. Having no paths was normal in the mountains, but this kind of continuously ascending terrain, with some places even very steep, was something Wumu had never experienced.
Song Xu herself had never climbed such a big and tall mountain either, but as long as there were trees, it was all the same kind of flying for her. The one who suffered was Wumu. In some areas where the slope was almost vertical, when climbing upward he had to twist his body into many curves to increase resistance, to avoid accidentally sliding down.
“Wumu, why don’t you climb trees too? Go from tree to tree.” Song Xu suggested, squatting on a branch.
Not all trees on the mountain could bear the weight of a big snake. Trees that could support him were often far apart. Going by way of trees, the path between them would easily end up littered with broken branches and fallen limbs.
They encountered a waterfall on the mountain. Coming up from the other side, they were above the waterfall. The waterfall was over ten meters high—not very large—with a deep pool below. Along the stream grew clusters of unknown wildflowers.
“Wumu, it’s your first time seeing a waterfall, right? Do you want to go down and play?” Song Xu asked.
When she asked like this, Wumu knew that she wanted to go down. In this kind of terrain, a long snake once again had the advantage. He wrapped his tail around a rock above, held the squirrel in his mouth, and easily lowered himself down.
During the descent, Song Xu was splashed by the spray from the waterfall, so cold she kicked her paws. The icy water was even colder than winter snow. This was meltwater from the winter snow on the mountaintop, now all rushing downward. The rapid current would carve out a river channel downstream, becoming a place where animals downstream would drink, play, and hunt throughout the year.
Song Xu mainly came down because she had taken a liking to the large patch of wildflowers. She plucked a handful to taste, while explaining this fresh novelty called a waterfall to Wumu. She told him what the biggest waterfalls were like, and that when the sun was strong, rainbows would appear above the waterfall.
They had arrived relatively late, and the sun was already close to setting. In order to let Wumu see the rainbow over the waterfall, she decided to rest here for the night.
Nights here were colder than on the plains. They had climbed up from the foot of the mountain, and the temperature had been gradually dropping. Song Xu lit a fire and set up a sleeping nest amid the roaring sound of the waterfall. When saying goodbye, Qingzao had gotten excited and cut off a lot of wool as a gift for her. She had no choice but to bring it all along, and now it was a bit too warm.
Song Xu thought of Qingzao’s longing to join the sheep flock and no longer be lonely. Then she looked at the big snake beside her and suddenly hugged the snake’s head.
“Wumu, wuwuwu.”
Wumu: ?
“If you really turn into an ordinary big snake, I’ll raise you too.” Song Xu said.
Actually, at the very beginning, she had raised Wumu as a pet snake. Later, in order to legally keep a snake, they suddenly became partners. Then she discovered that Wumu was ultimately different from ordinary snakes, and her mentality changed again—she began to treat him as a romantic interest. However, this mindset had not completely finished shifting yet, and now, the romantic interest might once again turn into a pet snake.
…Should this be called reaching the same destination by different paths, or staying true to one’s original intention?
Facing the squirrel’s rare display of negative emotions, the snake activated his signature comforting technique: constriction!
Song Xu was wrapped up by him until she forgot her sadness. Her head tilted, and she slept straight through until dawn, then was shaken awake by Wumu.
A rainbow hung beside the waterfall, its colorful glow lingering for a long time. Song Xu stepped on the snake’s body and jumped up, then shook Wumu in return. “Look, a rainbow!”
Wumu had already seen it, and before she woke up, he had already been watching it for a while. Because she had been very expectant last night and had talked a lot about the principles of rainbow formation. Although Wumu didn’t really understand things like light refraction, he had been infected by her anticipation. So when he suddenly saw the rainbow upon waking today, he also felt happy.
Song Xu, even more so, had long since forgotten last night’s intermittent sadness. Her sadness never lasted very long, and was also easily interrupted.
The rainbow over the waterfall lingered for a long time, and they watched it beside the falls for quite a while.
“People used to believe that seeing a rainbow brings good luck. We’ve been watching for so long, we’ve already accumulated a lot of luck points!”
