The road back was not the same road as the one they had taken when coming, and on this new road, Song Xu did not encounter any of the people she had met before.
At the beginning, she still tried to look for familiar scenery along the way, but later discovered it was futile, so she could only give up and focus on the new things before her.
By the time they had left the seaside for several months, Wumu, who once needed to learn how to walk, was already able to run skillfully, and his speech had also become much smoother, only that how often he spoke still depended on whether Song Xu teased him that day.
Without deliberately searching for a path, Song Xu saw familiar terrain for the first time. That continuous stretch of mountains and forests—beyond it lay a vast expanse of plains, where she had once met two half-beast friends.
And in these continuous mountains and forests, the big snake had once left behind many terrifying legends for the small beastmen who lived here. Now that they had returned again, the green mountains and forests had already turned into an autumn landscape.
They crossed the autumn-colored mountains and forests and arrived on the plains.
Inside that small thorny forest where jujube trees and hawthorn trees grew, there was still the crude little house Song Xu had built before. Such a crude house should have fallen apart long ago after several rounds of wind and rain, but Song Xu looked at this small house and guessed that after they left, someone must have repaired it. Now it was still intact, able to shelter from wind and rain.
Only, it looked like no one had been here for a long time.
Song Xu only glanced at the house twice, then walked toward the nearby tribe.
She had told Qingzao the little sheep that if she passed by here again when returning, she would definitely come to greet her.
Before getting close to the hillside of the tribe, Song Xu first saw a flock of sheep. It was a group of ordinary wild sheep, and beside the white flock there was a black shadow wandering—it looked like some kind of canine animal.
It walked together with the sheep on the grassland, like a warrior guarding the flock.
Noticing two unfamiliar beastmen approaching, the black dog with long pointed ears stood up in beastman form on the hillside and looked at them.
“Hello!” Song Xu started calling out from some distance away. “May I ask if Qingzao and Cangji from your tribe are here?”
After she finished shouting this sentence, she saw, within the wild sheep flock behind the black dog beastman, a small sheep wearing a colorful feather necklace.
That feather necklace no longer had the bright colors it once had, probably faded after being exposed to wind and rain, dull and not eye-catching.
Song Xu’s steps paused, and the smile on her face also faltered.
That small sheep was lowering its head to eat grass, making tender bleating sounds. She was together with the flock, like clouds drifting across the sky, carefree.
“Qingzao has already become a complete wild sheep.” The black dog beastman’s gaze also fell on that sheep wearing the feather necklace. “Are you the friend who gave her the feather necklace?”
Song Xu: “Why so fast… wasn’t she only recently an adult?”
Wumu had held on for several years without completely turning into a wild beast. She had thought other half-beast people also would not completely beast-transform so quickly.
“Some half-beast people do not want to become wild beasts and will maintain half-beast form a little longer. Some half-beast people look forward to becoming wild beasts, and their rate of change will be a little faster.” the black dog beastman said.
“After Qingzao became a wild sheep, has she stayed here the whole time?” Song Xu stood at the foot of the hillside.
“I thought she would leave here and go to a farther wild sheep flock, but I didn’t expect that in the end she still stayed here.” the black dog beastman said.
Perhaps that little sheep who once said she wanted to become a wild sheep and have companions had, deep in her heart, always held attachment to this place. She actually did not want to leave.
“You are?”
“Her mother.” The black dog beastman changed back into a black dog and walked along the edge of the flock.
She did not get close to the small sheep wearing the feather necklace, only when that sheep wandered nearby would the small sheep occasionally, in a dazed and innocent manner, come over. The calm black dog would lick this fluffy little sheep a couple of times, then watch as she hopped back into the flock.
Very strangely, when Qingzao was confirmed to be a half-beast person, the two of them seemed to have reached some kind of tacit understanding and no longer got close to each other. But when Qingzao truly became a wild beast, she instead came here every day, helping maintain order in the flock and driving away fierce beasts that tried to hunt the sheep.
“Then, how about Cangji, do you know what happened to him?”
“Cangji changed even faster than Qingzao. On a stormy night, he turned into a wild horse and left the tribe, and never came back.” the black dog answered her, her tone calm and steady.
She showed neither rejection nor enthusiasm toward Song Xu. After answering, she followed the flock of sheep and left, heading toward another hillside.
The wind swept through the wild grass, brushing against their calves. Dark clouds hung low, as if it was about to rain.
Song Xu, who was gazing into the distance at the flock, was picked up. The big snake holding her around the waist carried her toward the sheep: “Go play.”
Song Xu swung her legs. “That won’t do.”
Wumu’s tone was indifferent, carrying a feeling that did not allow rebuttal: “There is no ‘won’t do.’”
Song Xu retorted, “It definitely won’t do.”
The moment the big snake carried the little squirrel closer, the flock of sheep ran away.
Song Xu laughed and said, “See, it won’t do, right.”
What she meant by “won’t do” was that the big snake’s scent scared the sheep. The moment he got close, the flock would flee for their lives.
“Let’s stay here for a few days.” Song Xu knocked the back of her head lightly against Wumu’s chest. “I’ll play with my friend for a few days before we leave.”
They returned to the small thorny forest to the house Song Xu had built. After crawling inside, they did a simple cleanup. Pushing aside the dried grass piled inside, Song Xu discovered a pile of wool underneath.
It seemed that after she left, her friend had quietly prepared a gift for her.
Song Xu flopped down onto the soft pile of wool.
“Are you tired, want to sleep?” Wumu asked.
“Did you fall asleep?” Wumu asked again.
Not hearing an answer, he changed into half-beast form, slithered over, and wrapped the unmoving partner in his tail. His tail squeezed inward, wrapping her together with that large pile of wool.
Outside, it started to rain. Drizzling raindrops tapped against the forest. Wumu rarely saw Song Xu unhappy. Usually she would recover very quickly, so he patiently circled around her and waited, but the sky was growing dark and she still had not gotten better.
Wumu suddenly noticed the bushes behind the rain shelter, covered with red little fruits, and got up to slither over.
Red hawthorn fruits, wet with rainwater, fell with crackling sounds beside Song Xu’s head. She smelled the fresh, sweet-and-sour hawthorn fragrance and sprang up. “The hawthorns are ripe!”
Seeing her speak again, Wumu put his mind at ease and rested his head on her belly.
Song Xu hugged the snake’s head and gnawed on the freshly picked red hawthorns.
“This is too sour, how can it be this sour…” Sour enough to make her want to cry.
The next day was a bright sunny day, with especially good sunlight. Song Xu let the big snake sleep in the grass, and herself quietly approached the wild sheep flock on the hillside with fresh grass stems.
The black dog was also there today, lying beside the wild sheep flock and sleeping. Song Xu crept to the edge and quietly called, “Qingzao! Qingzao! I came to play with you!”
The little sheep now could not understand her words. Probably all the little sheep thought she was greeting them, so bleating sounds rose one after another. Song Xu had no choice but to sneak into the flock, find the little sheep wearing the necklace, and lure her with grass stems.
The still very easily fooled little sheep was effortlessly coaxed aside. Song Xu fed her a bunch of grass stems and tender leaves.
“…I saw the sea. Do you know what the sea looks like…”
“Baa baa.”
“…The island in the sea, that sinkhole…”
“Baa baa.”
After Song Xu finished chatting and got up to leave, the little sheep that had been chewing grass all along lifted its head and nibbled off a strand of grass stuck to her, then nudged her. Song Xu smiled and patted her head. “Thank you.”
Regarding Song Xu coming over for several consecutive days to play with the little sheep, the black dog acting as a sheepdog did not drive her away. Even when seeing the squirrel sitting on the sheep and running around, she had no reaction.
After staying here for a few days, Song Xu once again left together with the big snake. The little sheep did not know that her friend was leaving again. She happily ate grass together with her companions, only that the faded feather necklace had been taken off and replaced with a pretty small seashell.
Leaving the plains, the road back to the tribe ahead became clear. Song Xu turned in another direction and suddenly said, “Actually, there’s nothing much to do if we go back. How about we go look at other places? We haven’t been over there yet.”
Wumu agreed. He also was not set on definitely returning to that fierce beast tribe.
The two of them temporarily changed direction and walked onto a new path.
In fact, it was still similar mountains and water. Most of the time, where they went depended on Song Xu’s mood. She would use a tree branch to point and choose directions. Wumu said nothing and only followed her, like a little child being led by a teacher on a spring outing.
This little child would occasionally rebel, unwilling to walk the road Song Xu chose, wanting to take her on a detour.
Song Xu had always thought he was avoiding dangerous wild beasts, until one time she was really curious about why Wumu wanted to detour, and forcibly dragged him forward.
Near that stretch of stream, she saw a snake beastman.
Song Xu instantly understood: so that was it.
She had thought he was avoiding wild beasts, but it turned out he was deliberately avoiding snake beastmen. No wonder she had not seen any snake beastmen along the way—so they had been deliberately avoided. It seemed that her fondness for snakes was also very clear to Wumu.
The big snake beside her still wore a cold, aloof expression, not showing any unusual reaction at having his thoughts discovered. He even very seriously asked her, “Do you want to be his partner?”
Song Xu guessed that if she nodded, Wumu would, in the next second, rush up and beat up that innocent passerby snake and drive him out of her sight.
Companion-snatching in the beastman world was just that straightforward.
“Of course not, you are the most beautiful snake-snake! One of a kind, no snake can compare!” Song Xu hurriedly turned back and walked away, deciding that next time she would never casually get curious about what was on roads Wumu did not allow her to walk. Couples flirting and bantering while implicating innocent passersby was extremely immoral!
Partners in the beastman world were rarely fixed. Song Xu would also be curious whether Wumu wanted a partner who was not so noisy and troublesome, or a partner stronger, like his mother.
“Wumu, what about you, do you want other partners?”
“Partner, is you.”
“Others, lions, tigers, wolves, or another snake?”
“Partner, you.”
“So strange, your aesthetic taste is so strange hahaha! You really never thought about it?”
“Hiss!”
She got snapped at. When Wumu got fierce, he really would bite people, so Song Xu immediately shut up.
Song Xu discovered that even if she said many sweet words and coaxed the snake until he circled around her, the next time they inadvertently encountered a snake beastman along the road, Wumu would still quickly drive the other away.
Watching them leave, Song Xu thought of a classic meme: a man walking down the street with his girlfriend, but his eyes looking at a passing beauty.
But she had not even looked at other snakes two more times, not even clearly seeing what patterns they had on their bodies.
Sitting solemnly on a rock waiting for Wumu to come back, Song Xu took a bite of the dried hawthorn she had brought back from the small thorny forest.
Sour, so sour! Sour enough to make one want to laugh.
