Chapter 11

Song Xu pushed a large stone back. This stone had a concave side resembling a natural water tank. She used a hardwood stick as a lever to push the stone to the stone cave’s edge to store rainwater. After the onset of summer, sudden heavy rains often occurred, bringing abundant rainwater. The forest was filled with small puddles, and Song Xu had been looking for containers to store water. She had tried making stone bowls, but tools harder than stone were hard to find, making the progress of carving stone bowls slow. Therefore, the stone bowl she usually used was still the one she found in Wu Mu’s cave, used for both cooking soup and boiling water.

Failing to make stone bowls, Song Xu made rapid progress in making wooden bowls. She had already carved out a set of three: a wooden bowl, a wooden basin, and a small wooden bucket. They were a bit ugly and not very round, with rough edges. In addition, she found some fruit shells about the size of half a brain. She dug them out from a pile of rotting leaves. The light yellow shells had some cracks. Unfortunately, the shells were too thin to be used for cooking, so they could only be used as water dippers or cups. These were probably last year’s fruit shells.

Song Xu climbed the tree to check and saw that the tree crown was laden with heavy green fruits, with flowers still attached to the bottom. She tried one of the fruits, but the sour and bitter taste made her fur stand on end. She couldn’t take a second bite and had to throw away the unlucky green fruit regretfully. She marked the area around the tree, leaving a sign. The fruits were not edible now, but she would return to try them when they ripened. She could also collect another batch of fruit shells for storage at that time.

Song Xu didn’t have a collecting habit before because she never lacked anything. But now, influenced by her squirrel beast form, she became particularly fond of collecting various things. Also, her taste changed significantly due to the influence of her beast form. She preferred eating fruits, tender leaves, and plant seeds and was much less fond of meat than before… Of course, it was also because cooked meat was too unpalatable compared to modern dishes like sweet and sour ribs and braised pork. Without seasonings, meat could only be roasted or boiled. Most animal meats had an unavoidable fishy smell; some were bitter, and the texture was dry and tough. Only fish and eggs were relatively tasty.

Song Xu spent most of her day running outside. She liked to combine work and play. When fetching water, she would first play with stones and then discover a large stone that looked like a water tank. While collecting vines to use as ropes, she ended up putting the ropes aside and first made a swing with the thick vines. There were too many vines in the forest, each exceptionally tough. Even using a beast tooth knife to cut them took a good while. Most vines wound around the tree trunks and crowns, while others hung in the air like dangling spider webs. She braided several vines together, tied a knot at the bottom, and made a large swing. Sitting on it and swinging, she could even reach the tree crown, more thrilling than a roller coaster at an amusement park. As the swing swayed, her excited screams echoed through the area.

At first, Wu Mu was startled by her, but soon, just as he had gotten used to her various strange behaviors in the stone cave, he quickly got used to her swinging and shouting in the forest. Occasionally, he would come nearby to take a look.

Many of Song Xu’s behaviors were incomprehensible to Wu Mu. So, despite her weakness, he would cautiously observe her from a distance like a small animal. While searching for food, Song Xu suddenly started playing. She liked to find food near the wetlands, where the big trees didn’t completely block the sunlight. The sun could shine down freely. With sufficient temperature, light, and water, the grass around the wetlands grew from waist-high to human height in a few days.

Song Xu rummaged through the wild grass for grass stems. When peeled off the outer green leaves, the finger-thick grass stems revealed a sweet, tender white section inside. This season, they were juicy and made for a delicious snack.

In the unremarkable wild grass, there were also numerous wildflowers. The golden wildflowers attracted countless busy bees. Plucking a wildflower to taste, it had a flavor somewhat like wild chrysanthemum, bitter. Chewing a bit longer, the nectar deep within the flower was squeezed out, giving the tongue a hint of sweetness.

Song Xu searched for food in the grass, casually plucking many wild grasses and wildflowers. She was weaving a wildflower hat to shield herself from the sun. The grass rustled under her feet, and her humming could be heard deep within the grass. She wasn’t the only one singing; there were also some insects in the grass and on nearby trees. Compared to Song Xu’s humming, these insects’ chirping was heart-wrenching, reaching a noisy level.

Summer insects are the loudest.

Song Xu chewed on a grass stem and placed the half-finished flower hat on her head. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see how it looked without a mirror, so she took it off and continued weaving wildflowers into it.

“La la la… la la… hum hum hum… hum…”

After finishing the heavy flower hat, Song Xu grabbed it and ran to the shade of a tree by the wetland. A large tree, leaning over the water like a drunken concubine, had a thick, long snake coiled around it. He had just finished eating and was resting in his beast form.

Song Xu ran over, leaned against the tree trunk, and said, “Look, a flower hat!”

Wu Mu didn’t react. He generally didn’t like to move during his post-meal rest time. Like any clueless pet owner, Song Xu wanted to be close to her beloved pet at all times. She forcibly pulled the snake’s tail, “Look! Look! Quickly, look!”

The snake had originally wedged his head in a nearby branch. After being disturbed, he moved along the tree trunk, almost slithering to the treetop to escape Song Xu.

Song Xu didn’t care about this. A mere tree couldn’t stop her; squirrels are the best at climbing trees!

She jumped onto the tree trunk, not minding that it almost dipped into the water, and reached the snake’s head. She removed the flower hat from her head and placed it on the snake’s head.

“Here’s a hat for you, hahaha!”

The snake just moved his head slightly, and the hat fell off.

Song Xu quickly grabbed it back, “Oh, you can’t wear a hat like this. I’ll make you a flower crown.”

Saying this, she ran off again.

She had almost ruined the wildflowers in the previous patch of grass. She walked to another patch of wild grass farther from the tree where the snake was resting. The herbivorous hoofed animals that had been scared away by the snake’s hunting near the water slowly returned, grazing in this area.

Song Xu coexisted harmoniously with them, only occasionally snatching away the pretty wildflowers they were about to eat. She wove a large flower crown, using wildflowers with more colors than her flower hat, including light purple and sky blue.
Of course, Song Xu forcibly placed this flower crown around the snake’s neck. In his beast form, the flower crown around his neck made the scary-looking snake appear comical and cute. In his half-beastman form, he looked like a silly beauty wearing a flower crown. He seemed unaccustomed to the flower crown around his neck but didn’t take it off, acting as if it didn’t exist.

Song Xu had long discovered that the snake wouldn’t resist as long as he didn’t sense malice or threat. No matter what she did to him, he would just stare blankly at her. If annoyed, he would only avoid her.

She had seen pet snakes at her friends’ houses get angry and bite people, but this big snake, despite his size, never bit anyone. His temperament was excellent. She bullied him because he was weak, and she was delighted every time she saw the snake hissing in frustration but unable to do anything.

As the weather warmed up, the snake no longer always hid in the stone cave. After eating, he spent more time resting outside and airing himself out. He was used to staying near the boulder, but Song Xu loved going to the farther wetland. She wanted the snake to accompany her, so she tried every possible way to lure him to sleep by the wetland. Her methods included but were not limited to, nagging in his ear, making it impossible for him to sleep peacefully, dragging his head forward with all her might, and shouting from a distance, “Look, there’s a big branch here. Come and play!”

The most effective method was to scream for help on the way to the wetland. The louder and more terrified she sounded, the faster the snake came. His moving speed was the complete opposite of his usual lazy lying around, so fast that one couldn’t see his movement clearly. When she tricked the snake halfway with cries for help, she would resort to whining and dragging, eventually getting the snake to the water’s edge.

After doing this many times, the big snake knew what she was up to. The half-beastman, with his cold and beautiful upper body, twisted his tail, stared at her expressionlessly with a cold and oppressive gaze, and slowly uttered:

“You…”
“…bad.”
Song Xu burst into laughter at his stuttering accusation, “Yes, yes, I’m bad, I’m so bad! Sorry, I’m too bad!”

After a few times, she no longer needed to fake cries for help to trick him out. She would drag his tail and say they would play by the water, and Wu Mu would follow her out. About five or six times out of ten, she succeeded.

The remaining times when Wu Mu really didn’t want to go out, he would hide in the small hiding hole in the stone cave, pretending not to hear her no matter how much she nagged him.

Song Xu felt like she was training him.

“What’s your name? Still not willing to tell me today?” Song Xu asked, poking the scales on his tail.

In the distance, the firelight flickered. She still lit a fire every night, but now that it was hot, Song Xu stayed farther from the fire, and in the past two days, she had moved closer to the snake.
She couldn’t fall asleep early at night, so she started to torment her roommate.

The questions she asked the most were about everything related to Wu Mu: his name, age, likes, and past life. In fact, she had already heard his name from the unexpected visitor before, but she wanted to listen to the snake say it himself.

Wu Muy didn’t like to talk and had forgotten how to say many words. He had no one to talk to for a long time and no desire to speak. After Song Xu appeared, his desire to speak occasionally became very strong, especially when she disturbed him; he really wanted to say something.

Song Xu laughed at his long-delayed “You’re bad” and realized that he might have a limited vocabulary and didn’t know what to say. So she lay on his tail and suggested, “I’ll teach you to talk. Let’s practice speaking!”

A time traveler teaching a native beastman language—one daring to teach, the other daring to learn.