Chapter 14

Dark clouds covered the forest sky, and the weather changed instantly. It started raining in the evening, and by nightfall, thunder was rumbling.

As usual, Song Xu hid beside the big snake, snuggling up with his tail. This time, she felt more justified than ever before. After all, she used to sneak into his nest, but now it was her own, and it was free!

In the past, she consciously only touched Wu Mu’s snake tail, letting it pile up on her to form a safe fortress. This time, she thought differently. Since she had made efforts to become legitimate, she deserved different treatment. She eyed the beautiful snake lying on the thick moss, slipped out of the tail pile, and rolled into Wu Mu’s arms.

Wu Mu’s upper body skin also had many black patterns, such as his snake tail, which formed some mysterious designs. Simply put, his upper body had no coverings, so when Song Xu leaned over, she directly pressed against his abdomen. If she were in human form, Song Xu might feel awkward, but as a squirrel beast, she was fearless.

The thunder outside wasn’t intense, just occasional muffled rumbles, so the squirrel wasn’t too scared. In the intervals without thunder, she could focus on the snake’s abs under her feet. The cool, soft scales there made her want to see how the skin and scales were connected.

Before the next thunderclap, Song Xu’s paws found the black patterns on the big snake’s waist. His skin felt similar to the scales on his tail, unlike normal human skin, different from hers.
She touched it absentmindedly, her mind wandering. She suddenly thought of her father. If he knew his daughter had a partner just after coming of age, he would probably be furious. It was a pity he didn’t know. But this was karma. He had an affair with a young girl when her mother was sick, and now his only daughter was taken just after coming of age!

Her regret was sincere, and she briefly thought of her previous world. She wasn’t one to dwell on the past, and her family relationships weren’t close, so she mostly missed the conveniences and delicious foods. She really wanted to eat fruit, sweet fruit. The forest had too few tasty fruits this season. Drool and tears flowed together.

The squirrel’s tail couldn’t stay still, moving with her scattered thoughts. Wu Mu felt the furry paws and tail moving on his stomach. He couldn’t hold back and pressed down on the restless squirrel.

Caught off guard, Song Xu let out a squeak. When she came to her senses, she scrambled with her four paws. Just then, a thunderclap sounded outside. The squirrel seemed to be struck by the thunder, immediately flattening and staying still. Wu Mu took the opportunity to roll the squirrel into a fluffy ball and pressed it down with his tail, finally getting some peace. But it didn’t last long. The thunder subsided, and the squirrel returned. The small creature slipped to his front again, still occupying his abdomen.

Wu Mu opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t get the words out. Song Xu looked up at him, seeing his struggle, and felt anxious for him.

“Do you want to say something?”
“Don’t want me to stay here? Isn’t your tail and abdomen all part of your body? Does it matter where I stay?”
“Or do you want me to be in beastman form? If so, just say it.”

Wu Mu “No…”

Song Xu: “If it’s not that, then what is it? Are you feeling unwell? Is the moss uncomfortable? Are there bugs biting you? Do you dislike the thunder?”

The words tumbled out of Song Xu’s mouth like popping beans, and Wu Mu couldn’t keep up with the barrage of questions. He could only gesture by grabbing Song Xu’s wildly sweeping tail to stop it from brushing against his waist and abdomen.

Song Xu suddenly realized: “Oh, you want to touch my tail? Go ahead; I’m very generous. The fluffy feel is different from a snake’s tail; try it.”

Seeing the expression on his face that seemed to say, “That’s not it,” “I want to refute,” and “How do I explain this,” Song Xu chuckled inwardly.

Wu Mu: “Don’t… move.”

After being laughed at by Song Xu for a whole day over a single “You’re bad,” Wu Mu was very cautious with his words.

Song Xu obediently hugged his big tail: “Okay, I won’t move.”

This was the first time he accurately described his request and the first time Song Xu complied so readily. Wu Mu felt a strange joy, realizing that speaking up was effective. But it only worked for a while.

Not long ago, the squirrel who had promised to keep her tail under control while she slept couldn’t help but move, plowing into his chest. In her sleep, she reenacted her daily activities: climbing trees, running, digging, and gnawing on grass stems. Wu Mu became the tree she climbed, the grassland she ran on, the soil she dug, and the grass stem she gnawed on.

Even in her sleep, she chased him. Wu Mu couldn’t hold her down and adopted a “if you can’t beat them, avoid them” mentality, moving aside. But the sleeping squirrel rolled over and stuck to him again.

Is this what a partner is? Wu Mu wondered, feeling a bit of pain as the sleeping squirrel gnawed on the tip of his tail. In the world of beastmen, finding a partner was simple, driven mainly by physiological impulses. Suitable pairs quickly formed, but they usually didn’t last long. Many partners would separate and switch every season. Even as partners, they often weren’t very intimate, only getting close during reproduction. The rest of the time, they wouldn’t cling to each other. But she was different.

The snake, who was constantly touched and clung to by the squirrel, couldn’t understand why she was like this. But he realized he didn’t dislike it. He didn’t dislike the quiet, dark forest becoming noisy. If he genuinely disliked it, the squirrel would be in his stomach, not lying on it.

When Song Xu woke up, she found her cheeks sore, as if she had been gnawing on tree bark all night.

The squirrel was confused: What happened?

Looking at the snake, he seemed exhausted, as if he had been tormented all night.

It was still drizzling outside. Song Xu didn’t like going out in such weather. She lazily ate some stored food and played near the cave entrance.

When it rained, many bugs would appear in the stone cave. These little creatures didn’t care that the cave was the territory of a fearsome snake. They would stop wherever they found a suitable shelter from the rain. Many bugs, including winged ones and beetles, clung to the rain-sheltered stone walls. There were many kinds of bugs in the forest. If you feared bugs, you wouldn’t last three days here. Fortunately, Song Xu wasn’t afraid. Not only was she unafraid, but she also enthusiastically caught a few bugs on the stone wall to play with. Actually, many small bugs are also part of the squirrel’s diet, but she doesn’t like to eat them.

Holding a caught bug, Song Xu knelt beside Wu Mu and mysteriously said, “Look, it glows.”

In the dim corner, the bug’s shell indeed had tiny fluorescence spots. Wu Mu didn’t understand what was so interesting about this common bug, as many were in the forest at night, especially in summer. He didn’t react, and Song Xu didn’t mind. She pressed the glowing bug onto the stone wall beside him: “Alright, you stay here and glow for Wu Mu.”

Then she ran to the stone wall to find other interesting things to share with the snake. What she found fascinating seemed ordinary to Wu Mu, but she was always excited and happy as if those ordinary things had special features he hadn’t noticed.

In the evening, after the rain stopped, Song Xu washed a stone bowl in a nearby ditch and found colorful stones at the bottom, which she started flipping over.

“Wu Mu!” she ran back, holding the stone bowl, shouting his name at the cave entrance. “I found something good!”

Putting the bowl aside, Song Xu ran to Wu Mu, turned his body facing the stone wall towards her, and showed him her clasped hands: “Guess what’s inside?”

Her hands were cold from the water, and her hair was wet, either from sweat or water.

Seeing him looking at her without speaking, Song Xu giggled and opened her hands: “Ta-da! Look, it’s a star-shaped stone!”

The smooth black stone was naturally formed into a perfect star shape.

“Do you know what a star is? It’s like the stars in the sky. The stars in the sky are this shape, so this might be a star that fell from the sky, and I picked it up.” Song Xu seriously tricked the snake.

In the beastmen’s tribe, there were legends about stars, the sun, and the moon. The sun guided directions, the moon was the beastmen’s homeland, and the stars were their departed relatives.

“I’ll give this star to you.” Song Xu took Wu Mu’s hand and placed the star in it.

After giving the small gift, Song Xu quickly forgot about it. It wasn’t her first time giving Wu Mu something; she often gave him random little trinkets. But that night, Wu Mu proactively placed her in front of him, close to his chest.

Song Xu, who planned to sleep in her own nest since there was no thunder: “…”

Moreover, the snake even put the tip of its tail in her hand. The tail tip attracted Song Xu. She hadn’t noticed it all day, as Wu Mu kept it hidden under his body. Now, seeing it up close, she found the tip a bit flattened and had bite marks. She suddenly realized why her teeth and cheeks hurt.

Song Xu incredulously said, “I bit you? Even after I bit you like this, you didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night?!”

Not waking her up and still wanting to sleep together tonight, the snake was indeed clingy. On thunderstorm nights, she usually didn’t sleep well and had nightmares, causing some disturbance.

Feeling a bit guilty, Song Xu transformed into her beastman form, resting her head on Wu Mu’s chin and pulling his arm around her waist.

“Hug tightly, okay? This way, I can’t bite you.”