Chapter 23

After freeing herself from the snake’s tail, Song Xu immediately added wood to the bonfire. To create a good hibernation environment for the snake, the bonfire couldn’t go out. Although the possibility of Wu Mu freezing to death in winter was almost zero, a snakekeeper couldn’t be careless!

After adding wood, she cleaned the small fish she had caught and cooked a pot of fish soup to satisfy her cravings. After eating and drinking her fill, it was already dark outside.

The wind blew through the gaps in the wooden door she had made. Wrapped in wolf fur, Song Xu lay in the grass nest near the bonfire and suddenly felt it was too quiet. She turned to look at the hibernating snake in the corner.

The snake was usually very quiet, except when he was angry, and could manage to say a few more words. Normally, he didn’t like to make a sound and expressed his emotions with his tail. Even though he was always quiet when sleeping, the cave felt much quieter today. Maybe it was because she knew in her heart that once the snake fell asleep, he wouldn’t wake up until spring, which was a long time. The squirrel, who had recently escaped from the snake’s tail with great effort, couldn’t sleep without hearing the snake’s usual hissing before bed. Eventually, she reluctantly wrapped herself in wolf fur and silently returned to the pile of snake tails, covering herself and the nearby tail with the wolf fur.
Tossing and turning, unable to sleep, she got up to nibble on nuts. The crunching sound lasted for a long time, but no snake woke up to share the midnight snack with her. Lying back down, she still couldn’t sleep and started to touch the scales beside her. The diamond-shaped snake scales lay flat on his body, and the ones near his belly, where she leaned, had become warm.

When the snake was awake, Song Xu’s little movements would disturb him. If he were unhappy, the tip of his tail would hang outside and tap the ground, making a light tapping sound. If he were very unhappy, the whole tail would twist, which was quite intimidating. But now he didn’t react at all. Since he didn’t react, didn’t that mean she could do whatever she wanted?

Song Xu giggled and crawled out from under the wolf fur blanket. Wu Mu was lying in his half-beastman form. Song Xu lifted his head onto her lap and used a fishbone comb to untangle his hair, which had become a tangled mess.

This fishbone comb was made from a large fish that the snake had caught for her last time, replacing her own crude wooden comb. She combed his hair smoothly and neatly, placing it to one side and placing his hands over his abdomen. Song Xu examined his appearance, picked up a piece of black charcoal she used for doodling, and drew two thick eyebrows on Wu Mu.

“Hahaha!” Song Xu laughed to herself for a while, then went to her food cabinet and found a fruit that would release red juice when peeled. She carefully dripped the red juice on Wu Mu’s mouth, giving him a bloody mouth.

The bloody mouth emitted a sweet, fruity aroma. Song Xu looked at him and ate half the fruit, creating matching red lips. Soon, Wu Mu’s cheeks had two more red spots and a red dot on his forehead.
After a while, the snake still didn’t react. Song Xu started to feel bored, yawned, and quietly wrapped herself in wolf fur to sleep. She lay on Wu Mu’s chest, with her fluffy squirrel tail just covering his neck, occasionally brushing his face unconsciously.

Winter was really boring. The snake was always sleeping, and Song Xu even found going out to play uninteresting. She used to entertain herself no matter what, but now she wasn’t used to not having the snake around. The early winter forest was very quiet, much more so than the busy autumn, like a deserted classroom after a holiday. She wore simple shoes made of rabbit fur and deliberately stepped on the fallen leaves, hearing only the crunching sound of her footsteps. The fresh flowers and leaves that could be picked at will were gone. The ground still had various plant seeds left over from autumn, which were food for small animals foraging in winter. She picked up a black-gray seed from the ground and knocked off the last leaf on a branch, using a small branch she had broken off to hit the tree trunk beside her. The small stream had dried up, and the colorful stones that looked beautiful in the water became dull and unremarkable without the water’s moisture.

Song Xu lost interest in playing with the small stones. She was so bored that she squatted on the ground, watching a small bug crawl from one leaf to another, finally reaching a tree trunk. Song Xu felt like she had witnessed a challenge and praised, “You did it. You crawled so far!”

The startled bug instantly flew away.

Song Xu: “…You can fly, so why were you crawling?!” Maybe it was as bored as she was.

In the less lively forest, she found a mouse busy transporting seeds. It had big ears and a short tail, but it might not be a mouse.

Song Xu didn’t know many animal species. She called all gray-black, tailed, squeaking creatures “mice,” just like she called all horned animals “cows,” all long-eared, hopping animals “rabbits,” and all patterned, four-hoofed animals “deer,” as she pleased.

This mouse might have been lazy in autumn, so while other mice had stored food and hid for winter, it was still busy.

Song Xu was so bored that she helped this unfamiliar little animal collect fruits for a long time, piling them like a small mountain in its hole and stuffing several fruits inside.

“These are for you, no need to thank me.”

She walked outside several times but saw no large animals, let alone the dangers Wu Mu mentioned: no Firece Beast beastmen, primitive beasts, not even a shadow.

Back in the stone cave, Song Xu lifted Wu Mu’s tail, wrapped it around herself, and lay down beside him: “I’m so bored!”

The snake had been sleeping for a few days, and Song Xu had been shouting about boredom for a few days. Finally, she focused on the trees drying outside the cave, climbing up and down to break off branches, arranging them by the cave, and sculpting them into wood shavings to pass the time.

During the day, she sorted firewood; at night, she ground horns. Wu Mu had given her some horns, but she was unsure if they were cow horns or something else—it was big, small, black, and hard. She didn’t plan to make anything, just ground them for fun.

Dull days passed slowly. Song Xu thought a long time had passed, but only half a month had gone by when she checked the stone wall where she recorded time. She lay beside the snake, rolling around, her legs propped on his tail. She had tested it over this period; such small movements couldn’t wake the snake. He was like a sealed stone snake, no different from her bedpost.

Suddenly, as she muttered about boredom several times, her bedpost moved.

Song Xu: “!”

An arm stretched over and rested on her.

Song Xu sat up abruptly, seeing the snake’s dark red eyes open. He was awake! Didn’t snakes usually not wake up during hibernation? Or were snake beastman different from regular snakes and could wake up midway? Anyway, it wasn’t her small movements that woke him.

Song Xu grabbed Wu Mu’s big hand with a shout, kicking her legs in excitement: “You’re awake, you’re awake, you’re awake!”

Wu Mu wasn’t woken by her noise. This year’s hibernation environment was excellent, better than any year before. Song Xu’s care was more meticulous than he had ever experienced, even as a cub. But despite the comfortable environment, he couldn’t fall into a deep sleep. While asleep, his bodily functions were at their lowest, but he could still vaguely sense the outside world. He could hear Song Xu’s various small noises and knew she was crawling on him. Whenever she left the cave, he had a tendency to wake up, maybe because he was worried that she would encounter danger.

“Darling, you’ve been sleeping for so long. I missed you so much!” Song Xu was still excited, and the sweet words slipped out without thinking.

She said it casually, but Wu Mu was stunned for a moment. His head, still sluggish from waking up, shook slightly.

Song Xu: “Since you’re awake, play with me!”

Wu Mu suddenly repeated her words: “I missed you.”

Song Xu: “…”

Wu Mu’s straightforwardness was nothing new. He hadn’t learned to use sweet words to confuse people to achieve his goals. Imitating Song Xu’s way of speaking wasn’t new either, so it was sincere and open.

Song Xu was momentarily taken aback by her own words, her eyes a bit dazed: “Uh, let’s… let’s play with the spinning top?”

Previously, Song Xu had specially made a spinning top as a toy for the snake, but he didn’t like toys much, so she ended up playing with it more.

Her interest in finding fun came and went quickly. She had only played with the spinning top a few times before tossing it into a corner. Now, she took it out again.

The snake, just awakened, was still drowsy from hibernation, lazy, and more sluggish than usual. Song Xu placed the spinning top by his tail, and he only lazily tapped it. The snake wouldn’t do things he didn’t like, and even this perfunctory tap was a special favor to Song Xu.

“Alright, if you don’t want to play, I’ll play for you to watch.”

Maybe because there wasn’t much to do in winter, Song Xu found some interest in playing with the spinning top this time. Having an audience made her feel more enthusiastic.

However, the temperature was right for the snake’s hibernation, and it wasn’t good for Wu Mu to stay awake. He had been awake for a day, not making a sound or moving, just staring at her and occasionally flicking his tongue, making her worry he might freeze.

After playing with it all afternoon, Song Xu put the spinning top aside and patted Wu Mu’s tail: “You should go back to sleep. Look how tired you are.”

“Goodnight, Makka Pakka!”

With his eyes covered, Wu Mu coiled around her legs and fell asleep again. Once he was sleeping, Song Xu skillfully freed herself from his tail. Her boredom and low spirits lasted only until the first snowfall.

As the temperature dropped and snow fell in the forest, Song Xu felt like she was back in her happy place, becoming a joyful squirrel again. Wrapped in wolf fur and wearing homemade gloves and shoes, she dashed into the snowy world outside to play wildly.
In the city where she had lived for eighteen years, the climate was warm, and it never snowed. The heavy snow in the forest excited every cell in her body, and even the cold couldn’t dampen her determination to play in the snow.

Instinct told her: Little squirrel, you should return to the cave and rest. But her heart answered: No rest, keep playing!

First, a layer of fine sand-like snow particles covered the forest floor and treetops, followed by large, light snowflakes falling day and night.

A child from the south had never seen such a sight. Song Xu stayed up late, keeping the wooden door open, sitting by the stone cave with the bonfire, watching the heavy snow outside.