Chapter 28

Wu Mu’s mother is a tiger beastman. It sounds incredible for a tiger to give birth to a snake, but in the beastman world, it’s common. Different species of beastmen can mate, and their offspring usually inherit the stronger genes from their parents, sometimes even skipping a generation.
It’s possible for a leopard beastman and a sika deer beastman to have a rabbit beastman child. Beastmen have special techniques to identify their offspring despite different beast forms, relying on scent.

Song Xu could smell a scent from the tiger tooth necklace, though she couldn’t describe it precisely. It seemed to be detected not just by her nose but by other organs as well. The scent was somewhat frightening, indicating a fierce tiger.

With the snake becoming dull-witted, Song Xu climbed up and down to tidy up the broken stone cave, sometimes too busy to care for him. She thought the snake would stay curled up in a corner of the cave in its current winter-dumb state. But when she went out to fetch water, the snake disappeared. Although there was no howling wind outside and the sun was out, the snow hadn’t melted, and it was still freezing. Where could the snake have gone?

“Wu Mu?!” Song Xu circled the pile of rocks twice, transformed into a small squirrel, and squeezed into the gaps between the stones, wondering if the snake had crawled out and gotten stuck. Some dumb snakes do get stuck like that.

“Wu Mu!” Song Xu retreated from the gap, hands on her hips, shouting. Suddenly, the primitive beast’s corpse, which hadn’t been cleaned up yet, moved, looking like it had come back to life.

It was impossible for the primitive beast, dead for so long and with its wings cut off, to come back to life. Song Xu ran over and saw a snake tail sticking out of the beast’s belly.

“What are you doing? Are you eating this meat?!” Song Xu couldn’t help but pull at her ears, “Hibernating snakes don’t eat, and can you even eat this? It’s frozen solid, and you’re just eating it like that?!”

She let go of her tormented ears and tried to drag the snake out by its tail. The snake, possibly having finished eating, didn’t resist and was dragged out. She had just cleaned the blood off him with water, and now he was dirty again. This might be the fate of a pet owner… or a partner.

Resigned, Song Xu dragged the snake back to the nest. Seeing him wriggle twice and struggle out of her arms to roll in the snow, rubbing off the blood and meat scraps.

“Alright, alright, let’s go back, and I’ll wipe you down with warm water. Don’t freeze into a popsicle out here.” Song Xu lazily picked up the snake’s waist, trying to carry him back. The snake coiled around her once, slithered down, and returned to the cave.

Song Xu used a piece of animal skin dipped in warm water to wipe the snake from head to tail. Fortunately, his scales were smooth, making it easy to clean off the dirt.

As she wiped the snake, Song Xu talked to him, “You woke up early and don’t want to sleep anymore, huh? That’s fine, but it’s not spring yet—not the season for you to wander around. If you really freeze outside, I can’t carry you back. You know your own weight.” Her tone was light, not expecting the snake to understand in his current state, just naturally talkative.

“Look at your belly; it’s a bit swollen. Did you really eat something? What did you eat? The innards of the primitive beast? Are you hungry?” Realizing this, Song Xu suddenly lifted the snake’s head from the necklace, looking into his red eyes. “I’m the only living thing here. You know you can’t eat me, so you’re not completely dumb.”

After cleaning the snake thoroughly, Song Xu pointed at his snout scales and emphasized, “Baby, you can’t eat that primitive beast anymore, got it?” She didn’t know if Wu Mu understood; he just kept flicking his tongue.

Song Xu packed her things, took her homemade tools, and crawled out of the cave. Standing at the entrance, she turned back to warn the snake, “Stay there; don’t come out, or I’ll tie you into a knot when I get back!”

Speaking of kelp knots, she suddenly craved kelp knots cooked in a hot pot. Song Xu took out a few nuts from her animal skin pouch and crunched them in her mouth. She had gone out with some snacks and brought back two rabbits. She rarely hunted small animals but often played in the forest meadows, catching those little creatures. She was like a mischievous child who couldn’t keep her hands to herself.

Ordinary small animals were nothing compared to the beastmen. She used to catch and release them, but now she caught, killed, and skinned them.

A fishy smell made the resting snake lift its head slightly. Covered in snowflakes, Song Xu brought a skinned rabbit to its mouth. At this moment, Song Xu felt like she was raising a snake.

“Come on, aren’t you hungry? Have a rabbit.”

“Hmm? Why aren’t you eating?”

The rabbit followed the snake’s swaying head, but the snake just shook its head left and right without opening its mouth to eat.

“Do you think the meat is too small or doesn’t taste good?” Song Xu didn’t give up feeding it. “You can’t be picky, snake. You used to swallow unwashed wild boars whole. I’ve even skinned the rabbit for you… or do you want to eat the skin?”

Song Xu wasn’t sure about the snake’s taste, as it had never been picky. She tried offering the rabbit skin, but the snake twisted its body and hid its head under its coils. She couldn’t find its head for a while.

Confirming that it really didn’t want to eat, Song Xu regretfully took the rabbit away.

“If no one eats it, the rabbit will cry.” So she decided to cut it into pieces, salt it, and cook it for herself.

After a hearty meal, Song Xu measured the snake’s girth and said sadly, “Wu Mu, you’ve lost weight.”

The snake consumed energy even while sleeping in winter. It had been sleeping for almost three months without eating or drinking and had slimmed down. Since it didn’t want to continue sleeping for the next half month, it would need to eat soon.

Song Xu saw hoof prints of some animals in the forest and had an idea. Maybe the snake thought the rabbit was too small for a bite, so she decided to catch a bigger one.

Before dark, Song Xu returned happily, holding a two-horned antelope tightly bound with vines. This lost and unlucky little creature was chewing on some dark green leaves Song Xu had picked from a tree, and she dragged it back to the stone cave.

After much effort, she stuffed the live, bleating antelope into the cave and brought it to the snake.

“Wake up, dinner’s here. Come and have a taste. It’s fresh!” Song Xu called.

Wu Mu didn’t react much, but the antelope was frightened by the snake in the cave. Song Xu couldn’t hold it, and it jumped onto the bear skin mat, stepping over the snake.

Song Xu: “…” The snake got stepped on by its meal.

Even so, the snake didn’t open its mouth to eat the little creature and even moved aside to avoid being stepped on again.

“Bang!” The jumping antelope knocked over a small cabinet in the cave.

“Crash!” Its hooves stepped on Song Xu’s wooden basins, toppling them all.

Song Xu quickly pounced on the frantic antelope and struggled to drag it out of the cave. The antelope that escaped from the snake’s mouth ran away, and Song Xu sat on the mat, pounding her waist. She had gone through a lot of trouble to catch the prey, but the snake didn’t want to eat it. What should she do now?

Song Xu had been troubled for days about feeding the snake. She had almost finished repairing the holes in the stone cave, except for the largest one, which was still covered with the wings of a primitive beast. Winter wood was tough, and neither her claws nor teeth were effective.

While collecting wood outside, Song Xu ran into Uncle Wei Shan, who had hurriedly arrived. He wore a leather coat that emitted a strong smell, and his brownish-yellow hair was covered with tiny ice crystals and snowflakes. His face was flushed red, and he looked like he had traveled a long way.

Wei Shan had been worried when he left last time but had to leave due to other matters. After delivering the primitive beast meat to the tribe with his companions, he didn’t rest and immediately set off to return. On his way back, he was afraid he would find that Wu Mu had eaten his mate in a state of confusion. Fortunately, seeing Song Xu still lively and energetic, he felt a bit relieved. He thought maybe the situation wasn’t as bad as he feared and asked Song Xu with a bit of hope, “Has Wu Mu turned into a half-beast these days?”

Song Xu had just greeted him and replied, “No, he’s still in beast form.”

Wei Shan sighed heavily, and even with his big beard covering half his face, his worry was evident: “This is not good. If he can’t turn into a half-beast by the time the snow melts in spring, the tribe might come and kill him.”

Seeing his serious attitude, Song Xu frowned and asked, “Why can’t Wu Mu turn into a half-beast?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Shan said, looking at the stone cave not far away. “Maybe his time has come. Since he was expelled from the tribe, he should have lost his sanity long ago. This time, he was attacked by a primitive beast during hibernation, and the intense battle might have affected his mind.”

“The longer he stays in beast form, the less likely he is to turn back into a half-beast.”

Song Xu pondered, “Could it be that eating the blood and meat of the primitive beast made his condition worse?”

Wei Shan immediately dismissed the idea: “Impossible. The meat of the primitive beast is full of powerful energy and makes beastmen stronger.”

Song Xu said, “I heard you say last time that Hei Sen never let Wu Mu eat primitive beast meat. Is it possible, I mean, is it possible that eating the primitive beast’s meat made Wu Mu’s condition worse?”

Wei Shan was stunned, his eyes wide open: “But primitive beast meat is very precious. How could it make his condition worse!”

He had secretly brought some of his share of primitive beast meat this time, hoping feeding it to Wu Mu might help him recover. It was still in his clothes. In the end, the primitive beast meat was not given to Wu Mu.

This time, Wei Shan was both relieved that Wu Mu hadn’t eaten his mate and distressed Wu Mu’s condition had worsened.

Before leaving, he instructed Song Xu that if Wu Mu hadn’t turned back into a half-beast by the end of winter, she must stay away from him. Song Xu agreed wholeheartedly, returned to the stone cave, lifted the snake’s head, and said, “Dummy, if you’re still like this in spring, I’ll take you away.”

“Do you like traveling? I quite like it.”